Improvalog Day1: The Journey and the Arrival

DISCALIMER: I’ve now posted this the morning after I wrote this. It’ll all be clear as you read it.

Date: June 22, 2009

Time: 12:15 P.M. ?? Standard Time

Title: I Just Came up with this Title Off of the Top of my Head

 

After more than two weeks of practices, CYT Anderson is sending its second improv team out to the Improvathon 2009! This year the Improvathon is being held in Portland Oregon and is being hosted by CYT Vancouver (Washington, not Canada).

 

Now for those of you who don’t know what the Improvathon is, it is a national improvisational theater competition held by CYT Headquarters, for all of the CYT branches to “compete” in. Now, when I say “compete”, what I really mean is CYT teenagers from all over the nation get the opportunity to meet and befriend each other through improv and a leadership development conference for HYPE members. Basically, imagine a CYT show on a multistate level without any script. That’s Improvathon.

 

CYT Anderson was able to send its first team ever out to Denver Colorado to compete. The theme was Wild West, and our team was “Out Of Range” a play on words combining Cellphone lingo (being too far out of range to use your cell phone), and the Wild West phrase “open range”. The team consisted Zach, Noah, Taylor, Jessica, and me, with Mickey as our substitute. We were actually to make into the “A” league of teams, the upper echelon of the two leagues of improv teams. But we failed to make it past the first round of “A” league competition.

 

Now, we’re going back. The theme is “superhero standoff” and the team is nearly the same.  We all have high hopes of making it into “A” League again, but this time around we have a major obstacle we didn’t have last year: CYT Kansas City.

 

Three years ago, I got the opportunity to sit in and watch the Improvathon 2006. It was in Kansas City, and CYT Kansas City had two teams representing them. They were amazing!  Each of their teams excelled in verbal comedy, physical comedy, and could handle any suggestion or theme given to them with excellence. One Kansas City Team won first place that year, the other K.C. team won second. If there’s any team that’s a favorite to win, it’s them. Rumor tells that they’ve even been practicing since either March or April, so they’re pretty much ready to devour everyone there.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s our team: the least of the greatest by last year’s standards. We’ve only competed in one other Improvathon, and have only been practicing a little over two weeks (although they were an intense two weeks if I do say so myself). But the good news is that our team is pretty good!

 

This year we have Noah, Taylor, Mickey, Luke, and me; and each of us are eager to go back, especially Taylor. She’s been pumped up all day, even when we all met at the Stempniaks’ house at 6:15 this morning.

 

 

Fun fact: I’m writing this blog post at 10,000 feet using Microsoft Word. I’m planning to copy and paste, which is how you are reading this post now.

A Freshman No Longer!

Yeah, so… At this point in time… I’m pretty thoroughly convinced that all of my readers, all six of them, have probably come to the conclusion that I am no longer blogging and will never check this website ever ever again for as long as they live; meaning that I’m just chattering into the dark, echoing chasms of the deadzones of cyber space… Well, since I’m here anyway, might as well have fun with it!

On the off chance that someone does actually read this post, and I hope they do, Let me begin with where I left off as of my last post.

COLLEGE: If you’re reading this post right now, that means that I survived my freshman year of college! I got good grades in each of my categories and have come to the conclusion that I will do my best to avoid online classes from now on. But anyway, I got good grades and am glad for the opportunity to get a breather.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC: Did I mention that I’m in another CYT play? I play Rolf in Rogers’ and Hammerstein’s The Sound Of Music. Like my blog (but to a lesser extent) I haven’t really been able to put very much energy into prepping for the show because of college and the tests, papers, and finals that come with the territory. But now that I’m through for the semester, I’m finally able to really focus on the show and really get into the show. So far, everything is looking great! The costumes are great, the dances are great, and the songs are definitely great! Just leave a comment on this post if you want tickets.

CYT SHOWCASE: We just had CYT showcase this past Tuesday and it was one of the best showcases yet! All of the classes, form Our Gang all the way to the teenager classes, knocked it out of the park! However, all of us in the ballroom dancing class did run into some trouble trying to keep up with the music. The Salsa was good, but not perfect; the Walt came out great, but was also the easiest of the dances; and the Jive was pretty much held together by improv and smiles. But I’m not complaining. I loved the class and would take it again if I had the opportunity!

THIS SUMMER: Ok. So now that I’m on summer break and have had my fill of lethargy, I guess I’l go ahead and talk about some of the projects I want to get done this summer! First, I’m planning on studying how to build a website with HTML and hopefully, later, how to build a website on a Dreamweaver type of software. I also want to get a video project completed by the end of this year and preferably before I have to go back to school this fall. I’m also on the CYT Improv team and will be going to Washington state to compete in the CYT national Improvathon this June. I’ll let you know more as we go along.

A Not-So-Surprising Announcement.

Well, first off, I’m really sorry I haven’t been posting more regularly. That’s actually what this post is about. I just wanted to take a brief moment to say that I most definitely will not be adding any new posts (surprise surprise) for another three weeks. Why three weeks? Because this semester is almost done and then comes finals. I’m not complaining about this, honestly. I just know that I won’t be blogging while I’m in school. So I’m going to go silent for a little while. Probably three weeks. And then see how everything is going then. Until then!

 

The Next Few Paragraphs are about the Past Few Weeks

Apologies. I suppose that every single one of my two readers by failing to utterly smash the remains of the silence after I broke it three weeks ago.

Anyway, I’ve had quite a bit of college stuff going on lately, so that’s why I haven’t been posting on a weekly basis like I said I would… I know. Evil me.

So anyway, now that we’ve established that my schedule has been busy and that I’m evil and go back on my word, I suppose I’ll just say what I’ve been up to for the past couple of weeks.

Ok, so first off, I have a new video camera, the Canon VIXIA HV30 HDV digital video camera. It’s a prosumer level camera that, among many other amazing features, has two very unique recording modes: the first allows the camera to mimic that classic cinema look that most video cameras cannot  normally reproduce. The second is another setting that optimizes the image for internet video purposes! Not to mention a built in back-up light, optional manual focus, a lighting gauge, and the ability to attach new lenses! In short: the perfect camera for beginning filmmakers like myself and one that will meet anyone’s needs for years to come! I’ve taken some test footage with it (not much) and the camera works pretty well. There’s still a lot that I have to learn about it in order to truly use it at its full potential. I have a couple of projects that I want to begin and one that is already in the works. I’ll keep you posted as the idea begins to form a bit more solidly.

Alright, second, last weekend I went square dan- oops… “Contra” dancing out in a barn in the backwoods of the outskirts of western civilization. It was surprisingly fun. I wish I could go into more detail, but I’m afraid it’s too hard to explain online. Like I said before, all two of my  readers can just ask me about it personally and I can tell you all about it. At any rate, I thought it was really fun! 

I got to see The Sound Of Music recently, and I forgot how great the storyline was! I’m looking forward to CYT’s version of it and hope that I get to audition for it. We’ll see. 

The snow outside is incredible! West dropped by and we both reverted to a second childhood. We played with toy lightsabers in the snow, we built and killed a snowman, and then played with my old toy Gundam action figures. Yeah. It was great.

Well that’s it for now. Until next week; live well.

Breaking the Silence

Hello again ladies and gents. Sorry it’s taken so long to add any more posts since… um… How long has it been? I forget.

The reason why it’s been so long since my last post is actually quite simple; my first day home from the Film Academy was the first day of the Spring semester at Tri-County Tech. I’ve been too busy getting my feet underneath me for the new semester; as a result, I haven’t had the time to post any new blogs. I still plan on posting more about our trip to San Antonio, but I wouldn’t expect anything next weekend.

I know this post is somewhat pointless, but consider it as my way of saying that this post won’t be my last.

SAICFF Day3: Graduation Day

I’m done! Graduation Day was yesterday and the film festival got its start today. I know it was only three days long, but those three days were… jam… packed… It’s SO much information I’ve literally filled an entire notebook and started another one with notes (save a few pages that I accidently skipped, and some I tore out to write down questions on). I’ve made some friends, done some networking, and got my mind BLOWN WIDE OPEN! It’s hard to describe what I’m feeling.

We’ve learned a lot of information over the past three days. From theology, to filming a fight scene, to the RED HD Cinema Camera. I’ll go into details later.

Anyway, the entire experience was amazing and I got some good advice from God-fearing men. I’m going to be thinking hard and processing what they have said from now until a year from now at least!

As for the moment. The Film Festival is tomorrow and I’m really tired. So good night everyone. God Bless!

 

SAICFF Film Academy Day1

Day 1: I’m going to be completely honest and say that this stuff is hard to swallow. Filmmaking it is the most complex art form entertainment has to offer. Every shot, every lighting effect, every swell in the music, has meaning, and it can be very challenging to do that. Moreover, and this is very important, you have to be aware of where you are spiritually. Your walk with God in that moment will affect you and your story. So you have to be in step with what God wants for your life. It’s good and important information to receive. It’s late right now and I need to get some sleep and process all that I’ve learned today. So I’ll go into greater detail about what we talked about later.

Until then!

The Epic Begins…

DISCLAIMER: This is my first blog post, I don’t have a lot of writing experience, it’s early, and my flight leaves in less than an hour. So this post will probably be somewhat rough.

It’s 6:44 A.M. on January 4th, 2009. Here I sit in Charlotte Douglas International Airport waiting for our flight to San Antonio to be called.

So why am I going to San Antonio, Texas? Because of the San Antonio Independent Christian FIlm Festival (SAIFF for short.)

My flight just got called. I’ll tell you more later.

(Three hours later. Time: 10:39 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. 9:40 A.M. Central Standard Time. Houston Texas.)

Sorry about the interruption. Where was I? Our flight was good. No turbulence, no crashes, no terrorists. It was good. The only problem was that, when I slipped into a state of minor unconsciousness, I would often awake with my head not tilted forward or backword, but either to one side or the other, normally to the left where I had to wall to support my resting head. I would wake up with a stiff, sore neck and back. Oh well. At least I had Cinnabon.

Our flight landed in Houston and we’re flying from Houston to San Antonio; our final destination. I’m currently sitting in the plane and writing this section of this post on TextEdit. Hopefully I’ll be able to copy and paste this to my blog later. If you can’t this, I couldn’t.

The plane is nice. It has comfy seats with adjustable headrests, is bigger (but not jumbo jet big) and, they just flashed the fasten seatbelt sign. I better get going.

(Three hours later. Time: 12:16 P.M. Central Standard Time.)

Whew. Sorry about the interruption. Travel can be hectic. We made it to San Antonio and not only is the city itself beautiful, but the hotel we’re staying has got to be the best hotel ever! I’ll post pictures of it later. The Convention center where we will be meeting is not very far away and they have authentic mexican food here as well, so something tells me Taco Bell just won’t be able to cut it anymore.

Now, back to SAICFF.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve wanted to “make movies” since I was five years old. That desire has grown into a dream to become a producer/director/screenwriter, own my own film studio, become a major player in the entertainment industry, and use it all for the advancement of God’s kingdom. Ambitious I know, but why not dream God-sized dreams?

I’m in my freshmen year of college and I was recently told by some friends at CYT about a Film Festival and Academy-conference for Christians that was being held in San Antonio. Well, it turned out that what they were telling about was SAICFF, and when Mom heard about it, she decided that it would be a great thing to look into if I’m serious about pursuing this dream.

Well, I’m serious.

So here we are; in the greatest hotel ever in San Antonio ready and waiting for the first day of the conference! I’m going to be posting all about it, so log in everyday to see what I’m up to for what, hopefully, will be seven of the most life-changing days of my life!