The Grip Truck ready to be turned in.

Playing with the Silicon Imaging 2K.

Last week I was working on the film The Unlikely Apprentice here in Virginia Beach. It was the Regent Pictures’ Spring film. Here is the synopsis:

Upon losing his sight, an elderly artist, Walter, has also lost his way in life.  A hungry, homeless boy, Charlie, has started down the road of delinquency for survival.  Their two worlds collide as their needs form an unlikely encounter.  With honorable intentions of paying back Walter for vandalism, Charlie proves that he is indeed a worthy human being.  In turn, Walter discovers a talented diamond-in-the-rough in this young scoundrel.  With time and patience, the two exchange gifts:  Walter with his craft of painting and Charlie with his knowledge of life.  Makes one wonder who is the real tutor and who is the real apprentice?

As a student film it has a low budget. The rule is that no one gets paid for working on it. This was my first experience working on a film with a full crew, and also first time for me to be Key Grip. Being the Key Grip would let me work close to the camera to best serve the Director of Photography. From this experience I learned a lot about the whole process of film making as I could observe the director, the DP, and the 1st AD as they were organizing crew and cast to keep on going in order to make the day.

Despite the snowy weather on the first day of photography, we were able to finish the film on time.

It is almost two years since I first heard about the paper’s plans about launching its own TV-station. At that time editor in chief Ruben Agnarsson said it was just a matter of time when they were going to launch their TV-station. Now, almost two years later, it seems like the idea has matured as they enter into negotiations with FOX.

From before, there are several Christian TV-stations in Scandinavia; TV Visjon Norge, Vision Heaven TV and Kanal 10. Contrary to the existing networks, which have their funding mostly based on donations, Världen i Dag wants to fund their TV-station by selling air-time for commercials. The former TV-stations has a clear evangelical profile. Mr. Öholm says that the new station will not broadcast Christian revival meetings.

It sure will be interesting to follow the development in this case further. Good luck!

The ongoing spectrail against The Pirate Bay in a Stockholm court has brought new attention to the meaning of the phrase. There are so much depth to the phrase and I believe both the film and the record industry ought to take some time contemplating the content of it, given the day and age we’re at. The trial in Stockholm raises so many difficult questions, which from my point of view, only can result in a final Not-guilty-verdict.

The trial can be followed on twitter.

For the pre-production i I was twice to New York prior to the trip. I went there a third time after the trip in order to make some conclusive interviews. But most of the material was shot in Israel. In Israel, I was fortunate to be assisted with an Israeli filmmaker, David Moran, a graduate from Sapir College. He also brought his own equipment, so we were able to use two cameras to shoot the film. I had a Sony HVR-Z7 and David used his Sony HVR-V1. Of course, we shot the film in HD-format.

Right now I have finished the transcript of all the interviews that were made during and after the trip. The next step is to make a paper edit. Once that is completed, I will start making a first rough cut using Sony Vegas non-linear editing software. Hopefully, I will have a rough-cut ready in the beginning of March. In order for me to graduate from Regent University, the film has to be completed by the end of March, so there’s not that much of time for fine tuning the project.

My family and I have moved back to Virginia Beach and we have been here for almost four weeks already. The classes at Regent University start this week, and I am looking forward to a new semester here.

I haven’t been posting to my blog for some time and the reason is that I have been quite busy finishing my incomplete classes from the spring. For the future, it seems that the blogging will be less frequent as happened in during the first months it was up. For those of you who would like to follow us more closely, I would recommend that you become friends with us on Facebook or Twitter, as I find it more easier to post updates there.

Benjamin will start in pre-school next week and we look forward to hear him learn more English words during the following months.

We have become members of the YMCA and they offer some great facilities for swimming, sports and workout. It is cool to be able to follow our progress online when logging into Fitlinxx.

Here I am working out on a Star Trac 5600 Pro Treadmill at Indian River Family YMCA in Virginia Beach. Hopefully, I will loose some weight

Today, my family and I visited Moss for the commemoration of the Norwegian bark Dictator registered in Moss, which went down just a few hundred yards off the coast of Virginia Beach on March 27, 1891. The figurehead was washed ashore and erected as a landmark, facing the sea on the boardwalk of Virginia Beach. In 1953, during a hurricane, it disappeared. An idea of making another copy of “The Norwegian Lady” led to a commission by Norwegian sculptor Ørnulf Bast, who made 2 copies of brass. On September 22, 1962, the two statues were unveiled simultaneously in Moss and Virginia Beach. The two Norwegian Lady statues have created a bond between the two cities, and in 1974, Virginia Beach and Moss became sister cities.

I have been living around Moss for many years, but it was not until I moved to Virginia Beach in January this year that I became aware of the history and connection between the two cities. The ceremony at the oceanfront of Virginia Beach in March this year was memorable. The story of Captain Jørgensen, who lost his ship, his son, his pregnant wife, and five members of his crew, is touching. You can read more about it here and here. More photos from today’s ceremony in Moss, on Flickr.

The Swedish Christian Democrats’ Party voted against the proposed resolution that would recognize the genocide against Assyrians and Armenians by the Turks. By their stance, they betray their own voters. Also; by their position in this case, the Christian Democrats show a striking example of how they give in to the submissive position of the dhimmi. Also their Norwegian counterpart, Christian Peoples’ Party, prior to the 1997 election, promised their voters that they would relocate the Norwegian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. When they won the election, they decided to not honor their promises. Former, Norwegian Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik turned his back against the voters, because “the time was not right.” In Norway, the voters turn away from the Christian Peoples’ Party, and many sympathize with Fremskrittspartiet, because it is the most Israel-friendly party in Norway. Hopefully, they will win next year’s election and have Siv Jensen as the next Norwegian Prime Minister.

In contrast, Sweden does not have such a party, represented in the parliament. The most similar party to Fremskrittspartiet is Sverigedemokraterna. Therefore, I hope that Sverigedemokraterna will continue its success and gain some seats in the parliament at the next election in Sweden. Then there will be some real opposition in Swedish politics.

The word Sabra in Israel has at least three meanings. It is the name of the cactus on the photos, a tank, and native born Israeli Jews. According to Wikipedia, we have that the word is derived from the Hebrew name for the prickly pear cactus, i.e. “tzabar”. The allusion to the native born Israelis is to a tenacious, thorny desert plant with a thick hide that conceals a sweet, softer interior, i.e., rough and masculine on the outside, but delicate and sensitive on the inside.

The first use of the word to describe native-born Israelis is claimed by the journalist Uri Kesari, who published an essay, “We Are the Leaves of the Sabra!”, in Doar HaYom on 18 April 1931.

Here I am filming close-up of the Sabra cactus in Negev (May 31, 2008).

When I was in Israel recently, I experienced several Tzeva Adoms or Red Alerts. For me it was kind of a surrealistic experience to hear the loudspeaker voice announce Tzeva Adom! The first time it happened I was on May 29, at the Sderot Communitty Center, where my colleague Jostein Skevik and I were meeting with its director, Avi Sulimany. As people were running for the safe rooms inside, I was more concerned about having my video camera recording. We gathered in the new auditorium and waited for about a minute, but we could not hear any boom, so we went back to the meeting room.

Later at night the same day, we were present at a graduation ceremony for students at the Ibbim Youth Village. During the celebration there was another Tzeva Adom, and we had to go inside the shelter. No boom happened within range of our ears. Also, during the Shabbat, while we were celebrating together with friends in Sderot, there was another alarm. Here, we went to a shelter in the basement of the house, but again we could not hear any explosion of kassam rockets.

Initially, I thought that the announcement of Tzeva Adom would be with sirens, but instead it was a rather calm voice saying: “Tzeva Adom!” I doubt that I would recognize the alarm if I was asleep during the night. However, Israelis we spoke with would say that they would wake up in the middle of the night when the alarm sounds.

Sderot is located only 1 km from the border to Gaza, and the city has been attacked more than 7000 times for the last seven years. Despite the attacks from the Palestinian terrorist in Gaza, the Israelis are determent to stay. During our my visit I was able to visit the 7^th South International Film Festival in Sderot. The festival is a message that they intend to stay in their beautiful country.