Concordia Film Festival

In May “For Honor” won 1st place in the Drama category at the International Christian Communication Arts Festival at Concordia University in Austin. “Gold Miner” also was 1 of 2 films to receive an honorable mention.

Concordia Film Festival Award

Imagivation.net

Joining the ranks of the Imagivation family is Imagivation.net.

Imagivation.net - Web Development

I’ve been designing, building, and repairing websites and having a blast while doing it.

Cocoa Loco

Alex and I got together to film our 1st action sequence with Aaron and Isaac Lerma. We were greatly assisted by Ana and Rachel Lerma. The finished product is still be edited. Stay tuned to learn more.

Rachel, Paul, Alex, Isaac, Ana and Aaron after filming "Cocoa Loco"

JibeNow – The Homeschool Social Network

JibeNow launched into delta via a “MegaLaunch” on June 21st.

JibeNow - The Homeschool Social Network

Some quick facts:

• As of June 27th, JibeNow has 210 members.
• Our goal is to provide an online platform for Christian Homeschoolers to encourage and challenge each other into becoming stronger instruments of Jesus Christ.
• Our mantra is “Debate. Discuss. But mostly just share.”
• Counting myself there are now 7 volunteer admins working on JibeNow.
  • Brian Morgan
  • Beth Maisano
  • Zachary Harris
  • Rebekah Rodgers
  • Daniel Gaskell
  • Preston Badeer

If you haven’t yet, then make sure to visit JibeNow – The Homeschool Social Network.

Public Speaking

2010 CHEACT Blogging Talk

This past Friday and Saturday I had the privilege of teaching a couple of 50-minute workshops at the CHEACT Homeschool Conference.

The 2 classes were entitled, “Blogging Like a Screaming Ninja Monkey (Beginning Blogging)” and “My Blog Needs Liposuction! (Advanced Blogging) “. Needless to say it was a total blast and I hope to do it again sometime soon.

Digital Video Camp

Alex Lerma and I were asked to return to Camp Wilderness Ridge and help with their Digital Video Camp. Only this year instead of being the assistants we’re actually the directors. We’re leaving for the camp today and will return to Austin on July 3rd.

Paul and Alex heading out to the set

Filmmakers Academy

The Filmmakers Academy

Perhaps one of the biggest highlights of our summer, Alex and I are hosting our own video camp. Set in a highly hands-on environment, students will meet once a week in Austin to learn about a new filmmaking concept and then will be given a film project assignment to finish in 6 days with their team.

The class runs from July 6th – August 10th. Our final film festival (which is free to the public) will be on August 14th.

To learn more, visit the Filmmakers Academy website.

Last thing…

Could you pray for me? I need it. Very much so.

Carry on.

What do you think?

In late October we created 4 promotional videos to kick off Rick’s campaign.

Alex and I’ve been working the last couple of days on a video for Rick as he prepares for the March 2nd Republican primary. We’re wrapping up pre-production tonight and will begin shooting tomorrow starting at 8:00am. It’ll be fun.

Paul and Alex working tonight

WordPress MU
Buddypress
GIMP
Cam Studio
Notepad ++
Mozilla Firefox

JibeNow.com

The site is primarily intended for current homeschoolers, their parents, and homeschool graduates. We like to think of it as a mixture of multiple social-networking and blogging services: the power of WordPress and Blogger, the interaction of Facebook and Twitter, and the community of Homeschoolblogger.

So take a look. Most Imagivation readers have already been invited to the site, but if I missed you or you’d like an invitation then leave a comment below and we’ll get one to you.

A friend of mine, Joshua Hammond, had the idea to make the site and designed the graphics.

Pray For Dana Rhodes

Visit his website: PrayForDanaRhodes.com

So we listen, right? A few people had noticed that to find any of the film work that we had done they had to dig through pages of blog posts. So after some thinking and work we put together a little something where people can quickly access our video projects.

Imagivation.tv

Visit imagivation.tv

So what do you think? Good, bad, or indifferent?

One Baby

Tonight the 9 members of the board of managers of the Travis County Healthcare District (TCHD) met in a special meeting to deliberate over a proposed contract with three local abortion providers.

The agreement would use $450,000 in Travis County property taxes to pay for approximately 1,000 abortions in 2010.

Several friends and I were in attendance of the meeting as the board voted 9-0 in favor of the abortion contracts.

After the vote the attendance numbers of the meeting were read aloud to be entered into the public register. However, there was an error which is recorded below.

The meeting reported in attendance:

- 178 total citizens

- 49 signed up to speak in opposition
- 35 signed up to speak in support
- 59 signed in opposition but declined to speak
- 43 signed in support but declined to speak

One Question

While sitting in the room I quickly added the numbers and found the following mistake: 49 + 35 + 59 + 43 = 186

Did anyone catch that?

186 ≠ 178

So who was counted twice? Or should I ask, who wasn’t? Or who was really there? Are any of these numbers accurate?

Seriously, this is supposed to be “official”. The secretaries are paid money (the board is volunteer), this is their job, shouldn’t they be able to at least get fundamental addition correct?

What about the public record? Isn’t that supposed to be… you know… correct?

One Problem

the winning filmmakers

And for all of you out there who worked so hard on Forever, though you were unsung heroes at this festival, it was extremely well-accepted, and even tied for runner-up for audience choice… always one of the most coveted awards at any festival… and was only behind first place by 2 votes! And winning beside, I think that the film spoke an encouraging message to the festival audience, an accomplishment of far greater value unmeasured by votes and awards.

We were all excited to make connections with the people from the Christian film group in Bryan, it was very special to spend time with like-minded believers using their talent to glorify their Creator.

Attendance is free and all are encouraged to come, watch, and learn. The festival will be held from 10:00 – noon at the address below:

First Baptist Church
3100 Cambridge Dr.
Bryan, TX 77802-4613

We hope to see yall there!

Shot on a Canon XL2.
Edited in Adobe Premiere CS3.

You can double-click the video to rate and leave a comment on YouTube. So what do you think?

Alex and I are wrapping up the project. We’ll upload something here on Sunday night. It’s cool. Very cool.

“Forever” tells the poignant story of a girl’s childhood memories as she yearns for her father’s love.

Father: David Cordray
Younger Daughter: Hannah Maisano
Older Daughter: Grace Einkauf
Older Daughter Double: Gabrielle Cordray
Orchestra Stand-ins: Alex Brace; Heather Guzman; Alex, Isaac and Rachel Lerma; Bethany, Nathan, and Rachel Malone

Poem: Grace Einkauf
Lyrics: Rachel Malone
Music: Michael Guzman and Rachel Malone
Performed by: Bethany and Rachel Malone
Sung by: Heather Guzman and Danny Waller

Boom and Track: courtesy of Juan Rivera
Second Camera: courtesy of Jeff Buchle
Audio Recording and Mixing: Sam Kokajko
Technical Help: David Huang
Costume Coordinator: Heather Guzman
Grunts: Alex, Ivy, and Robert Brace; Christina Hastings; Isaac Lerma; Toni Maisano; Nathan Malone

Cameras: Canon XL2 (1 pair)
Edited in: Adobe Premiere CS3
Location: Manor, TX

Produced, directed, and written by Alex Lerma and Paul Hastings.
Special thanks to Juan Rivera.

Just as a refresher, we’ve been working in a collaborative effort to create a music video based on the talents of multiple personal friends from the Austin area. The deadline we’re shooting for is to have uploaded the video to YouTube by tonight, October 9th, at 11pm CST to submit as demo material for an upcoming film contest.

Sam finalized the audio track last morning, Alex has finished the main cut of the video and is working on story tweaks and color correction, while I appear to be running the Public Morale Department. If you’d like to help then pray for us and keep cheering us on.

The weather was fantastic producing lots of low-lying mist. We really couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop. Photos are once again courtesy of Rachel Malone.

Isn't that just cool?

Guys in ecstasy over cool equipment

Isaac, violinist extraordinaire

Robert holding lyrics

Alex and Paul conspiring

The orchestra

Monday morning, mist, grass, a steadicam, a boom, cameras, a wonderful orchestra, and 4 hours in a field all came together to create the “music” portion of the music video.

Piano Movers, Inc.

Bet you've never seen that

Alex and Isaac examine the piano lid

The ever-present halogens

Bethany at 3am

Rachel at 3am

Heather at 3am

Rachel L. at 3am

Alex B. at 3am

Green screens, halogen lights, extension cords, energy and manpower, oh, and lots of duct tape. Hmm, and maybe throw in a piano too for good measure. Yup, that just about sums up what filmmaking is all about.

Kudos to everyone who stuck it out with us until 5:00am and then joined us again in the morning at 7:00. These guys (and gals) are real troopers.