"His 50th entry"

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.

"The One He Wrote About Going To Melbourne."

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.

                                          Band of Horses makes great train riding music....

"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.