Hello from one of the new and bright eyed student of the SFM10! Let me first start of this first entry by promising much more colorful and vibrant blogs for you, our dedicated reader, from here on out. A blog with pictures, and if you're lucky, videos is our promise to you. This is a media school, after all.

The SFM is in full force and we are learning much with everyday that passes. The last two weeks were focused on how to communicate cross culturally in a manner that will produce long lasting fruit. You see, missions is like this blog I'm realizing. Sure, you can try to communicated by throwing information people's way, but that doesn't mean that they are going to a.) read it or b.) understand it. BUT, just like this blog, you add some more detail and effort (say, audio or visuals for example) and it's just more strategic. I think the more effort we put into our message, the more people will understand its worth. You need to know your audience and for lack of better terms, give them what they want/can grasp. As we communicate contextually, guaranteed more people will be interested and more people will understand the truth. Our job as followers of Christ is to not just toss information to the world, hoping that they'll catch it, but to communicate. So how do we know if we have actually communicated? Well, as the great Calvin Conkey put it, (our first speaker and co-founder of Create) "Communication brings understanding." So here's to lots more projects and even more lectures all in the name of learning how to communicate. Because the world needs to understand that Christ is not a foreigner's God. There's a world out there that needs to know our Savior as their own. Christ came for all and it is our determination to learn how to make this known, heard, and seen.

"And thus I aspired to preach the gospel not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM WILL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND." Romans 5:20-21

About the picture: A group of my fellow students and some of the staff illustrating their plan on how to effectively reach an unreached people group using 2 different media tools.

Read more: A message with flavor.

We made it through week 3 of the SFM! Sometimes YWAM's schools feel like trying to take a drink of water from a fire hydrant. You get blasted. I would say that with this school, that is an accurate description, and it's only week 3. We are constantly blasted with information and we are constantly learning. (in the best way possible.) It was day 2 of video and lighting week and we already were handed filming assignments. The students in the school all vary in experience levels and for me, the idea of even holding a video camera is new. I was scared out of my mind. But don't worry, this blog has a happy ending.

The thing I've really come to appreciate about this school is the hands on approach of learning. While yes, you might not necessarily be a professional from the beginning, you can count on getting your hands dirty and getting to practice doing the things you came for from the very beginning. So as you sit in a classroom and are blasted with new techniques, technical names, and alike, it all makes sense a lot faster. You not only are a learner by hearing, but also doing.

This week we had two assignments. The first was a video in which we had to complete a partial dialogue and film the scene. The second was a one-minute viral video for Buddhists. So, all in all we made 12 videos this week. Not bad for newbies. If you want to see God's creativity, give 6 people the same assignment and watch how they take it and turn it upside down and in all different directions. The viral videos have yet to be edited, but hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to get a link to those on here.  Now on to bigger and better!

Read more: WEEK 3.

Attention all casual readers and die-hard fans of the SFM 2010 blog: There are new pictures of some outrageously good looking people up on our facebook page. Check out the page to see pictures of what we've been up to lately! (Go here.)

...and add us while you're at it!

How in the world is it possible that it's week 9 already? The lack of writing is in no way connected to a lack of input, quite the opposite actually. They say what is put in must come out, so really, I should be writing a whole lot more than I have been. There has been no shortage of learning, of passion, and of new skills. It's been a flurry of lectures, hands on experience, studying people groups, and while I haven't been the greatest at passing on the details, I'm hoping to be able to spit out an overview for you. Since the last update, we the SFM 2010, have learned about...

Video Production & Lighting

12 videos later, we started to understand a thing or two about the filming process. This was a full week of not only learning the techinical details of working with a camera/lighting, but also learning the art of putting together a viral video for a Buddhist audience. We also got to interview our project partner for our close approaching outreach!

Story Development & Scriptwriting

Who can say that for class they got to watch MI3? We can. This week we learned so many helpful skills in scriptwriting. While we learned tools to help develop a story, wrote our own stories (from our own lives and otherwise), we also used the movie MI3  and the comic "Bone" to help us understand some scriptwriting basics. In a school full of people who hope to tell stories in one way or another using these means to learn just made sense!

Directing Evangelistic Drama/Film

Directing is not for the faint of heart, that's what I learned this week. To truly master the art of directing, there are so many details to be aware of. Our speaker for this topic carefully broke down those details and even gave us a chance to get a feeling for what it's like to direct cross culturally. Although some of our actors spoke Thai and/or English, it was strictly forbidden for us to use these languages to communicate...only through a translator or cultural advisor! It was a good first glance at directing and cross cultural communication!

Field & Studio Photography/Visual Communications

This was another full week. This week was opened up as a workshop to those in the surrounding area who might want to join. With a few additions to our normal class we got the chance to have quite a bit of photography experience. After learning, every day we had photo assignments that were to be turned in the next day. The assignments ranged from blur something but not everything in a picture, stop something in motion, to doing classic portraits. The week ended with photoshoot and then a lunch in which we all "ooo"-ed and "ahhhh"-ed over eachothers finished products.

Photo Editing & Digital Illustration

Aside from those who might fear computers, I don't see any reason why someone might not like this week. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to get to make anything your mind could create actually happen. Were you wishing you could see what the face of a panda and a few other animals merged together could look like? Done. Have you always wanted to have your head on Julie Andrew's body? Also done. We not only learned about Photoshop, but also got to finish 2 projects per person. Such a fun week!

Digital Video Editing Techniques & Tools

And now, finally... the latest week. Also a very busy, but satisfying week. Our speakers this week would not be satisfied if we just learned the technical skills of editing. The idea of this week was getting to be a part of the editing process from start to end. So we started out with a shoot! We were working on a viral video in two locations-  a muay thai gym and a local cafe. The idea of the video was about the Christian model of relationship, and if you want to see a trailer of it, you really should go here. And really, you are going to want to see it. Not only will you notice how awesome the things we get to do are...you will soon recognize the first rate acting skills of one of our staff, Rachel and fellow student, Somwang. It was great as we not only had a refresher course on filming, but also got to edit it at the end. We'll share the whole video with you sometime soon hopefully!

SO that's that. 9 weeks gone, just like that. Of course there are more details that filled in the empty spaces, but that's the bird's eye view for now.  Here's a helpful hint for you: click on any of the titles above to see pictures from that week! There's enough to keep you entertained until next time! (which will be much much sooner- so hurry and look at them!)

Read more: 1-2-3-4-5-6 week overview!