Grzegorz Stachowiak and Tomasz Rola, in a scene from No Signal. We shot this short film in Dublin, edit is nearing completion. More soon!

So here’s a little video we made while we were in Poland. It also has Lidia’s mom in it. It was good fun and a good opportunity to practice shooting handheld with the DVX100b

Bonus points to anyone who can say who I’m quoting in my title to this post. Yes, I’m back many moons ago from my journey to Nigeria and Hoorah, the DVD is made! What a joy to see 12,000 of these DVDs on their way to folks around the globe. I pray that God will bless the work at The Haven of Hope and that this DVD will be useful.

So, point at hand, my next big project is… Making a catalogue. Then! Making another movie. But whilst I’m making a catalogue I’d really like to… Make a movie! A movie of my own. Some quick Googling terms like “cheap film school” and “making movies” turned up some good resources.

One person said “One way or another, when a filmmaker goes out to make a film, he should be trying to save the world in his own Peculiar way”. I liked that. Another, purportedly Robert Rodriguez, (Mexican Hollywood film director), said “How do you make a cheap movie? – Look around you, what do you have around you? Take stock in what you have. Your father owns a liquor store – make a movie about a liquor store. Do you have a dog? Make a movie about your dog. Your mom works in a nursing home, make a movie about a nursing home. When I did El Mariachi I had a turtle, I had a guitar case, I had a small town and I said I’ll make a movie around that.”

So coming soon to a DVD player near you: A movie about Ireland, people with accents, green grass, the sea, and (grimace) Pitney-Bowes folding machines. I have a guitar case too supposing that doesn’t work out. So, hope you enjoy, and look out world prepare to be saved. (Hopefully not for the worse).

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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