Update 8.26.1 My wife has helped me produce my projects since the beginning. From short films to corporate gigs, her skills have been instrumental in improving the final product and making things run smoothly. In this video, we take a peek at some of the things she's been doing. Wrapping books and getting the greens in place are easy to see examples. (She has also done a ton of the work on the props and costumes.) But Brittany also has seamstress experience and so has created the Bottomless Bag; you can see our first test shot of that in this video. The new logo? Brittany had her hand in that as well. You will likely hear a lot more about Jonathan and I as we put the videos together. But I want to make it abundantly clear that behind all of that is Brittany, helping us make it all happen. Prayer requests: Join us in thanking God for His incredible provision, which often takes the form of used items that get us what we need at a steep discount (and help us keep s...

Update 7.26.1 The Kitchen has come a long way since last week when nothing was working. The space is simply not optimal [ noptimal ] for filming. There isn't room to move, let alone hide lights. After hours of trying different blocking and camera positions, we finally found a layout that could work. This meant we could shift our focus to lighting and where we can hide the tools needed to make it look natural. One fun development from the Set Dressing side of things: While the ivies of the Library Desk can sneak in at the edges, the plants inside the Kitchen should be edible. This makes a ton of sense, but it took fiddling with options (and a creative mind) to realize it. While you were watching, did you notice we shot this segment in a completely different aspect ratio? Prayer requests Wisdom and clarity as we consider: - Should we invest in lenses that may help with our space limitations? - What kind of business structure should we set up? Huge thanks to: ...

Update 6.26.1 This video's examples come from our current efforts in Set Dressing, the art of making the background of the set look good. The two major projects are a stained glass window and book covers/dust jackets. But these time-intensive initiatives bump against a very real decision point: What is "good enough" for a project? How much do you invest in making something look good versus getting your product out the door? Because we're not getting anything shot yet. I take a little solace from the Behind the Scenes of projects as diverse as Lord of the Rings and The Muppets. Both spent time doing things that someone outside the filmmaking world would likely consider a complete waste. The challenge, as a Producer, is recognizing what is a waste (a regular problem for Hollywood) and what is essential to making your project play. All this crashes into other aspects of building this Living Library, including questions of staffing and how we want to d...