what a great weekend

hello all, as you may have gathered from the subject line of this post, i had a really good weekend (mainly saturday). first off, Sam Hargreaves and i were able to go to Resfest on saturday, which was at the National Film Theatre on the South Bank. we got there about 1 hour and 1/2 early so we would have time to just walk around, but when we got to the theatre where they were showing the one we wanted to see (Shynola rarities), a woman asked us if we were there to see the panel discussion "Commissioned Films and Creative Briefs", "why yes we are, thanks," was our reply, so we went in. it turned out to be a really great discussion about commercial/corporate funding of film and if it can be done without compromising artistic freedom. there was a rep. from Getty Images who talked about the project they sponsored called "The Big Idea", in which 6 film makers were comissioned to make short films primarily using material from the Getty Images web site; they set out to show what was possible through the use of their images/video clips. There was a rep. from the ad agency used by Diesel clothing who talked about the "Diesel Dreams" project in which 26 film makers were sent pictures of models wearing Diesel clothing (as well as the clothing worn by the models) and they were comissioned to make a short film that was their interprtation of the dream the model was having. The brief for this was incredibly open, the film maker didn't even have to use the clothing in the picture, thus steering clear of turning it into a commercial. One of the film makers for the Diesel Dreams project, London-based Tundra, was there also and showed their film. however, the coolest thing about it was that Doug Pray, director of Scratch, was there and talked about his Dr. Marten's-sponsered collection of 6 short films featuring average workers from the London area. the criteria for the subjects was that they must exhibit passion and drive in their work, whatever it was. it was cool to hear how much freedom he was given and how much Dr. Marten's didn't want the films to be commercials, even to the point where Doug had included a shot in one of the films of the person's shoes (which happened to be Dr. Marten's, and the creative rep from the company told Doug to take it out because it was too blatant of a plug.

after that, we went to the see the selection we were most excited about, Shynola Rarities. for those of you've never heard of Shynola they are a design group mainly specializing in animated media (check out their web site by clicking on their highlighted name above). they have done projects/videos for the likes of Radiohead (the Kid A blips, "Pyramid Song" video), Junior Senior ("M-Move your Feet" video), UNKLE ("Guns Blazing" video), etc. anyway, the session was a reel of tons of their work and some rarities that they hand-picked to be shown.....it was 2 and 1/2 hours long and freakin' awesome. when that was done, Sam and i took off and walked along the South Bank (south bank of the River Thames), it was simply awesome walking along the river, enjoying all the beautiful buildings on the other side. we stopped off at a nice little pub/restaraunt and had a late lunch right on the river...quite nice. after that we went to the Tate Modern, which was just a 10 minute walk from the NFT. they didn't have any featured exhibits, but we went to their permanent holdings galleries, which were totally worth the free admission :). among the artists we saw were Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollack, Henri Matisse, and Mark Rothko; it was really cool. after that, we walked across the "Wobbly Bridge" as it has come to be effectionately known to the other side of the Thames and right there in front of us was St. Peter's Cathedral; wow. so, there you go, i can finally say i've been to central London (which some people see as the real London) and if any of you lovely people come out here to see me, i will be able to be a somewhat effective tour guide.

one other exciting point about this weekend is that i made my first video for the church here and it was shown last night at the 6.30 service. it turned out to be more of an installation as i set up a make-shift screen for it, had two huge candle holders in on the front sides of the screen, and had a Sasha Cd playing for mood music. it was pretty cool to see that finished product, even though it was hectic and tough setting it up. anyway, i felt like i had finally made my first real contribution to the worship here.....i love that feeling. well, i suppose i've used up enough work time writing this, so i suppose i should get back to work.