Filming in this World

Doing anything in this world can be difficult: telling the truth even if it hurts, paying taxes though you may not want to, getting up in the morning when your eyelids feel glued shut. In its current state, with its harshness and tendency to throw unpredictable curveballs, the world can feel like (and very much become) Hell.

That goes for filmmaking, too.

When facing Hell on Earth, what should a filmmaker do? What should anyone do? Well, in this case, seeing how tiny and frail and overall dimwitted I am compared to just about anything, let alone the cosmos, I threw my hands up to God. The One God. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit God.

And He answered me.

It began like this. A week or two ago I had a lot of film projects pile up unexpectedly. So my film project due in class that week had to be pushed to next week (and my gracious professor gave me that permission). So I got all done with that business and took a deep breath the day I finally turned in my project. Then he said, “Don’t forget, your next video is due in one week.”

One week. One week? One week… By putting off the previous assignment, I’d cut my time for this next one in half. Last assignment, dialogue. Bleh. I like dialogue, but I’m no audio engineer, so that assignment was torture. This assignment? Dramatic lighting. Yeah! Something I will enjoy doing! But by this time I’d already ate a week so I had to get something done fast.

But wait! I’d decided last week to partner up with another young woman in my group! So we got together and tossed around ideas until finally settling on a music video to “Cosmic Love” by Florence and the Machine.

And the race begins.

We thought of all the people who could play the part of the couple spoken of in the song. We wanted one male and one female. Footage of them having difficulty with one another would be juxtaposed against a male and female ballet/modern dancer pair. The dancers would represent the emotions of the couple in dance what the couple could never express on their own. It would be amazing. We emailed our actors and asked them if they could film that night, the next night or Sunday all day.

No reply.

Ah ha! A female actor replied with a yes to that evening and Sunday! Praise! Now we just needed a man. (Isn’t that how it always is? Waiting on the man to step up. This is where my mom would say, “Oh snap!” Feel free to chuckle.) Then, just minutes after I told the female actor not to worry about filming until Sunday, we got a guy to play the part that night.

So we rushed together and grab a bunch of stuff from the film studio, ran to the student center and hopped in the event rooms. The walls were torn down for the blood drive which gave us a big area to work in and lots of background to use as “the abyss.” The shoot that night went amazingly well. We cut the song and added the clips the next day. It looks amazing! But we only had 5% of the video done. A lot of work for little output, but we were used to that by now – we’re film majors!

Then the weekend from Heaven or from Hell (I’m not quite sure yet) came upon me.

I had to leave my partner at school and hurry to Cincinnati for an internship interview. I got the internship. Praise God! When I came back home, my niece and nephew were there. I had to both study for and take a math test online before 8:30 when they went to bed. Not so awesome, but it was doable. What wasn’t doable was checking my email to find that no male dancers I emailed could perform at the requested time (that Sunday afternoon). I rested on the thought that I’d already secured one female, and that might, MIGHT be enough. I contacted a friend and got some more names of dancers. I emailed more people. Something in me said to email female dancers as well, so I did. Better be safe than sorry.

More no’s. No, no, no. Crap.

At this time, my partner was trying to secure equipment that we needed for the shoot. It was all over campus with other people who were shooting – even though we had reserved half of it. As is life. Then, to my amazement and horror, I checked my email again to find that the dancer I thought I had secured had suddenly bailed on me. DISPAIR! Now there wasn’t even ONE female dancer to perform for us. What were we going to do?

That was around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. We packed the kids in the car (who stayed the night… I slept on the couch which was awful but I’d just gotten an internship so I was still pretty happy in spite of all the madness) and left for my niece’s 6th birthday party which my sister, mother and I were supervising. The party time? From 6 to 11 PM. The headcount? Seventeen 6-year-old girls. My mental status switched to crazy mode, which was fun for the children.

By the end of that exciting, loud and sugary evening I kissed my niece goodbye, hugged my sister and hopped in the car with my mom. On the way home I told her about my music video and about how little of it was finished. I told her about its great potential and about my dancer issue. She took my hand and we prayed.

Now, by this time I’d been praying the whole way, but not in a deliberate way. It was more of a ‘panic in the moment prayer’ like “Oh God, what am I going to do?” and “Lord, this totally sucks! Please help!” which are all fine and good and I’m sure He listens to those as well, especially when you’re actually calling out to Him and not just using His name as a prefix to your rhetorical question, but I’m glad my mother helped me pray purposefully.

We thanked God for everything so far; for a good shoot on Wednesday, for my acquired internship, for my niece’s birthday and for my safe trip home that weekend. We prayed that everything would go well for my partner and my video, and that God would get the glory for it. We prayed that we would see His hand in my life and in every detail of this music video. We prayed for dancers and if it be only one then only one it would be! And to top it all off, my mother prayed that I know that evening whether or not I would have a dancer for tomorrow.

I got home and meandered to the computer. There was a reply to a request. It said no. Another reply. It said yes.
Wait, what? Yes! It said yes! And not only did it say yes, but the girl sounded excited about it. I didn’t want to have to beg someone to do it, or get a friend to do me a huge favor. Not only would their annoyance and disappointment come out on film, but I’d be stressed out the whole time knowing that I was inconveniencing them.

This dancer was thrilled to help out, and I took a deep, thankful breath. Praise God!

The next day I got up, packed up and drove back to school. When I got there, I had to drive all over campus collecting the equipment my partner had located. I took apart a jib in someone’s basement and hauled it out to my car. (If you’ve ever worked with a jib, you’ll know that totally sucked, but by that time I was so ready for the shoot that God had provided that I huffed and I puffed and I lugged those 40 pound bags up those stairs like a boss. So ha, gravity; you cannot defeat me!)

Oh yeah! And when I finally got that stupid awesome but annoying jib to the student center, we had to carry it down two flights of stairs. Lucky for us, the Lord provided men. Yes, men. Two epic guys I know passed by us and asked if we needed help. They took the jib bags down for us and we carried the rest of the stuff. It was still tough but it was WAY better than doing all that again.

Oh there were so many details I’m leaving out in that one hour of the day, but it’s for the better. I don't want to whine. Let’s just say, the universe was pitted against us, but the Lord was on our side!

Two hours later, we were set up and ready to go. Our dancer arrived. We had some lighting issues (because someone took our light kit and we couldn’t track them down) but by the grace of God I’d grabbed my mother’s halogen floodlights she used for a cleaning job once and we managed to film the dancer just fine.

Lauren (the dancer) had a great attitude about the whole thing and did an amazing job at – get this – making up chorography on the spot! We were blown away by her portrayal of the emotion in the song. I got goosebumps watching the little camera screen and had to step away or I’d distract her with my excited facial expressions (I have very big facial expressions…).

The rest of the evening went pretty well. We really missed our light kit, and I still wish we could have used it, but the Lord was still on our side. It is possible that we would have gotten the same shots we did last Wednesday and not had enough diversity in our shoot. It is also possible that someone really needed that light kit and they were blessed by having it. No matter the situation, my cohort and I did our very best and it looked awesome!

We had two helpers I wasn't expecting. The actors were extremely helpful and NOT prima donnas, like many actors are labeled. My partner bought us pizza. We had access to all this awesome equipment in the first place (there's no way people as young as us could have all this stuff at our disposal at another college or one our own). The list goes on and on.

There are many details missing from this post, and even more that I’m sure I didn’t see, but in the end all I could see was God’s hand in this work. He guided us and protected us, gave us strength when we felt so tired we could barely lift a camera bag. He gave us hope and directed our hands – without Him, we wouldn’t have an eye for photography in the first place! Creating short films, music videos and the like really help me understand my Father who created us like Himself. He is the Creator with a big C and we are creators with a little c. We are truly made in His image and I’m so thankful that I enjoy what I do. I’m thankful that I decided to major in something I love. I’m thankful that I have the strength and ability to shoot and lift and I’m not shy. I’m thankful for Jacque, my cohort and friend. We bonded over this project and worked so well as a team it was unthinkable. Two strong personalities shouldn't come together so well – we were partly expecting to rip each other’s head off! But that didn't happen because God was (is) on our side from the very beginning. He cares about our cares, He delights in our delight, He blesses what we set our hands and hearts to. Our God is the God Who is with us.

Praise God!

“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18 NIV