“He always stands by his covenant…” Psalms 105:8a (NLT)
SIL Global’s International Media Services (IMS) is ready to release the script, CESP, and dubbing shell for the new Lumo film, The Covenant. You may view Lumo’s English version of The Covenant on YouTube.
This new Lumo film is a nicely crafted overview of the Pentateuch from the perspective of Ezra. Although it lacks some significant details as an Old Testament cursory glance, it covers the main points from the Book of the Law of Moses that Ezra read to the Israelites, using direct scripture from the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It closes with scripture from Jeremiah and the New Testament book of Matthew.
The English version of The Covenant is available on YouTube. To dub the film for your language project, write to ims_projects@sil.org.
As long as the audience receiving this film understands that it does not include all of Genesis or Exodus, it should be well received as an overview. The film comes in at an hour and a half, and it is not meant to cover everything in Genesis and Exodus. Some of what was left out was not critical for the purpose of this film. Ezra’s purpose in reading to the Israelites is to remind them of the past, how they became a nation, all that God did for them, and the history of their rebellion and sin and thus the consequences (the Babylonian exile) and their need to renounce the pagan gods and ways that were already beginning to find their way back into the lives of God’s people. The theme of “covenant” is reiterated throughout the film.
The film is basically a narration using straight scripture, which makes it easy to dub. Throughout the film, Ezra is shown speaking directly to the Israeiltes and then the footage fades out to the visual interpretation. The whole narration needs only two voice actors. The beginning and the end have a narrator, and the rest is Ezra speaking (or reading from The Book).
Highlights:
- Straight scripture makes this an easy film to translate
- Only two voice actors required
- Voice-over style is a possibility where Ezra is seen speaking, rather than lengthy process of lip-sync
Caveats:
- Some previous knowledge of the complete story of Genesis will help with the context
- The Creation account portion is not complete and could be misleading for those who have not heard the complete historical account
- There is no sense of the passing of multiple generations as various stories unfold, especially between the Fall and the Flood and between Joseph and Moses
- There is low-level Hebrew during the direct speech portions of Ezra, which may be undesirable for some cultures
- Some cultures may misunderstand the appearance of Moses’s staff as a snake throughout the end of the video
- There are some credits in English that briefly appear on the screen at the very beginning of the video
There are other omissions, so it is important that anyone interested in dubbing this video first do a critical viewing of the CESP video (cultural evaluation and script preparation), available through the dubbing application form.
You may request the dubbing application form at ims_projects@sil.org.
Margaret Doll, MDiv, DMin, a vernacular media consultant, is the community of practice (CoP) coordinator for International Media Services (IMS). She can be reached at margaret_doll@sil.org.
Originally published in the IMN Newsletter Issue 144 May 2024 here… https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=%5BUNIQID%5D&u=bc82f4eff9d71d4c33696ac9f&id=2b17a65bc2