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Last night...was a very long night. Around eight or so, Tomec comes in and tells us that if anyone from our group would like to help shoot a music video with a guy from Ukraine that we were more than welcome to help. We were supposed to meet in the studio at 10:00...we ended up meeting at 10:30. This was only the first of many long delays...
We get all the gear from the studio we needed...cameras, tapes, batteries, the screen for the background, ya know, the basic video equipment.
We get over to the chapel, begin the set-up...which takes about an hour and a half...should have taken twenty minutes. We keep changing the design, location of the projector, camera dolly's...all kinds of stuff.
We finally get a decision on how we want the lights, we add the smoke and the intelligent light for affect, the video in the background is rolling...so we begin...at about 1:00 a.m.
We go through the song twice, Bob running the center camera, and I was running the "crazy" camera, as Tomec called it.
We do the song a few more times, then Tomec says..."One more time, I promise!" This was the first of many false promises! We ended up doing the song five more times!
AHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
In the end, we got the video and clean-up wrapped up at about 2:15 a.m. Tomec is editing the video as we speak. Hope it turns out well.
Here are a few pics Ayla snapped during the shoot! Awesome shots!
Enjoy the stories...
Alex
We just got word from the airline company...and we have been able to change the group from Zona's tickets to leave...ONE WEEK LATER! They not get to stay with for the Fishart camp! Can't wait!
More stories to come later...
Alex
We leaded up the van this morning at about 11:00 and headed off to the city of Tomaszow. We are working on a promotional video for PROeM Ministries. It is basically an encouragement to get American to come and serve in Poland with PROeM.
We have done many interviews, and today we got a lot of b-roll footage. We got some of the childrens program at the TOMY Center. We then headed to lunch...we ate at Pizzeria Capone. AMAZING PIZZA! We got a pizza with ham, mushrooms, cheese, and peppers. The peppers were very sweet...not hot. Very good food.
After lunch, we went to the town square and got lots of shots of people, old Catholic churches, and the movement of the city.
We then met Rafal at the new location for the TOMY Center. It is an old theater...a very cool location. The front part is going to be a coffee cafe that will be open to the public from Monday through Saturday. Once all the construction is finished, it will be a grogeous facility.
We then made out way back to the current location of the TOMY Center to film the women's program. Along the way we stopped at the grocery. Most kids would go it and buy all kinds of junk food. Our group headed straight for the fresh fruit! It is something we have been craving all week. The cold cuts at breakfast have gotten pretty old...and we still have another week of them!
That is our day so far...oh yeah...we just got back from a sausage roast. Not the greatest sausage ever...oh well...I ate my fruit!
We have a video shoot tonight. The group from Ukraine is going to be preforming for the entire group, and from what we understand, we are going to help fim a music video with Tomec and the crew! Should be fun.
More to come from Poland later tonight!
Enjoy the stories...
Alex H.
Wanted to share a quick story with you all before we get out of here for the day. (We are heading into town to work on our new PROeM Promotional Video)
At the end of every week of camp, the show a huge highlights video of the week. In one of those parts, the show footage of the staff going around and waking campers up with a flashlight. The reactions are very funny!
This week, they decided to raise the stakes. They began at about one in the morning...got to our room at about one thirty. One of the guys in our team from CCV, Joe, was asleep on the top bunk. Apparently the came in with an electric razor and shaved a chunk of hair off of Joe's head!
Joe now has a patch of his hair mission...kind of offset from center...but very funny! Joe was a good sport of the whole thing...witch made it even better!
Enjoy the story...
Alex
Today was an awesome day!
The video that we ended up scratching yesterday, we re-shot last night and I got the cut this morning from Rafal. (It was in Polish so I needed it to be cut for me!) I went to work on it about 11:00 and had it all done by 4:00. Tomec then took it and put sub-titles on it for me!
So yeah, that was again my day.
But, the best part of the day...
I got the new graphics for THE ANDY PROJECT. So, basically, I am going to stop talking now and show you the new graphic! Enjoy.
the stories of real people...
alex h.
This has been one of those stories that I have been dying to tell...but I wanted to wait...wanted to let the experience sink in before I wrote about it.
This is the story of a place they call Auschwitz...to many...this was a living hell during World War II.
When you think of Auschwitz, I am sure you think of it as a Jewish concentration camp, and you are correct in that thinking...but there is so much more to this place than that. The Jews were the largest population of the concentration camp, but they were not the only population.
Auschwitz I was created originally for Polish political prisoners...the high ups of society. As the war began to progress, the phrase "political prisoner" became a very broad term...meaning that anybody who was Polish could be brought to the camp.
Auschwitz began to then expand, and more and more prisoners began to arrive. This is when the Jewish population became so large at Auschwitz.
Auschwitz II (Birkenauf) was established about five kilometers from Auschwitz I. This camp was approximately six times the size of Auschwitz I. Much bigger scale, much more destruction...death...crulity...fear.
The way the Auschwitz camps (three in all) worked was very disturbing. Jews would arrive, they would be sorted. The strong and able to work in one group, all others in another. Those who had the ability to work were taken off...never to see their families again. The rest were hearded into a gas chamber, where they were experienced a slow and painful death. Their bodies were taken then to the crematories, where they were burnt...never to be seen again.
The master minds behind Auschwitz were pure geniuses...in a very disturbing way. They had one of the greatest cover ups of all time for these Jewish people. Many of the Jews thought they were stepping off the train into a better life. They thought when they walked into the gas chamber they were going to get showers. They even had some of the Jews pay for their train tickets to Auschwitz. They paid to die...
What you have just read will probably disturb you...it should. The lives of these people were changed for ever...many lost their lives. For those who survived, I dedicate this post to them...to survive hell-and-back...yet that is exactly what these people did.
All of the pictures you will see from Auschwitz will be from the outside. Photography was not aloud inside, but we managed to capture some video footage, which I will hopefully have up later this week.
Real life stories...
By Alex H.
Hello to all...
Hope things in the states are going well. Sorry about not getting this blog up last night, but the internet here went down for about two hours so...didn't get it back until about 1:25 in the morning. What a day!
The whole day was spent editing...I worked on a video from about 10:30 until about 3:00...only to break for lunch. We decided we needed some more b-roll footage of the guy we had interviewed. I grabbed a camera with a tape and battery, and headed over to the basketball courts to get a few last shots.
I got what I needed, and when I got back, the decision had been made that we needed to re-shoot the entire video. Mind you that the video I had been working on was due for that night. We had even gotten most of the translation done...which takes FOREVER!
The head video guy here sat down to watch it while I was gone and noticed a slight high tone frequency in the audio from the mic. It was only for part of the video...the battery died about half way through the shoot, and we had to replace it. We decided this was the cause of the high tone frequency.
So, there, my whole day...gone. I guess you can say that is video production for ya. It happens...all the time.
We had gotten the re-shoot all scheduled for the same night, got it set-up, and got the shot. I began dumping...finished about 11:30. The only problem was...it was in POLISH! If you haven't figured it out by now, I DON'T SPEAK POLISH!
The only guy who could cut this (he did the interview...spoke the language...and knew how he wanted to story to go) for us...was about to leave! I had to get the footage all sunk for audio purposed, get it onto a hard drive and get the MacBook Pro all set-up. As soon as we got it together...about 12:30, he headed home to cut this video, along with another video!
Crazyness all around. So, now...the next day (today for me, but for story purposes, the NEXT day for you) I am sitting here in the office/studio waiting on the man with the Mac to come back so I can get the video done for tonight. The endless game of waiting...waiting...waiting! AHHHH!
More stories and pictures to come tonight...assuming if I get this video done tonight! HAHA.
Enjoy the stories my friends...can't wait to share more!
Alex H.
The gate that leads to Auschwitz II (Birkenauf)...very moving...very disturbing...very...
Yesterday was a very busy day...part 1 and part 2. When I left you from my last post, we were on our way to dinner. Dinner was cold cuts...once again. But it was very good cold cuts.
After dinner we did another worship set...I ran camera and it was just a blast. As soon as the session was over, we scrambled around to get the cameras and lights set, and began our first of two interviews for the night.
Number one went really well, except for the fact that they guy we were shooting (I just love to say that!) was speaking English...and we STILL didn't understand him. The price we pay for working with armatures. Oh well.
Shoot number five for the day began at about ten till ten...and didn't get over till about eleven thirty. Another great shoot...all in Polish! We didn't understand anything that was happening...but oh well.
A good day over all. Check out some of the pics from our set-up process. The MEDIA CHALLENGE crew in action!
Enjoy the stories...more to come later today...about today!
Alex h.
Well...I just had one of the strongest cups of coffee in my life...very good...very Polish! (Makes sense because I am in POLAND!)
Today has been an amazing day so far. Started off without a shower...our alarm went off and we slept through it...THREE TIMES! Perfect picture of hygiene is what you are looking at when you look at me!
We did morning worship and our crew runs the live camera feeds and works wherever we are needed. After worship and the lesson, we headed over to the cafeteria to get our assignments for the day...two of them. One was a group of interviews for some videos we will be showing during the evening worship session. The next was the daily highlights video...Katlyn tackled this one with Archie...Tomek's brother.
The rest of our crew began set-up in the cafe and got ready for our first interview. I ran Cam 2...the stylistic and abstract camera...so much fun!
We then repeated this process in two different locations...and I ended up here. Wow...it really was an awesome day...but ya know! More to come tonight...with pictures...in like five minutes! I am serious this time.
Enjoy the stories...and pics.
alex h.
