I was recently involved in a discussion with two friends about the viewing habits we have as we move into a more technological way of consuming media. All three of us are involved in the Christian Media scene in different areas and all of us believe passionately in what we are involved in – however as we dissected our viewing habits it became very clear the challenge that we have as we move into the next phase (whatever that is) of media consumption. Let me explain how the 3 of us consume media (all of us have digital TV of various types).
1. My first friend does not watch much TV at all – instead he is an avid purchaser of cheap DVD’s of movies and would far prefer to see a movie on DVD during an evening than he would a TV programme. When he does watch TV he rarely watches anything live – instead he records it onto a hard disk recording device (sort of like a tivo) and watches it at a time that works for him.
2. My second fried is the “flicker” he rarely “watches” anything – instead he constantly channel surfs settling only if something really grabs him – for the record he does not yet have a hard disk recorder – he also rarely tunes into any kind of Christian content.
3. For myself, I used to be a “flicker” (my wife would probably say I still am) BUT we know have SKY+ (like a tivo) and this has revolutionised our viewing habits. It is now very rare that we watch anything when it is scheduled (unless it is a LIVE broadcast) instead we record what we like and watch it when we want – its worth adding there are only 8 – 10 programmes we record on a regular basis to watch as we don’t have time to keep up with more – however this does include the occasional Christian programme, but it makes you realise how hard it is to “stumble” across anything new.
So with viewing habits like that – what hope is there for Christian Broadcasting and how should those of us involved look to tackle the future? And this isn’t even starting to look at Internet TV on demand – where if I want to watch a programme I can go straight to the producer to get it completely bypassing the Broadcaster – suddenly there are NO gatekeepers!!!
Well, I’m not going to answer all that is involved in that here – what I’d like to do though is maybe suggest a few things we can consider that I believe will be important to look at as we move forward.
1. The mantra “Content is King” has always been true – but NEVER more so than today and in the future. Delivering unique, original, creative content will be the critical thing as we move forward. Where Broadcasters have built massive distribution infrastructures costing mega bucks these will fast become obsolete and those that want to survive will have to start investing in content and creativity like never before. It will be about offering the viewer an experience they can’t get elsewhere.
2. Marketing and branding – most people think that with new technologies the cost of getting content to market is much cheaper – and that is true – however what people miss is that getting people to watch it will become harder and harder – when there is so much to choose from why will they watch yours? – the answer has to lie in us finding and developing new and creative ways of marketing – I believe that the successful broadcasters in the future will be the ones who marry content generation with great marketing strategies.
3. Platform neutral operations – that’s techno speak for something that I believe will be crucial and that is that as producers and broadcasters we don’t put all our eggs in one basket. Increasingly you are seeing the big broadcasters putting their content wherever there are viewers – CNN or the BBC on YouTube for instance. Programmes available on multiple websites etc. I believe if you are insular – i.e. keeping all your content in one place – you won’t be around long – get it out there as wide as possible to attract the maximum audience – and you now have the chance to get it in front of a mainstream audience – it better be something they want to watch!!
4. Finally a question – and this I don’t feel I yet have an insight on – maybe you do – how do we financially sustain Christian Broadcasting in the future? – where ministries have raised partners how do they continue to do so as their audiences fragment and shrink more and more, where broadcasters have charged for airtime to finance their platforms – will any ministry pay in the future when they can get their content direct to those who want to watch without needing the broadcasters? Where there have been telethons etc. if most media changes from linear to on-demand – who will want to watch these and thus support? I must say it is by no means only the Christian marketplace asking these questions – ALL broadcasters are looking at this and scratching their heads right now. Maybe as we move forward the crucial thing will be building communities around our unique, creative and original content these will be essential and it is these communities which will in turn provide the funding (though donations, advertising sales etc.) that will enable us to continue in a much slimed down version.
One thing I would say is if you are in an organisation involved in Christian media and they are not having conversations like the above – across the organisation from the creatives, to the accountants, the marketers to the fundraisers – it may well be too late already as these changes are and will continue at a massive pace.
So as we end 2007 and enter 2008 – what hope do we in Christian Media have?
Well, we have to embrace the fact that change is on us and if we don’t adapt and change what we do we may not be around much longer – we have to come up with answers that work for us and our organisations and particularly our viewers and partners – we have to give them the very best, creative material possible and find ways to help them appreciate what we give them and tell them why our “mission” is critical and totally dependent on them. The future may not be comfortable – but we have to find ways of embracing it.
However let me finish off by encouraging us all. My wife, son and I have just been up to Scotland for a few days with my wife’s family. We decided on Sunday to go to the local Church of Scotland (traditional church) with her parents. Believe me when I say on the surface you couldn’t get much further away from what we in Christian Media offer content wise (generally speaking). After the service my wife and I bumped into a guy my wife has known for many years and had a brief chat with him. He knew we were involved in Christian Media and particularly that we did work for GOD TV. He then told us of a lady who used to go to the church but now through age and ill health was housebound – he then said that he doesn’t know what her life would be like if she didn’t have access to GOD TV – he said it truly is her life and offers her such great hope and encouragement and he wanted to encourage us in what we did.
I therefore want to end encouraging you – we don’t know and may never know the lives we impact through the work that we do – BUT make no mistake we are impacting people’s lives with the Good News of Jesus on an ongoing basis – and that is why we have to find a way of ensuring we continue to do so for many years to come lets have this debate and find some answers this year so we can embrace the future.
Have a great 2008.
Monday 31 December 2007
Thursday 20 December 2007
Are Fundraising and Evangelism on Christian TV Compatible?
I recently attended a conference here in the UK focused on Christian Broadcasting – which overall was a great time. However 2 of the speakers had a bit of a “dig” at on air fundraising. The basic premise of their objection was that Christian TV (particularly) should not mix evangelism with fundraising as the fundraising in one way “invalidates” the evangelism – this was interesting territory and one that I have subsequently been considering and wanted to share my thoughts here.
The first thing that occurred to me was that the people who were saying this are not in the position where they have networks to run or the pressures of satellite bills to cover, multiple staff to pay etc. so really should they be commenting when they have not experienced the other side of life – I think the answer to that is yes so long as it is done in the right spirit and motivated by love – as this is a valid area for comment and debate.
When I moved on from this and started looking at what they were actually saying I found my thinking got more interesting. I think for me the first thing I would say is that undoubtedly Christian TV is for CHRISTIANS it is NOT primarily focused on evangelism. The role of Christian TV is in one sense to extend the impact of Church on a Sunday – to equip the Saints for the work of the Ministry – i.e. train them up to go out and be more effective witnesses for Jesus and the Gospel. Does this therefore mean that there is no role for Evangelism in Christian TV – absolutely not – there is a clear role for Christian TV to play here – in fact the vast majority of what I am involved in production wise IS evangelistic – why because there is little evangelistic programming made so we have to produce it ourselves – BUT that of course takes money.
Now a Christian TV ministry is not a church where it has regular attendees who tithe into it and through that it is able to meet its financial obligations and hopefully invest something into Missions at the same time. So Christian TV has to function differently. Most of the networks I know of have 2 main revenue sources – Ministry Sponsorship (i.e. a ministry will pay the network to broadcast its material) and Gifts and Donations – raised primarily by on air fundraising. The first no where near covers the outgoings – let alone allowing the network to invest in original content that is evangelistic – the second helps here substantially – so with no fundraising no evangelism – a bit like most ministries and churches.
The other thing I would say is that generally these fundraising events (which as I said above are primarily targeted at Christians) are confined to 2 or 3 times a year. They are also clearly sign posted as fundraising events and if any non-christians were to tune in they would have a very clear idea of what they were watching. I don’t therefore see a problem here as the messages are certainly NOT mixed up. I would say here however that it is not uncommon for Non Christians to tune in – in fact I was involved in a fundraising event last year where on one night 8 people phoned in and became Christians – and that in the middle of a Telethon!!
Coming back to the church model as an example – is that not much more mixed messages? Take my church for example, EVERY Sunday our Pastor will give anyone who does not know the Lord a chance to accept salvation – BUT also every Sunday we spend 5 – 10 minutes taking up the offering – given the arguments of the people who I heard recently this should not happen – or is it simply that Christian TV is an easy target?
I would therefore like to leave you with 3 thoughts that I would welcome comments on – firstly, we all need to be less judgemental and have more Grace – particularly if you don’t know the other side of the fence OR the motives of those you are criticising. Secondly – Christian TV is for Christians and like the Church until we find a better model to finance it will be funded by asking people to support its vision. And thirdly if we compare Christian TV to how a Church functions – its actually MUCH cleaner and much less of a mixed message.
So for those who want to take a pop at Christian TV for on air fundraising (by the way I don’t like it and never have – but it is a necessary evil – see my earlier blog) think about the above and also think about the massive investment some broadcasters make into original content which they would be unable to do without their telethons.
The first thing that occurred to me was that the people who were saying this are not in the position where they have networks to run or the pressures of satellite bills to cover, multiple staff to pay etc. so really should they be commenting when they have not experienced the other side of life – I think the answer to that is yes so long as it is done in the right spirit and motivated by love – as this is a valid area for comment and debate.
When I moved on from this and started looking at what they were actually saying I found my thinking got more interesting. I think for me the first thing I would say is that undoubtedly Christian TV is for CHRISTIANS it is NOT primarily focused on evangelism. The role of Christian TV is in one sense to extend the impact of Church on a Sunday – to equip the Saints for the work of the Ministry – i.e. train them up to go out and be more effective witnesses for Jesus and the Gospel. Does this therefore mean that there is no role for Evangelism in Christian TV – absolutely not – there is a clear role for Christian TV to play here – in fact the vast majority of what I am involved in production wise IS evangelistic – why because there is little evangelistic programming made so we have to produce it ourselves – BUT that of course takes money.
Now a Christian TV ministry is not a church where it has regular attendees who tithe into it and through that it is able to meet its financial obligations and hopefully invest something into Missions at the same time. So Christian TV has to function differently. Most of the networks I know of have 2 main revenue sources – Ministry Sponsorship (i.e. a ministry will pay the network to broadcast its material) and Gifts and Donations – raised primarily by on air fundraising. The first no where near covers the outgoings – let alone allowing the network to invest in original content that is evangelistic – the second helps here substantially – so with no fundraising no evangelism – a bit like most ministries and churches.
The other thing I would say is that generally these fundraising events (which as I said above are primarily targeted at Christians) are confined to 2 or 3 times a year. They are also clearly sign posted as fundraising events and if any non-christians were to tune in they would have a very clear idea of what they were watching. I don’t therefore see a problem here as the messages are certainly NOT mixed up. I would say here however that it is not uncommon for Non Christians to tune in – in fact I was involved in a fundraising event last year where on one night 8 people phoned in and became Christians – and that in the middle of a Telethon!!
Coming back to the church model as an example – is that not much more mixed messages? Take my church for example, EVERY Sunday our Pastor will give anyone who does not know the Lord a chance to accept salvation – BUT also every Sunday we spend 5 – 10 minutes taking up the offering – given the arguments of the people who I heard recently this should not happen – or is it simply that Christian TV is an easy target?
I would therefore like to leave you with 3 thoughts that I would welcome comments on – firstly, we all need to be less judgemental and have more Grace – particularly if you don’t know the other side of the fence OR the motives of those you are criticising. Secondly – Christian TV is for Christians and like the Church until we find a better model to finance it will be funded by asking people to support its vision. And thirdly if we compare Christian TV to how a Church functions – its actually MUCH cleaner and much less of a mixed message.
So for those who want to take a pop at Christian TV for on air fundraising (by the way I don’t like it and never have – but it is a necessary evil – see my earlier blog) think about the above and also think about the massive investment some broadcasters make into original content which they would be unable to do without their telethons.
Saturday 27 October 2007
Two Ways to do Something
This last week I have had the pleasure of working in 2 very different environments and on 2 very differing projects – one of the major bonuses of having my own company.
The first was filming on behalf of GOD TV the Call in Las Vegas. This was a 12 hour live broadcast from the Thomas and Mack Centre and was a mixture of prayer and worship – it was a very powerful event and I’m sure the people who watched it would have been incredibly blessed. It’s the 2nd one I have done and we will be doing a number more – check out www.thecall.com – BUT I won’t do it the way we did it again. Let me explain.
Understandably these kinds of events cost considerable amounts of money to put on AND to broadcast and GOD TV and the Call split picking up the tab for it. This time the Call had the idea to try and save cash by getting local volunteers to help (I have to say at no point did GOD TV ask me to do this – though budgets are always tight they are getting to the stage they know if you want a job done properly it costs money) – but I foolishly went along with the idea (at least I only have myself to blame for nearly losing my sanity). In itself it seems a sensible idea – and let me say this right up front I though the guys who showed up did a very good job – to the viewer at home it would have looked OK – well done to all of them!!!! Though I personally know how much better it could have been.
However here is the major problem, on the day when we were rigging we had virtually NO ONE turn up – and those who did as eager as they were had little clue so there was a lot of handholding.
If we’d have had a pro crew rigging it would probably have taken us 5 hours to get everything set up checked and ready for the programme the following day. BUT instead we arrived at 10am and left at just after 11pm – and still had to do 2 hours more preparation in the morning – so instead of 5 it took 15 hours. That in itself was a problem as it meant we were all going into a live 12 hour broadcast shot!! BUT the major problem was the stress and strain it put on the professional crew we were working with (all 3 of them – Sound Supervisor, EIC for the Brits that’s the Engineer in Charge and the Driver) – plus me. Remarkably they stayed with it and didn’t walk away – though I know they must have been severely tempted – and we all agreed that the event itself went remarkably well – considering.
The biggest problem here was the strain it put on relationships and also the fact that none of us could focus 100% on what we were doing so we did not function to the best of our capabilities and couldn’t necessarily produce as good a broadcast as we could have done otherwise as we were always trying to work within the limitations of the crew – who as I said above did a great job. Is that a problem – yes, for me it is I want to give 100% and produce the very best broadcast possible and if I can’t do that I don’t feel the satisfaction of doing a good job. The other thing is the taste it leaves in the mouth of those you are working with – some of whom this time were not Christians – it’s just not a good witness. Also while in some ways you save some money (and I’m sure they will) when all the overtime of the pro-crew are costed in they certainly won’t save nearly as much as they thought they would.
Bottom line is – this is not the way to do it, at the end of the day we’re short changing the audience and that’s never a good thing.
NOW – contrast that with what I went onto do on Monday – I had the absolute pleasure of working on our first Feature film. It’s produced by Global Creative Studios in South Africa and is the life story of Hanse Cronjie – called simply “Hansie” – check out www.hansemovie.com – we (Cloak) were basically providing the production services for their UK shoot. This including organising crew, equipment, logistics (food, hotel, transport, phones etc.) and filming permits etc. It was only a one day shoot – they had 2 scenes in London to do – but it was SO unstressful and it went incredibly well – they walked away very happy and we walked away very satisfied.
So what was the difference – simple, it was 2 fold – planning and skilled people. We had been planning this for over a month and even though things were changing up till the last minute the planning that had gone into the shoot meant we could be confident we could cope with pretty well anything – and we did have some challenges to overcome – such as radio mics not turning up, noisy builders on one location etc. BUT all we got round – son much so that our wrap time was set at 5pm and we wrapped 2 hours earlier – I couldn’t believe it.
The other key ingredient was the skill of the crew (both the ones who came from South Africa – about 14 – and those who we hired from the UK). They were all a JOY to work with and the great thing was they all knew what they needed to do and got on and did it – meaning we could do what we needed to do – as they say a well oiled machine.
It was filmmaking at its best. They spent the money needed to get a good job done freeing them from the stress so they could concentrate on the creative element NOT the problems – surely that’s what it’s about at the end of the day – building a platform for creativity. I’m not saying they were not budget conscious they were very much so BUT they spent what was needed to ensure the success of the project – and I really wish more Christian companies approached it in the same way – Global Creative you are welcome back anytime!!!
So what is the lesson – basically what the title is – there are only 2 ways of doing things – the right way and the wrong way, pick which you want – BUT be prepared to put up with the consequences of that choice – and I would recommend for the sake of your sanity AND if you value the ultimate experience you are giving the viewer choose the right way.
The first was filming on behalf of GOD TV the Call in Las Vegas. This was a 12 hour live broadcast from the Thomas and Mack Centre and was a mixture of prayer and worship – it was a very powerful event and I’m sure the people who watched it would have been incredibly blessed. It’s the 2nd one I have done and we will be doing a number more – check out www.thecall.com – BUT I won’t do it the way we did it again. Let me explain.
Understandably these kinds of events cost considerable amounts of money to put on AND to broadcast and GOD TV and the Call split picking up the tab for it. This time the Call had the idea to try and save cash by getting local volunteers to help (I have to say at no point did GOD TV ask me to do this – though budgets are always tight they are getting to the stage they know if you want a job done properly it costs money) – but I foolishly went along with the idea (at least I only have myself to blame for nearly losing my sanity). In itself it seems a sensible idea – and let me say this right up front I though the guys who showed up did a very good job – to the viewer at home it would have looked OK – well done to all of them!!!! Though I personally know how much better it could have been.
However here is the major problem, on the day when we were rigging we had virtually NO ONE turn up – and those who did as eager as they were had little clue so there was a lot of handholding.
If we’d have had a pro crew rigging it would probably have taken us 5 hours to get everything set up checked and ready for the programme the following day. BUT instead we arrived at 10am and left at just after 11pm – and still had to do 2 hours more preparation in the morning – so instead of 5 it took 15 hours. That in itself was a problem as it meant we were all going into a live 12 hour broadcast shot!! BUT the major problem was the stress and strain it put on the professional crew we were working with (all 3 of them – Sound Supervisor, EIC for the Brits that’s the Engineer in Charge and the Driver) – plus me. Remarkably they stayed with it and didn’t walk away – though I know they must have been severely tempted – and we all agreed that the event itself went remarkably well – considering.
The biggest problem here was the strain it put on relationships and also the fact that none of us could focus 100% on what we were doing so we did not function to the best of our capabilities and couldn’t necessarily produce as good a broadcast as we could have done otherwise as we were always trying to work within the limitations of the crew – who as I said above did a great job. Is that a problem – yes, for me it is I want to give 100% and produce the very best broadcast possible and if I can’t do that I don’t feel the satisfaction of doing a good job. The other thing is the taste it leaves in the mouth of those you are working with – some of whom this time were not Christians – it’s just not a good witness. Also while in some ways you save some money (and I’m sure they will) when all the overtime of the pro-crew are costed in they certainly won’t save nearly as much as they thought they would.
Bottom line is – this is not the way to do it, at the end of the day we’re short changing the audience and that’s never a good thing.
NOW – contrast that with what I went onto do on Monday – I had the absolute pleasure of working on our first Feature film. It’s produced by Global Creative Studios in South Africa and is the life story of Hanse Cronjie – called simply “Hansie” – check out www.hansemovie.com – we (Cloak) were basically providing the production services for their UK shoot. This including organising crew, equipment, logistics (food, hotel, transport, phones etc.) and filming permits etc. It was only a one day shoot – they had 2 scenes in London to do – but it was SO unstressful and it went incredibly well – they walked away very happy and we walked away very satisfied.
So what was the difference – simple, it was 2 fold – planning and skilled people. We had been planning this for over a month and even though things were changing up till the last minute the planning that had gone into the shoot meant we could be confident we could cope with pretty well anything – and we did have some challenges to overcome – such as radio mics not turning up, noisy builders on one location etc. BUT all we got round – son much so that our wrap time was set at 5pm and we wrapped 2 hours earlier – I couldn’t believe it.
The other key ingredient was the skill of the crew (both the ones who came from South Africa – about 14 – and those who we hired from the UK). They were all a JOY to work with and the great thing was they all knew what they needed to do and got on and did it – meaning we could do what we needed to do – as they say a well oiled machine.
It was filmmaking at its best. They spent the money needed to get a good job done freeing them from the stress so they could concentrate on the creative element NOT the problems – surely that’s what it’s about at the end of the day – building a platform for creativity. I’m not saying they were not budget conscious they were very much so BUT they spent what was needed to ensure the success of the project – and I really wish more Christian companies approached it in the same way – Global Creative you are welcome back anytime!!!
So what is the lesson – basically what the title is – there are only 2 ways of doing things – the right way and the wrong way, pick which you want – BUT be prepared to put up with the consequences of that choice – and I would recommend for the sake of your sanity AND if you value the ultimate experience you are giving the viewer choose the right way.
Thursday 4 October 2007
True or not true
I have been struck recently by the debate in the media here in the UK over trust in television. For those of you who may have missed it and for those of you outside the UK, TV is currently in a bit of a state here. The most recent controversy stems primarily from 2 instances – firstly the BBC (of all people) were responsible for showing a press preview of their upcoming programmes a clip of the Queen (if your going to pick a subject to get into trouble over there are few better) where she apparently stormed out of a portrait sitting during filming of an observational documentary – however it turned out that the production company RDF had edited the sequence out of order and in fact this had not happened at all – it was purely an attempt to “spice it up a bit”. The second instance was again related to promotional material and here a renowned film maker (Paul Watson) seems to have been a bit naive at best over a piece of literature put out by ITV (the broadcaster) regarding a documentary he made which alluded to the fact that the end of the programme showed the death of one of the characters – it was a film (a very worthwhile one) about the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s – however as it turned out the end scene in fact showed the man in question slipping into unconsciousness and he in fact died some days later. Again it seems another attempt to sensationalise a programme for the sake of ratings. You also need to be aware this comes on the back of a recent furore over premium rate telephone rip offs and several other serious errors of judgement by producers and broadcasters – so have probably been given more weight than they may have got otherwise.
It has however sparked an interesting debate in relation to deception in TV programmes so much so that some are even questioning the place of the noddy (cut away of someone nodding shot later so an interview can be edited) in TV programmes. The majority of the debate has however been focused on the editing process to make content say things that are maybe a bit of a stretch from the truth but are more interesting than the truth. Now let me say I have been in TV for some time and have in my time changed sequences etc. in the edit room – HOWEVER I have never tried to deceive – let me give you 2 examples. I was making a documentary and as part of an interview the guy we were interviewing got confused over a meeting and inverted a couple of names (we didn’t notice at the time) but in the edit suite what he said was completely 180 degrees away from what he meant to say – so we corrected it by cutting the 2 names out and swapping them round under a cutaway – so that it was correct BUT was it dishonest as it was not what he said – my answer is NO as it is what happened and we were in fact correcting his error. The second example is from a documentary as well. Here we had 2 conflicting stories from 2 people both involved in the same event – 1 remembered it as one thing the other as something totally different. They were conflicting views of the same event which was a key part of the programme BUT there was no way we could put both views in the programme as it made no sense. So as the director I chose the one I felt best suited the overall thrust of the story – I don’t know which one was true and probably never will as the 2 people who do know still disagree – was I wrong, did I misrepresent the facts – I don’t think so, instead I applied “authorship” to the project as I was telling MY TAKE on the story so I believe it was totally justifiable – I also believe authorship is critical in any programme – as you are the programme maker and have to own the project ultimately.
Now I do believe this does raise some really interesting questions for us as Christian TV Producers – and it’s possibly a debate we should be having. Should it not be the case that our standards MUST be far higher than the secular world who ultimately are driven by motives of profits and ratings, whereas we are driven by a desire to put out a message of faith and hope – so should we not always prioritise the truth above all else?
Let me pose some questions that I have encountered and explore what our responsibility should be – here are some examples (certainly not exhaustive) what should we do in these circumstances?
1. We are telling the story of the impact that a ministry we are involved with has had in a person’s life. As we tell the story it becomes clear that whilst the ministry has no doubt had an impact it may not have been AS significant as we first thought. BUT we have the material in the can to make it so the impact seems greater and thus the ministry we are working for looks like it is having a greater impact – should we edit that way OR be true to the story? I would submit we should be true to the story and the integrity of the person we are interviewing we should not enhance the truth for the sake of making us or our employers look better – after all in one sense is that not what a lot of people level as a criticism of some of the stories in the bible (for example the Israelites crossing the red sea, the miracles of Jesus etc. EVEN the resurrection) – people are always questioning if these stories have been exaggerated of these or if they did in fact happen at all. If we are confident we can defend the integrity of these stories – should we not be very careful about how we tell ours?
2. Live or not live – here is one I run into a lot. The temptation to say that a programme is “Live” when in fact it is pre-recorded. There are a couple of issues here – sometimes some of the programmes I work on are promoted as LIVE events – but sometimes for the sake of scheduling they can in fact be time shifted by an hour or 2 – should we promote these as LIVE? I’m not sure there is a straight forward answer to this but I don’t have too many problems with saying it is LIVE if in fact we are sending it off the site as it happens even if a transmission site somewhere in the world is delaying it by a couple of hours – because in reality there is no time to reedit things and in fact what the viewer sees WILL be what we recorded LIVE – others may have a different view on this. HOWEVER what I do object to is when we “pretend” that something is live when in fact it is something that may have been recorded months before and we are now replaying BUT it suits our purposes to pretend to be live – that I personally do feel steps over the bounds and we start deceiving our viewers – never a comfortable place to be.
3. How about this one using tools such as laughter tracks or telephone backgrounds to enhance the viewing experience – making things seem funnier or busier than they really are. I’ve not totally made up my mind on this one, but overall I think I favour not doing it as again it seems a bit too deceptive to me – but what do you think?
These are just some examples, I’m sure you can all think of plenty of others from your own experiences and situations.
Overall though I am convinced that as Christian TV producers we have to operate at a far higher standard than the secular media and that our integrity should never be able to be called into question. There are MANY detractors of Christian media – plenty of people who due to the excesses of some tar us all with the same brush – lets ensure we don’t give them more ammunition by our own actions.
My advice and the place I have come to personally is that if it does not resonate with the “still small voice” inside you then you MUST question it.
How you then deal with the repercussions of that however is a difficult one – for example, imagine you are working for a Christian Leader who wants you to do something (I’m referring to things like the above – NOT things that are illegal or immoral – if that happens RUN) that just doesn’t quite sit right with your conscience – what do you do? Well I would suggest there are a number of approaches:
Firstly PRAY – take the issue to God and see what he would have you do – I’m dreadful on that BUT when I have done it I often find the problem either goes away or I get clarity on what to do.
Secondly (this and all the rest are determined by the result of praying) – make your feelings known IN A NON CONFRONTATIONAL WAY – tell the person asking you to do the deed why you feel uncomfortable.
Thirdly – let it go. That’s a hard one, however I do believe spiritually the Christian Leader has the responsibility before the Lord for his decisions – we are entitled to disagree with them and question them BUT ultimately if they still decide to go ahead it is their responsibility to make that decision – you then have 2 choices either you let it go and get on with your job or you let it eat you up – and believe me letting it go is far easier.
Fourthly – ultimately if you keep running into these situations that compromise your integrity and you can’t see beyond them – LEAVE – get out and move on – but do so with a right attitude.
I’ve found these 4 things usually sort out most problems one way or another and allow me to continue to work with people who sometimes I disagree with BUT without compromising my integrity or my conscience.
I hope you find this helpful – and let me know what you think – should we be worried about telling the truth truthfully or does it not matter so long as the message gets out there?
It has however sparked an interesting debate in relation to deception in TV programmes so much so that some are even questioning the place of the noddy (cut away of someone nodding shot later so an interview can be edited) in TV programmes. The majority of the debate has however been focused on the editing process to make content say things that are maybe a bit of a stretch from the truth but are more interesting than the truth. Now let me say I have been in TV for some time and have in my time changed sequences etc. in the edit room – HOWEVER I have never tried to deceive – let me give you 2 examples. I was making a documentary and as part of an interview the guy we were interviewing got confused over a meeting and inverted a couple of names (we didn’t notice at the time) but in the edit suite what he said was completely 180 degrees away from what he meant to say – so we corrected it by cutting the 2 names out and swapping them round under a cutaway – so that it was correct BUT was it dishonest as it was not what he said – my answer is NO as it is what happened and we were in fact correcting his error. The second example is from a documentary as well. Here we had 2 conflicting stories from 2 people both involved in the same event – 1 remembered it as one thing the other as something totally different. They were conflicting views of the same event which was a key part of the programme BUT there was no way we could put both views in the programme as it made no sense. So as the director I chose the one I felt best suited the overall thrust of the story – I don’t know which one was true and probably never will as the 2 people who do know still disagree – was I wrong, did I misrepresent the facts – I don’t think so, instead I applied “authorship” to the project as I was telling MY TAKE on the story so I believe it was totally justifiable – I also believe authorship is critical in any programme – as you are the programme maker and have to own the project ultimately.
Now I do believe this does raise some really interesting questions for us as Christian TV Producers – and it’s possibly a debate we should be having. Should it not be the case that our standards MUST be far higher than the secular world who ultimately are driven by motives of profits and ratings, whereas we are driven by a desire to put out a message of faith and hope – so should we not always prioritise the truth above all else?
Let me pose some questions that I have encountered and explore what our responsibility should be – here are some examples (certainly not exhaustive) what should we do in these circumstances?
1. We are telling the story of the impact that a ministry we are involved with has had in a person’s life. As we tell the story it becomes clear that whilst the ministry has no doubt had an impact it may not have been AS significant as we first thought. BUT we have the material in the can to make it so the impact seems greater and thus the ministry we are working for looks like it is having a greater impact – should we edit that way OR be true to the story? I would submit we should be true to the story and the integrity of the person we are interviewing we should not enhance the truth for the sake of making us or our employers look better – after all in one sense is that not what a lot of people level as a criticism of some of the stories in the bible (for example the Israelites crossing the red sea, the miracles of Jesus etc. EVEN the resurrection) – people are always questioning if these stories have been exaggerated of these or if they did in fact happen at all. If we are confident we can defend the integrity of these stories – should we not be very careful about how we tell ours?
2. Live or not live – here is one I run into a lot. The temptation to say that a programme is “Live” when in fact it is pre-recorded. There are a couple of issues here – sometimes some of the programmes I work on are promoted as LIVE events – but sometimes for the sake of scheduling they can in fact be time shifted by an hour or 2 – should we promote these as LIVE? I’m not sure there is a straight forward answer to this but I don’t have too many problems with saying it is LIVE if in fact we are sending it off the site as it happens even if a transmission site somewhere in the world is delaying it by a couple of hours – because in reality there is no time to reedit things and in fact what the viewer sees WILL be what we recorded LIVE – others may have a different view on this. HOWEVER what I do object to is when we “pretend” that something is live when in fact it is something that may have been recorded months before and we are now replaying BUT it suits our purposes to pretend to be live – that I personally do feel steps over the bounds and we start deceiving our viewers – never a comfortable place to be.
3. How about this one using tools such as laughter tracks or telephone backgrounds to enhance the viewing experience – making things seem funnier or busier than they really are. I’ve not totally made up my mind on this one, but overall I think I favour not doing it as again it seems a bit too deceptive to me – but what do you think?
These are just some examples, I’m sure you can all think of plenty of others from your own experiences and situations.
Overall though I am convinced that as Christian TV producers we have to operate at a far higher standard than the secular media and that our integrity should never be able to be called into question. There are MANY detractors of Christian media – plenty of people who due to the excesses of some tar us all with the same brush – lets ensure we don’t give them more ammunition by our own actions.
My advice and the place I have come to personally is that if it does not resonate with the “still small voice” inside you then you MUST question it.
How you then deal with the repercussions of that however is a difficult one – for example, imagine you are working for a Christian Leader who wants you to do something (I’m referring to things like the above – NOT things that are illegal or immoral – if that happens RUN) that just doesn’t quite sit right with your conscience – what do you do? Well I would suggest there are a number of approaches:
Firstly PRAY – take the issue to God and see what he would have you do – I’m dreadful on that BUT when I have done it I often find the problem either goes away or I get clarity on what to do.
Secondly (this and all the rest are determined by the result of praying) – make your feelings known IN A NON CONFRONTATIONAL WAY – tell the person asking you to do the deed why you feel uncomfortable.
Thirdly – let it go. That’s a hard one, however I do believe spiritually the Christian Leader has the responsibility before the Lord for his decisions – we are entitled to disagree with them and question them BUT ultimately if they still decide to go ahead it is their responsibility to make that decision – you then have 2 choices either you let it go and get on with your job or you let it eat you up – and believe me letting it go is far easier.
Fourthly – ultimately if you keep running into these situations that compromise your integrity and you can’t see beyond them – LEAVE – get out and move on – but do so with a right attitude.
I’ve found these 4 things usually sort out most problems one way or another and allow me to continue to work with people who sometimes I disagree with BUT without compromising my integrity or my conscience.
I hope you find this helpful – and let me know what you think – should we be worried about telling the truth truthfully or does it not matter so long as the message gets out there?
Thursday 27 September 2007
A summer of LIVE events
Wow, what a summer it has been – I’ve been incredibly privileged to be involved in some of the best and biggest Christian events on both sides of the pond over the summer. These include The Global Day of Prayer, Frenzy, Ultimate Event, Onething Jerusalem and The Call – all in all, probably LIVE audiences of over hundreds of thousands of people and some of the most significant events to be shown on Christian TV!
So, what have I learnt through it all? Well firstly that God is alive and well and living on planet earth. Secondly that the younger generation (I’m 41 so getting a bit older to be considered the younger generation) are a passionate committed bunch and if you give them something to get involved with they will – all they need is a cause. Thirdly that to capture the moment when these young people worship God in abandonment is not easy but can be done and is incredibly rewarding both for you and the viewer – however there are a number of things you need to watch out for, be aware of and find some answers for (and believe me I don’t have them all)!!!
So, firstly lets ask the basic question – why do we film events such as these? Well it’s all about “capturing the moment” and taking them to a wider audience. These are significant happenings that should be brought to the attention of the body of Christ, for example the Onething Jerusalem event was the first significant spirit filled gathering of young Christians in the nation of Israel. It saw approx 1000 young Christians from Israel come together to worship God – let me put that in context if proportionally this had been in the US it would have been a gathering of over 100,000 young people so a substantial gathering. The Call in Nashville was a gathering of close on 70,000 people to pray and fast to see their nation change – again significant. Surely the role of Christian TV is to be there and capture these moments and take them to a wider audience – but why?
Well, there are a number of answers to that, but I guess the key issues are two fold, firstly to show what God is doing in the nations and encourage people that he can do the same wherever they are, and secondly to connect people – the bottom line is we believe in a God who transcends time and space so if we can connect people LIVE via television and bring them into unity, worship and prayer together is that not a powerful thing – I think so which is why I am thrilled at being critically involved in these programmes and gratified to be so.
OK, so what are the challenges associated with filming these kind of events and how do you try and find a balance to them:
1. To intrude or not intrude – these are personal moments where an individual is connecting with God and you are looking in and bringing the TV audience into that experience – how do you balance the sense of intrusion with needing to tell a story by showing what God is doing in someone’s life? I would suggest that these are key moments that as you want to show what God is doing you MUST show these moments – however it is vital that you don’t intrude on the person. So I always try and keep the cameras at a distance and do more using zooms etc. and try and be sensitive to what we show – so for example we try not to show deep emotional moments or what we consider to be things that are too intrusive – however clearly that is a balance and one that you as an individual HAVE to be personally happy with – other people may disagree with you BUT be happy to defend your position.
2. How do you capture what you can’t see? – bottom line is we can’t see what God is doing and yet that is exactly what we are trying to capture – so how do we do it? Well as I said I don’t have all the answers – BUT my take on it is essentially what we are trying to do is tell a story – in fact I believe all TV is about telling stories so we try and paint pictures and tell stories through the pictures that we capture and the moments that we commit to tape – always think about the viewer – what would I want to see if I was at home watching, and when – for example when there is a preacher preaching, why would I want to see irrelevant cutaways of people in the audience – NO rather show me the whites of the eyes of the preacher – let me connect with him!!! Don’t show me things that are irrelevant – always capture the moment and think of the viewer.
3. Voyeurism – now here is an issue we need to be aware of and find a way past – let me share a problem for you: generally speaking most of the time in Christian circles its females who most visibly respond to God so as a director or a cameraman you naturally chase the action – in this case usually females. THEN add to that you want to try and find “beautiful” people who look good on camera and I would say the average filmed Christian event consists of primarily cutaways of “beautiful” females. Now you don’t always notice this when you are filming BUT the viewers may – so you have to try and find a balance. So throw in plenty of cutaways of ugly women and ugly men as that way it will balance it out – its not a science BUT it does help to have it at the front of your thinking – of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!!!! The other option is to have female camera people etc. as hopefully then we’ll balance it out.
4. Having everyone on board and working together – I say all the time, its about teamwork – I want everyone to know and understand what we are trying to achieve and to have at the forefront of their minds what we are trying to communicate and to whom. It’s very important that everyone on your team is on the same page, that way you’ll all be working for the same ends – although admittedly that can be difficult when you are using freelance staff – for example in Israel we often work with freelance secular crews – but we also often find that their professionalism overcomes the issues of spirituality – so if you can’t find “anointed” crew, find professional crew – preferably find both!!!!
Capturing these events is certainly NOT easy BUT if we can get it right then these are moments in history that we can take to the world. It is our privilege as TV producers and directors to be there in these “moments” and use the skills and talents that God has blessed us with to bring these historic moments to the world – BUT we have a huge responsibility to the audience and the viewers to represent them at the event and be their eyes and ears and capture these moments in such a way that if we succeed they forget they are watching on TV and effectively are there part of the event.
Long may we continue to bring these moments to the screens of people world wide, and long may we continue to perfect our skills and talents to be able to do so.
So, what have I learnt through it all? Well firstly that God is alive and well and living on planet earth. Secondly that the younger generation (I’m 41 so getting a bit older to be considered the younger generation) are a passionate committed bunch and if you give them something to get involved with they will – all they need is a cause. Thirdly that to capture the moment when these young people worship God in abandonment is not easy but can be done and is incredibly rewarding both for you and the viewer – however there are a number of things you need to watch out for, be aware of and find some answers for (and believe me I don’t have them all)!!!
So, firstly lets ask the basic question – why do we film events such as these? Well it’s all about “capturing the moment” and taking them to a wider audience. These are significant happenings that should be brought to the attention of the body of Christ, for example the Onething Jerusalem event was the first significant spirit filled gathering of young Christians in the nation of Israel. It saw approx 1000 young Christians from Israel come together to worship God – let me put that in context if proportionally this had been in the US it would have been a gathering of over 100,000 young people so a substantial gathering. The Call in Nashville was a gathering of close on 70,000 people to pray and fast to see their nation change – again significant. Surely the role of Christian TV is to be there and capture these moments and take them to a wider audience – but why?
Well, there are a number of answers to that, but I guess the key issues are two fold, firstly to show what God is doing in the nations and encourage people that he can do the same wherever they are, and secondly to connect people – the bottom line is we believe in a God who transcends time and space so if we can connect people LIVE via television and bring them into unity, worship and prayer together is that not a powerful thing – I think so which is why I am thrilled at being critically involved in these programmes and gratified to be so.
OK, so what are the challenges associated with filming these kind of events and how do you try and find a balance to them:
1. To intrude or not intrude – these are personal moments where an individual is connecting with God and you are looking in and bringing the TV audience into that experience – how do you balance the sense of intrusion with needing to tell a story by showing what God is doing in someone’s life? I would suggest that these are key moments that as you want to show what God is doing you MUST show these moments – however it is vital that you don’t intrude on the person. So I always try and keep the cameras at a distance and do more using zooms etc. and try and be sensitive to what we show – so for example we try not to show deep emotional moments or what we consider to be things that are too intrusive – however clearly that is a balance and one that you as an individual HAVE to be personally happy with – other people may disagree with you BUT be happy to defend your position.
2. How do you capture what you can’t see? – bottom line is we can’t see what God is doing and yet that is exactly what we are trying to capture – so how do we do it? Well as I said I don’t have all the answers – BUT my take on it is essentially what we are trying to do is tell a story – in fact I believe all TV is about telling stories so we try and paint pictures and tell stories through the pictures that we capture and the moments that we commit to tape – always think about the viewer – what would I want to see if I was at home watching, and when – for example when there is a preacher preaching, why would I want to see irrelevant cutaways of people in the audience – NO rather show me the whites of the eyes of the preacher – let me connect with him!!! Don’t show me things that are irrelevant – always capture the moment and think of the viewer.
3. Voyeurism – now here is an issue we need to be aware of and find a way past – let me share a problem for you: generally speaking most of the time in Christian circles its females who most visibly respond to God so as a director or a cameraman you naturally chase the action – in this case usually females. THEN add to that you want to try and find “beautiful” people who look good on camera and I would say the average filmed Christian event consists of primarily cutaways of “beautiful” females. Now you don’t always notice this when you are filming BUT the viewers may – so you have to try and find a balance. So throw in plenty of cutaways of ugly women and ugly men as that way it will balance it out – its not a science BUT it does help to have it at the front of your thinking – of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!!!! The other option is to have female camera people etc. as hopefully then we’ll balance it out.
4. Having everyone on board and working together – I say all the time, its about teamwork – I want everyone to know and understand what we are trying to achieve and to have at the forefront of their minds what we are trying to communicate and to whom. It’s very important that everyone on your team is on the same page, that way you’ll all be working for the same ends – although admittedly that can be difficult when you are using freelance staff – for example in Israel we often work with freelance secular crews – but we also often find that their professionalism overcomes the issues of spirituality – so if you can’t find “anointed” crew, find professional crew – preferably find both!!!!
Capturing these events is certainly NOT easy BUT if we can get it right then these are moments in history that we can take to the world. It is our privilege as TV producers and directors to be there in these “moments” and use the skills and talents that God has blessed us with to bring these historic moments to the world – BUT we have a huge responsibility to the audience and the viewers to represent them at the event and be their eyes and ears and capture these moments in such a way that if we succeed they forget they are watching on TV and effectively are there part of the event.
Long may we continue to bring these moments to the screens of people world wide, and long may we continue to perfect our skills and talents to be able to do so.
Sunday 16 September 2007
Nine days of fundraising – hurrah!!
Now here’s a funny thing – why is it that you can tell people what God is doing through an organisation/ministry, you can even show them LOTS of fruit – changed lives, people getting saved, healed, set free etc. BUT it’s not until you tell them that if they “sow” money into that vision they will be blessed – their finances will increase, their family will be saved, they will be prospered etc. – that they actually put their hand in their pocket and give – WHY!!!!!!
That’s the question I have been wrestling with these last 9 days as I have been producing GOD TV’s Missions Week. GOD TV, the ministry that Rory and Wendy Alec started over 11 years ago has profoundly changed lives on a global basis- they have numerous testimonies of this. They started broadcasting 2 hours per day in the dead of the night on the Sky Analogue satellite in the UK (I know, I joined them on day 2) and have grown incredibly ever since to where now they broadcast to a potential audience of 125 million homes, 6 different 24 hour channels – on 14 different satellites, plus cable etc. Globally All this has been achieved through the vision and the drive of Rory and Wendy with very little help from LARGE investors, churches etc (though there is 1 man who has been an incredible financial support to them) – no one can deny what they have achieved – and yet it still takes an appeal to the selfish nature of the viewers to see the finances come in to fund this – and I don’t understand that.
I do wonder though if Christian TV has done this to itself. Have we created a culture in our viewers where they have become selfish – and if they don’t see something in it for themselves they won’t support it? If so then that’s very sad, but not surprising when you consider how prominent the “prosperity” message is on Christian TV. Now let me nail my colours to the mast here – I believe passionately that God wants us to prosper, I believe that God does not want us poor and in lack, I believe that God wants us to be prosperous for 1 reason – to release finances into His Kingdom for His work – otherwise we won’t be able to fulfil the great commission. BUT and I believe this is a big but – we are supposed to give out of obedience to His word – I believe in Tithes and Offerings (I also believe you can’t “out give” God) – but our motive for giving should never be out of what we can get from it – it should always be out of a motive of obedience. My Bible tells me that God loves a cheerful giver – not a selfish giver. It’s this I believe that is hindering Christian TV. Most of the time the “message to give” is tied into some “blessing” coming back – and whilst I believe this is true that if we give (from a motive of obedience) we will be blessed – every time it is said it reinforces the selfish motives of our giving – so much so that people now wait to hear what’s in it for them before they respond. But how do you break away from that and get back to sharing vision and people responding – in obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
I personally believe (maybe I’m naïve) that the answer has to be faith. Our Telethons, Missions Weeks, Fundraisers, call them what you will is NOT our source and supply – that is God alone and every time we look to our ingenuity, cleverness, maybe sometimes “manipulative techniques” to raise the finance we need, instead of to God himself we will always come up short.
My wife and I sometime back read the story of George Muller and were incredibly inspired (get hold of the book and read it) – put simply; here was a man who founded Children’s homes in the South West of England BUT he never asked anyone for anything, he never had an offering, never passed the plate round – simply when he had a need he prayed and God supplied!! Am I saying ditch our offerings, get rid of our Telethons etc. and instead lets go to our prayer closets and pray – categorically NO (though I for one could do with praying more) we must give people the opportunity to support our activities, we must “publish” the vision – it’s scriptural to do so and if you don’t you maybe denying someone an opportunity to get blessed through their giving? What I am saying is do them in full integrity – don’t try and manipulate people to give by offering them blessings etc. but lay out your vision and ask them to support it. But what happens when they don’t – that’s when the prayer kicks in – let’s believe that God provides all our needs – not our Telethons. Now here’s a wild thought – maybe if he doesn’t come through we shouldn’t be doing it anyway!! Perhaps then we can slowly break the cycle that has been established and slowly people will start supporting our ministries for the right reasons – not for what they are getting out of it but because they believe in what we are doing – I’d be very surprised if in the long term these type of partners were not far better for us than those who give out of more selfish motives.
Let’s tough it out and change how we do things, if we don’t I believe we are storing up big trouble for the future – ‘cause the next generation (the kids) don’t buy into this at all – if anything they are turned off by it and they need to be our future funders – but they do want a cause they can get behind, you only have to look at the success of the Make Poverty History movement to see that – let’s us in the Christian Media give them a cause they can get behind and support but do it with total integrity, no manipulative techniques, no promises of blessings – BUT just because its worth it and we can TOGETHER make a difference.
That’s the question I have been wrestling with these last 9 days as I have been producing GOD TV’s Missions Week. GOD TV, the ministry that Rory and Wendy Alec started over 11 years ago has profoundly changed lives on a global basis- they have numerous testimonies of this. They started broadcasting 2 hours per day in the dead of the night on the Sky Analogue satellite in the UK (I know, I joined them on day 2) and have grown incredibly ever since to where now they broadcast to a potential audience of 125 million homes, 6 different 24 hour channels – on 14 different satellites, plus cable etc. Globally All this has been achieved through the vision and the drive of Rory and Wendy with very little help from LARGE investors, churches etc (though there is 1 man who has been an incredible financial support to them) – no one can deny what they have achieved – and yet it still takes an appeal to the selfish nature of the viewers to see the finances come in to fund this – and I don’t understand that.
I do wonder though if Christian TV has done this to itself. Have we created a culture in our viewers where they have become selfish – and if they don’t see something in it for themselves they won’t support it? If so then that’s very sad, but not surprising when you consider how prominent the “prosperity” message is on Christian TV. Now let me nail my colours to the mast here – I believe passionately that God wants us to prosper, I believe that God does not want us poor and in lack, I believe that God wants us to be prosperous for 1 reason – to release finances into His Kingdom for His work – otherwise we won’t be able to fulfil the great commission. BUT and I believe this is a big but – we are supposed to give out of obedience to His word – I believe in Tithes and Offerings (I also believe you can’t “out give” God) – but our motive for giving should never be out of what we can get from it – it should always be out of a motive of obedience. My Bible tells me that God loves a cheerful giver – not a selfish giver. It’s this I believe that is hindering Christian TV. Most of the time the “message to give” is tied into some “blessing” coming back – and whilst I believe this is true that if we give (from a motive of obedience) we will be blessed – every time it is said it reinforces the selfish motives of our giving – so much so that people now wait to hear what’s in it for them before they respond. But how do you break away from that and get back to sharing vision and people responding – in obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
I personally believe (maybe I’m naïve) that the answer has to be faith. Our Telethons, Missions Weeks, Fundraisers, call them what you will is NOT our source and supply – that is God alone and every time we look to our ingenuity, cleverness, maybe sometimes “manipulative techniques” to raise the finance we need, instead of to God himself we will always come up short.
My wife and I sometime back read the story of George Muller and were incredibly inspired (get hold of the book and read it) – put simply; here was a man who founded Children’s homes in the South West of England BUT he never asked anyone for anything, he never had an offering, never passed the plate round – simply when he had a need he prayed and God supplied!! Am I saying ditch our offerings, get rid of our Telethons etc. and instead lets go to our prayer closets and pray – categorically NO (though I for one could do with praying more) we must give people the opportunity to support our activities, we must “publish” the vision – it’s scriptural to do so and if you don’t you maybe denying someone an opportunity to get blessed through their giving? What I am saying is do them in full integrity – don’t try and manipulate people to give by offering them blessings etc. but lay out your vision and ask them to support it. But what happens when they don’t – that’s when the prayer kicks in – let’s believe that God provides all our needs – not our Telethons. Now here’s a wild thought – maybe if he doesn’t come through we shouldn’t be doing it anyway!! Perhaps then we can slowly break the cycle that has been established and slowly people will start supporting our ministries for the right reasons – not for what they are getting out of it but because they believe in what we are doing – I’d be very surprised if in the long term these type of partners were not far better for us than those who give out of more selfish motives.
Let’s tough it out and change how we do things, if we don’t I believe we are storing up big trouble for the future – ‘cause the next generation (the kids) don’t buy into this at all – if anything they are turned off by it and they need to be our future funders – but they do want a cause they can get behind, you only have to look at the success of the Make Poverty History movement to see that – let’s us in the Christian Media give them a cause they can get behind and support but do it with total integrity, no manipulative techniques, no promises of blessings – BUT just because its worth it and we can TOGETHER make a difference.
Thursday 8 March 2007
Live from Oshogbo
Day 2 of the LIVE
I thought I would share with you some of my experiences while working as a Producer in Nigeria for GOD TV as they aim to broadcast Live the Oshogbo Christ For all Nations Gospel Crusade. What I’d like to do through these paragraphs is give you an insight into both the practicalities of what’s involved, my spiritual thoughts along with some hints, tips and suggestions that if you are a media professional you might find helpful.
Today is the second out of our four live broadcasts on GOD TV of the CfAN crusade from Oshogbo Nigeria. As I write this, I am sitting in the presidential suite (believe me, this is NOT as grand as it sounds) of the Leisure Springs Hotel in Oshogbo, with my colleague from GOD TV Steve Cunningham. Steve’s currently editing the highlights clip from last nights broadcast for play in during tonight’s programme. This being in the middle of power cuts, spikes and all sorts of nasties that come with the territory – oh the joys of editing in Nigeria!! We’re 5 hours away from tonight’s broadcast and still not only have this clip to edit but also one more filmed at the fire conference that always accompanies the Bonnke Crusades – but we’ll get there (by God’s Grace).
What an amazing experience this has been for me and for GOD TV. To be the first ever Christian network to broadcast LIVE one of Reinhard Bonnke’s crusades across the world is a tremendous privilege. To be able to bring to the global audience what happens on the crusade ground is incredible. We’ve already had feedback from viewers around the world commenting on the awesomeness of the experience. For me it has been a big headache, but also humbling that I am producing and directing this unique broadcast – I am honoured and thank GOD TV and Rory and Wendy for this opportunity.
So far this has not been an easy programme to get on air (and that’s an understatement) and it continues to be a challenge. We’ve just had a phone call telling us that the Satellite Phone we are using as our Communications feed to the GOD TV Transmission Facility has fallen off the roof of our container and broken. It’s a bit of a nightmare as this is our only stable form of communication. There are many challenges we’ve faced, including the dust and humidity/heat (we had 2 cameras fail last night due to this), but we have a great crew who seem to be able to perform miracles at the drop of a hat – well, I suppose we’re in the right place for that.
The logistics of pulling this off have included hiring a charter aircraft (a DC9) from South Africa to move a whole OB, Crew and SNG (3 ½ tons of equipment and 22 people in total) – getting customs clearances, on the ground transport, satellite time (which is very limited here in Africa) and the list goes on. All in all by far the most difficult job I’ve undertaken yet – particularly when you take into account the HORRENDOUS communications issues. However as I said above we have a great great crew on the ground here, and tremendous support from the local CfAN office here. Nonetheless, it has not been easy and I have learnt a lot that will be very useful should GOD TV or another of our clients need us to do this again (which I sincerely hope they do). Here (based on what I’ve learnt so far) are some general recommendations for filming in “foreign parts” and also for filming in EXTREME parts of the world like Nigeria – I hope you find them helpful:
Always have a local fixer who can help you on the ground with logistics – and where possible have this person dedicated to you.
Do not rely on being able to communicate to “base” etc. – though try and have a system in place for this.
Ensure you get a great crew (preferably people you have worked with before and can trust) – even if they cost you more – INVEST in people.
If you’re in places like Nigeria, do not rely on any local infrastructure, BRING IT WITH YOU – again even if it costs more. At the end of the day getting the programme on air or to tape is worth an extra bit on the budget. Spend £100,000 and guarantee that something can be taped or spend £70,000 and run the risk of wasting it all – no contest in my book.
Talking of budget, always negotiate the best deals that you can, but be aware that you probably will exceed your budget as there is always the unknown – so build in a contingency.
Travel with plenty of CASH, credit cards are no use in Nigeria for example.
· Try if possible (for me it wasn’t this time) to do a full site visit prior to coming.
And the biggest one of all – give yourself as much time as possible to plan. That way you’ll save money and also ease the way and headaches as much as you can.
Those are some starters which I always try and work within.
Now to the most important thing, the spiritual impact of this event – on the people here, at home and on me.
This is my first time in Nigeria and only my third in Africa in total and I am struck by a number of things. Firstly, I am struck by the number of churches, ministries, and missions that are here present in Nigeria – Christianity is a BIG thing here in Nigeria and coming from the UK where it is a small thing, this is interesting to see. Maybe it’s from the hope that the gospel offers to people, or because of their lack of “materialism” means they are more open to spiritual things – whatever it is we need what they have in our nation!!!!
Secondly though is the “gimme gimme gimme” mentality of EVERYONE here, they all have their hands out – particularly if you are western. This isn’t just the people you meet on the street but it also applies to the local church people (though that maybe an over generalisation). I was stopped by one guy outside our trailer yesterday who said “what are you going to give me,” when I asked him what he wanted, he asked for money. At that stage I replied that I was not going to give him money, so he said “you need to give me something I am a Pastor, and there is no money in Nigeria”. It struck me at that point that a country living on hand outs rather than looking at how it can better itself has little hope.
However the third thing that struck me most profoundly was the impact that Reinhard Bonnke has had, not just on Nigeria but also the whole of Africa. I’m sure he would not agree with me, but the seeds he has sown in this country, I believe, will bear enormous fruit in the years and decades to come. What particularly impressed me was the impact of the Fire Conference. This goes alongside the Crusade itself and operates in the mornings. It’s aimed at the local church pastors to come and get envisioned and receive the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Gospel. I believe it is partly through these Fire Conferences that have been operating over many years that we are now seeing Africa transformed by the Christian Gospel, Churches are growing at a staggering rate and slowly this continent being changed. Reinhard has deposited in the local Churches a fire that cannot be quenched and that now sees Africans reaching to their own kind, and becoming less reliant on preachers from the West coming to carry out Crusades (though clearly that is still happening). We heard yesterday of one Church in Nigeria whose building is 1 ½ Kilometres long and has a congregation of 1 ½ million – incomprehensible to me. So in effect Reinhard is working himself out a job which I’m sure he is delighted about – but is that not what we are all supposed to do? Pass on what we have to others so that they can go further. Do more, have a greater impact and effect than we ever could? In truth though how many of us can really claim that. It’s certainly something that I feel more and more passionate about – though I have to confess that the passion has not yet translated to action. I know that I need to be sowing my own life, my gifts, and my knowledge into others so they can learn, grow and develop their giftings and in time totally exceed anything that I can do. Was this not Jesus’ model of working with the disciples and was it not he who said that they/we should far exceed what he achieved – wow, that’s a challenge. I know I’m not living!! Let’s hope we can all start living the way Reinhard lives. Not just doing the work God has chosen us for (in his case the Crusade) but also inspiring and investing in others to see them exceed and excel (the Fire Conference).
Day 3 of the LIVE
Well, last night was interesting!!! We managed to get the satellite phone fixed, but that actually became the least of our problems. We managed to get the 2 insert pieces edited and played out – again thanks mainly to the ingenuity of those on site and various “get out of jail free kits”. And we finally managed to get onto the satellite. However after that the next 30 minutes was a tail of disaster, technical challenges miss communication and bad decision making under pressure.
The first thing that happened was (and this was also the case last night) our downlink station was only receiving one leg of our audio, so we had to mono the feed. However we have since discovered that one of the NEW cables that was connected to the encoder was wrongly wired, so hopefully tonight we will have this sorted. The next problem was the GOD TV transmission facility was unable to get an outside line to dial our satellite phone for communication purposes, so instead I had to dial a mobile number in Israel to talk with them via my mobile – with a bad line and lots of delay, this made communication very hard.
It was however to get worse still. The GOD TV studio in Washington was supposed to be opening up the programme, but for some reason the transmission facility in Israel was unable to receive their audio signal. So with 30 seconds to go till we were live I suggested to Israel that they put us straight to air so we would have the programme on air at the scheduled time and not disappoint the viewers. This way if the DC studio managed to get their audio sorted they could go to air once established and we could throw to them. So Oliver Raper (our on camera talent) took off bang on schedule and started most eloquently to explain to the viewers where we were and what was going on. He then threw to a VT highlights package of the previous night and then another problem hit – there was no sound (due to a technical issue) so we went back to Oliver. Then the most bizarre decision was made. Israel transmission was instructed to take us off the air as the DC studio needed to be on first before us. So that’s what they did and played a Christian Music Video instead!!!! Now at this point some of you may be thinking “DC couldn’t be first as the viewers had already been introduced to Nigeria” – and you are correct that’s why I said it was a totally bizarre decision and to my mind the wrong one for other reasons as well. Imagine you’re a viewer sitting at home waiting expectantly for the broadcast from Nigeria to start and that’s exactly what happens at 18:45 when it should – then all of a sudden and without any explanation 5 minutes into it a music video pops up – are you going to stay watching, I wonder. I still cannot see the logic in this and to add to the farce, DC didn’t get their audio sorted and after the music video (a 7 minute one) they came back to us at the crusade and the DC studio was not heard from that night!!
Now you might think that after that it was all plain sailing – well you’d be wrong. The next thing that happened was after Oliver did his link we then had the burning of the witchcraft symbols – which was amazing on TV. Then Reinhard got up and started welcoming the viewers on TV at which point one of the site generators failed and all our power went taking us off air instantly. It took a few minutes to resolve this and re-establish the satellite connection, but once we had we went straight back on air and Reinhard then welcomed the viewers.
After this everything went fine and the programme was fantastic. However there are lessons to learn from this and one thought I’d like to explore.
Here is a question, were the difficulties we were having with power, communications etc. in any way a spiritual battle due to the stand being taken over the witchcraft symbolism? Well I don’t know the answer to that but I would say that we are often too quick to blame the devil for things that naturally happen. For example the Generator failed because it overheated – but we’re in Africa in extreme temperatures, so not an unnatural occurrence. The communications challenges from Israel seem to happen regularly so again not unnatural. I do however believe we fight a spiritual battle, and my take on it is that there is a balance here somewhere. I think there is an argument to say that all these things happen naturally – but I also think that it’s not necessarily the full picture. I have no doubt that the devil does not want our broadcasts to succeed and will do everything in his power to stop them – and I think often uses “naturally occurrences” to help him. For me the major thing it highlights is the need for prayer cover when undertaking these kinds of endeavours and that’s the first lesson I’d like to mention that we can learn and implement when doing things like this:
When filming “spiritual things” abroad (well anywhere in fact) ensure adequate prayer cover and support – also if possible arrange for continual prayer updates and requests to be given to those praying and that if you are doing LIVE broadcasts then ensure the prayer is going on over these times too.
Plan on the basis that your communications may fail and ensure you have a backup scenario – in our case we really should have had a 2nd satellite phone in place that we could have called Israel on.
If you do these things regularly for the same broadcaster, ministry etc. ensure they have in place the correct resources needed at their end – and if not follow through to ensure that things are changed for the future.
Learn from the experiences and mistakes and do full post mortems with all those involved.
Be prepared (as a producer) to make swift, split second decisions and try to communicate these as effectively as possible – you must be in control of the situation, not the other way around.
Try and ensure if you are working with other remote sites that everyone is on the same page and the decisions made are not driven by what is beneficial for your organisation, but are for the benefit of the viewers – that way ultimately the viewers will be impacted most effectively and that ultimately will be of major benefit to your organisation.
Despite the mayhem it was a great broadcast and I personally continue to be blessed by what Reinhard is doing here in Africa, and by the commitment of GOD TV to spend their money and resources on bringing it to viewers globally.
Day 4 of the LIVE
Well, it’s nearly over. Tonight is our last LIVE broadcast from here in Oshogbo and the last 24 hours has been incredible.
Firstly let me tell you about last nights broadcast. Thankfully due to the horrors of the previous night the Washington DC studio live piece was cancelled – hoorah!! This certainly makes our lives much easier. However despite this last night still had its challenges. The main one was we had an intermittent fault with our audio feed of Reinhard’s microphone which meant we kept losing his sound – certainly not ideal. The CfAN sound team and our own sound guys worked as hard and as quickly as they could to resolve this and eventually managed to find a solution that was workable, but the broadcast had been impacted by it – that’s Live TV for you. I also had a small situation last night when I was communicating to our tape operator that I wanted a certain VT cued up (we only had a short time to do this) and due to complete misunderstanding he thought I meant a different machine and was trying to point out we only have 1 player – the problem was in South Africa VT is the machine, not the tape – I meant the tape, he thought I meant the machine – certainly not his fault. After I made myself clearer he eventually got it though and I apologised to him later.
The programme itself though was amazing. As well as doing the usual Gospel Message, Altar Call and Prayer for healing, last night was also the prayer for the Holy Spirit and WOW was that a site to behold. 50,000 plus people paying as loudly as possible for over 5 minutes is not a site I will forget in a hurry. The sound was out of this world and it is an experience that nearly brought me to tears, even as I was explaining it to my wife last night on the telephone, my words could not do it justice and I felt the tears welling up again. I’m not going to try and explain it other than to say it was probably the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed – try and find a way of seeing the tape sometime. Even our non Christian crew were affected by it – you couldn’t fail to be.
Despite this we all came away with a slight despondency as we all knew it could have been better. Its really hard when you pour your energy, life and skills into making something as good as it can be, because you both believe in it and are totally passionate and committed to your “profession” and you are let down by a piece of wire (which was what the fault was traced to) – HOW FRUSTRATING. There are of course lessons to learn here as always:
When working in different countries, work out how to communicate (technical things) with local crew – it’s your responsibility to communicate well to them, not their responsibility to adapt their understanding to you.
In the heat of a live programme, sometimes you can lose your cool (everyone does) – but afterwards always make it right and if you’re the one in the wrong (as I was) apologise.
Things can go wrong in live shows that are no ones fault – everyone will try and fix it as soon as they can – allow them to get on with it and do the autopsy afterwards – they will get it fixed as soon as they can (assuming you’re working with people you can trust).
Don’t scrimp on equipment or crew when in difficult places – if possible have extras of everything (we did to some extent) and also have sufficient crew – it’s always particularly useful to have an extra men/women not assigned to any specific task.
Allow people to do what they are good at doing and don’t try and do it all yourself – it’s about team work.
Tape stock is cheap compared to anything else, so shoot everything you might need – BUT don’t over shoot – you’ll regret it in the edit.
When things go wrong (and they will) try and walk away at the end of the day, and MAJOR on the positives – particularly encourage your crew and particularly those who may feel most responsible for the problems – they need your support. Team bonding cannot be underestimated.
Now to the real highlight of today (so far). Every Sunday on one of these Crusades, Reinhard and the CfAN team get together for devotions – 1 hour of teaching from Reinhard, worship and communion (for about 20 people in all). We were invited to go if we wanted and a few of us gladly took up the invitation and boy were we glad we did. It was so inspiring to hear what Reinhard had to say and in all the busyness and chaos going around to take time out to refresh our spirits. I can honestly say it was one of the greatest experiences of my “faith walk” so far. Reinhard is so passionate about the lost it oozes out of every pour and he has devoted his life to it and has seen tremendous results so far – 50 million people saved – he’s now ½ way to his target!! He is the same when talking with 20 of us as he is when talking with 200,000 plus – he even asked us to excuse him at one point when he felt he was starting to preach as he would on the platform – but he is who he is and I’m sure God would have him no other way.
There were 2 thoughts that he shared that particularly had an impact on me; the first was he asked us how many of us loved the thought of heaven? Of course all of us put up our hands – he then went onto say that no where in the bible does it say that God loves heaven. In fact it says totally the opposite – that God loves the earth – therefore this must be the same for us. Our whole lives should be spent loving the earth and the people that live on it – now that’s a challenge. The second thing he said was that God changed his name to include ours. He cited that when he (God) was asked who he was he replied “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. By doing this God has put his reputation on the line and risked his name on our actions – what a responsibility – BUT also this means we have his full backing and endorsement no matter what – that’s reassuring.
These two things have challenged me, both in terms of the importance of evangelism and also the fact that God’s name is at stake, but I needn’t worry I have his full backing!!
Probably the most important thing I got out of the time was how dedicated Reinhard and his team are to what they do and how important it is for all of us to receive good spiritual input into our lives in a way that can challenge and sharpen us as we continue to do what God has called us to do.
Day 5 – post LIVE
Well that’s it, all over and I’m now on a plane heading to Washington DC to the next job on the agenda – GOD TV’s Missions Week – somewhat different.
The last night it all went right – there were of course the odd error - a bad cut here, a late fade on a mic there, but that’s LIVE TV for you. Overall though we could not have had a much better show. Reinhard was his usual totally passionate self, Olly Raper our “on camera” talent did a great job and we had NO technical hiccups.
There was only 1 small issue that we had to work with and that was a bizarre request for us to do a kind of weather report on the temperature in Nigeria contrasted with the fact that in Washington it was snowing. This we all found somewhat irrelevant to what was going on, but in obedience did it anyway – I do wish though people would have a bigger picture of things and decide on what content is done based on its relevance to the viewer at home. I said this before, but it’s worth reemphasising that the viewer MUST be our primary focus and we often need to step back and ask the question – how relevant is this to the viewers at home.
We even managed to cut together a highlights piece of the whole time and I for one certainly had a lump in my throat when it was played out. It was very well edited and also brilliantly shot by one of our local cameramen the images he captured were simply stunning – if you’re ever shooting in Africa and need a cameraman I have the perfect one for you!!
I was also really pleased as we managed to run a credit scroll over the programme – which I felt was really important and often gets omitted to give credit to those behind the camera who make it happen. Talking of which we also interviewed some of the CfAN crew for a Behind the Scenes piece we will put together – I won’t spoil it for you by telling you the stories – but they certainly have a few to tell that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
That’s where I’m going to leave this report as ultimately it boils down to people – both those responsible for making it happen (both the event and the TV broadcast) and also those effected by it – those at the Crusade and those at home watching.
What an incredible experience for me and what an honour to be the Producer of the first Global LIVE broadcast of a CfAN crusade. I know those who will have seen it would be blown away by its scale – we had 260,000 (conservative estimate) people in attendance at the site and 120 million homes worldwide who received the signal. This is what Christian TV should be for, capturing what God is doing globally and bringing it to the masses – more power to Rory and Wendy for their vision to do it. I can’t think of many other LIVE broadcasts even secular ones that have had that quantity of people in attendance – and Christian TV did it!! You could see that reality and potential catch hold of Reinhard too over the few days and broaden his understanding of what was possible.
Ultimately though Rory and Wendy are only a small part of it (as are we all) and I’d like to finish by encouraging all of you to build up your people, encourage them, enthuse them, envision them, recognise them and praise them as it can’t happen without them – People are your MOST VALUABLE ASSET – God did not lay his life down for a vision, technology, TV or anything else BUT PEOPLE!!!!! Treat them right and together we can impact the world.
Well that’s me, I’m now off to Washington DC for 10 days of Missions Week fundraising – which I confess does not thrill me in anyway – BUT without it I can’t go back to Nigeria or somewhere else and do this all again and the viewers won’t be able to see what God is up to in the world – so that’s why I’ll do it and pray it goes well and that we can do many more broadcasts like this one from Oshogbo.
Thanks to all the crew in Nigeria, both the CfAN guys – Freddy, Dave, Boyo, Derek etc. and all the guys on the TV side, Steve (lots of them), Eric, RiC, Anja, Troy etc. you were all tremendous. Thanks to Olly – bless you as you move on with what God’s got for you. Thanks to Reinhard for allowing us to come and be a part of something so incredible – God strengthen you and I pray you reach you target of 100 million!!! And thanks to Rory and Wendy for trusting me with this project. But particularly thanks to God for the lives saved, healed and transformed through the power of your Holy Spirit both in Oshogbo and around the world. This really is fulfilling Mathew 28 – the Great Commission.
If you watched it I hope you enjoyed it, if you didn’t and you’re just reading the above then I hope you find something of interest either professionally or spiritually and until next time, God’s Very Best to you all.
Graeme Spencer, Series Producer/Director the Oshogbo CfAN Crusade for GOD TV
Graeme provides consultancy services to GOD TV and other clients as well as full Production Services on a range of television and video content through his company, Cloak Productions.
To contact Graeme or Cloak Productions, please write:
Cloak Productions
The Quadrus Centre
Woodstock Way
Bolden Business Park
Bolden, NE35 9PF
Tel: 0191 519 7336
E-Mail: enquiries@cloakproductions.com
Web: www.cloakproductions.com
© Cloak Productions 27th February 2007.
I thought I would share with you some of my experiences while working as a Producer in Nigeria for GOD TV as they aim to broadcast Live the Oshogbo Christ For all Nations Gospel Crusade. What I’d like to do through these paragraphs is give you an insight into both the practicalities of what’s involved, my spiritual thoughts along with some hints, tips and suggestions that if you are a media professional you might find helpful.
Today is the second out of our four live broadcasts on GOD TV of the CfAN crusade from Oshogbo Nigeria. As I write this, I am sitting in the presidential suite (believe me, this is NOT as grand as it sounds) of the Leisure Springs Hotel in Oshogbo, with my colleague from GOD TV Steve Cunningham. Steve’s currently editing the highlights clip from last nights broadcast for play in during tonight’s programme. This being in the middle of power cuts, spikes and all sorts of nasties that come with the territory – oh the joys of editing in Nigeria!! We’re 5 hours away from tonight’s broadcast and still not only have this clip to edit but also one more filmed at the fire conference that always accompanies the Bonnke Crusades – but we’ll get there (by God’s Grace).
What an amazing experience this has been for me and for GOD TV. To be the first ever Christian network to broadcast LIVE one of Reinhard Bonnke’s crusades across the world is a tremendous privilege. To be able to bring to the global audience what happens on the crusade ground is incredible. We’ve already had feedback from viewers around the world commenting on the awesomeness of the experience. For me it has been a big headache, but also humbling that I am producing and directing this unique broadcast – I am honoured and thank GOD TV and Rory and Wendy for this opportunity.
So far this has not been an easy programme to get on air (and that’s an understatement) and it continues to be a challenge. We’ve just had a phone call telling us that the Satellite Phone we are using as our Communications feed to the GOD TV Transmission Facility has fallen off the roof of our container and broken. It’s a bit of a nightmare as this is our only stable form of communication. There are many challenges we’ve faced, including the dust and humidity/heat (we had 2 cameras fail last night due to this), but we have a great crew who seem to be able to perform miracles at the drop of a hat – well, I suppose we’re in the right place for that.
The logistics of pulling this off have included hiring a charter aircraft (a DC9) from South Africa to move a whole OB, Crew and SNG (3 ½ tons of equipment and 22 people in total) – getting customs clearances, on the ground transport, satellite time (which is very limited here in Africa) and the list goes on. All in all by far the most difficult job I’ve undertaken yet – particularly when you take into account the HORRENDOUS communications issues. However as I said above we have a great great crew on the ground here, and tremendous support from the local CfAN office here. Nonetheless, it has not been easy and I have learnt a lot that will be very useful should GOD TV or another of our clients need us to do this again (which I sincerely hope they do). Here (based on what I’ve learnt so far) are some general recommendations for filming in “foreign parts” and also for filming in EXTREME parts of the world like Nigeria – I hope you find them helpful:
Always have a local fixer who can help you on the ground with logistics – and where possible have this person dedicated to you.
Do not rely on being able to communicate to “base” etc. – though try and have a system in place for this.
Ensure you get a great crew (preferably people you have worked with before and can trust) – even if they cost you more – INVEST in people.
If you’re in places like Nigeria, do not rely on any local infrastructure, BRING IT WITH YOU – again even if it costs more. At the end of the day getting the programme on air or to tape is worth an extra bit on the budget. Spend £100,000 and guarantee that something can be taped or spend £70,000 and run the risk of wasting it all – no contest in my book.
Talking of budget, always negotiate the best deals that you can, but be aware that you probably will exceed your budget as there is always the unknown – so build in a contingency.
Travel with plenty of CASH, credit cards are no use in Nigeria for example.
· Try if possible (for me it wasn’t this time) to do a full site visit prior to coming.
And the biggest one of all – give yourself as much time as possible to plan. That way you’ll save money and also ease the way and headaches as much as you can.
Those are some starters which I always try and work within.
Now to the most important thing, the spiritual impact of this event – on the people here, at home and on me.
This is my first time in Nigeria and only my third in Africa in total and I am struck by a number of things. Firstly, I am struck by the number of churches, ministries, and missions that are here present in Nigeria – Christianity is a BIG thing here in Nigeria and coming from the UK where it is a small thing, this is interesting to see. Maybe it’s from the hope that the gospel offers to people, or because of their lack of “materialism” means they are more open to spiritual things – whatever it is we need what they have in our nation!!!!
Secondly though is the “gimme gimme gimme” mentality of EVERYONE here, they all have their hands out – particularly if you are western. This isn’t just the people you meet on the street but it also applies to the local church people (though that maybe an over generalisation). I was stopped by one guy outside our trailer yesterday who said “what are you going to give me,” when I asked him what he wanted, he asked for money. At that stage I replied that I was not going to give him money, so he said “you need to give me something I am a Pastor, and there is no money in Nigeria”. It struck me at that point that a country living on hand outs rather than looking at how it can better itself has little hope.
However the third thing that struck me most profoundly was the impact that Reinhard Bonnke has had, not just on Nigeria but also the whole of Africa. I’m sure he would not agree with me, but the seeds he has sown in this country, I believe, will bear enormous fruit in the years and decades to come. What particularly impressed me was the impact of the Fire Conference. This goes alongside the Crusade itself and operates in the mornings. It’s aimed at the local church pastors to come and get envisioned and receive the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Gospel. I believe it is partly through these Fire Conferences that have been operating over many years that we are now seeing Africa transformed by the Christian Gospel, Churches are growing at a staggering rate and slowly this continent being changed. Reinhard has deposited in the local Churches a fire that cannot be quenched and that now sees Africans reaching to their own kind, and becoming less reliant on preachers from the West coming to carry out Crusades (though clearly that is still happening). We heard yesterday of one Church in Nigeria whose building is 1 ½ Kilometres long and has a congregation of 1 ½ million – incomprehensible to me. So in effect Reinhard is working himself out a job which I’m sure he is delighted about – but is that not what we are all supposed to do? Pass on what we have to others so that they can go further. Do more, have a greater impact and effect than we ever could? In truth though how many of us can really claim that. It’s certainly something that I feel more and more passionate about – though I have to confess that the passion has not yet translated to action. I know that I need to be sowing my own life, my gifts, and my knowledge into others so they can learn, grow and develop their giftings and in time totally exceed anything that I can do. Was this not Jesus’ model of working with the disciples and was it not he who said that they/we should far exceed what he achieved – wow, that’s a challenge. I know I’m not living!! Let’s hope we can all start living the way Reinhard lives. Not just doing the work God has chosen us for (in his case the Crusade) but also inspiring and investing in others to see them exceed and excel (the Fire Conference).
Day 3 of the LIVE
Well, last night was interesting!!! We managed to get the satellite phone fixed, but that actually became the least of our problems. We managed to get the 2 insert pieces edited and played out – again thanks mainly to the ingenuity of those on site and various “get out of jail free kits”. And we finally managed to get onto the satellite. However after that the next 30 minutes was a tail of disaster, technical challenges miss communication and bad decision making under pressure.
The first thing that happened was (and this was also the case last night) our downlink station was only receiving one leg of our audio, so we had to mono the feed. However we have since discovered that one of the NEW cables that was connected to the encoder was wrongly wired, so hopefully tonight we will have this sorted. The next problem was the GOD TV transmission facility was unable to get an outside line to dial our satellite phone for communication purposes, so instead I had to dial a mobile number in Israel to talk with them via my mobile – with a bad line and lots of delay, this made communication very hard.
It was however to get worse still. The GOD TV studio in Washington was supposed to be opening up the programme, but for some reason the transmission facility in Israel was unable to receive their audio signal. So with 30 seconds to go till we were live I suggested to Israel that they put us straight to air so we would have the programme on air at the scheduled time and not disappoint the viewers. This way if the DC studio managed to get their audio sorted they could go to air once established and we could throw to them. So Oliver Raper (our on camera talent) took off bang on schedule and started most eloquently to explain to the viewers where we were and what was going on. He then threw to a VT highlights package of the previous night and then another problem hit – there was no sound (due to a technical issue) so we went back to Oliver. Then the most bizarre decision was made. Israel transmission was instructed to take us off the air as the DC studio needed to be on first before us. So that’s what they did and played a Christian Music Video instead!!!! Now at this point some of you may be thinking “DC couldn’t be first as the viewers had already been introduced to Nigeria” – and you are correct that’s why I said it was a totally bizarre decision and to my mind the wrong one for other reasons as well. Imagine you’re a viewer sitting at home waiting expectantly for the broadcast from Nigeria to start and that’s exactly what happens at 18:45 when it should – then all of a sudden and without any explanation 5 minutes into it a music video pops up – are you going to stay watching, I wonder. I still cannot see the logic in this and to add to the farce, DC didn’t get their audio sorted and after the music video (a 7 minute one) they came back to us at the crusade and the DC studio was not heard from that night!!
Now you might think that after that it was all plain sailing – well you’d be wrong. The next thing that happened was after Oliver did his link we then had the burning of the witchcraft symbols – which was amazing on TV. Then Reinhard got up and started welcoming the viewers on TV at which point one of the site generators failed and all our power went taking us off air instantly. It took a few minutes to resolve this and re-establish the satellite connection, but once we had we went straight back on air and Reinhard then welcomed the viewers.
After this everything went fine and the programme was fantastic. However there are lessons to learn from this and one thought I’d like to explore.
Here is a question, were the difficulties we were having with power, communications etc. in any way a spiritual battle due to the stand being taken over the witchcraft symbolism? Well I don’t know the answer to that but I would say that we are often too quick to blame the devil for things that naturally happen. For example the Generator failed because it overheated – but we’re in Africa in extreme temperatures, so not an unnatural occurrence. The communications challenges from Israel seem to happen regularly so again not unnatural. I do however believe we fight a spiritual battle, and my take on it is that there is a balance here somewhere. I think there is an argument to say that all these things happen naturally – but I also think that it’s not necessarily the full picture. I have no doubt that the devil does not want our broadcasts to succeed and will do everything in his power to stop them – and I think often uses “naturally occurrences” to help him. For me the major thing it highlights is the need for prayer cover when undertaking these kinds of endeavours and that’s the first lesson I’d like to mention that we can learn and implement when doing things like this:
When filming “spiritual things” abroad (well anywhere in fact) ensure adequate prayer cover and support – also if possible arrange for continual prayer updates and requests to be given to those praying and that if you are doing LIVE broadcasts then ensure the prayer is going on over these times too.
Plan on the basis that your communications may fail and ensure you have a backup scenario – in our case we really should have had a 2nd satellite phone in place that we could have called Israel on.
If you do these things regularly for the same broadcaster, ministry etc. ensure they have in place the correct resources needed at their end – and if not follow through to ensure that things are changed for the future.
Learn from the experiences and mistakes and do full post mortems with all those involved.
Be prepared (as a producer) to make swift, split second decisions and try to communicate these as effectively as possible – you must be in control of the situation, not the other way around.
Try and ensure if you are working with other remote sites that everyone is on the same page and the decisions made are not driven by what is beneficial for your organisation, but are for the benefit of the viewers – that way ultimately the viewers will be impacted most effectively and that ultimately will be of major benefit to your organisation.
Despite the mayhem it was a great broadcast and I personally continue to be blessed by what Reinhard is doing here in Africa, and by the commitment of GOD TV to spend their money and resources on bringing it to viewers globally.
Day 4 of the LIVE
Well, it’s nearly over. Tonight is our last LIVE broadcast from here in Oshogbo and the last 24 hours has been incredible.
Firstly let me tell you about last nights broadcast. Thankfully due to the horrors of the previous night the Washington DC studio live piece was cancelled – hoorah!! This certainly makes our lives much easier. However despite this last night still had its challenges. The main one was we had an intermittent fault with our audio feed of Reinhard’s microphone which meant we kept losing his sound – certainly not ideal. The CfAN sound team and our own sound guys worked as hard and as quickly as they could to resolve this and eventually managed to find a solution that was workable, but the broadcast had been impacted by it – that’s Live TV for you. I also had a small situation last night when I was communicating to our tape operator that I wanted a certain VT cued up (we only had a short time to do this) and due to complete misunderstanding he thought I meant a different machine and was trying to point out we only have 1 player – the problem was in South Africa VT is the machine, not the tape – I meant the tape, he thought I meant the machine – certainly not his fault. After I made myself clearer he eventually got it though and I apologised to him later.
The programme itself though was amazing. As well as doing the usual Gospel Message, Altar Call and Prayer for healing, last night was also the prayer for the Holy Spirit and WOW was that a site to behold. 50,000 plus people paying as loudly as possible for over 5 minutes is not a site I will forget in a hurry. The sound was out of this world and it is an experience that nearly brought me to tears, even as I was explaining it to my wife last night on the telephone, my words could not do it justice and I felt the tears welling up again. I’m not going to try and explain it other than to say it was probably the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed – try and find a way of seeing the tape sometime. Even our non Christian crew were affected by it – you couldn’t fail to be.
Despite this we all came away with a slight despondency as we all knew it could have been better. Its really hard when you pour your energy, life and skills into making something as good as it can be, because you both believe in it and are totally passionate and committed to your “profession” and you are let down by a piece of wire (which was what the fault was traced to) – HOW FRUSTRATING. There are of course lessons to learn here as always:
When working in different countries, work out how to communicate (technical things) with local crew – it’s your responsibility to communicate well to them, not their responsibility to adapt their understanding to you.
In the heat of a live programme, sometimes you can lose your cool (everyone does) – but afterwards always make it right and if you’re the one in the wrong (as I was) apologise.
Things can go wrong in live shows that are no ones fault – everyone will try and fix it as soon as they can – allow them to get on with it and do the autopsy afterwards – they will get it fixed as soon as they can (assuming you’re working with people you can trust).
Don’t scrimp on equipment or crew when in difficult places – if possible have extras of everything (we did to some extent) and also have sufficient crew – it’s always particularly useful to have an extra men/women not assigned to any specific task.
Allow people to do what they are good at doing and don’t try and do it all yourself – it’s about team work.
Tape stock is cheap compared to anything else, so shoot everything you might need – BUT don’t over shoot – you’ll regret it in the edit.
When things go wrong (and they will) try and walk away at the end of the day, and MAJOR on the positives – particularly encourage your crew and particularly those who may feel most responsible for the problems – they need your support. Team bonding cannot be underestimated.
Now to the real highlight of today (so far). Every Sunday on one of these Crusades, Reinhard and the CfAN team get together for devotions – 1 hour of teaching from Reinhard, worship and communion (for about 20 people in all). We were invited to go if we wanted and a few of us gladly took up the invitation and boy were we glad we did. It was so inspiring to hear what Reinhard had to say and in all the busyness and chaos going around to take time out to refresh our spirits. I can honestly say it was one of the greatest experiences of my “faith walk” so far. Reinhard is so passionate about the lost it oozes out of every pour and he has devoted his life to it and has seen tremendous results so far – 50 million people saved – he’s now ½ way to his target!! He is the same when talking with 20 of us as he is when talking with 200,000 plus – he even asked us to excuse him at one point when he felt he was starting to preach as he would on the platform – but he is who he is and I’m sure God would have him no other way.
There were 2 thoughts that he shared that particularly had an impact on me; the first was he asked us how many of us loved the thought of heaven? Of course all of us put up our hands – he then went onto say that no where in the bible does it say that God loves heaven. In fact it says totally the opposite – that God loves the earth – therefore this must be the same for us. Our whole lives should be spent loving the earth and the people that live on it – now that’s a challenge. The second thing he said was that God changed his name to include ours. He cited that when he (God) was asked who he was he replied “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. By doing this God has put his reputation on the line and risked his name on our actions – what a responsibility – BUT also this means we have his full backing and endorsement no matter what – that’s reassuring.
These two things have challenged me, both in terms of the importance of evangelism and also the fact that God’s name is at stake, but I needn’t worry I have his full backing!!
Probably the most important thing I got out of the time was how dedicated Reinhard and his team are to what they do and how important it is for all of us to receive good spiritual input into our lives in a way that can challenge and sharpen us as we continue to do what God has called us to do.
Day 5 – post LIVE
Well that’s it, all over and I’m now on a plane heading to Washington DC to the next job on the agenda – GOD TV’s Missions Week – somewhat different.
The last night it all went right – there were of course the odd error - a bad cut here, a late fade on a mic there, but that’s LIVE TV for you. Overall though we could not have had a much better show. Reinhard was his usual totally passionate self, Olly Raper our “on camera” talent did a great job and we had NO technical hiccups.
There was only 1 small issue that we had to work with and that was a bizarre request for us to do a kind of weather report on the temperature in Nigeria contrasted with the fact that in Washington it was snowing. This we all found somewhat irrelevant to what was going on, but in obedience did it anyway – I do wish though people would have a bigger picture of things and decide on what content is done based on its relevance to the viewer at home. I said this before, but it’s worth reemphasising that the viewer MUST be our primary focus and we often need to step back and ask the question – how relevant is this to the viewers at home.
We even managed to cut together a highlights piece of the whole time and I for one certainly had a lump in my throat when it was played out. It was very well edited and also brilliantly shot by one of our local cameramen the images he captured were simply stunning – if you’re ever shooting in Africa and need a cameraman I have the perfect one for you!!
I was also really pleased as we managed to run a credit scroll over the programme – which I felt was really important and often gets omitted to give credit to those behind the camera who make it happen. Talking of which we also interviewed some of the CfAN crew for a Behind the Scenes piece we will put together – I won’t spoil it for you by telling you the stories – but they certainly have a few to tell that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
That’s where I’m going to leave this report as ultimately it boils down to people – both those responsible for making it happen (both the event and the TV broadcast) and also those effected by it – those at the Crusade and those at home watching.
What an incredible experience for me and what an honour to be the Producer of the first Global LIVE broadcast of a CfAN crusade. I know those who will have seen it would be blown away by its scale – we had 260,000 (conservative estimate) people in attendance at the site and 120 million homes worldwide who received the signal. This is what Christian TV should be for, capturing what God is doing globally and bringing it to the masses – more power to Rory and Wendy for their vision to do it. I can’t think of many other LIVE broadcasts even secular ones that have had that quantity of people in attendance – and Christian TV did it!! You could see that reality and potential catch hold of Reinhard too over the few days and broaden his understanding of what was possible.
Ultimately though Rory and Wendy are only a small part of it (as are we all) and I’d like to finish by encouraging all of you to build up your people, encourage them, enthuse them, envision them, recognise them and praise them as it can’t happen without them – People are your MOST VALUABLE ASSET – God did not lay his life down for a vision, technology, TV or anything else BUT PEOPLE!!!!! Treat them right and together we can impact the world.
Well that’s me, I’m now off to Washington DC for 10 days of Missions Week fundraising – which I confess does not thrill me in anyway – BUT without it I can’t go back to Nigeria or somewhere else and do this all again and the viewers won’t be able to see what God is up to in the world – so that’s why I’ll do it and pray it goes well and that we can do many more broadcasts like this one from Oshogbo.
Thanks to all the crew in Nigeria, both the CfAN guys – Freddy, Dave, Boyo, Derek etc. and all the guys on the TV side, Steve (lots of them), Eric, RiC, Anja, Troy etc. you were all tremendous. Thanks to Olly – bless you as you move on with what God’s got for you. Thanks to Reinhard for allowing us to come and be a part of something so incredible – God strengthen you and I pray you reach you target of 100 million!!! And thanks to Rory and Wendy for trusting me with this project. But particularly thanks to God for the lives saved, healed and transformed through the power of your Holy Spirit both in Oshogbo and around the world. This really is fulfilling Mathew 28 – the Great Commission.
If you watched it I hope you enjoyed it, if you didn’t and you’re just reading the above then I hope you find something of interest either professionally or spiritually and until next time, God’s Very Best to you all.
Graeme Spencer, Series Producer/Director the Oshogbo CfAN Crusade for GOD TV
Graeme provides consultancy services to GOD TV and other clients as well as full Production Services on a range of television and video content through his company, Cloak Productions.
To contact Graeme or Cloak Productions, please write:
Cloak Productions
The Quadrus Centre
Woodstock Way
Bolden Business Park
Bolden, NE35 9PF
Tel: 0191 519 7336
E-Mail: enquiries@cloakproductions.com
Web: www.cloakproductions.com
© Cloak Productions 27th February 2007.
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