Sorry I haven’t posted in a while – we’ve been working away on lots of stuff and I’ve been focused on other things. What things, you ask?
Well… What’s in the Bible #5 hits stores in just a couple of weeks, and we just finished #6! Though it’s going to take us 13 DVDs to get through the whole Bible, 1-6 was the initial funding commitment we had from Tyndale House, our distribution partner, so we have spent a lot of time deciding how to move forward with the rest of the series. We’re close to having an announcement to make about funding for the rest of the series… stay tuned for that in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, we’ve been considering other ways to use the puppets to teach kids, and will be announcing a DVD “special” based on one topic very soon, to be released later this year. I just finished writing it and it’s going to be very fun to produce. I’ll let you know the topic a little bit later on.
On top of that, it’s time to move the Lab. We’ve been in our current space for four years, and it isn’t quite working for us. We have too much office space and too little shooting space, so we’re looking for alternatives. Hopefully we’ll have an announcement there in the next couple of weeks, too – the weak commercial real estate market is opening up some fun possibilities. Buck and the gang have been looking at lots of buildings in the western suburbs of Chicago, and they’re very excited.
Stay tuned for more news, and pictures!
Glad to hear from you! I know I can speak for everyone when I say we’re excited to see the new videos! 🙂 Will be praying for your funding and office decisions.
Nice! Great news!
Could you give us a video tour of the lab (New and old) before you move? I have this thing about office spaces… (Biggest nerd ever, haha!)
And if you switch distributors, try to keep the packaging the same! (It’ll drive us nuts if it’s not!)
We read your account of the fate of Big Ideas, and see one point very clearly.
You were not then and are not now wrong to have a Big Idea. One can arm chair quarterback the lessons all day long, but in the end you did a lot of good with that idea and to say otherwise is to lie.
No one who endeavors is free from the cost; I just want you to keep rather than harm what is good. Philippians 4:8 applies to ourselves when part of ourself is the opposing side of the debate. Respect what is good and right and praise worthy while seeing the what to do differently parts.
Me and my family wish you the very best. “God is right there when your fired, just as he is with any principality or power!”
Any news on funding progress?
Our family has DVD’s #1 – 5 and, and we look forward to DVD #6 and following! My three sons love the “What’s in the Bible” series – they’ve rewatched them over and over.
I’m sure preliminary work on DVD #7 – 9 has already begun, but I wanted to offer a humble suggestion to your obviously professional team. As a Catholic, I was pleased from the start when you very graciously explained early in the series why Catholic Bibles have more books than Protestant ones. Seeing your completely non-polemic answer was enough to convince me that the series had a place in my family’s DVD shelf. As you get to DVD #7, perhaps you would consider another hat-tip to your Catholic brothers and sisters by including a brief reference to the events chronicled between Esther and the Gospels in the Catholic deuterocanonical / “apocryphal” books. For example, I’m sure some viewers would love to hear the origin of the Hannukah from the Books of Maccabees, or the various references to the Resurrection found in the books. I know most of your audience wouldn’t consider the books canonical, but might find the references fascinating nonetheless.
Just a thought!
Thanks for being bold enough to tackle tough questions about the Bible, while respecting the various backgrounds of your viewers.
We’ll be glad to have you back in Chicago. I was so sorry I missed my chance to apply last time, and now you might come back?! Have you looked into Aurora? It’s the second-largest city in IL, with great cultural and business appeal. The way I see it, California is to the US as Aurora is to Chicago. The Hispanic population is really high, which will help create content that appeals to that ever-growing and soon dominating market. Personally, my wife and I were starting a church there, so if and when you hire me (please?) it will be easier for us to keep building!