Filming begins April 12!

The past week included final testing of equipment and procedures in the desert in Arizona. Eric designed, built, and tested a harness which can be suspended inside the frame of a helicopter to isolate the camera in its gyroscopic mount from all aircraft vibration.

The project continues to acquire excellent contacts and consultants. In addition to those already involved we've established productive communication with the Israeli Ambassador to the Evangelical Communities in America.

We're receiving extremely valuable assistance from an award-winning producer through a contact of Eric's dating back to the time when Eric was performing and touring with the New Christy Minstrels. He has been instrumental in arranging contacts for us at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

We are extremely grateful for the wide range of consultants who have taken an interest in our project as they considerably expand the scope of what we're going to be able to accomplish for the reader community.

We have also acquired some excellent satellite-assisted 3D terrain mapping software that we will be using for the creation of a series of animated maps to support the Urantia Book story.

Keep in touch here! You can also check the project website at Joshua-ben-Joseph.org.

Final Preparations Beginning

Final preparations include registering all equipment with US Customs in order to avoid import/export duties. An agreement has been reached with GAL productions in Tel Aviv to provide a helicopter specially equipped for filming and pilot for our use; Eric has acquired a gyroscopic camera mount to facilitate smooth recording from the helicopter.

We will be doing final equipment checks in Arizona the week of March 21.

We have acquired excellent contacts in the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Museum who can facilitate access to sites and artifacts.

Have you read the "to do" list provided by the revelators? —the things we can do here on the ground that will support what our unseen friends are attempting to accomplish behind the scenes? Click on the link above. Review their list. These are the tasks the Joshua ben Joseph project is aimed at beginning to address.

We think the revelators are serious when they say that "the time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of Jesus from the tomb of tradition and dogma." [196:1.2] We think they are speaking authoritatively when they say that, "Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus' life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation." [195:10.1] We accept the challenge of the revelators to begin laying the groundwork for their desired "drastic and revolutionary revisions of Christian civilization."[196:1.2]

This is the real focus of the Joshua ben Joseph project; to help readers old and new to become "overflowing sources of inspiration and enhanced living" [195:10.1] through enriched contact with the "new and fuller revelation of Jesus." [195:9.2]

For more information visit the project website at http://joshua-ben-joseph.org

Status update

Hi all:
Just wanted to give a very quick update about our trip to Israel on April 11th of this year. Things are moving along smoothly as we're in the final steps of preparation for the shooting of our documentary in Israel and Turkey. As we get closer to departure, we'll give you the latest details of our film/photography shoot. If you have any questions in the meantime, you can email either David or I.

warmest blessings to all.

eric

Plan, Prepare, Rehearse

We're actively preparing for our April 11 departure to Tel Aviv. This past week we spent three days in Arizona checking equipment, rehearsing interview procedures, and carrying equipment out into the field to review our approaches to filming and photographing. We also tested small 2-way radios that let us keep in communication in crowded or remote venues. The radios have a range of up to 5 miles.

We're refining our list of geographic vantage points, sites, and events that we want to film. A highlight will be the Palm Sunday procession down the Mount of Olives into the old city, an event in which thousands of people from all over the world participate. We're also setting some specific image and footage goals for ourselves such as getting time-lapse footage of sunrise gradually illuminating the snows of Mt Hermon.

Our focus is now changing to logistical details and scripting. We'll be working in Arizona again in mid-March for a few days to finish up final preparations and equipment checks.

Please post any comments or suggestions!

Archaeological Consultation

This past week I met with an archaeologist who has been involved in the excavations at Sepphoris for many years. He has agreed to an interview which we will conduct later this year. The meeting was valuable from may perspectives and I came away with a list of contacts in Israel who can help us gain access to museum artifacts as well as sites under active excavation.

If you have any suggestions or requests for images or film footage you would like to see, please let us know!

info@Joshua-ben-Joseph.org

What is the Joshua ben Joseph Project?

The Joshua ben Joseph Project seeks to produce several sets of materials for use by readers of The Urantia Book.

1. An archive of high-definition video and photographic resources for use by the readership community in the creation of study aids and as a general reference resource for students of Part 4 of The Urantia Book.
2. A documentary providing orientation to the geography and current archaeological work being done relative to the stories in Part 4 of The Urantia Book.
3. A documentary dramatizing key elements of the life and teachings of Jesus.
4. A documentary which can be used by readers as an outreach tool in their local communities.
5. An updated generation of maps providing background for Part 4 studies.
6. A bibliography of suggested study materials.
   

We will be filming in Israel mid-April and early May of this year. In the Autumn we plan to spend two weeks in Jordan filming the cities of the Decapolis and other areas related to The Urantia Book story. If sufficient financial support can be acquired, we'll use helicopters adapted for filming to get aerial views and provide a high-resolution video orientation to the actual landscape.

The project enjoys the support of Urantia University, The Urantia Book Fellowship, and the Boulder School but is being financed by reader contributions. The amount of material we're able to collect is directly proportional to the financial resources that become available to cover related expenses. Contributions can be made on the project website, www.joshua-ben-joseph.org.

You can follow the progress of the project by subscribing to this blog. We intend to blog our actual time in the field so that subscribers can be kept current on filming progress. You can also contribute to the project by letting us know of images or geographic settings you would like to see included in the archive.

Keep in touch -- this is guaranteed to be interesting!

info@Joshua-ben-Joseph.org

Welcome Everyone!

Welcome, folks!!!