Cooper & the Castle Hills Gang premieres tomorrow at the Dallas International Film Festival, culminating an 18 month collaboration between Bright Marketing and DME. We’ll write the full story of this innovative brand entertainment film in the next few weeks.  See the trailer here: castlehillsmovie.com

Lately it’s been making a film called Cooper & the Castle Hills Gang.

Here’s a few set pics.  More to come…  castlehillsmovie.com

Speaking of the stories, COLLIDE magazine is running a feature story on the story behind the stories of I Am Second in their March\April issue – soon to be on newsstands. The entire creative team was interviewed for the piece and Daniel Darnell did an outstanding job of putting the story together. He sent over an advance PDF to me about a week and a half ago & I think it’s a really great piece of design as well. Here are a few tears:

Be on the lookout for it and pick up a copy. It’s a pretty great read & quite pretty to look at.

**EDIT.

turns out you can’t pick COLLIDE up on newstands at this point, however the super awesome people at the magazine will gladly sell you a single issue for only $5. just send them a note here. i just recieved my copy today & i have to say it looks even better in print, so it will be a well spent 5-spot and much better for your soul and waistline than a comparably priced Starbucks coffee drink.

Added some cool new stuff over on the portfolio page today.

We’ve  been pushing ourselves on the motion graphics front lately and these two gems reflect the genius of Kevin Shivers.

We also put together a new DME trailer for 2009.  About two years in the making, but we finally got happy with it.  Check it out here.

And there’s new “I Am Second” work on the way too.  A pair of prominent athletes from Dallas talk about giving their goals up to Christ.  And a really powerful story from a woman who has struggled with the need to feel perfect.

This is a good one that we think will be relevant to a lot of people.  Look for it in the next couple of days at iamsecond.com

The site is finally up.  What a whirlwind it’s been getting to this point.  

When we stepped into this project, our goal as filmmakers was pretty simple – be authentic.  Actually, six months ago I would have said we were seeking truth, but I can’t toss that word around so casually anymore.  The definition has changed.

Days upon days in that dark and quiet room – with the brave people who sat in front of our lens – will make you different.  It changes you.  And it didn’t matter what kind of Christians we were on the way in – it only matters that we became better ones on the way out.

We are all in desperate need of truth.  And most of us encounter precious little of it – even in the relationships we consider intimate.

Don’t accept that.  Tell your real story to God tonight, and tell your real story to someone else tomorrow.  Trust us, it’s worth it.

i was getting my cyc set up when Blake arrived. he was punctual, possibly even early. he came dressed in what has become the campaign’s wardrobe direction – jeans and a black tee shirt.

it’s the kind of outfit that everyone has in their closet; everyone, that is, except Blake. he had to borrow the shirt.

i actually knew of Blake from outside of his participation in the campaign. we go to the same church. his mom and my wife used to be in a small group together. his Young Life leader, Chris, has been one of my best friends for the better part of the last two decades.

i knew of Blake, but i didn’t know Blake.

‘hey, Trey, can we talk,’ Sam’s question sounded like he meant, ‘this story isn’t going to work.’

i got the feeling i’d made a mistake.

a few weeks earlier, i’d thrown Blake’s name out to our client as a potential subject for the campaign; i’d seen his life, albeit from a distance – a life devoted to loving others in Jesus’ name. i didn’t know the story, i just saw his life and believed there was a compelling story behind it.

and, that’s pretty much what i told Scott and Sam when they asked what I thought Blake’s story was. i asked if he’d told them about Hope for Africa. he had, along with a few other details that i didn’t know, but nothing seemed to suggest any kind of narrative arc. i thought for a minute, “did he mention that his family is pretty wealthy?”

Blake settled into the chair.

it’s dark except for this young man in a borrowed black tee shirt sitting in a white chair. in every interview, we try to create an intimate setting, Sam asks his questions just above a whisper, Scott and his camera are just beyond the lights reach & i try to find some shadow off to the side to disappear into.

the camera speeds.

we get to hear stories from all kinds of people – rich, poor, young, old, famous and obscure. at times the process of getting someone’s story out is hard, sometimes it’s a lot of fun. then there are times like this one, which end up being pure magic.

like Jacob, Blake wrestled with God. he struggled as his mom battled cancer. how could she thank the same God that gave her cancer but wouldn’t take it away? he struggled to make sense of the extreme poverty he saw in Africa and more recently in Mexico. how could a good and loving God let such terrible things happen?

like Jacob, Blake emerged with a limp. he will always be a child of privilege and will want for nothing. he will graduate college without student loans to pay off. he will never go hungry. for most of us, material possessions are seen as a blessing; i often find myself praying for more, not less.

i was amazed by Blake’s perspective – putting Jesus first means less is more.

i was thinking about Blake yesterday and remembered a story Chris told me a couple years ago about one of his Young Life kids who donated everything in his closet to the poor.

i guess that’s why when Blake arrived, he was wearing a borrowed black tee shirt.

his name is blake and he is second.

tie them as symbols on your hands

interesting hands have become a theme I’ve been exploring during the project – we’ve seen wise hands and generous hands, hands adorned with super bowl rings and burn scars; young, uncalloused hands and the hands of war heroes; hands that have hurt and hands that have healed; there are such incredible stories written in the hands of men.

all i can say is it has been beyond inspiring to sit and listen to the stories of what these hands have done and who they have touched.

Dean’s Western States buckle. photo by Scott

there are a few more details and moments that didn’t make the client edit after the jump.

this was my first impression of Dean. photo by Scott

Deans wife & daughter. photo by Trey

the Ultramarathon Man himself. photo by Scott

the SF marathon. photo by Sam

my two boys, owen & collin

the night before we left, i laid collin in bed and we prayed to God for all the awesome things we experienced:  great weather, good food, family time, mountains, trees, rivers, deer, elk, porcupines, a snake, swimming, hiking, golf, rolling down the hill at sunset, our friends that visited, airplanes, car rides, cycling to the summit, sandboxes, chairlift rides, the bungee trampoline, cordillera, caves, the mountain roller coaster and our safety.  

the cordillera summit – 9200 feet & 13 degree pitches…..fun!

anyway, part of the campaign involves photography on white cyc & while we wait on our subjects, my assistant keeps me entertained. the other day, i said, “hey Lan, go stand over there and make me laugh.”

he didn’t disappoint.

click the image, it looks better large.