I Make Movies That Move People

            The lead singer for Rage Against The Machine once said
“that a good song can get you with your girl, but an excellent song can make people riot and set fire to the suburbs.”   Now that phrase might not always be true, but what he means is that a good song should make people actually get up and do something productive, which is the basis of my story.

            I have been playing with video cameras for the majority of my life, ever since I was ten or so.  The camera just came natural to me, and I was good at it.   During my last two years of High School I took the Vocational School route and I went in; to learn about computers and I did well, but during those years was when I really was first exposed to video editing on the personal computer, I have loved it ever since.  Now I’m a volunteer at the Zone and I use most of the skills I taught myself in High School to help them out.

            Love In the Name Of Christ is a 501.3c Non-Profit organization that is spread throughout the United States.  Their main mission is to help the underserved and the people that need help financially.  We happen to have a Love INC chapter right here in Harrison, Ohio and my Grandfather volunteers his time there.

            During my Vocational School days, I made small home videos to take to Competitions and I’d gotten first place in the majority of them, and my Grandpa always knew that I was good at making video’s like that so he asked me if I’d make Love Inc. a promotional video because the one they get from their National office is ten minutes long and it doesn’t really cover what they are really trying to say, and they needed something to show the people that give money, that they are really doing something.   So I said I’d make them one.

            It took me about two weeks to complete, I did all my own work, I ran the camera and did all the editing myself on my home computer.  I got to see for myself what Love Inc. was really about and how they have helped people.  I told them ahead of time that the video should be around 4 minutes long and I’ll leave a logo at the end so when you take it to different churches to show they can freeze the screen at the end, so you’ll have the logo behind you when you get up there to talk about your ministry.  In the end the video came out to be 6 minutes in length.  So I was still in the testing stages where I’d make a DVD and then take it to show them and see what they’d say.   I showed the members of Love Inc. to see if they would like me to cut it down in length, but they said it was absolutely perfect don’t take anything out!   The only problem was that there was a loud audio hiccup toward the end of the video when the woman is talking, see what happened is that my camera doesn’t have a mic in plug, and I had to use the built in microphone to get the sound.  That was the only problem with it, and the boss of Love Inc. said that she was going to take the DVD to Church On Fire even with the problem and show it as is, and tell the viewers that it is a work in progress. 

            So during the next couple of days I spent most of my time just polishing the finishing touches while the boss showed the video to the public for the first time.  I finished up the DVD’s and made the first five that were the corrected version without any problems.  One was destroyed in my car accident because I had the DVD’s to give to the women, and they were behind my truck seat because there is just no other place to put things in that tiny truck and so the one disc was shattered when we were all thrown back hard into the seat during the accident.  So I had to make another copy.  I finally was able to give the boss woman her DVD’s and she absolutely loved them.  It wasn’t just her either, everyone loved them.  They were so grateful to get them and said it was by far better than the national video they had.

            She took the now completed video to their other local churches that gives them money and they too loved it. Since then I’ve made around 40 additional copies for Love Inc. to package and mail out to millionaires and donors and to just give out to people.

            My video since its first showing has made one man decide to leave money in a “trust” so that once he dies Love Inc. would get the money.  Another is that a person I don’t know if it’s a man or a women, but because of my video decided to start volunteering their time and services with Love Inc.  I mean really this video that I had just slapped together and could really careless about; that I almost didn’t put my name on it for any credit.  Is a product that is reaching the community and leading people to follow God and help his children in need.  Isn’t that wonderful!  I’m sure others have done things after seeing my video, but that’s all they have told me so far.

            In conclusion, this whole ordeal was a real eye opener for me, I learned that I myself can actually make a difference on this earth, and people are watching.  Also I’ve gotten another video project and it’s from within my own church.  I don’t know all the details yet but it deals with these two missionaries, and I believe that they want me to film a piece for their walk across America project they are working on.  

Currently Listening Crashings By Falling Up see related

Part 3

Well I’m back for the final installment of my stellar car accident story, I’d been really busy lately and got a little backed up but, I’m here now and I’m going to finish!

            Ok so a summary of what happened last post, I went to church and basically everyone could care less about the accident and I was all worked up over nothing.

            Also the man that hit us named “Ervin” wrote me a check while I was on vacation I got it when I came back.

            Now the new stuff, me and my dad went down to the first place that I got a damage estimate which was, Jack Detzels Auto body.  Something I didn’t know was that my dad went to school with “Jack” the owner of the place!  Ha-ha, so we head down there it’s like 7 minutes from my house and my dad bust’s into that office and says extremely loud: “I WANT THIS THING SLAPPED TOGETHER” and the workers must have been on break or something because they were sitting there in the office looking at us like “does he have a gun?” “Are we going to die?” LOL! By the end of what my dad shouted out Jack was like hey man, I didn’t know that was you on the phone!  The workers let out a sigh of relief and left to go to the other room.  So we told Jack that we chose him to fix my truck and he went outside to get the VIN numbers off of the truck to order the parts.         

            So a few days pass and he calls me and tells me to come down to the shop because he says the company that he buys his parts from keep sending him the wrong lower valance piece that goes below the bumper.  So I run down there real quick and he takes a look at it and says: “oh man I thought the valance went up into the bumper behind the license plate” but instead it just goes straight across.  So the first one the place sent him was the correct one.  But he had the front and back bumpers in a box in the shop I saw those.  So he corrected the order and I went home.  A few days later he calls and says drop it off on Tuesday so I tell him it will be their Tuesday morning.  So Tuesday rolls around and me and my dad run down there and drop it off, he says I should have this done by late today, and my dad was like we’ll just pick it up tomorrow to not rush him.

            So we go back home and do yard work or something because my dad is off work, so around 6pm Jack calls and says that it’s done.  So we run down there again and my truck looks like a brand new 2005 Tacoma, I kid you not!  Well that was the only thing wrong with the truck was that the bumpers were always dinged up because I got my truck handed down to me from my grandpa who was in construction and it seemed like he hit plenty of concrete blocks and different objects.  So when I ended up with it the front bumper sat at an angel and the lower valance had its share of chipped paint and dings.

            So the new bumpers are perfectly straight and he even hammered out my license plate and had to put metal washers behind it because the holes where the bolts that held the plate tore out of place because of the accident which knocked it under the grill.

            See God provides! Sometimes you just have to be put threw a headache and whiplash, but about 2 weeks before that all happened I was thinking about buying new bumpers because that was the only eye sore to the truck and not only do I get them but I got them for free and it all happened in a 5 minute car accident.

I’m glad that guy I got knocked into decided to take off and run from the accident because if he would have stayed, the cops most likely would have to come to the scene and my poor truck would probably been totaled even though it runs perfectly fine.  The Kelley Blue Book states that my truck is worth about 1,200$ in it’s “excellent” condition with 229,000 miles on it, and the damage done was 1000$ so the new net worth of this puppy is around 2,200$ which means if I get hit again and it does total it maybe I could afford a 4x4.

            Note: If you ever get into an accident call the police anyways regardless of how bad it is! Because I got very lucky, the old man that hit me could have been like-“look kids I don’t know what you’re talking about? I didn’t rear end you” so call the police to get them to fill out a “police report” so you can have it on record incase they try to change the story or it gets drug in to court.

            To ease stress and tension off everyone I came up with a joke and that joke is a short statement – well you know that old man Ervin hit me so we now call him “Swervin Ervin” and the joke is that he didn’t swerve at all and instead rammed me everyone died when I said that it’s just too funny.  Oh and my friends have their own band and they are writing a song about all of the events that happened in the accident.  So really, who knows what might happen to someone if they get into an accident with me? Might be a hit song an up in coming comedian.

Well that was the end of my accident tale, and I’ve said that today was the last day that I talk about it because it’s a thing of the past.  But I’ll always answer questions though!

Part 2

I just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and comments and questions I tried my best to answer them all.

            So the accident happened on a Friday and now it was Saturday and I was looking in the phone book for auto body places to get an estimate of how much it would cost to fix the damage parts.  To my surprise all the places are closed on the weekends so I had to wait till Monday to start my search. 

            In the mean time Katy had called me and asked me how Spirit Song went and also asked me if I was ok, and I said yeah I’m fine and told her what I did at Kings Island.  I really didn’t have a heart to talk to anyone at that time, so I was not really talking much to her and the conversation ended up dying so we hung up.

            I went outside to look at the damage to the truck to see if there was something I might have missed, but I didn’t see any new damage.  Basically I need 1 new front bumper because it had a slight bow inward.  Also needs a new lower valance the piece that is below the bumper that held my license plate, the car that I was knocked into must have had a trailer hitch because the front license plate/lower valance was knocked to the frame of the truck.  It needs a whole new rear bumper; the thing is still attached and kept the SUV from smashing the tailgate and damaging the bed area.

            So in short I need 2 new bumpers and a lower valance on the front.

Sunday Rolled around and I was so nervous going into church.  As soon as we got to the parking lot I could see Patrick’s Mom across the way and I felt really bad, like man I’m going to get it or something.  We parked our car and went inside the church; Patrick’s mom was too busy talking with someone of the congregation.  I thought for sure that I was going to hear someone say something about the accident as soon as I hit the door, but you know what? No one said a word, no one knew!   I quickly found my seat and sat in horrible worry until church had started.  Katy came with her family really late into church that Sunday.  “Her parents by the way are the youth leaders of our church” and they also sit toward the front of the church and me and my family sit in toward the back of the church.  Well the service starts and I see my dad going up to Katy’s mom and dad and he tells them “I’m sorry my son had to damage the goods” then Katy’s dad laughed and said “oh it’s not your fault” I was shocked I thought that they were going to beat me or something.  What a relief!  I thought my reputation of being a good driver would be corrupt!

            Patrick ended up not coming to church; I later found out that he had to work.  But I thought oh no he probably died or something!  So the church service ends and me and my dad go and find Patrick’s dad in the fellowship hall. He’s actually kind of a friend of mine believe it or not.  But we talk to him and he’s doesn’t even know what happened. He says that he heard part of it from listening in when Patrick told his mom about it.  But my dad tells him we were rear ended in front of meijers going down the hill toward I-74.  He’s like oh man that’s bad, well at least everyone was ok, I’m just really glad that you guys were able to hang out! 

            Again I’m shocked!  He’s not ticked or anything at all.  So we leave church and I feel a lot better my stress was beginning to leave.  I guess I just get worked up over things that people could care less about.

            So Monday rolls around and I drive my truck to two different auto body places and get estimates, I didn’t want to rip the people that hit us off.  Because the Bible says that “we should treat others as you would like to be treated” and I would not feel good if I got stuck with an extremely high estimate, when I knew someplace might be cheaper.  So I get the estimate they both are around 1,000 dollars and returned to my house I gave Ervin the man that hit us a call that night and told him the bids and said that I would stop by his house Tuesday night if that was ok with him to give the bids to him.  He said that was fine and he kept trying to tell me where he lived and how to get there, and I’m like “I know exactly where you live! Trust Me!” then we finally hung up the phone. 

            When we exchanged our information I wrote down every number I could find, including his address which was a no brainer.  What the man didn’t know is that my dad is a mailman over in western hills and his station delivers mail to his house.  My dad is actually friends with a co-worker at his station that has the route Ervin lives on and also my dad has delivered mail to their very house once or twice because the carrier was sick or something and he had to pick up the route.  So basically I knew exactly where this man lived, I know exactly when his retirement check would be in his mailbox, I pretty much had all I needed incase he decided to somehow not pay or act like it never happened.

            Tuesday rolls around and my dad comes home from work that night and I had him drive me in my truck to this guys house, I told Ervin that I would be at his door right at 7:00pm and guess what?  I was there right AT 7, yes on time.  So him and his wife brought us in the house I give Ervin both of the estimates and he looks at them and his wife “Anna” is talking to my dad and he is telling her that he is a mailman and all that postal garbage, well somewhere in that conversation Ervin’s wife says “you probably have our son on your route” and my dad asked them what his name was and they said his name I can’t remember but it turns out that their son is on my dads route!

            So Ervin wants to take a look at the truck and so he does, tells us that he didn’t really get to look at the front end but knows that the damage happened in the accident.  He then goes on to say that he wants to be a bus driver for greyhound, and that this accident might ruin that career! LOL!  So he said I’ll have my insurance take a look at this to see if it might count against him. 

            We leave his house and I’m bummed out, I really expected to have a check in my hand because it would have been nice because I was going to be gone for a week and that’s when I was going to have it fixed.  But no, can’t work like that so, while I’m gone for a week I get a voicemail on my cell phone and it’s Ervin! He just says I need your address zip code etc. I’m writing you a check!  So I’m like YES!! But I was thinking that he called his insurance company and they probably told him that his rates would go up and it would ruin his driving record.  So he’s avoiding all of it and writing a check to settle things without hassle.

            I come back from being out of town and I have a check waiting for me there for the correct amount, I’m so glad that it’s starting to get over with.

            Stay tuned for part 3 where I finish up the parts I didn’t get to tell in part 2.

Friday July 8, 2005  2:49pm

My Car Accident,

            This is “my interpertation of the accident” and reflects everything that I saw with my own eyes. 

            I was out with two friends of mine from church- Katy & Patrick and we all met at our church to go see a movie just the three of us.  So I offered to drive because my truck can infact hold three people and besides Katy & Patrick had just got their drivers license not that long ago.  So me it was!  We all smashed into my little pickup and went to see that new batman movie over in western hills, the movie by the way is really good I think.

            But anyhow we get done seeing the movie and we leave the place and I turn right onto Harrison ave./Rybolt Rd.  It was about 3 minutes down the road we are coming down the hill toward I-74 and I’m in the right lane of this huge 4 lane road.  Before I continue let me tell you how we were seated in my truck which is a stick shift- I levi am driving katy is in the middle with her feet over in the passenger side because I had to shift, Patrick is in the passenger seat. 

I can’t remember what I said but I made everyone laugh and then katy tells me that “there’s a car” so I look out the front windshield and I see these cars all backed up and in a huge line in my lane so I have to hit the brakes pretty hard so everyone is thrown forward but I do get my truck stopped in just the knick of time.  But I am really in close behind this blue car in front of me.

We sit there for I believe 1 entire second of silence like “whoa that was a close one”  Then without warning we are hit from behind by what I thought was a semi, so right as we are hit I turn my head to the right to “try” to see what that noise is, but the force of the impact sent the back corner of my head into the headrest because I didn’t have time to make a complete rotation.

Oh did it hurt I about screamed!  But I wasn’t the only one that cracked their head open poor katy hit her head on the back glass,of my truck because they don’t have a head rest there and Patrick hit his head on the head rest but I believe he was more prepared by looking straight ahead.  That’s where I went wrong.  I was also struck and cut by a small license plate that had my name on it from myrtle beach and it had been on my dashboard then it hit me and somehow fell to the floor but I was too involved to feel pain if you know what I mean.

So we are then thrown into the blue car in front of us, all while I’m standing on the brake pedal and also the clutch pedal. So I’m still looking over toward the passenger side as our bodies start to travel forward.  I see katy reaching out and grabbing the dashboard to brace herself. Then I see Patrick just bent over he almost hit the dash board with his head it looked like he almost touched his forehead to the tops of his knees.  Then me! Of course is still left I almost cracked my face on the steering wheel if it had not been for me looking out the passenger side window.

Then everything finally comes to a halt my truck is still running amazingly.  I see katy and Patrick looking at eachother and saying “I’ve never been in a car accident before”  I at the moment also said “I’d never been in a car accident either” but later I remember that I had way back in fourth grade.  I look out the front windshield and see the guy with the blue car get out and start looking at his bumper.  I tell katy and Patrick to get out, and I but on the parking brake and turn off the engine.  Then I get out on the driver side and the guy with the blue car tells me “There’s no damage to me so I’m going to go ahead and take off” So I’m in a haze right now and I said “alright man” I can’t even remember what the guy looked like I think when he was talking I was staring at his mouth.  So he heads back to his blue car and takes off.  I then turned around for the first time to see the vehicle that hit us so hard and also expected the bed of my truck to be near gone.  So I turn around and it happens to be a huge Suburban like a 1998 model year I think.  I start to walk back and find it very difficult so I had to grab onto the bed rails leading back to the tailgate to keep from falling down.  I look up to see this old man standing at my back bumper he says “It looks like I just got your bumper”

I at that moment could care less about the objects of this earth and I stopped walking and looked that man right in the eyes and asked him “are you alright?”  He was like What!? “I said are you guys aright” because at that time I had looked to the left and I saw his wife and then katy and Patrick where standing over in the grass toward the passenger side of our cars.  So he and his wife both said “yeah we are ok”

But his wife asked us “the question is are you guys ok” and we all said that we are ok.  I then ask “should we call the police”  His wife says well you don’t have to know one was hurt but you can if you want too.  I was like “hmm what should I do?”  Then the old man says just pull up to that parking lot to get out of the way of traffic so I’m like ok.  So we just roll down the road and pull into the parking lot they follow us in and me and the old man trade information and they say to get an estimate from the autobody place and they would pay for it.  But while me and the old man where writing these things down the women was at the rear of my truck with katy and Patrick and the old women tells katy “my you have pretty eyes” “Ervin doesn’t she have pretty eyes?” he looks really quick and under his breath “yeah” I about died when I heard this!!  I felt like saying “look women! Your husband about took down the girl with pretty eyes!”  But I didn’t so we get down trading information and I thank them both for their time.  They asked me where I lived and I said Okeana and they were like yeah I know where that’s at, me and my wife are headed for Brookville. Then we both get into our cars and head home and of course we have to pass these same people on the highway because “Harrison” is before “Indiana.” By the way the police were never called and my truck is driveable.

On the way back katy tells me “levi it’s all my fault that you got into the accident” “I wreaked the Mario mobile” She’s about in tears telling me this and I about hit the floor. I in my mind I’m saying there is no way it’s her fault whatsoever! It really isn’t!  I looked at her real quick then I say “ it’s not your fault at all, I did my job and came to a complete stop behind that blue car.” “it was that big suv that was at fault”

We finally made it back to church and to their own cars and I just felt so depressed about the whole thing and now I’m shattered by this girl telling me it’s all her fault!  I give them all hugs and send them on their way and I take a moment and sit on the tailgate in the parking lot of my church.  I watch the cars passing and I’m already starting to feel the stress/depression hit my chest.  I almost can’t breath! I grabbed my chest with my hand and took my other hand to brace myself to try to lean and lay down  I’ve never had a heart attack in my life but I’ve come very close in the past and I thought here we go.  But I said to myself “God was with us in the accident because we in reality would have been crushed because my truck is so small”  I started to feel a little better and I also had to make it out to kings island for that spirit song thing.  I was to help out at their booth and give out fliers so I went up there and did my thing I tried my best to act like everything was ok but everyone around me knew something was up but didn’t say anything.

Well stay tuned for part 2 next week- where I talk about fears I know have, the stress that’s slowly affecting my body weight. How I felt like garbage going into Sunday service and seeing katy and patricks families and thinking they might have been killed because we hung out.  Also I will talk about how my truck will be fixed for those that are interested.