Exciting Times

These past few weeks have been an absolute blur. Between the core shoot at school, multiple midterms, and getting our first semester film crews together, I am just exhausted.

On the note of first semester films, we are well into the pre-production for our first semester films. All of the students had to write the screenplay for a five minute short film set in a single location. This past week my team decided to move forward with production of the script that I wrote called "Water's Edge". I'm totally stoked that my script is the one that we get to film, but it is not without its challenges. We are in the process of funding the project, scouting for locations, and getting ready for auditions which are happening this Monday and Tuesday. Things are happening so fast, and since I volunteered to be producer, I get to be right in the middle of all the action!

If you are at all interested in finding out more about Water's Edge, we have started an Indiegogo page which gives more information about the film as well as providing a place for people to get involved in the fund raising process. Click here to navigate to the page. We need as much help as we can get in spreading the word about the project, so send the link out to anyone you think might be even half interested in the film.

I just wanted to give a quick update on what is going on at this moment.

Never Idle

Just wanted to post a link to some videos from some of the projects we have done so far. Things are super busy, but I'll try to get on here an update with some content soon. 

August Kensington & The Great Pickle Slap! from Michael Stanton on Vimeo.

A collaborative CCCA student project. This silent film was a response to the prompt given to us in class which read very simply: "August Kensington and the Great Pickle Slap." Our team had to limit ourselves to one light source including the sun, no inter-title cards, black and white, and a few other stipulations. It was a great learning experience, and the film turned out pretty enjoyable.

ArtPrize Interview Documentary from Michael Stanton on Vimeo.
A short documentary showcasing "Dancing with Mother Nature" by Paul Baliker. It won fourth place in the 2013 Artprize contest in Grand Rapids, MI. 
The documentary was an exercise primarily focused on the editing process, and we unfortunately did not have very good audio recording devices.



Muybridge Project Stanton & Hekstra from Michael Stanton on Vimeo.
A series of images captured to convey motion. This was a project done for Film History:130 at Compass College of Cinematic Arts

First Week of Movie Magic! (College Showcase)

It has finally begun! We are real film students now. Above, you see my two house mates, Andrew and Andrew, on our way to orientation day. It was a day filled with meeting other new students and faculty, going through some of the regular rigamarole of getting signed in, and best of all, a scavenger hunt around Grand Rapids! (Pictures of the hunt will be in another post).

I won't take you through the whole process of orientation because that would be tedious and boring. But I'll try to give you a glimpse of my first day at my new school. Much of the first day I spent running around taking pictures of the facilities. Most of which is on the lower level of the building.

The first common area you come to at the bottom of the stairs is Hollywood Square. It is a great little hangout area where we now have a Lord of the Rings chess set sitting for the occasional battle. It is a pretty great little spot since profs. occasionally wander out to sit and chat with students.  

We have three or four typical classrooms (below left) as well as some awesome movie related classrooms. This is the ADR room (below right); it is where you typically go to rerecord audio tracks, but there are many other uses for this room as well.

One of my favorite classrooms would have to be the one you see below. This is where we typically have our film history class, and it is a pretty great little theater.

There are a lot of other class rooms and things I could show you, but it would basically be a slight variation of the rooms you already saw plus some hallways and things (there are some great movie posters hanging all over the place). I think, for the time being, these pictures should give you a pretty good taste of what the school looks like. Speaking of school, I need to go get ready for Film Fundamentals, so I'll catch you guys up on more stuff later. 

I Will Survive!

Just wanted to show my mom that I wouldn't starve while I was away from home since she seemed a little unsure when I left. I'll admit that I've eaten a few peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches this past week, but I've also created a few culinary pieces that I thought were pretty good.

For starters, I made my own chips from leftover tortillas.










Which were pretty delicious in and of themselves. But then I got fancy. I had some left over beans and rice and I decided to cook up some queso fresco cheese to go with it. 





Added some Mexican style spices (hot sauce is always good), mixed it all together, and I had a great spicy bean, rice, and cheese dip. 








The Mexican stuff was pretty great, but then I decided to try something a little bit more classy.
It is kind of hard to tell from the picture, but what you are looking at are strips of chicken breast cooked very slowly over sautéed onions and garlic, topped with slices of green pepper and basil, all sitting on a bed of rice. I allowed the chicken to simply rest on the onions and garlic for the entire cooking time. I also turned the stove down to the lowest temperature possible and covered the pan to make sure the top of the chicken would cook thoroughly. The result was an extremely tender, juicy, and flavorful meat well balanced with the sautéed (almost caramelized) onions and green pepper. I will definitely be making this dish again. The best part was that it only cost me around $2.00 worth of material to make it. If you would like more details about how to make this dish, just ask.

So there you have it! I will not by any means starve this semester. Thank you, Mom, for teaching me the basics of cooking! I'm really enjoying it. 

An Interesting Walk

It has very nearly been one full week since I left home to come to Grand Rapids. Classes will begin this coming Tuesday, but in the meantime, I have taken a good amount of time to get settled in and familiarize myself with the city and surrounding areas. My good friend, Ben (right), came for a visit since he was in the area and we had fun walking around downtown and taking pictures. We actually had an interesting experience with a guy who saw me taking some pictures. We weren't sure what to think about him at the time...well, now that I think about it, I still don't quite know what to think about him... 

His name was Mike, and unfortunately I didn't ask to take his picture, though I thought about it. He stopped to ask about the camera, so I very carefully let him see some of the pictures I had taken. He then went on to talk to Ben and I for well over an hour about all sorts of stuff. I guess he was trying to witness to us, but some of the things he said struck us as odd and somewhat suspicious. Anyway, he did bring up some interesting points about turning the other cheek (do you see where this got a little weird?). He said something to the effect of, "If I were to come up to you and say, 'Hey, that is a nice camera. Give me that camera.' Would you turn the other cheek and let me have it?" Even though it was a sort of weird conversation, it got me thinking about why I wouldn't just give my camera away. The most obvious reasoning is that I need it for school. But is that "Christian" reasoning?

What should a Christian do when they are attacked or robbed? Is it right for us to yield to violence? Jesus did indeed say, "...if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Mat. 5:39b). Interestingly enough, I was actually able to turn to a Wikipedia article for some insight. The gist of the interpretation is that if the person being slapped were to turn the other cheek then the person doing the slapping would have to slap the person in such a way that was a challenge to an equal. In other words, "It's on like Donkey Kong!" Okay, maybe not that far, but you get the idea. The verse wasn't meant to tell Christians to simply bow down for physical abuse.

Okay, what about the verse that says, "Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back" (Luke 6:30). That one seems a little harder to get away from. What I gather from various commentaries is that this verse refers to borrowed goods. Someone asking to borrow my camera and someone demanding that I give it to them are two very different things. The first interpretation has Jesus giving advice for how to deal with everyday dealings with other people. The second interpretation – the one saying we should just give to the people who take from us – has Jesus advising we simply go along with criminal activities. It just doesn't make sense for Jesus to tell people to allow criminals to get away with crimes, and I really don't think we should. But there does seem to be another side to all of this. 

Didn't Jesus allow Judas to steal from the money bag (John 12:6)? Didn't Jesus let people beat Him and ridicule Him on His way to the cross? Isn't that an aspect of Christianity that we are meant to imitate? I think this is beautifully illustrated in the movie "Les Misérables".

That scene has always challenged me. It is very right and very good to do what the priest did, but can I do the same? I just pray for wisdom that if the situation arises, God would show me clearly what I am to do. People are always more important than things, but giving someone my camera so they can go buy drugs does not seem like the most loving thing I could do for that person. 

I would love to hear any thoughts you have on the subject, so feel free to post a comment.

Another Wonderful Day at My Desk

There is nothing quite like working on a project with plenty of pizza on hand. I'm still trying to work out a few issues with my sister's next drum cover video (keep a lookout for the Youtube link when I get it done). I need to try to resolve the audio problems in another program before I can get back to working on the video portion. Just downloaded the program from Adobe Cloud so I'll need to get used to it....

What's Up with the Name of this Blog?

Hello everyone! Welcome to the next chapter of my blog making. I'm really hoping to keep up with posts this time around, so please check back often or subscribe. Also, let anyone else in on the blog if you think they would be at all interested.

So let me get down to business. What's up with the name of this blog: Aspiring Toward Greatness? The first thing I need to explain is what greatness actually entails. What is greatness really? It would be easy for me, as an aspiring filmmaker, to look to all of the great filmmakers and say that those men are great (and they are great filmmakers), but I'm looking for something even greater.

Christ said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man come not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mat. 20:25-28 emphasis added). The greatness I am hoping to seek in my life everyday, as well as through this blog, is the sort of greatness that Jesus portrayed for us when He washed His disciples' feet. The sort of greatness He showed when he went to the cross and surrendered to the will of His Father (John 12:27-28).

This is a momentous task. Honestly, all I can do is aspire for this sort of greatness. I don't have the strength to attain it on my own. Thus, I raise my hands in surrender and pray for the Holy Spirit to have His way in me that I might be able to direct my hope toward Christ. I cannot be great, but He can be great in me, and that is my great aspiration. Sort of brings new meaning to the verse "...he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4b). The greatness of the world is nothing compared to the greatness of the love that Jesus showed us by becoming a servant. I seek to follow that example, and right now that means I need to follow Him into the film industry. You might be thinking, "Oh sure, he just wants to say God is calling him to film because it is something he wants to do." Yes, filmmaking is something I am truly passionate for, but I am passionate for film because of the glory it can bring to God and the witness it can be to men. I am seeking to make films that bring people to a greater realization of who God really is. I want as many people to see those sorts of films as possible. Currently, our culture is very dedicated to watching a vast amount of movies and TV shows. I want to use media to meet people where they are and show them how to aspire toward greatness; true greatness.

I hope you can join me on this adventure and I will do my best to keep things up to date around here so you can see what projects I'm working on and hear little bits of things I'm thinking about. Feel free to pester me if it has been a while since I've posted and I'll try to get something put together.