News

Star Wars plus parable of virgins equal what?

By Amanda Lauer
Compass Correspondent

DARBOY -- When a call went out to Catholic youth groups across the nation to enter a video production competition, Sarah Elmer, youth minister of Holy Spirit Parish in Darboy, presented the idea to her peer ministry group. Not only did the group enter the contest but they ended up winning three national awards for the video they created.

Outside da Box, a youth ministry program based in St. Charles, Ill., produces Catholic videos which are distributed free of charge to parishes across the United States. For this second annual competition, students were challenged to make a short movie based on a biblical parable set in modern times.

"You want to talk to kids in their own language, which is media," said Elmer.

"I have a group of 11 high school students called the Chazoo Warriors," said Elmer. "They take a leadership role at events and retreats. They meet at Holy Spirit every Wednesday morning at 6:30 before school, so they're dedicated."

It took the Chazoo Warriors three hours to pin down the idea for their video, recalled Elmer. "We choose the parable of The Ten Virgins. We went from there and talked about what the point of the parable was and how to make a new representation of that or put it into modern terms."

The youth, many of whom are Star Wars fans, came up with a plot based on Jedi warriors and light sabers, the modern version of the virgins and their lamps.

Elmer explained the concept of the video, "A Jedi You Shall Become."

"They started off in a classroom with our priest, Fr. Dave Beaudry. He was reading the parable to them and they were not paying attention. Some kid interrupts eventually and says 'What does this have to do with our lives?' And the priest said 'Well, I'll tell you. A long time ago there were 11 Jedis and they wanted to be the best Jedis and get into the master training camp...'" said Elmer.

"So we flashed back and the kids are now in Jedi costumes and they have light sabers," she added. "There's a fighting scene. They tire themselves out by fighting and fall asleep. Their light sabers go out and the good Jedis, of course, have extra battery packs and the other ones don't. They have to run to the store to get some and by the time they get back the master has come."

The movie had to include three elements to meet Outside da Box's guidelines. There needed to be one prop: a hole, one character: a priest, and the line "You don't see that in church very often."

The seven-minute video made by the Chazoo Warriors won awards for "Most Unique Parable Representation," "Best Costumes," and "Best Special FX," an award created just for their video because of the light saber special effects.

In November, representatives of the youth group traveled to Illinois to accept their awards. "The company rented a theater and they invited all of the teams that had won an award to watch their video on a big movie screen," noted Elmer. "They had us go on stage and introduce ourselves and then tell a little bit about how the movie was made. The other groups were able to ask us questions."

Making the video was a good experience for the group, said Elmer. "It was a great team-building activity. It was a good opportunity to do a mini-Bible study about the parables. We are showing the video at our retreats this year." Copies of the master video, which has the movies of all five award-winning teams, will be sent to 5,000 parishes throughout the nation in 2008.

Abby Evers, a junior at Kimberly High School, was director of the movie. She recalled the group's excitement about making the video. "We had done a couple movies before and it's always so much more fun doing them than it is to actually see them. This one turned out so cool. It was so much fun and we had a great time doing it too."

The script was written by Evers. "Calvin Demerath did all the editing, which was the biggest project on earth," said Evers. "We divided up all the roles as to who was doing what. We actually managed to shoot it in two or three nights. It was just a couple of hours of shooting, a little bit of practice. Then Calvin took over and made it amazing."

While Evers doesn't have her sites set on Hollywood, she definitely plans on entering the competition again next year with her group. "In between there we'll probably end up doing a few more videos for retreats and things - the kids usually get a good kick out of them."

A self-professed "tech guy," Demerath, who is also a junior at Kimberly High School, explained his role in the process of making the movie. "We spent over 48 hours just working on the computers to create this video. We shot, edited and created everything that is in the movie. I was the main person in charge of doing all of it, but I had a team helping me."

The most tedious task was editing the light saber scene. To create the glow effect he had to do frame-by-frame editing. Demerath credits his brother Brandon and Mike Vander Velden for their help with that job.

The group said they chose the name Chazoo Warriors because they consider themselves to be warriors of Christ, and are fighting for their faith. Other members of the group are Erin Meyer, Jennifer Loderbauer, Kayln Van Roy, Cody Van Roy, Eric Goetz, Anna Lehner and Tricia Lehner.

Demerath is proud of his group and the work they created. "When we wear our T-shirts to school, people always ask 'What's a Chazoo Warrior?' I don't mind explaining it. It's pretty cool."

For more information about Outside da Box, visit their Web site, www.outsidedabox.com. A variety of videos can also be viewed online at the site.