The South Land’s Echo

We’ve been sharing the gospel via video over the internet for some 26 years. That’s some 915 sermons! We can be grateful for the resources we have to do this in this prosperous South Land of the Holy Spirit.

How do we know when the gospel reaches the ends of the world? Jesus said this good news would be preached in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the world before He would return. Perth in Western Australia is the world’s most isolated capital city, and I happen to live on its rural fringes.

So, again, how will we might know that the far reaches of the world have been reached with the good news of Jesus Christ? Perhaps when this good news echos back from the ends fo the world?

Over the years we’ve slowly made significant improvements not only in the research, content and delivery, but also with lighting, audio, cameras, and more recently, focussed work on colour calibration and grading. We use two BMD cinema cameras, and our studio work is such an important part of our filming. So grateful for all those who have supported us in prayers, donations, and shared feedback.

We want to produce the best Christ-centred Biblical teaching possible, using the best practices known in the film industry. I recall filming in Israel in 1985, using an old wobbly tripod, a National Panasonic VHS camera pack, and lots of heavy lead batteries. That’s all the technology we had back then. Today, even my mobile cell phone can film in 8k, hundreds of times better quality than what we had back then. In fact, if I reminisce ten years earlier in 1975, we were still filming using Super 8 silent video! But, hey, it was in colour!

What does the future hold? I believe the best is yet to come, as God reveals His will, purpose and timing via the gift and voice of the Holy Spirit. And may this South Land’s echo be part of that final narrative!

John Classic

Colour grading and LUTs

We’ve been continually improving our weekly livestreaming over the past 18 or so months. However, this has accelerated since March this year, and we’re appreciative for all who have helped.

We use two BMD cinema cameras as setup in our studio. Filming in BRAW, we’ve been using a progression of modified LUTS for our livestreams, and this week we made the mistake of creating/using a LUT that was too “bluish”.

Our film is recorded to SSD in BRAW 10 bit video format.

However, the LUT (Look Up Table – an applied colour grade) we used on Saturday’s livestream was too bluish – we received several viewers comments on this. Some said that I “looked tired”. Others said it looked “washed out”. It’s amazing how colour can negatively affect mood and feel!

So, back to the editing suite, and thus for the next studio livestream we’ll try this completely new LUT/colour grade (which we’ve already used in post.)

I hope we’re finally reaching a level of maturity in our media streaming work where any future changes are merely incremental. We always appreciate and value viewer feedback.

Our small team has worked extensively on improving, for example, audio quality. You’ll also note the new backdrop that we added last week, together with some subtle lighting changes. The biggest job each week, however, is the preparation of good quality content – a task that only the Holy Spirit can enable.

A big thank you for all who have supported our work with suggestions, contributions, prayers and donations. The glory goes to God alone who is calling many in the great harvest of humanity. May we be faithful as He works through us according to His will.

John Classic
By John Classic