Quoteworthy

"As we explore promising avenues of research, we must also ensure that all life (is) treated with the dignity it deserves."
— President George W. Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2008

Motion Tracking 50% OFF

Digital Juice has a motion tracking plugin for After Effects that they are selling for 50% off the normal price! If you use AE be sure to check this out!

What's mocha-AE?
Mocha-AE is a standalone 2D tracking tool that's specially designed to export tracking data to Adobe After Effects. It's packed with features to make a compositor's life easier. Click here to read more.

Biblical Principles of the Ballot Box

I'm sorry folks, this isn't a book (as I had originally stated) it's an Audio CD.

A new audio CD by Doug Phillips.

"The Bible is the only answer for fearful Christians in an age of politics. The Bible has the answer to the ethical chaos of fear-driven voting, pragmatic voting, “ends-justifies-the-means” voting, and “lesser-of-two-evils” voting. The Bible does not require Christians to vote for perfect candidates, but it does require that Christians support biblically qualified candidates. Biblical Principles of the Ballot Box explores the Scriptural standards for selecting civil magistrates, and offers great hope for Christians living in an age in which our leaders have broken covenant with the God of their fathers."

FREE!! - Read more here.
*I haven't listened to this CD so I can't necessarily endorse it. But it looks like it would be an interesting session and I'm planning on getting it.

Rattle snakes

Even if you HATE snakes this is a really insightful audio clip about the marvelous design of our God. Creation Moments: A Dangerous Wonder

"Saving Sarah Cain"

For those of you who like Michael Landon Jr. films, his new one is now on DVD:

"Saving Sarah Cain."

"Powerful, funny, heartwarming and triumphant, Saving Sarah Cain is a captivating film directed by Michael Landon, Jr. and featuring performances from Academy Award® nominees Elliott Gould and Tess Harper.

Sarah Cain (Lisa Pepper) is sweet, successful, slightly self-absorbed and a city girl through and through. But when the untimely death of her sister draws her to Amish country for the funeral, she makes a discovery that will change her life: she is now the legal guardian to five Amish nieces and nephews! Desperately trying to juggle the kids, her career and her comfort level, Sarah must reevaluate her priorities as she prepares for the biggest culture shock of everyone’s lives!"

www.savingsarahdvd.com - View the Trailer, Clips from the movie and listen to an interview with the director.

*I'm not endorsing nor negating this film in any way. I am posting this information in the category of "Christian Film Updates."

New Video from Franklin Springs

"Measure Twice, Cut Once: Essential Building Basics for Kids of All Ages"

-Measure Twice, Cut Once is a fun-filled building adventure that provides kids of all ages with a great introduction to essential carpentry skills.

Click here to read more. Click here to watch a short intro.

NEWS FLASH!!!

You probably won't hear about this from the main stream guys.

"Guess who booed a black pastor at a Martin Luther King, Jr. rally" - click here to watch.

Facing the Giants

"Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent Tuscaloosa City Schools Superintendent Joyce Levey and Bryant High Principal Amanda Cassity a letter Tuesday saying that showing the movie “Facing the Giants” in class violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."

"“This movie is not educational; it’s evangelistic,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, in a written statement. “Parents and taxpayers expect our public schools to teach, not preach.”"

Read the rest of the article here.

Should the Sun spin faster?

Another fact of science that defies evolution. Listen to this Creation Moment!

Christmas BTS #2

THE STORY
I’ve always wanted to make a video that would encourage focusing on Christ during Christmas, however I don't remember how I decided to do a revision of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” One other reason I had was to see how well I could do with limited resources.

LIGHTING
I wanted to try to shoot a complete short film using only one 500 watt light in addition to ordinary house lights or the ambient outdoor lighting. I pulled it off for the most part, there are several shots that I had to use more than one light though, such as the night shoot and the store scene.

If you watch the BTS video you will see that I use a 500 construction light for a “nightlight” in the bedroom, a fireplace in the living room and sunlight while drawing the picture. Reflectors were also used quite a bit.

SETS
The boy’s bedroom was actually shot in my sister’s room, we just re-arranged and added props to change the look.

A christian business was kind enough to allow us to shoot in their bookstore for the “store scene.”

That one was quite a challenge to light correctly. My poor actor got tired of standing up for almost two hours (9-11 pm) They also let us shoot in the parking lot to show Mom and Benj walking into "the store."

Riding the bicycle was shot on a street near our house and the wind chime was shot at my Grandparents.

CONTINUITY
Sixty percent of the project was shot in 2006 and then finished up in 2007 about a year later, which caused a few problems.

1) Benjamin no longer had his blue sweat suit that I needed for the night shots
2) Benjamin no longer had a buzzed hair cut (solved by wearing a hat and filming from the back)
3) His jacket no longer zipped up
4) The stocking cap from “sweeping snow” had been lost
5) He was missing front teeth back in ’06.

This all created interesting challenges, I would encourage you to keep close tabs on props and wardrobe from shoot to shoot :p

SPECIAL FX
One thing I learned was that a window screen can REALLY come in handy. You will notice it in several of the BTS shots. It works well to diffuse light and also will create a star shape effect when placed in front of the camera while shooting the Christmas tree. It also served as a softening “filter” for many of the Christmas tree shots, it created an interesting glow effect. It was difficult however to get the screen blurry enough so that the “grain” of the screen didn’t show up in the video. Besides lots of color correction, the only thing I added was the moon and stars reflecting in the window when he looks at the wind chime.

AUDIO
This was a nice project for audio because I cut it all out and just used narration. I did add in some sound fx to enhance the video, as it just seemed that some of the scenes needed it. I found some of the sound fx from a website called The Free Sound Project.

Narration was recorded from 12-3 in the morning, poor guy…he was pretty tired when it was all said and done. I thought he did a fabulous job though. I wish I had a picture of the “sound studio” we setup to get a quiet recording! At the time, my computer was right next to our bunk bed and Benjamin sleeps on the bottom bunk, so I strung up his blankets and comforter to create a “box” on his bed for him to sit in. For a pop filter I held the microphone on one side of a thin sheet and had him talk from the other side – I know, quite the make-do setup but hey it worked alright.

MUSIC
I covered this in an earlier blogpost, but thanks again to the Morris guys for the insane hours cranking out an amazing score for this short movie!!!

Also, special thanks to my family for all their support and assistance!!

VIDEOS
- ‘Twas the Week Before Christmas