Casting Call

One of my passions is filmmaking. I love being sets creating stories and seeing art come to life. But I also love being on sets because of all the conversations I get to have with people about God! It is quite a mission field for me!

One of my fave shows is having a contest so I entered!!

It's easy to vote, you just login w/ Facebook or Twitter, or your email! And you can vote very day, once daily, until September 9th.
Vote here:

MAD MEN CASTING CALL
 DIRECTIONS
1-Log-in (Top Right of page using FB, your email, twitter)

2-Create profile (takes 1 min! Don't be alarmed if you're confused! You'll figure it out!).

3-Vote-by pressing RED VOTE TAB under my PIC (SEE # of votes CHANGE & it says "Thanks for Voting.")
YOU DON'T HAVE TO "LIKE" the page, Just "liking" the page doesn't count as a vote.

4-Vote every day around the same time. They clock it
every 24 hours thru your computer. CONTEST ENDS 9/9. It's all about the # of votes. Top 10 highest men & top highest women are entered in Semi-finals.

5-You can invite others to join in on the event, too!

Thanks so much for the shameless self-promotion!
9th place for the men votes as of Sunday 8/28

HUGE THANKS to my good friend John Meyer who took the photo for me!

Anew

Dave Shearin, my good buddy, parter in ministry (Street Church's pastor), makes his acting debut in a beautiful little short film by some friends I have through the Academy of Art! Way to go Andrea & Jae.

Genesis Film Fest

I would like to invite you to the first annual GENESIS film festival.

Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Santa Clara University, St. Clare Room, Library-3rd Floor
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130423393635645

The Genesis Film Festival will showcase the best student work during the past year. Genesis embraces the gift of storytelling, and students are challenged to create films that revolve around the human condition and social justice.

Short films will be screened from the following categories through faculty selects: Visual Communication, Intro Digital Filmmaking, Narrative, Documentary, Expanded Cinema, and Capstone. Awards will be given to the top film in each category as well as Best Screenwriting and Audience Choice.

Sponsors include: Avid, B&H Photo Video, Final Draft, FotoKem, Keycode Media, Kodak, Pro 8mm, SCU, Snader & Associates, and VMI.

Free Admission
Reception following at the de Saisset Museum
Check out the Genesis commercial, “The Confession” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPqoMz-pkWE

Lost: No More (spoiler alert).

My wife convinced me to stay up last night to watch the Series Finale! So glad we ditched our DVR plan for the next day. It was well worth it. From what I am seeing the reviews are mixed. But I don't care, I'm not miffed. There was so much I loved. And it reminded me of the value of my own life and loved ones!

One thing's for sure, I love being able to see God through media, TV, film, art..and it isn't the stuff that we expect nor totally agree with, but we can see God and be touched by him as we brush up against beauty, pain, truth, life..and specially through the mystery of life's unanswered questions in Lost. Watch this Video.

This is big picture that I take away from the message of Lost:
Life is about relationships (living in community), healing (both emotional in reconciliation and physical), finding and embracing a mission (we all have a purpose in life), seeking light (I obviously interpret this for THE light I seek), and overcoming any obstacles (the Island, Smokey, the others) in order to do so! All around...pretty cool and...we truly don't need to die alone..(thanks Vincent).
But I'll be honest. There was one slightly cheesy, over the top, and possibly a jump the shark moment, The Stained glass window in the Church Building. A Cross, A Yin Yang, other religious symbols. Ya, Ok. We get your message. I've seen it on car bumpers: "We can all co-exist now and in eternity."
Since I loved the show so much I'm willing to forgive that :) cause I saw God so much in the story, and was moved in many ways. But I do just want to acknowledge that we can still see God, be touched by him as we encounter truth and beauty in the world even when we don't fully agree with everything theologically (like allocating Jesus to just "a way" among many paths to enlightenment). But with that said, it was great TV in so many ways and touching emotionally and spiritually in so many ways. (I cried yes, and held my wife a little longer last night as we prayed :)!

And least/most importantly...I'm totally fine w/ all the unanswered questions. What about the Dharma Initiative, the Island, the numbers??? There's a lot of room for interpretation and it's good that they didn't give every answer. Does life? Does God? Besides, the writers probably didn't have all the answers either. I like this blog's take.

So, it's time to move on. Let go.

Aloha Lost..
I'm found...... and I'll live like that.

Lighting up Hollywood

Just returned from a great time in SoCal: Studio City at CBS Studios. Four of us spent the day with hundreds of other Hollywood types at Biola's 15th annual conference for Christians in Media and entertainment.

In between workshops on Film Making (one of my faves by Stan Williams), new technology, and good story-telling we were seizing any opportunity we could to pose in front of CBS logos while checking out sets , sound stages, and the scenery lots.



Here I am with my pal Gabe. He directs the PeaPod group (a media/arts academy at the Redwood City Boys and Girls' club) .



Here's me below (looking like Shark boy. I blame the wind for my "hair-fin."), with Paul Skidmore: up and coming film-maker extraordinaire who tweets regularly and gave a crazy good workshop on the future of technology and film-making. (His last film he just used his iPhone pretty much to direct, location scout, produce, etc).


One of the moments that stands out is when I was escorted- like a criminal-out of the conference, while I was sitting in the front row in front of everyone. They thought I was bootlegging some of the never before screened footage in a new trailer for the third installment of the Narnia films: C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader. No joke. They warned the whole audience that they had to be super tight on security and asked us to have integrity not to leak it out. So I put my phone down and didn't even want to touch it during the three minute clip. After the trailer finished and every one applauded for Walden Media president, Michael Flaherty ... I grabbed my phone to tweet my response and check others who were posting under the twitter hashtag #bmc10. Just then, about 5-10 minutes after the trailer in the middle of the guest speaker Q&A-- a security guard crawled out the front middle row and said, "Sir, I need you to come with me..and bring your phone, too." So funny..I was paralyzed. "Excuse me?"
Here's the pic I took of Ralph Winter and Dick Cooke, minutes before I almost got tazed.


Just kidding, they didn't taze me but I felt like yelling that out. "I'm innocent, don't taze me bro!" I was taken to the back stage area where I was surrounded by an entourage of some tough guys types :) and Biola Media officials: Peggy Rupple and Kathy Cooke. Both women were very kind apologized repeatedly saying it was just protocol and they just needed to take every precaution. Peggy even bear hugged me to smooth it over. Good thing cause I almost wet myself. It was definitely awkward but now makes a great story. I shared it Sunday Night with my Church and they cracked up. (I totally understand they had to crackdown). They made me go through my phone's pics and videos and then set me free. Even though I was completely innocent--it was a weird feeling. My heart was beating fast, I was sweating, and trying not to think of what this could do to my illustrious career but hey..you know what they say in Hollywood-any publicity is good publicity right?Some one later commented--"Now you now how Jesus feels." Well, Jesus was falsely accused for calling himself God, whipped and beaten innocently for the sins of the world, not falsely accused of bootlegging--not quite an equal comparison, but worth a little chuckle. If anything, I'd say after my experience I now have more sympathy for Hollywood rebels like Lyndsay Lohan.

Besides my almost arrest, another highlight was how Twitter was used incessantly during the day. I must have tweeted a quote every ten minutes or more. Then-found a group of people to have dinner with via a "Tweet-up!" Gotta love it! Shout out to the Daily Grill crew!

We topped of our night with in a cool little private CBS screening room watching the film: "Like Dandelion Dust." Quite the emotional roller coaster-see behind the scenes here. Cool story about two families who are intersected and torn apart by the love of one little boy and his adoption, one is his biological family and one is his adopted family. It comes out in September. Bring Kleenex. Here we are with Director Jon Gunn and one of the lead actresses Kate Levering.Overall I loved the conference. Besides some of the cheesy music that played (a Jazz version of "Here I am to Worship,") and a few "oversaved" (in the words of comedian Michael Jr.) vendors tabling their merchandise at the conference, this event was well worth it. And I hope I get to go again. Maybe I'll get a free ticket for suffering the Christ-like humiliation of being forsaken and accused of bootlegging..hmmm...:)

I heart Hollywood. I love the creativity, potential, the stories and most definitely the people! God God! Go Biola! Way to go.
I pray God continues to do great work through his people to tell amazing stories that changethe world and impact those in the theaters, on set, and behind the scenes.

See a review from Christianity today here.

Speaking on Human Trafficking

I started following Jesus because of two amazing friends, high school students, that followed Jesus faithfully and radically. I believe that youth can/are used by God in great ways. This morning I got to speak on Human Trafficking at The King's Academy, thanks to the invitation from a PCC High School Student, Esther Smith, who attends TKA. I co-taught with friend, former human trafficking victim, Jill Ranes to a few hundred students. I felt their potential and had a momentous time praying with them. Jill gave these students another face to human trafficking. She was used in the Bay Area, as an American citizen, for ten years in an organized crime ring of pornography in her twenties. It's happening all over the world, perpetrators are kidnapping children and taking them to the US, but it also happens right in our back yard on college campuses, in airports, with the use of drugs and manipulation. Jill is exposing this issue and expanding it. She is speaking about her plight and helping to bring awareness, so that other might be rescued and healed, too. We just recorded her story for The Sound Room (Podcast) which will be up in a couple weeks, so watch for it.


We started out by reading ISAIAH 58 AND PRAYING FOR GOD'S LOVE TO SHINE AND BRING FREEDOM TO THE CAPTIVES.
After, the high school chapel, we viewed some art made by the Jr. High Students around the issue.




The HS chaplain said these students have raise almost $5000 for the issue.

The Crucifixion

Good Friday. A time to reflect. A time to weep and mourn. But not for long.

Watch a video here.

May we all have perspective today of the love of God for the world demonstrated through the life and death of Jesus Christ. If you are near Redwood City join our gathering tonight 8pm in PCC's Worship Center for TENEBRAE.


Easter awaits...when we celebrate the end of all darkness, sin, and death as it's done away with forever because Jesus conquered the grave and the evil one. TO BE CONTINUED.