Thanksgiving 2012 at Ecclesia Hollywood

Ecclesia did its yearly pre-Thanksgivings participation in the CCCO's Shoes That Fit Day which provides shoes to children who live along Skid Row. Ecclesians donated supplies and "must haves" food (fruits, veggies, chips, cookies and juice boxes) for the one meal that's served to each needy family and they volunteered their time for the event. I had just had my second nerve block so I couldn't be there physically but I donated money/food and prayed for all involved especially Dion Ramos, who coordinates both our participation in CCCO and PATH.

The Keeping Church Weird sermon series wrapped up the Sunday after Thanksgiving after 8 weeks. Pastor Joseph included scriptual basis for the "weird" things we do like (1) why Christians Baptize (2) why we preach (3) why we take Communion (4) why we do charitable givings, tithes and offerings (5) why we sing praises to God and (6) why we pray, which involved a church-wide hand holding prayer session along with prayer from the prayer team along the sides of the church.  They also showed several personal video testimonies from Ecclesians about the power of prayer in our lives and the availability of the church's prayer team.

Also, Ecclesia's amazing and very Brittish Praise and Worship leader, Greg Jong and his band, Grand Vanity (including wife, Danielle) made a tremendous milestone! Pastor Joseph was very proud to announce that Grand Vanity's Praise album has finally became available for download under Enter Praise Band at bandcamp.com. I'd been praying for this album to be released as the songs are so impactful and a "must listen" for Christians everywhere but especially us in Hollywood. There have been many days that these praise songs were what got me out of bed on a real bad day so I'm very thankful that they're available.

My favs are "Christ Victorious" (joyous, triumphant!) and there's "Abide" (like an old English church hymn with a rock guitar edge) and "Faithfulness in Defeat" (sad yet hopeful song based on Psalms 88 & 89) and "Holy Spirit In Me" ( country gospel/stomp and praise style y'all) and "Make My Soul Aware"(my morning wake up praise song)and "Confession Song" (touchingly honest) and --- well the entire album really is a fav! Find it here  http://grandvanity.bandcamp.com/album/ep-b-enter-praise-band

Greg gave his personal testimony during the "Why We Sing" sermon and then we viewed the music video of two songs .

Faithfulness in Defeat    http://vimeo.com/56081419  

Make My Soul Aware   http://vimeo.com/53557814  

These videos are extremely well done, too and made me think that the amazing, Mike Cioni, was somewhere in the mix of the making of them. Mike also plays violin with Ecclesia's Praise and Worship team and he's an all around prodfessional and nice guy. Speaking of Mike, check out some of his post-production work in the movie, Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren.

Also, check out Mike doing his CEO duties as he hosts HPA/Light Iron's Q&A and screening of Side By Side (my favorite doc of 2012) on 11/19 at the Arclight on Sunset.

Here's a pic of Mike with SBS's own Chris Kenneally, Keanu Reeves.

Update: The live performance video of Grand Vanity's "Faithfulness in Defeat" was actually filmed and edited by the equally amazing, musician and photographer, Daley Hake.

I see Hake at church every Sunday doing the sound checks for the Praise band and production work etc. and he seems to be a pretty "down to earth" guy. See more of Hake's work at www.daleyhake.com .
Art Exhibit:
Ecclesia started another art exhibit this Advent season with the same theme of the Anticipation sermon series and it's called Still We Wait. I submitted a a dark yet colorful piece of of art in a technique I learned in high school called scratch art. I did it by covering the entire paper in random oil pastels and crayola wax crayons colors then covering that work over with black pastel/crayon and then by scraping off or etching out the design resulting in a picture of a woman with a wistful, hopeful look on her face and a head of very unruly curly hair. As if from her hopeful thoughts, I depicted a cross and rays coming from her head like the sun breaking through the clouds of fear and doubt for the dawn of a beautiful new day. 

I called it "Hope on a Bad Hair Day" and I'm very pleased with it.  "Bad Hair Day" was not selected but it is my first foray into doing colorful, whimsical pieces so I'm stoked. I scanned and modified it with the computer to enhance different colors and hues then I played each new image as a slide show movie with Matt Yoeman and Dennis Davidson's  devotional piece playing/spoken in the background. I plan to video it all and use it as an interactive art submission in the future so look for a post of it soon.

The Wrap Up:
What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?
I'm very thankful for Ecclesia church and the wonderful and creative people who attend!

AFM and AFI Fest 2012

AFI NEWS: Nov 1st 2012

AFI Fest 2012 opens with a "bang!" or should I say a "knife slash!" with the Gala Opening Premiere of Hitchcock, the biopic of Alfred Hitchcock's life as he was making the movie Psycho in the 1960's. Hitchcock stars Oscar winner, Anthony Hopkins well disguised as Hitchcock and Oscar-winner, Helen Mirren as his long-suffering wife, Alma. The film is directed by writer-turned-director, Sacha Gervasi in his first feature directing role. Gervasi broke out in a big way as the writer of The Terminal which starred Tom Hanks and he also wrote Henry's Crime which starred Keanu Reeves then he went on to direct Anvil: The Story of Anvil. Gervasi seems to have a nice, quirky take on things plus I've loved Alfred Hitchcock since childhood so I was eager to see this movie.

I went to the AFI box office at Hollywood and Highland at 10 in the morning and snagged tickets to see Hitchcock. I was late arriving but I got to see some of the red carpet arrivals. Then I handed my tickets to the event staff and I was told the tickets were only vouchers which lead me to a long serpentine ticket line. Thankfully, I was blessed that the line was a fast-moving line so I sat and chatted for 30 minutes then we got tickets and were allowed inside.

We were seated in the over-flow theater Chinese 6 not the main viewing theater which was Graumann's Chinese Theater, where the director and the movie's stars usually do a brief intro with thank yous etc. Unfortunately, both Hopkins and Mirren were not able to attend because they're filming the movie, Red 2, together in England. However, they taped a brief video which was played for us prior to the start of the movie. Hopkins and Mirren apologized for their absences and then they talked about their support of the film, the film studio and of their fondness for director, Gervasi.

IMHO Review:
I'm on the fence about Hitchcock actually. It wasn't the acting that didn't work for me because Hopkins did his best to inhabit Hitchcock by mimicking his slow speech, his mannerisms etc. and Mirren is always solid though I might have casted someone a bit softer in style to be Alma. Scarlet Johansen was so-so for me but she didn't detract from the film. Jessica Biel was good and the guy who played Anthony Perkins looked eerily like him.

The real problem with the film for me was with the source material from the book and resulting script which made me leave the film feeling that Hitchcock was a pervert and mentally unwell instead of the amazingly creative, quirky humorous person that he was. The pacing was a bit off, too and some of the dream sequences didn't gel. I also didn't feel the love between Alma and Hitch at all either and I can't imagine which woman would consider this film a love story as advertised.

In fact, here were so many depictions of Hitchcock being down-right hateful and abusive to women that I was secretly hoping that one of the women would grab the "shower scene knife" and let him have it. It seems that other women in the theater felt that way as many women left the theater looking puzzled yet all the men left happy and smiling. So if you're a guy you'll probably love Hitchcock but, girls, I'd say miss it.

Sunday Nov 4th 2012
Rise of the Guardians (3D):

I was blessed to get a gala ticket to Rise of the Guardians, a new animation from Disney studios. There was a brief wait then they we were ushered past the red carpet and seated in the Graumann's Chinese Theater. Jeffrey Katzenberg was asked to stand and be acknowledge for his hard work at Disney and everyone applauded for him loudly. Then there were brief comments by the film's director, Peter Ramsey and Alec Baldwin, who plays a broad-shouldered sword carrying Russian Santa Claus along with Hugh Jackman who voices a muscled Ausssie Easter Bunny in the film.

Star Sightings:
Alec Baldwin exited down the center aisle then walked right behind me. He stood there for a bit then they ushered him to an exit to my right.

IMHO Review:
After getting over my 3D glasses headache, I sat back in my seat to enjoy this film. Unfortunately, the film did not hold my interest at all. The problem again was with the source material and the script. The Jack Frost storyline was boring and I wanted to know more about the back story of the other Guardians like Santa or the bunny instead. I loved the elves and the abominable snowmen though and again I wished the movie featured them more. The literal "nightmares" were also a nice CGI effect and Sandman was way cool, too. So "see it" if you want to see what's up in CGI effects but don't expect a story. Consider a "miss it" if you're taking young kids because at times the movie's themes were too dark.


AFM 2012 : Nov 6th 2012 Election Day
I finally dropped by the American Film Market (AFM) at the Loew's Santa Monica Hotel at 1700 Ocean Avenue and AFM seems the same as the past few years. The Asian contigent (especially the Chinese) seemed smaller this year but that may just be my biased assessment as I hung out with some Chinese filmmakers at AFM in 2010. I didn't schedule any conferences or pitches this year so I just grabbed some trade mags and strolled about the beautiful hotel. It was turning dusk so everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves in the lobby as filmmakers and buyers from all over the world networked as they drank cocktails.

AFM Update: Twilight's Breakin Dawn and the Virgin Islands Film Office:

 Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2 cast shoot scenes in St. Thomas


 

I got to hang out with someone working with the Virgin Islands Film Office. It appears that a critical part of Breaking Dawn Part 2 including all the scenes on the fictitious Isla Esme were filmed in St. Thomas and that footage is now being used to promote the U.S. Virgin Islands as a film location for future films. Read what Twilight actors, Robert Patterson and Kristen Stewart said about filming in St. Thomas here  
http://collider.com/robert-pattinson-twilight-breaking-dawn-2-interview/208112/    

Interested in shooting in the Virgin Islands? Go to http://www.filmusvi.com/