Well readers, here we are at the end of this Australiablog. It's been such a huge year for me. I have to say, I believe I have made the most of my time here. Not only have I managed to travel around and see different parts of the country, but I have made goals for each semester and were able to accomplish them. Last semester my goal was to learn to direct and become completely competent in it. By the end of my first semester, I can honestly say that I accomplished that. My goal for second semester, was to get my film showcased (College TV hand chooses the best films to display from all the 2nd semester's films they hand in. Mine was chosen, but the night before the showcase it was pulled out. I was told that it was deemed to realistic and intense for the general family audience they were planning on catering to. I was devastated at first, but I understand now their reasons. The film has some intense images that I never intended children to watch, and there was going to be quite a few kids in the audience that night.
Now time to answer some popular questions: -Coming home plans: When I come home I will be living at my parents house and looking for a part time job. I want to put a giant chunk of my focus on looking for a healthy, growing church and help kick start their media ministry.
-The girlfriend: Lauren will be coming to the states for awhile in February. She plans on studying by correspondence while with the family and I. The southern American lifestyle will be an interesting adaption for her methinks. It's an adventure we are both very excited about.
-Future projects: I have a heaps of ideas floating around my head, but none of them are ready to be put down on paper yet.My aim is to make mostly short films and documentaries. I feel like short films (as far as media goes) is one of the most effect ways to reach out to the secular and Christian world alike. Which is more likely to draw people: The man on the street corner with a fist full of tracks ranting threats of fire and brimstone? OR a five minute, well put together video that artistically and creatively gets its point across?
In other news, I FINISHED MY SHORT FILM! I can honestly say, it will go on my list of hardest things I have ever done. It's ultimately a story about spiritual warfare, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that that's exactly what I was to encounter during the process of shooting. I had to replace most of my cast a quarter of the way through shooting, we had to do countless re-shoots, we were rained out several times, and footage would just vanish into thin air (causing MORE re-shoots).There were times when I would feel myself slip into despair, and honestly, if it were not for those close to me encouraging me, the project would have never taken off or turned out the way it did. However, I am immensely proud of the finished product we were able to bring to the table.
I know I say this lots, but wow, it's been a crazy one this week! We have had a few assessments this week as well as an exam in Christian Doctrine. But honestly, my primary focus has been on my short film above all.
I'm proud of the results from all the shooting we have been doing over the past two weeks. Last night was my finale official shoot, the only thing I have left is a traveling montage with some voice overs I have already recorded. I'm really gunning to get mine to be Short Film Showcase, so I asked for an extension to from it's original deadline so I wouldn't have to turn over a half baked product. It's an amazing feeling to have a project that I can be proud of and can add to my portfolio, instead of some goofy video I did with my friends. As great as a learning experience this has been, I will be glad when it is finally completed. The idea has been in my head all year, but the past two months have been brutally stressful in order to complete this project. It's crazy to think back to all the hours of preparation and shooting that has went into something that will be all over in under five minutes. It's a labor of love I suppose...hopefully I have taken away from this some ways to make it easier on me in the future so it will be more of the ladder. Here's some pics from the shoot (as always, remember these are stills taken from the raw footage, the finished product will look much better!)
This isn't an effect, that's all real light.
Sorry for the shortness of this entry, like I said this week is crazy. This weekend we have live album recording for United as well as Men's conference.
It's about that time again. Time for me to explain to you, my loyal readers, on why I haven't updated recently while also catching you up on the latest happenings on the far side of the world. So here it goes...
Anna (sister for those of you who don't know) flew over to visit for a week. We originally were going to fly out to New Zealand together, but those plans fell through. She did however get the chance to see all the famous sites as well as my personal favorite, Katoomba/ the Blue Mountains (see entry "Katoomba). We also were able to take her to a few Hillsong Sunday Services. For her last few days with us, we got spent the night in a hotel in the city and went to the zoo. I was really glad she managed to get some time to come see us, I wish heaps of my friends from back home would have had the same opportunity.
Today, I focused completely on my short film. Before today, I had only pieces of my script actually shot, but after six hours of straight shooting, I am thrilled to say I am almost done! The scene we shot today was the last and one of the more complicated scenes. It was the finale act and required everything we all had not only to get it done, but to make it a performance worth watching. Needless to say, my cast brought their A game today (even though one of the main characters was casted the night before) and I am completely satisfied with what we were able to capture. I am utterly exhausted. When I got home I crashed on my bed and didn't even roll over till two hours later.
Tomorrow, I will hand off the footage to my editor who is hard at work pasting together and polishing up a finished product with the materials I have already handed over to him. Because the project was delayed due to recasting and reshoots, he is editing and receiving footage while we are out shooting it instead of me being able to hand it all over at once.
In the mean time, enjoy the visuals. Remember, they are raw and unedited, they will be cleaner and more stylized in the finished product.
I know, I know, I have been slacking on the post over the
past few weeks. Here’s a recap:
A few weeks ago, Hillsong threw a
youth event called Exo day. It
kind of had a festival like feel, seeing as it was hosted in a massive stretch
of field with a plethora of crowd-drawers and games. During the day there were
dozens of separate stages set up where bands of all genres were playing back to
back until the main event started on the large stage that night. I was working
camera 1 assist, so I got the chance to be right in the trench between the crowds
being held at bay by a barricade and the crowd with band on stage. At the end
of the night, The Almost (a popular Christian band from the States) played as a
sort of a finale for Exo Day.
Thinking back, over the past nine months, I have helped shoot on stage
with Hillsong United, Jesus Culture, Stan Walker and The Almost. It just really
reminds me of how blessed I am to have such an opportunity to work with such
influential forces in the music world.
Shooting
was going well, however my timeline closed in on me faster than I could roll
the camera. Before I knew it, my lead actor is flying back to Brazil and all
the footage I shot with him is now useless. Honestly, I felt tinges of
discouragement creep in at first. There were a few moments when I was tempted
to not touch the project for a while, or even scrap it and paste together a cop
out project just for the sake of getting a grade. However, there are a number
of influential people that encouraged me to perceiver and tell the original
story. So over the past week or two, I have recasted 2/3 of my cast, and have
started reshooting. I have learned
that the shooting part itself is actually extremely easy compared to setting up
times to shoot, negotiating those times with actors, and then booking out
equipment. Here's a snippet photo (remember, it's unedited)
And
now for the story everyone has been asking me about…the girlfriend. Well, it
all started earlier this year at a party. It was a birthday party for someone I
didn’t really know, so I was just meandering from room to room when a little
blond girl sitting cross legged on a bar stool asked me about the bone carved
tooth hanging around my neck. We started talking…and talking….and talking.
Needless to say, after she told me how her dream was to go backpacking in
Alaska, I started crushing on her immediately. She wasn’t going to college at
the time, so I made sure I remembered her first and last name so I could look
her up on Facebook and keep in touch with her. After awhile, she started doing
the degree program and I would occasionally run into her and have a quick
casual chat here and there. We did
a few small hangouts, then after spending an evening in the city we both
realized we liked each other.
Yes, I know, it's been a few weeks since my last post. So I'm going to try summarizing all the highlights over the past couple weeks....
I can't recall if I mentioned the work I have been doing in Hillsong TV, so I'll write about it anyway. Every week, we are required to spend four hours working somewhere in the church (this is called "Fieldwork"). Over the past few weeks I have been cutting and editing sermons for Hillsong TV. Basically, I go to an editing suite at the the church and am given a raw sermon shot with multiple (six) cameras. My job is to look at all the angles and pick which shot is best to cut to. The tedious part is however, making sure I cut at an appropriate time (when the speaker takes a breath or pauses), making sure there is no empty seats in the shots or people walking around, that the camera is moving, that a shot doesn't run longer than 15 seconds, and that the lighting is adequate . For example, one sermon I was doing, pastor Brian was wearing a black leather jacket and would sometimes become practically invisible on the darker side of the stage, thus making most of the camera shots useless.
I started shooting my short film last weekend. Even though I had written (in my opinion at least) a solid script and had Bearden there to help me set up the lights and cameras, I realized how much actually went into the details. We spent a good ten minutes just trying to figure out how we wanted to shoot someone to go from one room to the next. Another challenge is getting my cast together. With everyone's jobs on the weekends and conflicting class schedules (including my own) during the week, I'm beginning to stress about finding times to shoot. To make matters worse, my lead actor is gong back home in a couple weeks, making the sand in my hour glass drain all the more quicker. BUT on the bright side, I am extremely happy with the footage I gathered last week. Here's a few stills, keep in mind they haven't been edited yet so they are really just scrren shot excerpts from the raw footage....
Nope. Not real moonlight, just smoke and mirrors...and a studio lamp with a stack of blue gels set up outside the window.
The name of my film is "Boxed In"...Hence the Box.
I don't know if anyone can tell or not, but he's actually under water in a tub. I'm going to be cutting from here and into a dream sequence.
I have been reflecting a good bit on my life lately as I edge closer and closer to the more than likely conclusion of this chapter of my life. I have thought about all the decisions that have shaped my worldview and who/where I am as person. I remember how my parents thought something was wrong with me as a kid, how it seemed like I had zero motivation. I wasn't physically inclined or coordinated, therefor I had no love for sports and they didn't particularly care for me either. I had no evident talents or skills to my name. It took me forever to learn things in school. It seemed like by the time I got a handle on something, the rest of my peers were miles ahead of me (especially in math). I was almost even sent away to military college, but thankfully my mom and dad decided to keep on letting me study at home and at KONOS (a program that taught lectures and gave exams once a week).
There was not an exact snap, or revelation that led to a positive shift in my abilities, but instead a slow process of building self-discipline over the years. Somewhere along the way I came to terms that the only people that could help me overcome what ever short comings I had, was myself and God. Thus began the long climb to where I am today. Not to say I still don't struggle, I still have to try extra hard to learn new things and pay attention, the only difference is now I am familiar with how to deal with it. I feel like God wired me the way I am for a few reasons, but I can identify two in particular. 1.) To continually make me stronger through challenges and trails for His purpose on my life, what ever it might be. I think of it as scar tissue, which actually is twice as strong as regular skin. It's the body's way of repairing it so it won't get wounded next time. 2.)To keep me humble and close to God.
Well, that does it for Intensives, which I was ready for because I was ready to dive into the regular class schedule. Tomorrow I have a Camera operations class, on Tuesday a Christian Doctrine class, and then Wednesday we have Personal Evangelism and New Testament followed by three tutorial classes (they are like mini sessions that just recap what we have learned) back to back in the afternoon.
Tonight, was an event called Sunday Night Live that Hillsong does every Sunday for the month of August to kick off the second half of the year. It was a mix of media and a sort of live drama feel to present messages. I actually really liked the style and creativity behind it. One of the things I really want to do when I get home is to equip churches with the some creative media outlets. I feel like heaps of churches would actually really love to have their hands on some modern creative media resources, they just don't know who could do it. A video here and there every month I think would be a good start.
Speaking of videos, I casted 2/3 of my actors this week for my short film. I want to try shooting this weekend, but I still have to have tons of hoops to hop through before then (script revisions, setting a location, booking out equipment, checking everyone's schedule, ect.). This whole project seems to be growing a little more overwhelming each day, but by having a solid script written, it's much easier to get a handle on everything and have everyone on the same page.
My sister Anna might be coming down in October to go to New Zealand with me. I'm really hoping it works out, I 'm hungry for some adventure. Melbourne was a blast, but it was only a snack compared to the satisfaction that comes from being in the wild places of the world. I often day dream and recollect memories of scampering over boulders, fording rivers chest deep in water with my hanging by their laces around my neck and my backpack over my head, coming to that break in the tree line that opens up and allows you to see the valley of pines below. I even miss those nights of cutting up fire wood with a machete in one hand and a flash light in the other, swinging in my hammock at night and listening to the soundtrack of nature, and the feeling of morning rain on my face and being grateful for the tarp to pull over me. I could really go on and on about this, but right now I really need to get some sleep. But while we are on the subject, I leave you with some pictures of past exploits.
This one is a more of a "just checking in" kind of post.
This week was the first week of the new semester. We met the new intake for TV on Tuesday. It feels completely bizarre to see them filling out their "Past Experience Forms" the same ones I filled out 7 months ago. WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?! The new intake is pretty massive as well. We were told just under 30 new students would be coming in...it will be the largest class the TV/Media stream has ever had (we were the biggest when we came in at only 18). It was also in this meeting that our new fieldwork was decided (where we would be serving in the church). They asked me if I wanted to stay on booking, and I told them I would rather be working in a more involved position. To my surprise, they moved me to work in Hillsong TV (Which is broadcasted internationally). It might not turn out to be that big of a deal, but I'm excited about none the less.
This semester is going to be pretty hectic. They told me my new fieldwork would be one of heavy responsibility (even though I'm not even sure what I will be doing yet), but besides that, we also only have four months to write, shoot, and produce our short films. So this week, I have made writing the first draft of my script my top priority. Next week I'm gonna work on casting my characters and making revisions. We also have twice as many exams to do this semester as we enter into the studying the New Testament.
In other new, Bearden and I helped shoot a video for Sunday Night Live next week. It feels really good to be actually working on videos again...especially ones that will get put up on the big screen. Even if all I do is stand there holding a mic stand, it's heaps better to be involved than on the outside looking in.
