so 2nd semester started yesterday actually (day 195).
and i have to say...
i now remember why i was so homesick and wanted to leave during some days earlier this year.
i really don't like intensives classes. -_-
not all classes... but dislike it enough that if the entire semester continued like this, i would be skipping a LOT of classes. haha... not that i did =P
still the same, lovin' chapel!
plus now I'm looking fwd to friday nights for WILDLIFE!
plus serving at Sisterhood + sunday church! (albeit still pretty basic positions... but getting somewhere. surely...)
really contemplating staying a 2nd year. i guess it also depends on how i "progress" with serving positions on sundays/sisterhood. (producing + camera!)
i have also yet to direct anything, so hoping to direct wildlife soon. and then chapel. =)
only the start of 2nd sem. aka slightly just a bit over half way. LETS DO THIS!
so i realized i never really blogged about conference. i mean, right after Conference, all that is on my mind is "JESUS!!!!!!" and didn't really wanna talk about what i did/experienced. because He is the ultimate reason for everything, and everything else just doesn't really matter compared to Him!
but now that a few weeks have past, i would like to jot down my first ever Hillsong Conference experience, mainly from a TV crew perspective! (not saying that the JESUS fire has died down. but cus the conference was so amazing in so many ways!)
before conference even started, we had 2 weeks of conference intensives. i spent most of these 2 weeks doing 3 things:
1) rostering ppl for and running Chapel TV, playing a role in preparing the student body for conference (as well as Heart for the House week)
2) helping out at Wildlife TV, preparing the youth for Jam2011!
3) helping out with a video shoot for the Conference closer (which was not played at the Sydney one due to running out of time, but apparently will be at the London one)
the day before conference was mainly rehearsals. i was pretty much down at the SEC doing whatever was needed (iHeart stand decor set up, cam4 tracking/assist, runner/messenger for TV crew, etc). if i wasn't doing that, i had the freedom of wandering around backstage, taking pictures, exploring, or just sitting in and watching rehearsals. all that and enjoying chinese food in Chinatown =P oh and starbucks too. ahaha
now that conference TUESDAY had finally arrived, i spent most of day 1 helping bump-in for Jam @ Luna Park! not much to bump in TV wise, so we helped the rest of the volunteers blow up and tie 8,000 balloons by hand, for Day 1's tribal wars. -_- the kids were to pop the balloons to try and find like 3 objects in them, outta 8k. that was pretty much all we did...
at night, went back to the SEC, helped out nadya/isabel with food runs. not to mention i was a lil starstruck when i walked past Chris Quilala and Kim Walker from Jesus Culture, JD, BCH, JTH, RM, DZ... omg! haha it took my brain a while to register who they were! usually i hold it together pretty well cus its just one or two big names. but when you get so many one after another right away... i couldn't believe it! haha my legs carried me, and just kept walking. don't stop. i took it all in afterwards. only to help make a food run to FoH, only to bump into none other than JG! they were everywhere! lol
oh and how awesome was this opener?!?!?!
WEDNESDAY of conference, finally day1 of JAM! arrived at SEC early, spent 1.5hrs waiting for the Jam volunteers bus so i sat in the 2nd row, watching morning rehearsals. and it was none other than DZ, Sidney Mohede, RM... amazing! haha
at Jam, i just did CCU. just a lot of following to do during the message as the stage wasn't evenly lit. so i had to remember which were the dark/hot spots and manually adjust it.
back to the SEC at night, did the same thing. helped out izzy/nadya w/ food run, think i also did some water bottles delivery to the camera ops. hiking up so many steps to Cam8 was def NOT fun -_- once was enough. glad i wasn't a cam8 op. haha
THURSDAY day 3 of conf, day 2 of Jam! we had a later call time, just chilled in the back dock area in the SEC, and then made our way over to luna park! they (producers/director) decided to switch up the crew positions a lil, so i was switched to GFX! spent most of the day either doing GFX or helping out patrick with "designing" the pres slides for tribal war point tallies. we had a slight bit too much fun playing with fonts, sizes, and msft clip art! lol! also helped out a lil w/ comp problems, sending ppt thru the system. good thing i still remember my PC knowledge!
back to the SEC, did cam4 assist for Revelation. then after the usual food run, i stopped by starbs, grabbed a drink for myself and my fieldwork specialist, and headed to the DHCC to check it out and deliver the drink! i stood at the very back, wanting to listen to John Maxwell speak, and caught an asian guy filming the entire thing. but i was told to just leave it.... so i decided to video him, filming everything. bahaha... GG flashing red light on a DSLR!
FRIDAY! final day of conference already. aww... kicked off the day with starbucks! and headed to JAM! once again, the positions changed time. this time, found out i will be doing Cam2, aka main cam! sweeeeeet! honestly... I haven't done main cam yet here at hillsong. but i always thought about it... if i managed to follow a softball and/or a softball player running, how hard can it be following a speaker? haha the only added difficulty was instead of using a handy cam on autofocus, i had to manually control it. but since the speakers didn't do anything crazy (i.e. jump off the stage), it wasn't too hard. fun times!
near the end of Jam, i got a txt saying i will be rostered for REVELATION! whoooooo! then i found out i was doing CCU. -_- ah well. at least i can say i did CCU for Hillsong Conference in the SEC! haha...
then i did some more food runs, and generally just chilled backstage... until the medley! nadya, izzy, and myself snooped around like mice, until we found ourselves some pretty good standing view of the stage. we were actually hoping to watch the closer video.. but since that never happened... ah well. we enjoyed the medley! at least i did =P oh man... it was a trip down memory lane!!! lets see if i can recap it.. (hopefully in order... no promises)
Everyday / One Way / My Redeemer Lives / This Is How We Overcome / All Things Are Possible / Hear Our Praises / I Give You My Heart / Jesus, Lover of my Soul / The Stand / Potter's Hand / Worthy is the Lamb / Shout to the Lord / From the Inside Out / Mighty to Save
so ive been in Sydney now for a little more than half a year, and i finally got used to things.
in fact, i dont mind it so much either! i mean, there are still small things like how everything is so expensive (get used to it... and learn to budget!), the indoor weather, not looking forward to summer w/ the return of giant spiders, no car to drive around (but thankful to know ppl w/ cars who ARE willing to drive me around.. if convenient =P)... but those are small things. =)
so today was orientation for the new July 2011 students. and dangs... im 2nd semester now! JZ (a fellow 2nd yr TV/pastoral student) and i hung around til the end, and decided to join in with the new semesters meeting each other and Bruce! man.. we felt so knowledgeable. we were giving out advice, and answering questions that we once had when we first arrived at Hillsong College. haha... guess it helps that we're also in charge of TV for College Chapel (me), Sisterhood/Wildlife (JZ) here at Hillsong too.
guess i have learnt a lot since landing in Sydney on Jan 11th, 2011. yet there is still so much more to learn! gotta keep moving forward and climbing higher!
BRING ON 2ND SEMESTER!!
but before that, next monday, i will be helping out w/ shooting for the College Opener. =P s'gunna be amaaaaazing!
so its winter break, ive got 2 weeks off, and of course, my old bad habits return. (i.e. its 2:30am and im starting a blog post =P)
tonight, the reason for staying up so late, is cus i was going thru Harvest videos on vimeo. not just York Region's, but also Harvest Chicago campuses'. i realized i keep (mentally) pointing out the same few things: director's cutting/fading/shot choices, camera ops' following/focus/headroom (camera work in general), and CCU's iris (dont think HBCYR has a CCU =P.)
these little things, i will most definitely pay attention to. and they will bug the crap outta me. i thought it was bad when worship leaders didnt even know the chords to songs, or didnt bother tuning their guitars, and such. and sometimes, i take it for granted that Hillsong DOES take note of these details and does them as perfectly as possible. i mean, one can argue, that "no human standard is anything close to God's perfect standards." but one can also argue that "we are to bring our best to God. not give Him what's convenient, but to go all out for Him, EVERY SINGLE TIME."
so it got me thinking... when i go back home to TO, will i stay at Harvest? or is it not the place for me? i mean, there is definitely plenty of room for improvement in the multimedia department (that goes for Harvest in general. not just YR.) but then i also realized (and remembered) how Harvest is sucha male dominated leadership structure. will i even have the ability to do much about it, since im female?
i must also keep in mind that what im learning is the Hillsong style of things. i can't just go back to Harvest and go "okay. this is how Hillsong did it, so this is how we will be doing it." cus what works for Hillsong, may not work for Harvest.
whats more conflicting is that i LIKE Hillsong's style! it looks fantabulous!
hmm....
getting to Hillsong is not the hard part.
learning stuff at Hillsong is not the hard part.
how the crap do i bring it back home? <-- now THAT is the hard part.
monday - conference intensive classes (shout out to Kmy and Matthews for teaching us!!), GROUNDSWELL CONNECT.
tuesday - final chapel of the semester, sunset shoot for conference opener (friday night), heart & soul night.
wednesday - sunrise AND sunset shoot in the city
thursday - sunrise AND afternoon in studio shoot
friday - regular fieldwork + wildlife
definition of sunrise shoots:
when the sun starts to rise, camera is rolling, everything is gtg.
which means... before the sun rises, i need to wake up, roll outta bed, get ready, head out the door, travel, arrival at meeting point by call time, travel to shooting location, help prepare the set... THEN we're ready to shoot.
meaning i had two 4am wakeups this week. not to mention full days on M/Tu/F.
it was pretty neat tho. altho my role was pretty minimal (set up, clean up, umbrella holder when it rains, errands runner, watch out for traffic-er...), its pretty awesome that i get to be a part of such a big project (Hillsong Conference Friday/Final night opener video!!!)
and everything i did... you didnt need special education to be able to do them (other than the hazer for the forest fire seen), yet i was lucky enough to have the opportunity to help out! a lot of my fellow school mates were either cleaning, property maintenance, or doing nothing. so i was pretty happy with where i ended up!
whelps. Hillsong Conference 2011 coming up in a few days! and after that, will mark the completion of my first semester here at Hillsong College.
after Passion 2007, i have decided to create this blog for myself, and for others. for myself to keep track of how God has changed me at that conference. not for it to be a spiritual high, but for me to continue SHINING. and for others to keep me accountable. and i also figured that its IMPOSSIBLE to do a one post summary of Passion 2007. so a blog, over the course of time, changes will be seen. [w]hol[l]y Yours. inspired by David Crowder*Band.
all of me is for God, and in a pure way.
Wholly and holy Yours. "The antonym of me, You are divinity." - Wholly Yours / David Crowder*Band.
orange coloured sky
what a beauty. i can daydream, cant i? =) [click pic for song]
