January 22

Today’s my birthday. It’s also the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Just put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Penalties

I don’t often talk about things of consequence in this blog (probably because it’s easier to talk about whether Transformers was a good movie instead of justifications for the war in Iraq), but I just finished reading a column that gave me pause.

The column, written by Anna Quindlen and appearing in the August 6 issue of Newsweek, is entitled “How Much Jail Time?”  She poses a simple question–if abortion was criminalized, should we then prosecute and imprison women who get abortions?

Although Ms. Quindlen is one of the more vocal liberals around today, I enjoy reading her columns (maybe for that reason–I like to think it helps me keep an open mind).  She makes me think more deeply about what I believe, and this one was no exception.  Abortion rights is an issue she feels strongly about, as do I.  That we fall on opposite sides of the debate doesn’t keep me from admitting she has points worth debating.

And this one is very compelling.  As she sums up, “…there are only two logical choices: Hold women accountable for a criminal act by sending them to prison, or refuse to criminalize the act in the first place.  If you can’t countenance the first, you have to accept the second.  You can’t have it both ways.”   Earlier in her column she references an anti-abortion protest where people were asked the question, and stumbled all over their answers.

I hate abortion, for a few reasons that I think are pretty logical.  But this question does give me pause.  I’m going to chew on it some and say what I think some time in the near future.  For now, though, I’d love to hear from people on this one.  Actually, maybe people could even kick it around with friends.  We need an answer on this one.  What do you think?

MTI Days 13 and 14

Well, it’s all over but the shouting. Which will also pass for our graduation ceremony. For almost every day for the past two weeks, I’ve been learning about film theory, film technique, and I’ve gotten some hands-on training.  Today it ends, and while I’ll be glad to get some sleep, and a chance to eat better (I like my learning to be extra-chunky), I’ll really miss the guys I’ve met here.

I think, though, the biggest impact these two weeks have had on me is it’s given me a renewed hope that God has given me this desire to tell stories and make films.  Campus Crusade leadership has taken great pains during these past few days to tell us students that they want us to go forward with this, that they NEED us to.  Well, normally I can be cynical about that kind of thing, but I don’t think I will be this time.  I’ve wanted this for a long time, and I think there’s really no reason any more to hold back.

So I’m telling you this right now.  I’m going to go forward.  I’m going to work with my friends, I’m going to write, and I’m going to make films.  To do any less would, frankly, be  to dishonor God.  Oh yeah!

MTI Day 9-10

These two days we had a professional shoot here in Orlando.  The group was split into two production teams that were paired with paid directors, directors of photography, gaffers and even actors.  It showed me a couple things.

–It’s truly amazing the thought, time and effort that goes into what can amount to a matter of two or three seconds of a film

–Filmmaking sometimes involves a lot of sitting around, wondering what all your friends are doing on a Sunday afternoon.  Not that this constitutes a complaint.

MTI Day 8

On Day 8 I learned two things that I already knew–when you have lots of down time (like, when your editor is taking longer than expected to get your footage onto the computer), a nice, long nap is called for.  The second thing–Crusade HQ has some very comfy couches.

MTI Days 4-7

We’ve learned more filmmaking stuff like lighting.  But what we’ve mostly been doing is creating our short film.  The class was split into three groups of eight people.  Then, on Days 4 and 5, we started our pre-production phase–writing and approving our strategy and audience, writing and approving the script, choosing and storyboarding shots, and scouting locations.

On Day 6, we finished preproduction and divvied up roles.  I ended up being the co-writer and director!  (I suspect I was chosen because I’m, frankly, one of the least qualified.) We finished up prepro and immediately started shooting at 10  pm.  We finished and left the building at 3:30 am!

On Day 7 we continued shooting starting in the afternoon, shooting our “martini shot” right at 10 pm.  And that’s how it was with what I consider my first real short film.  Oh, what a feeling!  I’m dancin’ on the ceiling!

Now, let’s see how it looks after the post-production phase…

MTI Day 3

 What did I learn today?  I learned that:

–You better know everything you can about a film you’re making before you actually go out and shoot it.  You draw your shots, like a comic strip, which is called storyboarding.

–A master shot means your camera is running from one position for a whole scene; that way you can use it for scenes that didn’t work out from another camera.

–There are a ton of people more proficient at filmmaking than me.  Yikes!

MTI Day 1 and 2

So why do I get done saying I’m going to blog more, and then skip the next two days?  It’s because I’m doing something else from my list–I’m learning filmmaking!  It’s a long story, so I’ll summarize–no, I don’t have time, so I’ll sum up.  Campus Crusade has brought in a filmm school from Michigan to help train staff from all over the world in how to make films.  I’m one of them.  So for the next two weeks I’ll be going from 8:15 until sometimes 9 at night learning film stuff and hobnobbing with others like me as well as old pros.  It’s an incredible opportunity.

Since I have little time for blogging (I have to run out on lectures just to go to the bathroom) the next few entries are going to be short.  I’m going to mention something I learned.

So for Days One and Two:

–I learned that Stories often have (among others) a hero, a villian, and a mentor.  The mentor often dies before the third act

–I learned that a gaffer is the guy who’s the electrician.  I assume that they made up the term because “electrician” is something ordinary people (peasants) are. Filmmakers think they’re hot stuff.

My New Year

Since this is the time of year when people start thinking “Gosh, how can I go from zero to hero in a few easy-to-implement steps?” I’ve decided to come up with a short list of resolutions. Now, to elucidate further (I love elucidating), I actually do this about three times a year. I believe the average person holds to his or her resolutions for two weeks (and this is, I assume, because it takes them that long to realize they love themselves JUST THE WAY THEY ARE–oh, that’s so precious!), so what I hope to do is maybe check back with you every once in a while and let you know how it’s going. And since I could probably come up with 200 things I’d like to change about myself (I know, I’m insecure and over-analytical…whoops, there’s #s 201 and 202!) I’m going to limit my list to eight.

1)I resolve to read more. This is a holdover from last year’s list. I’ve improved, in that I’ve read more than one book over the last few months. I want to get better. Note to self: Ultimate X-Men Hardcover vol 2 doesn’t count as a book.

2)I resolve to write more. Which means, among other things, I’m going to try to be better at blogging. And I can’t cheat by using repetivive adjectives. That’s really, really, really, really, really lame.

3)I resolve to achieve my ideal weight.

4) I resolve to maintain my ideal weight. As long as tacos exist, this will be infinitely more difficult. I’m a simultaneous card carrying member of both TACOS FOR THE WORLD and COMMITTEE FOR THE SEPARATION OF TACOS AND BRENT.

5)I resolve to reach out more to my neighbors. No more of this “Hey, man!” nonsense.

6) I resolve to do more for the community. I have an idea about that, in that I recently met a woman who’s doing AIDS work here in Orlando. In short, I have to cut back on my main obsession.*

7) I resolve to learn more about filmmaking. This is already happening. I’ll explain later.

8 ) I resolve to spend better times with God–not rushed, not rigid, not settling for empty ritual. I hate that. I don’t think He’s crazy about it either.
9) I resolve to not chicken out when Darcy wants to talk about having kids, or saying things like “My, isn’t the sky especially blue today?” or “(cough)(gasp) ‘art attack, ‘art attack!”

I’d love to see these things happen. And I slipped in an extra one at the end–sheesh, I’m so demanding! It’s nice to know God likes me anyway even if I drop every one of these. Will I? I’ll let you know in two weeks!

*Yeah, that’d be me.

Not So Man of Steel…

Check out these AIDS awareness ads that ran in France a while ago…