Film festival update! SO much has happened. For a good two days I couldn't get an idea. TWO DAYS! It drove me nuts. Finally, while sitting at dinner with Jess, Josh and myself we came up with something. I wrote a script in a matter of hours and presented it to Clay and Lars. They loved it, but there was one problem. The script called for a kid as a character. It was brought to my attention that it's darn near impossible to find a kid that we need, then it's darn near impossible to direct him. So, no big deal. After all the agonizing over a script then finally getting this incredible story, we just have to start all over! FINE! AHH. Actually, things turned out better than I expected. We did come up with a new idea. This time we wrote around the resources we had. We cleaned it up. Wrote, rewrote, condensed, and rewrote ad. Infinitum. So, now we have a new script. Tonight I write it. What's it about? A thing. heh. I'll give this: It's called "Fatal Illusion" -BRiAN

Scripture: Prov 19:3 "A mans folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord." Line of dialoge to inegrate: "The light went out." Prop that must be used in the film: A toy bunny that was given to us. The night I got the scripture I was so excited. I'm still excited. But I'm also frustrated. I haven't come up with a solid story yet. Which is ok. I expect that by the end of today or tomorrow we'll have a story to work with. Once the story is in place everything will really start to roll. I shine more as a director than a writer.

Well, tonight is the big night. Myself, Craig, Billy, Pastor Manny, Clay, Cliff and hopefully Lars if he's feeling better, are going to Bel Air Presbetirian to get our scripture verse and theme. I think I'll call Carly and ask her to post what they are tonight. I could hardly sleep last night, it was like the night before Christmas.. in January. One thing that was on my mind was the same thing that plagued me as I thought about film school. What if I can't live up to what I think my creative potential is? What if I get the verse and theme tonight and I draw a blank. I expect that to happen at first, but what if I can't carry the vision once we have an idea. The cool thing about this whole process, though, is that God is in control. Also, the word of God is living and active. Which means I'll have a little squirming baby piece of scripture to work with and help to grow into an intersting film. Plus, we're not doing this for money or fame, we're doing it to give glory and honor to God. -BRiAN

Today has been, by far, one of the top three best days of my life. It started at 8:15 am. Myself, Billy, Craig, Lars, Yoshiko and Clay went to a film makers seminar in Bel Air. The 168 film project hosted it with lunch and everything. There were speakers on writing, pre-production, casting, lighting and makeup. It lasted from 9-5 and was awesome! After that things got a little strange, but ultimatley good. We have a new intern by the name of Faith, and a yesterday I was told we were having a birthday party for her. I thought this was strange because her birthday isn't for a looong while. I had all but forgotten about this birthday thing until Craig got a call on his cell phone. He told me that the interns were calling to make sure I was at the birthday party. I told Craig I was thinking about not going, but he told me they wanted to really make sure I was there, so I said alright. Billy wanted to leave the seminar around 4:30 so we could get to the Dreamcenter to eat dinner around 5:00. We showed up at the Dreamcenter around 5:15 and barely made it into dinner. As I was eating Billy mentioned that he was going to make an "apperance" at Faith's birthday party and reminded me once again to be sure to make it on time. I told him I would try and kept eating. As I was almost finished he stood up and asked me if I was done. I told him I was and he grabbed my tray (which doesn't happen very often). At this point I started to wonder what as going on. Billy and I left the cafeteria and headed toward the lounge. As I got there, everyone started arriving. Maya (one of our interns) said: "Thanks everyone for coming to Faith's birthday party. But, actually this isn't her party. It's a party for someone who has been doing alot for us latley. He's helped us whenever we've needed it and has always been there. We decided to throw it for him because he's been so willing to take the time to help us learn. Brian, we want to say thank you for teaching us so much and taking time out of your day for us. This party is for you!" I almost cried. I was so suprised and humbled by the generosity of the interns it was amazing. I had just finished teaching a five day course and it had totally worn me out, so to see the fruit of my labor was incredible. God really suprised and blessed me. This has been a great day.

*horns* UPDATE! *horns stop* Ok, so. I've entered Action House into a film festival. You can find out more about it at www.slate1.tv It's called "The 168 Project". We are SO going to rock this festvial. I've been teaching a basic camera/composition class since Tuesday and I finish Friday. I know I get the love of teaching from my Dad. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it. I've had hand-outs and test and everything! This Saturday I'm going to split the interns up into groups to go off on their own projects. We'll see how they do. Ok, about this film festival. These are the basics: You have one week to produce a 10 minute short film. You base your short film on a theme and scripture verse. We get these two things on Jan 28th. The actual production week is Feb 4th-11th. We have everything we really need at Action House, so that's good. I saw the winning short film on the website and all I have to say is we are SO going to rock!

On soilders commiting suicide in Iraq: "The issue of suicides so worried the military that the Army sent an assessment team to Iraq late last year to see if anything more could be done to prevent troops from killing themselves." That just doesn't sound right to me.

"You can't eat dolphin's, they're intelligent!" "Not this one, he blew all his money on lottery tickets"

I hear the faint, pleasent jingle drifting from the keychain of life It is there that the keys to my happiness are securely fastened

Today was kind of frustrating. I had planned to start working on shows that had mistakes in them from the last season (not shows I worked on, I'll tell ya THAT right now, mister!). As I began to get my crew together problems started happening. The digital video deck we use turned out to be broken. I just couldn't get the darn thing to talk to the computer. The fileserver was acting weird, had to trouble shoot that. People were having computer problems all day. An old intern came by and needed something put onto a tape, which was nearly impossible because the deck isnt' working so that took most of the day. I was suppoused to make copies of the wedding video I did for Stephen, but again, no deck. We have two digital video decks and the firewire (the part that connects the to the computer) is JACKED. It was like this ALL DAY. But, I did end up going to "The Standard" with Pastor Manny and Lars. We originally went to play pool, but we ended up on the roof where the bar is just hanging out. Pictures to follow: Lars on the roof of the standard Lars and Pastor Manny in waterbed cone things - Ok, these deserve explination. After you walk up some steps you see on your left what looks like cones with three big holes in the sides. THese are connected to a base and inside of them are white waterbeds. They are the most comfortable and cool things I have seen. Perfect for chillin' out in. Your view is the city below "The Standard" View from the roof of "The Standard" Nice way to end the day.

So, I'm back at Action House, sitting behind my little desk with my little computer. I found out that I came back about a week earlier than I needed too. This means that I have a chance to create a new opener for the new season. Everything is so new and shiny, awesome. Christmas memories begin here. I realized this year that I got everything I asked for. And I really didn't like the overall process. Sending off e-mails to parents asking for things and expecting them to just get them for me. It seems so selfish. I know that my parents and family don't mind I don't have much money to get them nice things too, but of course I feel bad about it. I wish I could get awesome stuff for 'em. Overall, I am glad to know that I was able to spend time with them. And what's up with going back home and spending more time with friends than family? I found myself staying at my old house with my old roommate more than at my Mom's house (where my clothes and stuff were). Weird. Lame, really. My sister wanted to hang out with me allot. I like hanging with her. One day we hit three different thrift shops. Like a whirlwind, baby! My Mom wanted to go jogging with me one morning, but we both got up too late. My Dad and I hung out the day before I left. We played pool and he scratched on the 8 ball, but he racked on me the rest of the time. The more I hang out with my Dad, the more I realize that I get allot of my personality from him. The humor, especially. I love my Dad. I love my Mom. I love my sister. We have a whole new batch of interns coming in this week. It's going to be a really exciting and fun time for them. We'll see how many make it. Unfortunately, before the new year, we had to let go of about three interns. Action House is a pretty hard program for some people to get through. Early mornings, stressful situations, last minute projects and lots of humility. It's such a big picture thing for many it's easy for them to loose sight of the big picture and focus on their worries.