"Why Is the Movie Named Ace Wonder?"

This is an extra fun video I did while on set. It started out as an honest question

'cause I wanted to know the answer, but some of the responses I got were...well quite unusual!!

Early-Bird Registration Ends July 1st!

Early Bird registration for the Vision Forum Festival and Academy ends on July 1st! If you are considering attending this year, I'd recommend signing up early because the price goes up an extra $200 for regular admission. Sign up here!

Some pics from last year...

Ace Wonder BTS - Ep. 8

Creed Of Gold

SYNOPSIS: "In 1917, a secret group financed the Bolshevik Revolution; while this group did not break any laws, were their actions ethically right?  Creed of Gold follows three college students as they investigate this shadowy group of individuals. For centuries, this group has manipulated finances around the world and is now using the Federal Reserve to undermine the U.S. economic situation.

When, unbeknownst to the others, one man gets greedy and creates a computer program in the Federal Reserve accounting program to siphon money into his own pocket, the race is on.  An immigrant from Russia, Adam relates the ideas of the Bolshevik revolution to modern day America. Cody, Adam’s brilliant but humorous side-kick, helps bring the message of the film home by sometimes just stating the obvious. And Kirsten allows us to empathize with the trio as we follow her personal journey from high-society to heartfelt faith."

They are filming on the Canon 5D.

And they have some sweet locations!

Cool characters.

...and some bad characters.

For more info on the film and to stay up-to-date, visit the movie website: www.creedofgold.com

Fathers for Life

GARRETT HUBBARD: "My hope is to use my gifts & skills to communicate God's heart for justice, the lonely, and the suffering through a medium that can touch, startle, and even grab our hearts. I hope that as people encounter my work they would share in an experience that would lead them to act and also on a journey that leads them to love the way Christ loves. I am a staff Photojournalist capturing photography & documentary movie stories at USA TODAY.

"This is likely the most important story I've had the opportunity to tell with USA TODAY. I am so thankful that John Walton from Awana told me about the Returning Hearts Celebration while we were at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in March of this year. As soon as he started telling me about the transformation in the lives of the inmates I was hooked. I came back to USA TODAY and pitched the story to the paper and I was able to spend three days at Angola prison in Louisiana and witness the reunion of these men with their children. Many many thanks to Lyndon Azcuna and the whole team at Awana for helping me meet such strong men of faith and conviction. I am so thankful to Randy, Keith, Kyle, and Edward for sharing their story of how their lives were changed by knowing Jesus. Most importantly I want to thank my father, who loved me, guided me, and set a great example for me by living a life of integrity."

- You can view more stories and get more information on Garrett's Blog.

New Senate Bill Proposes a Kill Switch for the Internet.

I think when you get arrested these days you should get one phone call, one Tweet and one Facebook update. ("Back in jail need bail LOLZ.") Our daily internet use has reached a saturation rate no one could have imagined twenty years ago.

Something else you can't imagine: The internet being turned off.

A new, daft--sorry, draft--U.S. Senate Bill is proposing that during a "cybersecurity emergency" the President should be able to "seize control of, or even shut down, portions of the internet," with broadband providers and search engines required to comply. (The entire 197-page document is available for download here.) If national security is at stake I'm not sure I can really argue against the motion, but unsurprisingly the bill is expected to stir up major debate and opposition.

Says one official, "We cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realises the importance of protecting our cyber resources." The terrorists, it seems, hate our Facebook.

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Source Article

NOT A FAN - update

Not a Fan has some new videos up!

About color correcting...

About composing...

About the characters...(includes shots from the series)

And...there are even some bloopers!!

www.notafan.com

Digital Juice StackTraxx RETIREMENT

Stack Traxx are amazing, and I'm sad to see them going away, my hope is that this means that they will be replacing them with something better! If you haven't ever checked them out, I would HIGHLY encourage that you do so before they are gone! Personally I have 8 of the ST albums and have used them quite a bit in my projects, I have found ST to be the most versatile buy-out music for the cheapest price. At least check out some of the demos on their website...what can it hurt!

• 100% Royalty-Free! Buy once and use in all your projects.
• Layered Tracks. Each songs with 4-7 remixable tracks.
• Compatible with any computer based non-linear or linear editor with a DVD-ROM drive.
• High Quality! Recorded natively at 44.1 khz, 16 bit.
• Keyword Searchable! Using our FREE Juicer 3 Software.

- Check out the full StackTraxx library here!

Screening of “A Christmas Snow”

The first public screening of A Christmas Snow was a huge success at the Gideon Film Festival in Black Mountain, NC this past weekend.

Thank you to the 250+ people that came out to the screening and stayed for the Q & A with the cast and crew.

The audience cheered, laughed, and cried as the story unfolded and the only complaint we received was that we needed more Kleenexes. After the screening, Catherine Mary Stewart, Muse Watson, Cameron ten Napel, Chad Gundersen, Jason Stafford, and Tracy J Trost answered questions from the audience.

If you didn’t make it to the screening you can still see A Christmas Snow before it’s release on October 8th, be sure to check the event calendar right here on the site.

Movie Website: www.achristmassnow.com

Cut, Wrap, Walk Away Proud

It has been a couple weeks now from the official wrap for Ace Wonder, and I've thought back on the shoot and contemplated how to go about writing up a review of the blessings and struggles...I found that this article by Mike Thorn summed it up quite well.

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"By some miracle only God knows the whereby, we wrapped on time despite almost foolish odds. Our AD, Chip Lake, whom I am priviledged to call my friend, managed the unthinkable and we did not drop any pages – a Herculean task for anyone in our circumstance and Chip did it without flinching (or having a meltdown). We shot it all and only did two 14hr days! A few pickups will undoubtedly be necessary – with a schedule like ours you could count on forgetting a shot or two, or not having time for it – but there is enough material in the can to cut a rough draft without much difficulty. Nathan Webster and David Heustis did an admirable job of managing our data workflow, data backup and dailies – without their experience and wisdom I can honestly say that the shoot would have been in far deeper trouble than most of the crew are aware. I thank God for their collected coolness and persistence in solving several very difficult technical problems. I’m sure I don’t know half of their stories and the ones I do know would cause monitor burn-in.

In addition to their technical troubleshooting, they literally pioneered bleeding-edge technology during the show. Adobe released Creative Suite 5 about two weeks into the shoot and Nathan and David had our workflow completely converted before the end of the day. We believe ACE WONDER can likely claim to be the first legitimate feature production to cut dailies in CS5 (Nathan’s remark was, “Any legitimate production wouldn’t have upgraded systems in the middle of the show!”). So, once again, HeuMoore sets the bar: on WIDOW’S MIGHT, we were one of the first large features, and unquestionably the first Christian feature, to shoot on the RED One. Gotta love life on the edge!

Not that life on the cutting edge is without its challenges. For this production HeuMoore brought in Chad Gunderson to produce the film, and with Chad came a team of experienced Hollywood-class crew members. This created an interesting oil-and-water mix when put together with the more guerilla-oriented HeuMoore team and the small army of interns who graced the show. It led to not a few operational methodology conflicts which were not all neatly resolved, but it taught all of us a very valuable lesson about how productions can and cannot operate. By God’s grace we finished the movie, but not a day went by that various issues were not being addressed.

A large portion of the conflict came as a result of the highly compressed schedule and the compromises which were forced as a result. With more time, fewer compromises would have been made and many tempers would have been calmed. Also, because John Moore was making an admirable effort to bring in a number of more rookie filmmakers in an effort to help educate them, sometimes impatience flared when protocol was dropped or balls were dropped. However, I feel that this was far outweighed by what we were able to give to them and the value that they in turn congtributed to the production. Several people immediately come to mind as men I will be calling on in the future and that is something they earned not only in my estimation, but in many others’ as well.

This production taught me many new lessons as well. As I have written before, I came into this project with some question in my mind about the Biblical validity of the standard Hollywood production model and my opinion hasn’t changed. I still think that it is oxymoronic for a family member to make a career out of field production which inevitably tears them apart from their family in ways that only long-term travelers can understand. But beyond that, I learned many things about myself that have left me with some regrets, some treasures, and a deeper understanding of some of the things that I believe and what they mean in a real-world environment. And not only just in film, but everyday situations and workplaces. Here are a few of the specific lessons I’ve written down to remember:

- I was in the new situation on this shoot of having multiple people under me. I’ve worked with a 2nd AC once before (it’s a rare luxury), but in this case I always had at least 2 people near me. By the end of the shoot, camera department actually outnumbered grip&electric. John Hedrick and Chris Gill, our interns, did a great job and made my job and Ryan Guzdzial’s much simpler. However, for the first several weeks, the camera department roll call tended to fluctuate depending on the location and who was able to be on-set that day. As a result, for the first three weeks I tended to do a large portion of the work myself (which resulted in somewhat slower results than the production was willing to wait for, which resulted in them making Ryan – formerly our script supervisor but conveniently an experienced camera assistant in LA – the 1st AC and demoting me to 2nd). I never took the time to properly train Chris or John because I was never sure who was going to be there and I felt too busy to take the time to train and instruct someone who might not still be with me the next week. As a result, it hurt all of us. Lesson learned: take the time to “teach the man to fish.” Instead of giving specific instructions but not actually teaching anything, show him the reason *why* things are done specific ways so that he can begin to think through the work for himself. That’s the best way to improve – learn WHY things are done in a certain manner so that you can discover BETTER ways to do them, or ANTICIPATE the need in the first place. Chris and John, I apologize for not sharing my knowledge sooner and more fully!

- So often people take more work upon themselves because they don’t trust other people to do the job properly. Every time you decide not to delegate a task that could be given to someone else, and as a result slow down the production while they wait for you, valuable time and money is lost. That is foolish – surround yourself with people you can trust. Those people are worth their weight in gold.

- If you have reservations about something you are doing, or are being asked to do, don’t do it. You will regret it. It is better to feel like a fool and back out than be a fool and do something you should not.

- But if you do decide to do it, give it everything you’ve got. If you don’t give 100%, your level best, you still have lots of room to improve. Don’t take the path of least resistance. Do the right thing. You know it’s the right decision because usually it’s harder.

- Don’t be resistant to change. Resistance means you are fighting, braking against the flow, slowing down. Think of it as changing lanes: you are still going in the same direction, headed for the same place, but you are just taking a slightly different route to get there. It doesn’t mean it’s the wrong way, or that either way is better – too many times it just comes down to preference. Be the man that gives up his preference to someone else’s.

- Never, ever, EVER complain. People that complain are cowards because they are afraid to do something hard. However, be practical. If something is being done  or a process is being used that is inefficient, unsafe, unrealistic, or of lower integrity, be persistent for the right thing. There is a difference between practicality and complaining. Be careful – the more you blur the line, the less seriously you will be listened to.

- Get to know your co-workers well. Often first impressions are wrong. Misunderstandings can crop up too easily to make assumptions. Find out how they think, what their values and morals are, what their vision and inspiration is. You will find that you have more in common than you thought. The better you know them and their own peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, the less conflict you will have.

- Don’t force people to conform to your ideology. If you cannot persuade them lovingly, let go of the issue. The more you try to force the point, the more they will resist you and the deeper the divide will become. If you cannot live with non-conformity, be sure to only surround yourself with like-minded people!

I’m sure I will have more thoughts later when I have had time to ponder over the last 5 weeks for a little while. It has been a very thought-provoking show. Most of those lessons were learned the hard way."

Don’t forget to check out the production blog at http://www.acewondermovie.com/blog/

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Article was originally posted on Mike's blog - http://mikethorn.wordpress.com