Day 18- Inspiration

I love the filmmaking process. More because making a film is about telling a story. And it is such a cool way to tell a story, with images and sounds and thoughts and atmosphere and all sorts of other things. Film making is also a process and I love the process. From shooting, to brainstorming, to editing, all of it excites me. Okay, i've only made one short documentary in my life, but it was one of the most enjoyable, life giving experiences I've had today. And now I have the chance to do it again. The emotions running through me are thrilled, motivated, and most of all, inspired. Telling a story, shaping a stories images, choosing what clip goes where, it makes me want to get up in the morning and be the most alive I can be. I love it. Storytelling in my mind is one of the most important, most critical traditions in any culture; it's who we are as humans, storytellers.

And we need to get good at telling our story. And others' stories, and God's story. That's why we go to church after all, to hear the story of God and man. We go to school to learn all sorts of stories: biology stories, the elements of story making like grammar and spelling, the story of physical realities that we like to call math and physics and what have you. We watch stories, real or false, on movie screens and the television. We read stories. We hear stories. Why? Because they capture our imagination, our souls, our inner most parts and [should] elevate them, enlightening them to good, truth, and beauty, three things for which we yearn. All humans know deep down we are part of story, a great story, with a meta-narrative that is God. And when we can connect with it, we realize we can connect with our Maker- and that is powerful. Thankfully, Jesus, came down to rewrite the story a bit, so we can more fully connect with God and the Big story, the meta-narrative of our place in the universe. And that's why I love story telling because it reveals truth, beauty of our God, our Creator who we mimic when we try to tell a good story.

Yes, I would say I love the film process just as much as coffee, if not more, because it can have a lasting influence on others. Drinking coffee while making a movie, yes that's close to what my definition of heaven would be, with Jesus as the executive producer or co-director or something.