Welcome to the first episode of You’re not on tv! in which Sean and Louis go for an invigorating stroll around the cliffwalk on the Howth Peninsula and see some nice scenery and an historic surprise. You’re not on tv! is a hopefully episodic video log (vlog) of, well, who knows and is named in honor of Andy (the instigator) and Joey (the commentator). I hope to eventually make it available in an rss feed so it can be auto-downloaded right into your iTunes or what have you. I’ll also be trying to find ways to get the file sizes down — 33mb was the best I could do in three hours of experimenting with mpeg-4. So after all the ado, here at last is You’re not on tv! Episode one: Howth 33MB Quicktime file, 4:53 (four minutes, fifty-three seconds).

Time: 9.00am GMT
Place: Europa Buscentre, Belfast

If you have found it and would like to return it please email me:
louis [at] louiskreusel.com

Thanks

Update: The backpack is back! I called the buscentre on Monday and they had no sign of my backpack. I called them on Wednesday and sure enough, they had it. They sent it on a bus to Dublin today and I went down to pick it up. Thank the Lord!

I shot and edited a documentary once before so I’m not entirely new to the process but I’m certainly no veteran. The doc I did previously had a final running time of just over twenty minutes and was edited down from about ten hours of source footage. In comparison, these projects will have running times of twenty minutes, one hour, and sixteen hours. I’ll probably come back from Africa with somewhere around 130 hours of source, shot over a period of about six weeks.

I come to video production from a background in computer animation and photography. I took two video editing classes in school and have used Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere. I’ve animated in Lightwave, 3D Studio, After Effects, and Avid Media Illusion so the post-production is really where I’m more experienced and most comfortable.
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People studying Emmaus Bible courses used to get their courses through the post — hence “Emmaus Correspondence School” (ECS). In developing nations, postage is often expensive and sometimes unreliable. In response to this situation, Emmaus is implementing a system of Emmaus Bible Centres in which courses are distributed and corrected by local believers rather than through a central office. Those carrying out this system at the grassroots level are known as Correctors. To be a corrector, an Emmaus student must first complete twelve courses and be in good standing. Then the student must also complete sixteen hours of instruction and training on the ins and outs of the great responsibility of being a corrector.

This training for english speaking Africa would often fall to Jim Gillett and his colleagues. The idea behind making training videos is that they would cut down on all the traveling that Jim does and would make training available as soon as it is needed. It would make scheduling training sessions much more flexible.

I think it’s a great idea, but sixteen hours of video is a lot of video! We’ll need eight DVDs for all the training. This is going to be quite a project.

Stay tuned for my thoughts and questions about the technological tools and production methods I’m looking into for making these videos. Ever heard of a “c-stand“? I hadn’t either.

Ireland Outreach has been involved in the Emmaus Correspondence School’s efforts in Nigeria for many years. Recently they have had the opportunity to establish a combined medical clinic and Bible college near Jos in Plateau State (official site), Nigeria. Planning began in 2002 and construction is currently underway. The college and clinic are already functional with students staying on site for long term study and people coming in for medical clinics held twice weekly. The site also serves as a base for Emmaus work in Nigeria. There are also weekly literacy classes, children’s Bible classes, Bible inquiry classes and many other activities that have been made possible such as the “Hope Nursery” — a four acre farming project which will be used to teach the Bible college students agricultural skills and provide a source of income for the Haven.

Hope Nursery — a four acre farming project

When Jim floated the idea of making a video about the Haven I jumped at the chance because I think that the medium of video will be a great way to communicate the vitality of the work there at the Haven. My goal quickly became to make a documentary about the people and activities at the Haven Of Hope — to make a video focused on people and what they are doing rather than on facilities or statistics. I want to cover the clinic, the college, the various outreaches and services to the local community, and the character of the people working at the Haven as well as a little about the locals.
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I’m very privileged to be working with James Gillett and the rest of the crew at Ireland Outreach International. I have a few upcoming projects that I’m most excited about. One is a documentary video about the people and activities at The Haven Of Hope, near Jos, Nigera. I’d like to do both twenty minute and one hour versions of that video. The other project is a series of training DVDs for Christian leaders in Africa who want to become correctors in the Emmaus Correspondence School. This will likely total sixteen hours of training and will span eight DVDs. These are huge projects that will realistically take the better part of a year to finish. So it begins!
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I have joined the blogging masses. The plan thus far is to use my blog as a personal notebook to help me keep track of things, and to use as a place to publish writings, photos and other media for general perusal and consumption. Hope to see you around!