The Following Story Takes Place During a 24 Hour Period From September 20th to 21st. During this time period, many unusual and scary adult things happened. Viewer Discretion is STRONGLY advised.
You have been warned.
You will receive no further warnings.
My First True Taste of Hollywood
or
The Actor, The Priest and The Bullwhip
Our assignment, as simple as it sounds, was to film an actor carrying a lit candle from one location to the next (like a hallway or across a room) etc... This is a technical assignment requiring some creative thinking about the placement of lights and all of the technical strengths and weaknesses of camera, film, and other equipment. My group was well-prepared. (Real names have been omitted for reasons of obvious displeasure) Bob has been in all of my film classes. Tammy is a director, producer, and editor in a group that has won film festivals previously. Cassius is a passionate amateur film maker. And then there was Quint. I didn't really know Quint, but I knew that he had problems with filming on weekends and he was looking for a group. I figured, why not? Not only was it the right thing to do as a good person, but also there might be some advantage to having a fifth film maker.
Right off the bat there were problems. Quint lives in a remote location and had already asked his actors to be at his home on Sunday at 6pm. That's right - Sunday Night in a remote location. Okay... not as cool as it could have been, but I agreed to help out anyway. I'm always up to an adventure. Well, so's Jack Bauer, and we all know how those adventures usually turn out.
Our story begins on Saturday. We all arrive and begin setting up the equipment and things are going slowly - but that's typical with film shoots. When we finally get things set up, we have a big problem with our new camera. We can't quite figure out what it is. So, being so incredibly behind, we switch to the back up camera and start filming. Everything, more or less, goes smoothly from here. My shoot comes out brilliantly! A surefire "A"! I'm ecstatic!
After the shoot, we pack up all of the equipment and lug it downstairs (three flights - no elevator) and start to load up Quint's Jeep. At this point, Quint turns to Bob and I and tells us about his film - its a silhoutted film being shot against a back drop of white sheets (think Austin Powers second movie) about two gay priests "pretending" to abuse each other.
Now, I must digress here, and say a little bit about my college. City College of San Francisco is, at the best of times, Bohemian - but most of the time it can be downright counter culture with the worst excesses of the artistic world. On the one hand, I usually find suggestions like the one above to be artistic crap that offends me, but on the other hand, I defend people's rights to make art that offends me - its that dichotomous nature of being a Christian artist.
So, I'm offended, but I'm also committed to helping out. I try to balance what I know about Quint with the film he's describing and I think, "Maybe this will be okay - more of a wink and nod!" Bob and I look at each other with misgiving, but then confirm that we will be there. To be honest, I seriously thought Bob would make an excuse and not show.
On Sunday, I hop on BART for the 75 minute ride to regions unknown. When I finally arrive, Bob and I wait for a ride to Quint's house. Quint comes to pick us up minutes later and then tells us that he hasn't managed to get anything set up because his actors have been flaking on him all day. But he's finally got a replacement actor to come and GOOD NEWS, the replacement actor had taken the same class we were taking - so he could help out.
While Quint gets to work setting up the sheets for the set, Bob and I figure out where to put the lights and we set them up. As we’re finishing our job, the replacement actor arrives – Dick. Dick turns out to live up to his namesake. Almost before introductions begin, he starts to offer us advice on how to do a proper shoot from his vast experience. Dick then proceeds to raid Quint’s refrigerator for the beer – which he then goes out on the deck and starts drinking while somehow still finding things to fault us with. When he hears about our camera problems from the day before, he starts to “fix” them. (To be fair to Dick, I did learn something from him – something that we had not been taught and that was not in the instruction manual that came with the camera but that was essential to the basic operation of the camera. This sort of “Forgotten” information seems fairly common in film classes). While he didn’t call us idiots outright, the tone was there.
As the Actor continued to drink beer he became more belligerent. At one point, while trying to set the lights, I said, “Wait, I just had a thought…” at which point he yelled out across the backyard, “Well congratulations! That makes one for today!” I was seriously ready to kick his ass, and I’m generally an easy going guy. He kept trying to give me advice. He even told me that “Story” was the key to good filmmaking. Well thank you, Sherlock, that hadn’t occurred to me.
So, after about an hour of this, the other actor calls to tell us that he’s just leaving the wedding he’s been at and that he’ll get there as soon as possible. Where was the wedding? In Pacifica… where I live… which means that he was at least 75 minutes away (not counting traffic). Dick didn’t like the idea of waiting. He demanded that Quint order a pizza (he did). Then he took Quint’s cigarettes and start smoking them.
At one point, Dick turned to me and asked me whether I had my license and if I’d be willing to drive him back to Berkeley. I politely declined (and yes, all the thoughts of another drunk Dick on the road did occur to me – but I didn’t particularly want to be a victim either). At another point Dick asked to see the bullwhip that was going to be in the film.
Bullwhip? Bob and I looked at Quint who laughingly said, “Yes, one priest is going to be pretending to whip the other priest… you don’t mind, do you?”
Quint gave Dick the whip and he proceeded to flail away with it right where we had been setting up lights. Had we had a car, Bob and I would have made one of those excuses (Oh, I just remembered the stove that I left on!) and fled with our lives. But we didn’t.
“I need to practice,” said Dick. “One of you go over there and pretend to be the priest.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” said Bob, in response, “Hand me the whip and I’ll practice on you.”
Needless to say, Dick got tired of the whip and went back to drinking in quiet while Bob and I tried to figure out what to do.
“Someone needs to run one of the lights,” I noted.
“You do it,” said Bob, “I’m not going to stand there while a drunk actor starts whipping everyone.”
When the pizza arrived, Dick promptly consumed half of it, burped loudly, and then told Quint that he was tired of waiting – and he left. (Only later did I find out that he used the fact that he was uncomfortable with the scene as his excuse ;) Bob and I watched him go with relief.
“One of you will have to put on the Priest costume and use the whip,” Quint said, “Do you mind?”
“Um… Not going to happen,” I replied and Bob agreed eagerly, “However, I think you can still do the assignment without the whip and just add the whipping later.”
So we waited… and waited… and waited… and in the meantime, we got the lights fine tuned, had the camera perfectly set, adjusted everything that could be adjusted so that when the other actor arrived, we were ready to shoot.
Finally, the other actor – we’ll came him Chris – arrived and immediately began to change into his costume. Things were finally starting to look up. I pointed out to Quint that we were going to have to leave the second the shooting was over and that he should make it quick. He agreed.
And then the actor came out – half-naked.
Yes, he was wearing the top part of a priest costume, but it only came down to slightly below the buttocks. He was naked below that.
Now I was not only offended, I was pissed as well. But, by this point, everything was so totally out of control, I just rolled my eyes and finished the shoot.
The first thing Quint wanted to do was readjust all the lights – completely destroying the perfect lighting we’d set up. We let him. Then he wanted me to follow the actor with the “candlelight” even after the candle was no longer in the picture. It had nothing to do with the project, but I didn’t care. I let him do that too. He started shooting his scene like he was holding a video camera and I just continued to move that light until he finally called cut.
Bob and I shut down the entire lighting scheme and were ready to go out the door in five minutes. As Quint finally let us off at the BART station, Bob turned to me and said, “I feel violated.” We simultaneously laughed, cried, and vented our anger during the 75 minute trip back to civilization. And we both agreed that we were never going to do that again, no matter what the situation.
I could go on and tell you about Dick’s sleeping buddy or the non-artsy fartsy movie to be shot entirely at sunset or the fact that I’ve now lost my equipment borrowing privileges for an entire week (they can have them!), but I think I’ve said enough. I’ve been Jack Bauered enough for one 24-hour period. I’m starting to get cranky. And next time, they might not be so lucky and I might have to “interrogate” someone with a gun or a machete or something equally 24-ish.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Greater Depression Watch Begins...
I suppose you could also call it, The Great Depression II - Electric Boogaloo, but I'm not sure many people are going to find this a laughing matter in a short period of time.
I'm a student of history and the two constants in history that I can be certain of are that human beings are incredibly short sighted when they don't factor history into their equations and that human beings are certain that it will never happen to them. We all fall into the category of human beings, so don't take this too hard. Its a certain myopia endemic to our race.
So part of me is laughing to watch as Wall Street continues to crumble. I guess I'm in that place beyond fear and beyond anger where acceptance begins to nibble around and all you can do is watch, wait and laugh - laugh at the absurdity of it all. We humans have been convinced since time began that we could find a way to be safe and happy by trading little slips of paper or coins or giant tiki's covered in gold. And we're constantly surprised to learn that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
But what makes me laugh the most about this entire crisis is that while New York's financial center is burning, there are plenty of volunteers to play the fiddle. You see Goldman Sachs actually recorded a profit two days ago. But yesterday, their stock dropped 40% mostly as a result of profiteers short selling the stock (its a selling strategy that allows investors to make money when a company's value begins to fall - but it can also have the effect of driving a stock price down as short sellers reap profits). This may sound like an isolated instance, but the same exact thing brought the Bank of Scotland (the oldest bank in Scotland) to bankruptcy in just two days. And the same thing is bring the largest Chinese bank, and three of the largest Japanese banks down as well. If things continue on this path, by the beginning of next week, we should all be well on our way down the greasy slope to world wide depression.
You see what many people fail to understand and fail to remember is that world wide recessions and depressions are never about a sudden lack of money. Money remains the same. They are always about panics and crises of confidence. People invest money when they think they have it to invest because they're not worried about feeding their family. Our entire modern economy is based on investment. So, if people suddenly stop investing because they're suddenly convinced that they need to hold on to their money, the entire system dries up and whammo! We have a financial crisis.
"BUT WAIT!" you say. "We built all sorts of protections into our monetary system to prevent this from ever happening again! There's no way it can happen!" Might I remind you doubters of a certain ship that COULD NEVER SINK! What hubris we've endured! What collective foolishness!
But just to reiterate, I'm rather enjoying all this. You see, the way I figure it is that I don't have anything already. I don't own a house (can't afford one) and my job isn't so great that losing it would be a huge loss. I've lived without health care before and I've learned to survive on very little food in the past. So, I think I'll survive. And all the companies that I owe money to will go bankrupt long before I ever pay them back. So I'm actually doing okay in a worst case scenario. And as for the country and the people most affected by this - well, they've been living in a fantasy world that said that something like this would never happen again. I'm kind of enjoying the fact that they're about to get a large dose of reality. I ought to be panicking, but I'm not. Wall Street is... and that's the problem.
I'm a student of history and the two constants in history that I can be certain of are that human beings are incredibly short sighted when they don't factor history into their equations and that human beings are certain that it will never happen to them. We all fall into the category of human beings, so don't take this too hard. Its a certain myopia endemic to our race.
So part of me is laughing to watch as Wall Street continues to crumble. I guess I'm in that place beyond fear and beyond anger where acceptance begins to nibble around and all you can do is watch, wait and laugh - laugh at the absurdity of it all. We humans have been convinced since time began that we could find a way to be safe and happy by trading little slips of paper or coins or giant tiki's covered in gold. And we're constantly surprised to learn that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
But what makes me laugh the most about this entire crisis is that while New York's financial center is burning, there are plenty of volunteers to play the fiddle. You see Goldman Sachs actually recorded a profit two days ago. But yesterday, their stock dropped 40% mostly as a result of profiteers short selling the stock (its a selling strategy that allows investors to make money when a company's value begins to fall - but it can also have the effect of driving a stock price down as short sellers reap profits). This may sound like an isolated instance, but the same exact thing brought the Bank of Scotland (the oldest bank in Scotland) to bankruptcy in just two days. And the same thing is bring the largest Chinese bank, and three of the largest Japanese banks down as well. If things continue on this path, by the beginning of next week, we should all be well on our way down the greasy slope to world wide depression.
You see what many people fail to understand and fail to remember is that world wide recessions and depressions are never about a sudden lack of money. Money remains the same. They are always about panics and crises of confidence. People invest money when they think they have it to invest because they're not worried about feeding their family. Our entire modern economy is based on investment. So, if people suddenly stop investing because they're suddenly convinced that they need to hold on to their money, the entire system dries up and whammo! We have a financial crisis.
"BUT WAIT!" you say. "We built all sorts of protections into our monetary system to prevent this from ever happening again! There's no way it can happen!" Might I remind you doubters of a certain ship that COULD NEVER SINK! What hubris we've endured! What collective foolishness!
But just to reiterate, I'm rather enjoying all this. You see, the way I figure it is that I don't have anything already. I don't own a house (can't afford one) and my job isn't so great that losing it would be a huge loss. I've lived without health care before and I've learned to survive on very little food in the past. So, I think I'll survive. And all the companies that I owe money to will go bankrupt long before I ever pay them back. So I'm actually doing okay in a worst case scenario. And as for the country and the people most affected by this - well, they've been living in a fantasy world that said that something like this would never happen again. I'm kind of enjoying the fact that they're about to get a large dose of reality. I ought to be panicking, but I'm not. Wall Street is... and that's the problem.
The Solution to Everything!
Okay, so the guy has to walk down the hall holding a candle and it has to look convincing on 16mm film.
You start with your zoom lens set to 50mm which gives you a depth of field of approximately 19 feet to 6 feet. The actor starts at one end of the hall by walking into the hall with a candle. As he approaches the hallway, you slowly crank up a 600w CTO gel covered fresnel with a fader on the wall closest to the actors entrance. As the actor enters, the fresnel operator moves the light to the candle in the actors hands, thus making it appear that the candle is casting a soft orange glow. The actor proceeds down the hall until he's approximately 10 feet away. At that point, the candle flickers and the actor moves a hand to cover it - and this is the tricky part! As he covers the candle, the fresnel operator dims the light on the candle, while a second operator lying on the floor 10 feet out turns up his gel covered light to about 25% and points it up at the candle above him. The timing of this is crucial. If done right, it will appear that the actor has successfully covered the candle flame from the outside wind, and it will still continue to glow inside the man's hand and on the man's face at a consistent T-4. Then you simply, and quickly reverse this process, turning the lamp on the floor out at the same time that you bring the other lamp up. The actor then moves forward four feet and exits the hallway through a door on the other side of the hall. You also use a 600w light off a bounce board behind the camera to provide some soft fill in the hallway, which you filter through a cookie and a blue gel to give the hallway some added depth and shadows.
Okay, I admit that doesn't solve the world's problems - but it does give me a lighting design for my advanced cinematography class. And since I think its best not to open your mouth if you have nothing nice to say, I'll leave the rest of the world's problems for the rest of you to solve. ;)
You start with your zoom lens set to 50mm which gives you a depth of field of approximately 19 feet to 6 feet. The actor starts at one end of the hall by walking into the hall with a candle. As he approaches the hallway, you slowly crank up a 600w CTO gel covered fresnel with a fader on the wall closest to the actors entrance. As the actor enters, the fresnel operator moves the light to the candle in the actors hands, thus making it appear that the candle is casting a soft orange glow. The actor proceeds down the hall until he's approximately 10 feet away. At that point, the candle flickers and the actor moves a hand to cover it - and this is the tricky part! As he covers the candle, the fresnel operator dims the light on the candle, while a second operator lying on the floor 10 feet out turns up his gel covered light to about 25% and points it up at the candle above him. The timing of this is crucial. If done right, it will appear that the actor has successfully covered the candle flame from the outside wind, and it will still continue to glow inside the man's hand and on the man's face at a consistent T-4. Then you simply, and quickly reverse this process, turning the lamp on the floor out at the same time that you bring the other lamp up. The actor then moves forward four feet and exits the hallway through a door on the other side of the hall. You also use a 600w light off a bounce board behind the camera to provide some soft fill in the hallway, which you filter through a cookie and a blue gel to give the hallway some added depth and shadows.
Okay, I admit that doesn't solve the world's problems - but it does give me a lighting design for my advanced cinematography class. And since I think its best not to open your mouth if you have nothing nice to say, I'll leave the rest of the world's problems for the rest of you to solve. ;)
Monday, September 15, 2008
A new day of filming...
If you'd like to read the latest Production Diary from 12 Step Jedi, it can be found over at my new blog - HemiDemiSemiQuaver of Cool.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A.J. has taught me well...
Okay, let's give credit where credit is due. I stole this idea from A.J. over at Bittersweet Life. A few months back he decided to split his blog posts into those personal ones and those professional ones. I've decided to do the same thing since I could hear the collective sigh of wind passing through the hallowed halls of ICONville every time I mentioned anything to do with writing or films or the sort. Not you bag, baby... I understand. Besides, I need to have an excuse to occasionally remind myself that I am a writer or film maker (depends on the day of the week, the position of the moon... you know, its too complicated to explain) and that I need to let others know about that or its just creative masturbation - like YouTube.
So, if you'll all please join me in welcoming my new writing/filmmaking/etc... blog site - The HemiDemiSemiQuaver of Cool!
Yeah, I know... great title. Let's hope that there's more to it than that. In the meantime, you can still come back here to ICON for all the latest religious/political discussions your minds can handle.
You know, now that I think about it, I have blogs for writing, religion, exercise, and baseball. I'm starting to think that I'm breaking up my interests into little horcruxes of blogging - putting each small part of my soul into writing for all the world to "enjoy". That'll make it virtually impossible for you all to kill me! I'll be immortal! Bwah ha ha ha ha hah!
Oops, sorry... every time I split myself like this, I become a little more unstable.
So, if you'll all please join me in welcoming my new writing/filmmaking/etc... blog site - The HemiDemiSemiQuaver of Cool!
Yeah, I know... great title. Let's hope that there's more to it than that. In the meantime, you can still come back here to ICON for all the latest religious/political discussions your minds can handle.
You know, now that I think about it, I have blogs for writing, religion, exercise, and baseball. I'm starting to think that I'm breaking up my interests into little horcruxes of blogging - putting each small part of my soul into writing for all the world to "enjoy". That'll make it virtually impossible for you all to kill me! I'll be immortal! Bwah ha ha ha ha hah!
Oops, sorry... every time I split myself like this, I become a little more unstable.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Paradigm Shift
The shortest definition I can give for paradigm (pair-a-dime) shift is: A complete rethinking of a problem. A good example of which is the embracing of evolution as a scientific fact. For almost two thousand years (or perhaps longer) humans believed that they had been created by God - then along comes Darwin and in the course of about 50 years, human thinking had a huge paradigm shift to the point where Evolution usually wins out in people's thinking. But this is not an article about evolution, nor where I stand on it. This is about a personal paradigm shift that I've been going through in the past couple of weeks.
I started out wanting to be an astronaut (who didn't?) then, after Star Wars, I wanted to be an actor, then a director, then a producer, then some sort of media god like Walt Disney - all in the space of about three months. I've been working towards that goal ever since. But working is perhaps too generous a description of what I've been doing.
Working implies that the method for completion of this task has already been figured out. Working towards an Olympic Gold Medal, for instance, implies that you know the sport and that you are practicing, practicing, practicing and competing with the eventual goal of being the best in the world. But there isn't exactly a simple path to media god. I've checked. Its not even on Google.
Presumably one might become the next Walt Disney by being a great animator... except that animated movies cost so much to create and, well, Disney already has that area pretty much sown up. But Walt Disney was also a great storyteller, so one might reach that goal by becoming a great storyteller - which implies that one knows how to tell a story and has some means for conveying that story to an audience. That would mean trying for a career in film making or writing or... well, you get the idea. So, that's what I've been up to - trying to become the next Walt Disney one story at a time.
Of course, my results thus far have been non-existent. Its not easy dreaming big - there's too much reality to overcome.
Ironically, it was after the completion of my film (by no assessment is it a great film) that I came upon this paradigm shift. You see, in the end Disney wasn't really all that great an animator and he wasn't a great architect or writer. What he was good at was bringing together great animators and storytellers and film makers and getting them to make great movies bearing Walt's name. He provided the inspiration, they provided the perspiration - which is, of course, a great oversimplification. But the Walt Disney Company wasn't an afterthought in Walt's mind - an apparatus constructed after the fact to spend all the money he'd made as a great animator - the Walt Disney Company was what Walt wanted in the first place. He wasn't creating animation or storytelling, he was creating a company - a company that created animation and storytelling. And so, after the completion of my film instead of focusing on the next film and figuring out how I was going to rake in the dough and then create this masterful company from the profits, I suddenly realized that I FIRST needed to create the company to make the movie. I realized that I needed to work on the film from the context of it being a project for my company and not a project to make my company.
For my entire life, I've been creating products and then assigning them to the company. I've been a writer first and a President second. I realize now that I need to be a President first and a writer second - that I need to get my company off the ground so that I can get my films and books and other projects off the ground.
I've been the defacto head of my company now for 25 years and I've never once thought in these terms before. Its been a bit unusual in my head these last couple of weeks as my mind turns away from plotting the next script (which is a good one) to figuring out how to raise funds for my next script. In the end I will be just as creative as before, but with an emphasis first on making the creativity happen rather than on being creative and then figuring out how to make it happen.
So, I ask you all for prayers as I try to make an old endeavor new again.
I started out wanting to be an astronaut (who didn't?) then, after Star Wars, I wanted to be an actor, then a director, then a producer, then some sort of media god like Walt Disney - all in the space of about three months. I've been working towards that goal ever since. But working is perhaps too generous a description of what I've been doing.
Working implies that the method for completion of this task has already been figured out. Working towards an Olympic Gold Medal, for instance, implies that you know the sport and that you are practicing, practicing, practicing and competing with the eventual goal of being the best in the world. But there isn't exactly a simple path to media god. I've checked. Its not even on Google.
Presumably one might become the next Walt Disney by being a great animator... except that animated movies cost so much to create and, well, Disney already has that area pretty much sown up. But Walt Disney was also a great storyteller, so one might reach that goal by becoming a great storyteller - which implies that one knows how to tell a story and has some means for conveying that story to an audience. That would mean trying for a career in film making or writing or... well, you get the idea. So, that's what I've been up to - trying to become the next Walt Disney one story at a time.
Of course, my results thus far have been non-existent. Its not easy dreaming big - there's too much reality to overcome.
Ironically, it was after the completion of my film (by no assessment is it a great film) that I came upon this paradigm shift. You see, in the end Disney wasn't really all that great an animator and he wasn't a great architect or writer. What he was good at was bringing together great animators and storytellers and film makers and getting them to make great movies bearing Walt's name. He provided the inspiration, they provided the perspiration - which is, of course, a great oversimplification. But the Walt Disney Company wasn't an afterthought in Walt's mind - an apparatus constructed after the fact to spend all the money he'd made as a great animator - the Walt Disney Company was what Walt wanted in the first place. He wasn't creating animation or storytelling, he was creating a company - a company that created animation and storytelling. And so, after the completion of my film instead of focusing on the next film and figuring out how I was going to rake in the dough and then create this masterful company from the profits, I suddenly realized that I FIRST needed to create the company to make the movie. I realized that I needed to work on the film from the context of it being a project for my company and not a project to make my company.
For my entire life, I've been creating products and then assigning them to the company. I've been a writer first and a President second. I realize now that I need to be a President first and a writer second - that I need to get my company off the ground so that I can get my films and books and other projects off the ground.
I've been the defacto head of my company now for 25 years and I've never once thought in these terms before. Its been a bit unusual in my head these last couple of weeks as my mind turns away from plotting the next script (which is a good one) to figuring out how to raise funds for my next script. In the end I will be just as creative as before, but with an emphasis first on making the creativity happen rather than on being creative and then figuring out how to make it happen.
So, I ask you all for prayers as I try to make an old endeavor new again.
Monday, September 08, 2008
After Hole In The Wall, I can see nothing but good times ahead...
It was like getting hit in the head with a giant foam wall and getting knocked into a pool of water. What are the odds of getting two guilty pleasure game shows in one summer season?! First, Wipeout and now Hole In the Wall (kind of like Human Tetris, only with even less mental power needed! ;) But, I digress, because I'm sure that the fact that Hole In The Wall premiered on Fox last night had nothing to do with the epiphanous moment I had today.
So, I kind of understand now what makes me tick. I guess that's a big breakthrough even if I'm not entirely sure of the meaning behind it.
I realized that the one thing I complained about the most (internally) with my youth group was the one thing that I've sort of always been struggling with my whole life, on one end of the spectrum or the other - enthusiasm vs. lethargy.
To recap: To do something you need to have an idea of what to do, you need to know how to do it, you need to have someone willing to do the work, and you need to have someone who has the energy to get the task done.
I have tons of ideas. I am smart enough to know how to do things (most of the time) or to figure out how to do things. I am not always able to find people willing to do the work, but then, most of the time, I'm willing to do the work even if nobody else is. However, where my plans always seem to fall apart is in finding the energy to get the task done. If its a task that I want to do by myself, like writing a novel, I can usually muster whatever energy it takes to do the task even if it sometimes requires prodigious amounts of energy. But when I need help to complete the task, I often find that the people I work with don't come equipped with the enthusiasm to get the task done. I try to be enthusiastic enough for everyone, but their lack of enthusiasm - their lethargy - quickly saps my own enthusiasm and I end up being tired enough for the both of us. The end result may be that the project gets done, but I've lost any enjoyment of it because I'm too tired from getting it completed.
This battle between lethargy and energy has been a constant one for myself. When I get to the end of a project I constantly find myself falling into a period of lethargy afterwards. I've since learned that this is a period where I recharge my batteries for the next challenge, but I've now come to realize that my batteries wouldn't nearly be so drained if I worked with people equally enthusiastic about an outcome.
In my youth group, I've become less enamored with the prospect of running the group primarily because the things I want to do with the group is always met with a lethargic response. "Let's Go On A Mission Trip!" "Yeah, okay... whatever." I can provide the leadership. I can do all the work. But I can't do everything and be enthusiastic enough for the entire group as well. It was really sapping my enjoyment of the entire process to the point where I wondered why I even bothered. But rather than let my enthusiasm for the Lord be overcome by the lethargy of the youth, I decided that perhaps God needed to send someone else to inspire them. He is clearly calling me into areas where my enthusiasm will be better received.
I can also see this process in my decision to make a movie this summer. Though I've tried to make films in the past, I was always fighting the uphill battle of providing the camera, direction, script, and enthusiasm as well. Some of my family and friends were motivated, but not nearly as much as what was needed to finish the project. However, in my film classes, I suddenly met an entire group of people who were as enthusiastic about film making as I was. And in my friend Andrew, I met a group of actors who were enthusiastic about appearing in films as I needed them to be. After spending most of my life having to do all the work and provide all the enthusiasm as well, this was really a most refreshing change. And the end result speaks volumes about my future direction - the movie turned out well, people are still enthusiastic about it, and I've already begun work on my next film project!
I realize that not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am about the things that matter to me. And I realize that I'm not always enthusiastic about the things other people are enthusiastic about. Maybe this is God's way of dividing the Holy Spirit amongst us - not only in the gifts that we receive but in the joy that we finding in doing things.
I think the tragedy of this is when we don't do things because we think nobody will be interested in doing them with us. The Ice Cream Social might meet this fate this year because of the amount of lethargy I'm having to overcome to get it started. I simply refuse to single handedly do everything and provide the energy as well. I'm ready to use my energy where it will be better spent instead of using it to do things that nobody else really wants just because we ought to do it. This might be my new benchmark for determining which projects to tackle and in what order.
Or will that seem a little too much like taking the path of least resistance? Tell me, do you do things that nobody else seems to want to do?
So, I kind of understand now what makes me tick. I guess that's a big breakthrough even if I'm not entirely sure of the meaning behind it.
I realized that the one thing I complained about the most (internally) with my youth group was the one thing that I've sort of always been struggling with my whole life, on one end of the spectrum or the other - enthusiasm vs. lethargy.
To recap: To do something you need to have an idea of what to do, you need to know how to do it, you need to have someone willing to do the work, and you need to have someone who has the energy to get the task done.
I have tons of ideas. I am smart enough to know how to do things (most of the time) or to figure out how to do things. I am not always able to find people willing to do the work, but then, most of the time, I'm willing to do the work even if nobody else is. However, where my plans always seem to fall apart is in finding the energy to get the task done. If its a task that I want to do by myself, like writing a novel, I can usually muster whatever energy it takes to do the task even if it sometimes requires prodigious amounts of energy. But when I need help to complete the task, I often find that the people I work with don't come equipped with the enthusiasm to get the task done. I try to be enthusiastic enough for everyone, but their lack of enthusiasm - their lethargy - quickly saps my own enthusiasm and I end up being tired enough for the both of us. The end result may be that the project gets done, but I've lost any enjoyment of it because I'm too tired from getting it completed.
This battle between lethargy and energy has been a constant one for myself. When I get to the end of a project I constantly find myself falling into a period of lethargy afterwards. I've since learned that this is a period where I recharge my batteries for the next challenge, but I've now come to realize that my batteries wouldn't nearly be so drained if I worked with people equally enthusiastic about an outcome.
In my youth group, I've become less enamored with the prospect of running the group primarily because the things I want to do with the group is always met with a lethargic response. "Let's Go On A Mission Trip!" "Yeah, okay... whatever." I can provide the leadership. I can do all the work. But I can't do everything and be enthusiastic enough for the entire group as well. It was really sapping my enjoyment of the entire process to the point where I wondered why I even bothered. But rather than let my enthusiasm for the Lord be overcome by the lethargy of the youth, I decided that perhaps God needed to send someone else to inspire them. He is clearly calling me into areas where my enthusiasm will be better received.
I can also see this process in my decision to make a movie this summer. Though I've tried to make films in the past, I was always fighting the uphill battle of providing the camera, direction, script, and enthusiasm as well. Some of my family and friends were motivated, but not nearly as much as what was needed to finish the project. However, in my film classes, I suddenly met an entire group of people who were as enthusiastic about film making as I was. And in my friend Andrew, I met a group of actors who were enthusiastic about appearing in films as I needed them to be. After spending most of my life having to do all the work and provide all the enthusiasm as well, this was really a most refreshing change. And the end result speaks volumes about my future direction - the movie turned out well, people are still enthusiastic about it, and I've already begun work on my next film project!
I realize that not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am about the things that matter to me. And I realize that I'm not always enthusiastic about the things other people are enthusiastic about. Maybe this is God's way of dividing the Holy Spirit amongst us - not only in the gifts that we receive but in the joy that we finding in doing things.
I think the tragedy of this is when we don't do things because we think nobody will be interested in doing them with us. The Ice Cream Social might meet this fate this year because of the amount of lethargy I'm having to overcome to get it started. I simply refuse to single handedly do everything and provide the energy as well. I'm ready to use my energy where it will be better spent instead of using it to do things that nobody else really wants just because we ought to do it. This might be my new benchmark for determining which projects to tackle and in what order.
Or will that seem a little too much like taking the path of least resistance? Tell me, do you do things that nobody else seems to want to do?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Maybe Jesus knew what He was talking about...
In the space of two weeks, Hurricane Gustav has caused an estimated $3 billion in losses in the U.S. and killed about 110 people in the U.S. and the Caribbean, catastrophic floods in northern India have left a million people homeless, and a 6.2-magnitude earthquake has rocked China's southwest, smashing more than 400,000 homes.
If it seems like disasters are getting more common, it's because they are. But some disasters seem to be affecting us in worse ways — and not for the reasons you may think. Floods and storms have led to most of the excess damage. The number of flood and storm disasters has gone up 7.4% every year in recent decades, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. (Between 2000 and 2007, the growth was even faster, with an average annual rate of increase of 8.4%.) Of the total 197 million people affected by disasters in 2007, 164 million were affected by floods.
It is tempting to look at the lineup of storms in the Atlantic Ocean (Hanna, Ike, Josephine) and, in the name of everything green, blame climate change for this state of affairs. But there is another inconvenient truth out there: We are getting more vulnerable to weather mostly because of where we live, not just how we live.
In recent decades, people around the world have moved en masse to big cities near water. The population of Miami-Dade County in Florida was about 150,000 in the 1930s, a decade fraught with severe hurricanes. Since then, the population of Miami-Dade County has rocketed 1,600%, to 2,400,000.
So the same-intensity hurricane today wreaks all sorts of havoc that wouldn't have occurred had human beings not migrated. (To see how your own coastal county has changed in population, check out this cool graphing tool from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)
If climate change is having an effect on the intensities of storms, it's not obvious in the historical weather data. And whatever effect it is having is much, much smaller than the effect of development along coastlines. In fact, if you look at all storms from 1900 to 2005 and imagine today's populations on the coasts, as Roger Pielke Jr., and his colleagues did in a 2008 Natural Hazards Review paper, you would see that the worst hurricane would have actually happened in 1926.
If it happened today, the Great Miami storm would have caused from $140 billion to $157 billion in damages. (Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm in U.S. history, caused $100 billion in losses.) "There has been no trend in the number or intensity of storms at landfall since 1900," says Pielke, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado. "The storms themselves haven't changed."
What's changed is what we've put in storms' way. Crowding together in coastal cities puts us at risk on a few levels. First, it is harder for us to evacuate before a storm because of gridlock. And in much of the developing world, people don't get the kinds of early warnings that Americans get. So large migrant populations — usually living in flimsy housing — get flooded out year after year. That helps explain why Asia has repeatedly been the hardest hit area by disasters in recent years.
Secondly, even if we get everyone to safety, we still have more stuff in harm's way than ever before. So each big hurricane costs more than the big one before it, even controlling for inflation.
But the most insidious effect of building condos and industry along water is that we are systematically stripping coasts of the protection that used to cushion the blow of extreme weather. Three years after Katrina, southern Louisiana is still losing a football field's worth of wetlands every 38 minutes.
Human beings have been clearing away our best protections all over the world, says Kathleen Tierney, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "The natural protections are diminishing — whether you're talking about mangrove forests in areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, wetlands in the Gulf Coast or forests, which offer protection against landslides and mudslides."
Before we become hopelessly lost in despair, however, there is good news: we can do something about this problem. We can enact meaningful building codes and stop keeping insurance premiums artificially low in flood zones.
But first we need to understand that disasters aren't just caused by FEMA and greenhouse gases. Says Tierney: "I don't think that people have an understanding of questions they should be asking — about where they live, about design and construction, about building inspection, fire protection. These just aren't things that are on people's minds."
Increasingly, climate change is on people's minds, and that is for the better. Even if climate change has not been the primary driver of disaster losses, it is likely to cause far deadlier disasters in the future if left unchecked.
But even if greenhouse gas emissions miraculously plummet next year, we would not expect to see a big change in disaster losses. So it's important to stay focused on the real cause of the problem, says Pielke. "Talking about land-use policies in coastal Mississippi may not be the sexiest topic, but that's what's going to make the most difference on this issue," he says.
FROM TIME MAGAZINE24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Matthew 7: 24-27
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Yes, I am mad. The question is... why aren't you?
The owner of a large estate had to leave for a business trip and put his entire estate under the control of his formerly prodigal son over the equally qualified former head rancher.
"I know that you have lived a life of ill repute until recently, but I think you have earned the right to call the shots while I am gone," he told his son. "Our ranch is in good shape. We have a surplus in the bank. We are at peace with all of our neighbors. And business is really good. Our workers are happy right now, so this should be a piece of cake."
As soon as the owner left, his son divided the surplus cash and distributed it amongst his friends as a way to stimulate the local business economy. The workers looked on with some worry as now the ranch had no surplus in case things went wrong. But the son assured them that things were great and that the money spent would come back to them many fold.
But instead, a little more than a year after the owner had left on his trip, a group of vigilantes sneaked into the ranch and burned down one of their barns. Many workers who were inside died and many people who fought the fire died as well. All of the neighbors were incensed and agreed to help the son track down and capture these vigilantes. When the son tracked the vigilantes to a particular farm, they helped him capture that farm and bring the vigilantes to justice. The son was very pleased with what he had done.
Then he decided to attack another farm, claiming that they were planning to attack his farm and that maybe they'd even supported the vigilantes in the first attack. Most of the other farmers were wary of the accusations and the proof that the son provided did not change their minds. The son attacked the farm anyway and easily conquered it, but then had to spend money and hire men to protect the new farm from the former owners family, eager to get revenge for the unwarranted attack. The son poured more men and more money into the neighboring farm to protect it, borrowing heavily from more friendly farms to do so.
When the rainy season came and wiped out part of the son's own ranch, stranding many workers in the process, the son was too occupied with his protection of the other farm to send help. When he started losing buildings and sheep to other farmers because the other farm was bleeding him dry, he simply blamed the former head rancher for everything.
Finally, after eight long years, the owner returned to his ranch and looked on in disbelief. His surplus was long gone. Most of his sheep were owned by his neighbors. One whole section of his ranch had been flooded out and left in a state of disrepair and now he was part owner of a ranch he'd never wanted, nor needed, that was bleeding him dry. And his workers were all fearful of losing their homes and their jobs. He called for his son and demanded an explanation.
"What happened to my home?" he asked.
"Well," the son replied with a goofy smile, "You see... it was all the fault of the angry workers."
"The angry workers? What did they do?"
"They kept telling me I was wrong and that I was doing the wrong thing and they blocked my attempts to do more," the son replied.
"More? Haven't you done enough?"
"No... I was going to dig some more wells so that my friends might have more water to sell, but the angry workers stopped me. And there are a few other farms that I want to try and bring under our sway - they stood up to me and they should pay for that."
"No more, son. I've had enough of your ineptness."
"Very well. I'll simply take my share of the inheritance and retire, but in the meantime, I've got just the person to replace me. He believes exactly as I do and can guarantee you almost exactly the same results!"
"No thanks... I'll pass. I was stupid to put you in charge in the first place. But I've at least learned my lesson now to know that if I want to have a ranch in four years, I sure as hell better find someone better to run it than you or anyone like you."
"I know that you have lived a life of ill repute until recently, but I think you have earned the right to call the shots while I am gone," he told his son. "Our ranch is in good shape. We have a surplus in the bank. We are at peace with all of our neighbors. And business is really good. Our workers are happy right now, so this should be a piece of cake."
As soon as the owner left, his son divided the surplus cash and distributed it amongst his friends as a way to stimulate the local business economy. The workers looked on with some worry as now the ranch had no surplus in case things went wrong. But the son assured them that things were great and that the money spent would come back to them many fold.
But instead, a little more than a year after the owner had left on his trip, a group of vigilantes sneaked into the ranch and burned down one of their barns. Many workers who were inside died and many people who fought the fire died as well. All of the neighbors were incensed and agreed to help the son track down and capture these vigilantes. When the son tracked the vigilantes to a particular farm, they helped him capture that farm and bring the vigilantes to justice. The son was very pleased with what he had done.
Then he decided to attack another farm, claiming that they were planning to attack his farm and that maybe they'd even supported the vigilantes in the first attack. Most of the other farmers were wary of the accusations and the proof that the son provided did not change their minds. The son attacked the farm anyway and easily conquered it, but then had to spend money and hire men to protect the new farm from the former owners family, eager to get revenge for the unwarranted attack. The son poured more men and more money into the neighboring farm to protect it, borrowing heavily from more friendly farms to do so.
When the rainy season came and wiped out part of the son's own ranch, stranding many workers in the process, the son was too occupied with his protection of the other farm to send help. When he started losing buildings and sheep to other farmers because the other farm was bleeding him dry, he simply blamed the former head rancher for everything.
Finally, after eight long years, the owner returned to his ranch and looked on in disbelief. His surplus was long gone. Most of his sheep were owned by his neighbors. One whole section of his ranch had been flooded out and left in a state of disrepair and now he was part owner of a ranch he'd never wanted, nor needed, that was bleeding him dry. And his workers were all fearful of losing their homes and their jobs. He called for his son and demanded an explanation.
"What happened to my home?" he asked.
"Well," the son replied with a goofy smile, "You see... it was all the fault of the angry workers."
"The angry workers? What did they do?"
"They kept telling me I was wrong and that I was doing the wrong thing and they blocked my attempts to do more," the son replied.
"More? Haven't you done enough?"
"No... I was going to dig some more wells so that my friends might have more water to sell, but the angry workers stopped me. And there are a few other farms that I want to try and bring under our sway - they stood up to me and they should pay for that."
"No more, son. I've had enough of your ineptness."
"Very well. I'll simply take my share of the inheritance and retire, but in the meantime, I've got just the person to replace me. He believes exactly as I do and can guarantee you almost exactly the same results!"
"No thanks... I'll pass. I was stupid to put you in charge in the first place. But I've at least learned my lesson now to know that if I want to have a ranch in four years, I sure as hell better find someone better to run it than you or anyone like you."
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
I can't help it... I like Sarah Palin!
Sarah Palin makes absolutely no sense as a Vice Presidential candidate. She's a mother of five kids. She lives above Anchorage in the real frozen tundra. She's been a commercial salmon fisherperson. Her husband is half-eskimo. She's only been governor less than two years and before that, practically a political nobody. She's a Hockey Mom. Her 17 year old daughter is five months pregnant. She has a business degree from the University of Idaho.
What I've just described, except the part about being a vice presidential candidate and governor, could be the description of about half the women her age (not is, but COULD be). She's clearly a real person. Her interests are real and not 100% connected to her job. Her politics and her faith go hand in hand. She lives in tough places not because of some tax break they allow her, but because that's where she lives. Her family has struggles like lots of other families. Her past has troubles like lots of other pasts.
It'd be easy to compare her to other, more polished, politicians and see her deficiencies. She didn't go to Yale or Harvard. She wasn't part of some secret Skull and Bones club. She hasn't been a diplomat and she didn't attend private schools. I dare say that up until a week ago, she'd probably never even met a secret service agent much less been protected by one.
Even her struggles have been real life struggles - not some conflict of political interest. When she discovered that she was going to have a Down Syndrome baby she had to make a real life choice about whether to bring the baby to term - not some hypothetical choice for other women, but one with real consequences for her own life.
I don't agree with most of her politics, but I still can't help liking Sarah Palin. The more we discover about her, the more the press really exposes her to scrutiny, the more I like. She is a real person. A real life person with real life problems and real life answers.
Ask yourself, when was the last time we had a real person in Washington D.C., much less the White House?
But for all that, I'm still voting for Obama. I like Sarah Palin, but I still won't vote for her. Still, I wish her luck in the election and in the future.
What I've just described, except the part about being a vice presidential candidate and governor, could be the description of about half the women her age (not is, but COULD be). She's clearly a real person. Her interests are real and not 100% connected to her job. Her politics and her faith go hand in hand. She lives in tough places not because of some tax break they allow her, but because that's where she lives. Her family has struggles like lots of other families. Her past has troubles like lots of other pasts.
It'd be easy to compare her to other, more polished, politicians and see her deficiencies. She didn't go to Yale or Harvard. She wasn't part of some secret Skull and Bones club. She hasn't been a diplomat and she didn't attend private schools. I dare say that up until a week ago, she'd probably never even met a secret service agent much less been protected by one.
Even her struggles have been real life struggles - not some conflict of political interest. When she discovered that she was going to have a Down Syndrome baby she had to make a real life choice about whether to bring the baby to term - not some hypothetical choice for other women, but one with real consequences for her own life.
I don't agree with most of her politics, but I still can't help liking Sarah Palin. The more we discover about her, the more the press really exposes her to scrutiny, the more I like. She is a real person. A real life person with real life problems and real life answers.
Ask yourself, when was the last time we had a real person in Washington D.C., much less the White House?
But for all that, I'm still voting for Obama. I like Sarah Palin, but I still won't vote for her. Still, I wish her luck in the election and in the future.
Friday, August 29, 2008
This blog post now open for discussion...
I've been doing the background research for my second novel this week and I've found some really cool stuff (which is all I'm going to say about that). But one of the parts of this project is a need to quickly summarize the various decades of US History (over the last 50+ years) in order to get the gist of the prevailing mood. Now, I can only speak from my own perspective, of course, which is why I thought I'd open this post up for discussion. I need to see if you all agree with my very short and highly subjective views of American History and prevailing national mood over the last 50 + years.
So, here goes...
1950's: Repressed, conservative, commercial, belief in progress, square, and delinquent. I see the 50's as a time when America got back into the business of doing business. This, to me, is the period when we became world leaders not by conquest but by working harder and longer than anyone else. It was almost as if after WWII we weren't going to squander all that sacrifice - but as a result, we became way too serious, like the guy at the office party who just can't relax. Which leads us to...
1960's: Liberal, Free Love, World Changers, Experimenters, Radicals, and arrogant. I see the 60's as the reaction to the 50's. What does all this progress and business mean if not to change the world? We can't keep doing things the old ways - that just leads to more war and more destruction. So lets change everything - society, law, environment, everything! And to hell with you if you don't join us!
1970's: Angry, disillusioned, hungover. I see the 70's as the aftermath of the 60's. All of the things that were "good" about the 60's suddenly ran smack dab into reality. The freeing of your mind with drugs - how about a society suddenly rampant with drug addicts? Free love and social change - how about a breaking down of families and a lack of care for schools and children? Positive change and high moral ground - how about Watergate and the Vietnam war? The 60's were over and all we had left was the headache.
1980's: PARTY! and a growing sense of responsibility. I see the 80's as a time when we renewed our national spirit by realizing that it was okay to enjoy ourselves a little. After the excesses of the 60's and 70's, we were ready to just have fun. But, at the same time, all those radical hippies were now a little older and a little wiser and were educating the young on their responsibility to change the world. Changing the world became a chore, a job, with regular working hours. We worked on nuclear disarmament and created bans on smoking and danced the night away.
1990's: Spoiled. I see the 90's as a time when the party of the 80's went on - long after it had any reason to keep going. And as a result, it was a decade where the excesses of a party that has gone too long started to haunt us. We became obsessed with trivial things and turned sports and entertainment into social events that quickly dwarfed the importance of reality. And, as a result, the party took on a life of its own and we simply became pawns of it.
2000's: So far, I see the 2000's in much the same way as I feel about waking up late for work. There's that initial wake up call, followed by a great deal of rush and fear, followed by a renewed focus on being sure that you never wake up late again. I think the entire country has been running around frantically trying to make up for our lack of attentiveness before. But I think we're just starting to settle back down and get down to business again.
Well, that's the short of it. Tell me what you think. Am I even close?
So, here goes...
1950's: Repressed, conservative, commercial, belief in progress, square, and delinquent. I see the 50's as a time when America got back into the business of doing business. This, to me, is the period when we became world leaders not by conquest but by working harder and longer than anyone else. It was almost as if after WWII we weren't going to squander all that sacrifice - but as a result, we became way too serious, like the guy at the office party who just can't relax. Which leads us to...
1960's: Liberal, Free Love, World Changers, Experimenters, Radicals, and arrogant. I see the 60's as the reaction to the 50's. What does all this progress and business mean if not to change the world? We can't keep doing things the old ways - that just leads to more war and more destruction. So lets change everything - society, law, environment, everything! And to hell with you if you don't join us!
1970's: Angry, disillusioned, hungover. I see the 70's as the aftermath of the 60's. All of the things that were "good" about the 60's suddenly ran smack dab into reality. The freeing of your mind with drugs - how about a society suddenly rampant with drug addicts? Free love and social change - how about a breaking down of families and a lack of care for schools and children? Positive change and high moral ground - how about Watergate and the Vietnam war? The 60's were over and all we had left was the headache.
1980's: PARTY! and a growing sense of responsibility. I see the 80's as a time when we renewed our national spirit by realizing that it was okay to enjoy ourselves a little. After the excesses of the 60's and 70's, we were ready to just have fun. But, at the same time, all those radical hippies were now a little older and a little wiser and were educating the young on their responsibility to change the world. Changing the world became a chore, a job, with regular working hours. We worked on nuclear disarmament and created bans on smoking and danced the night away.
1990's: Spoiled. I see the 90's as a time when the party of the 80's went on - long after it had any reason to keep going. And as a result, it was a decade where the excesses of a party that has gone too long started to haunt us. We became obsessed with trivial things and turned sports and entertainment into social events that quickly dwarfed the importance of reality. And, as a result, the party took on a life of its own and we simply became pawns of it.
2000's: So far, I see the 2000's in much the same way as I feel about waking up late for work. There's that initial wake up call, followed by a great deal of rush and fear, followed by a renewed focus on being sure that you never wake up late again. I think the entire country has been running around frantically trying to make up for our lack of attentiveness before. But I think we're just starting to settle back down and get down to business again.
Well, that's the short of it. Tell me what you think. Am I even close?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Keys to the Kingdom
Once upon a time there was a magic kingdom with a magic ruler. He was a very smart man who knew that in order to make his dreams come true, he needed more than just to wish upon a star. He got his brother to be his financial wizard and his best friend to be his artist and together, the three of them created wondrous worlds and built a huge empire. But even though the work was divided between the three of them, everyone knew who was in charge - it was the man with the dreams.
Later, a new generation came along when the kingdom was struggling. In order to strengthen their shrinking empire, a new ruler was given the keys to the kingdom and the people pleaded with him to save it. He turned the empire into a ruthless cash cow. He smashed his competition. He built up the empire's infrastructure and started snatching up rival and friendly empires around him. This once tiny magic kingdom became a behemoth empire trodding on friend and foe alike. Those who had been with the original king saw the dream quickly fading and the profit margin quickly rising as the bottom line for the kingdom. Criticism became rampant. Revolts began. And eventually, the empire began to fade again. Other empires started marching into territories that had once been the exclusive domain of this magic kingdom. The golden dreams of the vast empire turned to ash in their mouths. They sacked this new leader and turned to his replacement for help.
The first thing the replacement did? He found someone with a dream of what the magic kingdom could be again - someone who remembered the old kingdom and how wonderful it had been - and he put that person in charge of changing the empire back into what the kingdom had been before. For this magic kingdom, perhaps it was not too late to remember what it was that had gotten them there in the first place.
In November we have a choice in this country. We can keep going down the path we've been traveling, or we can embrace a new vision. New visions and visionaries don't come along that often. Most leaders only want to continue with the status quo. They don't want to rock the boat. They will point out how close they resemble the last guy. They will say that experience matters. They will laugh at the visionaries dreams as just fantasies. But they will have no new ideas and no vision on how to do things differently.
Perhaps that's what we want. Perhaps we're happy with things the way they are. Perhaps our pocket books are just fine, our education system is perfect, our way of life is the envy of the world. In that case, voting for more of the same makes perfect sense.
But if we're not happy with things the way they are, or we're struggling to make ends meet, to get our children through school, to see our country being mocked around the world for the arrogance and ignorance we've shown, then maybe its time for a change.
Sometimes when you reach a dead end, you have to admit it and try going a different direction for a while.
The rest are all details.
Later, a new generation came along when the kingdom was struggling. In order to strengthen their shrinking empire, a new ruler was given the keys to the kingdom and the people pleaded with him to save it. He turned the empire into a ruthless cash cow. He smashed his competition. He built up the empire's infrastructure and started snatching up rival and friendly empires around him. This once tiny magic kingdom became a behemoth empire trodding on friend and foe alike. Those who had been with the original king saw the dream quickly fading and the profit margin quickly rising as the bottom line for the kingdom. Criticism became rampant. Revolts began. And eventually, the empire began to fade again. Other empires started marching into territories that had once been the exclusive domain of this magic kingdom. The golden dreams of the vast empire turned to ash in their mouths. They sacked this new leader and turned to his replacement for help.
The first thing the replacement did? He found someone with a dream of what the magic kingdom could be again - someone who remembered the old kingdom and how wonderful it had been - and he put that person in charge of changing the empire back into what the kingdom had been before. For this magic kingdom, perhaps it was not too late to remember what it was that had gotten them there in the first place.
In November we have a choice in this country. We can keep going down the path we've been traveling, or we can embrace a new vision. New visions and visionaries don't come along that often. Most leaders only want to continue with the status quo. They don't want to rock the boat. They will point out how close they resemble the last guy. They will say that experience matters. They will laugh at the visionaries dreams as just fantasies. But they will have no new ideas and no vision on how to do things differently.
Perhaps that's what we want. Perhaps we're happy with things the way they are. Perhaps our pocket books are just fine, our education system is perfect, our way of life is the envy of the world. In that case, voting for more of the same makes perfect sense.
But if we're not happy with things the way they are, or we're struggling to make ends meet, to get our children through school, to see our country being mocked around the world for the arrogance and ignorance we've shown, then maybe its time for a change.
Sometimes when you reach a dead end, you have to admit it and try going a different direction for a while.
The rest are all details.
Yeah?... And?... So?...
Last night I watched a documentary about Ub Iwerks on Ovation TV (channel... 130 something or so). In my home. Sitting on my bed.
For most of you, I can see you scratching your head and wondering what the big deal is about. But for my siblings, right now someone is picking them up off the floor or calling for a defibrillator. The spell has been broken. The seal has been torn. The apocalypse is nigh.
"WE WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER HAVE CABLE IN THIS HOUSE!!!!"
I've heard the mantra so many times, I could recite it in my sleep. Truth be told, after having cable in every single barracks, apartment, dorm, etc... that I've ever lived in away from home, the pleasure of cable had long since worn off anyway. I stopped caring that I was one of only a few people left on this planet that didn't have cable. It was, and still is, an excuse to throw away money to see the same amount of crap that I can see for free without cable.
But that all changes in February of next year. Like it or not, Congress has finally decided to switch every TV station over to digital. Come February, we were going to have to either buy converter boxes (A $40 dollar rebate won't go far on a house with four different TV's and three unique television tastes) or simply go without TV. Now, my Step-mom still has her preference and was stocking up on books and candles (in case electricity went digital, apparently ;) but my Dad and I realized that maybe the battle was over, the windmill wasn't going to fall, and that it was time to give in to the cable giants and surrender. And we wanted to beat the new year rush when all the late comers reach the same conclusion.
So, as of yesterday, I have some 200 new channels to explore plus Sirius radio and CD music and pay-per-view and a gazillion sports stations and... Well, in all 200 channels last night, I managed to find a documentary about Ub Iwerks on Ovation TV.
I'm not sure I'm really going to change my opinion about cable, but until its all free on the internet, I guess I don't have a choice.
For most of you, I can see you scratching your head and wondering what the big deal is about. But for my siblings, right now someone is picking them up off the floor or calling for a defibrillator. The spell has been broken. The seal has been torn. The apocalypse is nigh.
"WE WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER HAVE CABLE IN THIS HOUSE!!!!"
I've heard the mantra so many times, I could recite it in my sleep. Truth be told, after having cable in every single barracks, apartment, dorm, etc... that I've ever lived in away from home, the pleasure of cable had long since worn off anyway. I stopped caring that I was one of only a few people left on this planet that didn't have cable. It was, and still is, an excuse to throw away money to see the same amount of crap that I can see for free without cable.
But that all changes in February of next year. Like it or not, Congress has finally decided to switch every TV station over to digital. Come February, we were going to have to either buy converter boxes (A $40 dollar rebate won't go far on a house with four different TV's and three unique television tastes) or simply go without TV. Now, my Step-mom still has her preference and was stocking up on books and candles (in case electricity went digital, apparently ;) but my Dad and I realized that maybe the battle was over, the windmill wasn't going to fall, and that it was time to give in to the cable giants and surrender. And we wanted to beat the new year rush when all the late comers reach the same conclusion.
So, as of yesterday, I have some 200 new channels to explore plus Sirius radio and CD music and pay-per-view and a gazillion sports stations and... Well, in all 200 channels last night, I managed to find a documentary about Ub Iwerks on Ovation TV.
I'm not sure I'm really going to change my opinion about cable, but until its all free on the internet, I guess I don't have a choice.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Empty Calories
Success, as a meal, is remarkably devoid of anything that actually saps my hunger. It tastes mostly like air, like a hot wind that I've been chasing. For someone with limited success in his life, this is an incredibly freeing observation and yet, a tiny bit bitter - in the way that all true wisdom tastes.
My first inkling at the taste of success was in the Navy. When I was at the Class A school learning my trade as an Intelligence Specialist, I broke every single record for educational success in the training school. I not only graduated at the top of my class, I would have graduated at the top of any class - ever. But my achievement was overshadowed by the fact that I was not offered the plum bonus of instant promotion to petty officer (a position chosen by the voted upon class leader). That position, instead, was offered to my school rival and most hated foe. My success disappeared in a moment's notice and I discounted all my work done as a frivolous waste of energy. However, as I moved throughout the remaining two years of my active duty naval career and enjoyed not being a petty officer, I realized that perhaps I had been done a favor after all - that maybe this plum bonus was not quite so plum. It didn't make my accomplishment a success, however, it merely meant that it wasn't quite such a bitter defeat.
After the Navy, I became an Assistant Manager at a movie theater. Having seen some of the other assistant managers, I quickly surmised that this was no success either - just a ribbon on a pig.
I continued to do well in school and graduated with honors from Idaho State University. This and $4.50 will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks. So, no real success there either.
After school and back at the theater for a "short" time, I was finally offered a chance to manage a real movie theater all by my lonesome. This success, however, was certainly tainted by the fact that for the next six months I managed one of the worst theaters with some of the worst customers and in one of the worst hiring locations in the entire state. I had one day off in six months (and I do mean one day - weekends and holidays included!). My "success" only meant that I worked harder than I had before and was twice as miserable as I had been before. It did make me reevaluate my priorities though, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
When I finally left the theater business for my current job, I started as a customer service person which was fine for the short term. But after a while, I yearned for a little more and eventually was promoted to Inventory Manager/Purchasing Agent/Jack of All Products Person. At last, I had achieved a kind of success - a position that commanded a little bit of respect even if it didn't allow me the chance to open a secret bank account in the Bahamas. I worked with gusto as I took control of this position and made it my own. And then, after six months, I began to realize that what my success had really given me, other than a title, was more work and more responsibility for more pay. In essence, I had achieved... nothing, really. It was more, to be sure, but more of what?
In the last week, I wrapped my first film (more or less) and in the crowning moment of my achievement and success, I simply felt tired. I had earned this success through long hours of hard work, but in the end, all I had managed was the first step on a much longer ladder. One moment's success immediately turned to the thought of my next film and the renewed struggle to bring that one to fruition, followed by the next film, and the next film, and so on and so on. It occurred to me that writing, directing, and producing a film was not a culmination to a successful campaign, but the start to a long and arduous road of artistic exploration. I had started on the road, but I had not gone anywhere yet.
I was thinking about this last night when I started musing about young Christopher Paolini - the author of the very successful Eragon stories (the third book is coming out soon). I realized that this young man had achieved a kind of success that I had once dreamed about in high school and had done so at an age by which, at one point, I was sure I would have achieved his level of success. But then what? What will Christopher Paolini write next? Has he now become pigeonholed into his fantasy realm? Will such early success take away his drive to succeed? Or will he discover that success, ultimately, is nothing but hot air?
St. Augustine realized at a certain age that when he looked back he could see all the places where God had entered his life to bring him to Christ. I wonder too if he realized that all those disappointments and failures, as well as the illusions of success, had also contributed to bring him to where he was in life. God has an interesting way of tempering us. Sometimes it is with fire, sometimes it is with blunt force, and sometimes - like Wile E Coyote often discovers - it is with the illusion of a wall that isn't really there, so long as you're the Road Runner.
So, then, what is real success? Perhaps true success lies not in the achievement of a goal, but in the lessons learned along the way. Perhaps true success is not measured by the places we've been, so much as by the journey undertaken to reach those places. Perhaps true success is not derived from the happiness of achievement, but from the attaining of wisdom. When it comes to success, our smiles are nothing compared with God's smile upon us.
Everything else is just a meal filled with empty calories.
My first inkling at the taste of success was in the Navy. When I was at the Class A school learning my trade as an Intelligence Specialist, I broke every single record for educational success in the training school. I not only graduated at the top of my class, I would have graduated at the top of any class - ever. But my achievement was overshadowed by the fact that I was not offered the plum bonus of instant promotion to petty officer (a position chosen by the voted upon class leader). That position, instead, was offered to my school rival and most hated foe. My success disappeared in a moment's notice and I discounted all my work done as a frivolous waste of energy. However, as I moved throughout the remaining two years of my active duty naval career and enjoyed not being a petty officer, I realized that perhaps I had been done a favor after all - that maybe this plum bonus was not quite so plum. It didn't make my accomplishment a success, however, it merely meant that it wasn't quite such a bitter defeat.
After the Navy, I became an Assistant Manager at a movie theater. Having seen some of the other assistant managers, I quickly surmised that this was no success either - just a ribbon on a pig.
I continued to do well in school and graduated with honors from Idaho State University. This and $4.50 will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks. So, no real success there either.
After school and back at the theater for a "short" time, I was finally offered a chance to manage a real movie theater all by my lonesome. This success, however, was certainly tainted by the fact that for the next six months I managed one of the worst theaters with some of the worst customers and in one of the worst hiring locations in the entire state. I had one day off in six months (and I do mean one day - weekends and holidays included!). My "success" only meant that I worked harder than I had before and was twice as miserable as I had been before. It did make me reevaluate my priorities though, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
When I finally left the theater business for my current job, I started as a customer service person which was fine for the short term. But after a while, I yearned for a little more and eventually was promoted to Inventory Manager/Purchasing Agent/Jack of All Products Person. At last, I had achieved a kind of success - a position that commanded a little bit of respect even if it didn't allow me the chance to open a secret bank account in the Bahamas. I worked with gusto as I took control of this position and made it my own. And then, after six months, I began to realize that what my success had really given me, other than a title, was more work and more responsibility for more pay. In essence, I had achieved... nothing, really. It was more, to be sure, but more of what?
In the last week, I wrapped my first film (more or less) and in the crowning moment of my achievement and success, I simply felt tired. I had earned this success through long hours of hard work, but in the end, all I had managed was the first step on a much longer ladder. One moment's success immediately turned to the thought of my next film and the renewed struggle to bring that one to fruition, followed by the next film, and the next film, and so on and so on. It occurred to me that writing, directing, and producing a film was not a culmination to a successful campaign, but the start to a long and arduous road of artistic exploration. I had started on the road, but I had not gone anywhere yet.
I was thinking about this last night when I started musing about young Christopher Paolini - the author of the very successful Eragon stories (the third book is coming out soon). I realized that this young man had achieved a kind of success that I had once dreamed about in high school and had done so at an age by which, at one point, I was sure I would have achieved his level of success. But then what? What will Christopher Paolini write next? Has he now become pigeonholed into his fantasy realm? Will such early success take away his drive to succeed? Or will he discover that success, ultimately, is nothing but hot air?
St. Augustine realized at a certain age that when he looked back he could see all the places where God had entered his life to bring him to Christ. I wonder too if he realized that all those disappointments and failures, as well as the illusions of success, had also contributed to bring him to where he was in life. God has an interesting way of tempering us. Sometimes it is with fire, sometimes it is with blunt force, and sometimes - like Wile E Coyote often discovers - it is with the illusion of a wall that isn't really there, so long as you're the Road Runner.
So, then, what is real success? Perhaps true success lies not in the achievement of a goal, but in the lessons learned along the way. Perhaps true success is not measured by the places we've been, so much as by the journey undertaken to reach those places. Perhaps true success is not derived from the happiness of achievement, but from the attaining of wisdom. When it comes to success, our smiles are nothing compared with God's smile upon us.
Everything else is just a meal filled with empty calories.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Passive vs. Active Theology
Sometimes I like to call things as they are, and so I have to say that the sermon on Sunday at my church was one of the longest, driest, snoozefests that I've ever endured. Except... it wasn't.
The point of the sermon was that the task of becoming transformed Christians is not a passive thing, but an active one. God will work on us, but only if we work on ourselves - that to become more in Christ is to actively seek becoming more in Christ. There, I explained the sermon in about forty four minutes less time than the actual sermon. But that being said, this sermon was like yeast. On its own, it did nothing but lay there. But combined with the word of God, it perked up and grew like the bread of heaven.
I realized, as I struggled to stay awake, that God's words were penetrating into my heart and mind - that even as I forced my eyes open, my eyes were being opened from within. It was a really good example of how God works in our lives.
Let's figure out who we want for a spokesman for the Church. I think he or she should be a dynamic personality, one with wit and exuberance, perhaps someone young with a winning smile and an enthusiastic knowledge of God. This winning spokesman should have plenty of experience dealing with the poor and unfortunate and should, naturally, already share the Church's view of the world and of God's role in it. This person should also be a role model for the young and old alike. They should walk the world blameless and in high regard.
God, on the other hand, wants a middle-aged persecutor of his Church who has actively been seeking to have His disciples arrested and murdered and who basically believes that any person who practices this faith is a heretic.
There seems to be a disconnect here - like a mind-numbingly boring sermon that has the power to fill the mind with incredible thoughts. Its almost as if God has His own plan for not just our lives, but our very words and actions - as if anything we say or do, no matter how insignificant and no matter how poorly delivered, might plant the seeds of God's word in someone else's life. God seems to have His own way of getting things done.
So, as I sat passively listening to a sermon about being active, I realized that God was actively engaging me with His words to start thinking about my sometimes too passive existence.
And as a result, I managed to stay awake.
Either that, or it was the coffee I'd had before the service.
The point of the sermon was that the task of becoming transformed Christians is not a passive thing, but an active one. God will work on us, but only if we work on ourselves - that to become more in Christ is to actively seek becoming more in Christ. There, I explained the sermon in about forty four minutes less time than the actual sermon. But that being said, this sermon was like yeast. On its own, it did nothing but lay there. But combined with the word of God, it perked up and grew like the bread of heaven.
I realized, as I struggled to stay awake, that God's words were penetrating into my heart and mind - that even as I forced my eyes open, my eyes were being opened from within. It was a really good example of how God works in our lives.
Let's figure out who we want for a spokesman for the Church. I think he or she should be a dynamic personality, one with wit and exuberance, perhaps someone young with a winning smile and an enthusiastic knowledge of God. This winning spokesman should have plenty of experience dealing with the poor and unfortunate and should, naturally, already share the Church's view of the world and of God's role in it. This person should also be a role model for the young and old alike. They should walk the world blameless and in high regard.
God, on the other hand, wants a middle-aged persecutor of his Church who has actively been seeking to have His disciples arrested and murdered and who basically believes that any person who practices this faith is a heretic.
There seems to be a disconnect here - like a mind-numbingly boring sermon that has the power to fill the mind with incredible thoughts. Its almost as if God has His own plan for not just our lives, but our very words and actions - as if anything we say or do, no matter how insignificant and no matter how poorly delivered, might plant the seeds of God's word in someone else's life. God seems to have His own way of getting things done.
So, as I sat passively listening to a sermon about being active, I realized that God was actively engaging me with His words to start thinking about my sometimes too passive existence.
And as a result, I managed to stay awake.
Either that, or it was the coffee I'd had before the service.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Bros Before Hoes
Six months after we got together, my girlfriend told me she wanted to break-up. "Just for a little while," she said, almost apologetically.
I was shocked, to say the least, as I had been sure that things were going just fine up until that moment. So, naturally, I asked why.
She finally told me that on the very same day I had decided to finally tell her about the way I felt about her, another friend of mine had done the exact same thing. She had never told me this, though she had told my friend this as part of her explanation about why she was seeing me and not him. I had only noticed that my friend had been distant from me for the past six months, but had never suspected the real reason. He had probably wondered why I had put a girl before our friendship, but I had never known that he had been interested in her as well.
I decided to be fair (mostly because I was fairly confident about the outcome) and told my girlfriend to go ahead and go out with my friend. I explained that I would be waiting for her when she finally changed her mind and came to her senses. Less than two weeks later, we were back together and that was that. I never mentioned this to my friend or to anyone else. As far as I was concerned, this was between my girlfriend and me.
(As an aside to this story, my girlfriend and I eventually became engaged before she broke it off after six years. My friend ended up going out with a girl who had had a huge crush on me - though, again, I never mentioned this to anyone - and they ended up dating for at least two years and maybe more).
I suppose that had I known that my friend was interested in the girl from the very beginning, I would have never asked her out or told her my true feelings. And, as a result, I would have been miserable until I found some other girl to moon over. I'm not entirely certain we would have remained friends, but I do know that a lot of strife might have been avoided all the same.
After the Navy another friend of mine was dating a girl I had known most of my life on a friendly basis (we were friends, even if we didn't hang out together). He was madly in love with her. She was in love with him. They were totally wrong for each other and I think most everyone knew it. But, again, I didn't say anything.
After my friend proposed to this girl and she turned him down, they broke up and the break up turned nasty for the girl. Though she had done nothing wrong except turn my friend down, he started bashing her to his friends (and her friends) until she was, more or less, ostracized from their group of friends.
About three months later I ran into this girl and she asked me why I hadn't warned her about my friend. I told her bluntly, "Because you wouldn't have believed me. And then you and my friend would have hated me for butting in."
There are times when the guy ethic expressed in this post's title can be really idiotic. Had I simply interfered with my friend's relationship, both might have been spared some heartache. Had I simply known that my other friend had an interest in my girlfriend as well, we might have been able to come to some sort of amicable arrangement, and a great deal of heartache (on his behalf) might have been prevented. But because of this ethic, in addition to broken relationships and hurt feelings between the various couples, the collateral damage spread into friendships that had very little to do with the actual relationship. Suddenly people who had been the best of friends before could no longer associate with one another simply because two of the friends in the group had decided to break up, thus splitting a group into two camps. Once a relationship ended, the entire group was affected and things could never go back to the way they'd been before.
And all because of a stupid rule.
Currently, I am on the outside of one of these internal friendship/relationship debacles and I can't help but see it for what it really is - arbitrary and depressing. Friends who have been friends forever are being torn apart as a result of a mismatched and misguided love affair. Hurt feelings, betrayals, lies, jealousy, and all the thousands of other pieces of shrapnel of this exploding relationship are tearing through friendships like hot knives through butter. Its so damn unfortunate, and so damn unnecessary. So and so breaks up, so and so hook up, then they break up and so and so get back together, and then so and so's friends hear all the sordid details of the break up/hook up/break up and lines are drawn and sides are chosen and someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong. But nothing is ever really that easy, is it?
We grow older for a reason - and that is to take our own experience of stupid decisions and of things probably left unsaid and use them to help the younger generation before they make the same exact mistakes we made. Otherwise we simply perpetuate the cycle of regret for another generation.
So, if anyone is out there listening, I need to say that allowing a friendship to die because of a failed romantic liaison that doesn't directly involve you seems like a harsh punishment and a heavy price to pay for the stupidity of youth. I ask all involved to forgive and to forget and to move on.
I was shocked, to say the least, as I had been sure that things were going just fine up until that moment. So, naturally, I asked why.
She finally told me that on the very same day I had decided to finally tell her about the way I felt about her, another friend of mine had done the exact same thing. She had never told me this, though she had told my friend this as part of her explanation about why she was seeing me and not him. I had only noticed that my friend had been distant from me for the past six months, but had never suspected the real reason. He had probably wondered why I had put a girl before our friendship, but I had never known that he had been interested in her as well.
I decided to be fair (mostly because I was fairly confident about the outcome) and told my girlfriend to go ahead and go out with my friend. I explained that I would be waiting for her when she finally changed her mind and came to her senses. Less than two weeks later, we were back together and that was that. I never mentioned this to my friend or to anyone else. As far as I was concerned, this was between my girlfriend and me.
(As an aside to this story, my girlfriend and I eventually became engaged before she broke it off after six years. My friend ended up going out with a girl who had had a huge crush on me - though, again, I never mentioned this to anyone - and they ended up dating for at least two years and maybe more).
I suppose that had I known that my friend was interested in the girl from the very beginning, I would have never asked her out or told her my true feelings. And, as a result, I would have been miserable until I found some other girl to moon over. I'm not entirely certain we would have remained friends, but I do know that a lot of strife might have been avoided all the same.
After the Navy another friend of mine was dating a girl I had known most of my life on a friendly basis (we were friends, even if we didn't hang out together). He was madly in love with her. She was in love with him. They were totally wrong for each other and I think most everyone knew it. But, again, I didn't say anything.
After my friend proposed to this girl and she turned him down, they broke up and the break up turned nasty for the girl. Though she had done nothing wrong except turn my friend down, he started bashing her to his friends (and her friends) until she was, more or less, ostracized from their group of friends.
About three months later I ran into this girl and she asked me why I hadn't warned her about my friend. I told her bluntly, "Because you wouldn't have believed me. And then you and my friend would have hated me for butting in."
There are times when the guy ethic expressed in this post's title can be really idiotic. Had I simply interfered with my friend's relationship, both might have been spared some heartache. Had I simply known that my other friend had an interest in my girlfriend as well, we might have been able to come to some sort of amicable arrangement, and a great deal of heartache (on his behalf) might have been prevented. But because of this ethic, in addition to broken relationships and hurt feelings between the various couples, the collateral damage spread into friendships that had very little to do with the actual relationship. Suddenly people who had been the best of friends before could no longer associate with one another simply because two of the friends in the group had decided to break up, thus splitting a group into two camps. Once a relationship ended, the entire group was affected and things could never go back to the way they'd been before.
And all because of a stupid rule.
Currently, I am on the outside of one of these internal friendship/relationship debacles and I can't help but see it for what it really is - arbitrary and depressing. Friends who have been friends forever are being torn apart as a result of a mismatched and misguided love affair. Hurt feelings, betrayals, lies, jealousy, and all the thousands of other pieces of shrapnel of this exploding relationship are tearing through friendships like hot knives through butter. Its so damn unfortunate, and so damn unnecessary. So and so breaks up, so and so hook up, then they break up and so and so get back together, and then so and so's friends hear all the sordid details of the break up/hook up/break up and lines are drawn and sides are chosen and someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong. But nothing is ever really that easy, is it?
We grow older for a reason - and that is to take our own experience of stupid decisions and of things probably left unsaid and use them to help the younger generation before they make the same exact mistakes we made. Otherwise we simply perpetuate the cycle of regret for another generation.
So, if anyone is out there listening, I need to say that allowing a friendship to die because of a failed romantic liaison that doesn't directly involve you seems like a harsh punishment and a heavy price to pay for the stupidity of youth. I ask all involved to forgive and to forget and to move on.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The True Olympic Spirit (From Time Magazine) via New York ;)
Raising the Stakes at the Olympics
Former Chinese Olympic gymnast Li Ning lights the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Fabrice Coferini / AFP / Getty
I hate the olympic spirit. No competition should be ruined by an undercurrent of peace and harmony. Would baseball be better if Derek Jeter hugged David Ortiz after every game and talked about how wonderful Boston is? If you want an endless event in which everyone pretends to respect everybody else, go to couples therapy. If I'm going to spend two weeks watching something, I want to see some people pouring Champagne on one another and some people crying at the end of it. That's why I watch the baseball playoffs and Girls Gone Wild. How damaging to sports is the Olympic spirit? After all these events, I have no idea who won. Sure, NBC sometimes flashes a "medal count," but that is the stupidest way of measuring victory since the Electoral College. Gold, silver and bronze all count as one point? Then why make different medals? Sure, it practically guarantees that the U.S. gets first place, but that's only in a system in which it's as good to be third best as actual best—and in that world, Ralph Nader would get to make presidential decisions. If you also gave a point in the medal count for fourth through 6.7 billionth best in each sport, China and India would be kicking ass.
So I've been working on a new scoring system to improve the Games. The first step is to eliminate all but one medal event per sport. You know why Michael Phelps won eight golds? Because they were all for the same thing. Turns out, he can swim fast when he does two laps and four laps — and when he's alone and when three other Americans go right after him! You want multiple medals? Do multiple sports. Phelps gets two medals only if he's the best swimmer in the world and the best Taekwondoist. For soccer, the most popular sport in the world, the Olympics give out one gold for men and one for women. That's fewer than go to race-walkers. Shooters get 15. Canoeists get 16, and that's assuming that the 14 rowing events are somehow different. To be fair, under the current system, the basketball team should be having competitions in three-point shooting, dunking, rebounding, passing, that halftime trampoline thing, T-shirt cannon-blasting and restraining Ron Artest.
In my system, overall points would be weighted by how popular the sport is, as determined by television ratings. You got a bronze in the gymnastic floor competition? That's 100 Olympic points. You nailed a gold in the modern pentathlon? (That's pistol-shooting, épée fencing, swimming, horse-jumping and a run.) You get two points and the right to keep whatever European royal title your family is holding on to. Boxing champions get only three points, since everyone would clearly rather watch ultimate fighting. Sports in which competitors wear makeup get a deduction, as do sports played in only one area of the world: badminton (Asia), water polo (California), field hockey (Smith College). I would also consider body mass index in the point system. Phelps is clearly in incredible athletic shape, so he'd get twice as many points for his wins as the table-tennis gold medalist would. In fact, if time allows, I'd have all the gold medalists, except wrestlers, wrestle one another in an overall 1,000-point super-Olympic event to determine the world's best athlete. I'd also make them all live in one house and complain about one another to the camera a lot.
NBC highlights only the top few competitors in most sports, but the winners would look a lot more impressive if we also got to see the worst. So I'd give the last three places anti-medals, all made of a decreasing quality of chocolate, starting with Russell Stover and working down from there. Then we would use the European soccer system, in which we'd kick out the country with the most anti-points. Not just out of the Olympics, but out of the international community. The country would lose its seat at the U.N., the little stamp it puts on passports, all its welcome to signs and whatever war it's currently waging. Also, the country that comes in first should get something real: maybe some extra carbon output, four years without tariffs or the right to put its flag on all the world's airplanes.
The stakes need to be raised. We can't continue to have every gymnast hugging every other gymnast when her floor routine ends, and not just because it's bound to be used as bait on To Catch a Predator. If the purpose of the Olympics is to make the world more peaceful, maybe the reason it hasn't succeeded is that the Games aren't warlike enough. The ancient Greeks got themselves oiled up to wrestle for a good reason: to channel their bloodlust into something meaningless. Also because they were crazy gay. Globalization has made getting along with countries we've never heard of more important, and the best way to do that is to beat the crap out of them in sports we've never heard of and then rub their faces in it. If we're going to get along, we're going to have to learn how to hate each other when it matters the least.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Writing for Christ
This blog is a commentary on an excellent book review and discussion by Andy over at A Mile From The Beach (see the link on the right). In his review of the book, Wild Goose Chase, by Mark Batterson, Andy mentions the author's description of several cages that we like to use to civilize our Christian impulses. In his latest missive, Andy talks about the Cage of Responsibility and how we can sometimes let work get in the way of our Christian walk, and also about knowing the difference between what God wants us to do and what we want to do in our own lives. This is what I'd like to talk about.
I was a writer before I really even knew how to write. I can't really explain the distinction to the non-writer, but I can use some analogies. You know the kid who always found sports easy and that you knew would eventually play professional sports when they grew up - well it was kind of like that for me.
Like most kids my age, I didn't particularly have any love for the written word or for reading. I wasn't precocious or some Bobby Fisher like genius. I was a normal kid. I liked to play with my friends. I liked to run around and kick balls and slide and swing and do all the things other kids like to do. And then, one day, October 31st, 1976, I sat down at a desk in my second grade classroom eagerly awaiting the opportunity to go outside in my Halloween costume and be in Halloween parade, and my teacher handed out a last minute writing assignment before the parade. We had to write, in our best penmanship, a one paragraph short story that began with the words, "It was a dark and stormy night..." I groaned with the rest of the kids at this awful busy work on this festive day, but I took out my pencil like all the rest and prepared to write.
What will I write? My mind suddenly filled with ideas so fantastic and so incredible that it was like finding that there was no back wall to the wardrobe I had just entered. I started writing... and writing... and writing... No, I didn't want to go out to the parade, I wanted to finish this story... and I wrote... and wrote... and yes, I did want to take it home and finish it. As is typical of my writing style to this day, I turned my one paragraph story into a seven page epic short story filled with adventure and rescues and battles and villains and heroes. And I haven't stopped writing since.
Its easy to believe in a calling when you are basically given a career in 2nd grade. I don't recall wanting to be a writer before that (and to be fair, I've always considered myself more of a story-teller, with an emphasis in writing) but I can tell you that I've never really had any other ideas for a career since. This might sound like a very uncomplicated path to live, but in fact, it has created exactly the sort of adventure filled life that Andy was blogging about in his book review. Being a writer might be something I'm good at, but it hasn't always made a lot of sense to my personal life.
There have been many times when I considered giving up writing. At one point at the end of High School when I was dramatically in love and ready to settle down and be like everyone else, I knew that my basic decision was between the girl and the writing - that I could not divide my passion equally. In the end, she required too much of me, and I found that I could not give it. I didn't want to have an ordinary life and in making accommodation's for my writing life, I probably ended up driving her away. Even then I was sharply aware of what my writing was costing me, but I couldn't give it up.
At the end of my initial college career, when I was ready to go on to grad school and get my Master's Degree in Anthropology so that I could make something of my life, the tug of being a writer caused me to reevaluate my decision. On the very last day of the deadline to submit the paperwork for post-graduate studies, I informed my adviser that I would instead be going back to San Francisco to pursue a writing career. This was a stupid decision as I was particularly good at being an anthropologist and would have easily excelled in grad school. But somehow I knew this was not the direction I was supposed to take.
I've always taken my writing gift as a responsibility not on the basis of pride in my work but simply because I've known since I was in second grade that I was supposed to be a writer. I've long known that I can't stop writing no matter what I do. I will write until the day I die. Someone put a hot coal to my typing fingers and the words continue to pour out in torrents. But I do often wonder why I was given this gift and whether anything I've done up to now has meant a difference to anybody else. Its not that I expect to be a great writer, so much, as that I expect my writing to make a difference - that if it really is a God ordained gift, that it must be useful to His purposes somewhere down the line.
Perhaps I will never be meant to know how my gift is to be utilized for His purposes. Either way, I will continue to write... and write... and write... until He tells me to stop. I can do nothing else. This is what I was ordained to do.
I was a writer before I really even knew how to write. I can't really explain the distinction to the non-writer, but I can use some analogies. You know the kid who always found sports easy and that you knew would eventually play professional sports when they grew up - well it was kind of like that for me.
Like most kids my age, I didn't particularly have any love for the written word or for reading. I wasn't precocious or some Bobby Fisher like genius. I was a normal kid. I liked to play with my friends. I liked to run around and kick balls and slide and swing and do all the things other kids like to do. And then, one day, October 31st, 1976, I sat down at a desk in my second grade classroom eagerly awaiting the opportunity to go outside in my Halloween costume and be in Halloween parade, and my teacher handed out a last minute writing assignment before the parade. We had to write, in our best penmanship, a one paragraph short story that began with the words, "It was a dark and stormy night..." I groaned with the rest of the kids at this awful busy work on this festive day, but I took out my pencil like all the rest and prepared to write.
What will I write? My mind suddenly filled with ideas so fantastic and so incredible that it was like finding that there was no back wall to the wardrobe I had just entered. I started writing... and writing... and writing... No, I didn't want to go out to the parade, I wanted to finish this story... and I wrote... and wrote... and yes, I did want to take it home and finish it. As is typical of my writing style to this day, I turned my one paragraph story into a seven page epic short story filled with adventure and rescues and battles and villains and heroes. And I haven't stopped writing since.
Its easy to believe in a calling when you are basically given a career in 2nd grade. I don't recall wanting to be a writer before that (and to be fair, I've always considered myself more of a story-teller, with an emphasis in writing) but I can tell you that I've never really had any other ideas for a career since. This might sound like a very uncomplicated path to live, but in fact, it has created exactly the sort of adventure filled life that Andy was blogging about in his book review. Being a writer might be something I'm good at, but it hasn't always made a lot of sense to my personal life.
There have been many times when I considered giving up writing. At one point at the end of High School when I was dramatically in love and ready to settle down and be like everyone else, I knew that my basic decision was between the girl and the writing - that I could not divide my passion equally. In the end, she required too much of me, and I found that I could not give it. I didn't want to have an ordinary life and in making accommodation's for my writing life, I probably ended up driving her away. Even then I was sharply aware of what my writing was costing me, but I couldn't give it up.
At the end of my initial college career, when I was ready to go on to grad school and get my Master's Degree in Anthropology so that I could make something of my life, the tug of being a writer caused me to reevaluate my decision. On the very last day of the deadline to submit the paperwork for post-graduate studies, I informed my adviser that I would instead be going back to San Francisco to pursue a writing career. This was a stupid decision as I was particularly good at being an anthropologist and would have easily excelled in grad school. But somehow I knew this was not the direction I was supposed to take.
I've always taken my writing gift as a responsibility not on the basis of pride in my work but simply because I've known since I was in second grade that I was supposed to be a writer. I've long known that I can't stop writing no matter what I do. I will write until the day I die. Someone put a hot coal to my typing fingers and the words continue to pour out in torrents. But I do often wonder why I was given this gift and whether anything I've done up to now has meant a difference to anybody else. Its not that I expect to be a great writer, so much, as that I expect my writing to make a difference - that if it really is a God ordained gift, that it must be useful to His purposes somewhere down the line.
Perhaps I will never be meant to know how my gift is to be utilized for His purposes. Either way, I will continue to write... and write... and write... until He tells me to stop. I can do nothing else. This is what I was ordained to do.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Production Diary - Day Ten - The End of Almost All Things
Sunday was the last scheduled filming day and it couldn't have come any sooner. Things were already starting to unravel before Sunday and things were definitely not entirely kosher during the final shoot. The end result, however, is that the main shooting of the film is done.
We started the final film day by setting up for a church thank you barbeque. We bought enough hot dogs, potato salad, green salad, buns, etc... for 80 people and cooked them all up in the kitchen, while I went around and figured out where we would be setting up the camera and in what order we would shoot the scenes. That amount of organization done, the rest of the day pretty much came willy-nilly.
We had about forty people for the barbeque (so we had a lot of leftovers) and the entire cast was there, so that was good. The Blumenthals came and agreed to play the parents of Monica and my Dad's friends, Rita and Jamie, came and agreed to play the parents of Gabriel. But more importantly, Andy from A Mile From the Beach fame came and brought his children (and my former T-Ball players) Margaret and Henry to play Harry's children. So I had managed to fill every single named character position in the entire script before shooting started.
Quite frankly, the energy just wasn't there. I can't blame the cast or the crew when I felt the lack of energy myself. It was like the entire weight of nine previous shooting days was upon us. I rushed around to get my "extras" into place and to get my actors to understand how they were supposed to move and react and then I ran and started filming them. Sherman became my backup cameraman for the day for most of the shots where Harry was required - mostly since it was his camera that I've been using. But between all the setting up, directing, producing, barbequing, limited acting, and hosting I was doing, there just wasn't any energy left for enthusiasm.
And we could have really used it. There was an unexploded bomb in our midst (of which I'd only been appraised of the night before - and then without any gory details) of a social/personal nature and it seemed to sap the energy of all the regular cast members at the same time. These sorts of bombs go off all the time behind the scenes in movies/plays, etc... So I've been through them before. But as this was the last shooting day, there was really nothing I could about it. I didn't have the energy to also be the pep-squad for the cast. Fortunately, most of the footage didn't require a lot of energetic acting. There was a lot of moving around from one place to the next.
Finally, we were forced out of the set by the incoming Indonesian church (and our allotted time frame ended) and we wrapped photography and I dropped off all the remaining actors and then went home and crashed - hard. I fell into an immediate two hour nap, only to wake long enough to go share my leftovers with my sister for dinner, before coming home and lasting another hour or so before I simply dropped into my bed and fell asleep again. It was my bodies way of restoring all the sleep I had missed in the previous three weeks.
So, now, the filming is "done". There are actually two more shooting days that have yet to be scheduled. But at this point, more than 90% of the filming is done. I will now move into post-production by, first, putting together a rough cut of the film so that I can determine if there's any missing footage. If there is missing footage, then I'll try to schedule additional shooting time on the last day (when we wrap the filming with our final outdoor scene). And if there is no additional shooting time available, then we will simply wrap the film as is and call it a day.
After the final shooting is finished, I will put together a final edit of the film. And then, I will build a final sound track to go with the edited film. Only after all that is completed will a premiere be possible. In my mind, the original premiere date of the end of September is still in effect. But in reality, I'm thinking that date might be sometime in December - during the holiday season when all the Oscar caliber films come out. ;)
Either way, this is the last of the Production Diaries. But stay tuned to this blog for further updates, as I have them. In the meantime, it's been great to have you all along for the journey and I hope you enjoyed this inside look at the making of a film.
We started the final film day by setting up for a church thank you barbeque. We bought enough hot dogs, potato salad, green salad, buns, etc... for 80 people and cooked them all up in the kitchen, while I went around and figured out where we would be setting up the camera and in what order we would shoot the scenes. That amount of organization done, the rest of the day pretty much came willy-nilly.
We had about forty people for the barbeque (so we had a lot of leftovers) and the entire cast was there, so that was good. The Blumenthals came and agreed to play the parents of Monica and my Dad's friends, Rita and Jamie, came and agreed to play the parents of Gabriel. But more importantly, Andy from A Mile From the Beach fame came and brought his children (and my former T-Ball players) Margaret and Henry to play Harry's children. So I had managed to fill every single named character position in the entire script before shooting started.
Quite frankly, the energy just wasn't there. I can't blame the cast or the crew when I felt the lack of energy myself. It was like the entire weight of nine previous shooting days was upon us. I rushed around to get my "extras" into place and to get my actors to understand how they were supposed to move and react and then I ran and started filming them. Sherman became my backup cameraman for the day for most of the shots where Harry was required - mostly since it was his camera that I've been using. But between all the setting up, directing, producing, barbequing, limited acting, and hosting I was doing, there just wasn't any energy left for enthusiasm.
And we could have really used it. There was an unexploded bomb in our midst (of which I'd only been appraised of the night before - and then without any gory details) of a social/personal nature and it seemed to sap the energy of all the regular cast members at the same time. These sorts of bombs go off all the time behind the scenes in movies/plays, etc... So I've been through them before. But as this was the last shooting day, there was really nothing I could about it. I didn't have the energy to also be the pep-squad for the cast. Fortunately, most of the footage didn't require a lot of energetic acting. There was a lot of moving around from one place to the next.
Finally, we were forced out of the set by the incoming Indonesian church (and our allotted time frame ended) and we wrapped photography and I dropped off all the remaining actors and then went home and crashed - hard. I fell into an immediate two hour nap, only to wake long enough to go share my leftovers with my sister for dinner, before coming home and lasting another hour or so before I simply dropped into my bed and fell asleep again. It was my bodies way of restoring all the sleep I had missed in the previous three weeks.
So, now, the filming is "done". There are actually two more shooting days that have yet to be scheduled. But at this point, more than 90% of the filming is done. I will now move into post-production by, first, putting together a rough cut of the film so that I can determine if there's any missing footage. If there is missing footage, then I'll try to schedule additional shooting time on the last day (when we wrap the filming with our final outdoor scene). And if there is no additional shooting time available, then we will simply wrap the film as is and call it a day.
After the final shooting is finished, I will put together a final edit of the film. And then, I will build a final sound track to go with the edited film. Only after all that is completed will a premiere be possible. In my mind, the original premiere date of the end of September is still in effect. But in reality, I'm thinking that date might be sometime in December - during the holiday season when all the Oscar caliber films come out. ;)
Either way, this is the last of the Production Diaries. But stay tuned to this blog for further updates, as I have them. In the meantime, it's been great to have you all along for the journey and I hope you enjoyed this inside look at the making of a film.
Friday, August 15, 2008
What's Next?
When I get really bat-scat crazy busy, my mind tends to wander and I start thinking about my next job. No, seriously - I'm defective that way. So during this entire filming schedule over the last two or three months, my mind has been free to figure out what it wants to do next.
Since I announced the temporary (though somewhat permanent) demise of my first novel, I've been gravitating towards two second novels. Now, I'm not going to announce what they're about or anything, but I wanted to let you know that I'll be writing both of them concurrently (or at least until one takes off over the other). I've actually started the note taking process today that will eventually lead to a synopsis (I'm creating characters, basically). I hope to start writing before the end of the year on both.
I've also already been in discussions with Andrew about writing the next film. We're going to try for a shorter turnaround on this next project so that we can film relatively early in June (or right around the time school gets out). But to do that, we need to have a script finished and ready to go around March or April at the latest. The good news is that we already have the gist of the story (Andrew's idea) and some of the characters decided. The bad news is that we haven't really started the writing process just yet and I know we're going to want to improve the script vastly over the script for 12 Step Jedi - so harder work in a shorter amount of time. If it all works out though, this movie might be really really cool.
So, basically, other than noodling around with other projects in my spare time, I'm going back to writing for the foreseeable future.
Unless, of course, God has other plans. But when has He ever had plans for me ;)
Since I announced the temporary (though somewhat permanent) demise of my first novel, I've been gravitating towards two second novels. Now, I'm not going to announce what they're about or anything, but I wanted to let you know that I'll be writing both of them concurrently (or at least until one takes off over the other). I've actually started the note taking process today that will eventually lead to a synopsis (I'm creating characters, basically). I hope to start writing before the end of the year on both.
I've also already been in discussions with Andrew about writing the next film. We're going to try for a shorter turnaround on this next project so that we can film relatively early in June (or right around the time school gets out). But to do that, we need to have a script finished and ready to go around March or April at the latest. The good news is that we already have the gist of the story (Andrew's idea) and some of the characters decided. The bad news is that we haven't really started the writing process just yet and I know we're going to want to improve the script vastly over the script for 12 Step Jedi - so harder work in a shorter amount of time. If it all works out though, this movie might be really really cool.
So, basically, other than noodling around with other projects in my spare time, I'm going back to writing for the foreseeable future.
Unless, of course, God has other plans. But when has He ever had plans for me ;)
Production Diary - Day Nine - Revenge of Harry
Harry Rightcourt is the kind of character that can only be played well by Alec Guinness. In anybody else's hands he comes across as pompous, arrogant, and foolish. Which was particularly good, because that was what we were going for, and there was nobody more pompous, arrogant, or foolish than me to play the part.
Okay, that's not exactly fair. I purposefully did not write a part for myself or with myself in mind because after careful consideration I knew that I would have to be behind the camera most of the time. That kind of time commitment and effort was going to be just too much if I added playing a part as well. Harry forms the light side contrast to Chester's dark side. The subtext of the film is this tug of war between Harry and Chester for the soul of the main character. Chester is the criminal, smuggler, and debonair handsome rogue. Harry is the middle aged family man experiencing a crisis of identity but doing so with a good heart. So, of all the characters that I wrote, I can honestly say that Harry was the one I least wanted to play.
Naturally, that's why I ended up with the part. It's hard acting like the "parent" to a bunch of "children". Most of the time I'm on screen, I'm dispensing advice like some sort of garden variety Confucius. It was a lot of memorization (even after the rewrite) and then I had to somehow bring life to lines like, "The path to one's heart is a lonely journey." Seriously, who writes this stuff?! I do not admit to be a great actor, in fact, I'm not even a particularly good actor. I will say that the thought of getting on screen or in front of an audience doesn't bother me nearly as much as it will bother them. I'm like the guy who gets on American Idol who knows that he can't sing, but does it anyway.
I feel sorry for Andrew having to direct me. I listen to his directions and try to follow them, but its kind of like my brother trying to describe to me how to remove the transmission for my truck over the phone. I seize on the first bit of instruction that makes sense and say, "I can do that." Emphasize this word... gotcha... what was that other part about looking some particular way or saying something with a certain inflection? Not important. I just gotta remember to emphasize this word.
Anyway, somebody with a lot of brain power saved the worst for last and Harry had most of his scenes left to film on the final day of regular shooting. Between Harry and the final pick ups on various lines and reactions, the only other thing we did was look forward to Sunday's final shoot. On Sunday, we have the big Family Day scene that provides the emotional center of the film. Gabriel gets busted for lying and he and Monica break up. But because it takes place on Family Day, we needed a lot of extras, and so, as part bribe and part thank you, we're hosting a barbeque at my church, and wouldn't you know it, as a result there will be a lot of extras there at the barbeque ;) Once this complicated scene (and a mirror one that takes place at the end of the movie, but is much shorter) is finished, the film is more or less wrapped.
More or less because there are two remaining sequences that need to be filmed. One takes place at someone's home and is the source of a lot of interviews of friends of Gabriel. We were short of actors when we started filming and since these parts were small in comparison to the stuff that took place at church, we decided to hold off on casting these parts. I think we've got about half of them cast now and we should be scheduling these scenes for shooting soon. The second set of shots are the ones we're going to do outdoors. The first is the "last" shot of the film - a group photo shot similar to the end of Episode One and Star Wars - that launches the credits. The second is the shot that takes place a few seconds later and reveals the truth that the audience should have realized a long time before (when we practically hit them over the head with it!) And the final sequence is a battle scene that will take place in a park between our Star Wars patients from Shore Leave and a group of Lord of the Rings patients from the nearby rival institute: House of Healing. This sequence will only have a short version in the actual film, but Andrew and I are going to go back and rewrite the longer version for inclusion on the DVD (since we had to cut out so much stuff in order to make it fit the film). We'll need lots of extras for this scene as well, but it should be fun to do.
And then, that'll be it. So we're down to like three filming days left, but only one of which is scheduled. And then post-production begins on Monday night.
I can't wait for Sunday to be over.
Have a good weekend!
Okay, that's not exactly fair. I purposefully did not write a part for myself or with myself in mind because after careful consideration I knew that I would have to be behind the camera most of the time. That kind of time commitment and effort was going to be just too much if I added playing a part as well. Harry forms the light side contrast to Chester's dark side. The subtext of the film is this tug of war between Harry and Chester for the soul of the main character. Chester is the criminal, smuggler, and debonair handsome rogue. Harry is the middle aged family man experiencing a crisis of identity but doing so with a good heart. So, of all the characters that I wrote, I can honestly say that Harry was the one I least wanted to play.
Naturally, that's why I ended up with the part. It's hard acting like the "parent" to a bunch of "children". Most of the time I'm on screen, I'm dispensing advice like some sort of garden variety Confucius. It was a lot of memorization (even after the rewrite) and then I had to somehow bring life to lines like, "The path to one's heart is a lonely journey." Seriously, who writes this stuff?! I do not admit to be a great actor, in fact, I'm not even a particularly good actor. I will say that the thought of getting on screen or in front of an audience doesn't bother me nearly as much as it will bother them. I'm like the guy who gets on American Idol who knows that he can't sing, but does it anyway.
I feel sorry for Andrew having to direct me. I listen to his directions and try to follow them, but its kind of like my brother trying to describe to me how to remove the transmission for my truck over the phone. I seize on the first bit of instruction that makes sense and say, "I can do that." Emphasize this word... gotcha... what was that other part about looking some particular way or saying something with a certain inflection? Not important. I just gotta remember to emphasize this word.
Anyway, somebody with a lot of brain power saved the worst for last and Harry had most of his scenes left to film on the final day of regular shooting. Between Harry and the final pick ups on various lines and reactions, the only other thing we did was look forward to Sunday's final shoot. On Sunday, we have the big Family Day scene that provides the emotional center of the film. Gabriel gets busted for lying and he and Monica break up. But because it takes place on Family Day, we needed a lot of extras, and so, as part bribe and part thank you, we're hosting a barbeque at my church, and wouldn't you know it, as a result there will be a lot of extras there at the barbeque ;) Once this complicated scene (and a mirror one that takes place at the end of the movie, but is much shorter) is finished, the film is more or less wrapped.
More or less because there are two remaining sequences that need to be filmed. One takes place at someone's home and is the source of a lot of interviews of friends of Gabriel. We were short of actors when we started filming and since these parts were small in comparison to the stuff that took place at church, we decided to hold off on casting these parts. I think we've got about half of them cast now and we should be scheduling these scenes for shooting soon. The second set of shots are the ones we're going to do outdoors. The first is the "last" shot of the film - a group photo shot similar to the end of Episode One and Star Wars - that launches the credits. The second is the shot that takes place a few seconds later and reveals the truth that the audience should have realized a long time before (when we practically hit them over the head with it!) And the final sequence is a battle scene that will take place in a park between our Star Wars patients from Shore Leave and a group of Lord of the Rings patients from the nearby rival institute: House of Healing. This sequence will only have a short version in the actual film, but Andrew and I are going to go back and rewrite the longer version for inclusion on the DVD (since we had to cut out so much stuff in order to make it fit the film). We'll need lots of extras for this scene as well, but it should be fun to do.
And then, that'll be it. So we're down to like three filming days left, but only one of which is scheduled. And then post-production begins on Monday night.
I can't wait for Sunday to be over.
Have a good weekend!
Production Diary - Day Eight - The Day We Won't Talk About
There comes a time in every production when you just know that you're going to lose your cool. You can just see it coming and there's nothing you can do about it. We had so much film to do on Day Eight, that the cool-loss was inevitable. But the end result, if that's what we judge things by, was that we got all the stuff we needed to get.
Because of scheduling conflicts this was the only day where we could shoot the Masters of a great many really long shots. For those of you who don't know, the Master shot is the entire scene from beginning to end. So for a complicated scene that might take five minutes, you have to go all the way through it until you get it right. We had five Master shots to do in one night, and that was only about 1/3rd of all the shots we needed on Monday.
But we actually got through those fine. We had pretty much done all the complicated parts of the shots beforehand, so the Masters themselves were more of a longer repeat of the same material. The most we had to do was two takes of a Master before we moved on. Then there was a long series of short shots, people saying a line or two, over and over until we got those right. Where we started to break down, however, was in a scene that was almost entirely physical - the break out scene.
First, it had to be lighted. We did two takes of one part of the scene where our "hero" appears on screen bathed in a red light and looking incredibly sinister. This was fun and delightful, but it was also supposed to be something that only appeared in the imagination. The first part of the scene showed our heroes crossing the empty social hall bathed in moonlight. We accomplished this by the simple expedient of rotating the "moon" to follow them across the hall. But when we got to the last part of the scene, the wheels finally came off.
It was a simple little set up. A fight breaks out between the security guards and the escaping patients. Its a one sided affair as the patients only have toy weapons. The Han Solo character even runs after the guards and chases them around the corner, only to be zapped by tasers. But with the moonlight set up and the dark hallway, some of the scene was lost in shadows. As we'd all been working our butts off up until this point and as this was the most exciting scene of the entire night, after the first take, everyone was pumped. And that was the problem. Take six pumped college kids in a room and let them get excited and you have total chaos. There was good natured swearing and cheering and hijinks going on on one side, while on the other, my entire film crew was telling me not only that we had to reshoot the scene, but that it had to be this particular way or that particular way - none of which had anything to do with the scene I was trying to film. I finally lost my cool.
I don't even remember what I said, but I snapped it out like a drill sergeant. Then I snapped at the actors to be quiet (they were very loud and were yelling un-church-like words). And then I walked away for about ten seconds to collect my thoughts. And that was it. I came back, listened to my film crew, made a decision and we reshot the scene with a slightly different angle on the moonlight and a different posture of the main actors, and the scene came off brilliantly with only minor changes. But I felt bad and very unchristian at that moment.
Though I apologized afterwards, I really had to question my motives for making this film and I had to remind myself that my motto going in was, "If it ain't fun, why are we doing it?" But in the end, it was watching the footage that we had filmed that night that finally did the trick. Maybe there needs to be a certain amount of chaos on any film shoot in order to get good work.
Still, it made me realize one thing... the sooner we're done with this film, the better. The proximity fuse has been lit and its only a matter of time before things really blow up. I'm going to try and get everything done on the next shoot (everything except Sunday's shoot) so that we can have a bunch of days off in a row. A little break would help us all.
Because of scheduling conflicts this was the only day where we could shoot the Masters of a great many really long shots. For those of you who don't know, the Master shot is the entire scene from beginning to end. So for a complicated scene that might take five minutes, you have to go all the way through it until you get it right. We had five Master shots to do in one night, and that was only about 1/3rd of all the shots we needed on Monday.
But we actually got through those fine. We had pretty much done all the complicated parts of the shots beforehand, so the Masters themselves were more of a longer repeat of the same material. The most we had to do was two takes of a Master before we moved on. Then there was a long series of short shots, people saying a line or two, over and over until we got those right. Where we started to break down, however, was in a scene that was almost entirely physical - the break out scene.
First, it had to be lighted. We did two takes of one part of the scene where our "hero" appears on screen bathed in a red light and looking incredibly sinister. This was fun and delightful, but it was also supposed to be something that only appeared in the imagination. The first part of the scene showed our heroes crossing the empty social hall bathed in moonlight. We accomplished this by the simple expedient of rotating the "moon" to follow them across the hall. But when we got to the last part of the scene, the wheels finally came off.
It was a simple little set up. A fight breaks out between the security guards and the escaping patients. Its a one sided affair as the patients only have toy weapons. The Han Solo character even runs after the guards and chases them around the corner, only to be zapped by tasers. But with the moonlight set up and the dark hallway, some of the scene was lost in shadows. As we'd all been working our butts off up until this point and as this was the most exciting scene of the entire night, after the first take, everyone was pumped. And that was the problem. Take six pumped college kids in a room and let them get excited and you have total chaos. There was good natured swearing and cheering and hijinks going on on one side, while on the other, my entire film crew was telling me not only that we had to reshoot the scene, but that it had to be this particular way or that particular way - none of which had anything to do with the scene I was trying to film. I finally lost my cool.
I don't even remember what I said, but I snapped it out like a drill sergeant. Then I snapped at the actors to be quiet (they were very loud and were yelling un-church-like words). And then I walked away for about ten seconds to collect my thoughts. And that was it. I came back, listened to my film crew, made a decision and we reshot the scene with a slightly different angle on the moonlight and a different posture of the main actors, and the scene came off brilliantly with only minor changes. But I felt bad and very unchristian at that moment.
Though I apologized afterwards, I really had to question my motives for making this film and I had to remind myself that my motto going in was, "If it ain't fun, why are we doing it?" But in the end, it was watching the footage that we had filmed that night that finally did the trick. Maybe there needs to be a certain amount of chaos on any film shoot in order to get good work.
Still, it made me realize one thing... the sooner we're done with this film, the better. The proximity fuse has been lit and its only a matter of time before things really blow up. I'm going to try and get everything done on the next shoot (everything except Sunday's shoot) so that we can have a bunch of days off in a row. A little break would help us all.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Production Diary - Day Seven - Bad Picture, Bad Sound, No Reshoots!
It was inevitable that we'd eventually have, well, I wouldn't call it a bad day of filming - but a difficult day nonetheless. When you shoot a big picture, you're bound to run into a day where its too windy or its raining or there's a power outage or something and you just can't work around it. That was Saturday.
The first problem was somewhat anticipated and embraced. I'd decided before I even arrived at my work that I wanted to do some hand-held photography just to add a feeling of documentary realism. There was a scene where it was practically written that way. So, we set up the shot and we went ahead and did it, and it came out really good. Then we went to the other shot at this location and I discovered that the space was too tight to use the tripod successfully, so once again I hand held the shot through its five different takes and it seemed to me very good. Once I got home, however, and ran the tape back I suddenly remembered something from Day Two of the shooting. An internal error in the camera had negated the hand held stabilizing unit inside the camera. This particular stabilizing unit is designed to smooth out the inherent shakiness of hand held shots and is found in most video cameras available. As I've been using a tripod in every shot up until Saturday, I'd forgotten that this problem existed until I saw the footage. It looked great when I was filming it, but the second I played it back I had to question whether I had been having seizures at the time I was filming. Fortunately for the film, the last takes of each shot were less shaky than any other take - so the actors and the film maker happened to be in sync. Still, the shakiness might be a little jarring to the rest of the film.
After the first problem of the day, we headed over to my sister's new personal office and set up shop to film a bunch of interview scenes. The camera went back on the tripod, but, this time, we started discovering sound problems - namely the fact that there were several windows in the office all facing towards a freeway not 250 yards away. The constant buzz of traffic was very loud in my ears no matter which way I faced the camera and the microphone. But there was nothing to be done about it. Any attempt (other than closing the windows, naturally) to block the sound would have resulted in less light and a very dark looking office. So, we just went for it.
Sometimes the challenges in film making are numerous, but the difference in filmed art vs. other forms of art is that you can't always control the environment you are trying to artificially create. And sometimes, rarely, you just have to accept that there can be no reshoots and that you are going to have to go forward with what you have. It sucks, but that's just the way it is.
And so now... the killer Monday. Everyone on board! Everyone on deck! And a huge chunk of the film depending on tonight's outcome. At some point, you just let things come as they may. Tonight will be what tonight will be. Que Sera, Sera... and all that.
It's in God's hands now!
The first problem was somewhat anticipated and embraced. I'd decided before I even arrived at my work that I wanted to do some hand-held photography just to add a feeling of documentary realism. There was a scene where it was practically written that way. So, we set up the shot and we went ahead and did it, and it came out really good. Then we went to the other shot at this location and I discovered that the space was too tight to use the tripod successfully, so once again I hand held the shot through its five different takes and it seemed to me very good. Once I got home, however, and ran the tape back I suddenly remembered something from Day Two of the shooting. An internal error in the camera had negated the hand held stabilizing unit inside the camera. This particular stabilizing unit is designed to smooth out the inherent shakiness of hand held shots and is found in most video cameras available. As I've been using a tripod in every shot up until Saturday, I'd forgotten that this problem existed until I saw the footage. It looked great when I was filming it, but the second I played it back I had to question whether I had been having seizures at the time I was filming. Fortunately for the film, the last takes of each shot were less shaky than any other take - so the actors and the film maker happened to be in sync. Still, the shakiness might be a little jarring to the rest of the film.
After the first problem of the day, we headed over to my sister's new personal office and set up shop to film a bunch of interview scenes. The camera went back on the tripod, but, this time, we started discovering sound problems - namely the fact that there were several windows in the office all facing towards a freeway not 250 yards away. The constant buzz of traffic was very loud in my ears no matter which way I faced the camera and the microphone. But there was nothing to be done about it. Any attempt (other than closing the windows, naturally) to block the sound would have resulted in less light and a very dark looking office. So, we just went for it.
Sometimes the challenges in film making are numerous, but the difference in filmed art vs. other forms of art is that you can't always control the environment you are trying to artificially create. And sometimes, rarely, you just have to accept that there can be no reshoots and that you are going to have to go forward with what you have. It sucks, but that's just the way it is.
And so now... the killer Monday. Everyone on board! Everyone on deck! And a huge chunk of the film depending on tonight's outcome. At some point, you just let things come as they may. Tonight will be what tonight will be. Que Sera, Sera... and all that.
It's in God's hands now!
Friday, August 08, 2008
Production Diary - Day Six - And on the seventh day he... DOH!
And on the seventh day... he grumbled and prepared to shoot more footage. *sigh*
I'm a little tired. I've been out every night this week working on the film. The footage has been spectacular. I went home last night, after filming, and immediately plugged the tape into my camera so that I could watch it (without sound), even though it meant not getting to sleep until One am.
Last night, we had a case of the crazies. Everyone was just a little bit mentally fatigued and it started bringing out the humor, which resulted in some really funny outtakes, but also slowed things down. Still, we managed to get all the shots we needed and ended at our normal time.
The scenes we shot were about half of the night time scenes that take place in the mental facility. So we set up the lights and shot the scenes in "moonlight" with flashlights and all sorts of cool effects. The end result, while maybe not "movie" spectacular, were pretty darn good for such a small budget. And in this case, I think budget has to refer not only to money spent but also time and crew. We didn't have a huge crew nor the time to do anything more elaborate. In fact, although we had three lights, we only used one.
In the first scene, yours truly had to actually do some angst filled acting. And I think I came pretty darn close to nailing the scene. Nobody, of course, is more surprised than myself. When I see what the other actors do, those who have been trained to act, I have no clue as to how they do it. So for me to come into a scene and hold my own... well, I was seriously mystified as to how it happened. Suffice it to say, when the suggestion to do another take came up, I just said, "No, let's move on. You're not going to get anything better out of me."
We shot two of the films multiple endings (you'll see... ;) last night as well as several outtake moments and a few tying up loose ends moments from other day's shoots. After all the shooting we've done this week, we're still only 44% finished with all of the shots we need.
Tomorrow we do our first location shooting away from the church. We're coming to my office here at Yasutomo to film a scene in a locker room (I'm not really sure why this office has a locker room, but I'm not complaining either ;) and then we're going to my sister's new office to shoot some interview scenes that start to fill out the mockumentary aspects of this film. Hopefully, a nice short day of filming followed by a quick retirement to a bar somewhere to celebrate the halfway point of the filming.
And then, on Sunday, I need to make all the preparations for the massive shoot on Monday (the second to last massive filming day!) where we're going to be getting all the master shots and all the scenes with extras in them filmed in one six hour period. Yeah, right! Thematically, we're covering like half the scenes in the movie in one day. But by the end of the night on Monday, the end will definitely be in sight.
So, here is my call out to all who live in the area and might be interested in doing something fun on Monday night... I need extras! You will do nothing more than stand in the background probably. But if you bring a robe, you will appear in at least one scene. And if you bring a white shirt and dark slacks, you might appear in another scene. And if you bring both, you might appear in the same scene twice, in different outfits, and with a fake moustache! So, get in touch, and I'll put you in my film.
Have a great weekend!
I'm a little tired. I've been out every night this week working on the film. The footage has been spectacular. I went home last night, after filming, and immediately plugged the tape into my camera so that I could watch it (without sound), even though it meant not getting to sleep until One am.
Last night, we had a case of the crazies. Everyone was just a little bit mentally fatigued and it started bringing out the humor, which resulted in some really funny outtakes, but also slowed things down. Still, we managed to get all the shots we needed and ended at our normal time.
The scenes we shot were about half of the night time scenes that take place in the mental facility. So we set up the lights and shot the scenes in "moonlight" with flashlights and all sorts of cool effects. The end result, while maybe not "movie" spectacular, were pretty darn good for such a small budget. And in this case, I think budget has to refer not only to money spent but also time and crew. We didn't have a huge crew nor the time to do anything more elaborate. In fact, although we had three lights, we only used one.
In the first scene, yours truly had to actually do some angst filled acting. And I think I came pretty darn close to nailing the scene. Nobody, of course, is more surprised than myself. When I see what the other actors do, those who have been trained to act, I have no clue as to how they do it. So for me to come into a scene and hold my own... well, I was seriously mystified as to how it happened. Suffice it to say, when the suggestion to do another take came up, I just said, "No, let's move on. You're not going to get anything better out of me."
We shot two of the films multiple endings (you'll see... ;) last night as well as several outtake moments and a few tying up loose ends moments from other day's shoots. After all the shooting we've done this week, we're still only 44% finished with all of the shots we need.
Tomorrow we do our first location shooting away from the church. We're coming to my office here at Yasutomo to film a scene in a locker room (I'm not really sure why this office has a locker room, but I'm not complaining either ;) and then we're going to my sister's new office to shoot some interview scenes that start to fill out the mockumentary aspects of this film. Hopefully, a nice short day of filming followed by a quick retirement to a bar somewhere to celebrate the halfway point of the filming.
And then, on Sunday, I need to make all the preparations for the massive shoot on Monday (the second to last massive filming day!) where we're going to be getting all the master shots and all the scenes with extras in them filmed in one six hour period. Yeah, right! Thematically, we're covering like half the scenes in the movie in one day. But by the end of the night on Monday, the end will definitely be in sight.
So, here is my call out to all who live in the area and might be interested in doing something fun on Monday night... I need extras! You will do nothing more than stand in the background probably. But if you bring a robe, you will appear in at least one scene. And if you bring a white shirt and dark slacks, you might appear in another scene. And if you bring both, you might appear in the same scene twice, in different outfits, and with a fake moustache! So, get in touch, and I'll put you in my film.
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Production Diary: Day Five - Coppola's got nothing on me!
I was mildly ribbing one of the actors last night for bringing the wrong wardrobe to the shoot. This after having overcome obstacles like broken cameras, questionable sound recording, etc... This is what it is to be a producer. I told the actor that we'd just reschedule that scene for a later day and squeeze it in to an already tight schedule. (Originally we didn't have three extra days next week, which means that we'd have to be finishing our shooting schedule tomorrow! We're not even at 50% yet!) It reminded me of Francis Ford Coppola's troubles on Apocalypse Now. Of course, I was being facetious, since his shoot took something like two years to complete and he had to deal with typhoons, military coup's, and a lead actor who nearly died of a heart attack. I'll take my car troubles, scheduling conflicts, and wardrobe obstacles any day of the week. But ultimately, its all the same thing - a series of fences to jump on the way to the winner's circle. Its just that the scale changes from one film to the next.
That having been said, last night was absolutely delightful - the kind of film night that makes you think that maybe you've overlooked something because everything is going so smoothly. Not only did we get almost all of our shots done on a busy schedule, but we actually finished early. Either we're getting the hang of this filming thing or we just had an easy night of it.
It probably helped that Andrew and I were having a good time last night hearing some of our favorite bits of dialog come to life on screen. We shot two of the group therapy sequences where we gave Andrew's character his best lines and also where we really amped up the George Lucas "really bad dialog" love scene stuff - I'll save the actual lines for you to see in the film. Needless to say, they're quite awful and, as a result, really hilarious.
But my favorite parts of last night were a bit of physical improvisation. We're finally moving into the area of physical comedy (it's been mostly sitting or angst so far) and we were able to add a bit of that silliness to a couple of scenes. In one scene, we just had a character enter the scene really intensely. And in another, we had one character use another as a shield. It was quite awesome. I'm definitely going to have to rethink some of my comedy writing the next time I do a silly movie to include more physical humor.
The film is getting into its stride now. I ran the camera last night for the first time (and I kind of liked it!) and Tom and my Dad ran the sound (it was his 72nd birthday yesterday, so I owe him big time!) We also added Kurt to our cast as Guido and I think he'll fit right in.
Well, folks, while everyone else enjoys a day off to recuperate, I've got a ton of prep to do for tomorrow and Saturday. I just rented the lights for the shoot tomorrow and Saturday and I still have a BBQ to plan for a week from Sunday. Later I have to not only rehearse my lines for Thursday, but also do two days worth of dailies for viewing on Thursday. Looks like another long night.
That having been said, last night was absolutely delightful - the kind of film night that makes you think that maybe you've overlooked something because everything is going so smoothly. Not only did we get almost all of our shots done on a busy schedule, but we actually finished early. Either we're getting the hang of this filming thing or we just had an easy night of it.
It probably helped that Andrew and I were having a good time last night hearing some of our favorite bits of dialog come to life on screen. We shot two of the group therapy sequences where we gave Andrew's character his best lines and also where we really amped up the George Lucas "really bad dialog" love scene stuff - I'll save the actual lines for you to see in the film. Needless to say, they're quite awful and, as a result, really hilarious.
But my favorite parts of last night were a bit of physical improvisation. We're finally moving into the area of physical comedy (it's been mostly sitting or angst so far) and we were able to add a bit of that silliness to a couple of scenes. In one scene, we just had a character enter the scene really intensely. And in another, we had one character use another as a shield. It was quite awesome. I'm definitely going to have to rethink some of my comedy writing the next time I do a silly movie to include more physical humor.
The film is getting into its stride now. I ran the camera last night for the first time (and I kind of liked it!) and Tom and my Dad ran the sound (it was his 72nd birthday yesterday, so I owe him big time!) We also added Kurt to our cast as Guido and I think he'll fit right in.
Well, folks, while everyone else enjoys a day off to recuperate, I've got a ton of prep to do for tomorrow and Saturday. I just rented the lights for the shoot tomorrow and Saturday and I still have a BBQ to plan for a week from Sunday. Later I have to not only rehearse my lines for Thursday, but also do two days worth of dailies for viewing on Thursday. Looks like another long night.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Production Diary: Day Four - The Mockudrama!
I think that title best describes what is fast becoming a hybrid of a project. It started as a mockumentary, then we added a storyline to this comedy and its now got all the elements of a drama with humor... so, I guess its sort of a mockudrama.
Yesterday was a relatively easy day which is why I managed to get home and be in bed in time for Headlines on the Tonight Show. Still, we worked really hard and continued to have technical difficulties. We had another two new crew members - Guy and Marenie - both from City College and previously in my sound class and cinematography class. Guy ran the camera and Marenie helped me with the sound. We had sound issues on a couple of early scenes, which we straightened out after that, and our camera started making weird noise near the end, so we switched out with Guy's newest version of the same camera. I'm hoping to solve all those problems today, as I'll be behind camera for the first time.
We mostly shot the back story scenes for characters last night - especially the character of Monica (played admirably by Audrey). But we also finally started adding scenes for the two montage sequences later in the film - including a short cameo by my kindergarten bound nephew, Joshua (which was really cute, but might end up on the cutting room floor... we'll see).
The dialog scenes were mostly cute ones so the atmosphere was nice and light all evening, no dramatics. And it allowed us to do some fancy stuff with the camera with my new film makers. Having worked with them in class, I knew them to be the types that wanted to push boundaries. So if you see any cool camera angles and shots in the film, chances are you'll be able to thank them for the footage.
Of course, I'm behind the camera tonight and so, who knows? I may go all Scorsese on them tonight!
I figure after all this shooting, we're still below 25% done. That should change tonight as we get a large chunk of shots out of the way.
See you all tomorrow.
Yesterday was a relatively easy day which is why I managed to get home and be in bed in time for Headlines on the Tonight Show. Still, we worked really hard and continued to have technical difficulties. We had another two new crew members - Guy and Marenie - both from City College and previously in my sound class and cinematography class. Guy ran the camera and Marenie helped me with the sound. We had sound issues on a couple of early scenes, which we straightened out after that, and our camera started making weird noise near the end, so we switched out with Guy's newest version of the same camera. I'm hoping to solve all those problems today, as I'll be behind camera for the first time.
We mostly shot the back story scenes for characters last night - especially the character of Monica (played admirably by Audrey). But we also finally started adding scenes for the two montage sequences later in the film - including a short cameo by my kindergarten bound nephew, Joshua (which was really cute, but might end up on the cutting room floor... we'll see).
The dialog scenes were mostly cute ones so the atmosphere was nice and light all evening, no dramatics. And it allowed us to do some fancy stuff with the camera with my new film makers. Having worked with them in class, I knew them to be the types that wanted to push boundaries. So if you see any cool camera angles and shots in the film, chances are you'll be able to thank them for the footage.
Of course, I'm behind the camera tonight and so, who knows? I may go all Scorsese on them tonight!
I figure after all this shooting, we're still below 25% done. That should change tonight as we get a large chunk of shots out of the way.
See you all tomorrow.
Monday, August 04, 2008
And Now For Something Completely Different...
Um, really, what could I say to make this any better?
'Darth Vader' Spared Jail in Jedi Church Attacks
Source: The Associated Press
Posted: 05/13/08 4:22PM
Filed Under: Weird News
HOLYHEAD, Wales (AP) - A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church was given a suspended sentence Tuesday.
Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones - aka Master Jonba Hehol - with a metal crutch, hitting him on the head, prosecutors told Holyhead Magistrates' Court.
He also whacked Jones' 18-year-old cousin, Michael Jones - known as Master Mormi Hehol - bruising his thigh in the March 25 incident, prosecutors said.
The two cousins and Barney Jones' brother, Daniel, set up the Church of Jediism, Anglesey order, last year. Jedi is the faith followed by some of the central characters in the "Star Wars" films.
The group, which claims about 30 members, says on its Web site that it uses "insight and knowledge" from the films as "a guide to living a better and more worthwhile life."
"We all love the films and what they stand for. Obviously some people are going to laugh about it," the Wales on Sunday newspaper quoted Barney Jones as saying last month. "But a lot of people do take it seriously."
Unfortunately for Hughes, his March attack was recorded on a video camera that the cousins had set up to film themselves in a light saber battle.
"Darth Vader! Jedis!" Hughes shouted as he approached.
Hughes claimed he couldn't remember the incident, having drunk the better part of a 2 1/2-gallon (10-liter) box of wine beforehand.
"He knows his behavior was wrong and didn't want it to happen but he has no recollection of it," said Hughes' lawyer, Frances Jones.
District Judge Andrew Shaw sentenced Hughes to two months in jail but suspended the sentence for one year. He also ordered Hughes to pay $195 to each of his victims and $117 in court costs.
In the 2001 United Kingdom census, 390,000 - 0.7 percent of the population - listed Jedi as their religion.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Production Diary: Day Three
Warning: The following content may be total jibberish. Lack of mental activity will be to blame.
Previously, we have shot 9 total shots (with multiple takes of each) and have actually completed no scenes.
Last night, we were striving for 18 total shots and five completed scenes. I know we dropped one scene and, at least, three shots from the list before the night was done, but I think you can see that we had to step it up a notch over our previous efforts.
So, Day Three for me began on Tuesday as I broke down the list of shots and determined all of the actors and props and decorations that we needed. We actually had to create a bedroom set inside my church and decorate it, as well as put up our normal decorations for the main room. This required designing and printing a seven foot long banner (I may hang it in my office when I'm done with it! It looks awesome!), buying a wig, a stash of moustaches, rewriting three Star Wars opening crawls, finding a key card, digging my roll-away bed out of the closet, and many other assorted errands that took me all of Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday to get done.
On Thursday, I stopped by Costco for pizzas on my way to the church, then spent the first thirty minutes or so just unloading my car (robes, equipment, bed, etc... I looked like a guy that had just been kicked out of his apartment). We had quite a crowd last night for a very few number of scenes, but I used every single person.
As people ate pizza I began setting up the music room as a bedroom. Then I removed the couch from the music room to put it in the main room and began placing equipment where it needed to go. I had added two crew members since the week before, Tom and Katy, both from City College and both extremely helpful last night as I had Tom take on a role in the movie and as I had to take the role of Harry, that meant one less crew member.
We started with Scene 2 - our introduction to the main characters and the establishing shot for the entire facility. In the scene, our hero enters the room, walks across the room while everyone looks on, and then does something that firmly establishes him as being bat squat insane. All in one take. Of course, we were missing one of the key actors in the scene, so we started by doing a bunch of cut scenes, close ups, etc... while we waited for this actor to arrive. Finally, not being able to wait any longer, we moved on to the bedroom scenes.
There are three main bedroom scenes (five total, but one is a night scene - to be shot next week - and the other takes place in a doorway) and I didn't want to haul my bed back and forth to church more than once. So we were going to film all three scenes if we had to start a Coffee IV and stay until four am. Unfortunately, I was in two of those scenes.
Um, though I'd been working on the film straight since Tuesday, I hadn't actually opened the script to read my lines or anything. I wasn't concerned because, having written it, I was pretty familiar with the character and the sort of dialog he had. What I didn't count on was the fact that my brain had disengaged around 4:30 that afternoon. It took me about an hour to scrape through the first scene with many embarrassing retakes as a line of dialog that I had just said fifteen times before would suddenly hide somewhere in my brain behind the nudie mags and rocks. Anyway, we got through my first scene (only later did I realize that it was the first actually completed scene in the entire film) and we moved on to a much easier second scene that only took four takes. Finally, I was done with acting and could change hats again.
That was when our luck started running out. The last bedroom scene took nearly 9 takes and with our best actors because just when the plane stopped interrupting the sound, the cell phone vibrated, and then the fire engine went by and then the janitor turned on her radio and then... well, you get the idea. Anyway, we spent way too much time in the bedroom - but when we were done, we had three scenes finished.
Finally, our actor had arrived and we were able to get the master establishing shot that we needed (only four takes) and the last close ups. And that was when I called it a night. We were all exhausted from the filming.
I'm not quite sure why its such exhausting work. Perhaps there's a level of focus I'm not used to in my normal job, or its the combination of coordination and artistry and technical wizardry that is so taxing. Whatever the reason, I always come home with a body that feels like its been through a marathon and a mind that's racing like its been dosed with LSD and sleep is difficult. Of course, I have to go to work the next day and its always a bear, but I simply must endure.
Next week, I have shooting days on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so I should be just about ready to kill someone by Saturday night. That might require a mandatory "Director's" meeting at Joxer Daly's pub in San Francisco after the shoot ;)
Until then, I've got three days to get it all organized before I'm right back in it.
Have a good weekend!
Previously, we have shot 9 total shots (with multiple takes of each) and have actually completed no scenes.
Last night, we were striving for 18 total shots and five completed scenes. I know we dropped one scene and, at least, three shots from the list before the night was done, but I think you can see that we had to step it up a notch over our previous efforts.
So, Day Three for me began on Tuesday as I broke down the list of shots and determined all of the actors and props and decorations that we needed. We actually had to create a bedroom set inside my church and decorate it, as well as put up our normal decorations for the main room. This required designing and printing a seven foot long banner (I may hang it in my office when I'm done with it! It looks awesome!), buying a wig, a stash of moustaches, rewriting three Star Wars opening crawls, finding a key card, digging my roll-away bed out of the closet, and many other assorted errands that took me all of Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday to get done.
On Thursday, I stopped by Costco for pizzas on my way to the church, then spent the first thirty minutes or so just unloading my car (robes, equipment, bed, etc... I looked like a guy that had just been kicked out of his apartment). We had quite a crowd last night for a very few number of scenes, but I used every single person.
As people ate pizza I began setting up the music room as a bedroom. Then I removed the couch from the music room to put it in the main room and began placing equipment where it needed to go. I had added two crew members since the week before, Tom and Katy, both from City College and both extremely helpful last night as I had Tom take on a role in the movie and as I had to take the role of Harry, that meant one less crew member.
We started with Scene 2 - our introduction to the main characters and the establishing shot for the entire facility. In the scene, our hero enters the room, walks across the room while everyone looks on, and then does something that firmly establishes him as being bat squat insane. All in one take. Of course, we were missing one of the key actors in the scene, so we started by doing a bunch of cut scenes, close ups, etc... while we waited for this actor to arrive. Finally, not being able to wait any longer, we moved on to the bedroom scenes.
There are three main bedroom scenes (five total, but one is a night scene - to be shot next week - and the other takes place in a doorway) and I didn't want to haul my bed back and forth to church more than once. So we were going to film all three scenes if we had to start a Coffee IV and stay until four am. Unfortunately, I was in two of those scenes.
Um, though I'd been working on the film straight since Tuesday, I hadn't actually opened the script to read my lines or anything. I wasn't concerned because, having written it, I was pretty familiar with the character and the sort of dialog he had. What I didn't count on was the fact that my brain had disengaged around 4:30 that afternoon. It took me about an hour to scrape through the first scene with many embarrassing retakes as a line of dialog that I had just said fifteen times before would suddenly hide somewhere in my brain behind the nudie mags and rocks. Anyway, we got through my first scene (only later did I realize that it was the first actually completed scene in the entire film) and we moved on to a much easier second scene that only took four takes. Finally, I was done with acting and could change hats again.
That was when our luck started running out. The last bedroom scene took nearly 9 takes and with our best actors because just when the plane stopped interrupting the sound, the cell phone vibrated, and then the fire engine went by and then the janitor turned on her radio and then... well, you get the idea. Anyway, we spent way too much time in the bedroom - but when we were done, we had three scenes finished.
Finally, our actor had arrived and we were able to get the master establishing shot that we needed (only four takes) and the last close ups. And that was when I called it a night. We were all exhausted from the filming.
I'm not quite sure why its such exhausting work. Perhaps there's a level of focus I'm not used to in my normal job, or its the combination of coordination and artistry and technical wizardry that is so taxing. Whatever the reason, I always come home with a body that feels like its been through a marathon and a mind that's racing like its been dosed with LSD and sleep is difficult. Of course, I have to go to work the next day and its always a bear, but I simply must endure.
Next week, I have shooting days on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so I should be just about ready to kill someone by Saturday night. That might require a mandatory "Director's" meeting at Joxer Daly's pub in San Francisco after the shoot ;)
Until then, I've got three days to get it all organized before I'm right back in it.
Have a good weekend!
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