The Set of 'Timeless'

We did it! We made it through the 4 days of the filming of the thesis project that I produced, 'Timeless'! I know that only some of you know what that last sentence means, so I'm writing this to fill the rest of you in!

This year, I am attending Compass College of Cinematic Arts, a small faith based film school in Grand Rapids, MI. Through the year, I have been learning about film, the process of making them, and how to make good stories. This last third term, there are 5 final thesis films to be made. I was chosen as one of the 5 producers, which has been an incredible honor. It's nice to know that the people around me see me as responsible enough to lead a group through the making of one of those final films. We created the teams that would do the work and were sent on our way. I chose a script, later entitled 'Timeless', about a man who is accused of murdering his wife and is sent to prison. While in prison, he creates a time machine to go back to try to save her. I chose Bri Brincat as the director. She had never directed before, and she is only the second female to direct a thesis project at Compass. She has done a magnificent job  and I am so very proud of the job that she did over this last weekend of shooting!

We went into last week struggling a bit on a couple locations, but we ended up finding our last two locations the day before shooting began. We also were struggling to put together the last of the set art and props.

June 22 and 23, Day 1 and 2-
Our first 2 days took place at Ann Benoit's house, who was our Location Manager. We met at Compass in the morning and carpooled out to location. Travis Babbitt, who was my Line Producer, and I ran over to Gorilla Pictures to pick up some extra batteries for the RED Camera, which was the camera that the movie was filmed on. When we got to the location, people were ready to go. We staged all of the equipment in the garage. Travis and I set up the crafty (food) table, and everyone else set up for the jobs they were to do. Our teacher, Tom Greenberg, stayed around all day the first day to make sure that everything with the camera department and RED Camera was good, as it's a totally new piece of equipment to our school. For the most part, Travis and I were able to relax those first 2 days. Every once in a while, we needed to go get something from the store and such, but otherwise our crew and set was a well oiled machine that I'm proud to say that was so easy to manage on set! Our crafty was put together by the lovely Donna Sawyer, who made the best on set food I've had so far this year by far! We blasted through those 2 days, and though we were tired, we were all very happy to be on that set.

June 24, Day 3-
Our third day took place at Gaslight Village in East Grand Rapids. From the very first time I visited that location on the scout, I knew that I wanted our set to be there. I was ecstatic when we found out that we could shoot on their streets and store fronts. So when we got there, we set up in the parking garage. Because we were always so spread out as a crew all the time, I am so thankful that we had a walkie talkie system going. Because of the good naturedness of the crew, we were able to use code names over the radios. The 1st Assistant Director Mike Campbell went as 'Chicken Noodle', Chad Ice went as 'Iceman', Travis went as 'Papa Bear', I went as 'Mama Bear', and so on and so forth. I know that those code names will probably be brought up in the stories we tell for years to come! That location gave our film such a great feel. I'm still so happy that we got to use it!

June 25, Day 4-
Those first 3 days went so very well! We only had minor hiccups that we were quickly able to fix on the spot. Then the 4th day hit us. In fact, it hit us square in the face. It was the day where we were to use the 2 locations that we had locked last minute. The first part of the day, we used the basement of the Grand Rapids Civic Theater for the jail cell scenes. There was a lot of miscommunications on both our part and the theaters, making for a rough morning. On top of that, there was a lot of tention among the crew, making some tempers flare. But we kept up our professionalism and got through the shots we needed. We were able to get out a little later than we wanted, but we still got out. We all moved  back to Compass for crafty. We had a hard time getting ahold of the actors scheduled for the afternoon because we had gotten out late. Ann and I went over to the other location and they told us that they didn't know who we were and that we weren't scheduled. So for an extremely stressful hour, we tried to get ahold of the head guy at the location. We finally did and he came over. Because of the mix up, our scheduled 3 hours of shooting had to turn into an hour and a half shoot. So we quickly had to get what we needed. We finally got out and wrapped up the film.

Obviously this blog is condensing 4 ten hour days into a short post about the experience. What I have written is only the tip of what we all experienced and went through. This crew was by far the best crew I have ever been a part of. It's so cool to work with most of the same people I was with on our first shoot during the first term of Compass. These men and women have grown so much! And it was a pleasure to work with and become friends with new people as well. I have been ready to leave Michigan for a while now, but this shoot makes me sad that I am leaving these people soon.

Thank you all so much once again for making this shoot so awesome! I am so excited to see the finished product! You all rock face!!!

Armor

Armor has been an important concept throughout my life. I grew up as a little boy, like most, playing war in the backyard. One of my favorite games was being a knight. I wasn't too creative in costuming myself, so most of my knightly armor came from my imagination. As a knight, I was invincible, being the hero of the day, saving the princess, and slaying the evil that was plaguing the land I had sworn to protect! Or... something like that.
Then, on another level, I was introduced to the concept of spiritual armor, which is spoken of in Ephesians 6:10-20. It talks about the various pieces of "armor" we must have on as Christians in order to stand strong against our sinful nature and the Devil.

But another form of armor that I think that we all have comes in the form of who we put ourselves out to be, which is over the top of who we really are inside. I have become acutely aware of this armor in the last week. I have gone through highs and lows of trying to figure out who I am and why I sin so very much all of the time. Coming with this has been the realization that people don't see that side of me, that dark side which is mostly covered up by that armor I have on. In Romans 7:14-20, Paul talks about the two sides that we have as Christians: the good side and the sinful side. When we accept Christ as our Savior, His Spirit moves into our lives and starts to move our hearts toward being more and more like Him (that is, if we surrender and let Him do it.). But yet, we still do those sinful things in our lives, those things that we hate. Why? Because the sinful nature is still within us. The only way that we can move towards being like Jesus is to let Jesus Himself to the work. It's the pain in our lives which helps move us toward that, along with submitting ourselves to His will. The more we spend in His presence, the more we get a taste of who God is, the more we want to be like Him!

And that's been hard for me this year. Why? Because I haven't had a strong Christian family around me. I some Christian friends, yes, but it hasn't been an overwhelming presence in my life this year. And that has made things to tough. I haven't had the accountability I've needed. But I'm on the edge of the next chapter, as scary as that is. And I've been praying for a church family to come into my life, and I know there's one out there being prepared for me to come too.

So, which armor is good and which armor is bad? Obviously, the spiritual armor is something I pray for everyday. It's something I desperately need in my life, as we all do. But is the other type of armor bad, the type that covers up who we are to the rest of the world? Yes and no. I think we have to be careful with it. We do need to be real to the world, to be able to show the world that we are as messed up as they are, so that they may see the Lord building us up in our lives and rejoice that He is! But obviously that armor will always be there to shield people from our true selves. No one can truly know who you are completely. I think that armor is there to protect both us and everyone else. But we have to be willing to take that armor off in order to show those close to us a little bit more of who we are as time goes by, so that they may know us deeper. That's why the armor is there. It's built into us to protect ourselves.

As we grow older and wiser, we learn to tighten and untighten that armor, and when to do each. We learn when we need to wear it tightly and when we need to wear it loosely, because both are important to know. We can't tighten up ourselves when we are with those we love, and we can't expose our vital parts to just anyone.

That's what it comes down to, like most things in life: Wisdom.

To My Dad

I have to admit, Father's Day snuck up on me this year! I think I only realized that it was today yesterday, so I hope my Dad will forgive me.

So this is my gift to him.

Greg Friend is my Dad. He is an amazing man of God, a man that I have followed closely as a role model my entire life. It wasn't until I left home that I really realized home much I take him for granted. God didn't have to give me an great father. He didn't even have to put me in a household that stayed together. But He did, and it has been one of the biggest factors in shaping me as not only a man, but as the man of God that I am seeking to be every day of my life.

I'm sitting here trying to remember the earliest memory that I have of my Dad. There are a few things that I can think of. One is going to church as a family at First Baptist. Another is my Dad mowing the lawn on Saturday mornings. But the one that comes to mind the strongest is when he lead me to the Lord. I remember sitting in church the Sunday before, partaking of communion. My Dad told me after the service that I would not be able to partake in communion anymore because of my age and that I hadn't accepted Christ as my Savior. I remember that moment with a huge respect. He saw my age and who I was and knew that my age of accountability had come. That next Saturday, My sister and I went with my Dad in our van to REI in Portland. My Dad started to ask me questions about what I believed and at the end he told me that if I believed what I has just said, I was a follower of Christ. I remember coming home and him telling me to tell my Mom what I had done. She cried :)

The wisdom I have observed in my Dad is something I can only hope to achieve in my future. The ways he has been able to handle my sister and I's various stages of life has been something I only hope to be like one day. Through our childhoods, to fighting between my sister and I, to have to discipline, to puberty, to going through relationships they knew would only end in pain, to watching me have to leave home. Through all of the crazy stages, He has sought God's help through all of it.

Now he isn't perfect. Of course he isn't. None of us are. But I have been so blessed to be able to be his son. I can't even express how thankful I am. As I sit here in this laundromat in Grand Rapids MI, 1857 miles away from where my Dad is right now, I long to be there with him today, to go to church with him, to sit down and talk about things. I want nothing more on this day than to be there with him. But God has me here. So I will carry on with the strength and grace that he showed me and helped me learn in these 20.8 years of my life.

I'll see you soon Dad. I can't wait to show you around Michigan in August :)

Your loving and forever grateful son,
John

SMT: A Year Later

Yep. Two blogs in one day. But that's because all I've done today is listen to sermons and watch 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. But this one is one I need to do tonight, as short as it will be.

It's been a year since I began my journey of the 2012 Ecola Summer Ministry Team with Matt White, Katie White, Rhianna Moriarty, and Lisa Matz. It feels like just yesterday, yet it feels like a lifetime ago. All of the lives effected, all of the people I met, the ways I would never be the same.

It's been a tough year since leaving Ecola and SMT. If you know me at all or have read these blogs, you know that. It's been a journey into the corruption and mess that is the world, a far cry from the shelter that is "camp". Christian camp is a weeks worth of shelter and rejuvenation, not the real world in the least bit. You get to be under the influence of cool older people, who are mostly college age, and get to know your cabin mates. You get to trick yourself into thinking that you have a long term chance with the cute girl 3 rows up in chapel. You get to go to chapel 2 or 3 times a day, something taken for granted by most young people, but its the part of camp I miss the most. Just me and God. In the woods. Hangin' out. Being loved on by everyone around you. And the opportunity to worship the God of the universe in a beautiful place. I LOVE IT.

Being a counselor is one of the greatest experiences in life. But the experience you go through as an SMT member is the best. Literally. Those were the best 2 months of my life. I gained the support of 4 fantastic individuals and I miss them greatly. They really are some of the best friends I will ever have, and I can't wait to see them. The last time I saw Rhianna was at the Ecola camping trip in August. The last time I saw Matt and Katie was at the Chan's wedding in August. And the last time I saw Lisa was in May in Forest Grove, OR.

I don't really know what I'm trying to say with this blog. Maybe that I miss my SMT family. Maybe to be encouraging to this years teams who just headed out today. Maybe for my own satisfaction. Maybe because I'm still stuck on how much I miss last summer. But God has a plan for me. I'm not doing camps this summer for a reason. I pray that I can go back for upcoming summers in my life and do a camp or two, maybe even some of the camps that I did during SMT. Who knows? But God works wonders at summer camps. He gets to kids, kids who's lives will never be the same. I can't wait to be apart of that again. Until then, I follow His lead, unto the next stage of my incredibly small life. And it may be small, but I am made strong through my weakness. That's how God works. And I can't get over how incredible that is.

Life, Trials, and James 1:2-5

This is a big time in my life. I am on the edge of something big, a little something I would call 'The Rest of My Life'. For the majority of the time, you can wake up every morning and say, "It's another day! It's the first day of the rest of my life!" or whatever positive people think when they wake up. But there are moments in life that you can feel coming, the moments you know are going to change everything about you, everything about how you live and think everyday. And I am just under 2 months from a moment like that.

In 2 months, I will be moving to LA to start an internship. That flight or road trip (which ever we decide to do to get there) will be the beginning. This blog is called "Prequel to Life", and that life will begin the day I move away from Michigan. When I move to LA, it will begin real life. So far in my life, I've been in school. School is all I've known. I don't know what it truly is like to be out on my own and working to stay afloat. I don't know what life is like when it's unstructured. Do you know how scary that is? My entire mindset and views on life will have to change in order to adapt to that change.

I've been thinking a lot about life recently, what with it being a year since I began my summer journey on SMT, really missing home, trying to get a glimpse into what my future holds, and really getting the longing set in to get back to my beloved west coast. I've been thinking a lot about who I am, who I was, and who I want to be. Looking back, seeing the guy that existed a year or even two years ago, realizing how much of a wandering lost puppy I was back then. I thought I knew it all. This year has proven to me over and over that I know nothing of what life is or who God truly is. I can only see glimpses of each. But that's what life is: slowly learning and relearning what you think is reality. The world I was apart of at Ecola was the world I prayed that would be reality. I know now that it isn't in the least bit. The reality of life is that people are not smart at all, fail everyday in trying to reach God (or whatever they think He might be), and have no idea what they are doing. And I am included in that. I want so badly to believe that people are good, but they aren't. At the end of the day, we all fail, we all fall, and we all sin. I want to believe that I will eventually 'get it', that eventually I will stop being stupid, that I will stop being sinful. And the answer is yes and no. As long as I keep seeking the Lord with everything that I am, God will continue to work in my life. He will continue to sanctify me through trials and tribulations.

Even though I've complained a lot this year, I really have no right to. I could very well have gone to a school that would have over charged me and under educated me. Compass College really is a great place to learn about film. The teachers care and know how to teach the right things, and I will be getting a great internship through them and will have the skills to excel. Really, at the end of the day, the only thing I am lacking here is my best friends and a close church family. Sadly, those are the things I rely on in life the most. And God is teaching me to live without them, showing me how blessed I've been throughout my life.

James 1: 2-5 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."

Part of the sanctification I have been going through this year is learning how to be joyful in all circumstances. I am a big believer in believing that every trial we go through, every circumstance we are put through is because God is building us up for a future trial and/or situation. The things I have been going through is just the beginning of a bigger plan in my life. I want more than anything to run this race of life with everything that I am. I don't want to live a "normal" life. I want to be used. If film school was just a tool that God used to grow me, and I'm not supposed to do film, so be it. But at the end of the day, I just want God's will to be done. I have been through enough this year, and watched enough people go through crazy things this year, to know that everything is happening for a reason, no matter how painful.

God has a plan. It's up to us to see that and accept it. And I choose to be apart of it in any way that God will allow me.