"His New One"

Conference is slowly creeping around the corner, and we have spent the majority of this week getting preparations rolling. I have been running around  working on so many projects all over the campus that having these quiet nights to myself in my room have become dearly cherished. 

What exactly have I been doing? Production stuff mostly. Odds and ends to enhance the overall aesthetics...in other words heaps of painting and packing up storerooms. I was rolling up some cable yesterday when I was I was reminded of one of the times my papaw took me to a studio to to watch a  tv shoot. One of the camera guys was rolling up a wire while talking to me. "You see this? Watch what I'm doing." he said as he expertly spooled yards of black wire in seconds. "I spent my first few years on the job doing this right here."  He held up the coil of cable to show me. "And you will too if you want to get into this business."

I got to direct again earlier this week. It went a little better than my first time, I feel. One of the biggest struggles right now is just trying to find my style of how I want to cut what goes up on the screen and how I want the camera ops to work their shots. I feel like it's been really good for my brain as well by having me keep on my toes by being put in a position where I am forced to think and react quickly.

"The One He Wrote The Other Day."

This week has been a busy one. I finally got to direct on Monday. It went pretty well, there was a few hiccups with the equipment that in turn messed up a few of the shots I had put live on the screens.  But I actually think it's something I really want to work more on in the future. I just realized the other day that I am spending most of the services behind cameras instead of actually attending now a days. However, it is nice when I do get to sit in.

Father's day was this week as well, though apparently it's not as big a deal here, in fact I'm not even sure if it exists on this island. I spent last Sunday reflecting on the influence my dad has had on me while growing up.  Even though I knew how big of a part my dad was to my life, I guess I never thought about how much exactly. Basically my entire worldview, spiritual beliefs, political standings, how I treat and what to look for in wife has been shaped in one way or another shaped by what I learned from my father, and what he learned from his dad. I know it's cliche, but I honestly don't think I could have asked for a better father figure.

This week we have been spending heaps of time getting ready or Hillsong Conference. I was put on a team to paint a set that will be used for Pastor Brian's teaching videos. I also spent the better part of the day looking down on the auditorium from the over hanging catwalk. We were installing a new LED screen so I was up there to raise and lower it and to trip the breakers when need be.

Tonight, we had a southern gospel choir from the states come in and share some soul with us. Even though it was for the youth, everyone loved it and chanted "One more song! One more song!" and "USA! USA!" it made me proud to hear such a large group of Aussies appreciating some of my culture from back home.  

There's been heaps of people asking me what the hardest thing has been for me since I came here. If I had absolutely had to say one thing, it would be discouragement. Growing up, not a lot came to easy for me, it always has taken me longer to pick up on learning new things and keeping up with everyone else. I honestly can't look back and see anything that I instantly picked up on and acceled at. I guess I expected that when I came here, things would be different seeing as I wouldn't be learning things that I was passionate about, and I suppose my discouragement  has been a product of realizing that it would be as hard here as it was at home for me.

As always, I leave you with a song....

The One Where He Writes About Camping...

Time to review the week...
Last weekend, Bearden and I packed up and headed for a short notice one nighter in the Blue Mountains. When we got there, we had no idea where the camping sites where, but we knew they wanted to charge $18.00 a head for a spot. So we decided to just hit the trails and just see if we could find a place along the way.  We took a different path than we had gone before that took us under waterfalls and offered a plethora of beautiful, wide open views that we had not been able to experience in previous visits. 
At one point, we even went off the trail and explored into a mossy stone covered creek bed. We were surprised at how well we managed over the slippery ledges, especially while wearing our packs. It was good to be out in the wild again, but we had to get back on the trail cause it was getting too dark to see.
We stayed on the trail for about another 45 minutes before coming to a steep stone stair case etched into the mountain side. Descending was taken with caution, seeing as by that time daylight had become just a pale outline on the horizon and the world around us had become so dim that we could just barely make out the ground in front of us.
After hiking for another  hour, we were still unable to find any level area to pitch our tent (we normally use hammocks and tarps instead). So we had to settle on a broadened section of the trail to throw up the tent and call it a night. 

 We had just rolled the tent up and strapped it to my pack when a woman came by on an early morning jog. Had she been there 3 minutes earlier, she would have ran into our  little Kmart tent.

To get back to town ( See "Katoomba" entry), we had to hike out via another steep, stone stair case. We had sucked a lot of wind and water before we reached the top of one of the Three Sisters (three giant pillars of rock that don't appear to be female or related. But there' s a whole mythical Aborigine tale behind it, which I'm not going to go into now.
The train ride home was  interesting. We had just strolled into the station when our train pulled in...which only comes every hour, so we had to hop on it right then...prior to buying a ticket. We justified our actions by going to pay when we got off the train.


Monday, we were assessed and passed on our ability to set up tripods and handle cameras. I passed those pretty easy, but I spent the rest of this week working on the ones I got back. Most of them just need some tweaking before I could resubmit them and get them checked off.

A week not too shabby.

All things considered, it's been a pretty good week. I'm about to head out the door to go camping. So I gotta make this a quick update.

Monday, I got to try my hand at directing! It had been the one thing that I had been dying to do here (a director in tv is the person who watches all the cameras on monitors in the control room, and switches from one to the other).  We were only filming one of the bands performance, but I was just happy to get some experience.
Tuesday was Old Testament class as usual. We studied wisdom literature, mostly writings of Solomon. Wednesday, I worked camera 4 for Chapel. Not my favorite camera, but it was experience none the less. that night I was trained on Producing (a producer is accountable for EVERYTHING. First one, there last to leave.  If something goes wrong, it's their fault.) I was extremely shocked to look on my roster and see that I was going to THE producer in a couple weeks. I wasn't expecting to be in charge of anything for at least another month or so.
Thursday, I worked camera 1 (the hand held one that shoots behind the drums) for Sisterhood. It was the first time I had been rostered to work that camera in the C.C. (main auditorium). I guess what's happening is the first semester students are now slowly getting placed in positions of more responsibility to replace the second semester students. Needless to say, this change in the tides is welcomed on my end.
I have realized, that I have become such a more competent and confident film maker since coming here. When I first got here, I couldn't even begin to take on and edit a video with Final Cut. Now I can edit videos just as well as the next guy.  I know how to set up a good shot, I have learned a whole books worth of terminology, and how to use equipment that I couldn't make heads or tails out of five months ago. I'm thrilled to see what I will learn in the coming in the second half of my time here.