So here’s a little video we made while we were in Poland. It also has Lidia’s mom in it. It was good fun and a good opportunity to practice shooting handheld with the DVX100b

So, point at hand, my next big project is… Making a catalogue. Then! Making another movie. But whilst I’m making a catalogue I’d really like to… Make a movie! A movie of my own. Some quick Googling terms like “cheap film school” and “making movies” turned up some good resources.

One person said “One way or another, when a filmmaker goes out to make a film, he should be trying to save the world in his own Peculiar way”. I liked that. Another, purportedly Robert Rodriguez, (Mexican Hollywood film director), said “How do you make a cheap movie? – Look around you, what do you have around you? Take stock in what you have. Your father owns a liquor store – make a movie about a liquor store. Do you have a dog? Make a movie about your dog. Your mom works in a nursing home, make a movie about a nursing home. When I did El Mariachi I had a turtle, I had a guitar case, I had a small town and I said I’ll make a movie around that.”

So coming soon to a DVD player near you: A movie about Ireland, people with accents, green grass, the sea, and (grimace) Pitney-Bowes folding machines. I have a guitar case too supposing that doesn’t work out. So, hope you enjoy, and look out world prepare to be saved. (Hopefully not for the worse).

We left Dublin on Monday morning and arrived in Lagos at about nine in the evening after a stopover in Amsterdam. The airport in Amsterdam has an impressive people-centric architecture and I really appreciate the seamless and focused graphics that tie the whole complex together. The Airport in Lagos is a contrast to it in almost every way, however I was heartened to see that the signage there, at least near our gate, was like a mini-replica of that in Amsterdam, right down to the color and the typface. Jim said that the small moving walkways they have are new also. I think that little things like this are signs of positive social change.

The highlight has been meeting the wonderful friends that Jim has here in Nigeria. I’ve met Noah and Yemi, two men who are dedicated Zonal Coordinators for Emmaus Bible Centres Mission in the Lagos area, Sule Moses Abu, who we’ve been traveling with and who is the National Coordinator, and good friends Esther Haruna, Philip Ebikwo, Dan Itodo, and Ocholi James.

Tuesday morning we got up early and got a taxi with Yemi, who’s mobile phone rings every five minutes, to go pick up the Land Rover. This took us right through Lagos and gave me and Brian a good chance to get our first real look at the city. If there are three things that stand out to me as a foreigner in Lagos they would have to be the heat, the dust, and the masses of people. It seems like society is linked to the roads here. Everything happens on the road. People walk, sell, buy, drive, hang-out, eat, and even sleep by the side of the road. There is constant cacophony of people shouting, horns blaring, engines roaring, and every few thousand feet, cone-shaped speakers on poles blasting music. That’s a sign that there is a generator somewhere nearby. Electricity is intermittent in Lagos, one of the biggest cities in Africa with a metropolitan area population of around 17M. Seventeen Million.

The video work is going along nicely so far. I’ve shot about five hours of Emmaus Training and also done a few light and sound test setups for interviews. ‘Net access will be pretty hard to come by but today I’ve discovered that there is an open wireless network in the lobby of our Sheraton hotel in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. We’re only able to stay here because of a special concession Jim is able to get from the company so I’m going to try to make the most of it while it lasts.

Ah, one more thing. Brian has become Keeper of Land Rover Doorlocks. Our friend Sule was pulled from our vehicle on friday (an incident he handled very cooly) and so now as soon as we get in the car Brian is on about locking our doors. Good job Brian! Thanks be to God we’ve come safely so far and have been able to keep to schedule.

Time: 9.00am GMT
Place: Europa Buscentre, Belfast

If you have found it and would like to return it please email me:
louis [at] louiskreusel.com

Thanks

Update: The backpack is back! I called the buscentre on Monday and they had no sign of my backpack. I called them on Wednesday and sure enough, they had it. They sent it on a bus to Dublin today and I went down to pick it up. Thank the Lord!

Ireland Outreach was instrumental in building a combined medical clinic and Bible college near Jos, Nigeria called The Haven Of Hope. The project began in 2002 and is still under construction although the medical services and Bible instruction are already well underway. I have been asked to make a video documenting the activity at The Haven Of Hope, primarily to show to our supporters. I hope that the resulting documentary will help people to appreciate what is happening in Nigeria and to give God thanks for what he is doing through those at the Haven.

While I’m admittedly most excited about doing the documentary about the Haven, the training video for the Emmaus Correctors might have a further-reaching impact. When Jim travels through various english speaking countries in Africa, one of his primary activities seems to be to teach these training workshops. Many Christian leaders in Africa are keen to use materials such as the Emmaus courses but lack the relational, administrative and technical know-how to get such an effort going. Jim provides them with instruction and further resources and support. Sixteen hours is lots of training and it takes lots of time to travel from city to city and set up these workshops. Our goal with this project is to capture the essence of the workshop by shooting at several live presentations of the material and editing it into sixteen hours that form a cohesive whole. The resulting set of DVDs can be sent via post wherever and whenever they are needed.

These projects will require trips to three (perhaps more) countries in Africa and, as it stands now, we (Brian, Jim, and myself) are scheduled to get on the plane towards the end of February — probably on the twentieth. I’m still in the process of getting all the gear together that I’ll need to accomplish the shoot, and the postproduction work — I’ll be writing about how that is going shortly.