Creating uplifting art in a world that feels increasingly overrun by corruption, hate, and AI feels a lot like what the band must have felt like when it kept playing as the Titanic was sinking.
But just as they felt like it was the best thing they could do at the time, I'm trying to bring to fruition another ambitious short film music video. And you can help.
For those of you familiar with my previous videos in this vein, I can best describe this one as a mix of "Nine Twelve" (https://youtu.be/OxhzDvwb0Jo) and "I Am Not Shaken" (https://youtu.be/Pz-Px4644Jg). One of my inspirations for this project is G.K. Chesterton's Allegory of the Lamppost, wherein a mob that thinks they know better tears down a street lamp but then finds themselves in even more chaos, with no light left to guide their discussions or actions.
Thus is our post-modern society. The promise of a Godless utopia that could be shaped in the shadows is in shambles again. Darkness has brought what it has always brought - corruption, fear, distrust, lack of direction, confusion of personal identity, and diffusion of national identity. For all intents and purposes we can’t see one another. We're strangers at war in the night.
In a two-thousand year old letter to the Romans, Paul laments “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” The same letter could be written to us. And that's kind of what this video is. But it's also about rebuilding after that catastrophe. Rebuilding with Christ as our light.
Creating a post-apocalyptic street isn't cheap, or easy. I'm not using AI. I'm hiring real people with real skills and having a real experience making real art that will have a real impact on anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Will you help me do that?
Anyone that donates will get their name in the video credits. Anyone that donates $200 or more can come with a friend and hang out on set and/or be an extra if you're in the Fort Worth area the night of shooting (May 22) and see in person what you're helping create.
But mostly you'd do it just because you want to be a part of making something beautiful and true. Because you want to help erect torn-down lampposts and turn some lights back on. Because the world needs it. Because you need it.
This isn't a poem. It's a song. And in the chorus we're pleading with God to be with us as we rebuild. As we rise from the latest layer of ashes left behind by secularism's latest wildfire.
I don't expect that I'll be able to raise enough money to cover the cost of production. Nor do I expect to make any money when it's released. This isn't for profit or likes, but for the sake of beauty, goodness, art, and God. I will pour all the heart and soul I have into it, and pour whatever the remaining balance is into it financially as well. If you're able to lighten the burden of that last part, I (and my family) appreciate it.
Thank you and God bless!
FAQ:
When will the video be filmed and released?
It will be filmed on May 22nd. The following week I am helping out with a church youth camp, after which I'll be diving into editing and post-production. Post-production time will depend a lot what we're able to capture at the shoot so it's a bit unpredictable. But figure 1-2 weeks. If it gets too close to the end of June, I may release an "America 250" video first, to line up with Independence day. So at the latest, this video will be released around the 2nd week of July.
“Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the School-men, 'Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good—' At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmedieval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, today, tomorrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that everything depends on what IS our philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.”
G.K. Chesterton
Heretics (1905)
