So part of my absence was due to the annual as ever Impact Summer Camp. Also becoming an annual event is my drive up to Michigan for it (a 15 hour affair) which is way to much time to sit and think…and listen to an audio book or two. My listening was The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, an agnostic, secular raised Jew. Reading this lead to two realizations:

1. The Bible is not user friendly. I’ve always understood how daunting and overwhelming the Bible can seem to a first time reader, but the author of this book found over 700 rules that he attempted to follow. This was my frustration with the book (and the reason I do not recommend it). He never took the time to get the heart of the Bible and only once or twice made mention of the God’s love for us part. He got caught up in the religion and never caught the purpose of any of it.

2. But that led to my second realization that I am incredibly sympathetic to skepticism of Christianity. My favorite parts of the Bible have always been the ones that display the struggle of faith in God. For me, Jonah, the author of Ecclesiastes, and Job are some of my favorites. As Jacobs asks in the book, ”Is half of the world suffering from a massive delusion, or is my blindness to spirituality a huge defect in my personality?” It’s not that I too struggle with my faith, it’s just that I really understand how it can be hard to believe in something so illogical. Hopefully  I will return to these topics soon.

And if you liked that this is actually mostly just a compilation of the three separate videos which you can see all of here.

CREDITS:
Camera – Neil Greathouse and myself
Editing – Neil Greathouse
Audio Mixing – Matty Huber
Voice Talent – Katy Barber
Special Effects – Myself
And of course the actors and other help from all of the Woman planning crew.

Hopefully you saw the recently released Dirt Mashup Video I posted last week. If not then now is your time not only to see it but to get in on some of that sweet raw footage to make your own.

Dino Rizzo, Randy Bezet, Joe Champion, Greg Surratt, Kellen Coldiron, Kristin Becnel, Daniel Gonzales, John Siebeling, Stovall Weems, Rob Ketterling and Tarik Stewart are among those whose words you can now mangle all in the name of winning a pair of tickets to Dirt!

We are giving you the opportunity to make your own Remix of our Mashup in whatever way your wildest dreams see fit. Because if your wildest dreams contain these esteemed individuals then you are probably in our target market.

There is no format requirement, no rules to follow. Just take this footage, make and upload your remix to somewhere, email a link to info@dirtconference.com, and make our brains explode. (there are some excellent idea suggestions to get you started here)

DirtRemixKit.zip (140.9 MB – all footage)

And feel free to pass this contest along!
Small GIF | Medium GIF | Large GIF | Static PNG

I made it in After Effects over the weekend and some in the van on the way to North Carolina for the ARC All Access Conference. It was a good 13+ hour drive but it was a great trip all around.

The video is a pretty simple idea that looks really sharp. If you’re the AE type and would also like all the project files  just to tinker (minus the end…it was too big) it is linked below. Enjoy!

DirtWording.zip (39.53MB)

South that is.

So I promised to start blogging a little over a month ago, and then a funny thing happened. Neil Greathouse and New Life Church offered me a job in Little Rock/Conway Arkansas.

Well, as most of you probably know by now, I took it. I’ve been here for two weeks now and it’s been nuts! Here’s what I’ve been up to all, of which I will elaborate on soon:

1. Moving in to my new place. Those of you who have asked can get my address on my Facebook page.

2. Working on a motion graphics video for our upcoming dirt conference.

3. Promoting that conference this last week at the ARC All Access Conference which will be hosted at NLC in 2010 (has been moved to Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge).

4. Running around doing my regular duties as a Video/Graphics person on the Creative Arts Team.

5. Avoiding picking up any hints of an accent like the swine flu.

Again, more elaboration to come and hopefully some pictures of where I live and work. Also, I hope you like the new layout of the site!

By the way, this is real and I might have to read it! The book will be available in April of this year, but you can pre-order it today for only $12.95!

Some of my other favorites include Star Wars, Army of Darkness, and Planet of the Apes.

CAUTION: This site contains some crude language and, obviously, some disturbing images so you have been warned.

Some movies you come out of not knowing what to say. These movies are usually one of two types.

1. A movie that just had so much to say you really can’t comment on any of it without seeing it a few more times.

2. A movie that was so thick with amazing acting, plot development, and care to detail that your mind is straight blown beyond words.

But this movie…this movie was both of those.  Aaron Eckhart, yes. Heath Ledger, wow. Christopher Nolan…I love you. This movie was treated with such care and attention to detail in every character and every plot twist. I am honestly having trouble of thinking of a movie I like more. But as point number 1 stated, I really have to see it again just because this movie deserves it. You do have to see this movie (but please watch Batman Begins first).