well, How's everybody doing? I'm doing well. Here is what's up this week for me, I work today, but since they had a late night last night, I am not starting until 11:30. Tommorrow, I have to pitch an idea for my first film to the class. I'm not sure what i'm going to do yet, but It might be from the "Life's complete instruction book" or it may be an adaptation of "Construction Paper" for those of you who saw the play last semester. i'm going to email adam about using that possibly.the problem there, is i need a great actor. not just some hack, or wannabe, but i need a good actor. so, i may need some more time to get a good actor. so i guess i'm leaning towards the "Life" thing, so that means i need to do some reading, and thinking. then i work again on wednesday. on thursday i need to have a two page treatment of my screenplay idea. for that class, i'm going to be working on a full length screenplay, one idea, one semester. i commited to an idea already too. it's weird too, it wasn't the idea i thought i'd commit too. I'll cut and paste what i read to the class, and show you the one they chose:

Buzz

Two guys and a girl are in the search for the best buzz. It started with their desire to experience life, but expanded when they would get chills when certain events would happen. They couldn’t pinpoint what was causing these chills, but they liked them. Now they are on a quest to find the best and perfect chill or buzz. On their adventures they try cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. None of these buzzes last and nothing seems to give a life long buzz.

Pseudo-math

(Heisenberg?)
I’m not sure which physicist it is, but one talks about how much space there is between the particles that make up life. He theorized that if you could align your own particles you could walk through walls. While discussing this theory with his friends, our hero decides to work on aligning his own particles for invisibility, pass-ability, and acceptability.

Writing backwards.

This is a story about a boy who can travel through time. What he doesn’t know, is all the ramifications using his gift. Soon he is trapped in a determined world where he has no more free will. Will he be able to travel out of this? Or is he stuck always knowing what will happen next?


those were my three ideas. and we then as a class voted on the one we thought each other should work on. and i really thought it would be the first or the third, but they really really liked the second one. and that was the one i had done the least thinking about. but i guess that happens a lot. the crazy idea you just throw down because you have to, is the one that has spark or pop.

so i have to figure out the story and summarize it in 2 pages. about the boy who tries to walk through walls. (i was totally this kid who thought it would be great to align my particles.)

and then, friday, work again, i don't know what i'm doing at work this week. maybe a little editing. i already have some other things pending, like researching festivals and reading one of their scripts.

anywho, i'm doing well. i had a good weekend. church was good on sunday, i went to the same place, mosaic. well. i sign off.

Posted by jack. |

So, I didn't work until three pm yesterday. Sounds pretty slack eh? well, i worked until 3:30 am. That's right. 12 hour day for jacko. Its was fun. I was on set for a director named Sungjay. pronounced san-jay. It was a good time. i thought, i'd just stand around, make sure people didn't trip over cables or anything, but i actually ended up doing a lot more. i helped set up lights, i helped set up the framing for shots, i did the slate for most every shot. i cabled things. it was a good time. i guess if you are on set, and competent at all, you end up doing things. it was a really great experience. we only planned on going to midnight, but i think sungjay got a little perfectionistic with some performances so we ended up going until about 2:30, and then we had to pack up. so the movie is this silent horror flick basically. the scenes i was involved in were about this little girl getting scared in bed one night and going to her parents room, and then her dad brings her back to her room, and then the mom can figure out what's taking so long, and gets up and follows his steps. it's crazy because the parents bedroom and the hallway was all that we shot yesterday, because the bathroom and the girls room are in different houses. so, there was all this talk of where is the bathroom psychologically. where are the stairs psychologically? etc. it was interesting. very dark and creepy movie.

now i have a day off, or two.

Posted by jack. |

From top left, jordan, mark, scott, ian, me.

Posted by jack. |

Today was my second day at Tandem Arts. I have an email with them. jack @ tandemarts.net remove the spaces to make it work. It's cool. Today, i spent about two hours talking with Justin about their philosophy and what their goals are as a company. it was great. I really enjoyed it. Most basically they say, Be real, be authentic, and you will make good art. and he sees film as the marriage of all the arts. painting and sound and movement and acting and theatre. I talked about how i see good film as appealing to many aspects. not only action, but drama, and comedy, all in the same film. It was really great. I enjoyed it, and i enjoyed that they were willing to take basically the whole morning to talk with their intern about where they are and where they hope to be going. It was a grand time. He also had some good things to say about the little bit that he has experienced with me. I was appreciative for that. He said, that they would love to see some of my work, so that's also cool, i was hoping that i could show them the dordt dvd and penny fiasco. Exciting stuff.

Classes are going well. I have to write a semi large paper about how i am where i am with film, hence the questions for Grandfather and Grandmother and Mother and Father. I'm looking forward to working on it. I also have to come up with three ideas for what i'm going to work on in screenwriting. so, that will be good times hopefully.

i will get some pictures up after this post.

bybye.

Posted by jack. |

Today was my first day at Tandem arts. The office is located in one of the partners appartment. so, i was super early, because i thought it would take longer than it did the first time because of traffic. so, instead of 9:30, it was 9. i met all the guys again. and got a feel of the place, where stuff is, and whatknot. so, what i did today was watch the short that they are working on. and i talked to them a lot about what i thought of the short, the first time seeing it. and then we watched it again, and we talked more. they liked what i had to say. it was really fun to see something that people had worked so hard on, and they were willing to hear criticism and what i had to say about it. it was great. then i took a look at some computers, that ryan got for free. pentium 233. not much. i did some erasing on those, and organized some more stuff, their reel that they send out to people. then i did some more work on finding a hard drive to buy, and other hardware that they needed. it was good fun. it was a great day, and i'm looking forward to wednesday.

watched a few movies this weekend. Ghost world , sex, lies, and videotape , Finding Neverland , and then Grand Canyon today for class. they were all good.

i liked them all. i think finding neverland was my favorite of the weekend.

Posted by jack. |

Today I went to a church called Mosaic. I liked it. It was the same church that I went to last week. Here's the deal though. The Message this morning was about how we need to be Christian barbarians. Like how when a new christian believes, they don't know all the rules and whatknot, so they are like barbarians. And lots of christians who have been around for a while, are sort of domesticated. Not barbarians. He was encouraging us to be barbarians. The thing that kept bothering me was how at the end of the message he kept saying God needs to attack your soul. Your soul needs to be attacked by God. You need a Barbarian soul. I'm not sure i buy into the whole having a soul thing. I think, if you look at the Bible, and how the word soul is used, it's more likely to mean life, rather than something you have. so, my soul, is my life. With that distinction in mind, i think the whole barbarian metaphor thing works, but not as cleanly. I don't think he was saying that we should be barbaric in action. I guess i get really confused when i start to put what i think soul is in for the metaphor. i agree that we shouldn't be complacent in our faith, and we shouldn't be so domesticated, but there is something about being subtle. there is something about doing things the way they ought to be done and people will notice. there is something about not being barbaric.

I start my internship tomorrow. I'm excited. i've now had all my classes. it's good stuff.

Grandma and Grandpa, What where the rules about movies and watching etc, when you were growing up?

what was the first movie you saw?

what do you think of movies now? would you say you Avoid, Caution, Dialogue, Appropriate, or Divine experience. these are all words from a book we are reading, the ones that need explaination are, Appropriation, meaning you can see truth in all movies. Divine experience means that you see every movie as a divine experience, a time where God talks to you. Dialog means that you enter into a dialog with the movie, where it came from, where the people who made it are, and then examine it.

I'm supposed to find out what my family history is with movies. So I'd like mom and pop to answer these too. you can email me.

thanks!

Posted by jack. |

today is thursday. i read this morning, some homework, about screenwriting. then i did some interneting. set up my wireless account so that it would pay automatically.

Faith, Film, and Culture at one today. Screenwriting at 4. all good.

went to the beach yesterday. it was like 85 degrees. venice beach. nice.

not much else going on.

Posted by jack. |

so, i have an internship. it is with this company Tandem Arts. You can look them up online if you like, tandemarts.net Ryan, spoke at our first sunday here at lafsc. he went on lafsc three years ago, in 2001 with his friend justin. since then, they both have worked different production jobs, and justin went back to oklahoma for a while and worked there. well, long story that i don't totally know yet short, they are both back in LA with another friend, and they are all business partners starting up Tandem Arts. Here is how amazing this fit is:

Ryan is an amazing editor. if you go to the website, you'll see that soon. He is quite creative and good at his job.

Justin and Dan, are both writers, they are working on a feature and some short stuff.

so, i am interested in editing and writing. editing and writing. this place is the best fit ever. it's awesome. these guys are really interesting and fun to be around. i'll be apart of submitting to festivals, working on editing, possibly help with writing. already it seems that i'll be using my computer expertise to look at some stuff that ryan got for free. i'm really excited. it's going to be fun working for a start up company, and having my hands in lots of different pots. it's great, they don't even know all the things we could do this semester, but the possibilities are, possibly going on a set that they are shooting, if this other director is ok with it. lots of editing. flash work. festival submission. research. sounds good eh?

well, that was the phone call that woke me up this morning. it was grand.

Posted by jack. |

I start a real class today. Filmmaking starts today. at 9 am. 20 min from now. i'm the only one in my room who has class in the morning, at all. so that's weird. i'm up, but no one else is. So, i have an interview for an intership today. It's with a guy who went to lafsc, and is starting up his own company. they are trying to get a short submitted to festivals, and maybe create some buzz so they can work on shoping a feature. he is an editor, or he has been for a long time, he's moving into the business end of things now. so, i'll probably get to do some editing, and maybe some input of the writing of what they are working on now. it seems like the perfect fit, or at least the best fit. the interview is at 1 pm , pst. (that's pacific standard time) so like three for most of you.

well, i think i'm off to class. (which goes until 12. yea three hours.)

Posted by jack. |

Well, today was saturday. We had a camera lab today. We were aquainted with the cameras we are going to use. how wonderful. when that was all done, we had a small break, and then retreated to hollywood. we went on a tour, saw the cheers set, and a part of a star trek set. it was nice. not amazing really. a kinda dumpy museum. it was interesting.

That was today. Yesterday, we had a safety meeting. learned how to be safe while filming. woo hoo. it was interesting i guess. mostly common sense stuff. i guess common sense does get thrown out the window when your on a time crunch.

i didn't do much during the day yesterday, went shopping, bought a-z art book. bought some pants. i like pants. cheap stuff. then, we went to go watch in good company, and it was sold out, oh and i went to the in and out burger. good food. so then we decided to go to a 10 showing. so we had like three hours to kill. so we went ikea, and barnes and noble. ikea is a weird store. i'm not sure who has been, but it's crazy. like when you start, it's all rooms and "you can have this room for only, $998, or this for $1,340. and it feels all upscale and stuff, but then as you progress, and it's a progression, you eventually are in the warehouse looking at all the things you can buy. and they are all in boxes and whatknot. weird. like starting in peir 1 and ending up in sams club, in one store. crazy.

and we didn't buy anything. i spose that's a little bit of a feat. feet.

went to a california pizza kitchen today. had a carribean jerk chicken pizza. good. mmm, mmm, good. about 10 inches wide, and very tasty.

on thursday night, we watched a bunch on our own short films. it was kinda fun. some of them were really bad. i have to say. i'm glad i got to know these people first. because i would have different opinions of them if this was the first i saw of them. some of them were really funny. some were really well done too. i was happy with the reaction i got from mine. some said it was one of the few watchable ones. i'm not sure what that means exactly, but i took it as a compliment.

i've been listening to mirah a lot. i like. very good. simple.

oh, yea, i did get a cellular telephone. i guess it was a good idea. i had a little of buyers remorse today. i was like why? why did i get this again? so i called friend chris m. and i remembered why. if you want the number, email me. i'll let you know.

well, that has been the last few days. no real stories in that mess of text above. i'll try to do better next time.

jackkkkkkkincali.

Posted by jack. |

i look back, and i'm happy. the pictures below, are from my journey. i have more, but i figured this would be suffiecient. what's been going on you ask? well, more orientation type stuff. learning about how all the internships are going to go, and whatknot. how we will choose where to interview and etc. interesting and exciting stuff. learning "how to talk about jesus and not freak out" a talk i didn't exactly enjoy, but was interesting none the less. the are suggesting that LA / Hollywood is the biggest mission field today. i would disagree somewhat, it's more about living our lives as christians wherever we may be, and working as missionaries all the time. i'm not sure that hollywood is any more special than sioux center, but maybe a little more blatant about it's non christianity. their point was that the things created here do influence a lot of people, and if there are small changes here, that can affect people all over. which i don't disagree with, but the way it was presented i didn't like, and i don't know what can and will be changed. their is a lot of God talk at lafsc. lots of leave it up to God...type things. which i guess i'm a little uncomfortable with to some extent. i like to do things, and see how God worked in those things, nothing gets done without me doing. but there is a sort of interesting understanding that God really is in control here, that i guess wasn't said/vocalized at dordt. you know, the whole marshall mccleaun thing about the medium is the message, i felt that with this couple that presented these ideas, they were so very very polished that i didn't even feel like it was new or exciting, even though they were "excited".. it was more of this, practiced, polished and shiny excited. it didn't feel real.

i got to screen a movie that wont come out for a few months yesterday. it was called hooligans or the yank. it was pretty good. i was impressed. more so than i thought i would be, from the things i thought and learned about it before getting there. on our way there, we really experienced la traffic. it took like an hour to get there, and about 10 min to get back. it wasn't that far, but it was packed with cars all the way there almost. how fun!

i am meeting new people, i did some fixing of computers today. funny story actually. so, doug, the old director at lafsc, old as of last semester, is doing our initial orientation. so he'd got his laptop up front and it's hooked to the projector nand everything is working fine. all of a sudden, a message pops up, "your battery is charged" great he says. he then hits "enter" to make the powerpoint go, and nothing happens. he struggles a little bit, and says, "c'mon you computer guys, what do i do?" so i holler out, "Alt-tab" and he's like what? and i'm like, press the alt key, then press the tab key. the what key he asks? the TAB key, ok, he does it and magically it works. people may have clapped. they seem to like to clap around here. so then, at a break, like three different girls come up to me, and are like, um, so are you good with computers, because i need to hook mine up, make the internet work, etc. etc. etc. so today i go over there and help out three girls in one apartment. it was kinda fun. a good way to meet people.

things are going well. tomorrow looks to be a fairly slack day, one meeting, one short assignment due on friday, and i think that i'm going to get a phone. (cellular)

Posted by jack. |

(a little late)

this one is my new background

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apparent reason, i woke up at 7 am this morning. i wonder if i am not totally adjusted yet. to the time that is.

life here is good. i saw sideways lastnight. it was good. funny. a few long parts, but good. i'm always kinda impressed that hollywood can make good bad people and those that are so close to inbetween. not bad, but not good either. kinda like real people i guess.

more orientation and intro type stuff today. yesterday was interesting so today ought to be as well. learning about hollywood and the culture, and etc. i think i wrote that already. i'm doing well. meeting more people. trying to remember names. it's weird, how every time i meet a large group of people that i'm like, you look like, and you look like, and you are like, and blah blah. like, the RD here, her name is chris, she looks like becca, nikki's old roommate. only older. it's weird. and someone else was like, you remind me of so and so, and then chris is like, yea i get that a lot. i wonder why that is. and i wonder if i look like anyone. i'm going to guess not. but i probably do in some regards.

i'm serious considering buying/signing up for a cell phone. or mobile telephone, as some people call it. i think it would be handy, and i don't think i'll be like one of those, always have it on, and always use it people. cause that's not me really. it'll be on when it should be on. and that is that.

so, dordt's website tells me that they are starting classes today. i kinda miss that place, and my roomates. those guys. (that should be read in italics.)

i'm eating food too. had a huge burger at fuddruckers yesterday. mmm,mmm,good.

i think i'll make stirfry for lunch.

mmm, stirfry.

b-teamleadersigningout.

(pictures coming soon)

Posted by jack. |

what's happenin. well, not much. this morning we had some orientation and whatknot. it was good. we learned about the business of hollywood, and things like that. we then had a break, lunch, and then played a game about culture. it was a little long, meaning i got the point early on, so to keep playing it was kind of annoying, but at the same time, it was kinda fun to play. it's call bafa bafa. interesting mostly . the point was simply that entering hollywood and any other culture you need to be prepared, and sometimes the best way to be prepared is to know your own culture. so to know what you are and do, then you can go into another culture and operate within it. i found it fairly interesting, not totally new to me, we talked about a lot of the same stuff in cross-cultural comm last semester.

this eve i'm going to go watch a movie in burbank. i'm not sure what i'm going to watch, but i'm sure it'll be interesting. i'm thinking about million dollar baby, or i don't know what. it'll be nice to spend time with some people other than my roomates, not that they bother me really, but i'd like to know more people.

well. that's what i'm up to.

Posted by jack. |

i'm here. and alive. moved in and even had a dinner with all the people. it was a good time. all is well in the land of angels, or city. we have five people in our room. wireless internet. i just hooked myself up. so to say. all is well. i'll say it again. we start orientation tomorrow after some worship together. yea. all is well. driving went fine. i have roommates, ian, jordan, mark, and scott. they are all nice guys.

jack.0 signing out.

Posted by jack. |

Yesterday was fun. Everett and Reid and I went to downtown tuscon and ate a lunch that way quite tasty. I had a Hawaiian sandwich chicken on dark rye, with pinapple and bbq sauce. (there i talked about food rehn). then we drove back to the outskirts of tuscon and waited for a bit while everett's girlfriend kimmy came. When she arrived we got into the Jeep, fourwheeler and took off. we went up some mountain/big hill and then down, through a valley of sorts towards the chippewa falls. Mom would have hated the whole experience, bumpy and rough and crazy. Reid says that when everett is four wheeling his eyes turn into bullseyes and they scan the landscape for challenges. big rocks, small dropoffs, it was a great time. only a few times was i truly scared. but it was a great time, and i got to drive for a while too, and everett says that i'm a pretty good for never doing it before.

i'm leaving in about one hour or so towards la. i bought two books on tape, so i can do something other than listen to music. i purchased "on the road" by jack keroac and "the slaughter-house five" by kurt vonnegut. i spelled those names wrong.

my time in tuscon has been very good and restful. i'm ready to take on that interstate again.

Posted by jack. |

i'm in the arizona state in a city that starts with t. tuscon. i can't ever remember how to spell that. the s and the c confuse me. the drive today was really long. i was doing well, until i realized i was only half way. that was discouraging. finding the baker house was hard, it's a maze out here. and it was dark. but eventually i found a phone and called up old everett and he came tearin' on over in a big conversion van and lead me home. i'll be here for a day plus a little. takin' off for la on friday morning. i'm glad i don't have to drive eight more hours tomorrow.

i'm glad i'm here in arizona, but would like to be done traveling, so it's good to have a break. in a weird way i miss sioux center. i'm not sure why, but i think it's the people mostly, that i miss.

out of words to type. a little tired.

Posted by jack. |

i'm in denver!

the trip was good, fairly good weather, except for about the last two hours of the trip, when it got kinda icy and windy, so what should have taken an hour, took two.

other than that it was a good trip. i listened to a lot of cds and it really went quite quickly.

the family i'm staying with tonight is very nice, and it's really good to interact with people after spending the whole day in the car.

i showed them my movie, they seemed to like it. especially the music, way to go justin.

i'm heading to tuscon tomorrow, it's the longest leg of the trip, 14 hours or so. i'm excited, but also a little nervous that i won't be able to find everett, but i have his phone number, so i think all should be a - ok.

um, i guess that's all i have. i hope whoever reads this is doing well as well.

Posted by jack. |

i'm ready. all packed and ready to go. i'll depart in the morning tomorrow.

Posted by jack. |

till departure.

my last sioux center day. me and the roomies are going to get together this evening. i'm having curry for dinner this eve. i met with kate this morning and we declare the movie done. she will do the festival submission thing whilst i'm away. and she'll make copies and all that.

i'm busy with packing and more packing. hopefully it'll all be done this afternoon.

well, that's all i got.

Posted by jack. |

of january.

new years eve, day, and today have been good. new years eve i watched three movies, one during the day and the rest at night. Napolean Dynamite, A Home at the End of the World, and Garden State. I'd seen Napolean and Garden State before, they were good again, actually Napolean Dynamite, seems to move a little slowly this last time. Home was a little weird and crazy. Not really crazy good either. I dunnoknow, it wasn't bad either. I think the movie was set up really well, the first half hour or so, but then it fell apart. So, I got all six of the movies i rented watched before the return date. Woohoo!

Contraray to popular belief, i don't always watch three movies a every day, an example would be yesterday, in which i watched none. so there.

so, Iowa got really icey yesterday. I didn't get out of the house until a little bit into the after noon, and then thought better of it, and stayed inside. then at night we were going to some friend of our family for a christmas thing, and we were all gungho and jumping into the van, but we couldn't get up the hill by our house. 3rd street for those of you who would know. we ran into the curb a few times, and i was happy i wasn't driving, and i was happy i wasn't in my new car.

so, tomorrow i will finish up work on the movie, and pack pack pack. planning of leaving on tuesday, if all goes well and the weather cooperates.

Posted by jack. |