Medieval Dreams

...As in, a dream that feels Medieval, but has enough anachronisms in there to remind you that it's not the real thing.

A sequence Rachel edited based on scenes from "The Called and the Chosen" and the Celtic Mysteries song, "Brian Boru's March."

The Little Gladiator

Rachel's remix of Andrew, Joseph and Little David's battle last summer.

High-Impact Training Swords

Joseph and Little David present Joseph's new professional-quality training swords. Imaginate That highly recommends!

Why We're Asking For Your Vote

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

To vote for Imagine + Create = Imaginate!, click the dot next the blog title and then click the "vote" button at the bottom of the page. Thank you so much for your support!

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~