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Imaginate That is a candidate for "Best Family or Group Blog" in the 2009 Homeschool Blog Awards. We would be most honored to receive your vote before the polls close on November 21st.

Click here to read the biographical profiles of the Imaginate That Cast & Crew

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17

Imaginate That is not just a family group blog. It is a family group effort to make our fun and precious time purposeful and use our movies, music and other creative projects to one day win hearts for Christ. That doesn't mean we're currently working on a phenomenal masterpiece film, or even that we will all continue to work in the small independent film industry as we all grow up. But learning to work together and encourage every team member's gifts, talents and interests to pursue great things beyond the limitations of plywood swords and shields and homemade costumes makes the effort, the drama, and even the silliness worthwhile. Among other blockades, we live in separate States and are only able to work on filming sporadically. This little website provides a way of keeping our projects and creative tradition alive.

"For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." - 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Click here to read about the Read and Abbotts' 25 year friendship and life long homeschooling

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Click here to vote for Imaginate That as the Best Family or Group Blog 2009

The Called & The Chosen "Movie Poster"

It's rather goofy and quite unofficial, but I couldn't resist. It was just too much fun. Hopefully we will one day have a "real" poster with photographs instead of an artist's impression...

~Amanda~

Ode To Kinco

We thought we'd pay a tribute to the character of Kinco (ha, and a few others)...with this video. Enjoy!

Post Scriptum - October 23rd was Imaginate That's 1 year anniversary!

The Called and the Chosen Portraits

Painted character sketches for The Called and The Chosen:

Jasyar (Joseph Read), Kinco (David Abbott), Sarkov (Andrew Abbott),

Young Jasyar (David Read),

Adelia (Angela Abbott), Colette (Abigail Read), Cecily (Mary Read),

Eleanor (Rachel Read), Constance (Amanda Read),

These offer a more refined glimpse of our costume designs. This time the sketches are actually portraits of the characters. I based them off of the actors, and tried to subsequently create a visual image that they could live up to when we film. We're recycling a lot in this project - the only parts of the costumes made for the girls are the bodices, which are worn around the outside of dresses that we already have (the Eleanor and Constance dresses are homemade dresses that Rachel and I made with our grandmother a few years ago). We've done some filming without the bodices, however, and the result can be seen in the screen shots (note: the burgundy sash that Angela is wearing in those pictures was the first woven piece that Abigail and I completed on the table loom). The boys' costumes have been doubled up with extra jerkins added underneath (made from white sheets - but you can't tell in the screen shots).

I had most of these completed for a long time but didn't upload them for lack of time and will. You see, the original Young Jasyar portrait was ruined when I accidentally spilled black ink on it this summer (note: sometimes it is best to leave well enough alone when it comes to tiny ink touch ups that nobody else notices...the ink spill risk is just not worth it!). It was sad.

So, just this afternoon I finally completed a copy, which involved both tracing of the salvageable aspects of the sketch and some free hand work. But I've found that you just can't make the same portrait twice, even when it is a copy (I don't care how many copies Gilbert Stuart made of George Washington's portrait!).

Anyway, I've got 15 hours of college classes to tend to, so I've been relatively absent from the internet world. I hope to gain a flexible rhythm and change that, however...

~Amanda~

The Called & The Chosen: Laugh Along

It speaks for itself...see the past screenshots come to life - in normal, slow mo and fast forward!

Bittersweet Farewell

As you can see, we've found slices of drama in ordinary life as well as in our film projects. Rachel masterfully edited our "goodbye" video, which was filmed last month when the Abbotts were departing after our fabulous visit. Ah, it's just so sad...





I can't help but rub it in a little...notice how nice and STEADY the camera suddenly gets when Rachel hands it off to me (at 2:00 minutes/seconds, start at 1:58 to see full effect).

Far Away and Never Alone

I hope Rachel doesn't mind me borrowing her Facebook album name for these pictures as the title...but it just fits so nicely! {Considering that you've watched our music video}

So, we stayed up all night filming the Tavern night scenes, and then got up early to film the outside morning scenes while the sunlight was beautiful (great rooster crowing and bird tweeting sound effects were abundant too!). In the movie, the morning scenes will come first.

The young Tavern maids doing their chores.

Mischievous Eleanor (Rachel Read).

Eleanor runs away.

The young Tavern maids search for Eleanor. The sash that Angela (center) is wearing is the first piece that Abigail and I wove on the table loom.

Young Tavern maids Colette (Abigail Read), Adelia (Angela Abbott) and Cecily (Mary Read) confront Eleanor.
Eleanor explains herself away.

Jasyar (Joseph Read) realizes there is a mysterious man in the corner watching him.

The ominous symbol tattooed on the bicep of Sarkov (Andrew Abbott) {Note: Just the work of my black ink and paintbrush ;-)}.

"I'm sure I've seen that symbol before..."

"Have you ever seen that man before?"

"That man? Sarkov? Never seen him before in my life!"(obviously, the teasing Tavern maid Eleanor doesn't give a wit. ;-)

Adelia makes up for it. "Actually, he comes here a lot, but he never eats...just sits there..."

Kinco (David Abbott), Jasyar's comrade. "Is he looking for someone specific?"

Constance (Amanda Read) fusses over the Tavern guests' menu.

"That man? He just takes up Tavern seating space and scares away the other guests!" The head Tavern mistress is no-nonsense and rather harsh!

Adelia.

Sarkov goes ballistic...and Andrew messed up the scene more than once by misunderstanding the use of the direction, "knock over the chess pieces". Of course, Rachel pranked him by pouring real wine in his Tavern glass, which might have made him a bit tipsy. Haha!

David just about had it with this scene.

Trivia: Over a dozen lit candles were used in the Tavern night scene.
Trivia: Amanda Read (age 19) is the camera director, but Abigail Read (age 12) takes her place when she is acting in a scene.

I've already added some of these screenshots to the Flickr album (which has a slide show on the sidebar). We improved the costumes...but I'll admit that they look much better on camera than they do in reality. The sewing machine all but broke down on us (it really needs a tune up), so we had to make do with what we had already completed before we couldn't stand using the thing anymore.

Coming Soon: Costume design drawings/paintings that I did of each of the characters...you might be surprised!

Also, Joseph and Andrew have a light saber duel production of their own that I filmed and will be posted as soon as the editing is done. Also, check out this funny video on Andrew's YouTube of six year old David Read (who actually plays the role of young Jasyar in The Called and the Chosen) beating up boys twice his age: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjnGa3D0wkU

~Amanda~