Dear Friends:

This week, the first of a 4 Part Newsletter:

"Confessions of a Youth Group Drop Out Part I"

I.

In the summer of 1999 my first curfew violation was my last. They kicked me out of youth camp and asked that I not volunteer in the future. So I said farewell to youth ministry and began to study theatre and film in Southern California. I wouldn't miss the world of guys 5 years older than me, trying desperately to connect to my world. They wore earrings and trendy clothes and employed all night video game parties and movie clips from "The Matrix" to lead teens down the path toward Jesus. In my heart, I knew that "pop-culture" religion led to a never-ending cycle of self-consuming hedonism, not very Jesus like.
Fast-forward 8 years. Here I am in a post 9/11, post evangelical, post-modern world attempting to connect with Generation-Y, and anyone else, with my films. Trying not to become one of "those older guys" I knew in 1999.

II.

Patience has never been the typical teenager's strong suit. The human mind rapidly develops into adulthood. It changes as much between ages 11 to 18 as it does between birth and 6. The mind and body are a whirlwind of transformation, as the human machine gets better by design. Mix in the light-speed pace of the 21st Century and you've got an ever-decreasing attention span.
Teens are accustomed to viewing web pages for a half a second. That is the average time spent on a webpage... insane. Between Wikipedia and Google, there is nothing they can't find in 10 seconds, scratch that...5 seconds flat. Ask the kids in your youth group about Chaos Theory and you'll have a certifiably Wikified answer in a matter of minutes. With this sort of ADD expectation of information transfer if you can't say it quickly and clearly you lose them. Long-form films often bore teens to tears.

Last week we released "SermonParables," 60 to 90 second versions of the 9 films from "Yellow," "Purple" and "Cyan." The special "SermonParables" 2 DVD set includes a video DVD with all 9 short versions and a Data DVD (for computer use) with all 9 short versions in mpeg-1, .mov, .m4v, and .wmv format. The Data DVD also includes Bible studies for use with the films and "behind the scenes" photographs.

The "SermonParables" 2 DVD($175.00) set is not available on the "36 Parables" website. To order; email me at sredwine@36parables.com or call me directly at 310-770-0448.

You can view "SermonParables" at: http://www.sermonspice.com/listings/producer/633/sermon-parables/

The Cinematographer
Stewart H. Redwine
C:310-770-0448
E:sredwine@36parables.com