Another video from Houston

As each worship night happens I think in terms of video things are getting better and better. It's been difficult in a lot of different ways for me but a lot of the reasons why it's been difficult doesn't necessarily equate to explaining why I've been struggling with performing well. It's not like I've all of the sudden forgotten how to direct. Every night I come away feeling like I couldn't have done any better with what I have. But it clearly seems like each night I've been improving. It's not like the crew or setup has been getting better and better. So it's definitely me who's improving.

I suppose there is a learning factor. I have to admit a 21 song set list has a lot of ins and outs to remember. Even just understanding how to communicate to completely new crew each night is a first for me. There's a lot of little things that just pile up on top of each other that I have to worry about.

Sometimes I've thought maybe the powers that be might be regretting taking me on for this tour. Could someone else have done a better job than I have? Perhaps. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this has been an incredible opportunity. It's not just an opportunity to do video directing too. I've had great opportunity to have good conversations with a wide variety of people. I've seen God minister to a great amount of people. And even despite getting a lot criticism thrown my way, I'm learning how to take the good away from it. There may be a few tough people to deal with here but there are also many top class people.

Ok now that you had to read through all that, here's a video. Enjoy!

Southern Hospitality

So far my experience with people from the South has been really positive. People are really friendly and are willing to help. Was at Jentezen Franklin's church and they have a great tv crew and setup. Again the people are incredibly nice and sooo helpful and willing to go the extra mile to meet your needs.

Check out this video at The Berry Center in Houston.



Check out who I saw. Hillsong TV crew reunion


Chris Gregory and Nate Rosson. Lauren wall was also there but she left before I could take the picture.

Like a BUS

Hey check out pictures of the inside of our Tour Bus. Pretty nice. There are 2 lounge areas where there are TVs and we get a good amount of channels off of our Direct TV (I think) hook up.



My bed is the near top right bunk.

Give me a break!

Another video from Orlando Florida. Check it out!



Check out our buses! Pretty nice buses I must say. Serves us really well. The first picture is of buses 1 and 2. We travel on 3 buses total. Most of the time we spend the day unpacking our 2 trucks and then build the stage/lighting/video systems and by that time it's vocal/sound checks. Then a last dinner and we do the worship night. When that's done we tear everything down and then shower up and off to the next city on those buses. That's where we sleep until we get to the next venue and start the whole process again. Full days no doubt.




We have an extendable piece where it increases the size of one of our lounge areas so during when the bus is stopped the driver can make the place more spacious.

I'll put more pictures later to show you the inside of the buses.

Live from Little Rock

Last stop before a 3 day break in Orlando. Yay!

From Chicago to… wait what city am I in?

Well I had to think for a moment what city I was in just now. Louisville, Kentucky! I must say the people at Southeast Christian Church have been incredibly nice. The video/production team they have are super nice and extremely helpful. Really good setup as far as TV/Video is concerned. 5 cameras with a very good setup in the control room. There is still sooo much that I am not knowledgeable on.

One thing that is tough is the amount of stress I have been on. It is a huge amount of work to be doing and a lot of different hats I have to be wearing. Normally as a director I’d just be in charge of talking to camera people and cutting what goes to screens. But now I have to do things like calling queues, rolling video playbacks, going to a bunch of different meetings with the band or other various “bosses” I have. It’s like in Office Space where I have like 10 different bosses. So when I make a mistake I hear about it 10 different times. Let’s just say that it’s been a challenge. But I have to keep reminding myself that I can’t be defeated. That God is above anything that might come against me. Even if that very thing is myself and my own self-confidence.

Well back to the bus and to the next destination. Little Rock, Arkansas.

Opening Night

On the bus after the official first night on tour. Let's just say in terms of the video side of things is was a rough start. I think from this point it will get better but there were some struggles. We started off real well getting all the queues and video playbacks but there was some communications problems. The venue were pretty adamant about having their own director run the camera ops and switcher so I was just giving the queues on who he should be on and what shots he needs to cut in.

Haha it was actually amusing because the mistake I made was being able to communicate to the director (and thus him to his camera ops) who was who. For some reason all my descriptions of who Reuben Morgan was (he ended up being leather jacket man) or who Ben Fielding was (red guitar lead) or other people in the band didn't work at all. Apparently "guy who's singing" isn't a good enough description. Good lesson learned though. Never assume.

It's pretty cool we have a few remote controlled robo cameras at our disposal. Certainly interesting. Not as flexible but the more camera shots the better. Plus they're not as intrusive as a whole camera-man moving around.

More updates (with pictures and video) later! God is Able!!

Video Update

If I had time I'd post more.

Hillsong Live US Tour Day 1

So I arrived in Minneapolis and just had a relaxing night. No work just hungout mostly. Arrived at the Westin after a $35 cab ride. Room is nice. Met all the crew before heading out to The Cheesecake Factory. Had a full meal and then went to Target. Now just chillin in my room watching some mythbusters and emailing on complimentary internet.

The crew seems to be a good bunch of people. Interesting to hear the Australian accent again. It was funny because at The Cheesecake Factory our waitress couldn't understand Rob's accent a bunch of times. One time even I had to repeat what he said to clarify what he wanted. It was also pretty loud so that didn't help.

Tomorrow will be the actual work. Not completely sure what I'll be doing but I'm going to go early just to see how things are being set up. Will definitely bring my laptop and camera.

Dreams

I think this blog will have some reoccurring themes. First will probably be ministry related things. What is going on with AACF and in the near future updates from the Hillsong Live US Tour. Second will probably be sports related. Third perhaps something about movies. Fourth maybe something in the current news. And Fifth I’m not sure if this will be consistent but something about dreams? Let’s just say I dream a lot. A LOT. Sometimes I even write them down. Something about dreams fascinates me. God has spoken through dreams. He sometimes gives His people great visions. Joseph was a dreamer. He revealed to him his future. Joseph also interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream and saved the land from an impending famine. Solomon asked for wisdom from God in a dream. There just seems to me a lot that dreams can do for us.

Anyways there might be some posts about dreams that I have. Most dreams I have are just too weird to post but I’ll try and post the interesting ones.