Strapped to the Editing Workstation

for the past three days basically because I am finishing up a half hour program on the training exercise in Kiryat Gat last week. It was an intensive job editing and such, but it looks pretty good and I am in the process right now of rendering it and bumping it down into an .mov file. Essentially the program goes into the search and rescue exercise in Kiryat Gat on July 2nd and then there is a short little clip from our basement bomb shelter showing us doing a home drill and explaining it out. Very cool.

Zaka is in full swing now. Tomorrow we film Zaka founder Meshi giving statements around the city, including the western wall. That'll be a good day out although it'll prolly be quite warm. The Kiryat Gat program has a strong Zaka component to it because we were there shooting cutaways for the Zaka film. Monday we filmed a show with one of the Zaka volunteers and we were initially gonna use it for a webclip but it looks like we can turn that into a full program. So busy busy. Although I have had time to get out and enjoy myself as well.

Yesterday, Chris, Danny, and I went to the Ma'aleh film school in Jerusalem and met with the school administrators about building a relationship with them. The Ma'aleh school was started as a religious school for the orthodox but has branched out a bit into the secular world too. The school accepts students from all background although the films they make still adhere to some moral guidelines (no graphic violence, sex, or nudity). They showed us a few of the projects they had done and are working on and they did one project with special needs adults that looked awesome. They actually directed these people in what to do with the equipment and how to put together a movie which is cool. I told them about my brother Stephen and how glad I was that they were able to reach out to that community in that way.

In a few weeks I will be traveling to Mount Sinai and filming a show there, and I look forward to that. Bethlehem is also on the agenda at some point as well. Plus, many more things are gonna be happening. As the time of my departure grows nearer, so does the demand to get things done. Gotta go, but I wish everyone the best and will see y'all soon. Shalom from Israel