Saving Creativity

So I need to get back to being inspired, so I took a few minutes this morning to look around.  Here is what has inspired me:  three pieces done on DSL’s (Canon 5D MkII):

Life in Haiti-Canon 5D MKII & Glidetrack from Leclerc Brothers Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

This is a piece by a really good friend of mine Adam Kring works for an amazing church called NewSpring.

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

And my latest side work.  This was shot by me on the Canon 7D with a mixture of lenses.  It was edited by Andrew Schuurmann and was the opener for the newest Willow Creek Association Conference: The Green Room.

Green Room Opener from Andrew Schuurmann on Vimeo.

I hope something inside these three videos inspires you to shoot a new way, or maybe look at every day objects in a different angle!

Two weeks, man I am slacking off right now.  It’s been two weeks without anything to stir the creativity in your soul.  I really should get a bit more serious about this…maybe in Twenty ought ten!  Here are the last couple of videos from “The Big Give” series that theMet finished up this past weekend:

This one was edited by Andrew, most of the footage is mine, but Andrew and I tag teamed this one while in Uganda…

The Ghost from The MET Church on Vimeo.

This video we just re-recorded the VO to update it and Doug shot all the footage…

Mexico OSY Camps from The MET Church on Vimeo.

I quickly edited this footage together to a V.O that was written by one of our missionaries…

Alpha and Omega from The MET Church on Vimeo.

So I’ll keep this simple:

12 videos on 4 weeks keeps a brother busy.  Thankfully I have been working with someone else on all of these, and I thank God for Andrew.  What a great co-worker he is, he really inspires me to do better work!

This one was edited by me:

Aggies Arts from The MET Church on Vimeo.

This one was edited by Andrew and was sung live by Jared Anderson, an amazing artist!

Carrier from The MET Church on Vimeo.

This one was edited by Andrew:

Before and After from The MET Church on Vimeo.

Enjoy.  Oh just as an FYI update for those of you who helped support Samuel.  Last I heard we are just short of supporting him.  So here are a few more updated pictures of him!

Here is what Andrew and I have been up to at work these two weeks, I was DP on the 1st one, and talent on the 2nd one.  Andrew pulled out some great stops on the motion tracking!  Good job Andrew!!

Andrew produced the piece and the talent did an amazing job (it was me…).  He chose a bunch of stirring images and we worked together to light and place all of the images.  This one was also edited by Andrew…

Kingdom Of Comfort from Andrew Schuurmann on Vimeo.

Well, it’s been almost a month since I returned from Uganda.  From an amazing trip and meeting some even more amazing people.  For those of you not caught up yet here is the cliff notes version of one young man and his story:

-  I met Samuel on one of my last days in Jinja, Uganda

-  He wrecked me as he told us of his story of struggle to eat and live

- His both his parent’s are dead and he doesn’t really know how old he is, he eats whenever he earns enough money to buy some food

- He has never…NEVER…been to school and has only seen a doctor once…

So now that we are all caught up and on the same page, here’s the newest update.  Pastor Sal Sberna, spoke this past weekend at a conference in San Antonio, TX and told a little bit about Samuel’s story.  Well, on the last day of the conference, a young couple came up to Pastor Sal and handed him an envelope.  They said that they wanted the money inside to go directly to Samuel, to better his life.  Well, Pastor Sal opened up the envelope and inside was $500!!!  I was in awe of what God has done for Samuel, $650 has been raised for Samuel and hopefully we can all keep telling his story so that the last $100 can be brought in.  Please tell your friends, neighbors, and loved ones about Samuel and forward them on to this blog or to Call To Africa, and then have them donate and write a comment here so that I can make sure that the money gets put toward Samuel’s cause.  If you are in Houston, TX this weekend (Nov. 22nd, 2009), we are going to be showing a piece of Samuel’s story, and if you gave you should be receiving a link today that will allow you to see that service element ahead of everyone else.  We are working on the rest of Samuel’s story (the full version), and when it is done, it will be premiered here as well, so stay tuned!

Well, it’s been almost a week since I returned from Uganda with a team from theMet.  I have sucessfully gotten back to CST sleeping schedule and I really felt good when I got back.  I have been going to bed early this past week, but besides that I feel good.  And I have yet to miss a Malarone pill so I am hoping at dodging Malaria!  Well I fixed the link in the previous post, but for those of you who missed it and still want to donate:

www.calltoafrica.org

Then click on the “Who We Are” button.  There you will be able to give directly through “Call to Africa”.  A great NGO that theMet partners with on many levels and in a lot of locations across Africa!  Once you pay, make sure to comment here so that I can send you a photo and a note card!

I also want to update you on the editing saga we (Andrew and I) have begun.  All the footage has been collected and is being sorted.  We recorded about 400GB of footage!  That means about 27 full 16GB P2 cards, or about 1,120minutes of footage that need to be viewed, sorted, categorized and filed into their prospective projects.  We have 10 videos to edit along with some specific videos for services and for the web.  Whew, that seems like a lot, but it really is going to be so amazing to have so many finished, professional videos to have for our “Big Give” Series.  I hope the people of theMet really watch, listen, take heart and change parts of their lives to be more generous….

UrbanWorldTraders

Now on to another way you can help out.  These necklacesand bracelets are made from a group of ladies who are formerly Rock Quarry rock smashers in Kampala, Uganda.  When we visited them, they literately where sitting, surrounded by piles of rocks with hammers smashing them into smaller rocks.  It was brutal, and a lot of these women have lost spouses, children and parents to this particular quarry.  No eye or hearing protection and they made about 2000 shillings a day!  Now you can purchase these necklaces that they make.  It pays them a fair wage and they get to create the beads in community and encourage each other spiritually as well!

Just figuring out how to do this would be awesome, let alone getting it incorporated into our worship space…

Hirzberger Events – Digital Wallpaper from Gregor Hofbauer on Vimeo.

I have been really digging into environmental projection, now just figuring out how to do it in my apartment…. I think the wife would love that!  Visual Worshiper has been a great source of inspiration for me.  He is out of this world creative and is somewhat local (Irving Bible Church located in Irving, TX).  Follow his blog or his twitter…  Check him out!!

Creativity often strikes at the most inopportune times…like at 3am, or at 4:23pm.  I follow this blog as much as I can but Josh posted a video with a single take music video.  That led me to the behind the scenes video for the music video.  I want to try this so badly, just for my own selfishness, to try to pull something like this off would be awesome…

Music video:

Behind the scenes:

So my good friend Adam, over at progressisbeautiful.net (which you all should be reading), was interviewed by Murphy24p.  It’s a great article and I love the spirit of the article.  The discussion is here so go and check it out!  I love what Adam said about his talents and gifts!  If you haven’t checked out his work, please go and check out what’s current over at NewSpring.cc and see what serious amounts of creativity look like!  I am finishing up my first video project here at theMET.  It’s a little promo piece for Truth, theMET’s youth group.  It’s for an all night party/rave that they are putting on.  An email came through this morning about how student’s lives are being changed and how teens are being won to Christ through the program, super exciting….

So…here’s what’s inspiring me right now:

.: Dirt Conference:  It’s a conference that is set to inspire a ton of church creatives to do more with less, and inspire their congregations to live more unabashedly for Christ.

Dirt Mashup from dirt conference on Vimeo.

.: I am also being inspired by this piece.  I really like the color treatments of the footage…

Church from Dan Diaz on Vimeo.

And certainly not least of all is this video, by far the best Adam has ever done…

The Story of Jad Dean from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

So sorry for the long delay in posting.  It’s been a crazy 20 days, and I can’t believe that it’s been that long since I created or posted anything.  My first week here at theMet has been great!  Meeting lots of new people having some good conversations and getting a lay of the land.  My edit suite is almost completely set up and I am ready to start creating again.  I went without the interwebs now for almost 4 days and it was good to get to my laptop and get online…ohhh I have missed it!

I went and saw District 9, with a couple of co-workers.  The movie begins by filling you in on backstory about Wikus, a slightly dorky, but good hearted gentleman.  An unknown actor by most people’s definitions, Sharlto Copley did a great job of showing depth and balancing in his character.  He actually had acting chops (somewhat surprising) and was very moving when he needed to be and comedic to lighten the mood.  This movie is not supposed to be a comedy, but there were often little things that made you laugh throughout the movie.  Without these brakes it would have been to much heavy.  The other major players in the film were the aliens.  They had their own language with subtitles, and the were very life like and realistic.  Most of the shots were composited so the other actors in the film did a good job of adapting and not making the composition to fake.

I definitely came into the movie with a preconceived idea of what the plot was and how it was going to end.  I actually chalked it up to another Scifi movie special, just with Peter Jackson’s vision and skills.  I was totally wrong.  Don’t go to watch this movie if you expect Lord of the Rings meets Alien, this movie is so much more.  I was a bit worried from the trailers that it was going to be a politically charged movie about immigrants and how a country treats them.  However, if there was an agenda…I couldn’t find it.  I actually found myself lost in a world of an alien ship had actually come to earth.  It wasn’t so far fetched and was set in current days with footage of Johannesburg, South Africa to set the stage.  With a mix of documentary and interview footage, along with some “live” footage, the film was well balanced to give you enough story to be on the edge of your seat, but not giving away their hand.  What a story it is!  A plot based around a unwitting character being thrust into the middle of a very simple task that takes him through the underground of MNU, and through the other side.  I found myself not knowing how the film’s plot was twisting and turning it’s way to the end.  It truly kept me guessing the entire time.  The end of the movie is very much designed to keep the story open and ready for a sequel, and I would go and see District 9 Pt.2, I think Peter Jackson has proven himself as a sequel master, although I won’t ever go see the behemoth that is King Kong II if it were to ever come out.  3 hours of Jack Black is just to much for anyone…

I give this movie a solid 4 out of 5 stars.