Today's Project: PEF Videos

Today was our second morning of rising early and taking a walk before work. We are pushing forward with our resolve to get more exercise. Then we took another walk for dinner tonight and to the grocery store after getting home from the office. There are some sidewalks, but we mostly have to go single-file along the edge of the road and around cars parked on the sidewalks.

As we wrapped up the week we needed to encourage Sameth to do one of the projects he was assigned by the Asia Area. He was to translate a script, then record a video of him reading these messages to be used in training videos for priesthood leaders and for the PEF participants in Cambodia. They will be finished by specialists in Hong Kong who will prepare the final videos. Sameth had completed the translation of the script over a week ago, but he was reluctant to be in front of the camera.

We had originally intended to record in the conference room, but learned there is a recording studio in the translation department that we could use for this project. The plain padded walls needed a little dressing up for the occasion, so Elder Oveson borrowed a picture for a backdrop, there happened to be one by Minerva Teichert of Christ and the sheep that worked wonderfully.

The four of us went to this little room, mounted the camera on a little tripod we happened to bring on our mission, used a stack of hymn books to bring the lens to the right height for filming, then figured how to put the printed script just below the camera on a clipboard so Sameth would be looking at the camera (almost). Sameth said he was ready to be the star!

The guidelines stated for him to send three different recordings of each segment of the script. The first segment required about 20 takes to get three good clips. They others we recorded today got progressively better, but we had to set the project aside when the camera started flashing the low battery light at us. Phanna told Sameth he needs to take the script home and practice over the weekend. We think he is doing a marvelous job, and he truly is a star.