Belfast Bound
I am on a Ryanair flight with the yellow seat backs, barely enough room for my laptop, and thinking that the hot ham and swiss panini smells pretty good. I made myself a sandwich but unwisely left it in the overhead compartment and as I have a window seat I feel reluctant to bother the two people next to me. It’s rough. I am Belfast bound where I will be collected at the airport by Rob and Scott and we will commence with the production of this video. We are excited to have this opportunity and thanks for helping us to be able to do this.
Here we are in 2020 and it doesn’t look like world peace is around the corner or even the corner after that one. I have followed with interest some conversation threads on Facebook that show a widening rift in the evangelical community (at least in the US) that got kicked off by an editorial in Christianity Today calling for the removal of Trump from office. Sometimes I am surprised by the acrimony of these conversations even amongst fellow believers. These are murky days and are likely to get murkier and I am glad we are making this video because it seems like a good time for it.
Writing the storyboard, coordinating with musicians, and securing places has been challenging. We unfortunately lost one of the main places (Maddens Pub) where we were going to film. It seems that Barney there got cold feet, which mind you is easy to do in Northern Ireland. So this Thursday we are going to be filming in a place called the Dirty Duck. It’s a good place with a lot of character and I think that it should work great, and for whatever pub shots we don’t get on Thursday, there is another place called the American Bar bar that has offered their premises. We are getting together with 6 musicians tomorrow (5 Belfast locals and 1 Polish) to practice and go over the plan.
Friday morning we have a meeting with a guy from Christian Fellowship Church to start building some connections with them. It is a big church and they are really into music and for those of you who are familiar, it is where Robin Mark (Revival in Belfast) goes and still plays. Afterward we are away up north to Derry/Londonderry where we will be playing in one of the best know pubs called Sandino’s. While there we will do some filming around the city and then back to Belfast on Saturday. We have our ideas more or less mapped out but I am sure they will change as we get into the thick of it.
We are looking at a two stage process. This trip to Belfast is to build connections, do all the filming required, process and finalize the video. The post production will happen after we have left back home. Then down the road, later this year, we will return to promote the video through concerts, radio and hopefully some television as well. We will also do something similar in the US. We also have a website under construction where we can post photos, links and such, as well as to be a presence for wherever this all may lead.
Our Gofundme is up to $1300 giving us a working budget of around $3000 (we will provide detailed info concerning expenditures). This is a good start and hopefully we can go a long with it but it is likely we will need to raise some more down the road. Thanks again everyone for your support. And Happy New Year. I’m going to order the panini. :)
God Bless,
