An Introduction to the Old Testament, a Film and Class.

    The making of a Masterpiece 

    The past three weeks have been fairly intense, and my world has mostly revolved around the Old Testament creative project.  For anyone who is not immersed in Kaleo Culture, every year, as an assignment, the Kaleo students are tasked with creating an "imaginative, well-written presentation of the Old Testament" in the form of a director's cut movie. This assignment is entirely student led, and usually fairly stressful for all those involved. We set a vision, write a script, find props, locations, film and edit. We had been warned with nightmares of 16 hour film days on top of classes, and class fights with impacts lasting weeks, and it was due November 19th, a day that was steadily creeping up on us.

    November 2nd in the midst of Love Crofton, the directors for the annual Kaleo Old Testament film were announced. Korey came to the front of the class and called four names. David Tilroe, Nolan Gartly, Kaylee Johnson, and Olivia Mowchenko. We barely had time to process before we had a zoom meeting with Don Taylor, our amazing professor. Then we hit the ground running.

Let me introduce the team:

The outstanding, amazing, caring, and hardworking Directors of "The Adventures of the Old Testament - Kaleo 2021"

                                Nolan Gartly                                Olivia Mowchenko                           David Tilroe

I just want to say I really love these people! They were by my side throughout all the ups and downs, put in their all, and always had a cheerful attitude. I definitely saw Christ's love modelled by each of them as we led the class in this team building exercise. Unfortunately we don't have a group photo which makes me sad. 

    Anyways, back to the what wheres and whens of this project: Love Crofton work during the day, and Class film meetings in the evening became our format for the week. Monday and Tuesday were Director meetings, Wednesday we had an everyone meeting, Thursday the scriptwriters met, Friday everyone meeting, and the goal was to be done most of the scriptwriting by Sunday midnight

    The first couple days were the best bonding time. As we brought together ideas, brainstormed and planned. It was a beautiful myriad of chaotic words, colours, feelings and emotions. The directors' group chat was a great spot to bounce ideas off each other, and make sure we were presenting a united front to the groups we were in charge of. I hate division, so the group chat was a lifesaver for me. Scripts started coming together and people started to get excited! 

    We devised systems and structures so that the whole process on my end went fairly smoothly. It was a tough and stretching process, learning to work with other's personalities, differing priorities, and a lack of sleep, but a major takeaway for me was the importance of adaptability.

Something I struggled with was learning to let go of the schedule I had made, and not take it personally when things weren't working. This was a struggle on our first day of filming, when instead of doing the three scenes I had scheduled for the day, we barely finished one. It felt like a personal failure that I had done everything I could to make it run smoothly, and my best wasn't good enough. This unjustified feeling was sorted out later.

This is a picture of Greg, the Kaléo legend, and our very own King Xerxes, with me, who is not his Esther, on my fun, but not very fairy tale day.

    We had a meeting that night, where nothing was really decided, because I'm not very good at saying things that could cause conflict, but I acknowledge that the next day, I would actually Sabbath. None of us directors had taken more of Sunday off than church, and we were going caving, so it wasn't worth trying to worry about filming or scheduling. I also made it a priority to start scheduling breaks for certain people who were on camera all day and hadn't had a moment's rest.

    

    Wednesday morning was another early morning wake up for the sake of scheduling, and I selfishly asked Nolan if he would help me because I apparently had no knowledge of the time it would take for each scene to be filmed. Wednesday was a long day, and especially for David. The blessing of my job in scheduling is that it was usually done by lunch, and I could be free hands for whatever else was going on. David, Nolan and Olivia on the other hand were acting, filming, and doing, all day. Then in the evening was youth for David and I.

Fun side note: Youth was really fun, it was a live clue night where we got to dress up as characters and act and interact with all the kids, (in masks of course). Outside in our special learning pod bubble we were able to take this photo. Which was a blessing I took for granted.

I'm ashamed to say, that although my Spiritual Discipline of the week was encouragement and blessing others, I didn't really look beyond the directors for the first half of the week. It was Thursday before I actually started looking for ways to encourage others.

    Something I learned in the later half of the week was how to let others work. I often dislike group projects because I can never find the balance of feeling like I've contributed enough to the group to rest. As much as my contribution was necessary to the function of the project, I probably actually put in the least amount of hours of the directors. 

    At the point I was most struggling with not being needed, any future involvement I could have had was stripped from me. Sunday night, us students got some bad news that threw a wrench in all our planning, community, and high spirits. James 5:13 became a motto, but none of us were rejoicing. Us directors had a quick meeting, and decided to cancel any filming we had still hoped to do, (except our super exciting Don Taylor Project) which we still needed to tie the whole thing together. After that meeting I fully cried for the second time in two days, but this time the tears were justified. The feeling of sadness around camp was palpable, tangible, but it wasn't a film conflict.

    From then on I did nothing but sit on the sidelines as the Editors worked their magic. Emphasis on the work. They spent all of class week exhausted, staying up until 2:00 every night average. I did nothing but sit on the sidelines and occasionally ask if they were ok. All contact was limited and a little bit strained, which broke my heart. It wasn't strained because of emotional tension, but physical distance. 

    Anyways back to the reason I'm writing this post, (the class assignment questions) what was a highlight or take away I received from class or filming?

        

    My highlight was probably filming Amos with Nolan and Thomas, or the Isaiah scene, because I was actually on set, without the stress of acting, and was able to joke around and relax. Something that I've found hard with the administrative gifts that God has given me is that I feel left out of the community building time, and sometimes very boring. But those two scenes gave me a chance to let go of all the stress I had been carrying, and just have fun doing what everyone else was doing.

    My biggest takeaway from the course content, was that I finally got to add a little bit of sense to the prophets' timing. I mean, "What's in the Bible with Buck Denver" explained it fairly well, but Don Taylor gave me dates of the kingdom of Israel's divide, and exiles, and returns. I'm the kind of learner who likes her facts laid out concretely and easy to follow, so I really appreciated that about this course. 

What are some new concepts or things you learned during the class or filming that you can apply to your own life as you grow as a leader?

    During class, with the example of Nehemiah, I was again reminded that what defines a good leader isn't necessarily what they accomplish, but how they accomplish it. Nehemiah's leadership was defined by constant prayer, and that's something I want to define my life too.

    I learned a lot about people's personalities, the effort and grind it takes and the joy of working with a team to lead a project. There. That's my sentence. I don't think I can add anything to the film part beyond that I learned how to function on less sleep, and learned a bit about my limits, and allowing others to work to their own limits. I learned a lot about myself and my own insecurities in this project, but I also learned how it feels to be loved and appreciated. Shout out to a couple key people who a) gave me words of affirmation when I needed it, b) gave me a comforting pat on the back when I was crying c) gave me a random pat on the back and words of affirmation when I wasn't crying d) went for a walk and spent quality time with me when I needed it and e) gave me written words of affirmation. I really love and appreciate you guys! Thank-you for taking time out of your crazy and hectic lives to check in with me even when I wasn't so good at returning the favour.

Because it fills my heart with joy, I just wanted to share a couple pictures of our filming process. There is evidence that I was a part of this project!

Here is our angel Gabriel playing the guitar.

Here is a behind the scenes never-before-seen picture of the spies scene in Joshua.

I think this picture below is one of my favourites because I was behind both cameras! I've never been very skilled with cameras but I've always wanted to learn.

Eden and I were Midianites for the Gideon scene, which was lots of fun, and proof that I did try to make myself useful during the actual filming too!

I also want to give a quick shout out to a couple people I love! There were a couple birthdays this month, you know who you are: Hint Hint amazing cousins, brother and friends. I love you guys and I was thinking about you this last week in the middle of November!