On December 10, 2010 filmmakers around the world will produce a four-minute story on video. 48-hours later they will upload their video to YouTube. Judges will score entries on Story, movies.html”>christian-movies.html”>christian-movies.html”>movies.html”>cinematography, Sound, Performance and Editing.

For this contest, your $25 entry fee will go into a prize pool. As more filmmakers enter videos, the prize grows! (Prizes from our April contest were $700 and $300.)
 
This time we’re introducing an Amateur Entry category, with a $5 entry fee and the opportunity to get input from the judges.
 
movies.html”>christianfilmmakers.org/contest” target=”_blank”>Contest Details – Facebook Event

By: Isaac Botkin

This project is not a feature, and not a documentary. It’s kind of an experiment.

In two weeks, a four-man video team is heading to Egypt. We will be there for two weeks. During that time, we will post a 24-minute video episode every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We will stream this video live to subscribers on the web and immediately afterwards stream live audio from the team on the ground for 30-minutes of interactive Q&A.

It’s a pretty brutal production schedule, and to make it work we’ll be relying on the blinding speed of Premiere CS5 on two high-powered laptop editing suites, the superior image quality of the Canon 5D, and the extreme flexibility of the GoPro HD Hero. We’re using a mix of shotgun mics and wireless lavs for audio, LED flashlights for lighting, and an assortment of GPS trackers and satellite pagers, not mention a huge stack of redundant eSATA hard drives that we’ll be backpacking around the desert….

To get to the movies.html”>christian-movies.html”>movie section at LifeWay movies.html”>christian Store in Bridgeton, Mo., customers pass by shelves of books, compact discs and greeting cards.

The rack of movies.html”>christian movies.html”>christian-movies.html”>christian-movies.html”>movies.html”>DVDs isn’t huge, but it’s twice as big as it was a year ago and “growing all the time,” manager Francine Evans said.

Some of the movies.html”>christian titles these days, she said, tackle “touchy subjects” such as drugs, domestic violence or abortion.

“These are movies.html”>christian-movies.html”>movies that deal with issues that real people deal with,” Evans said. “Sometimes that’s what’s necessary to reach people for God. But the seals are needed. They’re a good idea.”

The seals Evans anticipates are part of a new system developed by…

Wow, what an incredibly encouraging week! I’ve attended every SAICFA-F event since 2005 and I’ve enjoyed it every time! Just a quick note here for those unfamiliar with all this…SAICFA-F stands for “San Antonio Independent movies.html”>christian Film Academy and Festival” there is lots of info on their website. You can register for the Academy and Festival seperately if you wish to attend only one but they have always been held during the same week so it just kinda makes sense to go to both. (Academy is held the first half of the week, and the Festival is held the last half)

Highlights for me at this years Academy were the lectures by Kirk Cameron “Acting” – Steven Kendrick “Directing Actors” and “Behind the Scenes of Courageous” – Geoff Botkin “Story Structure” – Isaac Botkin “Christopher Nolan vs. Steven Speilberg” -  Doug Phillips “Radioactive” where he critiques Food, Inc., Avatar, The Cove, 2012, the Al Gore documentary, and more.

- Click “Read More” to see the full Academy review!

Jokes and complaints about the lyrical shallowness of modern-day praise and worship songs are commonplace in this genre. Though there are more than a few grains of truth to the charges, several recent songwriters have been shining exceptions—including Keith & Kristyn Getty (discussed gospelblog.com/archives/7990″>here), Stuart Townsend, and the songwriters associated with Sovereign Grace music.

The Sovereign Grace music team deserve particular kudos for lyrical creativity; recent examples include a project drawn from Puritan prayers, a project with the self-explanatory title of Come Weary Saints, and the project from which this song was drawn, Sons & Daughters. The project explores the “miracle of our adoption in Christ.”

There are several excellent tracks on the project, but the standout is the song “Prepared a Place for Me.” The song isn’t on YouTube, but here are the lyrics and clips of the music&qid=1289844944&sr=8-15″>verse melody and the chorus. The song is written by music.org/artists/doug_plank”>Doug Plank, pastor of CrossWay Church of Lancaster in Millersville, Pennsylvania.

The verses use vivid, precisely crafted phrases such as these:

Father, in the moment
When Your Son shall split the skies
And myriads of angels acclaim Him with their cries
By grace I will be able to join the jubilee
You prepared a place for me

The chorus is weaker, but not so weak as to keep this from being a standout track.

The song is sufficiently straightforward to lend itself naturally to a fairly wide variety of musical styles, and so nearly any group (except, perhaps, the Chuck Wagon Gang, the Dixie Echoes, and the Blackwood Brothers) could make it fit musically. But since the lyric covers territory rarely heard in this genre (or any other), it would be best delivered by a group with whom the message resonated, a group who would deliver it from the heart. So for this reason, I envision a Primitive Quartet rendition.

In a December 2005 gospelnews.com/index/features/comments/4798/”>feature interview on SogospelNews, Reagan Riddle told the story of his daughter and son-in-law adopting a Russian orphan:

My daughter and her husband adopted a little orphan girl from Russia about two years ago named Christina and she was 11 years old. Christina was with a group of orphans that came to America in hopes that they could get adopted. They came to Asheville and my son in law pastors one of the larger churches in Asheville. The group approached him about housing those 11 children for about 3 weeks.  While they were here, 9 of those children accepted Christ. Christina was one of those children. My son in law and daughter had no plans to adopt any of the children at all, but after they went back to Russia, they became burdened for that little girl and they started making plans to adopt her. The interpreter told the children that since they knew Jesus, they could pray that the Lord would send them someone to adopt them.

My daughter and her husband built a big addition onto their house for Christina, and I thought about it this way…The Lord said when He went away to prepare us a place and that He would come back and receive us unto Himself. Christina heard that Jimmy (my son in law) was coming after her but she didn’t know when.

That story fits this lyric so well that it’s not hard to imagine the Primitives being an excellent fit for this song.

Related posts:

1. gospelblog.com/archives/2612″ rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link: Brandon Barry welcomes son”>Brandon Barry welcomes son
2. gospelblog.com/archives/7946″ rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link: Encore Series #4: Hide Me Behind the Cross”>Encore Series #4: Hide Me Behind the Cross
3. gospelblog.com/archives/7990″ rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link: Translation Series #4: See What a Morning”>Translation Series #4: See What a Morning