Jeremy Deweerdt

Another amazing day of filming.  Today, things went really well again with very few glitches, if any.  We spent most of our time in Santa Monica filming right by the pier with the open ocean as the backdrop.  Weather, people, and even the beach patrol were all cooperating.  God has been very good to us this trip…all strong shoots.

Since the guys had never been to LA, I took them to quickly see some of sites during lunch.  We went to Beverly Hills, Sunset Blvd, etc.  It was fun.  Then to cap off the day, we went back to Santa Monica beach and filmed the sunset to use in the DVD as B-roll.  Perfect.  It was like God was giving us a great end to a great week.

We are all exhausted and ready to head home.  Enough lugging the equipment from one place to the next; setting up, filming, tearing down.  It will be good to see Jen and the kids, although I will be beating Jen home since she is in Minnesota speaking a women’s conference.  I promised the kids I would be taking them to the Monster Truck Jam in Rockford tomorrow night – so us boys are gonna have a good time

Rockford, here we come…

Today was full of travel and hauling heavy equipment from one city to the next.  We had a great time filming in Las Vegas (Praise God!).  Compared to last year, these past few days were heaven on earth.  Last year, we constantly ran into difficulties and problems.  Whether it was the weather or issues with technology…. like when I was filming in Times Square and my wireless mic was the same frequency as the Bubba Gumps restaurant PA system next door – because I was broadcasting over their sound system to the entire cliental.  Embarrassing.

This year has been very problem-free.  We have prayed that God would give us the ability to get a lot of filming done in an extremely short period of time.  He has answered those prayers. 

We came to LA today and met up with Matt’s sister.  Tomorrow we are filming down by Santa Monica beach in the morning and hope to have good weather.  There is a wind advisory for tomorrow, so we will get up early to beat the heavy gusts.

Both the guys haven’t been to LA before, so Maddie (Matt’s sister and RMC Alumna) and I will show them the sites… Cannot wait to head home on Saturday and sleep in my own bed

Today was a short, nice day of filming.  Since we ran out of daylight yesterday on the mountain, we needed to go back and finish.  We ended up filming the entire “Mountain” DVD over.  We all felt we could capture thoughts and footage better the second time around.  Sure enough, God gave us a great day and everything went smoothly (and it was a lot warmer)

We headed back into town for a much anticipated early night.  Since we are on a two-a-day shoot schedule (filming two topics per day), it was nice to only have to do one and call it an early day.  It is off to LA tomorrow to film “Ocean” and possibly “Field” and then home!!! 

Today was another great day!  First we ventured off to Death Valley to film “Desert” on one of the massive sand dunes located there.  The 2.5 hour, one-way trip was mostly through very desolate country – pretty boring.  But once we arrived at the dunes just south of Beatty, on the east side of Death Valley…everything became an adventure.

Getting to the dune was interesting.  We drove the rental car as close to the dunes as we could but at the end of the day, it required a 1.5 mile hike.  Trudging through the tumbleweeds and sand, carrying equipment and bags, gave us a workout that would leave our legs burning.  Once we arrived at the dunes it was like stepping into another world… as if we travelled around the globe to the Sahara desert in moment.  

After about 1.5 hours of filming, Matt and I decided to jump off the steep dune cliffs and roll down the hill to blow off some steam; probably the best part of our day

Then it was off to the mountains… to film the first DVD in the series.  We journeyed up the road to about 9K feet and began a long and cold film shoot in the snow.  Talk about going from one extreme to another; desert to snow in a day.  We filmed until dusk and ran out of daylight.  We will have to return to the mountain tomorrow to finish. 

All in all another great day of filming; a gift from God!  We had dinner, met up with Cross Current Alum, Eddie Nesby, and spent some time talking about old Cross Current and RMC memories.  It is a blessing to see people you’ve trained up making an eternal difference for God.  (Eddie is a pastor on staff at a church in Las Vegas).  Praise God.

Time to go to bed – my body thinks it is 1:15 AM (Rockford Time)

Today we filmed from morning until evening…we’re wiped.  The day started by driving towards Hoover Dam and stopping along the road at a “scenic area” to film some B-roll of amazing cliffs and mountains.  As Matt and Jeremy Wells were setting up the cameras, I had a crazy idea to film the “Valley” DVD at that location instead of at our original location later in the week.  Both guys looked at me like I was insane because it required a 1500 to 2000 foot climb DOWN a semi-steep face of the cliff.  But at the bottom was an amazing area to film in a valley; with tall, jagged cliff walls on both sides.

So I began my descent and about 1/2 down realized that this was going to be quite a climb out later.  Slowly climbing with laptop bag strapped on, I finally made it to the canyon floor and the guys started to film long distance shots.  I have to tell you that silently, it felt a little “Man vs Wild”; which put a smile on my face  The guys climbed down soon after and we spent the next two hours filming in a majestic area of God’s country.  I am very excited about the “Valley” DVD.  It is going to be great.

Then it was off to Hoover Dam and another adventure began.  ”How do we get close to the river!”  Everything was incredibly inaccessible.  Soon, through a series of questions asked to random workers and people, we discovered that there was a way to get to the river about 20 miles down the road in Arizona, called Willow Beach.  Driving for what seemed like an eternity, we finally arrived to a small road that twisted down to the banks of the Colorado river.  We were the only ones there…except for about 100 ducks.

Filming commenced on the “River” DVD and it was like a postcard.  The one issue was a small wind and rain storm that arose out of nowhere but after a quick word of prayer, the rains ceased (no joke).  Again, another perfect shoot.  God was good to us.

Driving home we talked about how great of a day God had given us; a small indication that this is going to be a great Life Group series.  Tonight, we will grab dinner and hit the Cirque du Soleil musical “Love”; a tribute to the Beatles. (Sorry Josh Yang – I just made you jealous)

Blessings… Jeremy

On March 1st, Rockford First launches our brand new Sermon/DVD/Life Group series entitled, “Terrain.”  We are talking about the different landscapes of life.  This promises to be an incredible journey for all who participate!  We are giving everything away.  All the videos, devotionals, and materials will be online for anyone to use.  Obviously, if you are in the Rockford area, we would love to have you show up on weekends at the church, jump in a Life Group, and enhance your experience by doing this series with a couple thousand other people

Over the next few days, I am going to be chronicling our adventures in the Las Vegas and LA areas as we film all six DVD’s.  We are on a hectic schedule so that all the footage can go to post-production and be ready in five weeks…yikes!

DAY #1:  Just landed in Las Vegas…  it’s 11:01 PM and we are ready to crash… Vegas is just starting to wake up and we are going to bed!  (And I don’t regret a minute of it).

“Why Vegas?” you may ask???  Because within three hour’s drive, there is every terrain (minus Ocean) that we are filming.  It is the perfect location to base out of.  Cannot help but wonder why people live here.

God Bless this week…