I Call It A Project of Happiness

For me, it’s not just a 2:41 minutes video. It’s more than that. It involves an awesome book, a first-time experience, and a warm-hearted feeling to make it. Sounds too much? Maybe. But it takes months before you watch the video today.

Have you ever heard that finding a perfect book is waaay better than finding a perfect date for senior high prom? I bet you never heard that before. Sure I know. I made it up. But the point is, it feels really good to have one in hand; the book, not the perfect date – in this case. That’s the feeling I felt when I found The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, on 20th of July 2011. See, I even remember the date I bought that book!

The Book of Awesome made my heart melting in the first few pages. I couldn’t help smiling – and sometimes laughing – when Neil came with his awesome little thing like the smell of rain on a hot sidewalk, the moment at a concert after the lights go out and before the band comes on stage, getting something with actual handwriting on it in the mail, etc. This book didn’t need any hard effort to bring simple yet sweet happiness to me. And from that time, I knew I loved that book.

This led me to visit his 1000awesomethings.com where I could find more and more awesome things. In that website, I found a video about promo trailer of The Book of Awesome. The whole idea was pictures with words. That black and white video encouraged me to make the almost-same-me-version-video. I made it weeks later after that thought. Instead of The Book of Awesome, I made this video from The Book of (Even) More Awesome that I bought not long after the first book.

First thing to do was choosing the chapters. I couldn’t put all the chapters in a video. After few scratching here and there, I had 17 chapters. I took pictures in the following day with my digital pocket camera. Some of them I got from my photo’s stock in my notebook.

It was Saturday night when I sat and stared at my blank windows movie maker project. I never made any movie maker video before. That was my first. I was kinda sure that I was surrounded by a lucky charm and universe help for finally the video finished. I played The Wandering Kind by Josh Groban to be the backsong. And oh, because of the limited duration, I cut two chapters. For the final touch, I have a video with 15 pictures – a picture to decribe a chapter.

Here’s the deleted pictures.

 When batteries are included.

I made it blur. I thought it was cool, but that was only for a few seconds.

 When the person you’re meeting is even later than you are.

Beside that, I want to give (unimportant) behind-the-scene facts about this video:

1. I almost have a thought to change the picture of bed in my room with the one in a luxurious hotel. I refuse that thought since I know that bed in hotel must be cozy, but I want something homey, at least for me.

2. I use Josh Groban’s lyric sheets for two pictures. First is the one with ‘artsy-fartsy’ word and second is a text titled ‘If I Walk Away’.

3. I can’t help laughing when I watch 00:54 – 00:59. It’s so corny! Enough said haha!

4. The glass in the video is not mine. I borrow it from my boarding house mate. And, I should cover my legs with blanket to give more effect of ‘waking up in the morning.’

5. ‘Looking at the clock and seeing that it’s 12:34.’ I don’t get it when the first time I read it *straight face.

6. The beach is in Bangka, Sumatera. It’s called Pasir Padi Beach.

7. The last picture is a moon. Really. It’s a full moon.

8. Cloudy thingy is my favorite picture.

I imagine it this way. You?

For me, that’s not just a 2:41 minutes video. It’s more than that.

Everytime I watch this video, I can feel joy knocks my heart tenderly. Not only because I like – okay, love – the song, but also because it brings the memory of how and why I make it. I love the feeling. That’s why I call it a project of happiness.