Alice Cooper talks about his Christian Faith.

WELL THIS REALLY WAS A SURPRISE TO ME! What a great interview with Alice cooper for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I've watched Alice Cooper in interview a few times when he hasn't mentioned anything about a faith, and I've always thought he seemed like such a sound, decent character, so much at odds with his lifestyle choices, or so I thought. 

I don't find this interview fascinating just because this man is a Christian, but it speaks to me that as a musician he feels he is playing a role, and taking on a persona much as an actor might do in a film. As a Christian involved in the creative arts I find that a very liberating concept.

I'm mulling the hypocrisy I find myself forced to confront when for example, I wholeheartedly enjoy a movie which I might really struggle with appearing in myself.

Diary of production of the making of a small scale children's television show.

As you may already know, season one of Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew is complete, and it is now going out wordwide on your ipad and smartphone, just get the app at www.ucbmedia.co.uk or if you're in the UK you can watch it on Sky channel 585. Brand new episode tomorrow morning (Thursday), 7.30!

I'M GOING TO DO A DIARY OF THE PRODUCTION OF SEASON TWO!

I've not bee getting a huge amount of visits to the blog.  Some, but not masses. So it's time for a change in approach.

I think it's probably that I ramble a little on non-specifics, it's quite hard to see what the blog has been about, and it's a big much to expect complete strangers to be interested in me just because I'm me.  Who am I that you should care?

So, I'm going to focus some of my article writing around the process of producing season two of the Christian children's TV show Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew.

I'm going to keep it intimate and emotional, and I'm going to keep it personal as well as technical, professional and practical.  What I'd like to do is offer you all a well rounded insight into the production of a show from script to screen.

I think this should be quite interesting for the budding producer, scriptwriter, editor or film-maker, as it illustrates the production of something which isn't impossible or unreachable, but is small scale, low budget, and accessible.

So we have an openness from UCB to discuss how we might partner for season two in the new year.  Contracts are not signed so to speak, but it has to be said that this is as positive as we could hope for when season one has only just gone to air.  What it indicates is that they are happy with the show, and how it's turned out.

There are certain issues which came up, which need to be dealt with.  I have referred to all of these in an earlier post.  If you're interested in seeing how we've learned from the mistakes made in season one and how that will be leading to improvements in season two, then read the most titled 'How to make a children's TV show on very a low budget.'

I'm just trying to catch you up to where we are now, and then probably tomorrow the blog will be more of a diary.

So, I'm moving forward on the assumption that season two will get made.  I think it's quite important that I do this, at this point my imagination could do me a disservice if I indulged in all the reasons why and how I could fail.

So I'm not going to do that.  I'll do what I can, God will do what I can't.  I know that we spent a lot more than we intended on season one, so season two will have to be run as a much tighter ship.  I don't have an issue with this, we're doing it for love not money.

I had a wonderful review from somebody who'd watched a friend enjoy the show: "I know a hyperactive child who does NOT watch TV .. well .. unless it's what he calls "Mr Bon Hovis" then he's glued.
All seven years of him, absolutely quiet, too close to the screen, mouth wide open.
His parents appreciate half an hour's silence AND the good things that Mr Bon-Hovis learns from his mistakes."
Please, if you have any questions, I'd love to help.  I know I can talk somewhat, but even I can never cover everything!

So to practicalities, what's first?  Well simply to sit at the computer, open a new folder called 'Creation Crew Season Two' (that was a nice moment) and start planning.  Keep separate and clearly named documents for each aspect of production.  Starting off, a 'To Do' list.  I need to simply have it in black and white in front of me, in a way that I can cross off as they are done.  In the beginning they will be the bigger jobs like write 13 scripts, film 13 VT's, write 13 songs and the like, but as I move into the process they will become more detailed as each 'to do' becomes a heading for the smaller 'to do's' for example 'do drums on songs 7-13.'

It's very satisfying having written a list like this, I can rest knowing that everything I need to do for an entire season of television isn't jumbling around in my head any more  it's transferred safely and permanently to black and white.

The next thing on the agenda for me is to consider the theme for each episode. The whole process is a prayerful one for me and indeed for my wife Ellie, it would seem like an absolute nonsense to me to plough on ahead on a project like this without doing a few important things:

1: Pray and listen, to be sure that this project is consistent with God's plan for our lives.
2: Ask God to come with us and continue communication; it's not like He's sending us off and waving bye bye on the platform!  I've made that mistake in the past, I soon changed trains and ended up in the wilderness!
3: Pray and listen about specific aspects of the project.  I'm not that wise that I think I have a vast reservoir of profound insight to share with children.  Hopefully I have some discernment and balance, but I try to get the teaching and the purpose from God.  I ask Him what He wants me to share with the kids, what He wants me to talk to them about.  And He always tells me!  It's at that point that I feel free to use my wit and talents to bring God's teaching to life.  So I'm keeping it a partnership, with God in the lead!

So that was the next step which I started on yesterday, planning the themes for each show and the various elements of the show.

It goes something like:


Theme :
Revenge!
Introduction and Joke(4min)
Jovis has built a cool spaghetti tower which is really tall.  He then goes and hears a joke from Monkey, he then goes and tells the Joke to woody and shows him the tower. We see Woody sneak over to the tower.  Jovis introduces Through the Window.
Through the Window VT (3min)
Making paper boats and taking them to a stream.
Slapstick element (4 mins)
Jovis finds his tower destroyed.  He tries to rebuild the tower in an fitful emotional state and fails.  He then tapes Woody in his house, goes and gets his chocolate cake and puts snails in it.
Story time (4mins)
Two wolves; one is nasty to the other so one takes revenge.  However, the first wolf apologises offering to share the thing wolf two has destroyed.  Everybody loses!
Song Time (3mins)
What’s the point, when you’re mean to me,
What’s the point, of being mean to you?
Then it’s just two people being mean,
That’s a whole lot of mean, it’s just obscene!
Stop the nastiness in its tracks.
Dora Mouse leading to Scripture time (4mins)
If everybody’s mean it just doesn't stop, things just get more and more horrible and that’s just rubbish for everybody.  As followers of Jesus, it’s our job to stop the nastiness in its tracks!  Two wrongs don’t make a right, you can’t fight fire with fire!  Forgiveness!
Art Crafty time and Goodbye. (4.mins)
Love your neighbour paper Mache picture frames.

What you're seeing above is written only for my benefit, and isn't meant to be a concise communication to other readers, it's planning which acts as signals to me which remind me of feelings, atmosphere, style, it inspires dialogue and structure and purpose for the show.

I'll use this to take the show into the script stage where it will be proofed and rehearsed.

So there we are, that's what I'm doing now.  The next blog probably won't need to be as long winded so sign up, and watch how things unfold over the next few months!  God bless, Joe. xxx

How to choose the right Christmas present for pre-teens on a tight budget

THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR PRE-TEENS.


Since children seem to be spending so much time watching the television, can't we as parents at least make sure that when they do they have something decent, something good and something worthwhile to watch?  And what if it was a proper laugh as well?  What about kids' Bible stories on DVD?  Perhaps something like that but more fun?

Every episode is packed full of fun including:

Outside adventures with the Creation Crew Kids,

A unique singalong song for every episode,

Story-time with stories written for the show,

Arts and crafts your kids can make at hope to help remember the point of the show,

Scripture time, checking if what we're talking about is in the Bible!

All woven into the story played out by Mr Bon-Hovis and his house full of puppet friends.

Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew hilarious kids' DVD set.  Over five hours of fabulous entertainment!  Kids from 3-12 will enjoy this show.

Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew is a brand new release British made, wholesome, hilarious kids DVD containing over FIVE HOURS of programmes!

This season of kids' TV was created by a group of people who just wanted to give children something decent.   It's bright and fun, and full of comedy.  It explores issues which are real and genuine, things that kids will be able to connect with in their everyday lives.  It's Christian at its heart, so it's ideal for Christmas, without being preachy and off-putting.

Every episode tackles a certain subject through a comedy drama with live action puppets.  It's never pointing the finger, but always looks at life's problems through the experiences of the lead character, Mr Bon-Hovis.  He might be very greedy in one episode, and start stealing things in the next!  We look at the issues of the day and the consequences through the medium of falling over and squirty cream!

Buying presents nowadays is pretty tricky, it seems like most kids in this country want the most expensive, most up-to-date, fastest trendiest thing they can get their hands on.  I don't remember it being like that when I was a kid, there certainly seems to be some kind of 'entitlement' mentality.  If it exists, it's out there and it's new, I should have it.

I don't like buying presents for my children like that.  I prefer doing it the way we did when I was little.  I don't know about you, but I never knew what I was getting until I opened it on Christmas day, and that was a massive amount of the fun!  The surprise!

I guess part of it was 'You'll get what you're given and you'll say thank you.'  I never felt hard done by as a Kid.  Let this DVD be a blessing from us to your children, it was created to fill your kids with joy, hope, fun, understanding and an awareness of God as a relevant person!
www.Christian-Movies.co.uk

New British worship music Video.

Lord, I miss you.  I want to spend some time with you, it's one of those days.

Those are the opening lines to one of my most recent songs, which is aptly named 'One of those days.'  It's one of my more mournful and melancholy pieces, and quite unusual for something which I personally would still class as 'worship'.

This is music produced on a Packard Bell laptop with 4 GB processing power and an Alesis Q49 midi keyboard, which you may know is very bare bones equipment!  The sequencing software and instruments I used came from the fantastic Ableton Live, my version is the Ableton Live 8, an 8 track piece of software which is limited to 8 tracks and six effects, so I am forced not to over-produce any of my music when I work on this kind of budget.

Have a listen:



I want to write Christian music that people can relate to and connect with, which talks to them about their real lives and their circumstances.

Worship music usually has quite a specific purpose, which is to facilitate us lifting praises up to the throne of God, and to grease the wheels of our worship with positive, edifying and encouraging statements of truth and scripture.  Well, I can't knock that, it's wonderful.  Some of my favourite music ever is just that, worship.

But that's not all I wanted to do.  I wanted to sing truthfully about my Christian walk, and in some respects that works best when I'm true to my heart as a storyteller.

It's funny, I've been told on a couple of occasions that I have a particular gifting for telling stories, and I can remember as a child of eight or ten knowing that I wanted children because I wanted to read them stories.  I think that comes from a decent place inside me, because when I try and connect with that feeling it's about the desire to fill people up with goodness, to bless them.

This is not my own holiness we're talking about here, this is just me being touched by the love of God and wanting to share it.  I'm working on something now which isn't a gospel preach, but is just a story for the sake of a story, something for fun and laughter, and hopefully when people have watched it they'll go away feeling they've been given something which was worth having.

It seems that in order to feed the family it is wise to produce some things with mass appeal.

And of course what that then enables me to do is invest energy and resources into things I wouldn't be able to do otherwise, such as Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew, and my Christian music.

So this song is a labour of love.  Not a preach, but just a deep yearning, and an expression of the overwhelming need for God.  During my life I have been touched profoundly by God on so many occasions, thank you Lord Jesus, that it's very easy to present an image of somebody who has it all sorted, who never struggles, never sins and pushes God away, never prays and feels empty.

This song is an admission of the kind of normal experiences that real, spirit-filled Christians will likely have in their walk with the Lord.  It's a song I wrote so we would all know we weren't alone.  And God moves away from us just so that we would do exactly what this song does, cry out to Him, miss Him, pine to be with Him and go after Him.

And for anybody who's wondering, there have been some very beautiful moments with God since I wrote this song on a sad lonely day in the cold autumn countryside.  Most recently today.  He will never leave you, He will only ever call out to you from a distance.

How to make a children's TV show on very a low budget.

Anyone who been following this blog or looking at the other stuff we've been doing over the last year or two will know that we've been producing a show for Christian kids' TV called Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew, on a very small budget and a LOT of prayer.

Before you go any further, please make sure you subscribe to our channel!  Things are constantly developing and we're always so excited to hear from folks who are interested in this sort of thing! Go to www.Youtube.com/ChristianMoviesUK and subscribe, or join our Facebook community at www.facebook.com/ChristiansTogetherWorldwide

The TV show is now going out on air at long last, on Sky channel 585 an Thursday at 7.30 and 4, Saturdays at 7, and Tuesdays at 7.  If you don't get Sky, UCB broadcast there schedule live on the internet too, so you can watch it at those same times (GMT) here: http://www.ucb.co.uk/watch-popup/live.html or you can download one of the free media apps for your smartphone http://www.ucb.co.uk

Here's how the show's looking for season one:



We're really pleased with what we've produced, and all through season one we found ways of polishing and improving the show as the team grew together and we got a better picture of what a successful children's television show might look like on such a tight budget.

Now we are in pre-production of season two, we are able to look back at which elements of the show were more successful, and which could do with tweaking.  We're all confident that we have a fantastic show and kids seem to be enjoying it, but we should be on a journey of constant improvement within the bounds of our  resources.

So here are some ways we intend to tweak season two:


Planning

Before we embark on the shoot for season two we will draw up a tight schedule and stick to it.  Drawing on our experiences producing season one I am sure this will be achievable and actually enjoyable, eradicating the frustration and uncertainty that comes with working to such a loose timetable.

We will set tight time allowances for all areas of production including music, studio shoots and music video shoots, illustrations and graphics, VT’s, video and sound editing, voice recording and post production.  We will also attempt to work to a firm overall completion deadline, making production of season two a potentially far more enjoyable and professional experience.

Rehearsals

Season one was produced on a wing and a prayer, we should remove the wing and instead set it firm on a rock!  More rehearsals and run-throughs will eradicate any timing issues; lend an air of confidence to all performances strengthening the show significantly. It will also mean that physical comedy can be well planned, honed and understood by all before shooting.

Clothing

Several people have suggested that Mr Bon-Hovis should wear something a bit more bright and colourful, more consistent with the overall theme of the show.  We will produce an appropriate top which carries the show’s branding.

Art Crafty Time

Upon watching the earlier episodes back it became evident that a ‘Here’s one I prepared earlier’ example would reinforce the potential of the mini projects, and offer more exciting options to the viewer.  They would be more likely to engage kids and call them to action.  So completed projects will be pre-prepared with good examples.

Scripture Time

‘Scripture Times’ will be stronger, in that they will be better explained and more relevant to the scenario.  We will endeavour to open up scripture to the children in a slightly more accessible way and with a little more pertinence.

Story Time/Illustrations

The more successful ‘Story Times’ are pacey and punchy, in keeping with the flow of the show.  ‘Story Time’ should be no longer than 3:30-4:00 minutes maximum, and the illustrations are very effective.  We will produce a minimum of 8 illustrations for each ‘Story Time’.

Joke

The expectation of regular features is key to brand loyalty and audience retention, and we will endeavour to break up the initial studio time with another regular occurrence in which Monkey tells Mr Bon-Hovis a Joke, which has him falling off his chair.  Mr Bon-Hovis will then tell the Joke enthusiastically to Woody Louse, who is perpetually unimpressed, leaving Mr Bon-Hovis crestfallen.  This will tighten up the rhythm of the show even further.

Set Pieces and Physical Comedy

By far one of the most successful adjustments we made as we moved through the production of season one was the enhancement and invigoration of the physical comedy.  The introduction of props such as creamy cakes, blow-up hammers and teleportation machines lifted the show into a higher level of polish and professionalism, as well as releasing the performers to play to the audience more freely, liberating some hearty laughs from viewers!  Kids just love ‘silly’!

New Areas of the House

It would seem a little stagnant not to develop the set with the introduction of some new areas of the house.  Two or three extra boards will offer options for a greater variety of visual interest and plot potential.

Well-Timed Scene Changes

Improving the timing of the scene changes in season one was a significant breakthrough, in conjunction with stronger slapstick and physical comedy elements.  This momentum will be maintained and improved with the timing carefully planned and considered so as not to give the viewer any opportunity to lose interest before something new and exciting hits the screen!

Live Switching

Half way through season one we swapped to live camera switching.  This was not only a help to speed up the editing but also provided a more natural flow to the performances as they appeared on screen.  So we will use this method again.

Puppeteers

During production of season one we discovered that not everyone is a natural puppeteer.  Bringing life to puppets is fundamental to the show and we were hampered by one or two helpers who struggled with the basics of puppeteering.  We now recognise the importance of ensuring that the people operating the puppets can achieve a minimum level of competence.

Set Interiors

It was always intended that Booky Worm, Dora Mouse and Woody Louse had homes behind their doors, and that we would occasionally be able to catch a glimpse inside, almost as if into a secret world.  The idea of going through the doors, and into those miniature worlds will be immensely exciting to a child. Spoiler alert!:  We intend to produce simple rooms, in the same style as the rest of the set, for Dora and Booky.  Booky’s will be a library, and Dora’s will be a kitchen with a table set for tea.

Strengthening of the puppet characters

There is tremendous opportunity for the puppets to offer more to the show.  On some occasions during season one the puppets were incidental, having very little interaction or lines.  Some of the strongest points in the show are when the puppets share lines and engage in equal conversation with Mr Bon-Hovis.  I intend to write stronger lines for characters such as Woody Louse and Monkey, who light up the screen when they connect properly with Mr Bon-Hovis.

I hope you all agree, that adding these tweaks to an already successful format will bring the show to it's next level!  See you in season two!

Cheap New Christian Worship Music

I think I must be old school!

You may already know the my album Stars Like Needles is my first release.

You know, I thought music CD's were £9.99!  I guess that shows how long it is since I've bought a CD.  Well, my apologies, it seems like it's been a bit overpriced.  Most music CD's are coming out at around the £6.99 mark, so that's the price I've settled on for now.

So come along and snap it up folks, one of the most enjoyable and exciting new worship releases this side of 2013, very special, very beautiful new and original praise music.

If you want some worship music which is a little bit different, or you want some praise which is honest, open and real, then this is the album for you.  I never pretend everything is perfect, but I never pervert the course of the Gospel!  This is music for people with a faith that is real, deep and not wishy washy worship which just repeats the same old lines and passages from Scripture we've heard time and time again.

If you want to listen to some moving worship music, or you like to praise God in a way which is not quite so traditional and same old same old worship music, then you've come to the right place.

You can buy the album by clicking on the link on the right.

Christians chasing money and the prosperity gospel.

The prosperity gospel and chasing financial success as Christians.

Wow, talk about missing the point.  Much of what is said by the prosperity gospel preachers is true, and I'm sure they vary in their understanding and connection with the Lord as much as any preachers!  But for me, focussing on the Lord's desire for your success financially is a bit like inheriting a beautiful castle and then spending your entire life in the garden twittering on about how amazing the bird bath is.

And to be brutally frank, if the Lord wants what's best for us which he surely does, then His primary concern is going to be the state of our souls surely, and not the shininess of our car?

In my experience money in relation to Christians should be something rather different to the relationship between money and those who don't know God.

Christians should treat money as a responsibility, something to be carefully administered for the good of others.  Of course there are certain levels of comfort and happiness that God would like to bless us with, but I don't think that's His first priority!  And I certainly do not believe that comfort and padding come hand in hand with a positive relationship with God.  As I sit at my desk writing this my financial circumstances are very restrictive, but I am certainly in one of the absolute most blessed parts of my life.  The two are only very loosely connected, and only under certain circumstances I think.

For me, this video touches on the sublime and speaks absolute volumes.  If only children in our schools were shown this video regularly as they grew up.



I think His first priority, sorry folks, is to mould us into the shape of His Son, Jesus.  Giving, ultimately self sacrificing even to the point of death.

I think that God tends to bless Christians with wealth when they have reached a level of maturity whereby they understand it's true value and the responsibility they have with it.

If we devote our lives to becoming more Christ-like, then we become better connected with the Father and life starts to make more sense.  How crass it then starts to seem that we thought God's love was measured by whether He gave us a square brown car or a pointy silver one.

How to pray and how to hear from God.

Praying to God and hearing from God is one of the greatest struggles for a lot of Christians.  

While I can't claim to have the be all and end all answer, I can share with you some things which have helped me, and have also helped my wife Ellie as we've grown together and experienced similar development of our relationship with God.

And I'm certainly not talking as a person who has it all sorted, and has led a sound and consistent Christian life with no issues and no struggles.  Oh no!  Have a look at my most recent song on Youtube, I'm sure that if you listen to that you'll know, I understand what it means to feel separate from God.  But a big part of the key is revealed at the end of the song.  It's not a secret, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you!

Have a listen:



I can remember times as a baby Christian, well perhaps more recently than that too, when I've looked about me at certain people in the church and in my home-groups and the like and felt so terribly inferior.  There are always these people who just seem to have peace, their families are all lovely and pretty, their homes are full of warmth and depth, they seem unshakably kind and at ease.  It seems like they've cracked it.

And all this time we're stressing about money because we can't pay the electric and the car's running on vapours, I'd rather not eat than have beans on toast again (wow, what ingratitude, that attitude kept the Israelites in the desert for 40 years instead of the 10 days it should have taken!), the three year old is a terror and we think she may have ADHD and the teenager wants to explain to you in explicit detail every waking moment what you're wrong about, how you don't understand, how things are different now and that you're so stupid.

I want to scream.  I Do scream sometimes!  Let's go a bit further and tell me if you can relate:  There are certain people who everybody loves, it's as if an angel goes before them scattering spiritual petals on the ground everywhere they walk.  But we're not imagining that in a nice way are we?  We're just jealous because we walked into church again and were ignored, nobody smiled at us and asked us how we were so we went and sat in a corner and had horrible thoughts about everyone else, especially the ones everybody likes!

But a strange thing started to happen a few years ago which was fundamentally entwined with prayer, my relationship with God and with my wife.

I started to notice that as new people came into church, and as I began to expand my circle of relationships WE began to appear like those 'sorted' people to the newcomers!  Oh what fools they are if only they knew!  But it raises an interesting point; you just don't know where people have come from or what they're going through.  And I think in the end, fundamentally across all of humanity there are two different kinds of people who are poles apart. One shines and the other doesn't.  One is full of life and the other isn't.  One whose struggles and tests have made them beautiful and one whose haven't.  And you fall in one camp or the other.

And what defines them is simply this:  One has chosen to be a giver, and the other is a taker.

Acts 20.35; the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

I may seem to have gone off on a bit of a tangent but I will circle back to my main point now.  Firstly, something comes from God which makes us WANT to be the giving type.  This is the fundamental difference between legalism and love.  Two people can do the same work, one can be motivated by fear, and the other by love.  And you are not saved by your works, you are saved by grace and remember, the Lord looks at the heart!  And love covers a multitude of sins too, so imagine if by inspiration of the Holy Spirit you feel a joyful compulsion to serve God and administer the love He's shared with you.  What goodness you will be pouring out into the world.

Conversely you can have a belief but not connect it with the Lord by seeking Him and connecting with Him in prayer, your good works will likely stem from a head knowledge that you SHOULD be a good person, and that God is big and powerful and scary.  You will end up feeling drained, not refreshed, unfulfilled, and crucially you will feel resentful to the people you are giving to, you will feel as if they owe you something!  Eventually this type of giving will be exhausted, it will stop and leave you bitter and unclear as to why you were doing it, as well as confused about your relationship with God.

This is why it is said in James 2, ²⁶ For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

So these two different types of people aren't separated by whether or not they're nice or nasty, wanting to do good or can't be bothered, but simply by whether or not they are driven by a deep connection with God by the presence and constant refreshing of His Holy Spirit within us.

God is the source of everything that's good in the universe.  We have some sort of understanding of it of course because it's programmed into our nature, we're made in His image after all.  But we become exhausted if we're not connected to the inexhaustible source.

I expect everyone reading this understands that somehow the death of Jesus, who when he walked the earth was a sinless man ( the only one ever, being God in human form ) acted as a sort of payment for our badness.  And God, being all perfect and lovely wasn't able to connect with us the way He'd like when we were all lost in general imperfection! So that was a very thoughtful and considerate thing for Him to do.  What this means is that we are now able to engage directly with God through His Holy Spirit, as long as we acknowledge Jesus when we attempt to.  This acknowledgement changes something in our spirit, and opens up a sort of access point which allows God in.  Without acknowledging Jesus it's a bit like calling out for somebody whilst holding the door shut...

So we're off to a flying start then if we make a few assumptions.  
We can get to God, He has made it possible for us.  We are promised that, and I think He's trustworthy!

A believer's prayer is a powerful thing and faith comes from hearing the message, so read a reasonable chunk of scripture daily.  Don't believe anybody who says you just need to choose a passage and meditate on that regularly.  You do that as well, not instead of reading a good portion, at least a chapter or two every day.  It stops being a chore very quickly.

Ask God for His presence, and ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Ask God to open up Scripture to you.

Listen for answers.  Thinking you can't hear from God is actually another way of saying you don't trust His ability to speak to you.  He certainly can speak to you.  Pray specific prayers and ask specific questions, and then pause in the quiet and listen for answers.

Always use the name of Jesus.

Have absolute confidence in the name.

If you feel any sense of unease or tension, stress or frustration in the room, have a little celebration, and sing out loud to Jesus!  Maybe the devil doesn't want you to pray, which means you're surely on the right track!  Just lift your arms and command any evil spirits out of the room in Jesus' name, tell them the room belongs to Jesus and you belong to Jesus.  Say it all with a smile and sing praises to His name.  It's happened to me once or twice and it's a wonderful thing to see the power of His name transform a room.  Just keep going until you can tell in your spirit that something has changed and the bad atmosphere has left.  Don't get cross or angry, do it all with confidence and peace, and celebration.  The change WILL happen.

Persevere.  God is always with us, but so often we bring so much mental and spiritual junk to the alter it can take some time for us to settle into our prayer.  Don't let your prayer time be a two minute in and out.  Persevere, it's something that can be learned.

Find your own way, ask God to teach you how to pray in the way that's right for you.

Be bold and confident in approaching the throne of grace.  Never think to yourself  'I wonder if god will be there for me today.', but assume He will be!

Learn to recognise the voice of the Holy Spirit within you.  There is now something wonderful living inside you which you were not born with, a living and Holy spirit from God, learn to recognise Him talking to you, the difference between Him and your own thoughts.  Ask Jesus to help you.

Ask God to teach you how to live, and what kind of a person to be.  Ask Him to change you into the kind of person He wants you to be.  Let this be your prayer every day, ask Him to motivate and inspire you, ask Him to change your heart to love the things He loves and ask Him to fill you with good, Godly and Holy wisdom.

Keep doing that.

Pray for other people as well as yourself.  Pray big prayers, don't be afraid to pray against what seems hopeless such as war and famine.

Pray specific prayers for specific situations in home and personal life too.  Make sure you recognise when the answer comes!

Pray every morning before you get up and every night before you sleep.  Shoot little prayers up to the throne all day whenever something comes up.

If you are married, start praying together every day.  this might be very embarrassing if you've never done it before, but it has the power to change your life and transform your marriage.   Stick at it!

Do what God says!  If you start praying regularly in Jesus name, and listening out for God in a way you haven't done before isn't it just possible he might tell you there are things you need to change about your life? Did you ever ask God about your career before?  Are you doing what HE intended? Did you ever ask him about your career or your house which you've bought with a huge loan?  Did you ask God where you should live?  Consider it's possible that your mind may not have been completely in tune with God's your whole life!

Be obedient from now on, and begin enjoying your life the way God intended.

How much money can you make putting videos on Youtube?

I've updated this post from yesterday as I think it was a little lacking.  I've been a little clearer towards the end of the article now, I hope this helps as I found it quite difficult to find this information when I was looking into whether or not to place ads on my Youtube videos to make some extra cash.

How much money can you make from posting videos on Youtube?

First of all, make sure you subscribe to my Youtube channel here!  That's key in making money, get subscribers, so help a guy out right? www.Youtube.com/ChristianMoviesUK 

This was such a difficult question to find an answer to.  I guess there are so many variables, different advertisers pay different amounts, different types of video might appeal to different types of user who are more or less inclined to click on ads meaning you'll get less clicks per 1000 views.

I set up my videos to monetise and I haven't found any information which suggests I should keep the payment amount and schedule secret, I don't think I was invited into the secret Youtube club where they tell you how much you're going to earn from advertising on your videos as long as you don't tell anyone else!

So I'll tell you what it looks like so far on mine.  And a lot of this is based on assumptions and rough guesstimates!

Basically, I get about 4 pence, £0.04, every time somebody clicks on the advert on one of my Youtube videos.  Yippee!  Actually, I thought it would be even less than that.  I'm sure there are setting you can select which put limits on how ads are displayed which may mean you'd get less.

Anyway, based on the percentage of people who are clicking my ads on Youtube, the prediction they offer me is that I am likely to earn around £3.45 per 1000 video views, I have a click-through rate of just over 8%.  I don't know if that's good or not.

10,000 views = £34.50
100,000 views = £345.00
1,000,000 views = £3,450.00
10,000,000 views = £34,500.00
100,000,000 views = £345,000.00
300,000,000 views = £1,035,000.00  Think Gotye, Gangnam Style...Yay, I'm a Youtube Millionaire!

So, if you wanted to make a living from Youtube and you had my level of CTR and £0.04 per click, then in order to get a passable young geezer's wage of let's say £20k a year that would mean you would need half a million clicks per year.  At a rate of just over 8% that means you would need roughly six million video views per year.

So that's the answer right there, all very rough but you can work the rest out yourself.  If you start getting a vid with 300 million views, things start to look rather tasty.

My vids are getting between 10-60 views per day on average (not quite Beyonce Single Ladies) so let's call it an average of 35 per day.  I have four main videos doings this, so I'm seeing about 140 views per day.  I'm getting a bit more than that really, but it's always far more comfortable to do a conservative estimate for me, that way I'm more likely to be pleasantly surprised!

So on a 30 day month I'm getting 4200 views. 8.2% of those 4200 Youtube video views makes it likely I will get around 344 click throughs on my ads. 344 clicks x £0.04 = £13.76 pcm. Wow, I'm on my way!

Since I'm getting that with four main videos, and I'd need at least 100 times that to scrape by as anything like a career choice, then I'll need another 400 videos.  Those videos took about a week each to make, so we're looking at a good four or five years working for very little before I could start to relax, and of course there's no saying that all videos will maintain a level of popularity.

BUT, and this is the big fun part, if you are putting your heart into something and producing a level of quality (which people certainly appreciate, quality over quantity any day!)  then it seems likely that out of those four hundred videos you will achieve several which are far more successful than the sorts of low numbers I'm talking about.  I think that's where it gets quite exciting, as you have a hope of hitting the big time and you're independent.  You can make a movie or a song and do really well with no record deal or Hollywood agent, all you need to rely on is your own talent and of course, God's will!

So it's very possible to make a living off Youtube, especially if your videos are popular.  But it would need to be a concerted long-term effort, requiring skill, talent and hard work, like any career.  Go for it!

Creating videos for Youtube and making money from them with Adsense and advertising

How much money can you make from posting videos on Youtube?

This was such a difficult question to find an answer to.  I guess there are so many variables, different advertisers pay different amounts, different types of video might appeal to different types of user who are more or less inclined to click on ads meaning you'll get less clicks per 1000 views.

I set up my videos to monetise and I haven't found any information which suggests I should keep the payment amount and schedule secret, I don't think I was invited into the secret Youtube club where they tell you how much you're going to earn from advertising on your videos as long as you don't tell anyone else!

So I'll tell you what it looks like so far on mine.  And a lot of this is based on assumptions and rough guesstimates!

Basically, I get about 4 pence, £0.04, every time somebody clicks on the advert on one of my Youtube videos.  Yippee!  Actually, I thought it would be even less than that.  I'm sure there are setting you can select which put limits on how ads are displayed which may mean you'd get less.

Anyway, based on the percentage of people who are clicking my ads on Youtube, the prediction they offer me is that I am likely to earn around £3.45 per 1000 video views, I have a click-through rate of just over 8%.  I don't know if that's good or not.

10,000 views = £345.00
100,000 views = £3,450.00
1,000,000 views = £34,500.00
100,000,000 views = £345,000.00
300,000,000 views = I'm a Youtube millionaire!  Think Gotye, Gangnam Style...

So, if you wanted to make a living from Youtube and you had my level of CTR and £0.04 per click, then in order to get a passable young geezer's wage of let's say £20k a year that would mean you would need half a million clicks per year.  At a rate of just over 8% that means you would need roughly six million video views per year.

So that's the answer right there, all very rough but you can work the rest out yourself.  If you start getting a vid with 300 million views, things start to look rather tasty.

My videos are averaging about 5-10 thousand views per year, so, I either need to get a thousand videos on there of a reasonable quality, or do something special that people are going to go nuts over.

So it's possible to make a living off Youtube, especially if your videos are popular.

Brand new free christian worship music video release from Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson

Dear brothers and sisters,

I'm so pleased that I've had a little revelation regarding my Christian song-writing endeavours.  I hope it really blesses you too!  Ellie and I have been challenged just lately about how we should be devoting our time to working for the kingdom of God and blessing others with the gifts God has given us.

God seems to be telling us quite clearly that if we're working for Him and we're in His will we shouldn't be constantly stressing about money.  I have a lot to say on the subject, but that may be for another blog.  But the thing is, it's really difficult to get to that breakthrough part of the Christian walk where you say to God, from your heart, 'My greatest blessing is to serve you Lord.'

And we have to serve Him unconditionally, and that includes Him NOT giving us what we want, as well as giving us what we think we need!



The truest blessings to be had in this life are those that come when we can really let go of our own desires and allow God to have His way.  And I know this much, that's no sacrifice, because God's way is so much better than ours!

Anyway, I'm getting off the point a little here.  I made my recent album Stars Like Needles, which you can purchase by clicking the link at the top of this page, and immediately began to stress about how to get people to buy it, how to get a record deal, how to get on iTunes and all those things which didn't really connect with my initial purposes in producing the album; which were to use my gifts in service of God and to bless others.

And the answer which God gave me was very surprising and very liberating, 'Give it away!'  What's the point in making something for people and then holding it all in so they have to prize it out of me?  It's meant to be a gift from God to His people, through me!

How freeing and how beautiful that felt, to know I am working for God in the way He intends, and blessing others in a way that blesses me so deeply.

So what I will be doing from now on is producing my songs and making videos for them, and making them freely available on Youtube.

Hurrah!

Of course you can still buy the CD if you want it for the car or for a gift, then that's a lovely way you can bless me.  But I am no longer worrying about getting money out of my Christian brothers and sisters who I just want to bless, I know God will provide if I am serving Him.

Now, isn't it wonderful when God gives you peace and confirmation on something?  After Ellie and I prayed about this yesterday, Ellie walked around the house saying thank you top God for all the ways He has blessed us. I once again listened to Him and put into action what I felt He was saying to me.  You see I admit it, we are very poor compared to most people in our country, so we end up praying about money all the time.

I could just imagine Jesus hanging there on the cross saying 'Haven't I done enough?  How much more do you want?'

And so letting go and trusting the Lord once again yesterday was incredibly liberating.  And so often have Ellie and I seen remarkable blessings like this that we were hardly surprised, first thing this morning we had a tax rebate for an amount of money which very closely matched the value of some specific items we needed and couldn't afford, and had been whining and moaning to God about.

Also, after months of not understanding what on earth was going on, my Google Adwords account has come to life and enabled me to gain revenue from advertising on my videos and my blog, TODAY that happened, so my fans who can't afford a CD will always be able to hear my music!

Lord Jesus, you are AMAZING!

Last chance to view episode two of Joves Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew!

Don't forget everybody, it's your last chance to catch episode two of Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew tomorrow. It's on UCB TV, shich is Sky channel 585 at 7.00 AND 4.00. Everybody's support is so much appreciated, all the feedback is really encouraging. If you don't have Sky, just watch online as all UCB's TV is broadcast online too here:http://www.ucbmedia.co.uk/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=582&Itemid=6
Normal air times are Tuesdays as above, Thursdays at 7.30 am, and Saturdays at 7.30.

Release of NEW Christian children's television show in the UK.

It's getting very near now, our new show is going to air tomorrow! What a journey. To be fair on you guys, you would have had to have had your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed not to know about that by now!

Please share with any friends or family who you think might enjoy some good, wholesome kids' TV.

Anyway, if you want to see what we can do with some socks, some paint, and some imagination then check it out tomorrow morning at 7.30 on sky channel 585, or online on live TV here:http://www.ucbmedia.co.uk/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=582&Itemid=6

If that time doesn't fit your agenda don't worry, normal viewing times are Tuesdays at 7:30am and 4pm
Thursday at 7:30am
Friday at 4pm
Saturday at 7am

Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew Launch, please help.

Dear friends and Church family,

Your support is needed!

As many of you will know, for the past year or so UCB Media and myself have been in production of a children's TV show which I have written and created, and which I also perform in.

It has been a remarkable journey, and has seen us amazed by God's blessing like never before, and something which would have seemed impossible a couple of years ago has become a reality.

You may know that UCB is a charity, and this is a very low budget production.  Hence there is minimal budget for advertising, and I need my friends and church family to help spread the word.

For those of you who don't understand what it is I have tried to do, please allow me this opportunity to explain briefly.

A couple of years ago, I found myself especially moved by the parable of the ten talents.  If you're not familiar with it, it's a story in which Jesus describes three servants who have been entrusted with an amount of money (talents) by their master.  One servant is so afraid of failure, that he does nothing with the money at all, where the other servants invest the money successfully and put it to good use.  The money of course is a metaphor for the skills and gifts the God gives us to work with during our lifetimes.

I realised that I was the 'wicked' servant, who had allowed my talents to go to waste.  And so I needed to invest those special gifts that God had entrusted me with.  Without going into minute detail, I felt that at this point my talents added up to the production of media for children.

I was, as a father, especially moved by the quantity of poor quality media that modern children are fed in terms of the message of love, of goodness, the value of prayer and a relationship with God, sound doctrine and the planting of good spiritual seeds, seeds which might produce worthwhile fruit in later life if nurtured.

I remembered the power that television had in my young life and how it's most positive aspects stick with me to this day; I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when I think about Huckleberry Finn.

Perhaps there was a way, I thought, that I could minister such goodness to children like this?  Perhaps there was a way that I could touch young lives by bringing God into an environment of fun, adventure, comedy and colour, and teaching children that having a friendship with God is just a normal part of everyday life.

As an adult I can look back at my childhood, when I didn't know God in the way I do today, and I can see him at work, and I can remember him touching my life.  This show may be seen by thousands of children, possibly tens of thousands of children, who may just grow up remembering how God loved them even when they were little.

If any children in the world, where this might be seen, in the UK, the Philipines, Australia or New Zealand can look back and smile, and say in their hearts 'Jesus loved me then...'  then it's all been worthwhile.  And that's why I need you to share everyone, this is important.  It's not just about me and my pet project...yes it's my career and I'm sure God loves me and wants me to do well, but this is about serving children and serving the Lord, so let us all do it with Glad hearts, think of Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew as youth outreach because it most certainly is that.

Please share about it with your friends, your family, your facebook, your e-mail address book.  Share this link to the website www.Christian-Movies.co.uk , tell everyone about this exciting, brand new British Christian kids' TV show!  Please share the viewing schedule as below, and watch yourselves!

The first airing will be Thursday 1st November at 7:30am and then Saturday 3rd at 7am

The normal airtime's will be Tuesday at 7:30am and 4pm

  Thursday at 7:30am

  Friday at 4pm

  Saturday at 7am

It's on Sky channel 585, but if you don't have sky don't worry, you can watch live TV online at www.UCBMedia.co.uk 

God bless you all, and don't hide your light under a bushel! 

Doing a Christian radio show interview with Paul Hammond.

OK, bit scary!  I'll be on UCB radio tomorrow morning doing a short promotion for my new show Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew, I'll be on Paul Hammond's show at about 10.15, along with Thom Price, who played a big part in enabling the production of our show.

I asked if they would share with me the sorts of questions they'd be asking, and if I should prepare in any way, but was just met with 'Don't worry, you'll be fine!'

Well, a big thank you guys for the ever so encouraging vote of confidence, but I'm still scared! Gulp!  I've been on stage a fair bit I guess, but it's always been with something prepared...now, everybody who knows me, please respond to this post now by writing honestly, with your hands on your hearts

"Joe, you never say anything stupid.  I've known you all these years, and I've never known you to be painfully tactless, blurt out something random at the wrong time, put your foot in your mouth or tell a completely inappropriate joke."

There!  You can't do it!  I think UCB get quite a lot of listeners, certainly in the tens of thousands, and of course I'm talking to parents and grandparents about a sweet and very wholesome new kids' show.  So it's scary!

Seriously though folks, your prayers would be appreciated.  Just pray for God's peace over me please, and his Holy Spirit guidance, as the show needs to be promoted as positively as possible, we've worked long and hard and it would be great if the interview, just the few minutes that it is, really encouraged people to watch the show.

Which starts in 8 days by the way!  Nov 1st, at 7.30, then Saturday at 7 if you missed it.The normal airtime's will be Tuesday at 7:30am and 4pm
  Thursday at 7:30am
  Friday at 4pm
  Saturday at 7am
On Sky Channel 585

If you don't have Sky, it doesn't matter, you can still watch LIVE TV here online or on your mobile device: http://www.ucbmedia.co.uk/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=582&Itemid=6

Making a Christian music video very quickly

Yikes!

As of today it is eight days until our new show, Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew goes to air, and I realised on Monday that one of the 13 music videos hadn't been shot!  Goodness only knows how something like that could slip through the net, we've counted every illustration, every song, every publicity photograph, and yet somehow a full music video has escaped us!

Alright, I hold my hands up, it escaped ME!  So I went out with the camera yesterday, just me and Stripy Monkey.  I took on board everything that the experts at UCB had taught me while we were making the music videos together for the other songs, and tried to put it in to play.  The song I was working on is a funny Christian song called 'Creepin', it's not particularly preachy, it's just me as Mr Bon-Hovis singing to the camera and sneaking about looking downright dodgy to reflect what happened in the related episode, during which Mr Bon-Hovis was, as you might expect, Creepin'!

I filmed myself in several locations singing the song all the way through, and then for interest I filmed several cutaways of things like me sneaking out from behind a tree, tiptoeing past windows and being generally suspicious, as well as some close ups and shots of monkey reading the Bible and the like.

Hopefully, when these are chopped together they will look something like a music video!  I'm sure they will, it's a catchy song; my kids are already singing it! And I just need to make sure that the visual are snappy, funny and interesting which I think they will be.

Make sure you look out for it on the show!

As Christians, how should we deal with Halloween?

Halloween eh? What to do. We're quite fortunate as we live down a little lane where there are few passers by, so we won't be persecuted this year by the little monsters demanding sweeties, but my heart goes out to those of you who are more accessible.

I do have a problem with Halloween, as you might expect. It's not with fantasy though, and it's not with a child being encouraged to use their imagination, or dressing up, or knocking on their neighbours' doors as a fun social activity. I'm not too concerned that a non-Christian tradition was manipulated to involve the Christian faith.

What really bothers me about Halloween brothers and sisters, is that it is nothing less than a trickle-down of a sinister adult culture. It's a gateway, an entry point, an initiation, it's part one, it's horror for beginners, it's 'My First Zombie' with a back-to-front 's'.

I have some experience of kids now, as do most of my friends, and what they are is innocent. They respond to tenderness, sweetness, love, kindness, and they remind us as adults what's really worthwhile in life. The idea that we should very selfishly attempt to infect that innocence is an idea that comes from a very deep seated need to justify ourselves I think.

Sharing the darkest parts of ourselves with our children in some way serves to make us feel that we're OK, that our darkness is innocent. I feel we are in some way using our beautiful children as scapegoats.

That, I think, is what's really happening.

Which parent among us would want to give our children an Iggle Piggle doll, then gouge out his eyes, cover him in blood and play 'Undead Iggle Piggle is coming to get you!'?

I know that sounds ridiculous, I have a taste for melodrama I know, but the point is that we're trying to bring our children up into something sinister, the adult versions of which are questionable to say the least!

Many adults enjoy horror, most adults really don't. I don't think I know any horror fans actually, most of my friends I think would consider it quite distasteful.

What about porn, very comparable I think, should we start our little ones off on it now? Should we begin to sexualise them early on?

Last year my child's nursery had images of 'alive' skeletons hanging on the walls, along with ghosts and jack-a-lanterns. She was two.

Let's be clear, children DO NOT naturally want to celebrate death, zombies, horrific wounding, vampires, or fear. AT ALL. And anyone who says they do is inflicting grief on children and hurting their spirits unnecessarily for no better reason than to bring them some comfort regarding their own distressing predicament.

I think that 'What to do on Halloween' as Christians might be a little more straightforward than we think, and I'm sure some people are already on the case, but we should simply have a different celebration. Let's have Christian Halloween, and let's just call it 'Christian Halloween', simple as that, and let's make it as real as Christmas. What a glorious distinction that would be, and what fun for the kids.

Let's make it a celebration of everything that's been good and positive about the Christian faith down the ages, in memory of the lives that have been the best examples of love, charity and self-sacrifice. Let's dress up, sing songs, play party games in bright rooms filled with joy, celebration and music, and instead of knocking on doors demanding sweeties from pensioners who just want to be left in peace, lets go round the houses putting candles through people's letterboxes, reminding them that there is a shining light nearby even in the darkest times.

Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew release date!

Don't forget, you can order the

STARS LIKE NEEDLES 

album right here!

BIG NEWS! SHARE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SHARED BEFORE! Many of you will already know that a couple of years ago I felt a strong need to devote my life to using my God-given talents. I felt I wasn't really applying the things that made me unique

 to my life and how I worked.

I didn't exactly know what to do with that revelation, but I knew that I had to move forward, and so prayerfully, asking God to guide my steps, I got up one morning and did something. I remember it very well, it didn't all make perfect sense, I didn't know what it all meant or where it was going to go, but I knew I had to do SOMETHING.

Thank you God, because you revealed to me what I didn't understand; what all those separate parts of me added up to at this point in my life. Namely, making short, fun, morally decent and entertaining films for children which could potentially show them the love of God in their everyday lives. I knew the power of the screen from the memories I still have from my childhood.

Huckleberry Finn will be with me forever! So the power of the medium to deliver to children was not in question. With immense and invaluable support from my dear wife and prayer partner Ellie I produced some short films in the garage and showed them to the wonderful Neil Elliott at UCB media, and he and Thom Price not only saw the potential but invited me in to the studios to produce it more professionally and as a full season of 13 half hour episodes! Astonishing, nothing less. Amazing things happen when you pray and listen for an answer!

So over the past year UCB (a charity) and myself have been involved in a co-production of my Christian children's TV show, Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew. It's been a wild ride, and if I'd listened to the nay-sayers, if I'd examined the bank account too closely, the show would never have been made! But God encouraged us all the way, told us to trust Him in the face of everything, and so we did.

It's been such an interesting year, as God has revealed to me what I'm actually capable of if I listen to and trust Him, but in fact, glory to God, what HE'S capable of is what's really amazing.

And finally dear friends it's finished! And it is scheduled for air, you can actually watch it!

The first airing will be Thursday 1st November at 7:30am
and then Saturday 3rd at 7am
The normal airtimes will be:
Tuesday at 7:30am and 4pm
Thursday at 7:30am
Saturday at 7am

If you have Sky you can watch on channel 585, or if not you can watch live TV online on your phone or mobile device or pc by clicking here at the scheduled air times just like normal telly: http://www.ucbmedia.co.uk/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=6

Many big thanks and hugs to everybody who has been on side from the start by encouraging and supporting! And to those who haven't, God loves you anyway!

Please watch, and please share this with anybody who has kids, or grandchildren and who feels let down by the questionable morality of today's children's television.

New Christian worship music 2012

Well here it is, as promised, the brand new video from the Christian worship album 'Stars Like Needles' by little ole me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson, if you'll forgive the shameless self promotion!

As I mentioned before, the lipsync is an issue which I'm struggling to overcome, in fact I don't think I will be able to completely overcome it with windows movie maker.  Any tips will be gratefully received!

All in all I am pleased with this, it is a solo effort in every respect which makes certain aspects of production much harder, especially drums and cameras!  Anyway, here it is, and if you like it then don't forget to show your support by buying the album HERE, it's full of great tracks like this one.

Hope you enjoy it!

Making a new Christian worship music video 2012

Well now that's fun!

For the last couple of days I've been taking my camera with me out into the fields when I walk the doggies.

And while I don't claim that my solo work is really up to professional standard, I'm getting results which are a massive improvement on what I attempted two years ago.  Hopefully what I'm producing is simply an improvement on a blank screen! Be nice now...

One of the key things that I've learned about making a Christian worship music video for Youtube is a simple trick that applies to any music style really, which is simply to take three separate videos of the main performer (in this case little old me) singing the song all the way through either in different locations and/or using different shots like close-up, medium and long shot etc.  Then afterwards in the edit you can simply switch between the three and there you have it, a very basic music video.

What you're essentially doing here is recreating the multi-camera shoot on a budget with one camera, which is effective especially if you're shooting the video all in the same location.

Editing can be quite tricky since you'll have three lots of film to spool through (showing my age there, obviously I'm using a full HD digital camcorder...) as opposed to one if you were switching live between three cameras all taking a different shot and just recording one video.

I know I'm not being overly detailed here, if anybody has any questions please do feel free to ask!

OK, now something very simple and cool which I figured out myself, when I made the Christian Worship video for the my song 'GLORIOUS' from my current album 'Stars Like Needles' (BUY IT HERE)

Have a watch and you'll see there are one or two places where the lipsync just doesn't fit!  YIKES!



This happened because I was trying to lipsync an entire Christian worship song in time from memory.  Not bad considering...

I wasn't exactly sure what to do about this, I didn't want to be wearing headphones on camera and I didn't want to lug a portable cd player or a laptop round with me to help me sing along, just another thing to carry. The answer was so simple, just pop my mobile phone in my top pocket, problem solved!  So that's what I've tried this morning, and it was so cool!  I was just able to enjoy singing along in time to the music and the lipsync will be much better!

I use Windows Movie Maker to edit at home, I know I know, but it's all about budget!  There a so many restrictions, but it is better than it used to be.  Of course, you can't see the audio track as a wav file, so lipsync is made tricky right there, I have to fiddle about cropping a tittle here and a jot there, ctrl/z undo undo!  Trial and error until it's right.  But it does work.

Keep an eye on the blog, the new video will be finished in a couple of days and I'll be sure to put it on here.  It is a Christian worship song, but it woks quite well as a metaphor for any loving relationship.  It's called Victorious and it's an original Christian worship composition by me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson.  Keep and eye out!

How to write a Christian worship song.

Time flies and I'm loving my new Google Blogger website!

The fact is, it's more than a blog page isn't it? It's a website that does everything I could possibly want it to and I'm very chuffed with it.  Those of you who know me will know I used to run a small web design company, we built some lovely websites for over 70 clients over a couple of years.  But I certainly wouldn't go into the business now, not when something like this is available for free!

You can buy the new Christian worship album Stars Like Needles HERE!

You may want to turn the volume up a bit, the sound is a touch low for some reason...



Anyway I do digress!  What I have for you today is a lovely song I wrote a few months ago.  I think the video could do with being updated, my intention was to use the Bob Dylan style lyrics on paper thingy as you can see, but they were unclear on camera so I ended up having to caption it anyway, making the whole video somewhat pointless!

Well with that in mind you are invited to enjoy the patch of grass next to our back garden, as well as our lovely doggies Charlie and Jack, and our daughter Flossie all of whom make spontaneous cameo appearances in my somewhat slap-dash effort of a music video!

The music itself came to me one day as I was out walking the dogs.  I love the early morning out in the fields, I like to pretend it's a bit of a chore so I get the brownie points, but the truth is I love it, it's a very important part of my day now!

I often use the time to pray and talk to God in the peace of the morning sun.  On this particular day an image came into my mind of how we posture ourselves spiritually and emotionally towards the world we live in and the people we live with.  It occurred to me that when we are hard, defensive and guarded we can become very isolated and internal.

What I often do when I'm writing Christian worship music is, in the first instance, I will think of a concept I want to share.  For example in this case spiritual isolation.  Then, and this is quite personal to me, I paint that concept into a picture in my mind's eye, an actual image that I can visualise and look at in my imagination.  So in this case I saw a man dressed in armour with a spear standing in front of a heart, not allowing anyone near.  My next step would then be to describe the picture I've just painted with words.

In this instance it was with a question; how do you stand in the doorway of your heart?  Of course this only accounts for one of the verses, but you can see how the way I relate to and connect with spiritual concepts, which enables me to describe them, is carried through in the rest of the song too.

That seems to me to be a good order of events, a nice way to create a pretty firm and well considered concept for a Christian worship song.  And it's very important to note that I cover the entire creative process with prayer daily, morning and night.  I trust the Lord to guide my steps, that my talents will glorify Him.

The next part, and perhaps the most lovely part is where the spirit and the soul flow in.  Because for me, as soon as I have some words with a root and a concept that I believe in, I can sing it from the heart.  Then, I can listen to the music that plays naturally in my mind, and sing it from the heart.  In terms of melody and vocal style, I don't have to 'try' too hard at this point, that comes later. What I seem to do is speak the words of the song, in truth according to the emphasis and message they carry, in tune.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, and then ah yes!  I have it.  Record me mumbling it on my phone so I won't forget it by the time I get to the studio!

It's worth remembering at this point, that if there isn't something right there in those first few muttered notes that touches you, throw it away.  Please, benefit from my experience, you can have that for free.  A very wise man once said, 'You can't polish a turd.'  That's very nearly true with music, except that you sort of can, you just get a shiny turd.

So if you're interested in writing yourself,don't be precious!  If the very base of it isn't quite right, scrap it, forget it, get it out of your mind and don't let it nag you.  I have spent two whole weeks before on a Christian worship song that was so bad I could hardly bear to listen to it, waiting for just that tweak which would save it.  The tweak never came!  Scrap it!

On a far more positive note, the flipside of this is true too.  If the root is right, and you know it, you love the concept and those first few little notes just speak to you somehow but you've spent days fiddling with effects, putting in ridiculously contrived automation and the drums sound like they've just been pushed down a flight of stairs, keep going!  If the heart is right, good will come of it, don't give up!  Don't stop until you are totally happy!  Some musicians may say you can overwork it, but my own experience of working alone with sequencing software like Ableton live is that I should keep going and going until I'm completely happy.  And so often, it's the tiniest thing that makes the difference between something just not seeming to work and being just right!  So, I hope you like my song, and I'd love to hear your comments.  And don't forget to buy my album!

Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson

It's been a long journey!

But we're here now, this is the new home of everything to do with little ole me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson.

There are a few ways you might have ended up here, you may be a fan of the TV series Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew, you may have heard some of my music somewhere, perhaps on Youtube or even Christian radio, perhaps you have found some artwork somewhere that caught your eye, or maybe you are looking to commission a piece of music, TV or art.

I guess the point of a blog style website is that they are a little indulgent, and that's what has appealed to me about it, and I'll explain why.

For a while now, years I would say, I've been trying to section off my life into categories on the web. I have a Youtube channel called Christianmoviesuk (which is still my main id...) I opened a Twitter account too, which I must say remains an absolute mystery to me. I have integrated myself into the gibbering mass which is Facebook, with some success, but find myself always wondering who I should be...is it professional? Is it for old school friends? Church news? Is it just a bit of a giggle?

I have also invented a kind of persona on eBay in the past, with some success selling my own guidebook on how to buy and sell on eBay.

There are probably countless other places where I have presented a tailored version of myself appropriate to the particular arena I'm operating in at any given time, from comic illustrator to art dealer, TV producer to songwriter, musician, singer...

It's a pain!

I've struggled many times to settle on one place where I can nest down and put some energy into, comfortably knowing that it won't be irrelevent in two years time.

I finally cracked it by visualising a kind of Venn diagram. And what was this magical places where all these areas overlap? Simple in the end, in the middle it just says 'Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson'.

Thank goodness that's settled, it's all me! So what we have here is one place where I can be myself, and I am ALL of the above. I won't section myself off, chop myself up, label myself according to the time of day or who I think YOU may be.

Here, I will be myself. I'll be honest, I'll be open.

I am Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson, Producer, Musician, Artist, real person. xxx