Showing posts with label problem of evil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label problem of evil. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

The Problem of Evil (2012)

This five-part series of educational films, aimed at 16-18 year old students of theology and religious studies, discusses some of the complex ethical issues surrounding one of the biggest questions: if there is a God, why is there evil in the world? Examining various theodicies linked to the topic, The Problem of Evil has one central evil at the heart of it – to help tie everything together – and that is the Holocaust, represented sensitively-but-honestly with stunning archive film.


 
The main four films (which I shot and edited) provide the in-depth starter knowledge to help inspire and sustain informed and passionate debate within the classroom, while the fifth film (for which I wrote the script and edited) provides an optional brief history of the Holocaust, from the election of Adolf Hitler, through the end of World War II, and beyond to the present day.


 
Editing this series provided some interesting creative challenges (as evidenced in the third video clip below), not only in continuing to produce visually-arresting educational films that didn't resemble the staid affairs I remembered from my own high school days, but also in sensitively dealing with tragic subject matter – most specifically the Holocaust. The main four films all exhibit sequences relating to the subject, but the key was to not push too far with the footage, while maintaining an honest and educational approach to the material.


 
However, we also felt that it was important to provide an optional extra on the DVD – the aforementioned The Holocaust: A Brief History – which fully lays bare the horrors of those events in a truthful manner that avoids audience manipulation. It isn't required viewing in a class room, but teachers have been provided with the choice to show it, or alternatively utilise the script (provided on the DVD with comprehensive teacher's notes).


 
Once again, by working on an educational DVD, a challenge was offered to create strong and interesting visual representations of the complex theological issues and ideas being put forward by the narration. I was able to tweak and improve upon previously used techniques, as well as try out some new ideas across all the films, to keep the presentation fresh and absorbing.

Click “READ MORE” below to watch preview clips of all five films featured in The Problem of Evil, and see what people think of the films themselves...

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

"The Problem of Evil" - a new educational DVD...

Joe and I recently finished a new educational DVD titled "The Problem of Evil", which deals with one of the most fundamental ethical issues relating to theology and the philosophy of religion. The clip below (which we referred to as "the Russian sequence") from The Irenaean Theodicy (the third of five films to be featured on the soon-to-be-released DVD) was my favourite experience while making this DVD.



I was given a quote from Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" and had to design, shoot, and edit the whole sequence from the ground-up to match it. Shooting in rural Herefordshire - independently, on a low budget and with few resources - we had to make our idyllic surroundings fill in for the wilds of Russia.

You can view more sample clips from the upcoming DVD release of The Problem of Evil by visiting the Ethics Online YouTube Channel.