trey taylor

the balloon

// November 7th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // creative, film, video

‘The Balloon” was screened last night in the beautiful Cathedral Square at the launch of the first SoAL Film Fest (read yesterdays post for more info). I’m so pumped to let you all know that ‘The Balloon’ won the scramble, we took 1st place baby! So huge congrats are in order to the team, everyone did a great job. So here’s the film… hope you enjoy!

You can also see it here. Let me know what you think… remember it was made from scratch in 48 hours!

a 48 hour short

// November 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // creative, film

Two weekends ago, myself and a team of others, participated in the We Love Mobile! Film Scramble. We had 48 hours to write, cast, shoot, edit, and score the film. I had the privilege of editing ours which was a lot of fun. Each team was randomly given a couple of locations that had to be included in their shoot, we drew a neighborhood and a park. Our short, which is called ‘The Balloon,’ will be played with all the others at the opening of the first SoAL Film Festival tonight at Cathedral Square in downtown Mobile. I’m pretty sure there will be a vote, so come by at 7 for  free night of film and see ‘The Balloon’ and vote it up for us. The festival runs all weekend, so if you’re a film buff you should come out and support the event!

Just in case you don’t make it over, I’ll post the film here tomorrow so everyone can see it.

location scouting – theres an app for that

// July 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // apple, creative, film, photography

Over the last month, I’ve been working with a couple of guys on producing a short film (I’ll post more details on the project a little later). Today, we hit downtown Mobile scouting locations and getting a little b-roll/test footage in prep for our principal shoot later in the month. I took tons of shots on my iPhone, and I thought a few of them turned out pretty rad (all of these were shot and edited using apps on my phone).

a stimulus of faith

// June 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // church, faith, film, technology

A few weekends back we made a small gesture to the people of our community, and the people of our church. It’s almost unbelievable the attention this act has gotten, but really its just one of many acts of giving from Bay. The ‘Faith Stimulus,’ as its been dubbed by the media, was a simple concept of giving a little hope & love into our community. We are so blessed (I think) to have gotten the attention from the media that we have even though that wasn’t even slightly a part of our agenda. If you’re completely unaware of what I’m talking about, you can read the details here or here.

You can read a few of the stories from the stimulus here: stories.baycommunity.com. They are slowly coming in and some of them are absolutely amazing. There’s one particular story that I like a lot, one that truly reveals the heart of this project:

I just ran across this website and was really inspired. I am not a member of the church, but last week, I was pumping gas in Fairhope and went inside to pay. I never go inside to pay  and I also never pay with cash at the gas station. This time, for some reason, I decided to go inside. The woman in front of me was counting pennies to get enough money to buy a few dollars of gas. I have had that feeling before, of barely having enough to get home. I put down an extra $20 over her pile of change and said, “that is not enough, you need more than that.” The look on the woman’s face was priceless! She was shocked , and so was the attendant. I said, “Jesus loves you” She was still in shock as she was pumping gas, it was hilarious. I just kept saying, “Jesus loves you!” as I got in my car. I road away with the biggest smile on my face. -Amy

where the wild things are

// March 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // entertainment, film, video

I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time, its seen quite a few snags along the way, but its finally coming to a theater near you and me.

‘Where the Wild Things Are‘ is probably my favorite childrens book of all time, and I’m so excited that Spike Jonze is the man bringing it to the big screen.

The first trailer has finally debuted and it looks amazing, I like what Cinematical said, “it intensifies the film’s fantastical elements and makes the thing look so wondrous. The Wild Things look great and real and not CGI — I have a feeling that this is the sort of film that will feel 20 years old, but look brand new.”

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s the Poster

doubt

// January 16th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // entertainment, film

I can cross one more off my ‘Need to See‘ Oscar list coz I finally got to see Doubt last night, and I’m so glad I did. 

It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is trying to upend the schools’ strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James (Amy Adams), a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence. (Miramax)

Doubt was incredible, an edge of your seat thriller with no guns, explosions or special effects (except maybe a wind machine or two). The power of this film rest on the stellar performances of its actors, and they are so good because of how they play off of each other. Especially Hoffman and Streep, when they go toe-to-toe you can feel the intensity and conviction that not many could bring to the roles. 

I think this film was near perfect in every way, the soundtrack was subtle and almost non-existent in parts and eerie and suspenseful in others. It compliments the way the story slowly simmers before the kettle explodes right off the stove. The characters conflict is one that you will leave the theater talking about, it leaves you doubting and rethinking the conclusions you’ve personally made to the last minute.

It reminded me just how powerful our words are, that they truly have the power of life and death. There is so much truth in this movie. It screams at how out dated and out-of-touch the old school thinking and religious people are. How they’ve lost touch with the world around them in order to keep their list and police those that don’t live by the same list. It makes evident the sad truth that religious people are further away from the heart of God because they’ve lost any sense of compassion for the people around them, as well as their sense of superiority and judgement over those who have a different approach to life and ministry.

In the end, you’ll have to make a decision about what you believe, and that’s why Doubt will stick with you long after you’ve walked out of the theater.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.