Artist Profile: Logosdor (Hornsby, Australia)

Logosdor works as a creative Christian team who loves to create and give in secret. Who we are doesn’t really matter. Who Jesus is — is everything.

I found reading about this quite fascinating as we artists from Hope Animation continually struggle with finding a right balance between Christian content and entertainment. It also made me wonder whether the church is encouraging and preparing a new generation of believers to step out and impact the culture through music, film and media? If the most influence is exerted through music, art, media and films why are so few Christians working in this field or preparing for a career in this industry?

Later in the book Steve Stockman continues: “The Bible uses a wide array of creative ways to communicate truth: law, history, poems, songs, literature, lament, prophesy, proverbs, dreams, angels, miracles, parables, preaching, epistles and visions. When the evangelicals of the world decided that the Word preached was God’s most efficient way of communicating, they overlooked the fact that when Jesus was born, God was saying, among other things, that those ways were not sufficient and that the Word had to become flesh (John 1:1, 14). God’s Word is much more than words. Modernity coerced Christianity into taking the flesh and making it into words again. Art suffered. It was not clearly defined and conclusive kind of rationalism. It left feelings hanging. Stories or songs might stress some points of theological truth and fail to cover other aspects of the Gospel. They missed the fact that Jesus left the crucial doctrine of atonement out of the Parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32).”

I love Christian teaching and sermons. I also love Christian media and films. Nevertheless, I am always astonished at how few Christians are interested in any kind of Christian entertainment or art at all. Last week in my quiet time I came across this verse from Mark: “With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” – Mark 4: 33-34. I was really struck by the sentence: “He did not say anything to them without using a parable.” Parables are fictional stories, entertainment for Jesus’ audience in a time where there wasn’t any TV around.

This really encouraged me as my vision for Hope Animation is to create a series of parable based animations in increasing quality that explains a lot of spiritual principles in a way that is very accessible to a Christian and Non-Christian audience and is also a lot of fun to watch. The first part of this series – Strawinsky and the mysterious house – should be available later this year and draws a lot from the classical Disney story telling principles. We aim to also release some materials that allow you to explore the themes in more detail with your Sunday School, Youth Group or in your own time, building on Jesus’ example: “But when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything.” In the meantime though, feel free to visit www.hopeanimation.com to view some of our already completed animations!

We’re currently working on some new, very exciting projects and had to therefore make the decision to add a shopping cart to the site. We’re currently saving up for a very expensive bit of software that will enable us to make more and better animations in less time, so any DVDs you purchase will very much help us to produce new animations!!

Have a look in our webshop for our latest films or simply watch a few trailers and clips in the video section of the site. As always, please let us know if you have any comments, ideas or would like to support us to reach more people with our animated Bible stories and parables!

Artist Profile: David Hutter (Canterbury, UK)

Next to working as a e-learning consultant and designer, David is currently working on his first animation “Strawinsky and the mysterious house” that should be ready for release mid 2010. In the meantime, he is also the administrator and main contact for this website and Hope Animation in general.

Click here to order a copy of the DVD!

• A great resource for children to learn more about Christian living!
• Includes very detailed lesson and activity plans for Sunday School and Church!
• 6 short, fast paced and funny animations!

“The stories are cute. ”
“The writing is pretty decent.”

Phil Vischer – Creator of VeggiTales

Click here to download the Lesson Plans and Activity Booklet (Episode 1+2 only) (Order the Jesus Kids Club DVD to receive a copy of the full 36 page booklet!)

Artist Profile: Scott Cawthon (Texas, USA)

Scott Cawthon, a graduate of the Art Institute of Houston, Texas, is an independent animation producer living in Texas, USA. He is father of two children and has created several independent films, including Noah’s Ark, The Pilgrim’s Progress and A Christmas Journey.

Artist Profile: Scott Cawthon (Texas, USA)

Scott Cawthon, a graduate of the Art Institute of Houston, Texas, is an independent animation producer living in Texas, USA. He is father of two children and has created several independent films, including Noah’s Ark, The Pilgrim’s Progress and A Christmas Journey.

“An amateur animator from Canterbury has been highly commended for his entry in a high-profile film competition.

David Hutter, 26, who lives in Wincheap, made it to the final 10 of new national film competion ‘Enter the Pitch’ after the public voted in favour of his animation, entitled ‘Strawinsky and the City of Prisoners’.

The brief for the competition was to create a short film based around a verse or theme from the Bible, something David is already engaged in through his spare-time project, Hope Animation.

He hopes one day to be able to work in animation full-time.

“I’d most like to make something like the classic Walt Disney films like Snow White and The Little Mermaid, where the focus was on the story and the songs rather than just what the technology,” he said.

David, who is originally from Germany, came to the UK seven years ago as a Christian Youth worker. He attended Canterbury Christ Church University and now lives and works in Canterbury.

“I studied Business and Marketing at Christ Church but used a lot of my free time at uni to teach myself the media, design and animation skills,” he said.

Although David did not win the competition, he was praised by the judges for his ideas.

“David showed real talent, clarity and competency and did very well. He was highly commended by the panel, which included Poirot actor David Suchet and animator Nick Park,” said Luke Walton, director of the competition.

See David’s video at the Enter the Pitch website.”

Artist Profile: David Hutter (Canterbury, UK)

Next to working as a e-learning consultant, programmer and designer, David is currently working on his first animation “Strawinsky and the mysterious house” that should be ready for release mid 2010. In the meantime, he is also the administrator and main contact for this website and Hope Animation in general.

“I am still ‘pinching myself’ that 23 years after starting UCB and embracing the vision for national Christian Radio to the UK and Ireland the 1st promise has been fulfilled and the 2nd promise that revival would follow is now before us! God said to me:

‘I love the people of the UK and I want to reach them with the Gospel message through national Christian radio. The reason I want it is: I’m going to visit this nation once again in revival power and this revival is going to be so big that the churches won’t be able to cope with it. I want Christian radio to be there, covering the whole nation, so that when these new believers lose their peace, when they become anxious and fearful, when they have doubts, whether it be three o’clock in the afternoon or three o’clock in the morning, they will be able to switch on the radio and they’ll be able to hear My Word and uplifting music. They will be able to find encouragement, their anxiety will disappear, their peace will come back, and they will be able to experience My love once again.’

Through faith, prayer, hard work and your faithful support, the first part of this vision is now, at last, a reality.

We are now working tirelessly to ensure that we can support, nurture and encourage the new believers who will be brought to us when revival comes. This means we must:

- ensure that national UCB DAB Radio continues to broadcast
- strengthen and expand our Prayerline into a 24 hour service
- provide great quality resources to non-believers through initiatives such as Book of Hope, Bag of Hope and LookingforGod.com
- continue blessing the lives of millions through ‘The Word for Today’, Christian Radio and TV.

Thank you for standing with us and for your commitment to support UCB during 2010. God is moving, preparing us for the challenges ahead as well as the expansion of our charity to cope with the increasing responses. I would like to invite you to stand with us during these eventful times, by making a financial commitment to our ministry. Please continue to pray for our ministry, and ask God to use us in the best way possible as He prepares our nation for revival.”

I’ve managed to get through to round 2, which means that people can now vote for my competition entry. So as soon as you’ve finished reading this letter, please go to www.enterthepitch.com, create an account and vote for my entry. This will influence whether I will go through to round 3 in which I will need to present my pitch to people like Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit), David Suchet (Poirot) and others.

Let me know if you have problems with the site and finding my pitch. There are 30 entries to choose from, my entry has ID number 70.

The film I’m pitching for will focus on the biblical teaching about money, posessions, stewardship and greed. In Matthew 19:23-26 Jesus says: “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” According to many Bible scholars the eye of the needle refers to a small gate in the city wall. I’m very passionate about this theme as I believe this is critical for people living in the Western world (including myself) to understand and to apply in our lives.

You might have noticed that there are some screenshots on the right hand side (when you scroll down a little bit). This is from a new 3d animated series I’m currently working on. The full sneak preview trailer is part of our “Enter the Pitch” submission. I hope this might be reason enough for some of you to watch (and vote for) our submission on www.enterthepitch.com. Many thanks and God bless!