I’m currently spending the weekend in Los Angeles attending Stacy Park’s Going Global Bootcamp hosted by Film Specific. Yesterday was my first day and was quite productive in the subject matters that were covered and what I’ve got to do.

It’s been a while since there has been an update on the progress of this documentary that I started a couple years ago. Currently the status of the film is that its on pause in the middle of post-production.

Updates I’ve Made Since:

If you go to the Tufaan website, you’ll notice there is a space to enter your name and email address to keep abreast on on the project itself.

Issues I’m Dealing With Currently:

I have release forms from some, and not from others who were in the film.

-

A movie that does not have release form filled out by the people that are in it, then no distributor will want to touch it. Its a liability on sales agent and on the distributor as well as the company that is producing the film.

My only real course of action is to go back, trace my steps and get the release forms from the individuals who were on screen and interviewed. Anyone who does not sign the release, simply will have to be cut from the film.

- — -

I’m not clear on what channels of distribution would be best suited for this film. Should I aim to distribute it online – fee or free? Via community screenings throughout North America? Sell it on DVD? Would the lack of release forms for all the people limit me from where I can distribute it?

-

This is something that can be resolved with doing a 3×10 idea generation campaign. I’ll start this Monday night.

Some of the things that were suggested to me was to hit up “Muslim advocacy groups” to sponsor/support the film as a means of using it to educate people on Islam and Musims. The words that one of the producers gave me was “The movie website can be the premiere resource for Islam and Muslims”

Question is, who are the “Muslim advocacy groups” that we can know of. Some that come to mind are:

• CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations)
• IRW (Islamic Releif Worldwide)

What are some others that come to mind?

- — -

This film in a way is a “side” project. To make this film I’m spending out of the company’s pocket while the client projects Leechon services is putting money into the company’s pocket. Its only natural that time and priority be given to that which generates revenue than to that which doesn’t.

In the mastermind session that took place yesterday, I simply need to find an editor to complete this film, and in all honesty will probably be on deffered pay – considering that it’s not in the budget currently. If an editor isn’t brought on board, then in all truth, I don’t see this film completing anytime soon.

Ideally, I’d probably be looking toward assistant editors who want to put their name as a credit on a project so that they may move up the ladder in their career. Some places that were recommended to me to seek out editors are as follows:

• ShootingPeople.com
• Mandy.com
• FinalCutUser.com
• FlashPointAcademy.com
• Local Film Schools

I have a choice of either experienced editors or un-experienced editors. As you can guess, experienced editors can cost anywhere between $1,500 – $2,500 a week which in truth isn’t in the budget, but perhaps the funds can be raised to have it be taken care.

One of the points that was made clear to me was the fact that we’re currently in a recession. People are looking for work and want to work. They’ll take a job that would pay less if it gets them a job. One of the people mentioned that putting together $5,000 would be a fair amount for the current times.

- — -

I’m not clear what the final product of Tufaan would ultimately be.

-

To start off, I need to get the releases down solid and cut those people who I cannot get a release from.

Once that’s taken care of, I’ll need to get my clutter organized as well. The footage isn’t all well organized to the point were another editor can come in and take off without much delay.

From that point forward, many international opportunities lay ahead. There are many TV opportunities that can be approached as well. Internationally, TV stations love multi-part series. On top of that, there are also many Muslim centered starving TV channels that can use the content as well.

Ultimately the goals of this film are:

• To establish my name as a producer within the North American Muslim community
• Get my name out on IMDB
• Build a database of 20,000 email addresses.
• Recoup my costs of making the film – Currently it’s $5,000.

A few questions that still remain unanswered for me – and will remain unanswered until the release forms are done are:

• What’s the likelihood this film getting into any of the Tier-One film festivals?
• What sort of cost am I looking at when it comes to running the festival circuit?
• Which festivals should I be aiming for on the different tiers.

- — -

It’ll be great to get your feedback and thoughts on this.

If I’m going to make a movie, I’m aiming for producing something THEATER WORTHY. I’m talking theatrical release in domestic and international markets worldwide.

In response to the AlMaghrib Movie thread and emails going back and forth on the back end, I figured I’d take the opportunity to drive the development of the movie and take this bull by the horns.

I created a thread which I’ll continuously be updating with possible story ideas worth looking into for further development.

• View the development thread here: AlMaghrib Movie :: Development Thread
• View the story ideas here (they’re actively being updated): AlMaghrib Movie :: Possible Story Items

Either contribute a possible story idea, and state what Marketable Aspect(s) it has (see below for details on what Marketable Aspects are) or simply expand on an a story with further details. I’ll be updating the document regularly so give your input regularly as well.

Marketable Aspects of a Story

In order to develop an AWESOME SMACK DUNKIN’ story, research needs to be done.

Stories should marketable and be of interest to people. The more aspects of the points below a story holds, the more interest and attention gravitates towards it. When sharing yours (or other’s) stories keep in mind the points below.

• :: Timeliness :: A story that really doesn’t get old/irrelevant over time.

• :: Human Interest :: Something that really appeals to people’s heart strings :: ie: Durbah starting the “visit the old folks” project a while back as a result of “Breach of Covenant” seminar and the tears of gratitute that came forth from those elder people.

• :: Prominence :: Producers usually fulfill this by featuring a known star in the movie (ie;Starring Tom Cruise). For documentaries, this is done by having someone of popular on screen (ie;Michael Moore, Leo DeCaprio) or someone with a very sticky personality (ie;Morgan Spurlock-Supersize Me). Also, featuring stories around some prominant people also helps in this area.

• :: Novelty :: Stories that really haven’t been told and are new in their nature. Michael Moore taking a serious issue of 9-11, politics and Iraq War and making it into a satire was very novel in his movie “Farenheit 9/11” No one really took that topic and presented it in such a way, and the stories presented in that movie were stories not covered by other filmmakers and/or media outlets.

• :: Weirdness :: Some stories can have such attributes to them (ie; jinn/black-magic experience of LOG and LUL students classes that can be relayed — like the taweez w/ a calling to jinn names)

• :: Conflict / Conspiracy / Controversy :: Fights always attract attention. The AlMaghrib student getting run over in Toronto seminar by crazy racist guy, the nutty sufi guy from toronto (all the conflicts are in toronto )

• :: Impact :: Gas prices going up or falling drastically, Fannie-Mae going defunct, Credit card companies going out of business — These are stories that affect a LOT of people. What specific story(s) of AlMaghrib or its students can be told that has affected a LOT of people.

• :: Proximity :: Stories can excite interest based on how they’re close to you geography. New Yorkers will give more interest to a story about 9-11 cops than people in Seattle Washington.

By the way, these elements of newsworthiness and marketability will be taught in detail in a future Message Mastery course launching March 09 inshaAllah.

– — – –

As much “hype” and excitement that goes into making a movie professionally for a theatrical audience — We need to have something REALLY developed in areas of:

• Story
• Budget plan
• Adequate Production Plan/Schedule
• Distribution Strategy

The STORY is the most important part of any production/movie/film. What’s the story(s) that we’re telling the audience that is really of any interest to the general muslim/non-muslim populous? The proposal that I had written up lacks tremendously in this area (but it helps in getting creative juices flowing).

Filming a documentary is a LOT of work. Doesn’t matter if its being made for a theatrical release or being made as something amaturish to pass around to family/friends — the work and time that goes into it is the pretty much the same. What’s different is WHERE (pre-production, production, post-production, or distribution) that time is spent.

In making a PROFESSIONAL Theater Worthy low-budget movie ($10,000,000 – $50,000), 80% of the work is in pre-production. This involves:

• Getting an idea
• Researching it for marketability and developing the story
• Outlining – Scripting
• Budgeting for producing the script
• Incoporating and funding/financing the movie
• Developing production schedule/plan
• Assembling team
• Executing plan officially moving into “Blink! Production“

For the moment we’re in the research phase and in the process of collecting story ideas that will be further looked into and developed based on the marketable aspects listed above.

Read this post again, see the thread I created on the AlMaghrib forums and the google document I made (both of which I’ll continuously be updating) and reply accordingly.

• View the development thread on AlMaghrib Forums: AlMaghrib Movie :: Development Thread
• View the story ideas here (they’re actively being updated): AlMaghrib Movie :: Possible Story Items

Shirien explain more about the background of the development of this PSA on her blog post titled, “Why do you wear that rag on your head?”

When one of my good friends Ahmed Eid read the formatted PSAs, and decided to make the videos. He went out filmed and editing the videos and the following was the result!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This PSA is only the first of three. There are two more to come (which haven’t been produced yet) so stay tuned

Also, I want to say a HUGE jazakallahu khairun for all people on and off screen to make this PSA happen. After the taufeeq of Allah-swt YOU made it happen. May this be on your scale of good deeds on the day of judgment. Ameen.

One of my goals is to be able to provide content in the following quality:

My first experience in producing a lecture was The Strangers, followed by Desert Rose and Darkness2Light. Although with time the standards for Islamic video content has been rising I don’t believe the standards are where they should be. The above video should be the standard for Islamic content in terms of production quality. No less.

–

The next logical step toward setting that standard was the birth of IlmCast.com. AlMaghrib in their efforts to reach out to more people and deliver the knowledge further and wider than ever before started a project called “AlMaghrib Radio on Demand” where they would post a new lecture every month.

Personally I thought that the concept of extending the “free-line” in Islamic content was great but the approach wasn’t great. I proposed setting up a separate website that would act as a brand in and of itself. Sort of like how EmanRush is for AlMaghrib. The advantages being that it was web 2.0 friendly.

• Content can be syndicated to the people via RSS, iTunes, and Facebook
• There would be a sense of social community where people can post comments and feedback as well as blog about it on their own blogs.
• People can share with other people through services such as Digg, StumbleUpon, or simply email.

The initial approach didn’t give this level of usability.

–

As we progressed into the third month of IlmCast, one of the things I wanted to do was to systemize the process. Initially I figured what we can do is simply have the video recorded. I can take it and encode and compress it to a specific size, after which it would be uploaded so that editors can get the footage to edit and finally out put it up for me to format it for final distribution.

I decided to test the process on IlmFest. After a couple weeks — one thing I’ve learned was, double handeling video is a BAD idea. In order to make the best of everyone’s time the work flow process from event to ilmcast will be as follows:

If there is going to be video recording of a lecture event, there should be a dedicated person responsible for this task. Their job is to make sure the video gets recorded, edited, and put online on the IlmCast server for later portion where the video is encoded for online distribution.

Development Stage:

• Dedicated individual should be in charge of video, just like how there is a person for food, hospitality, etc.
• proper equipment and should be secured: microphone, cables, camera, lights, as well as human resources for tasks such as doing the recording, lighting, editing — the event organizer should set aside a budget for this just like they would for food and other aspects of the event.
• Permission from the speaker and location should be sought out before recording takes place (usually done with release forms)

Production Stage:

• Standard should be a two camera shoot. (if they cannot find a second cam, then 1 camera can work). Camera 1 takes a medium close up (shoulders up) at a 45-degree angle, camera 2 takes a medium long-shot (thighs up) at an opposite 45-degree angle. — – Ideally it be great if 3 or 4 cameras can be brought in to get some b-roll footage. Cam 3 would be audience from behind the speaker and cam 4 would be extreme long shot from the back of the audience in the form of a tracking shot.
• Lighting should be adequate. The ideal setup for lighting is to take the wedding video approach. About 6 tungstun lights around the room on stands that position the lights 12 feet above the ground (see image below), giving a 3-point look on anyone in the room.

• If they don’t have that option then getting simple lights that light up the speaker from the sides can work. — – If the organizers and producer is on a shoe-string budget, then make the best of in house lighting as they can, like using lamps, mirrors, sunlight, etc.
• Audio needs to be fed directly into a Camera. There is no excuse for not having this.

Post Production Stage:

• Audio Cleanup – this requires adjusting the background noise levels, as well as EQ settings. If they don’t know how to do this, then simply ask! It literally takes 10 mins to clean up the audio if it was captured properly, just a matter of knowing what buttons to push.
• Color Correction – Whether it be the brightness, contrast, color balance, hue, saturation, etc. All of this should be adjusted. Purpose of this is to balance the video to give it it’s proper look, or to save it from its horrible look (which usually happens due to bad lighting). If shooting was done properly, then hardly any color correction should be needed.
• Titleing and Letterboxing — This is part of the IlmCast branding. Always opens and closes with the ilmcast title screen, and has the slight letterbox on it.
• Encoding — The final output should be encoded in WMV format at 640×355 deinterlaced, 1.5Mbps CBR (constant bit rate), 128kbps audio CBR.
• Delivery — After output, the WMV file is to be uploaded onto a server so the distribution and marketing guys can handle it.

Distribution and Marketing:

• Syndication — Once the video is on the server. The marketing and distribution guys should download it, encode for purposes of online distribution and syndication: FLV, MP4, MP3 — after which our brothers and sisters will rip it off the website and put it on youtube, post it on their blogs and forums. (which is great for producers of IlmCast lectures since it brings back links to Ilmcast website and more people hear about it and subscribe to the RSS and iTunes feed.)
• Facebooking — Major releases should have a “launch/release” date where events can be made.
• Emailing — Qabaail leaders can be encouraged to send out an email to their lists and get everyone to subscribe and stuff.
• Blogging and Reviews — bloggers and the people in the video can post it on their websites and other such places.

–

Every step of the way there are lessons. It will be great to see IlmCast turned into a well oiled machine.

“I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a “transformer” in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.”

- Stephen R. Covey

Last year Sensei started a thread on the AlMaghrib forums titled “Imagine a world without AlMaghrib.” One of the bullet points that I responded with was “I would have never taken the GoBeyond coaching sessions, and would probably be tens of thousands of dollars in debt.”

You’re probably wondering what GoBeyond is and whats that got to do with you “the reader.”

Leechon Films is the result of the coaching that I got at GoBeyond (now “DiscoverULife“) from Sensei. The very catalyst that moved me to do something extraordinary was from what he taught. Its been a little over two years since and progress made has been great. The thing was I needed another catalyst to get me further. What got me here wasn’t necessarily what will get me to where I want to go.

My intention was to grow Leechon beyond just me. I needed to devise a system where i can train individuals to carry things forward further and faster than I have already. Truth is I cannot do everything myself. The idea for Message Mastery was born.

I approached Sensei and sought his advice on how to go about attaining what I was aiming for. He said to me, “After the tawfeeq of Allah, realize the present day success of AlMaghrib is based on NOOR, not me.” after which he told me to approach Noor to help me get to where I want to go. Three months later, after the Tawfeeq of Allah-swt, Message Mastery is where it is today because of what I got from Noor.

I have have awesome ideas MASSIVE plans for the future of Message Mastery, Leechon, and other projects that are forming in my mind.

Before moving forward its always a good idea to look back and see the lessons learned during the journey:

• Amazing ideas will not develop until you take action NOW. – If it wasn’t for the results from Message Mastery I wouldn’t be developing other awesome ideas that could help carry this ummah forward. Actions brings results. Results bring progress. Progress gives birth to new ideas. New ideas need action so the cycle continues.
• When your intentions are for the sake of Allah, He-swt facilitates you on your path to greatness and success. – You really don’t appreciate it until you move forward for His sake alone. The work done in Leechon was a means to create content to strengthen the hearts, encourage the good, and forbid the evil. Message Mastery has come about to teach people how to create that content to strengthen the hearts, encourage good, and forbid evil. The people who stepped up to facilitate this were truly a Godsend.
• Showing kindness and patience with people goes a LONG way. — To all those whom have helped spread Message Mastery further and farther. Leechon-PR team, YouTubers, Facebookies, stumblers, and everyone else that were involved…May Allah-swt make a home for you in Jannah close to Him.

If you haven’t been following the progress since the beginning, read the following posts:

• Driving Your Dawah With Power and SINCERITY!
• Baba Without a Crew -and- Three POWER Principles
• A Little Crew Worth A Lot of Attention
• Inside the Lighthouse

–

With that said, just a little bit about the launch of Message Mastery. Overall, alhamdulillah it went well. There were some bumps along the way and as we move forward we have smoothed them out and are continously improving. I’m always great full and take notes of critiques from people who are looking into how to improve each point.

The community is awesome; the people are dedicated, come from all walks of life and all have different specialties and resources to add to the group. There will be a lot of “backstage” things added into the system and it is extremely exciting. You guys will see great things coming out of this, inshaAllah.

–

The deadline to register for the course is Friday June 13, 2008. After that date registration will be CLOSED.

Remember if you register for this one course you will get into all future classes free. — which are currently in development. To register go to messagemastery.com/register

If you want to get in on free session that took place last week:

This last video was quite the test of patience. There were challenges every step of the way.

The brothers and sisters I’m working with all agreed that we should make this last video a bit different and special than the ones that I did previously. I decided I’ll break out my 3D skills combined with some outdoor action footage would make for a nice treat. — We plan and Allah plans. Allah is indeed the best of planners.

–

• The initial script that I had written up was obliterated by the PR team, thus making me start back at square one.
• It just so happened that Allah-swt decided to bring the rain upon us. The upside to the rain was that it washed away most of the spring allergens (I’m allergic to spring). The down side was that those were the days that we had scheduled to shoot.
• The fact that my bedroom “studio” is in the attic, the uncomfortable heat kinda forced me to work off my laptop. This had its own share of challenges. But the greatest advantage of working off my laptop was mobility.
• Having finals followed by four hours of brain drain sessions of finance every night. After that those four hours, I nearly impossible to think. You have just enough cognitive power to get home and knock out.
• Bryce (3D program) at times were being uncooperative. I should have expected this, but it had been a while since I had used this. Multiple occasions the render would fail. — Perhaps it’s time I move on to some real 3D programs like SoftImage or Maya.
• Running out of disc space becomes a real challenge. Due to the fact that I have other projects running in parallel to message mastery 2TB (2000 Gigabyts) is not hard to fill up. I ended up dishing out some cash to get another 1TB hard drive.
• Evening of the 24^th one of my hard drives psudeo-crashed. Im working on the video and all of a sudden I hear “BTzzPEwwwOOooooooooooo……” — I shut it down and turned it back on, and nothing would come up. All of my sound files were on that drive! Alhumdulillah the next morning it turned on. How and why….I don’t know. All I know is that I didn’t hesitate to back up all necessary date from that drive if it decides to go belly up on me again.

One of my teachers who is a former producer for CBS was telling us how one day on a shoot everything just decided to go wrong. There was a truck that was suppose to be in a later scene, so the driver decides to park it in the lawn behind the stage. Unfortunately the ground was too soft for the weight of the truck.

Basically you had a big truck right in the middle of the shot that wasn’t going anywhere. You can image the stress and frustration that comes from something like that, especially when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars riding on your back.

In the midst of all the stress, one of the assistants gets on the mega phone and yells, “It’s only a MOOOooovie!” — basically giving the understanding that…its not the end of the world. So long as you’re still breathing you can make it through.

These last couple weeks have been quite the trip, but the time, effort, and struggle put into it was well worth it. The video completed today…Alhumdulillah! — Click the image below to see it

What would life be like without little helpers?

The other day Aisha (white hijab) came home from school saying, “One of my friends at school came up to me and said, “Ordinatory people are looosers!”…”

Everywhere I go, almost everyone I know greets me with “I saw your video!” It’s amazing how far these videos have gotten. Ever since the release of the lead up videos for the Message Mastery program people have consistently told me how they love my little sisters and how cute they are. I just have one request from you all…

…say “MashaAllah“

It means the world to me. May Allah-swt preserve my little sisters, enable them to effectively represent and stand up for the deen of Islam, and bestow His mercy upon them. Ameen.

You know what this is exacly what i’ve been dreaming about, how to make cool videos for dawah purposes and i’m so exited! – Alima

The past couple weeks have been BUSY! I’m literally been spending three days out of the week tirelessly not sleeping…working on this program and making it the best possible experience that it can be…all while juggling work, school, family, and life together!

Ever since people started posting and emailing me their feedback and what not regarding the program, the motivation to make it even better is ever increasing.

Thank you so much for this! Truly inspiring stuff for a 16 year old filmmaker like me. If someone like you who knew nothing when you were my age can do so much, it really is encouraging! - Kashif

Also, I never realized that posting videos online could get me so much du’aa. For all those who have made du’aa for me, may Allah-swt grant you that and much more!

There are probably less than a handful of people in the Muslim world that can single-handedly match the quality of videos that Belal produces. For any Muslim who is multimedia inclined… this MessageMastery is looking to surpass anything he has done before! — May Allah grant us success!

-Safi (http://www.fitnessformuslims.com)

Today I released the conference call video recording that I had with “Baba Ali” from Ummah Films.

In this conference call you’ll hear Ali talk about how Ummah Films began and where he is today. He also tells the stories of how he was approached to do a reality TV Show, interviewed with newspapers like the New York Times, USA Today and other major papers. Ali then talks about the movie he is about to produce. Also, be sure to stay tuned for the question and answer session at the end. One of the questions threw us a little back, you’ll see what I mean

This is just what i have been waiting for.

- Mehboob

To listen in on the recorded conference call video titled “Baba Without a Crew” click the link below:
http://messagemastery.com/long-awaited-release-of-baba-without-a-crew-surprise-deal-11.htm

Hurricane relief workers experience prejudice

By: Shirien Elmasraya

Posted: 3/28/08

Imagine trying to save someone on the verge of death, but they refuse. No, they are not insane or suffering from depression – they are prejudiced.

The room was dim. Dark, wooden walls surrounded him as he was being filmed on camera. He leaned forward in his chair, slowly telling the chilling stories he encountered after the hit of Hurricane Katrina. The darkness of the room coincided with the darkness that surrounded his narrative.

“It was like a ghost town. It was like a horror movie,” said Islamic Relief worker Ruben Vaughan. “You saw helicopters, humvees and you saw dogs, some were dead. And then you’d see cats and some were dead. And you wouldn’t really see anybody else.”

As he explained the situation, those who were interviewing him looked on as if they were frozen in time – as if they were in complete disbelief.

“We [Muslims] are a small group here, but we were able to help people in mass scale,” Vaughan said. “The best thing we’ve been able to do is to deal with people individually, let them know we’re Muslim, and even though you aren’t Muslim, we can still help you. We can still get along, we can have a friendship and learn from each other.”

Vaughan was being interviewed for a documentary produced by Leechon Films, a Muslim owned and operated film company, to debut at LSU in August.

The film is called “Tufaan,” which is Arabic for “Great Storm.” It is about the stories of the Muslim victims and relief workers of Katrina.

“If people who aren’t Muslim just realize that Islam has been around since the first man Adam, that we aren’t aliens, that we aren’t foreign and that Islam comprises of every race and background out there, then they can realize that they don’t have to fear Islam,” Vaughan said.

During the first week after the hurricane, Vaughan said he saw two very different reactions from non-Muslims who saw Muslim volunteers driving supplies.

“I remember there were a group of brothers bringing supplies to the affected areas,” said Vaughan. “On their trip they were asked by different people what they were doing. One group of people would say, ‘We don’t need your help. You can just take it back.’ And the other group of people would load up their cars and help them on their [the brothers'] way.”

Vaughan, former firefighter and former squad boss for FEMA back when the Columbia Space Shuttle blew up over Texas, sought out relief organizations to join after Katrina. He wanted to make sure he got to the affected areas to help in any way he could.

He contacted Islamic Relief, and because of his background in relief work, he was allowed to go to New Orleans at a time when only select individuals could go into disaster-ridden areas.

He explained how some of the male volunteers have beards and the women volunteers wear hijab, a head cover. Unfortunately, some of these volunteers faced difficulties from the very same victims they were helping who were prejudice against Muslims.

“I want the non-Muslims out there to know that they don’t have to fear people who are trying to help even though they see a hijab,” Vaughan said. “And they don’t know what to do or say because they are caught off guard because of all the negative things they see in the media.”

Vaughan still remains in Baton Rouge and is continuing with the hurricane recovery effort.

Prejudice is real. And while human beings see race and religion, disasters know no prejudice. It affects everyone.

I encourage everyone to attend the debut of the documentary when it’s released in August.

Leechon Films plans to donate a percentage of the money made by selling DVDs of the documentary to the hurricane recovery effort.

** To see the original column click HERE , and you can see the comments students have made below, warning they’ll mostly be hate comments lol ***

This past Wednesday I finished developing an project I’ve started called Message Mastery, where the goal is to equip 200 Muslim brothers and sisters on producing effective and profitable dawah videos. Not only produce them, but also equip them with the tools necessary to develop, write, produce, edit, market and distribute their the call to Islam.

With any sincere initiative, Allah-swt sends down tests…

Saturday, the day we decided to produce the introduction video we had thunderstorm that knocked down plenty of branches and powerlines in the neighborhood. No power, no internet, no light, no heat. Where to go to meet my Sunday night deadline? – The house of Allah-swt!

I went to the masjid for Isha, and spent the whole night finishing up development and begin editing on a client project while I pondered on how to make these videos for message mastery. I prayed fajr, ate breakfast, and went home to get some rest. I woke around duhr time, to find that dad bought a generator to get the basic functions of the house going. — Our basement began flooding since the pump was off due to lack of water.

Shooting Time!

Only having a couple hours to shoot, I borrowed my little brother’s room, put up the lights, camera, mic…and action!

That night in the process of capturing, the generator went out. I resorted to using my car’s engine power and ciggarette power converter to power my laptop, hard drive, and camera as I captured the video. When I had 30 mins remaining in capturing the footage, I decided to drive to my university where I can have power and internet access.

I arrived around mid-night, prayed isha, and burned the midnight oil. Once Fajr came in, I just had some touch ups to make. I went to work, and made the final changes and set it to render. Below is the result. Watch the video

Now that you’ve watched video…take action! Do the following:

• Go to messagemastery.com and tell me 1….2….or..3 things you want to be able to learn from this program (you can post it here if you like as well), by posting it in the comment.
• Sign up for the early bird notification list by going to: http://www.messagemastery.com/earlybird

After running into many technical problems with the design and content management system, we decided to ditch it completely and start from scratch. The website is up and about. I’ve added an updated trailer as well some a means to keep updated.

As post-production continues, new updates will be posted. Keep in touch.