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August 2008 Issue

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Cover Story

A Source For Modern Day Parables
By Kean Salzer

Imagine sitting in the movie theater watching WALL-E with your kids. As you see the last operating trash-compacting robot on Earth sort through endless piles of human refuse, you feel the Holy Spirit challenge you to recycle and take care of God’s creation. Then when WALL-E tosses the 2-carat diamond ring back into the junk pile and instead saves the hinged ring box for his collection, you hear the women in the audience gasp. Suddenly it hits you, and you connect with the truth that we are all storing up treasures for ourselves that have no eternal value.

Special Feature

How Did WingClips Come About?
By Steve Hewitt

The idea for WingClips started with my involvement in a film called To End All Wars in 2002. If you haven’t heard of it, it may be the most powerful movie about forgiveness ever made. I was in charge of marketing this film and because of its inspirational content; I wanted to reach out to the faith-based community. I truly felt my life would have achieved its purpose had the film been a success. However, the R rating of the film hindered gaining the support of the church. So, when the theatrical distribution fell through and the film sold straight to DVD, I thought there must be a better way reach the church community with appropriate and inspirational films.

Special Feature

SermonFlow
By Steve Hewitt

Many churches are starting to provide recordings of their sermons on their website. Most are providing audio files, but the trend is to move up to video since the ability and cost to capture video for broadcasting over the Internet continues to drop. However, once you start, you will quickly discover a problem organizing the many files on your website. You need visitors to find a particular sermon series, quickly and easily, without having to read through a long list of file names. faithHighway to the rescue! They have recently introduced a neat utility they call SermonFlow, which I am sure will be an instant hit with any church that gives it a try! The SermonFlow user interface is part of faithHighway’s SermonConnect service. SermonConnect allows their customers the ability to have unlimited streaming of audio and video media.

Special Feature

Would Jesus Use Video?
By Steve Hewitt

Since we started publishing Christian Video Magazine (CVMag) a few months ago, I have received many great emails. Most have simply sent a short note stating something similar to “Great Job!” Others have asked some really great questions about how they can use videos in church or on their website. However, I have received two emails that basically challenge the idea of using videos in church. They raise a good question that really deserves an answer. Although they didn’t actually ask “Did Jesus use video?” one challenged the use of video in the church, while the other asked me to defend the use of multimedia in the church.

Editorial

Thanks For Your Response
By Steve Hewitt

It has been fantastic hearing from our readers. Some of you have already told us how you are forwarding copies of Christian Video Magazine (CVMag) to your friends and peers. Others have volunteered to write articles, while others have offered great suggestions they would like to see in future issues. And, we appreciate the hundreds of you that have simply dropped us a note to let us know you love CVMag.

Greg's Toolkit

Basically Basics
By Gregory Fish

For the sake of those readers who are just getting started making their own videos, or maybe just considering making videos for church use, let’s start with some basic fundamentals. I mentioned previously that we should begin with an idea, script it, and translate from paper to the screen. How do you do that?

I’ll tell you for sure how you don’t. Do not simply get people together with a vague concept and believe in your heart that you’ll let the camera roll and just capture some magic spontaneously. That’s works for Whose Line is it Anyway or other improvisational shows, but I’m guessing it won’t work for you (or better yet, the audience). This is what my friends and I used to do back in the day. Since we were Christians, when friends would marry, our big event for the bachelor party was the reveal of a video that all the guys made which poked fun at the groom-to-be’s life. Those of us who got married early on got some pretty lousy videos, a bunch of non-sensible blah (though funny at times). Randomness ruled until we got some software and actually started planning these videos.

Article

"Don't Forget the Scripty"
By Christene Jackman

It’s a mystery to many. You see this crew position flying by as the movie or video credits roll. You shrug and don’t give it a second thought. But you should if you’re lining up your video project crew. Only an inexperienced filmmaker thinks he/she doesn’t need this mysterious position. I’m talking about: The Script (Continuity) Supervisor.

Column 828

What We Must Do Better Than Anybody Else
By Terry Wilhite

There is another fact that the enemy (Satan) hopes you will not realize. We are in spiritual warfare. This fact changes everything for us as we help advance the Great Commission through multimedia and video.

I agree – you don’t see many discussions about spiritual warfare and video production. In fact, I cannot recall ever reading about the two together. But therein, I believe, lies our ineffectiveness as Christian communicators. Too many of us never realize that we’re serving on a spiritual battlefield. The eternities of countless people rest in our ability to recognize this fact and properly spiritually equip ourselves for our mission.

Article

Weird But Good
By Daniel Temple

I’ll bet you were just thinking to yourself that you sure could use some avant-garde cutting edge sermon illustration films in your next service. The only problem is that there are so many quality films to choose from that I get overwhelmed and feel like I am missing out on another great film that would work even better. Well have no fear fellow media-utilizer, I have the wondrous task of culling from deep inside the veritable treasure trove of Sermonspice and finding and recommending great films from some truly gifted filmmakers. The theme I am going with this month is: “Weird but Good”. Take a look and see if you agree:

Article

2+2=5 and the Mundane Scriptures
By Stewart Redwine

Albert and Hazel lived next door to my parents on Cleveland Street. Albert and Hazel were people of modest means living in a 50’s era one level house in a neighborhood of 50’s era one level houses. When Hazel died she left behind a lot of stuff. She had closets full of brand new clothes and the trunk of her car was crammed with merchandise. No one imagined that Hazel was a compulsive spender, addicted to shopping, including Albert. He was flummoxed and stuck with all his wife’s “stuff”. So, what did he do when she died? He gave it away.