Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

May you enjoy the Reason for the season! God's grace to you. May His joy by your joy as you contemplate the most amazing of gifts.
Clyde

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Spotlight :: City on a Hill

VSN Member Shane Sooter leads City on a Hill Productions. They have been making high quality visual stories that address faith and the heart since 2003 (H20, Storm). Their six episode series "Easter Experience" will release in 2009. It is visually stunning...take a look at some of the clips under the video page (Visual / Videos). Great work City on a Hill!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Spotlight :: Media Village

VSN member Graham Vermooten directs Media Village Productions. MVP has become a key player in providing a voice for the body of Christ. Traveling the globe, media teams are becoming God's scribes in the 21st century. Stories of transformation and Gospel proclamation regularly leave the editing suites of Media Village Productions are quickly dispatched to the most distant places around the globe. Many productions are translated into languages representing the major linguistic groups of the world. Media Village is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Spotlight: Freedom Films

Freedom Films Productions was founded by Tom Silkwood (VSN member) in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1989. Tom had served as a missionary in Thailand since 1980. During the first nine years of ministry in Thailand, after becoming familiar with the culture and language, he recognized the need for cultural sensitive, media materials after seeing how multimedia materials impacted the peoples of Asia.

Beginning on a small scale producing simple filmstrips and slides, Tom moved into producing promotional videos for fellow missionaries. This led to developing teaching videos and documentaries for other missionaries in NBCM who had need for this type of material. As word spread that he had the equipment and was capable of producing this type of material, other missionaries became interested in having material produced. Duplication of these materials opened the door to broader service and the Christian community began to ask for various materials to be produced.

This progressed into an interest from different ethnic groups who, in the past, had only been the recipients of whatever multi-media teaching material was available for general use, or whatever missionaries could afford to have produced for them. They began coming to FFP with ideas of their own, asking for materials for their specific ethnic group. These Christian leaders became co-laborers in developing culturally accurate material. All this was accomplished from a garage-sized office up until 2001.

NBCM began construction of a 4-story building in 1998 called the Christian Resource Center. The entire second floor of this facility was designated for Freedom Films Productions who designed the area specifically for media production. The building opened in 2001 and Freedom Films Productions moved in. Tom hired more staff and FFP became a leading service center for multi-media productions in the region. The most dramatic change made in the ministry was to add a video studio and editing department. The first programs produced in the FFP studio were video CD’s sent into a nearby closed country. Eight million copies were made of these programs. Being one of the largest studios in Northern Thailand, FFP is also assisting other Christian organizations in producing TV broadcasts and non-broadcast materials. These weekly TV broadcasts have been reaching millions of people per month in Thailand and surrounding regions with the message of Christ.

In the year 2000, Freedom Films Productions became an official Regional Center for Good News Productions, International. The purpose of each Regional Center is to produce media materials for that particular region. Currently, FFP is in a growth stage of ministry. More equipment is needed to facilitate the work. The studio is in use a majority of the time by either our own staff or other Christian groups who are given appointed time slots. The editing department is at work editing and duplicating productions.

Due to growth and expansion, FFP is seeking Christian partners with the same vision for reaching Asia through media. The potential for this ministry is far-reaching. We at Freedom Films Productions have the vision and the heart.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Spiritual Guide to Filmmaking

Filmmaker Les Butchart has written a helpful article on a spiritual perspective on filmmaking. To download the article, go to the Resources tab under Community.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Door Post Film Project

These guys have a fascinating new thing going. We partnered with them recently and saw some of their short films. Extraordinary. There are events coming up in LA, Nashville and New York promoting the 2008 festival. See the events page here and check out www.thedoorpost.com