Hope and A Future

Hope And A Future

On Wednesday's edition of MoneyLife, Chuck Bentley interviewed Doug Phillips from the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF). As mentioned in the previous post, Crown has been selected to premier three of the new films. Click below to listen:

If you are interested in attending this exciting world premier, sign up for the festival here. Not only will you get to see the premier of the films, but also during the event, Dean Jones will be honored with a special award.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Also, earlier in the week, we decided on the official title of the series: "Hope And A Future." Going forward, "Hope And A Future" will replace Short Film Series.

San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival

Crown is honored to have been selected by the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF) to premier three of the new films. We pray the first viewers will be moved by God’s truth.

More news to come on how the films will be released as part of our teaching solutions in Spring 2009.

 

Well…it has been a while…

We apologize that it has been so long since we have posted anything on the site. We do want to take a moment and bring you up to speed on where we are with the Short Film Project here at Crown.

I will say this, we have all been blown away by God’s hand being involved in the finalization of the films.  The original music scores, the computer generated graphics and the insight God has given us has been amazing!  On numerous occasions, we have had to just step back in awe and praise God for His goodness throughout the process.

 On Wednesday, November 12th, a small group of us will meet to review the films one last time to make any tweaks and adjustments that need to be made to each of the films.

We feel and know that there are great things on the horizon for the films and what God wants to do through them.  Our desire is for His Word to go forth into the world to touch and change people’s hearts. 

We would like to ask for you to join us in this journey specifically through prayer.  We really do need your prayer covering.  Would you join with us?  If so, please feel free to share your thoughts and prayers in the comment fields below, if you feel led.

We have some very specific items we need to be covered:

•    Spiritual and physical protection for everyone involved in producing and distributing these films.

•    Wisdom and discernment as we work through the final steps in finalizing the films as well as looking at different teaching and distribution models.

•    Continued funding for the production of the films.

•    Ultimately, that lives would be changed, people will be saved and God will be glorified every step of the way!

There are some very exciting announcements that we will be sharing with you very soon regarding the films.  Please check back here for updates.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers for these films and what God is doing through Crown Financial Ministries! 

God Bless!

Jason Gazaway
Crown Operations Producer

Lifted Up - Staff Preview

Today the Crown staff previewed the film "Lifted Up" during our weekly devotions. For those of you who are new to the blog, "Lifted Up" is the presentation of the Gospel from John chapter 3.

It was truly an amazing and emotionally moving film, even for a believer like myself!

We were also treated today to hear from a special guest, Anatoliy Musiyenko. Anatoliy is Crown's Ukraine director. After the preview, I was able to chat briefly with Anatoliy about the film we just watched. He was extremely excited about it and looked forward to using it in the Ukraine.

To find out more about what Crown is doing in Europe, click here.

The Rich Man and Lazarus - India Review

This week ,Crown's National Director for India, Richard Samuel, reviewed "The Rich Man and Lazarus." On the double video screen pictured below, Richard is on the left. As mentioned in the last post, it is very important for us to get feedback from our international leaders since we will use these short films globally.

 

Screening Of The Rich Man and Lazarus

This week, the team did their first screening of "The Rich Man and Lazarus" - which is based on Luke 16:19-31. This film relies heavily on computer generating graphics, as it depicts Heaven & Hell. Since these computer graphics are not completed yet, you can only image how difficult it is to picture what the background scenes would look like.   

Next week, we will show "The Rich Man and Lazarus" to our International VP's of South Africa & India to get their critique. Since we plan to use these films globally, it is very important for us to get their feedback as well as feedback from our other international leaders.

Just a quick update on "Abraham and Isaac," we have sent the film over to the musician for him to create the background music and he is just about finished.

Here are some photos taken from the screening:

Setting up iChat before the meeting starts.

Just before the start of the meeting. 

Group discussion just before viewing "The Rich Man and Lazarus."

A very blurry picture of the team on iChat.

Follow-up discussion after the viewing.

Check back early next week, as we will have new updated pictures from our screening with the international team.

Post-Production Update

As mentioned in previous posts, we are full swing into post-production work. Roughly, there are 6 major stages we have identified for the project:

• Raw footage review
• Final edits done and video "locked"
• Background music written and reviewed
• Computer graphics generated
• Determine practical applications
• Packaging/Fulfillment

This week the team had the first screening of "Abraham and Isaac." During the screening, we had iChat/Video conference sessions with The Erwin Brothers. The main focus of the screening was to discuss what the group liked and how emotionally impactful the film was. Also, edits and changes to the film were also discussed. The same process will be repeated for each of the remaining films.

Here are a few photos from the screening:

Pictured L to R: Jim Armstrong (Creative Services Manger), Amanda Johnson (Director of Web Media), Ben LeVan (VP Human Resources)

Pictured L to R: Amanda Johnson (Director of Web Media), Ben LeVan (VP Human Resources), VJ Demsky (Information Security Officer)

Group shot

Chancy Burrell (Director of Management Information Systems)

John Erwin (From The Erwin Brothers) on iChat

Pictured L to R: John Erwin on iChat, John Smith (VP of Content & Project Management)

Pictured L to R: Mark Nunnally (Multi-Media Specialist), Kevin Light (Director of U.S. Project Management)

Pictured L to R: Megan Pacheco (Director of Alliances), Curtis Schwartz (Sales Manager)

What a lively bunch, huh?

Poster Mockups

A great film has to have a great "coming soon" poster, right? Check out these poster mockups of the upcoming Short Film series.

NOTE: These are only mockups and will likely change between now and when the finished product is released.

Dean Jones Interview on MoneyLife

Today on MoneyLife, actor Dean Jones reflects on his life journey and involvement in the Short Films project. Click the play button below to hear the interview:

If this is your first time visiting the Short Films blog or have missed any of the previous posts, don't skip out on watching the video journal below. Dean was filming on set when something miraculous happened...

Executive Producer Photo Set

Here are some photo's pulled directly from the personal camera of Executive Producer, Chuck Bentley, while he was on set. Can you say multitasking?

Click here to view the entire Executive Producer photo set.