Endure Nashville Trip

Fred, Phil, and Joe at one of Paragon Studios ADR sound rooms.

Joe, Rob and I arrived in Nashville at around 8:00 a.m. on Monday, June 2, to begin our soft pre-production visit. Shortly after landing they hooked up with Dirk and headed to the offices of Hi-Def. After a short meeting at Hi-Def offices and the opportunity to finally meet Paul, the gang headed to Paragon Studios. Paragon will most likely be the location for all post-production operations. It is an amazing facility with all of the technical components to handle most of the films post needs. At around 11:00 a.m. everyone headed to Advantage Talent Agency which could handle some of our extras needs for the film. After a quick lunch the rest of the day was spent looking at some possibilities for production office space. That evening was spent around the dinner table with some great food and fellowship.

Joe, Cat, and Rob and the gang scouting some locations in the woods.

Tuesday was spent touring various possible shooting locations in the Nashville area. The group started the day out at the Natchez Trail area, which could end up being the location for the majority of they woods scenes. We also spent the some time during the day looking at some houses for possible locations in Franklin and Nashville.

Rob, Phil, Dirk, Joe, and Jim (not seen) go over the 'Endure' budget.

Our final full day in Nashville was spent in production meetings and interviewing some people for key department head and crew positions. The trip was closed with another great evening of food and fellowship at Paul's home. Over these past few days of meetings, everyone seems really excited about where we are in the process and how things are coming together. More photos are available for viewing at our flickr account.

American Legion Award

Drew and Elyshia at the American Legion Awards

Drew was the recipient of the American Legion Award for his school this year. The award goes to the top male and female for each school. His Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Legion is in recognition of "the possession of those high qualities of courage, honor, leadership, patriotism, scholarship, and service".

Fishing Trip

Me with the first catch of the day

Rob, Jesse, Joe heading out

We had a great day on the water yesterday. We launched at Cockroach Bay at around 7:30 am and tried out some spots along the mangroves on our way out the flats. No luck there, so we netted some green backs and worked the flats landing some good size keeper trout. Around 12:00 noon we headed to a channel marker near Manbirdie Key. Had some good luck there landing some mackerel and some just under size grouper and snapper. It was fun. Headed home around 3:30 pm. It was a good day of fishing. You can check out some more pics on my flickr account.

Drew - Video Awards

Drew with his teacher and some friends at the Video Awards.

Last night, we attended the Polk County IT Video Awards. Drew was selected as the Student of The Year for his school and nominated for Student of The Year for the county. I was so proud of the way he handled himself as he was a presenter for an award during the ceremony, in front of over 4,000 people. He school's news team also won for Outstanding Daily News Show. Congratulations, Drew.

Live The Life

I am on Spring Break this week with my family in Savannah. We are visiting with my daughter Heather and her family. This is the first time in a good number of years that we have taken off for Spring Break. It has been a very enjoyable time.

I have attached a photo of my newest grandson, Ethan (Yes, I have a grandson, two to be exact). I took this picture because, usually when you see pictures of babies they are resting and very peaceful looking. This, however, is what they look like a lot. Not what you normally think of.

How do people normally view us? Do they see who we truly are? Do we merely put on a front for the world and then live different when not being watched?

The following link will take you to an article titled "Thanking God At The Grammys". It is very good read on the importance of living up to our praise of God and not being hypocritical. Each of us have trouble with this, including me at times. Please take a moment to read the article.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/pc_article.php?id=7603