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Eyewitness Bible Series:
"Superpower".

Writer and Director: Andrea Jobe

Role: Barnabas

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Reflections

Eyewitness Bible Series helps people learn and understand the Bible. 

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It consists of nearly 200 video narratives and study guides useful for individuals, families, small groups, and churches. The material is entertaining, uniquely effective, and free. It is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes study of the people and stories that are bedrock to the Christian faith--ancient stories that still echo with deep significance for today’s world with eyewitness accounts.

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This is a beautifully shot and written series in which I have made multiple appearances over the years playing the same character. It offers a unique format in which I have worked only in this project. The actor is given an extensive narrative monologue recounting the history of their character from that character’s perspective. The words are deeply personal and reflective of the conflicts and struggles that this character faced--both their own personal hardship and societal persecution. Andrea Jobe created the character of Barnabas as a very real, multidimensional man and in no way a cliché or archetype—this is what always made these projects such a delight as an actor. The text was not didactic or preachy. The audience is literally faced with this character telling their own story.

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What separates this work from other on-camera work I have done is the use of multiple camera simultaneously capturing the monologue from multiple angles. And, when I say multiple, I mean eight cameras at once both in front of, to the side of, and even behind the actor! I would go through the entire monologue from beginning to end. Then all of the cameras would be adjusted to a different framing so that I could run the entire text a second time. With 16 angles to choose from, the editor is able to create a fast-paced, interesting, and very personal version of the narrative. This, of course, required acting choices filled with simplicity and nuance, as at least one camera was always shooting in some version of a close-up—sometimes an extreme close-up on my eyes or hands.

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The work on these projects ultimately became incredibly useful in my Acting for the Camera classes, as it gave me great insight into the challenge of working with multiple cameras at the same time.

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