In my latest YouTube video, Yearning to Breathe Free, I try something new. Rather than accompanying an existing silent film, I’ve created a ten-minute history of immigration to the US in still images and added my improvised accompaniment. It’s been a learning experience in a lot of ways. First was the selection of images to combine into a coherent story. It consists of several sequences, each covering a different historical period from 1607 to the present. The first version didn’t make the structure nearly clear enough. Thanks to Virginia Taylor for catching this problem. I thought about inserting a summary before each segment and adding captions and ended up doing both. Then there was the timing. Before adding the music, the pacing felt slow, yet some images hold a lot of text, and test viewers didn’t always spot the important parts in time. I lengthened the time for some images and drew visual attention to the important text in one image.

The selection of the images was naturally a big concern. How self-explanatory would any picture be? Some could be fake or depict a different event from what I thought. I also had to worry about what YouTube might object to. An image which is on the screen for less than ten seconds ought to count as fair use, but to be safe, I avoided ones with strong copyright claims. There was also the possibility that some pictures, especially the one of the “Unite the Right” rally, might be flagged as offensive. I posted an unlisted trial version as a coal mine canary before adding music. It didn’t die. I hope no errors got in.

Then there was the matter of creating the music. “Improvised” doesn’t mean “one cold take.” A story made of pictures is different from a movie with a plot and characters. Here the music doesn’t just comment; it has an essential role in making the story. I chose “America the Beautiful” as the binding theme, but it’s heard only in fragments until the end. Each segment presents an arc from hope to darkness and back to hope.

The result has already gotten some compliments, including two comments (a personal record!). I hope you like it.