I have heard the cry go out. Especially among my own generation, X-ers & Y-ers have grown up in a world witnessing and understanding the power of art. We have seen art change a man into a symbol of change, art has changed the way we experience and value simple cartoons, art has changed our perception of what music is in just the last 20 years!
I have a pet-peeve (imagine that). Now, I’m not here to complain about it, but hopefully to gain some clarity …hopefully. One year away from graduating college I told my dad that my Vertebrate Zoology degree wasn’t going to land me a desirable job, and instead I was considering moving to Hawaii to work as a deckhand on some rich guy’s yacht, or maybe be a Starbucks barista in Honolulu, …both would be cool. My dad started loading his gun at that moment. So that final year of school I met my wife-to-be, decided I wanted to get into the film industry and got an internship with Campus Crusade’s video team in Austin, TX. That’s where I cut my teeth on production and editing. After 2 years of interning, I gained a beautiful bride and started looking at film schools with plans to become a director. Instead, I ended up meeting a young film guy out of LA who now worked as a video director at a local church. He needed an editor, I needed a job, and he was willing to teach me anything he knew. For the next 3 years we talked, explored, and learned a ton about the film industry. We attended several film festivals (including Sundance, The Doorpost, SXSW), even took a trip to New York to pitch movie ideas to studios (waste of time, but eye-opening). Day-dreaming about making it some day, we structured our jobs to incorporate some of our passion for film. Basically, it was a lot of talk. But after a lot of talking, my friend took action and made the big jump! He quit his job, and is now joyfully (and painfully) making films (2 of which will be coming out this year, congrats man). But I didn’t follow. I was kind of surprised I didn’t, I mean we did everythingtogether for 3 years. And the one thing I had talked about wanting was right there, I could have jumped too (well, maybe not with a little one on the way, but even still, not sure I would have gone). Now I’m the Video Director, and have fully embraced the fact that I plan on being here for a while. I love this job!
But here’s where my pet peeve strikes. I don’t consider myself a filmmaker, I think I used to throw that title around a lot, trying to peer-up to guys at Sundance. But I’ve never made a film or eventouched a role of film (it’s all digital now, blah,blah, I know, not the point) …sure, I’ve made a couple of shorts here and there, but my job mostly requires a plethora of jumpbacks, interviews, backgrounds, motion-graphics, and the occasional short narrative. Videographer stuff. NOT to belittle videography, it’s a HARD job, with a whole different set of skills, and I don’t doubt that I’ll output more hours in video this year than my friend will in film. But, I see a lot of christians doing one of two things. One, is they go off to change Hollywood from the inside-out for Christ. Awesome, right? Or two, they hang around in the church and keep yaking about being filmmakers, but they don’t actually see the difference between their job and what real filmmakers do! I’ve heard it before, “Yeah, I’m a filmmaker for BlankRiver Church on the BlankHill.” Like saying filmmaker makes them cool and I know they’ve never made anything but 30 second motion graphics. Dude, that’s not filmmaking! I watch my friend, making films, being a filmmaker, wow. It’s a painful, arduous, cut-throat job. If I were to be completely honest, I’m not even sure I want to be a filmmaker anymore. Now, I don’t find that to be a dream that I gave up on, I did a lot of praying and soul-searching before taking this job, and God pointed out that at no point had he prepared me for a life in Hollywood. I haven’t had a “secular” job since 11th grade. I never thought God would direct my steps into ministry time after time after time, but He did. And when my chance to jump came, I felt God gently and lovingly pull me away from that opportunity for a greater one. ”Follow my heart J,” he said, “I have some awesome stuff I’m going to do in my church. Don’t think Hollywood is the only place that needs changing, you have lots of work ahead of you.” So all that to say, if you’re working in the church (orfor the church as it can seem sometimes) don’t pose, don’t front. Don’t walk into these creative church conferences and tell me your a filmmaker who’s credits only include a cast with your pastor’s name on it. If you want to go to Hollywood, go! Do it! God wants his people there too! But if not, embrace your calling into ministry, be the damn best videographer you can, and when you do, I bet you’ll do your best and most joyful work!
…there. Now let’s hear it, what do you think?
I’m so excited! …and I just can’t hide it (?) Cheesy I know! But, I …just can’t, hide it (…sheesh). The truth is there is a big BIG BIG project I’m undertaking in the new year of 2011! I don’t want to spoil it or talk it up… mostly because I read somewhere that the more you talk about doing something the less likely you are to actually do it! So I’m just leaving you with this teaser trailer, but I’ll let you know that it’s nothing you’ve probably seen a church do, but if you believe in collaboration, art, action, entrepreneurial-ship (wrd?) and heart, then you’ll want to stay tuned! We start in the beginning of February!
Even though I shot this short back in the Fall of ’09, I never did anything or even posted it anywhere. I think my intension was to completely re-hash the embarrassingly amateur audio (which was my 2nd time to use Soundtrack Pro). But after a year, I obviously haven’t made the time to re-do it, so I post it now. I still love the fantastic cinematography and the performance by my amigo Richardo C Jones. Watch, Absorb, & be Changed!
Last summer I had the privilege of going to Echo ’10. It wasn’t my first time to the conference, but walking away, it felt like a different experience, because for the first time, I felt like a contributor to the dialogue of a conference. What changed? What was done differently? Have you ever felt like just an attendee? That’s okay, because that’s all I am, it’s all I’ve ever been. Now, as they say, “This wasn’t my first rodeo.” From Promise Keepers to my church’s Missions Week, Urbana to Sundance, I’ve seen a few conferences and festivals; magical places and times when keynoters mount podiums, and with their eloquent and/or hilarious vernacular, establish their wisdom, leadership and insight into matters for which they were asked to present on. Now, I hate being preached at, that’s just how I am, so when sermons, speeches or presentations end, I’m desperate for more than a one-way-connection. Are you like that? My knee-jerk reaction is always to storm the stage as soon as the speaker places the period on his closing statement. But, every. damn. time. I get bested by some one who I can only assume must have been hiding under the stage in order to pounce on the speaker first. Dismissively, I assume the role of the guy who waits (as if I didn’t care that I wasn’t the first one there) and I wait, and wait, until there’s no one left, and it’s just me and the speaker. Why? Obviously because my question is so important. Honestly, it never is. I just want dialogue, a two-way conversation, to engage said person of expertise.
But you know what? It’s never ever happened. Nope, not once. The most rewarded I’ve been for this tactic was when James Cromwell grabbed me by the face and yelled at me to illustrate a point on acting. …at least I think it was an illustration. The low point, was when a speaker checked his texts and twitter messages the whole time I talked, looking up once in a while to affirm my questions, “Yep, that’s a real problem… hey, I got some people I’m suppose to meet…” My pounce & wait tactic inevitably fails when I become the last person this speaker/ messenger/cultural leader has to hurdle before they can get back to their lives/families/friends/other engagements. And I thank that last speaker for making me aware of that… pounce & wait tactic: abandoned.
So what’s the point? I return you to the scene at Echo’10. Vince & I are driving to the conference, we snap in a flip camera on the dashboard and start video’ing the beautiful bits of dialogue we have on the way up. How to pronounce breakout speaker, Matt Knisely‘s last name. Who are you most excited about hearing from, what’s the best pre-conference song to listen to? Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed by Thy Name” obviously. And as we got bits we liked, we posted them, twittered them, the intention behind this content was we just wanted to entertain ourselves, “because we suck at just showing up & watching” as our blog put it. The unintended result was that before we even arrived at Echo conference, breakout speakers, keynoters, and conference organizers had already been retweeting and sharing the content bits we created. A very cool bonus! It’s not everyday Scott McClellan walks up and asks you, “Aren’t you the Blowingupecho guys?” Wha!?
Throughout the rest of the conference, we wrote, we jested, we “collaborated“ with other conference goers, and we had a blast doing it! I got to hear from some awesome guys & gals with amazing ideas, that inspired and challenged me! And now, when a breakout speaker would finish their monologue, the dialogue could begin. I’d create the content, around their talk, throw it up online, post it, twitter it, facebook it, and 90% of the time, I got a tweet from the breakout speaker thanking me (introductions). Hit them back, and now we’re talking, also, when you’re a content creator at a conference, you’re no longer just a hearer at the conference, you’re a doer at the conference. ”Hi, I’m Justin, I really like what you had to say…” vs. “Hi, I’m Justin,
We made this video for last week’s XXX message // Four individuals deal with why do they felt like sex is such an important experience to rush into and how that played out in their lives.
It’s only sex from Gateway Church on Vimeo.
Travis is a guy who goes to my church, here’s a video he made about one of his experiences he had as a photographer. Very beautiful moment.
I met Hawkeyes while photographing for my series ‘No Homeless in Heaven’ a few months ago. He was very kind and allowed me to photograph him freely. After talking for a while he asked me for one thing, a photograph of him and his wife “Lady Hawk”. This video is me giving him a framed photograph of him and his Lady Hawk. I am the photographer and my cousin video taped for me. I edited the video together. Forgive me I am not a great video editor.
It’s true, just a little kindness goes a long way.
I was having lunch with my friend Ramy the other day, the topic was art & church, I was bouncing some of the convictions I’ve been having lately, a process I feel is really lacking in the church; the process of art-making (or making art, which ever sounds more intelligent). Ramy is one of the most knowledgable people I know on the two subjects. His ministry is to a group of about 200 artists here in Austin that meet together for fellowship, growth, and to share in one of the things they all have in common, they are all artists! Arguably, this is not only a rare quality of a group, it’s unique! I won’t argue that there are a lot of creatives in the church, nor will I argue that they click up in groups. But I find it rare to see groups of Christians practicing arts, gathering together to feed off one another’s creativity, like Koi fish feed of each other’s …never mind. But the point is, in most church settings I’ve seen, there has been an extreme lack on the part of the church to provide artistic …guilds, places where artists gather to inspire one another, and be inspired by one another. Now to clarify, I’m talking about professional artists (sometimes known as starving artists). Professional artists, paid or not, are people who would take a cup of ramen noodles for the opportunity to pursue this passion, this art, in fact, for most of them, the only way they know how to live a healthy lifestyle, is to follow this calling. Now, I know, that you know a lot of creative peoples, creatives. I’m not talking about “creatives” (aka people who shop at Urban Outfitters; aka people with tattoos). You can find these creatives in groups everywhere! For they love to roam in clicks, and I say this with authority because I, myself am one (but I’m striving to change).
So I took the time to point out the sparseness of artistic communities within a church context, to set up my friend, Ramy. Now, Ramy is like the king of the people of the night, the musicians who play at piano bars & street corner painters praying to get just one canvas into a run down gallery, and so many more amazingly talented people! So what Ramy has to say is always of great interest to me.
And I’m sure at this point in the lunch I was going on about the big “C” church has got it all wrong, self-deceived in their art-making process, blabbity-blah…
“So you’re wanting to change the church?” Ramy asked.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So what’s the destination?” (Ramy is a question-asker, not an answer-giver)
“What do you mean?” I asked in return.
“In order to effect change, the church needs to see a working example, they have plenty of b-word books. But what will change the church, is a working model, proving the benefits. …So what’s the destination?”
“… dude, I just want to b-word.” I replied.
So here I am, processing. Wondering. Questioning. What is the destination? What is my destination. So many times (as with this time), I get caught up about an idea, and not about there God is taking me/us. And it is so easy for me, to elevate an idea over the destination. Just look at the Israelites touring in desert, look at my own legalism. And as I reflect on my past (which I’ve done a lot lately) I see a part of the journey God has used to get me to the destination I’m currently at. If I’m at this point, and God has put me here, where is He taking me now? What is my destination? What do you sense is your destination?
(special thanks to Ramy for grabbing lunch and asking questions, you can all follow him at @ramysdrumpocket)
Only an Audiobook remains
Well, every once in a while I think you just have to reset, get chi’d, find your center, and that usually means taking out all the stuff that distracts. Today I’ve applied that to the thing that comes right after God & Family, and that jokingly, is my iPhone (no, but seriously, I love it more than my own life). It’s when I realized I had everything from Dethklok’s metal albums to Matt & Kim’s juvenile indie-pop that I realized I had a problem.
Now, this has been a problem for a while now. (look! I started and ended a sentence with the same word!) But for real, the problem I’m having is that I can’t exactly say what I’m listening to these days! I like Feist, I like Them Crooked Vultures, I like Ghinzu, I like MGMT, there’s no thread, no consistency, just randomness! So? Who cares? It’s good to have diverse taste! But then the question comes up, what kind of music inspires you as an artist? (Gulp!) Now, knowing I’m not defined by the music I listen to, and that I totally understand that different music can inspire different art; but what about when you’re not even exactly sure what medium of art you want to be doing? Or what you want to inspire your art!? That’s where I’m at. I have so many new identities flying about and attaching themselves right now. New: Father. New: Property owner. New: Neighbors (just the idea of having them and being one). New: Job role. With that, has evolved a whole bunch of new ideas for art too. So when it comes to my music, why wouldn’t there be a change, to take a chance to clean up the muddled playlists and just start again? To clear some facet of my inspiration, like a breathe of clean air. Is there something in your life that could stand to be cleaned to help bring clarity to you?
