Tag: ian robertson

  • the 50th Episode

    I can’t believe it’s already been 50 shows. Fifty! One thing is obvious, Ian Robertson is a complete saint to put up with me for a year. Producing a weekly show is a joy, a challenge, and a discipline. It’s insanity and fun wrapped into one. I’m especially happy with how this episode turned out. This may be our best show yet. Ian worked really hard on it. And the segment with Wayne Rice is brilliantly shot. Like, holy cow… our show has Wayne Rice in it!

    The show has introduced me to a lot of stuff. I’ve met an amazing amount of people. I’ve shared deep moments as they shared what was on their heart. There have been many goofy moments as well. A year ago I was completely intimidated by Ian’s camera. Now I know what a little bit about things like frame rate, aperture, focus, lighting, sound, framing, and working with talent. Being a part of this podcast is one of the best parts of my job. All I can think about when I think about the first 50 episodes is joy. It’s hard work. It’s not always pretty. But it’s a labor of joy.

    Here it is, episode 50.

  • DCLA Recap – directors cut

    Let’s see… so much in this show to cover!

    – Brittany did a great job hosting the DCLA recap. She ran our registration area… but once she was done she got to join “the fun team” and run around with me capturing video and pictures.
    – The opening thing we shot on the Mall. It got super hot and by the time we got back to the convention center, about a mile away, we were both exhausted.
    – Right before we shot this opening scene Brittany and I witnessed one of the most bizarre moments of our lives. A woman was laying on the grass with the monument in the background above her… that’s all I can say as this is a PG rated blog.
    – Each night before we let the students into Big Room there was a massive “walking in” moment where we tried to slow everyone down. Here’s a video I took on my flip camera the night before. That’s Tic Long leading the way. Awesome moment.
    – The worship times with Starfield were insane. I had a hard time squeezing to the front. The kids jumping, dancing, and worshiping was a lot of fun. I’m glad we captured Scott Erickson painting and dancing as well. He makes his art fun!
    – I love the clips from students sharing about their DCLA experiences. You’ll hear a few of them reference the storyline. During 4 big room sessions the speakers covered the entire Bible and weaved students into God’s story of redemption for the world.
    – Shane Claiborne’s point about God loving Afghanistan and Iraq reverberated all weekend long. I heard people say AMEN but I wonder how many people are still wrestling with that point.
    – I’ve seen Tommy and Eddie (The Skit Guys) do their thing a bunch. But I have to say… I loved how they came up with new skits, even a serious one, to fit into the storyline.
    – There’s a couple of clips from the concert on Saturday night with KJ-52 and Hawk Nelson. Holy cow… the kids were into that. I was in the little pit between the stage and these barricades they put up. Lemme tell you, it was a little scary!
    – I’m happy the clip with the kid answering his cell made the cut into the podcast. That was stupid funny.
    – I’m also glad we included the part with the youth pastor, Verne. He and I exchanged a bunch of tweets during DCLA. I love how a couple students were like, “No, Verne doesn’t fart a lot.” But the one girl is like… “Yeah, he farts all the time!”
    – Brittany scared me to death. I found this little walkway above the ballrooms. I am positive we weren’t supposed to be up there as it was like 100 feet above the floor. You can see on the video that she is standing in front of this chest high wall. She was freaking me out since she wanted to stand on top of the wall! I’m not afraid of heights. But I am afraid of people falling off of things.
    – I caught the youth pastor from my in-laws church, Larry, talking about labs. He was great. I’ve never gotten to know him but I know he’s a big help to YS.
    – I think every student I interviewed, except the kids in Verne’s church, were from Jersey.
    – My favorite line in the show comes at the end… “DCLA is dipped in awesome sauce.” Amen to that.

    Big ups to Ian. He took 90 minutes of raw footage and strung together a 7 minute show.

  • Two fantastic videos from NYWC

    I am a huge fan of the stories told at NYWC. Even before I came to work at YS, I always thought they managed to tell the right stories at every event to warm the heart and encourage the soul to keep going.

    These are two great short films produced by Ian, our maven of media.

    Christopher Yanov

    Becky Russell

  • Quick check-in

    I’m always amazed at my inability to blog from NYWC. I think it’s a combination of my insane schedule and a lack of good internet connectivity. More importantly, I feel like I don’t have much to share while in the midst of NYWC since I’m soaking it in so deeply.

    So here are some random thoughts in no particular order.

    – I’m looking forward to getting season one of “NYWC as a YS staffer” out of the way. 2008 has been a major learning curve for me. I feel like I admit ignorance way too much. I look forward to 2009 because I’ll be more useful beyond what I was able to handle here. I know that is gray and fuzzy, I don’t want to bore anyone with details.

    – I’ve said this before but I want to say it again, people are people no matter what they do. I’ve had some stirring conversations with speakers and authors… but I’ve also had very similar conversations with people who don’t write or speak for a living.

    – Nashville is a great convention location. I love the arena environment!

    – A ton of people asked me if the convention gets boring having gone to all 3. No, not boring. Not really repetitive. If it were boring I would need to find a new job.

    – I have huge respect for convention volunteers. My only frame of reference is a PGA Tour event. I think it’s a lot like that. Simply put, if we didn’t have the volunteer we couldn’t do it. Thanks to our volunteers!

    – I’ve gotten more sleep than in Pittsburgh. The reality is that my body is just waking up at 5:30 AM Pacific time. My roommate, Andy Thompson, thought I was kidding. With no alarm I woke up at exactly 5:30 on Friday morning. Today I woke up at 5:27.

    – Security at the Sommet Center is a little crazy. They are diligent, to say the least.

    – Is it really Christmas shopping season?

    – It’s true. I’m staying over on Monday night so I can get a good nights sleep before going home. I felt like my recovery process after Pittsburgh was elongated by my lack of chillaxing.

    – I’m looking forward to checking out the details of Obama’s transition team when I get home.

    – Mark Yaconelli, pictured above, brought the funk today.

    – I am thankful for Ian [Dude] Robertson. Every time I do an interview I am praying I don’t ruin it. It’s happened, it’s embarassing and every shoot makes me wish I knew more about the camera.

    – Just heard this on the Nashville news, “NASA astronaughts are working on their hardest project ever, they are installing a device that will make drinking water out of urine.“

  • Dog & Car updates

    I don’t stress out too easily. But the last 48 hours kind of rattled me. Our super reliable car seems to have blown up and our super simple dog had to be rushed to the vet. So when a man’s best friend and his ride both get busted in a day… now you know that freaks me out a little.

    The car. After comparing sounds on YouTube with what my car is doing, I’m 99% sure I need to have the engine rebuilt. I plan on taking some time tomorrow to talk to mechanics and decide if we should sell it for parts and use that money to buy another car or pay to get this one repaired. With Kristen starting work in a couple weeks we’ll need to get a second car soon, which just makes that a whole lot more fun to think about! In the meantime, I headed over to Enterprise to get a rental car. You know, they really do pick you up! For those who know San Diego, the office is at 46th & El Cajon Boulevard. (About 4-5 blocks from where we go to church.) The mananger actually said to me, “I don’t see many white people in this store, do you live near here?” So until we get this sorted out, we’re driving a Mazda 5. It’s half minivan and half car. Weird, but I really like it too.

    Stoney. Yesterday I made an appointment with a vet that a coworker recommended. (Ian recommends all kinds of great things for my area since he went to school up the street at San Diego State.) Stoney’ right hind leg had swollen to about double it’s size, was leaking all sorts of nasty fluid, and he simply couldn’t leave it alone. The vet helped us a ton! She gave Stoney the infamous e-collar, a cortizone shot for the infection, and 3 prescriptions to keep down the swelling, fight the infection even more, and dull the pain so he could sleep. It turns out our dog is super allergic to fleas. This lead to him chewing a hot spot that got infected. I’m happy to report that this morning the wound is about 1/3 the size it was yesterday. Stoney is starting to act a little more chipper despite the silly collar thing which runs into everything. Just wait until he realizes that we’ve halved his food again! He’s 13 pounds overweight… considering he’s lost 15 pounds already since the spring… that’s a lot more hard work. One may wonder how I’m getting a dog to take so many pills. Let’s just say Stoney thinks he’s getting a lot more treats made of cheese and pepperoni!