Hey, there, everyone! Over the near future, I (David) want to introduce you guys to the current members of our team for creating “My Rest”, the shortfilm we are producing over the summer. I made a vlog this week to kick it off, and there will be a link to it at the end of this post. It’s called, “How is filmmaking like making a burrito?”
My wife: Katya Snead
The first member of my team that I want to introduce you to is my wife and the love of my life, Katya. Without her, this ministry of filmmaking wouldn’t really be possible, because I wouldn’t have a window into the deeper, more intricate aspects of Ukrainian culture, which can’t really be explained without experiencing them.
With her and her family, I can literally see how a Ukrainian lives and thinks every day. We normally speak a mixture of Ukrainian and English at home, but it’s predominantly Ukrainian. This gives me constant practice in not only using Ukrainian, but also understanding jokes and metaphors that fill the language.
Katya is an amateur art photographer, and you can see examples of her work below:
Click here if you would like to follow Katya’s Instagram page.
As you can see, the shots she takes are beautiful, and she has a unique way of framing an image. Whereas, visually, I am more of a straightforward, low-camera-movement, strap-it-down-to-a-tripod kind of filmmaker, Katya is more subtly poetic in her approach to images. I think my “poetic spirit” is more in the story itself or the dialogue, while her poetry is in the visuals that represent the story.
All of that to say, we need each other to be a good team. Once I have the first draft of the storyboard done, I am going to go over it with her and Elijah, my director of photography (you’ll read more about him later), to get their thoughts on the meaning of each shot.
Katya and I met in God’s Love, a church on the south side of Lviv. This was only a few months after I moved to Ukraine, and I didn’t speak much Ukrainian yet. She was one of the few people that spoke any English there, and she translated for me sometimes. This eventually turned into a friendship, which was augmented by a working relationship (she would translate webpages or fliers for me, which I, in turn, would design and publish).
In the end, we couldn’t stay friends, so we got married. 🙂
Life has been a big adventure since then, but God has seen us through it all. We both have a passion for missions, the church, evangelism, art, and travel. I’m excited for where God will take us in the future.
Things to pray for:
- Her ministry with the young women in our church.
- Her health: Katya has problems with her thyroid that affect her energy levels.
- The ability to rest, even with a lot of stressful situations lately.
David & Katya 