Just recently I acquired a few pieces of video-related gear including Final Cut Studio 2.0, a 2 piece soft box lighting kit, backdrop support as well as black, white and green muslin backdrops and a high quality lapel mic. It’s basically a movie studio on a budget and though I’m still in the process of learning the ins and outs of the process I’ve finished my first green screen test and I’m happy with the results (don’t adjust your speakers, there is no audio).

It’s not perfect, there are a few little artifacts and lighting/reflection issues, but what’s cool is that I only spent about 10 minutes setting up this shot. I didn’t iron the green screen and it wasn’t lit perfectly, but still you can begin to see the potential of this simple setup. Below is a photo of the setup I’m using. In case you’re interested, here are links to the eBay auctions where I purchased the gear.

• Softbox Lighting Kit
• Black/White Muslin Backdrops
• Backdrop support w/green screen

The kits are pretty cool, they contain a big bag of matchsticks, a cutter for trimming the sticks to the right size, a small tube of wood glue with a fine tip (perfect for putting tiny drops of glue on tiny sticks), large tweezers to more easily handle the matchsticks, a sheet of acetate to glue the sticks into place and easy removal and obviously design plans to help guide you as you construct your masterpiece.

I found the practice of cutting the sticks to size and gluing them together to be very therapeutic. There was a real sense of accomplishment as I finished each substructure for the building. I’m not very far into the project and it’s becoming clear that this project is going to take quite a bit longer than I had expected. I’ve put about 6 hours into the project so far and I’m probably only a fifth of the way to being done.

More pics to come.

I wrote earlier about how I sold a lot of items on ebay so I could purchase some recording equipment. I haven’t had as much time as I had hoped to record but I know I will be getting a lot of time in once I’ve finished a few personal projects up. I also decided to take a risk and sell the Ibanez SRX705 bass that I bought last year in hopes of getting something that is a little cheaper but better suited to the style of music I want to write. I ended up getting an SX SJB-57 which is a Fender Jazz Bass copy that is very popular amongst bass players. These basses are well known for being extremely cheap but so simlar to their Fender counterparts that they can be modified, with very little money, to be BETTER than a Fender. I purchased a few upgrade parts for the bass and can’t wait to get to work. I’ll probably post some how-tos once I get started. Photos coming soon!

I also just found out that my wonderful wife Kristen has purchased a present for me which I will receive next month… a Martin DM acoustic guitar! It’s pretty much my dream acoustic guitar and she went and bought it for me as a gift. Isn’t she great??!?!?!?

I watched the Academy Awards this year and was very surprised at how the awards ended up being distributed. I was sure that the critical hit Brokeback Mountain would win all of the awards it was up for. I was wrong. It only won a couple of awards and the top honor of best picture went to one of my all-time favorites Crash. Good for them!

Things are busy right now but hopefully it won’t stay that way for long. I’ve been taking a break from photography as well which I haven’t enjoyed. Hopefully when it gets a little nicer outside I’ll be able to take more of my weekend road trips. I hope.

I was thinking recently about some ideas for photography projects when I had an idea. I want to create an in-depth photo tour of Wayne County. There are some beautiful scenes in this area and I would like to share them with the world. I have to give some credit to Jane Holman with Waynet.org for starting the Wayne County, Indiana group on Flickr, which was part of my inspiration for starting the project.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been taking some time to go out and around Wayne County looking for areas that represent what makes Wayne County so great. Once I’ve had time to determine what locations I will be photographing I will go out and get some shots. I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to release the project, whether it will be online only, whether I will offer printed versions, or maybe even a calendar, but I’ll keep you potsed.

The major hurdle that I’m going to have to get over is my fear of taking my camera with me wherever I go. While I don’t want to make people feel like I’m invading their privacy, I want to be able to record things as they happen, which means having a camera around.

For now I’ll be using my digital camera, but if series shows signs of success of any scale I may have to upgrade equipment.

Jamie and I are starting a new weight lifting schedule. We’ve both been "taking a break" for a while and we’re ready to get going again. Because of Jamie’s hectic schedule we’re going to be going at around 6:30am on Monday and Wednesday mornings, which I’m really looking forward to. We went this morning and it was a great time. We did some treadmill and sat in the dry sauna for a while. It’s nice to feel energized when you get to work.

The idea of the camp is to give local youth a chance to serve their community and therefore be an example of Christ to people that might not otherwise ever see the evidence of His existence.

Kristen and I are planning on going to the camp this June and helping out. We went to a similar camp last summer and had a great time. Unseen is also going to be the praise band for the week, so that should be a great experience.

If you’re a youth leader or a member of a youth group, you might take a look at Project 4.12 and see if it’s something you’d be interested in.

• Unseen
  I’ve been playing drums in a Christian band (along with 2 high school friends) for the last 3 or 4 months. We’re called Unseen, which is based on 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. We’re playing quite frequently right now (about twice a month), and we’re practicing weekly. We’re playing tonight in New Castle at the Hebrews Cafe, and we’re going to be the “house band” for a service called “The Anchor” which starts on the 26th of this month. For more information on Unseen and pictures, you can visit the Unseen page on this website.
• The Anchor
  In order to try and reach out to youth and young adults, the church I attend has decided to start a once a month, Saturday evening service called “The Anchor”. I’ve been working with our pastor in planning the service and will be playing music for the service each month with Unseen. The service will be the last Saturday of every month at 7:00 p.m, starting February 26th.
• First United Methodist Church Website
  It’s a plan that I’ve talked to the leaders of the church about for the last 3 or 4 years, developing a website for the church. Well, now I’m doing it! I took steps to get things moving along and now it’s full steam ahead. Things are coming along very nicely and it’s one of my best designs yet. If you’d like to check it out, you can go to http://www.firstumcrichmond.org/
• Promotional Materials for First United Methodist Church
  I’ve been working on some marketing materials for the church I attend. Though my design work for the church usually consists of ads for the bulletins (for the youth group and any other group that wants an ad), I’m now expanding into the other areas of the church and developing a brochure for all of the sunday school classes we offer.
• John Spiker dot Com
  John Adams, my best friend from high school and former band member in both Caje and Adams & Agee is a record producer in LA and is playing in a group called John Spiker (named for his cousin, not himself). They’re in the process of recording an album and marketing it to execs in Hollywood. As part of their attempt at a career in music, I’m building them a website and doing lots of graphic design craeting marketing materials for them. You can check it out in it’s current form at http://www.johnspiker.com. The site is being developed right now.
• Various Video Projects
  In an ongoing pursuit of the desire to make films, I’m working on a couple of minor projects. Most of them are insignificant art films about nothing, but I’m working with a friend on a documentary of some action going down with the Cope Environmental Center this month. More on that later.

I’ve got a lot going on, but they are all things that I enjoy doing. It’s a great time to be alive.

We’re working on the first episode tomorrow and hopefully we’ll get a lot of it done. If we do I’ll be sure to let you have a look.

We are very excited to have a show that we can get finished on our own schedule and to have a topic that we’re both so interested in. All of the shows will be available online shortly. I’ll be sure to post info once we’ve finished our first episode.

On another note, here’s a little bit of comic relief you might be interested in. There’s a new version of windows out, Windows RG. Take a look at it here. Take time to explore all of the features, and make sure you have your sound turned up.

The weekend is here, and I am ready for it. We’re going to see The Passion of the Christ on Sunday and we cannot wait. That’s it for now!

We started off working on one together so we could learn how to use the extremely difficult program. However, after about 6 or 7 hours of learning how to accomplish desired tasks, we were ready to begin production on our own games. I’m sure we’ll finish them and then give them to each other as presents.

I’ve posted some screenshots from my program, Fantastic Voyage, below.

Click to enlarge

And here are a few from Jamie’s game.

I’ll keep you updated as I progress on the game development.