long overdue finishing thoughts on wac

alright so i know i promised to finish my review of the willow arts conference and i haven't, my apologies. here it is, albeit a little less detailed than perhaps i would have originally liked.

i eagerly anticipated the breakout sessions because i was interested to see how teaching was done and the breadth of what was covered. i attended 4 sessions: "field production on an indie budget", "lighting basics", "taking your video edit to the next level", and "advanced editing: the delirious? project". i found the sessions to be very topical - meaning that they focused primarily on functionality rather than philosophy. i don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. however, for me personally, philosophy and aesthetics should always precede a function. while there was a lot of showing of content, there wasn't a lot of explaining in terms of why. i would have liked more of a philosophical approach to lay a foundation of understanding. in doing so you're not only equipping people, but doing so across a spectrum of equipment, platforms, and technical jargon. philosophy is agnostic in terms of its application. there is an entire world of teaching about the language of film and how it can be used to tell story that i felt was missing.

that being said, each breakout session was extremely well prepared and put together. it was obvious the teachers had taught before and knew exactly what they were going to say. all were gracious while answering questions and there was no hint of condescension among them. i got to meet with andrew schuurmann, one of the head video producer/editors at willow. he was incredibly humble and pleasant to talk to. it was also obvious he was an editing workhorse. the main thing i took away from his 2 editing sessions was actually not related to editing. he talked briefly about life balance and how he applies it to his life and his work. it was encouraging and convicting, and i appreciated some words that didn't relate specifically to his profession.

the last session i'll cover briefly is donald miller's session. i should say i haven't read any of his work or heard him speak before i saw him at willow. but after hearing him speak i am definitely a "fan". i'm not going to go into all that he spoke about, i would just recommend buying his books - i realize that's a blind endorsement even though i recently bought his books "blue like jazz". yeah i know, welcome to the 1990's. i haven't read it yet, but his talk was awesome and it invigorated me creatively in a way i haven't been for a long time. thanks don!

overall i did get a lot out of the willow experience, however it wasn't what i intended to get. it secured my belief that the church has a long way to go in terms of fully utilizing storytelling through film, but it's encouraging to see artists and speakers who are championing the arts in the pursuit of glorifying God. while i don't agree with the way willow "does" church, i definitely can't fault them for desiring to further the arts within the church.