"The One He Wrote About Conference."

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.

"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.

Muscle Memory.

 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.

Fireworks and and fried chicken.

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