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.
Well, the end of the appreciated break is coming to an end. Class intensives start back Tuesday and we start a new chapter here at Hillsong. We are no longer the same bewildered students wandering around in hallways trying to find classes, but a more mature and knowledgeable group that knows a little bit more of what to expect in the months to come. The only thing is, we only have four months to write, shoot and edit our short films. We will also have twice as many test and exams on top of being active in positions of higher responsibility.
Ok, so to recap the break....
The first week I took off to just recover from conference. I slept in and ran in the morning and in the later afternoon I would go visit and spend time with some friends. At one point we went to the city and we decided to take the ferry back but we ended up in the middle in boonies around midnight with a 45 minute walk to the nearest train station.
This week I had planned a road trip to Melbourne ( 539 miles south from Sydney in the state of Victoria). However, part of the plan fell through when one of the drivers bailed t the last minute, so a friend and I had to make a quick call to take a train there instead and meeting up with the rest of our friends (who had a car) when we got to the city. All these plans were hastily researched and put together at a party the night before. I had just enough time to go home throw some clothes in my backpack, get about two hours of sleep and meet my friend at the bus stop. When we got to train station we were told that most people book the tickets in advance and we were probably not going to get on. We found the ticket register and asked anyway and turned out there were two seats unclaimed. We bought the tickets with only minutes to spare before departure. It wasn't long after I sat down that I pulled my cap over my eyes and slept away the first few hours of the 11 hour train ride.
I fell asleep in a concrete jungle and woke up to this.
When we met up with the rest of our gang in Melbourne took some time to stroll around and get a feel for the city. I found it was a city that appreciates and incorporates more art into it's streets than Sydney does. Every where we went there was a sculpture here, some abstract art there. An entire back alley was completely devoted to showcasing local street art.
A friend of ours from college, who lived 45 minutes outside downtown, had opened up her house to us while we were in town. This came as a relief not only because it was going to help out with our funds, but I had made no plans (or even looked at) any places to stay while I was there.
The next day was spent doing more exploring around the city. We went to a museum, an ancient cathedral, a massive library, and a few shops here and there. That night we went bowling at a strange club/arcade place. It reminded me the time my dad took me to Dave & Busters when I was a kid. When we returned to the bus stop, we found it completely locked down and abandoned by everyone except a handful of janitors who laughed and told us the trains had stopped running an hours ago and wouldn't be running again till 5am the next morning. At a lost for what to do, we huddled together and shot ideas back and forth. A security guard felt sorry for us and told us we could hide out in a nearby open lounge as long as we didn't fall asleep. However, we managed to make a deal with some cab drives to take us home on a flat rate.
The next day we decided to take the car into town so as not to get left behind again by the trains. We spent a few hours driving around just looking for parking. The going rate was $20.00 and hour in most places. Ironically, the best parking we could find was in one of the city's larger casinos. On the way back, the iphone we were using to guide us back died, so we were forced to use our boyscout skills and buy a map at a gas station. After many turn arounds and mix ups, we finally made it back to the ous in wee hours of the morning.
Once again, I got a few hours of sleep, (over the past few weeks, I have gotten pretty good at waking up quickly and getting on the go) rolled my clothes into tight little bundles and stuffed them back in back pack. Once again we found ourselves at the ticket office of the train station, only this time we had booked our tickets, we just had to pick them up. As he handed us our tickets, the clerk looked up at the clock and told us we had 4 minutes to board the train on platform 1...the only thing was I had no idea where platform 1 was and this particular station had multiple crowed levels. After doing a brisk running through the station we manged to find our train and be the last travelers to board as they shut the doors behind us. The train sluggishly lurched forward before we even made it to our seats.
Well, Hillsong Conference finished up yesterday. My has it been a crazy week. I'm still trying believe such a mammoth event is over now and my first semester of college is officially completed.
Monday was an 11 hour rehearsal at the Sydney Entertainment Center. I was allocated to be the camera 1 assist (the one on stage behind the drums) for the entire conference. Basically, it was my job to make sure the person working camera never had to worry about tripping on his cable. It wasn't required that I be there on Monday, but I went anyway just to help out for a few hour and ended up staying the entire day. It ended up being a good thing though because I got a chance to learn my way around ahead of all the other assists that came in the next day.
The days went as followed: We would wake up around 5:30am and be at the Hillsong campus by 6:15 to get on the bus. The bus ride was about 45 minutes to the Entertainment center in down town Sydney. We would have a rehearsal for about an hour and half, then have maybe a 20 minute break before meeting back out on camera and start the opening session. During a transitional video between praise and worship we would dismount of the stage and I would be given the camera. I then would go under the stage and hand off the camera to a operator on the other side. The first time I did this I tried crawling on my hands and knees like I normally would. I then tried cradling the camera in my elbows like I had seen solders do in trenches under barbwire. Eventually, I was just laying on my back and squeezing the camera between my thighs as I used the crossbeams under the floor of the stage to pull myself across. After the camera was handed off, I had an hour to myself to sleep while the pastor preached on the stage above me. There were three sermons a day with rehearsals in between, so us folks on camera rarely even left the auditorium to see daylight. Most of our meals were ran to us while we hid behind monitors back stage. There were many occasions were I had sandwich in one hand and a coil of cable in the other. I defiantly feel like I have gain more dexterity in my hands over the past few weeks. We normally finished around 10:30pm, then get on a bus, go home, shower, sleep and start the day over again.
There were a few highlights however. One time, during an opening song I got to ride the stage lift (the had it set up to make it so drums could rise up out from under the stage. It made me feel like a rock star even though I was dressed completely in black, crouching down and trying my best not to be seen. It was just an honor to be on stage with bands like Hillsong United and Jesus Culture. In fact, the hallways back stage were filled with Hillsong celebrities. One time I was walking down a crowed ramp when some dropped their water bottle and I swooped down and picked it up as I walked by. I spun around and slapped it in the open hand that had dropped it, as I looked up I was faced with none other than Brian Houston...I shouldn't have been shocked seeing as I see him every Sunday, but I was a tad star struck regardless. Also, all the openers were pretty awesome. Although I didn't get to fully see all of them because I was on stage, it was cool to see some of the videos I had helped film up on the jumbo-tron.
One of the biggest struggles for me this week would probably be trying to keep a cheerful attitude. The communication (or lack of) is astonishing to me here. Maybe it's the culture I was raised in or perhaps it's just my personality, I want things to be concrete and know what's going on. Unfortunately, that's not how they run things here. I don't want to vent heaps about it, but it was something I had pray for patience and that God would help me get over myself by giving me a good attitude.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's 5am here, and jetlag reminded me I haven't wrote on here in a while and now would be a good time.
I just got back from visiting family and friends in the states. It's over five months since I left Atlanta frozen in a sheet of January ice. Going back to my house was a strange experience, I felt like a visitor at a friends house. I was told e that once you leave home, you never really come back. I can honestly say that that's completely true. Right now, home for for me is a house on 12 Westwood with a wicker hippo on the porch and an American flag proudly hanging in the dinning room. But I don't think I will ever fully have a place I fully feel at "home" till I start a family of my own.
I started noticing little details as well. Like how Georgia has a certain smell. It's an earthy, farm like smell of thing growing I guess. I also realized how many red clayed dirt roads there are, all over grown with thick green foliage and protected by rusty gates that have long since been forgotten.
Something else I found bizarre was how quickly I picked back up on things. Friends I haven't seen in 1/2 a year I could just pick back up a conversation with like no time has passed at all. I could hop in a car and drive back on the right side of the road without a problem ( I did hit the windshield wiper for a turn signal a few times however). It was almost like muscle memory of my old habits and rituals had just kick started to life once my plane touched the ground.
I did manage to get a lot in while I was back. I got some more winter clothes, which is nice because I didn't bring near enough. I went fishing with my dad and Papaw, I normally don't fully enjoy fishing trips but this one was pretty awesome. I got to go out to eat with heaps of people and get to get my fill of American cuisine at the same time. One of the highlights, was going rock climbing with my sister. I had never thought I would enjoy scaling walls high above the ground, due to a past phobia of heights, but I actually did! It's a sport I want to get more into when I come back.
I'm debating on whether I should come return state side for another visit next month. I feel like I should just stay here, seeing as I spent a year just trying to get here. But it's kind of all up in the air now, and heaps of people are expecting me to come back.
The next few days look a little are going to involve a good deal of studying and typing up assessments that need to be turned in on Monday by midnight. Then, the rest of the week is going to be a breeze seeing as there is we don't have any tutorial classes. We have also decided we want to try getting plugged into a connect group. I have been feeling like we have been getting left out of the Hillsong community by not belonging to one.
We went to the city again last night to see some street performers (dancers and jugglers mostly), drink chocolate, and watch fireworks. Today, is mother's day, so we cooked up some fried chicken and french fries for our adopted Mexican "mum" here. As great as she is, she can't compare to my own one and only real mother back in the states whom I looking very forward to seeing and going out on one of lunches with when I get home. I know she doesn't fully understand how much Josh and I appreciate the long night shift hours she works at the hospital to support us and our family. But we do, and and are so grateful to have such a loving person in our lives that supports our dreams.
Highlights:
-One of the things we talked about in class over the week is why prophets seem to always die violent deaths. A good deal of people seemed confused and disturbed at the thought of this, but what I found strange is the fact that the notion didn't really bother me. To me, a martyrs death has always been the most honorable to way leave this earth. I would rather die a young martyr, than old and withering away in my bed.
- I have spent a good bit of the week tilling through the immense heap of footage I was given to make a video out of. I have a pretty good idea how I'm going to put it together, but unfortunately, the Final Cut program I "borrowed" has decided it wants to me the serial number that came on the box it came with...which I do not have. So it looks like I'm going to be spending a good bit of this week in the Mac lab at school cutting and pasting a rough cut together to show my director by the next Monday.
- Also, I miss my dog....
-I have been studying about angels and the unseen realm lately; halfly for devotion and partly for a novel I'm researching for. I have unearthed heaps of information that has been sitting right in front of me. For instance, when angels make an appearance on earth, they are usually described as being 12' tall men in shining robes. Why so tall? and why do they appear to look human, when other verses describe them as not looking human at all (multiple animal like heads and wings)? I believe that the form the appear to us is just one that we could handle and yet still contain their heavenly glory (hence the 12' frame). I know a lot of people are reading this and thinking "Who cares?", But honestly I feel like the more I study about the things of God, the more real God becomes.
-This is my favorite video from the Exchange festival a few weeks ago. It took me awhile to find it, I believe this is the one that truly deserved to win (don't freak out, just click on the link to right if you want to see it >>) http://vimeo.com/22278917
This past week has been our break, and seeing as were traveling all over last week, we decided to stay home-side for these past few days for the sake of finances.
Started running more. I discovered the route to a park with a track that loops around its perimeter. It's a bittersweet feeling running again, especially when considering the 12 miles I was running this time last year with no problem...now it's about six laps before I head home.
I have also taken up prayer walking. Prayer has usually been something I have done off the cuff when I thought about it, most of the time when driving. But lately I have found sacrificing a few minutes unplugged from my ipod and with God to be worth it. I was inspired after running into a girl from school "prayer walking" on the side walk. She asked me if I needed her to pray for anything for me. It really stuck with me, so now I prayer walk too.
I did some job hunting over the break. I asked around in a knife shop, but the owner told me he was barely making means end as it was. Plus, even though I knew just as much as he did about a lot of the knives in the shop, he wanted someone with more selling experience. The next place I tried was an outfitter's shop (like an Australian REI), they told me to come back in June. That's defiantly a job I would LOVE to have.
Yesterday, we had our first official camera class at noon. Most of it was spent showing us how to do things I already knew how to do, like setting up tripods. But our teacher is the best in the industry over here, we consider it a real honor to be learning under him.
We had another moment of patriotic pride when we heard that bin Ladin had finally met his demise. I have to say though, it was a struggle for me to keep from out bursting at a few of my international peers who were against the celebrating of the taking of another's life. I was actually shocked at the amount of disapproval of my country's handling of the ordeal. However, most of them aren't the ones who have lived in a country that has been so viciously attacked as mine. Half my life time, my country has been trying bring him to justice, it's such a relief that it's over now. I think once most of my international friends realize we aren't blood drunk celebration of the killing of another one of God's children, but that justice has finally been served to monster who had been terrorizing the world for far too long.
By the way, sorry these entries are so scarce now a days. Our schedule is under construction and we have a handful of big assessments looming over us that take some time to work out.
I don't know if I have posted this song before...but it's this live version.
Before I dive into and unpack the latest news and happening, there's some housekeeping that need to be done. First off, in regards to my last log summarizing my day, that was just an example of my MONDAYS (hence why the entry was titled "Monday"). Not everyday is as laid back as that one seems, though it I said I had only one class, that class 3 hours long (4:15-7:15). Most week days we are actually going between classes and field work from around 8am-6pm. However, the load here isn't overbearing at all, when considering the down time over the weekend and the amount of time we have to work on assessments. Now, onto the good stuff...
We have had a pretty eventful week showing our friend Schwartz around Australia this week.
Thursday: we took him into the city to show him the works: Sydney Opera House, Coat hanger Bridge, and a diner at Pancakes On The Rocks.
Friday: We took him to see the Blue Mountains (always a pleasure for me). On the train ride there we ran into one of Australian friends from TV Media who offered to show us a "faster" way of getting there. We ended up full out sprinting through the train station to catch our mountain bound train Bearden, our Aussie friend and myself were the only ones able to get on as we watched the doors close on Josh and Schwartz dejected faces. We meet up with them later at Penerith, where we scarfed down some train station chicken burgers (it was Good Friday so everything else was closed), which actually wasn't too bad for chicken patties that was boiled with fries in the fry baskets. Here's a rough video I put together with what shots I could get with Stephan's camera, the SD card is messed up and only lets me film a few minutes worth at a time. Plus the quality on YouTube isn't as good as I had hoped. I'll do better in the future, promise.
Saturday, we went surfing. It was cold, rainy, and the swell wasn't the best, but what type of friends would we be if we didn't give Schwartsy the bragging rights to say he's been surfing in Australia? He managed to get up a few times on his big board he was using, which is more than I can say for myself who was thrashed around time and time again on my little six footer. I'm seriously considering selling it for either for something bigger, or squirrel the money away for safe keeping.
Someone has asked me to write an outline of my days...so here's one.
Morning-Woke up, worked out, ate coco pebbles, skyped some folks and took a shower.
Afternoon-Went to the school to work out some (equipment) booking. I also picked up my hard drive from my director who had loaded it down with the footage for me to edit. I then went back home and made some horrible Asian food.
Evening-Went back to the school for editing class. We didn't we really do anything in the actual class today. There was a few times I had to duck out to log more equipment in and out for people working on their short films. I took the majority of the class time to polish up my Church News assessment that's due on Thursday.
Now- Just got done watching some Dexter. Once I get done typing out this entry I'm going to do one of two things. A.) Sleep. B.) Workout again...I'm leaning more towards the latter.
Well, no adventures this weekend. I had a TV media party last night, which was good to have some new faces over again and get to know some people we normally don't hang out with.
Speaking of TV media, I met with my director to write up deadlines for the short film we are supposed to turn in this semester. I haven't received the footage I'm supposed to edit yet, but it's supposed to a documentary which should be pretty easy. It's also good because I feel my ministry is to make Christian based documentaries and short films (maybe a full length feature film one day). Media is such a massive and powerful tool of influence and the Christian community really isn't utilizing it like they should. Most Christian films are such poor quality that they make the audience feel like they just went back 15 years. No one today wants to watch something that looks like it's being played off an old VHS tape. I want to make films with some bite to them. Show an audience (Christian and secular alike) something that will open their minds of convict them in some way. Something that can't just be turned off and forgotten about, but something that will keep people will think about long after the credits have rolled.
We have a break coming up, and I desperately want to gather a group of my more out going friends (there's a lot of them here. Not surprising seeing most of them traveled across the globe to get here) to go on a camping trip in either the Blue Mountains or some lone beach up north somewhere so we can spend our days surfing and nights around a camp fire or in our hammocks gazing up at the star studded skies. I'm not sure what we are going to do, but I know one thing for certain; if I spend my entire break pacing around my house, I'm going to go lose it. A free spirited beast like myself should never be held captive in this cage of dry-wall for too long.
Bearden and I went to early service this morning so we could have time to go to the Blue mountains today. After church, we went home and hastily threw some gear together and hopped on a bus. From the bus, grabbed a train which we rode for about thirty minutes NW till we came to Penrith. We had some time to spare and were both starving so crossed the street to a shopping center and after getting searching the whole mall over we finally found the Oporto's (a Brazilian chicken burger joint) we were craving.
We only had enough time to grab the food, cross the street to the station and hop on another mountain bound train. We rode for about an 45 minutes till we rolled into a train station that made me feel like I had just sent back 60 years. The doors were wooden and manual to open and we had to literally jump from train to platform to make the two foot gap. It was raining as we walked through the quaint town of Katoomba. The miniature mountain metropolis was made up of dozens of outdoor shops full of every piece of gear anyone would need. As a gear junkie, I was proud to see that most of the stores' offerings was gear that I either had or was looking at getting. I even bought a brimmed beanie with some money my mam maw sent me, she always like me in hats so it seemed fitting. The village's populace seemed to be made up of hostel dwelling backpackers, ramblers and vagabonds...I felt right at home.
This is a corner of a mural at the town's train station. Bearden took the pic, and he'll probably put the full scale one up on his blog sometime in the next few day. But I just like this part cause it has the guy jumping the canyon on his horse.
The more we walked through the icy rain and blind-siding blast of chilling northern winds, the more I thought back to my water/wind proof element jacket hanging up at home across the back of a dinning room chair. I remember making a mental note to roll it up as tight as I could and to pack it down into my camelbak, but in the rush it was left behind. It didn't help that we were both in shorts and tee shirts. We only had to hike to the edge of the town to find the trail heads that lead over crest of the mountain. Bearden and I just barely touched on them when the rain started picking up and we decided to turn back. We did get to see some awesome sights, even with the fog.
Yes. I am wearing 3/4 length pants. I'm in Australia, it's the cool thing to do.
On the train ride home I sat next to the most delightful group of Asian people. They had a giant chocolate bar they were passing amongst them and they gave me a corner of it. One thing I have learned here is NEVER turn down free stuff... it doesn't come around often.
We got off at Penrith, only to realize that the train we just exited was supposed to take us all the way home and the next one didn't leave again for another hour. We walked back into the mall we had eaten at hours before. All the stores were closed so we just took advantage of the hand warmers to dry our clothes. Twenty minutes later, I'm carving up an orange with a buck knife while we shelter from the rain on a bus stop bench. Finally, Sofie came and saved the day in her little black hatch back.
Later, when I got home, I tried out the jet bath...it didn't work. Which means I sat in a tub of luke-warm water like an old person for nothing.
Also, I gathered some milk crates for a to make a bed frame...tad-ah (yes, that is the mattress I found on the side of the road).
