Our family is leaving tomorrow morning to begin our trek towards San Antonio and the SAICFF. Lord willing, I will be updating throughout the week, depending on the schedule and internet situation. Anyone wishing to keep up with what’s happening can follow Jeremiah Warren’s tweets on what’s going on everyday.
It’s been a while since I’ve done any updates to the pages on this site, so I did some today.
Pages edited/added:
About
Films
Services
I’ve also been messing around with a store… Check out the test store here. The only thing that can actually be purchased on it right now is the Precious Treasure almost-final DVD.
The Christian Media Forums presents a new series of video contests! The revamped VC now offers a $100 prize to the maker of the best video entered during each three-month cycle (four contests a year); each video will be judged by a panel of five judges. The submission deadline for this first episode is February 28th; check it out!
The year of our Lord, two-thousand-and-eight, has simply flown by.
It’s amazing how quickly it’s gone by. And ya know, it’s kinda funny… While I was in the year, it always seemed like I wasn’t getting anything done at all. But in retrospect, it’s been like a whole bunch of little things that have added up.
A disclaimer before I go further: I’m not writing this post trying to boast or brag about what I’ve done during the year… I’ve done very little compared to a lot of people, and what I’ve done isn’t spectacular. I simply would like to look back over the year and reflect…
The year’s beginning feels like it’s been ages ago, yet as if it was just yesterday, in some ways. Almost a year ago, the idea for Precious Treasure was conceived… It’s so hard to believe it’s been that long!
Amongst other things, here’re a few events that happened this year:
The Live Animal Christmas Play video was being edited and finished, through February.
Bounty was produced as a part of ChristianFilmmaker.org’s 24 hour contest.
I bought my first computer.
The short documentary, Shell Bluff, was produced.
My family and I got to see Joshua Bell rehearse with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra.
Tyler and I attended a Christian filmmaker’s get-together in East Peoria.
Precious Treasure was produced.
StembridgeMill.com got a new look.
We took a visit to the Windy City!
Dad finished restoring his Ford 8N tractor.
Tyler and I participated in our fourth Sforzando String Camp.
For the first time ever, I went away from home by myself for more than a few days; I was DP on a short film in Iowa.
I voted in my first ever presidential election.
A bunch of guys I know (my Grampa, two uncles, and a cousin, namely!) got together at a submarine veteran’s memorial service.
The DiMaria guys and us visited Patriot’s Point in South Carolina.
This year was my second time to participate in National Novel Writing Month.
I was privileged to play in the Baroque Festival Orchestra last semester.
It was a busy year, for sure! Looking back, I was also kinda surprised to count how many short movies I’ve been involved with this year…. Here’s a list:
It’s been a busy year (I think I said that already… =P )! And through it all, the Lord has been faithful and good. His blessings are abundant! I’m looking forward to seeing where He leads in the New Year… It’s my desire to go into it trusting Him and being led by His Spirit.
Thank You, Lord, for another year from You!
I’ve been working on getting some demo materials prepared lately, and the first item to be ready is the demo reel of my musical compositions and arranging. I’m not totally set on what I’d like to do as far as grouping all of my samples together in one place on this website yet, so for now you can just download it here.
Included in this reel are (in order of appearance):
Tuning (I thought it’d be a nice intro to the reel…)
“Getting Ready” from Precious Treasure
“After the Meal” from PT
“At Home” from Shell Bluff
“Beginning” from SB
Rigaudon from Holberg Suite, by Edvard Grieg (arrangement)
Intro music from a yet-to-be-released web video series
Allegro from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (arrangement)
Beginning from Found
America, the Beautiful (arrangement)
Beginning from Found
“The House” from Found
“Alley” from Found
“Aquarium” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals (arrangement)
“Finding Kaiya” from Found
“Fossils” from Carnival of the Animals (arrangement)
“Wild Donkeys” from Carnival of the Animals (arrangement)
I know my music isn’t spectacular… but I try to do the best I can with the limited tools I’m using. And I’m learning. Experience is a good teacher, I’m finding out.
James Burgess, John Moore’s DP for The Widow’s Might, has some screenshots from the film on his website right now… For your information, it was shot on RED =) Check ‘em out!
Yep, we had an ice storm. It came on the night of the 18th, and knocked out power for about thirty-four hours. It also knocked out our internet for three days… =)
But it didn’t knock out my camera, so I went out and took a couple hundred photos last Friday.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
We have hay bales strewn about over the yard acting as snow fences.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Kitty: “i iz in heaven!”
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
A ledge we call the “cat walk,” which the cats don’t walk on when it looks like this.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Frozen chicken wire. =)
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Crab-apples.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
The reason for our power going out…
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
A frozen drip.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Ever wonder what a frozen hay bale looks like?
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
It’s easy sliding down the rope right now…
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Grass. It’s frozen like everything else, of course.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
That’s about a half-inch of ice…!
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Mom’s frozen herb garden.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
This frozen owl looked a bit freaky…
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Mama and kitty, keeping each other warm.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Lonely tree.
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
I thought this was cute…
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
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| From Ice Storm '08 |
Not sure what he’s doing here…
I was telling Mom the other day how I’m glad God created snow and ice to be pretty, so it makes up for the cold.
The following video is of the Baroque Festival Orchestra performing Grieg’s Holberg Suite, first movement. Conducted by Drostan Hall, December 15th, 2008, College Church, Wheaton, IL.
Well, last night was the culmination of four months of work. The Baroque Festival Orchestra, conducted by Drostan Hall, performed at College Church in Wheaton, playing a Bach cembalo concerto, excerpts from Grieg’s Hollberg Suite, and Brahms’ 5th Hungarian Dance.
It’s been a ton of fun participating in the orchestra, even though it’s taken up the majority of my Saturdays (Wheaton is three hours away). But even the drive time has been good, and the time spent with the orchestra has definitely been worth it to me.
The concert last night was a ton of fun, too. The sanctuary of College Church has amazing acoustics, which makes it a thrilling experience to play in. My poor viola, however, was having a bit of trouble staying in tune… After the cembalo concerto (by the way, Conrad Triebold, our young harpsichordist did a simply fantastic job; his talents are quite amazing!), I finally managed to get my D string in tune, but my G was still a bit flat. In the Hungarian Dance, there are some notable spots where I need the full use of the open G string, so I ended up having to pinch it every time I needed it, just to get it in tune…
Last night was the first concert I ever got to play an encore, as well, playing the Hungarian Dance and the Praelude of the Hollberg Suite again. Mr. Hall figured that since we’d spent so much time working on them… Well, it’d be nice to play them again!
I’m sure Mr. Hall was quite tired after the performance; he had been conducting pretty much ever since 4:30 yesterday, rehearsing the BFO, string training orchestra, and the junior quartet. I’m tired, too, but for different reasons… I had to drive home last night (and finally climbed into bed sometime past 12:30 AM, I think).
And now the fall semester is over. It’s hard to believe how quickly it flew by!
