Posts Tagged david evans
Still Keeping Busy…
I’m currently burning the final copy of The Potential Inside today. I authored the DVD all day today emailing back and forth with Director Scotty Curlee to get approval on menus and work out all the details. DVD Authoring can be sorta fun and I like making menus. It can get a little hairy when it comes to naming and linking everything but as long as you label accordingly you should have no issues. Encoding is also sorta fun for me. Encoding means taking a video and compressing it to fit on a disc, but not sacrificing the quality. It’s way more complicated than that but you get the idea I think. This film was shot on the RED camera. If you don’t know what that is don’t worry about it, LOL. Either way that mean that I was going to have to pay close attention to the encode to make sure I could squeeze as much quality out as possible. The end result I’m very happy with! Another notch on the belt I suppose…
I was sitting down at my desk the other day when my phone rang. It was Dr. David Evans from Memphis. He’s the Director and Executive Producer of the upcoming film The Grace Card, coming to theaters nationwide February 25th. David is a good buddy of mine and has been very supportive since I was in Memphis to help with some early stuff on that film. I remember when I was leaving LA in 2009 this guy with a southern accent called me (David…) and had a bunch of questions. We began talking, I sent him around to whatever contacts I had to see what I could do and before you know it I was in Memphis taking pictures and helping location scout a little bit, meeting the who’s who of those involved, etc. It was a very exciting time. Unfortunately it was short lived, but hey…God had other plans. He dragged me back home because STANDING FIRM needed to be completed and from Summer 2009 till Summer 2010 I was burning the midnight oil every night to get the film completed and shipped to my replicators that July 4th. When I got home was also when ChristianFilmTrailers.com, and various other work started for me and brought me where I am today. Had I been involved with The Grace Card as originally intended, things would’ve likely turned out very different. Not necessarily better…just different and it’s not likely I would’ve met Denise. Funny how God works things out huh? Anyways back to why I brought up the phone call. David and I haven’t spoken since SAICFF 2010 and it was great to hear his voice. He shared some fun information about what’s going on with the film and how excited he is. This man is the most generous and heart-warming fellow…anyone who knows him would say the same. Him and his wife actually, I don’t want to forget about Esther. They both were incredibly humble and generous. Just before we were done talking and I had shared what was going on with me David casually asked if I wanted to come to the premiere. I sorta blew it off because I didn’t think it would be possible. But after I hung up I gave it some thought and figured I would be a dummy if I didn’t go. Not only have I not seen the film yet, but I’ll get to see all the great Memphis folks I haven’t seen in almost two years! They’ll be ministry leaders from around the country, Lou Gosset Jr. (Oscar winner from An Officer And A Gentleman), various folks I’ve been in contact with regarding Standing Firm or during promotional time but never met, and so much more! Denise and I will be driving down again so pray for good weather and that we’re kept safe. The premiere is on Tuesday the 22nd, so we’ll be leaving Monday. I CAN’T WAIT. 
Better get out my suit…
The website for Crossroad is still in progress so that’ll be my next project and after that I’ll be moving onto making a new website for The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry for Director Rich Christiano. Very exciting to be working on so many things with so many great people. 2011 has already been such a Blessed year…beyond compare. It’s only mid-February. What could be next? Now is a pivotal time to keep my eyes focused on Christ. I’ll be continuing to pray about whatever new story God would have me to tell and I have a meeting setup mid-March with a local pastor to discuss a few things and do some research. I’ve also been able to contact the President of the Acts 29 Network for the same reasons but he’s a bit overloaded at the moment. Emails is the best we can do for now. Better than nothing!
Prayers for work, my walk with Christ and my marriage with Denise are appreciated. Happy Valentines Day everyone! 
Speaking at AMOC
Today was the first time in a number of years that I spoke in front of people. I had been planned to speak at AMOC’s Niagara Bible Conference today. (http://www.amoc-nbc.com/) AMOC stands for the American Mission for Opening Churches. I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest. They’re involved in many different things, but most notably they have a camp there. I went to AMOC as a kid and have many good and bad memories there. When I showed up last week to meet with Tom who runs things there, I found it weird seeing the place after so many years. Now it’s funny that after all that time, to be back there, and speaking in the Chapel on a sunday night. I wasn’t there to give a sermon really, but instead talk about STANDING FIRM, testify to some of the things that God did, and share with those there about the church screenings and how they can be utilized in their ministries. The folks who show up to this are from lots of other churches locally. Some pastors, some elders/deacons, and a handful of normal church folks. I would say maybe 50-60 were there.
My hands were shaking, I was sweating terribly, and I was waiting for everything to start. I was wearing a suit and such which is something I almost never wear, and just baked inside of it. Having worn flip flops and shorts for the last year and only having a suit on a few times, my body wasn’t having much fun. I kept running through what I was going to say in my head and didn’t have anything to start off my speaking with. I didn’t know how to start things off in a non-awkward manner. I was really nervous to say something foolish or dumb, or crack a joke that would fall flat, and I didn’t really know where anyone there fell theologically so where I touched in areas there I wasn’t sure about. STANDING FIRM could be slightly controversial because of the truth it presents, and I wasn’t sure if any backlash could come of that. So when I got up there I just went for it, and probably repeated myself a time or two but I think things went well. I probably wasn’t the most cheerful speaker they’ve ever heard, but it had it’s light moments of laughter. I was pretty serious up there speaking to everyone, and brought up some very uncomfortable issues in the church (specifically the American Church) and spoke a bit about the state of the church as well. I had all that rolling around in my head and wasn’t sure if there would be a good spot to fit it in, but I think it worked. I basically went towards making a few comments like that because the issue of suffering in the film is so different from some of the namby pamby fluffy hug a teddy bear type Christianity that’s rampant out there. Death, suffering, financial woes, etc. none of it is fun to talk about. But I think everyone understood where I was coming from, and hopefully it made sense in that the film tackles a lot of issues that is rarely preached or taught.
Afterwards I shook many hands and had copies for sale. Out of the folks who were there, I got rid of a ton of copies, some buying 2 or even 4. I had a sign up sheet for the church screenings so I could send the folks more information. I hope I get a few signups from this, because that would be great. I also talked to a Pastor directly who already knows when he would want to do a screening so we’re going to work on that. It was great to see the positive reaction after it was over. My hands were shaking anymore, and I was able to just breath and talk to folks. Turns out one of the women there has her entire family in Brazil and they would probably be interested in doing a screening or two down there. I’ve already had a church in Brazil interested in a screening, so this could mean more! Pretty crazy the kinds of foreign folks who know about the film and have requested it. Pray for distribution in the Portuguese market, because it’s sorta on hold at the moment.
So overall a great night, and I was glad to see it over with. I’ve had barely any sleep lately and I need to catch up. There’s only 16 days until STANDING FIRM comes out, incredible! I think I’ve only caught a glimpse of what God is going to do with this film, and I can’t wait to see…
I got an email today that really encouraged me too. David Evans (Writer/Director/Producer of THE GRACE CARD, recently picked up by Provident Films/Sony) dropped me an email to say he’s excited to see the film and can’t wait to share TGC when it’s done. Last year while I was in LA he called me one day asking questions about filmmaking and who he might call and whether or not I knew anyone he could contact. Through some emails and phone calls I was able to help him which was great. I helped him get his AD (Justin Tolley from Fireproof/Courageous/Letters to God), and Michael Joiner (the lead in the film). It was great being able to help and then for a time I went down to Memphis to help do a little location scouting and a few other things, then I went home before production actually started. David’s email was very encouraging as I hadn’t heard from him for some time and I had actually just thought of how he was doing on my way to church this morning. God is good
A very good day, and filled with Blessings. Looking forward to a good night sleep and then a busy work week to follow. Lots of things to do! The posters for the church screenings should arrive today (it’s monday already) and then I’ll be all set to send the church screenings. If I can get all the packages weighed and ready I can start shipping them much earlier than I originally thought, so WOOT!
Till next time…
Awesome day…
Today was a great day. I went through the script for The Grace Card and made some notes to share with David later on. Some dialog smoothing and just other random things that makes the scenes flow a bit better. I was really looking forward to sharing it later on…
I worked on the Grace Card website a little bit and not much else. Sunday I’m going to spend all day on the Standing Firm edit until the college group meets. I need a solid day to go through it and fix some things and just hit render. I hope I can get it in the mail beginning of next week if not a few days in. I need to depart with it. I’ll still need to work on it a lot even if it gets picked up because it needs a sound mix, a score, and I know they’ll be other small edit changes and such by whoever picks the film up in the end…but I need to take that first step. Any good distributor will know if it’s something they want right away, it doesn’t have to be done 100%. I’m hoping for good things, as I really want to have it distributed next spring/summer. God didn’t bring us this far to just stop here, I won’t believe that for a moment.
There is some news I got today that threw me for a loop, but I can’t share it until tomorrow when we make the official announcement. It’s really big. Lets just say this doesn’t happen to someone who is 21 and only on his second film ever…it just doesn’t. I’m incredibly humbled and felt queezy when I found out it was official and you’ll know why tomorrow.
Me and David sat down for the first time today as Directors and got to work. We ran from page 1 and started moving through the script. I went through my notes which David was right on board with and we made our changes. We’re going to work so well together, I know it. We’re like one head a lot of the time. Getting into the script is what I really love, and visualizing the scenes so they’re straight in my head. That gets me very excited. We have some excellent scenes in this film I can’t wait to do.
Overall the day was really good. I’m just overwhelmed with what God is doing…I can’t really articulate how I feel about all this going on. I’ll share more tomorrow, and it’s a big day. Lots to do!
