The Jungle: A hot, sweaty, grubby mirror?

Right everyone, just give me a second to wipe the dust off this thing.

Yes, it's been a while. There's good reason for that, which will be revealed in good time. For now, however, I've reached out to the back of the shelf to drag this blog into the light of day, in order to write about a certain reality show that's generating headlines here, there and everywhere.

I feel that, until the other day, I had done an excellent job in avoiding 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' altogether, until I ended up in the same room as someone who wanted to watch it. It started out as me simply being too lazy to move, and ended in myself getting drawn in by the beast I saw before me. Much like the proverbial car crash - I was fascinated and horrified in equal measure. It made me feel pretty helpless too. The show manages to hit viewing figures as high as ten million, and people take part in the public vote in their thousands. 

Before I properly begin (yes, I know I'm already on paragraph four), let me get one thing out of the way. I know the 'celebrities' put themselves up for it. I know that they know exactly what the show's like and what to expect. What I want to talk about is not so much the ins and outs of the show in itself, but the appeal on which it runs.

In which case, I'll hurry past the fact that the programme was a staggering hour and forty minutes long, along with the first hour or so of standard reality set-up, padding and melodrama, and get straight to one of the more interesting alarm bells it set off. I guessed the second they opened up voting who was going to end up enduring a 'bush tucker trial' . Clearly it was the one who made the most fuss over completing their first challenge. Whether the audience do it as a punishment for showing such 'weakness' or because it'll prove more entertaining to see someone provide them with bigger reactions to the challenge, I'll leave to be discovered. One thing is clear though - the audience pounced upon the person they perceived would, at least outwardly, have the worst time during the trial. The audience wanted to create a bigger struggle to an actual person. The confines of a reality show seem to completely change our reactions to someone having a bad time. Or does it simply make the same thing we've always felt deep down more acceptable?

The whole voting aspect really does say something in itself. 'I'm a Celebrity...' is not a show that's simply based upon revelling in the pain, fear and discomfort of others, but where the audience get to feel like they're making it happen. They choose, they decide. 'Hey people of the UK - who shall we throw bugs over today?'

The other thing that astounded me was the psychological level on which the show operated. From very deliberately degrading names and environments such as the 'celebrity slammer,' and its 'inmates' being dressed in stereotypical prisoner's clothes, to making the survivor of the first 'bush tucker trial' choose which group to give their food to, clearly planting a few early seeds for conflict later on. The whole thing seems to be grounded in a very transparent social manipulation of the contestants. I use the word 'transparent' but in actuality it was a celebration of it, and I'm pretty sure I spotted more than a hint of disappointment in the eyes of Ant and Dec when the decision was actually made very easily and painlessly. 

Talking of the nation's cheeriest hosts - the whole thing is presented to us in a fun-loving style with plenty of gags from the chirpy presenters. The voting details are displayed in a garish yellow font with upbeat snazzy music and a friendly voice-over. This, ladies and gentlemen, is entertaining and accessible. This is easy viewing. Let's find some nearly-famous people, starve, humiliate and come as close to torturing them as we're allowed, all because their careers haven't quite gone to plan. It's not at all dissimilar to theatre theorist Antonin Artaud's concept of a 'Theatre of Cruelty.' The idea that there is a sub-conscious part of all of us that responds to pain and wants to see more of it.  

The show does have some redeeming features. Watching a group of people band together to face their fears, forming friendships and realising they're capable of things they never thought they could do, was genuinely quite joyful to watch. However, I doubt the show would do nearly as well if everyone was able to face all the challenges in their path with a good nature and all come out stronger and happier. Let's face it, that's not what the show thrives from.

So what does all of this say about us? About the programme's audience, and those who vote? I know plenty of people who watch this show who are genuinely lovely, caring and empathic. I really struggle to understand their enjoyment of the show. Does it come down to that basic idea of detachment? It's on a screen therefore it's safe, it's a different world? Is it purely cynicism - that not even reality TV is real, everything's fixed, therefore this is ok? Or is there something much darker in even the nicest of us? Maybe someone better versed in psychology than me could answer that question.

I'm sure, as far as the jungle itself goes, everything that happens is actually fine. Everyone knows they're on a TV show which is produced and structured as any other would be. I'm sure whatever happens in those three weeks, everyone goes home pretty unscathed, both physically and mentally, but that's a little beside the point. The show is based on the enjoyment people get from watching and voting on real people have a rough time. It's that underlying buzz from watching others struggle that's interesting, and concerning. I would be very surprised if the show isn't once more covered by 'Gogglebox' (a programme that I'm sure at some point will merit its own blog post), and I very much look forward to watching some of the (heavy editing aside), base human reactions it generates.

I have to admit, that although it's the most obvious example, this jungle-based circus is not alone on thriving on the ideas discussed in this blog. I also imagine plenty of people would disagree with my analysis altogether, and I'd love to hear your opinions. However, as I have mentioned before, the media can become an astoundingly perceptive mirror into the way we are, and the consistent success of 'I'm a Celebrity...' forms a fascinating, if not somewhat worrying reflection to look at. 

Faith and... all sorts of jobs! (Ok, two...)

Ok. So I've neglected this blog a little, but that's only because a very exciting thing happened.

Ok. So I didn't write about the very exciting thing. I'm a terrible blogger/Internet person/human being, I get it. So let me backtrack a little.

I left off at me getting a promotion at work to the role of technical operator and talking about how I was going to have to adjust my mindset to such a different job. Well, I've recently spent about two months doing another job. I was a trainee edit assistant on a new TV drama! The. Dream.

It was a brilliant job to be on too. Some trainees barely get to touch an Avid, but I was able to get properly stuck in. I was actually one of the assistants rather than just an observer. I learnt, hands on, an incredible amount. Everyone on the team was lovely and I couldn't have hoped for a more talented and skilled boss to show me the ropes of the job. I could go on and on about it (and on and on, trust me), but the much shorter story is that it absolutely sealed my desire to be in this industry, and to go freelance properly.

Sadly though, it came to an end. I had this vision in my head where once you got the first job, you wouldn't have to look back, but in my case this hasn't happened yet so for now I'm back technical operating, where it seems I have FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. I had barely got to grips with the job before the placement, and it turns out if you don't do something for a while, you don't remember much of it. Re-learning also becomes that little bit more difficult when you've been on your dream job and have to come back from it. Don't get me wrong, Encore is where I learnt the foundations of the industry, it's a fantastic company and I'm so, so grateful for every opportunity they've given me. If I could stay there and be an editor, I would. But hey, comfort zones are for leaving right?

So, I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed that something else didn't come up straight away, and I've already had to deal with the disappointment of not getting a couple of other jobs I was interviewed for. Both of which would have been a huge deal to do. As ever though, God has had me prepared. In a previous life (and a previous blog to go with it), I had this bizarre notion in my head that I was going to be an actress. Let's say, it didn't go too well. I mean, I had an agent and went to auditions, but I was dealing with rejection after rejection after long periods of nothing. I often took it hard and I really take my hat off to those who persevere with that career. I sometimes looks back and think what a waste of time and money and effort it was and how it should have just stayed as a hobby - but in reality the whole thing really toughened me up.
I mean, going back to my editing aspirations, these were big disappointments. I know exactly where I want to be, and to be honest, I want to be there now. In retrospect not getting those film placements (yes, feature film placements) is a much bigger deal than not getting those acting roles, but I've taken them less hard, and much less personally. I've still got itchy feet to get into the big bad world of freelancing (primarily on TV drama, but the odd feature wouldn't have hurt...) but I took those rejections a lot better for having been through so many earlier in life.

So, I'm still looking at that next step. I always will do, but I still have a good job. I carry on. I keep looking. Keep trusting that God has something lined up for me. For now I need to back to proving myself.

(No real 'message' coming through in this one. Just an update and account of how God still continues to work in my life and my work. Did I just hear a collective sigh of relief...?)

My Prayer for The Media

Dear Lord

Thank you that we live in a world with so many ways to communicate. Thank you for the joy and entertainment that the media can bring us. For all the amazing ways the it can be used - for campaigns for justice and truth, for fundraising and increasing awareness of worthy causes, for organisations such as Sat-7 that allow your word to be heard in places it couldn't be otherwise.

Sorry for using the media for our own gain and not Yours, for concerning ourselves with how we are seen, not how others are treated. For where our engagement with it has not been in line with your teaching.

May your word, your truth, your integrity be at the heart of our media. Please bring hope to the humiliated, peace to the harassed, truth for the slandered, inspiration to the storytellers, justice to journalism, courage to campaigners and integrity to the influential.

May Your wisdom be in every creative decision that's made, your love be shown on set, in the studio and in the edit suite. May your truth and justice shine through the newsrooms.

Lord, sometimes the power and the influence of the media can seem overwhelming, but we recognise that you are bigger, more powerful and have an amazing plan for it.

Amen

Day of Prayer for The Media: 1st June 2014

I can't stress enough how important I think this day is and how delighted I am that it's happening. I've said it before I know - but the media is so important, so powerful, makes such a direct impact on the way we live, that as Christians we can't ignore it.

The media is one of those things that's such a constant, such a norm nowadays that we encounter it all the time without realising. It, right now, is changing people's minds, slipping into our subconsciousness, forming opinions, creating and destroying stereotypes. People like to think it doesn't, but I believe it has a very firm grasp on the way we think, and yes, maybe we often gravitate towards media that already conforms with our view of the world, but some of it is more dominant than others, and of course makes a huge impression on those who haven't yet worked out who they are or what they believe.

I think this is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness in churches about this giant that encompasses our world. To learn about its beautiful and ugly sides, about its complications, its impact, the people who have the most control over it, and most importantly, to seek some much needed direction from God about our place in it.

This is so important because we have got to get to a stage where we're engaging positively with the media - with newspapers, television, radio, film, social media, and stop simply complaining about what we don't like. It's about time we went beyond our cute little Songs of Praise bubble and started engaging with and helping to create television, news articles, blogs, websites, adverts that challenge the status quo where it's needed, that are filled with truth and justice and speak, whether directly or indirectly for the glory of God, media that is bold and relevant to more people than just us. Media can't be a little side project or add on for us any more, we've got to do it properly.

I'm delighted to say that I have encountered some amazing people who are on fire for Jesus and who are brilliantly talented in their chosen field, who have deep wisdom about how the media operates and how God wants us to go about creating and engaging with it, but the industry needs more people like that, and both them and it need the support of surrounding Christians. In short, we need to take action, and where does action through God start? In prayer. In prayer God enlightens, strengthens, equips and inspires us.  It's where God initially sends us out. It's where we actually come back to Him and admit that He's the one in the know and in control. As mentioned earlier, the media is a powerful, complicated, often beautiful, often dangerous thing - we need to go back to the most powerful, the most wise, most beautiful, omnipotent one.

I urge anyone who is a part of a church to engage with this day on some level. You don't have to suddenly drop everything in your life and start a career in television or anything, just pray for us crazy people that have. Maybe use it as a chance to learn how what you watch is made, how it affects us, to have a discussion with someone about what they read in the newspaper, or maybe even pick up a camera and see what you can do. It could be anything, but please let it be something. There's no such thing as 'just' a prayer.

The official website for the initiative is here. Read it, get involved. Otherwise I'm going to come to your church and hijack your microphones and projectors. I know how to do that, I work in the media.

Why I Signed the #nomorepage3 Petition

Before anyone asks - yes this is relevant to this blog. The newspapers are part of the media, and not wanting to see breasts in a widely available paper has everything to do with my faith. I know lots of people have done a brilliant job at arguing the cause but I wanted to add my voice from a Christian perspective. There's so many reasons why this page shouldn't exist and why it's a tragedy we still have to discuss it in 2014, they're not all written here because it would be such a long post, and I want to keep this to what I think I can add to the debate, but that doesn't mean I'm not behind those arguments too.

For anyone not in the UK, or who (until now) is lucky enough to be unaware of what 'Page 3' denotes over here, it's really quite simple. There's this tabloid called 'The Sun', and every day on the third page, it has a massive picture of a fully naked women. Let me reiterate - this isn't an 'adult' mag, you don't need ID to buy it, it's not covered in a special modesty bag in the Co-Op, it's a newspaper. Not a very good one, but it is an easily accessible piece of so-called news available pretty much everywhere.

I don't have much time for The Sun anyway, it indulges in scaremongering, smearing anyone who dares stand against it, promoting self-interest above responsibility, and all too often downright lying. I wouldn't be sorry to see the whole thing go, but getting rid of this archaic page would be a start.

Whatever your views on 'adult entertainment', placing bare breasts in a paper anyone can buy sends out a strong message: 'This is ok, no question. Nothing needs to be argued here.' I can't stand the idea of sex and nudity being a commercial venture to be exploited full stop, however at least when it's 'lads mags' and dodgy websites, people are forced to actually spend a few seconds thinking about what they're about to look at, rather than just having unquestioned access amongst the day's news, and at least it's only the people looking for it who see it.

There are plenty of brilliantly put arguments outlining the dangers of children spotting page three, so I won't delve too deep into it again here- but I will say this: when a child is dedicated in a Baptist church, the whole congregation stand and make a pledge before God that they will aide the parents in providing a Christian, loving environment for the child to grow up in. I'm sure similar covenants are made by other denominations during infant baptisms and christenings. If we've taken that vow seriously, we have to question where page three fits in.

Sadly abolishing this page still wouldn't get close to solving everything. I think there is a culture emerging (from both genders) of sexual objectification being the norm - we see it in music videos, advertising, online, and even in one of my favourite things ever - television drama. Why wait until you're in a stable relationship with someone you love to see a naked body when you can just turn on the television, boot up a laptop - or open a newspaper. The Sun may not be the only offender but it is feeding the problem and profiting from it. 'Page 3' is a huge cultural thorn in the nation's side, and getting rid of that would be an excellent start for the bigger picture. We can either sit there and moan about how difficult and ingrained the issue is, or we can take on the problem, one battle at a time.

There's lots of debates and disagreements within Christianity, but this is a rare instance in which I simply can't see any way in which you can be a Christian and not take issue with this. We're not being snooty, holier-than-thou, complain-about-everything-that-isn't-Songs-of-Praise Christians by standing against it. This isn't saying 'I was offended by', this is saying 'this is deeply damaging, it needs to stop'.

You can sign the petition here.

Faith and... Technical Operating!

For those who haven't heard, my working life has changed somewhat recently. This post is a little overdue, so serial television style, let's have a quick recap:

On 19th August 2013, I started work as a runner at post production company in London. One house move, one name change (the company's, not mine), three pairs of shoes (they wear down fast when you're on your feet all day), countless flat whites, even more cups of tea and almost six months to the day later, and I was offered a job as a technical operator! 

Yes - I sort of skipped an 'episode' - the one where I actually applied for the job. Just imagine me bumbling my way through an interview, whilst trying to recall anything vaguely useful that my brain had to offer. Then my surprise when despite this not only did they refrain from questioning my career choice, but they actually offered me the position. All caught up?

In a blog post that I never finished, I talked about how starting as a runner was keeping me humble, and I do believe that from a Christian perspective it was an important way to learn how to quite literally serve, but now I'm learning humility from a different perspective. Being the one with the most to learn. Ravensbourne seems like a another life ago, I feel like I've forgotten everything I learned there and that everything wasn't anywhere near enough in the first place.

Before I started this role I was absolutely freaking terrified. I feel a lot better now I've got started but I haven't been anywhere near the deep end yet. I don't feel as if I could never be good at this job like I did when I started as a runner, but, if you forgive the cliché, there's a mountain to climb. Tape decks have manuals that are two hundred pages long. Timecode comes in more forms then most sane people would care to know about. There's a monitor we use that flickers on and off so you can only see what you're doing about 50% of the time. As for being the only female tech-op, I think I'll leave that for a whole other blog post at some stage.

It's going to take some time to readjust my mindset from running to technical operating, get used to a new environment and start to really hit my stride - but I know I can. Not out of any inflated opinion of myself, but because of one simple fact. If God got me to a stage where I was, dare I say it, good at being a runner, something that is so far away from my natural skill-set that you'd have to catch a plane to commute between the two, then He's more than capable of reigniting a flair for something I spent three years studying. It's still going to take a lot of hard work on my part, but I'm not alone. I've had lots of people tell me that they're there if I ever get stuck on something, which is a real blessing, one of many I'm sure God has up His sleeve.

I appreciate that this post is in a very similar mood to my first 'Faith and Running' post. That's because in many ways it feels like starting again, but that's in no sense a bad thing. By starting as a runner I got to see just how far beyond our established abilities God can take us (without there being a master tape or a whole production's rushes at stake). Once again I find myself outside my comfort zone. I have an awful lot to learn, but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to learn it. 

Faith and Running: 'Good Morning, Client Services!'

I'm not sure if anyone's ever witnessed someone aggressively empty a packet of Starburst into a jar.

This morning, for a variety of reasons (including being woken up at 2am by some very noisy people on the street, and a man on the tube who listened to his music at a needless volume then hatched an evil scheme to make it look like it was me), I was in a pretty rubbish mood.

The nice thing about being at work at 7.30am is that no-one else is at work because it's 7.30am. That allowed me to vent my frustration on a variety on inanimate objects with no-one any the wiser (except when I publicly wrote this blog post about it). I very rarely feel 'physical' anger but this morning for some reason I felt the need to slam every cupboard door I used (which is a lot), and I didn't so much as retrieve the butter from the fridge as shove it in the general direction of the toast making set up. As for those packets of Starburst, I hope they don't form a union.

But, of course, the second my work-colleagues and the clients were anywhere near the building, I defaulted to calm, smiley Naomi. I still slammed a couple of cupboard doors, but only because that's how you make them stay shut. In most jobs, if you're having a rubbish day, people will allow for you to be a bit grumpy and withdrawn, but in client services that just isn't an option. You're there for other people. However little you feel like it you have to start up and engage in conversations, smile as you hand people their coffee and take their lunch orders. Thankfully as our company has many lovely, friendly staff, and we have a really nice set of clients in, it wasn't long at all before enforced niceness turned into a genuine aim to please.

For Jesus, looking out for other people wasn't done in shifts. There's a passage in Mark 6 where Jesus and His disciples were exhausted - they had even made a point of finding a quiet, remote place to rest, but as soon as the people came Jesus began to teach them. No matter how tired He was, His heart was for the people who were crying out for His help. Yes, there were other times when Jesus requested to be alone, but when He was needed, He served.

This is an industry where a lot of people work very hard and invariably there will be some days when we're tired, one thing after another goes wrong and we just can't be bothered. Obviously it's important to rest when the time is right, but sometimes we need a default mode, a kick-starter to launch us into God's service when all we want to do is kick a cupboard door. Just like an editor's reliance on coffee doesn't disappear just because I've had a bad start to the day, God's work doesn't take a day off just because life hasn't gone our way.

We all have bad days, but at those times we're no less a servant of God than I am a servant of editors after a bad journey in. Except being a Christian doesn't happen in shifts. Just like as being a client services assistant means I can't simply go around grumpily placing coffee on people's desks, as Christians we should be thinking of God and other people before what we want, even if it seems like you're the only one doing so. Of course we should be honest when we're having a rough time of it, but that doesn't excuse us from being a person of God full stop.

It can be a tough concept to live by, but thankfully, we don't have to do it alone, or even by our own strength. Plus you can always take it out on the Starburst.

Faith and Running: Nerves

Bear with me. This post is going to bring some quite painful sharing. It'll be worth it, my pain will most likely be to your amusement.

I am not always the most confident of people. I think I've well established this fact. When it comes to talking to people, the more I feel a need to get it right, the more certain it is I will freeze up and become a nervous mess. Give me a bit of time and patience and I'll probably be the polar opposite - embarrassing myself from being a bit too comfortable and doing weird things like hiding under edit suites or curling up on the floor or writing poems about codecs. (Not that I've done any of those things ever...ahem)

Back to my rubbish over-thinking-every-moment self. Imagine my shaking (sadly literally, more on that later), trembling self when someone I'm a huge fan of was a client at work for a while. I'm talking a huge star who's worked on many shows that I'm a little bit in love with. Imagine, then read the painful reality.

So let me put off telling you for a moment, in order to pre-emptively and fairly pointlessly try and redeem myself. There maybe could have been ways I could have avoided putting myself across so catastrophically. I have, believe it or not, been known to be able to communicate clearly and happily with people I want to in the past. A spare moment to have even a brief conversation that wasn't about lunch or drink orders, or if I hadn't known this person would be there in advance, for example, would have kept Overly-Anxious-Naomi at bay. However, since there was a door sign with their name on for days before their arrival (which I may have even put up), and every time I went in the room everyone was engrossed in their work, I over-thought things before I even got to the door, and then when I did get the other side of it I found it very difficult to judge the room and just sort of floundered.

The wording of which has pushed me straight into embarrassing 'Naomi looks like an idiot in front of famous people' moment number 1.

She walks through the door, and, despite the million panicky, frantic yet completely useless thoughts running through her head, she manages to hand out the drinks with a relative calmness. (Comparative to a duck appearing calm whilst paddling madly under the surface, albeit the duck's still shaking a little). She spots some used mugs on the desk, so she dutifully collects them up. One is empty and one about a quarter full. 
'That's a relief' she thinks. 'Carrying full mugs in these circumstances could only lead to bad things.'
The suite's habitants get back to work. Excellent. She's almost appeared normal. Time to get out fast.
Unfortunately, as a clumsy person, this is one the worst decisions she had ever made. She may have pondered this upon her exit had she not walked fairly violently into the door frame at that particular moment. Violently enough to cause the quarter-full mug to become slightly less than a quarter full. Quite spectacularly. 

When it comes to other things, like a piece of editing or an exam, I can use that nervous energy and really make the best of it, but when it comes to this sort of situation I sort of fall apart a bit, and walk into door frames, apparently.

I should clarify for anyone who knows/works out who it is I met, the person in question was extremely lovely and remarkably patient with me. They clearly made the effort to learn my name because they used it once and I certainly hadn't the wits about me to introduce myself.

And here's the thing that really annoys me about the way I was. As much as I admire their work, they are still just a person, a human being who more than likely just wants to be treated as such.
There is a small comfort to be found in that I have floundered in front of many people, not just ones involved in telly, but it really is the tiniest of comforts. Yes, ok, I'm putting off 'Naomi looks like an idiot in front of famous people' moment number 2.

She walks into the edit suite, coffee on tray and tray on hand. Challenge 1. Don't walk into door frame. Challenge complete. Challenge 2. Hand out drinks. For a person who over-thinks every second of their life, this is somewhat trickier. Option 1: Hand drink over to the client, this is slightly awkward as only one person can get the handle, leaving the other with the scalding hot mug. Option 2: Put drink on table, a safer option but somehow always feels a bit abrupt and impolite. 

Sadly, she went for both options. Not quite at the same time, but nonetheless very quickly, one after the other, in the process accidentally taunting the client as to whether they'd get their coffee or not. Fantastic.

In my defence, I'd like to point out that I'm normally much better at my job. Honest.

Believe it or not, there are many points about my faith I could pull from this, but, with hindsight, I think this is the most significant one - sometimes it's better that we don't know what's coming. I am convinced that had I simply walked unknowingly into the room with my usual smile and 'good morning!', the tone would have been set and my shell well and truly smashed before it could make so much as an appearance. Granted, I may have been somewhat shocked but I would have just had to deal with it.
After all, I had, in some ways been unknowingly preparing for this. I spend all day serving people who's work in the industry I greatly admire, and at first it was daunting and scary but it was what I had to do day-in, day-out so I got used to it and learned that the best way to handle myself was to simply realise that these people are real, hard working human beings and try to give them the best service possible.

In my desperation to make it in the world of editing I always really want to know what's coming next and if that big chance is ever going to happen, but that's for God to know and me to find out. That's not to say He doesn't always tell people where they're going to end up (or that I'm going to stop really wanting to know) but He knows when it's good for us to know and when it's best for us to just walk through that door and find out, perhaps be a little shell-shocked, let Him dust us off and carry on, using what we've already learned, the tone already set.

I'm already seeing great signs of hope in the television industry and that God has great plans for it. I look back at the past few months and can see that God is definitely preparing me for something or other. I really hope I'm the two are linked, but for now I'm going to do my very best to keep working away at my career, learning what I can about the job I want to do, without knowing for sure where it's going to lead me. It's the only way to avoid embarrassing coffee moments, metaphorical or otherwise.

I'm just going to hide under my duvet and pretend the world doesn't exist for a while now.

Watching the Message

The other day a nostalgia trip ending in me considering the inherent dangers faced when trying to make attractive programming about God. How's that for an opening sentence?

For those who haven't heard of it, a big hit in the world of Christian media is a show called 'VeggieTales'. It sounds bizarre and silly, and many ways it definitely is. You haven't really seen it all until you've watched David and Goliath play out as a tiny asparagus fighting a giant pickle. The Israelites order pizza at one point, the sheep that 'Dave' tends to frequently fall over, and the Philistines are all peas that cry ' 'Allo Israelites (they have vaguely French sounding accents). You are pigs and soon we will put apples in your mouths and stick you in our toaster ovens!'. I think that to this day it's still one of the best pieces of openly Christian video to be found.

The show has its own sense of humour, a very original premise (sorry Miranda, this was around way before vegti-pals) and always stays true to its purpose, which is to teach children about Christian morals.  It's perfectly pitched for it's target audience but is well-written enough that adults don't feel like watching it with their kids it some sort of endurance test. Actually, I'll admit that many of us still quite enjoy watching it. As it's primarily aimed at children, it does spell out its message somewhat, but it's always careful that the message is uplifting and encourages a positive contribution to the world. Plus, somehow it's slightly less irritating being told 'what we've learned today' when the message is constantly being interrupted by the 'what we have learned' song.

With such fond memories, that left me interested to see how this thespian ratatouille was doing, all these years on. A quick search on Youtube brought up lots of pirated nostalgia, but also an official channel, and the first video I stumbled across from it was the theme song for a production that came out in 2012 called 'The League of Incredible Vegetables'. Once you get past the idea of a crime fighting salad selection, it's actually not a bad song for its target audience. It's (infuriatingly) catchy, creates a tone for the film, has some fun word play ('flex our veggie-mite'...heh), and is performed by an established band. (One of my favourite worship songs is by them, and no, it contains no mention of vegetables). However, there is one element of it that just made my heart break a little. There is only one female character, and her sole selling point is that she's 'looking stylish, yeah she's wearing it well.' Has sexism in the church really only moved onto being on the same level as sexism in much of the secular media industry? Of course it hasn't, but in a world where there is very little Christian media with both budget and talent behind it, it would be very easy to get that impression. The church already attracts a lot of negative attention for its supposed views on women, and this really doesn't help our case.

Children often like to pick a favourite character that is the same gender as them, and as a child I would have not been impressed with my choice. I was never really interested in the way I looked, my parents taught me that there's so much more to the world than that. For children that young it could go one of either two ways. It can isolate them, leaving them to shun what would otherwise be a beneficial film for them to enjoy, or it could convince a young girl that in order to matter in this world the most important thing for her to do is to look good. I know it's only one song from one film but we already have plenty of very popular media that plays out that little lie, the last thing we need is Christians joining in.

I can see the difficulties that Big Idea (the original company behind the show) face. When the show started, almost every edition featured the telling of a Bible story, and there are a lot of men in the Bible, especially the parts often taught to children. However, how hard would it really have been to have at least one female character who's capable of actually doing something interesting.

I don't believe that the makers set out to deliver a sexist message at all - it's not like Bob the tomato is going to pop up at the end, look disgruntled as the 'what we have learned' song plays through, then turn to the kids and say 'and don't forget girls, the only way you can get to where the guys are is by standing round and looking pretty', but that's the impression the song gives. We can make things cool and modern, but we have to watch the message we're portraying. When we start to retell or create our own versions of God's word, we're already putting our own spin on the truth - that's inevitable, many people see their Christian faith differently, hence so many denominations, but we must be careful that our truth doesn't cover up God's truth. It can be incredibly easy to accidentally send out the wrong message when story-telling. Every decision you make (consciously or unconsciously) sends out a message. Who the characters are, how much of their story you tell, who's point of view you focus on, what happens in the narrative, all tell the audience something, and it's much easier to accidentally fire out a message than it is to really touch people with an intentional moral. It's not about brainwashing people into believing one thing or another, it's about saying as Christians that we are going to take responsibility for the media we create.

It's a hurdle to face rather than an excuse to not do it, but I think we need to be extremely careful when we put media out in the name of God. I've said before that good storytelling is powerful, but good storytelling doesn't always send out a good message. If our stories touch upon subjects that transfer into the real world, then we need to think about the effect it will have and address it appropriately. Think about it this way - some of the best stories don't have to tell you what to think all the time, the story speaks for itself. That inevitably means that sometimes people are going to draw things from a narrative, line of dialogue or character that we don't intend. That can often be a really positive thing, but we need to watch what we're unintentionally saying. It may even be that we've drawn up a mirror to a way of thinking that isn't healthy and need to take a look at our own attitudes back in the real world.

As a church I think we should embrace the fun, smart, original telling of God's word, in fact I'm crying out for more of it, but let's do it properly. thoughtfully, prayerfully and yes, let's appeal to certain audiences that are on our heart, but not at the expense of the portrayal of others.