The JESUS Film Project simplifying recording process for smaller people groups

Papua New Guinea (MNN) — You can only focus on so many things at one time effectively.

The popularity of the JESUS film continues to grow, and more and more requests for new translations are made all of the time.

For The JESUS Film Project, this has been a blessing that creates a dilemma. Smaller people groups long to have the film in their language so that more people can know about Jesus. Meanwhile, they’re still working at finishing projects for larger language groups.

Until now, it hasn’t been feasible to translate the film to these lesser-used languages.

Steve Baumann of The JESUS Film Project says they’re in the testing phase of a new tactic because “God loves all people, and we knew that we were missing out on reaching the smaller groups. So we had to develop a way that would reduce the cost.”

The project is called “JESUS Simplified Script,” and they’re working on six different languages in Papua New Guinea.

It really is quite simple, without watering down the content of the film. Instead of hiring multiple actors to re-dub the film in a new language, they are having one person of that language narrate the entire film.

What’s interesting is that this format resonates better with the people anyway. It mimics traditional tribal storytelling.

Once The JESUS Film Project can work out all the kinks of the process, they hope to repeat this process in about 20 languages.

“We want to go where things are moving and people are excited in those particular regions,” Baumann says.

They hope to have the process down pat by 2015 so that it can be easily shared with other ministries.

“We’d love to be able to hand it off to them so that they could do translations, they could do recordings, they could edit, they could mix and allow for their technical team to be able to run with it,” says Baumann.

“It’s exciting because what we’re seeing in Papua New Guinea in the first six languages, because they’re smaller groups, they can translate quicker…. Another benefit is that we can edit and mix right there on the spot.”

The way it has progressed the production of new translations of the video is quite extreme. Baumann says it has the ability to cut months or even years out of the entire process of recording.

“Being able to do it with such small groups that we’ve never been able to work on has just exponentially increased what these people can do in reaching the smaller groups.”

The Gospel in video form is so important because many of the people groups being reached are illiterate.

If you want to be a part of this exciting work, Baumann explains how you can.

“Prayer [is] the #1 response that all Christians should be doing. And as we pray for these things and see God moving, we believe it is in God’s heart to do this and to bring about His word throughout all the nations.”

Baumann reminds us, “As the Gospel goes out to all the nations, we quicken and we hasten Christ’s return and that prayer that God is working on. Either we ride with where God is going, or we’re missing the boat completely.”

If you would like to support the projects of The JESUS Film Project financially, you can do so here.

Also, check out audio technician internship opportunities.