Days 6 & 7

We wrapped today. All 5 films are in the can. Since I still have to pack and we're getting up early tomorrow to catch flights, I'm going to let my  pictures do most of the story telling for now. For the last two days, I worked as 2nd AC, with the camera department. It was great to get such a variety of experience while on set. 

I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends again...but it's hard to watch this experience come to a close. And I am going to miss the neat people I got to know on this trip. It's amazing how bonds form when you work 12 hours a day for a week with the same people. Anyway, I've got lots more stories to tell...I may post them here, or you may just have to ask me about them. 

Alright, I've got to pack and get some sleep. 

Day 5

Last night was hell...no really...it was. (And I'm not swearing!) Starting at about 1:00 this morning, we filmed the scene of the Rich Man in hell (from the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus). The whole crew had fun with being able to tell each other to go to hell. Haha. We finished up at about 4:00 AM and I crashed into bed at 5:00. That was probably one of the coldest nights of my life too. Like I mentioned earlier, none of us were expecting it to be as cold as it is, and last night it hit 39. Burrr. Thankfully, Tracey had an extra fleece she lent me and they were passing out hand warmers on set. But, even so, by the end of the night, I was shaking and jumped in the hot shower as soon as we got back. Even after that I was still shaking, so I used the hair dryer to blow warmth...then I finally quit shaking. I couldn't help but think about all my cold weather gear sitting at home where it's in the 90s. =/

We shot a couple of other scenes during the day. I've been working as a PA (Production Assistant) which basically means I get to carry a radio, tell people to be quiet when we're rolling and do whatever I'm told to do (usually setting up chairs or handing out water). I don't mind the work, and it lets me be on set and I have time to talk to people. I'm learning a lot just from being there and talking to people. 

P.S. There are some pictures up from yesterday.

Days 3 & 4

Sorry I wasn't able to write a post on day 3...our schedule has been crazy. We work at least 12 hours a day on set and it's not always the same 12 hours. So, we grab sleep when we can get it. Wednesday I think we headed out at 7:45 AM and got back by 10:00 PM. Yesterday we left at 10:45 AM and got back about 1:00 AM. Today, call time is 4:00 PM, so we'll be shooting until about 4:00 AM tomorrow. Surprisingly, I have been getting almost enough sleep - though I know I'll be exhausted when I get home.

We're shooting out in the middle of some BLM land that's basically desert (Utah style). It's beautiful and surrounded by these incredible mountains. Check out my photos for scenery shots and some really cool sunset shots. We come in each night feeling like dust-balls. It's not unlike a day in the riding arena at camp, though it's not nearly so hot. I don't think it's gone much over 75 while we've been here. And once the sun goes down, it gets really cold! None of us had packed for that...we were thinking summer in the desert = hot. Haha. I guess it's because of the altitude.

I don't have any pics from day 3 because I left my camera battery charging on the wall at the hotel (argh!). But the day 4 pics should give a pretty good idea of what we are doing. Everyone's been great to work with, and I've been especially impressed with Mr. and Mrs. Dean Jones. They are such a sweet couple! They seem to have a solid walk with God too. Of course, all the Crown people are great too and treat me like family. I love Crown. 

We shot the scene of Abraham sacrificing Isaac yesterday. Very emotional. Then, in the first take, at the point that God stops Abraham mid stab and speaks to him, the sun just burst through the clouds and lit up the whole scene. It was incredible and could not have been scripted better. Check out the Crown blog for more on that. 

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for safety for all the cast and crew and that God would be glorified in the entirety of this project. 

P.S. I have been informed that some people reading this are not familiar with how to post comments. You do not have to sign in to do so. Just click on "comments" then select "Name/URL." You can use any name you like (just please pick one I'll recognize!). Type your comment in the text box and click "Publish Your Comment." If that's too complicated, you're welcome to shoot me an email! I'd love to hear from you. =)

Day 2

Don't have much time to post...but here's a summary.

We spent the whole day on a sound stage doing some interior shots and green screen stuff.

Check out the Crown blog for behind the scenes videos. I've also posted some pictures.

Tomorrow's going to be a long day, though thankfully we're starting late in the morning. Please pray for good weather. It rained all day today - and it's cold too! (Well, cool anyway.) I'm enjoying it.  Maybe I'll have time for more details later. I've got to go to bed. 

Day 1

9:56 Am

Well,  here I am in DFW. The flight was relatively uneventful after a short pre-flight delat due to some glitch in the plane. I sat next to an engineer from NASA who was on his way to LA to check out some cost estimates for sending a craft to Jupiter. Pretty cool!

I had heard tales about how huge DFW was, but since I've only flown to here and never through here, I didn't realize how true they were. I arrived at an A gate and took the Skyway (tram) to a C gate. The Skyway (see pictures) is even cooler than ATL's tram because it is outside and goes around curves pretty fast. You really have to hang on. There truly is a Starbucks on every corner in the US. Even in the airport. I think I saw four separate ones on my 20 gate march to find a McDonald's for second breakfast (also in pictures). 

It's killing me to be this close to my Dallas family and not be able to see them. I tried to work it out so I could spend a few days here, but it just didn't work out flight-wise. But I discovered that Southwest has a really cheap flight to DFW, so Andrew and I are planning to try and do that later this summer - if that's ok with you TX folks. 

That's all for now...I'm going to put in a little work before we board in 20 min. One of the nice things about freelancing is I can work on the go. =)

12:38 PM

We must be over CO or UT now, because we're flying over such incredible mountains! I wish my camera could see them as well as my eyes can, but it is not so...alas, my pictures will not do the view justice. But I had to take them anyway. (Note: later I found a Photoshop tool that helped...check out the pics!)

It was flat, flat, flat with crop circles, then there were some mesas, and then all of the sudden I noticed a mountain, then a whole range of them all covered in snow...and they just kept going!

To make it even better, "Pictures at an Exhibition: The Great Gate of Kiev" was playing on my ipod. It's great epic mountain viewing music.

I don't know if you guys are interested in such details, but since I had time, I figured I'd share.

My computer battery is almost sapped. So, no more work for me until I find an outlet - that's what I get for working in 1,000 dpi (see pics). I probably won't be able to keep this up once we start shooting 12 hour days. But I'll try to give daily highlights.

4:23 PM (mountain time)

Well, I just figured out that I can't paste into Blogger from Word...and so just retyped the entire post. Oh well. I'll know better next time. I got into SLC about 12:30 local time, hooked up with the team and got a late lunch. Now, I'm chilling at the hotel until it's time to take care of the executive producer's kids (they're friends of mine) while he and his wife take the principle actor and his wife out to lunch. The principle actor is Dean Jones of Herbie movie fame. He was also in The Horse In The Grey Flannel Suit (anyone else love that movie?). Oh...and I just found out that the sound stage where we are shooting tomorrow is the one where they just shot High School Musical 3 (I'm not a big fan...but I know some who are...). Pretty cool stuff. 

Ok...that's about it...I'm going to try not to fall asleep now. =)

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

(Though I do know when I'll be back again.) In about 36 hours, I'll be boarding a plane bound for Utah. I'm going out there to help with the Crown Financial Ministries Short Films Project. They have a blog (www.crown.org/shortfilms)where you can learn more about the project and see video updates and photos etc. In a nutshell, they are filming a series of short films of biblical stories dealing with financial principles. They are mainly aimed at oral cultures where storytelling is the main form of communication.

For the past week (maybe longer) I've felt like a kid counting down to Christmas. I've decided to keep my own blog while I'm gone so that my widespread friends can share this trip with me. I'm hoping it will help with the problem of not knowing how to tell people about my trip when I return. =)

So, what will I be doing? That's what everyone is asking - including me. At this point, I don't know other than "helping." I found out about the project through Crown's blog in May. The whole project is right up my alley career/passion-wise. So, I contacted a friend of mine there (who happens to be the executive producer) and asked if I could volunteer and tag along. He said I could if I could pay my own way. So, I prayed about it, crunched some numbers and decided that it was an opportunity I could not pass up. It's been cool to see how God has opened this door for me. And I can't wait to see what He will do on this trip. So, here I go!

To be continued...