The
General Board of Church and Society has produced
a series of six videos featuring reflections from United Methodists around the world on the denomination's
Social Principles. As GBCS notes in
their press release announcing the video resource, the videos feature interviews with United Methodists from the US, Africa, and the Philippines. The episodes, each of which focuses on one section of the Social Principles, range in length from 40 minutes to about an hour. While the Social Principles
are being revised, and the new Principles are
available for comment, the videos are a useful resource not just for what they reveal about the current form of the document, but even more so for the ways in which they show a common United Methodist document being used and interpreted in many contexts around the world.
Bet they cost a fortune. And I'll be interested if anyone watches them. The GBC&S needs to check into the reality that for videos to be used in a classroom setting they can't exceed 12-15 minutes in length, and 8 is better. Ken Burns might hold you for an hour in your living room with popcorn, but if they didn't hire Burns I doubt they'll keep me glued to my computer. But I'll see and report back.
ReplyDeleteSo I watched the first video - which is really a collection of video stories. Unfortunately the edited transitions are amateurish, so at the end of each we don't get a punch line, we get an ever fainter appeal for money and no information on how to send it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to be negative, just asking that the UMC boards and agencies substantially up their game. It doesn't money. It takes new approaches that use the basics of documentary story telling and technique. There have to be some fresh young film people out there ready to make an impact who can tell these stories with real panache.