MUSIC VIDEO – Jesus Give Us Love

JESUS GIVE US LOVE (Music Video)

From the album “The Living Creatures Project.”

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Video Concept: Impressionist time-lapse painting to illustrate “Jesus Give Us Love” lyrics.
A combination of words and images. We started shooting at 10am on a Friday morning, worked through lunch, and finished at 5:30pm. We had two digital cameras on tripods for the time-lapse shots and one handheld for B-Roll. There were no shortcuts, Elizabeth was painting furiously the whole time; the cameras were rolling the whole time. The total footage was just under 200GB of data and tried to crash my poor iMac several times in the editing process. The young girls showed up at the end of the shoot and we were able to get their part done in about a half an hour. A giant thank you to Elizabeth, Rob, Dave, Nick Taylor, Andrew Richardson, Jason and Alisha Maroney, Kim Hart, Von Behr and “Red.”

These are the notes I sent to Elizabeth Linder once she agreed to do the painting.

Begins with a canvas on an easel with wet black paint in front of a black backdrop. There are paints and brushes on a table, everything is set out and ready to paint; it feels like all the potential in the world.

When the opening piano riff starts begin painting the keys of a piano, they are swirly the word “LOVE” is painted in red over the top of them when the singing begins…

Love is kind and will endure

Love is gentle, love is pure
Love is stronger than death
Love is stronger than death

LOVE becomes young hands that are being held like lovers. The hands get older and older and older and become skeleton bones, then become a keyboard again in time for the second verse…

All our words will fade away

All our thoughts will fail someday
Love will be our breath
Love will be our breath

During the previous verse the image is smeared to black and wind begins to swirl like circular clouds. We see a young Elizabeth painting a simple flower, then a teenage Elizabeth painting an image of her with her father. The teenage Elizabeth reaches for the canvas just before the musical break. During the musical break a baby becomes a little girl holding her father’s hand, then becomes a woman embracing a lover, then a woman kneeling in prayer.

Faith will vanish into sight

Hope will empty in delight
Love will shine more bright
Love will shine more bright

During the previous verse the word “FAITH” becomes the word “SIGHT”, “HOPE” pours into “DELIGHT” then “HOPE” fades away, “LOVE” takes over the image and gets brighter until light fills the canvas.

Faith and hope and love remain

Through the darkness we’ll proclaim
Love will be our light
Love will be our light
Darkness closes in from the edges of the canvas, squeezing the words “FAITH” “HOPE” and “LOVE” in the center. “FAITH” and “HOPE” are done away with leaving only “LOVE” streaming light to the edges of the canvas.
Jesus, give us Love
To live in love
Give us Love, Jesus

The hand of GOD the Father reaches down from the dark clouds at the top of the canvas. The hand is holding a cross and puts it in the ground. The red letters of LOVE become the sunset, a silhouette of a cross is painted in front of it, with the sunset getting brighter and brighter. The skeleton hands show up when LOVE is sang, we are reminded of death; flesh once again forms on the hands and we are reminded of resurrection; we see the young girl with her father and are reminded of our restored relationship with our Heavenly Father; we see the girl praying and are thankful for our faith; then we celebrate the different images of the word “LOVE.”

The final scene is a sunset by adult Elizabeth, with father and daughter by teenage Elizabeth and flowers by child Elizabeth; It is a whole life redeemed and remembered.

Elizabeth Linder is Program Director at Katy ARTreach and Teaching Artist at Linder Studio Private Art Lessons. She can be contacted at elizabeth.linder.10@facebook.com or www.artreachtexas.org 

Teenage Elizabeth – Von Behr Hart
Child Elizabeth – “Red” Maroney

Photography by Rob Camper
Lighting by David Hartung
Direction and Editing by Frank Hart

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