Irvnnan's thot bloggers

An afternoon trip to Arnhem - and the 'Bridge too Far', a WWII battle to control this key bridge across the Rhine.   On my recent trip to the Netherlands we did training with missionaries that wanted to learn about film dubbing and subtitling.  Film dubbing is the process of keeping the music and sound effects from a film, but replacing the spoken dialog with a recordings of voices in a new language.  This is a much more complicated and time intensive process than just subtitling a film.  In a subtitled film you can keep the original soundtrack, but put subtitles of a new translation as text on the bottom of the screen.   I was sharing some of the things I did in dubbing as well as subtitling films, not only the JESUS film but more recently the File Zero series that we did with Agape Spain.  There were 12 in the class, but also 3 other people helping out with the training from their areas of expertise,  By the end of the class we had to...

It's hard to believe that it has been 5 years since the release of My Last Day - a recounting of the Crucifixion of Jesus as told through the eyes of the thief that was crucified with Jesus; the one to whom Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise".  The roots of the project actually started 12 years ago.  If you are interested in a brief recounting of the history, please see this interview with Mike Peckham, the leader of our Film Production department.  I helped recount the history and checked in with Barry Cook to make sure we had the facts correct.   But it hasn't stopped with just a short film...    We have been hard at work on a gospel presentation based on this short little animé film.  Since the spoken parts were taken from existing dialog lines in our 1,400 JESUS film translations, we now have nearly 130 translations online as well.  In fact, this Easter we have a cell-phone fr...

It's great to know that the Nkoya language version of the JESUS film has been recorded and is now available for use in Zambia.  We are excited to share some video with you of the actual dubbing that took place in May of 2015.  In this clip you will see some of the men performing the voices for the crowd scene - a crowd of soldiers gambling for the clothes of Jesus during his crucifixion.  As you can see, the walls are lined with mattresses which is typical for field recording situations (to help record the voices without the 'echo' that a small room can produce... Here you can see an early test screening of the new Nkoya language dubbing of the JESUS film.  When the team goes to record a new language this is something that is done to help insure that the language is correct and to help catch any problems while they are still in the area and can still bring the actors back to make corrections. Her Abel (who coordinated the project) gives a special thank you and ...

Jesus came and told his disciples,   “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.   Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.   Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)  I’m reminded from these scriptures that Jesus didn’t lay out a ‘Plan B’.  It started with people (the disciples), it would take place through the church, and it would end at the world (all nations).  How does that plan continue today in the modern, interconnected world of phones and media?  At your church I’m sure you could give a testimony of how your congregation and your church’s overseas discipling work is accelerated through the use of technology and media. Here at the Jesus Film Project we have a detailed plan for how we are serving the body of Chr...

You may remember that we were involved in working on the animation for Archivo Cero (which means File Zero) back in 2011 .  Former Disney senior animator Dom Carola  was our animation director and I was the producer.  Our crew of about 14 people built the CG models and sets for the first 7 (of 14) episodes and Ovi  storyboarded the rest of the series.  Then production went back to Spain and last year the last 3 1/2 episodes landed at HuHu Studios  in New Zealand.  The first 7 episodes were posted in English  here .  They were actually animated to the Castilian Spanish track for strategic reasons so the English lip-sync doesn't look as perfect as the Spanish version. Now that it is done (Praise God!) the ministry strategy and rollout can begin.  The initial language versions are Spanish, Catalan, English and Latin American Spanish.  Rather than just post all the episodes it will be held back for various countries and their strat...

I posted a page with links to our 6 language versions of the My Last Day gospel presentation .  You can also download it to Android tablets and iPads with the free iSpring app.  Instructions are also on that page.  If you have any stories about sharing this with people I'd love to hear it!  You can email me at irv DOT klaschus AT ccci DOT org

Using media to help preach the gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing new for the JESUS Film Project. But the use of Damah film festival and later the Global Short Film Network.  We have used dialog lines from the JESUS films for such things as My Last Day (a 9-minute Japanese anime film about the crucifixion of Christ) and more recently File Zero - a 14-part 'web episode' series due to be released in 2015. From our letter this month I hope you picked up that we are finding that short films are a great way to start conversations.  We've had reports from around the world from people telling us of how easy it is to start a conversation when you have a short film that you want to share with a friend.  If you know about YouTube - you know this has become a global phenomenon.  In our case, we seek to make films that start conversations that can lead to Christ!  We acquire what we can from other sources, but we also end up making some of the films here i...

Research and development is a funny thing.  Sometimes you get a group of people together and they have a great idea but the timing is not right.  That is my perspective on this meeting that we had two years ago.  The meeting was for the purpose of following up on the 'My Last Day' anime film that we had completed the previous year with Brethern Entertainment and Studio 4C in Tokyo.  This 9-minute film on the crucifixion of Jesus had been a test, a 'pilot film' for the idea of combining JESUS film dialog with new visuals and new story telling (in Japanese anime) to tell the story. The group had been excited about My Last Day and felt more of the life of Jesus needed to be done in this form.  Their key conclusion though, was that the next step was that it needed to be combined  with a gospel presentation on a mobile device that would be simple enough that anyone could use.  The immediate idea was to develop an app - but as it turned out the timing was...

As Cru staff here in the U.S. we have a core of about 12 graduate level classes we need to take toward a certificate.  I was recently able to take a class on Apologetics online.  Christian Apologetics is of course the study of the defense of the Christian faith.  For my final project I could have written an article or prepared a speech on one of the essential topics. But of course, being immersed more and more in CG (computer graphics imaging) as was interested in the 3rd option - a Powerpoint project.  I increasingly use more CG tools in the Film Production department of the Jesus Film Project (doing some visual effects and also helping 'pre-visualize' new projects we are researching or about to produce).  The course instructions were that  this would Powerpoint would be the type of thing you could go through with a student who might be a new Christian.  The tool should help then gain some grounding in the Christian faith and how to...

 Nan and I are excited to pray with you about the potential of helping see an Nkoya JESUS film funded and produced as part of Mission 865.  Mission 865 is the initiative here at the JESUS Film Project to complete all languages spoken by at least 50,000 people.  These next 865 languages represent some of the most unreached and remote people in the world.  But much as Jesus related the parable of the Lost Sheep , these speakers of Nkoya have not escaped His notice.   When it comes to making a new JESUS film translation, one of the greatest challenges is completing the translation of the script .  As we do smaller and smaller people groups, this challenge increases.  The reason for this is that these people groups are more remote, there is less likelihood that they even have a written language (an oral language with no formal alphabet) and they usually have no portions of scripture in their language. That is why we have had a partnership...

Christmas is such a great time to strike up a conversation about Christmas and spiritual things.  A few years ago we make little gift packets that we could easily give out to people we met.  It had a Christmas card (with a Christmas greeting and 'Merry Christmas' in 16 languages ), candy canes, a bag of microwave popcorn and an 8-language JESUS DVD.  We put it into a ziplock bag to make it easy to grab and hand out.  I guess if we had put a bow on it that would have been even better! This year we plan to do it again but with a special Christmas version of "The Story of JESUS Through the Eyes of Children".  This is actually one of our favorite films.  While it was based on the JESUS film (and uses a lot of the original footage from the JESUS film shot in 1979), it adds a compelling storyline of children at the time of Christ and witnessing His life.  With a runtime of 62 minutes, it's a great film that families can share together, or older family m...

Working with technology as I do, the Internet has been an incredible help to me in my work.  For instance, part of what I do has me communicating with people in places like California, Bogata, Barcelona and Hong Kong.  I also work between the office and a home office and regularly move a lot of information around as we work on tools to communicate the gospel to people around the world. But the Internet is of course a double-edged sword.  If you have an email account you already know that our email boxes are bombarded with SPAM, some of it rather vile, unless you have a filter.  It's not much of a leap to see how Jesus' warning in Matthew 24, " Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold..."   (in that rather chilling chapter about the end times) is at our door now. Our greatest defense is a close walk with the Lord as we 'put on our spiritual armor...to quench the firey darts of the evil one' (Eph 6:11,16).  I've also fou...

Here's an exciting video report that Campus Crusade for Christ staff on the college campus made about their outreaches using  My Last Day.     It is a video report showing how they have been using My Last Day (our 9-minute Japanese anime film that shows the crucifixion through the eyes of the thief that was crucified with Jesus).  Not only have they been using it on campus but also with families in the community. One of the things that excites me about this report and this use of My Last Day - is that, since the dialog used in this film comes from our existing JESUS film translations, this story could happen on almost any campus in the world in the future where My Last Day is made available - we don't have to send new voice dubbing teams to that country, the translation is already done!  Right now we have it in about 45 languages with another 90 or so in process.   I don't know the prayer 'back-story' to this story - but I'm sure God raised up a te...

If you haven't seen FallingPlates prepare to be moved!

Something I've grown to appreciate lately is the ability to be spontaneous and enjoy a particular moment that the Lord brings my way.  I had a chance to do this recently with my friend Dom Carola.  Dom is the director as we have been re-dubbing a much better English version of the Archivo Cero project that we had worked on in 2010 and 2011 (Dom was the director of that animated project and I was the producer). We were going to meet for lunch to discuss Archivo Cero, but as we met Dom mentioned that he was invited at the spur of the moment to see a vintage WWII C47 land at the Fantasy of Flight museum not far from Orlando.  So we changed our lunch plans, did our meeting in the car and headed down to see this plane land... Dom has done work for the owner, Kermit Weeks, and Kermit was up in the plane flying it to his museum.  Apparently it had been restored by the Onasis family and Kermit had acquired it in Europe.  But he had to go to great pains to fly it...

Just a quick report, but this is the group that met during the meeting I asked you to pray for.  Most of us are in Jesus Film representing various areas that relate to this project, but we flew in Zach from Budapest (3rd from left), Karl from Hong Kong (4th from right) and Andy (2nd from right) who normally serves in Japan (he's on furlough right now).  We were meeting to consider the use of My Last Day in ministry and how to make it more effective, and what other anime pieces might be needed - based on the dialog recordings we already use in the JESUS film. In this picture we are hearing form Karl about mobile device use in Asia and some of the creative ways people are using to present the gospel using media and images.  The rather suprising conslusion (at least to me) was that what is needed is an app for smart devices (like iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets) that combines My Last Day (and a new anime piece) with an interactive gosepl media presentation...

Many people have been asking what's next?  We've worked on web episodes of  "Escaping the System" for the last 2 years and before that My Last Day on Earth .  What's next?  What are you doing now? That's a good question. First, let me say that I've pondered a bit over my last 25 years with Campus Crusade for Christ (soon to officially be called Cru here in the U.S.).  I have spent all 25 of these years working for just one ministry - the Jesus Film Project.  And I've wondered, why have I stayed?  Am I just so uncreative that I can't think of anywhere else to go.  Many people have multiple careers in that time.  Well, I actually have had several careers in that time. When I first came in 1986, it was just me, Tom Dennen and Mike Milchling in 2 rooms in San Bernardino with a bunch of tape machines.  Yes, magnetic audio and video tape.  The PC was in the second generation (the 80286) and the Mac was just barely 2 years old.  ...

Thanks for praying for our trip to Barcelona.  I traveled with Dom (the director on the 'Escaping the System' project) to Barcelona to be with the team there.  After nearly 2 years of a largely U.S. team working on the project it was time for them to take on the last half.  In this picture you can see Marc and Eva (top left) who have been the heart and soul of this project for many years now.  Their vision is to reach students all across Spain - and to go to the places and into the culture where these students live and engage with them; in their media, at their events and through their lives.  They are truly inspiring people to be around and they have a tremendous heart for the Lord and His love for people.  At the bottom of the picture are William and Isra.  William is an animator recently out of school.  Isra is managing the project part time as he continues in his job at an advertising company.  There are other people handling the websi...

Wow - what an incredible adventure the last 2 years have been - it's hard to believe it is winding down. It all started with hearing from my supervisor at the time, Bailey, that the team in Spain was looking for help in animation. I was just finishing work on pre-production of My Last Day (the pilot film of our life of Jesus in anime concept). Bailey and I proposed a research project to see if we could be of help to our sister ministry in Spain (called Agape), and we were off. I had previously been talking with my friend Dom about the project (CEO of Premise Entertainment here in Orlando - former Disney senior animator and all around great guy to work with). We had kicked around some ideas. Also at that time God brought about a connection (through a mutual friend) to Joshua G. who had just graduated from Full Sail as a rigger for CG characters. Joshua also had a modeler/zbrush artist friend who had also finished Full Sail, and together with Mark from the Pioneers ministry, w...

A new name for Campus Crusade for Christ I can't say it much better than this FAQ posted on Campus Crusade for Christ's website. While we knew the consideration of a new name was going on for the last year or two, we hadn't thought much about it until it was formally announced last week during the biennial staff conference going on in Colorado. So we wanted you to hear it from us rather than the news - yes, the new name that will be gradually phased in next year is, quite simply, Cru.