Camping

This weekend we went camping with our office team. I wasn't sure I would go first, I guess I have grown more comfortable over the years.

But then I thought what the heck. We took a couple tents and made a camp at the side of a river close to San Felix, up in the mountain West of Medellin. Awesome place. Sometimes it seems God just designed places to be enjoyed by humans.

Almost no mosquitos and a steady 22 degrees Celcius at day. We even jumped into the beautiful little creek that made a curve around our place. We saw some beatiful yellow birds that could have been taken out of a wildlife magazine. The night was colder, most of us were freezing. That could easily be solved with better gear and clothes though. I got a taste for camping again and thought I'd buy a good sleeping bag and a mattress as soon as I can. I have camped many times in Sweden and in the US, but this was the first time in South America.

I realized how refreshing nature is and how good it is to get a break.

The river looked like it containted gold.

New films being shot in Medellin

Two feature films will be shot in Medellin in May-June. One is called The Dead Men and the other That thing they call love (Eso lo que llaman amor). Unfortunately, I didn't have a clue about this until recently, so I immediately made some calls to get in touch with the productions. I hope to at least be able to visit the sets and interview some people.

These films are actually produced from Medellin, not from Bogota, like so many other. Is this the start of the new film era in Medellin?

DIY sound booth

Cutting costs is good, as long as you get what you want... I am working on a client video with a discount, and have no budget for voice over. Actually they wanted my own voice, so I draped my bathroom shower cabin in sheets and some cushions and brought the Röde NTG-2 shotgun microphone and my Fostex audio recorder and started. It worked pretty well.

Sound easily echoes if there are hard walls, so the idea was to drape every possible area with textile, including the ceiling and floor. I still noted some echo in the base tones, but it was hardly distinguishable and I was lucky to have quiet neighbors at the moment. So I was pretty satisfied with my D.I.Y sound booth.

ViValores

Today I was working on a brochure for ViValores, our foundation that will broadcast "values commercials". A brochure that will be used for possible sponsors. Basically an NGO business plan. Lots of work behind the scenes...

Willow Creek

Today I held a seminar in my church about Willow Creek and their way of reaching people (Willow Creek is one of the biggest churches in the US and has been very successful in being relevant and attractive to people of today). I did a little poll about the present people's ideas of how to make our services more accessible to non-believers and in what type of spaces we can share our faith with others as church.

I also went looking for an auditorium for our film marathon premiere night, but no luck so far.

God or just luck?

Today was an interesting day. In the morning we went to hear some Christian Hollywood people talking about their experiences in the entertainment industry and sharing stories of faith. They were invited by the Biblical seminary of Colombia (!).

Then in the afternoon we had a scene to shoot for one of our values commercials. It was a scene in a school bus. Thing is, when we were scheduled to start, the bus didn't show up. What to do? We sat down and prayed. And believe it or not, within five (5) minutes, we got hold of an owner of a school bus who could come immediately. Was that God or just luck? I choose to believe it was God.

Thing is, two days ago I had thought about that first bus we had planned on using. It was a little too small, and as I worried about it, I was reminded of the verse, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Phil. 4:6) And I said to God, "Please, if possible, give us a better bus".

The bus that showed up, was bigger and better than the other one.

Film marathon

In Sweden, I participated in 12-hour film marathons a couple of times. It was a lot of fun. Now, we are setting up our own 12-hour film marathon for the public in Medellin. It will be called CineDia, the Film Day. We have started promoting it. I'm excited.