LA Update: Week 4-5

Monday, January 30 -
SO I've got something pretty cool to start the blog off with, so conveniently those of you with short attention spans (like myself) only have to read the first day mentioned on this blog post and then go back to Facebook so you can sit there and refresh your news feed every couple minutes. Anyways, Monday evening we had a guest speaker come to the school - Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy I and II, Quarantine, Silver Surfer, my favorite short film- the Butterfly Circus, and many other films). He frequently plays roles in films as creatures, monsters, or as a contortionist. He was really a hilarious guy to listen to, and he shared many of his stories that lead him to becoming who he is today.

Tuesday, February 1 -
I really wish I could be at Evangel for the snowstorm. I remember the ice storm my freshman year when we got 2 days off of school- it was so fun. I was just thinking about how weird it is not being there this semester, knowing that I will never come back for school. I will come back for graduation and then I may never see many people again for many many years. It's sad to think about. I miss you guys a lot. It sucks being away from people that you love so much. And not being able to live life with them. Later in the evening we had our bible study, we shared our struggles and prayer requests and spent some time in prayer, it was much needed.

Thursday, February 3 -
Okay soooo I've been really into this band The Black Keys, and if you like Cold War Kids then I think you will love these guys. But listen to their newest album "Brothers" (their older stuff isn't that good).

In class we had an LAFSC alumni and USC Cinematography Grad, Chris Hall, show up and teach us about lighting. It was the best lecture and best hands on session I've ever had on lighting. He gave us a great powerpoint presentation and talked about some great stuff. One thing that I though was really interesting was how he talked about how professional cinematographers often model their lighting styles off of those of Renaissance painters. He said we should examine paintings and figure out what lights to use, how to position and set them up if we were to recreate that scene. Then he actually set up lights in our studio and showed us how to effectively use flags, filters, etc. It was really awesome.
In spite of some cool things at school today, some days just hurt worse than others.... like today.

Friday, February 4 -
So I have a buddy who has an internship at a place where they can literally get any movie they want, even current ones. So this evening we watched 127 Hours [SPOILERS: consider yourself officially "warned"]. I've been wanting to watch it, because I've heard some good things about it, and I remember hearing about the story of Aron Ralston when he was on Dateline and Nightline and Newsline and Frontline, and every other news talk "line." Anyways the movie was really well done, as always there are some random dumb effects that I really don't like about Danny Boyle's films, but other than that it was really well done. James Franco definitely is worthy of his Oscar nomination, but the story itself I think really spoke to me. Aron has been lead to this rock and has the choice to define his future from this moment on. In those moments of difficulty he realizes how he must change, the people in his life that are most important to him, and that he will lose them and his future with them if he just stays put. I feel like I am in a similar trial. That God has brought me to this rock to change me and teach me. And I can choose to sit and sulk and feel sorry for myself, or I can choose to let God reveal to me what and who matters most in my life, and what I must do to be the person and live the life God has called me to and to be worthy of the people that He has put in my life. I can let this rock destroy me, or I can let God use this rock to change my life for the better.

Saturday, February 5 -
Although I did really want to sleep in today, I decided against myself and went to the school for an all day seminar on financing for film with film investor and author, Jeffrey Taylor. The seminar was incredibly beneficial for me! I really don't know a lot about financing and doing a pitch for an investor, and he really discussed all of those things from a very practical and experienced viewpoint. I learned so much and got some great notes and advice. But I must admit with all those financial terms and etc, my brain was slightly fried 8 hours later when the seminar ended.

Sunday, February 6 -
Ecclesia was awesome again. What's new? Seriously, I just love this church. Or at least the pastor. Today was National Porn Sunday - which is a nationwide movement promoted by XXXchurch(a website focused on helping men and women find freedom some sexual addictions and bondage). The goal of National Porn Sunday is to get churches nationwide to address the prominent problem of pornography amongst Christians. Here's the video provided by XXXChurch: I haven't seen the whole thing, but we watched to beginning couple minutes to introduce it

National Porn Sunday Talk from XXXchurch on Vimeo.

I think it's awesome that churches are addressing this issue, because people NEED help. At Evangel I only know a handful of guys that do not struggle with addictions to pornography and masturbation. But in my life I have seen people freed by the blood of Christ. And WE MUST proclaim God's victory over His people, because too many people, marriages, and relationships with God have been destroyed by this. Too many people go on suffering with this addiction and believing the lie that they will just have to live with it the rest of their life, or that once they find sexual satisfaction in a marriage they won't have these struggles, but that is an absolute lie. Some of my friends and I walked to Yogurtland later on (the frozen yogurt place I mentioned earlier). The great thing about Yogurtland is that you can ask for a sample cup and just keep filling it up with samples. So I didn't even buy anything, I just kept filling up the sample cup. Yum! Later on we had a Superbowl party at our school. It was cool, but man I sure do miss the choir Superbowl party at Sharon's house. I have some great memories there. Anyways, I didn't really care too much for the Superbowl itself (I highly dislike the NFL), the commercials were not that good, and the half time show- wow, absolutely horrendous! But hey, free food! It doesn't get much better than that!

Monday, February 7 -
I think today was the most difficult day I have had in a couple weeks. You assume things get easier with time, but not for me. I think the pain is getting worse. In fact, I know the pain is getting worse. But if it brings me closer to God, if it rids me of filth inside of me, if it fills me with deeper and stronger love, if it changes me for the better, then bring the pain.

Tuesday, February 8 -
Another rough day. On top of that, classes here are incredibly long, and I usually don't mind them, because I learn so much, but being tired didn't help me much through a 3.5 hour class followed by a 4 hour class. Later that night I went to the pool for a while and then to our bible study. God always finds some way to comfort me in my despair.

Wednesday, February 9 -
I've been getting pretty discouraged about not having an internship yet. Most people here have had theirs for at least two weeks now, and I just got turned down (in an email) from the last place I interviewed at. BUT, I know the Lord has a will for me. I know he has the perfect place for me. It's not just hit and miss, and by chance I get an internship at a certain place, it is ordained by God. So this afternoon I had my third interview and was offered the position on the spot! YES! Oh.... you want to know what it is? hmmm.

Thursday, February 10 -
Today in class, my group went on a field trip across the street to a previs (pre-visualization) and postvis company called Third Floor Productions. It was the freaking coolest field trip I have ever been on. They have done the previs for Star Wars Ep III, Alice and Wonderland, Avatar, IronMan 2, Cloverfield, Eagle Eye, Valkyrie, the last two Narnia's, and a bunch more. They showed us their reels and offices and all the things they are working on. They also have a huge new trailer that we got to see that allows for on-set mobile visualization (similar to how Avatar was shot). Anyways it was awesome!
We have a married couple that work at our school and they invite students over every Thursday night for a book study to hang out and eat free food. Can you guess what inspired me to go over there? Free food! And I thought it would be a good opportunity to hang out with some people that I dont usually hang out with a lot, so that was really good.

Friday, February 11 -
First day on the job today! You all are probably wondering where my internship is? It's a production company called Psychic Bunny located right in downtown LA (in the Spring Arts Tower). *cool sidenote* the shots from Inception of Mal on the window sill were shot from our building on our floor! Anyways, Psychic Bunny is a full-service production company (start to finish) that work on commercials, promotional videos, video games, and whatever else. It seems like it's really gonna be awesome, sure I have to do a lot of typical intern jobs, but I get to meet and work with some great people, learn more about professional production and etc. Plus, I have my own desk with a PowerMac with many of my favorite programs installed. I am really excited about this internship. However, I must say that downtown LA is sooo sketch. I think if I stay in LA after this semester I will do all I can to avoid the downtown, unless I'm doing some type of humanitarian efforts. After I got back from my internship I went to work out with my roomies. It was great to be back in the gym and I am stoked to be on a workout plan again. Later we watched Mission Impossible 3. I forgot how great it was. No wonder it's the best Mission Impossible, JJ Abrams directed it!

Saturday, February 12 -
God is speaking and I am listening! The fear that had been building and building has dissipated. I am filled with hope.
After stocking up my kitchen cupboards with food from the 99cent store, I went with my film group to the beach. It was so great! We got to be there for the sunset and then we had a big bonfire burning wood found in dumpsters! And we cooked hot dogs and smores, and just sat around and talked. What a beautiful night! What an awesome day!

Sunday, February 13 -
At Ecclesia today, we finished our series on the importance of the body (our physical bodies). At the end we did baptisms. Man I love baptisms, it's just so awesome seeing people proclaim the change that God has done in their lives as they die to the world and are brought to life in Christ. For lunch we unsuccessfully attempted to grill brats at a park nearby, but that didn't go so well (reminds me of a similar time my freshman year, lol). So we went back to the apartment and used Jake's George Foreman grill. Thank goodness for that!


I promise I was trying to make this blog shorter....it just didn't really work out that way. sorry.

Wow! So much has happened these two weeks. Not just in the things I've been doing, but in the work that God's doing in my life. My roommate Aaron says he has seen such a huge change in me just in the past couple weeks. But it hasn't been easy. In fact it has been the most difficult time of my life (yes, a continuation of that from prior weeks). You know that feeling of emotional pain when it is so severe that you can physically feel it? You know that feeling of fear when you can constantly feel your heart beating, and you can literally hear your pulse in your ears? Yeah, that's a combination of how I've felt. And it has been increasing more and more. I have tried so hard to fight that fear, but I kept looking to God and he pulled me through. I can't explain it, but God has done a miracle in my life (well, more than one obviously!) Any of you guys that really know me, know that I hate growing up, and I try to hold onto the past with everything I can. For the first time in years, I can honestly say that I am excited about the future. I am seriously SO stoked about what God is going to do in my life. I'm excited for tomorrow, because tomorrow I will be that much closer to God. I'm excited for this time next week, because by this time next week, I will have had 7 days to surrender more of myself to God and live those days entirely for him. That is exciting. And there's a couple other things I'm pretty excited about too, I'm sure you'll hear more about that fairly soon. Let me just leave you with this: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1 "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:5. It is SO worth it to hope. When we hope for something it is ALWAYS taking a risk, but when we commit our hope to God, we will never be disappointed, because our hope is in Him. "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14.
But look to God because you love him, not because you want to get something from him. There's nothing wrong with asking God for something, but sometimes we worship the hand of God more than the heart of God. As Oswald Chambers profoundly says, "Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer." Seek God above all else in your life and everything else will fall into place. I must sound incredibly hopeful and optimistic right now, because honestly, I am. God is SO good!


Here is a great verse and a great song:
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Romans 12:9-11 (KJV)