Channel 456

is on the Air!
Filming has started on the first segment in the Channel 456 series. Channel 456 is a fictitious television channel set in Judea around the time of the book of Acts. It is a mix of SCTV, History Bites, and Sunday School. The kids in our 456 youth group are actively working on retelling Bible stories as TV programs.

Episode One: The Serpent Menace

(2002) Runtime 12 minutes
Our first installment has been filmed and edited. It covers Creation and the Garden of Eden. First of all, on Newsline, Professor Fizzle and a prophet named Joel (a different one) discuss the details of creation! After this, a clay-mation rendering of the creation of life on earth. Later, Adam is on the Jephaniah show to complain about being evicted from his plush gated community because his wife tempted him to break the rules. His wife, Eve, comes in to tell everybody that it was all the serpents fault. When the serpent arrives the accusations and chairs start to fly!

Director's Comments: Filmed October 2002

Week One:

Filming order: - Jephaniah Crowd - Adam - Eve - Serpent - Angel of the Lord - Jephaniah alone - Rib (later in the week at Ice Shrapnel).

Notes: With the exception of the Angel of the Lord, the Jephaniah Show was filmed at the Leonardville Church of Christ Church. The Serpent's costume was made up on the spot by Production Assistants Kyle and Katie. The Hug with Kyle was improvised. The Angel of the Lord, Kayla, was filmed by the Sunday School building. She wore a children's Christmas angel costume and plastic small sword. Ice Shrapnel added the effects and colour later. The flaming sword was obtained by adding red stars in Ulead's Video Studio software. The voice of the angel is Kayla (layered) and Jeff.

Week Two:

Filming order: - Newsline Anchor - Prophet Joel - Professor Fizzle - Mazariah and Creation Graphics (later in the week at Ice Shrapnel).

Notes: Newsline was filmed at the Lord's Cove Church of Christ Sunday School building. Joel was filmed outside of the building and Professor Fizzle, Lauren was filmed in the remodeled kitchen. Our original anchor was not able to attend the shoot. Kendra came in with little notice and did a fantastic job. The creation animation sequence was achieved with Video studio and stock photos. Crazy Mazariah was drawn by Jeff.

Week Three:

Filming order: Clay-mation Creation (voice added at Ice Shrapnel).

Notes: The Junior High Group was assigned the Clay-mation sequence. They had 45 minutes for planning creation and filming. We used our Kodak digital still camera for the filming. one our grade 8 kids, Judson, had attended a camp where he used stop motion animation. The narration was added at Ice Shrapnel the next day by Jeff's daughter Shania who is 6.

Episode Two: Abe the Survivor

(2003) Runtime 10 minutes

Our second installment is now complete. We have put biblical characters; Abe, Sarah, Lot and Hagar compete on a reality television show (a survivor/great race hybrid). There will be commercial breaks for the Judean Legal Will Kit and a new Mazariah's House of Camels smooth jazz mix.

Director's Comments: Principal Photography should be November 27th, 2002.

Week One:

Filming order: Judean Legal Will Kit. This was filmed at the Leonardville Church of Christ Sunday School.

Notes: This is a parody of the Canadian Legal Will Kit. Katie and Kyle developed this Mock Commercial with Jeff. Katie's height and accent change are on purpose (there were two different wives in two different commercials for the Canadian Legal Will Kit - one who was stiff as a board and one who was over acting with a British accent). Kyle's close up was filmed by Kyle as the crew had to leave the room because they could not stop laughing.

Week Two:

Filming order: Sarah and Hagar solo shoots. This was filmed at the Leonardville Church of Christ.

Notes: This was the first shoot with a full crew. We dug out some floodlights and did some basic experiments with lighting. Maria served as 1st Assistant Director, Kyle was Sound Recordist, Katie DP and Judson our Gaffer. We used some bed sheets for our forest backdrop. The ground was covered with snow, so we could not film outside.

Week Three:

Filming order: Tribal Council meeting, Tribal Council votes, giving of luxury items and various group shots. This was filmed at the Leonardville Church of Christ Sunday School.

Notes: This was our first experiment with a green and blue screen. The blue screen did not work at all (all of the kids had some blue in the clothes). The green screen had its own problems, but the shots were kept.

Week Four:

Filming order: Abraham and Lot solo shoots. This was filmed at the Leonardville Church of Christ Sunday School.

Notes: This was a small shoot in the upstairs of the Sunday School building. We had a sound problem and none of the takes had sound. Jeff had to rewrite the script and add more voice over to use the clips as MOS.

Week Five:

Filming order: Post Production and Mazariah (at Ice Shrapnel).

Notes: Jeff got some new software and had some experimenting with overlay shots. Jeff had a bad cold when he did the voice over. He noticed that his voice much lower than normal, so he redid all of the voice over in the lower voice. By the time Jeff did the Mazariah voice over, his voice was shot. He could not do the Mazariah voice. He came across this Jazzy royalty free jingle, so he came up with the breathy "looking good."

Episode Three: As The Island Turns

(2003) Run Time 13:34 Minutes

Our third instalment has now been filmed. We have covered a lot of ground. We retold the story of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judea and their on again and off again relationship with God. We thought that this would make a great soap opera!

Week One:

Filming order: (Mon) Green screen shots of Dr. Bailey, Judy and Izzy. Scene 2 - the heavy hand! Joachim green screen. (Wed) Funeral scene at the Church with the extras. Board room scenes were also filmed that day.

Notes: (Mon) This was the first shoot with a our new lights. We had the four principles come on a Monday Night to film some scenes. This was also the debut of Olivia as grip and clapper/loader. (Wed) Jeff had too much fun with the monopod. However, he learned that you had to keep it very steady because it kept losing focus.

Week Two:

Filming order: Dr. Bailey's office scene (scene 3).

Notes: We got to film at the Deer Island Health Clinic. Our film crew continues to grow as we added Lacey as the second camera operator. We also spent more time on this shot so we could have the best sound and lighting that we could have.

Week Three:

Filming order: The Office, Mazariah Goat sale and Walls of Jerusalem Claymation.

Notes: We finished filming all of the 456 kids scenes by having Kayla come and finish up her lines in the Sunday school room. Then we filmed Kyle and Olivia in front of a Green Screen for a new Mazariah commercial where Og has to get a new goat (the last one was taken by the Philistines). Finally Judson led the crew on a quick claymation recreation of the destruction and rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Week Four:

Filming order: Solomon Davidson, Newspapers and Post Production.

Notes: There was a month break between filming and editing as Jeff was on vacation.