Stand BOLD
“I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.I write to you, fathers,
because you know Him who is from the beginning.I write to you, young men,
”
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
Here in 1 John 2:12-14 we are reminded of who God is, and what our relationship means. Diversity in the church is a gift from God. Each follower is unique, blessed with certain gifts. Children are innocent of sin, cleansed by Christ’s sacrifice. Youths are strong, with the Word in their hearts they have overcome. And elders are blessed with the knowledge that Christ is forever. Each one of us has a responsibility to use our maturity for the benefit of other believers, and each one of us needs the blessings of others in our own lives. Building relationships is a big step in building the Kingdom, duh.
About a month ago we were invited to submit a spec ad to the Wall Street Journal for their new mobile campaign. Upon finishing our submission we weren’t satisfied, so 24 hours before the deadline, and about 12 hours before Mike had four wisdom teeth removed, we decided to do an impulse shoot. Krista rushed home from her day-job, and we spent the last hour and a half of daylight at the park running into eachother, stepping on eachother’s feet, getting hit with frisbees. squishing into baby-swings, and falling off slides. After about three hours of editing, voilà!
I’m working on a preliminary color grade for our latest spot. The shoot took place in an open doorway on a 20-something degree day. Needless to say, we all worked a little faster than usual. Next comes an edit, sound mix, several seconds of motion graphics, and then a final grade.
36 Hours - So dependent, yet so loved.
Tomorrow we’ll shoot a web spot for HSLDA, an entry for their commercial contest. The entire 60 second spot needs to go from script to screen by 10AM, Saturday morning. There’s nothing unusual about the project itself, it’s a pretty straightforward concept that only includes about 6 shots. However, the path to this particular iteration of the script has taken a few unexpected turns…hence I’m taking time to reflect and write this post. So pop some corn, brew a pot of koolaide, and curl up for an epic three-minute tale.
It all started sometime in August of two-thousand and ten when HSLDA announced their contest. I immediately took interest, lost interest, and then tossed the whole idea onto the disorganized shelves of my brain. Fast forward to mid September, when after some earth-shattering, now forgotten, revelation I decided we simply must develop a purely genius attempt for the aforementioned prize. Krista and I then commenced our usual writing routine which generally consists of drawing on scratch-paper, checking twitter, watching web memes, and pounding out a few terrible ideas in ‘Notes for iPad’ until someone is struck with a stroke of shear brilliance. A few days in, this wonderful stroke came, and I laid it all out in Celtx. I felt like we had something good on paper, and we set out to conquer it on screen. The first night of shooting went very well, a good friend of ours gave a wonderful performance as an evil government agent.
Stoked by the evening’s success, we commenced shooting a couple days later. After hours of fleshing out and re-delivering lines we all agreed this script was a hopeless endeavor. Slightly downtrodden (slightly downtrodden is quite different than totally downtrodden) we immediately started major revisions (We can rebuild him — we have the technology…better, stronger, faster) and locked down a second script . The only issue then was that we’d need two charming families to act out the madness. Due to a lack of time, and a seeming multitude of obstacles, we decided to go for a total overhaul.
So here we are with a simplified story, 36 hours to go from concept to delivery…and we’re much better off than we ever were. There’s a moral to all this criss-crossing, an oft repeated one, but one I’m going to say anyway. From the beginning I asked God for inspiration, and for good craftsmanship. It seemed that over and over we were failing on the most basic level. Whatever, whoever, however we tried we’d find a cheesey mess, a full calendar, or a blank stare. Now, three days before the deadline (which was posted so many months ago) we have a lovely script. It’s much less “commercial” than its predecessors, and it’ll probably be alot more entertaining. Just when it felt like hope was lost, and the last resorts were being resorted to, God delivered a shiny red box to my mind via the midnight express. Just as in all other aspects of life, His timing was far from our projections, yet His grace was far more sufficient than our expectations.
All we can do is trust Him to give us success tomorrow, and the only success we can aspire to is that of glorifying Him. We are, in this way, so dependent, yet so loved.
That new car smell..
Ok, so we didn’t run out and buy a custom standBOLDmobile, but we do have a load of shiny new tidbits to share! We’re super excited to roll out a new vision, new design, new blog, and some new projects! Fasten your seatbelts, and prepare for takeoff!
Foregoing a “big reveal” we’ve launched a beta version of the new site, a nice change for those of you who have been staring endlessly at the ‘coming soon’ page in constant anticipation (you know who you are). We’d love some feedback on the design. Anything feel awkward? any parts that strike you as the best thing since sliced bread? Let us know via a comment, or one of the contact methods listed on the site. Based on our final collaboration, and your insightful comments, the main site may be different from what you see now, or very much the same.
You might be wondering what role this blog will play in our wild extravaganza of newness! We intend for the main site to remain a fairly static information center, like the welcome desk at your nearest five star hotel. There you’ll see who we are, and we can find out what we can do for you. The blog will serve as an inside look at our hearts and minds as we brainstorm, create, and distribute. You might find a prayer request, a sneak peek at upcoming projects, or maybe some software tips. It’s a place to interact, and freely spew spiritual/media/fun stuff.
Enjoy the new design, more to come!
