How We Made the 10 Commandments Video Series
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Bible Project Podcast. We just finished an exploration of the Ten Commandments, or as we were reintroduced to them as the Ten Words. And we've been reading the Ten Words in community. Tim and I have been dialoguing, but we've also gotten to hear your questions. And together, we're attempting to hear God's voice and wisdom for our lives. This communal reading approach is really beautiful, and it also extends to how we make videos at Bible Project. When we're done with our conversations, we write a script and then we bring it to our animation studio. And they collaborate with us, asking questions, thinking about how to visualize these ideas in a compelling way. Today, I want to introduce you to some of the animation team and the process of going from podcast to script to video.
As we do, we're going to continue to meditate on the wisdom of the Ten Commandments and dive deep into the making of the Ten Commandment videos. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. So after Tim and I have the podcast conversations, we write a script from scratch, trying to recreate the journey the podcast went on. But, you know, the script is rewritten and we have to read it like actors. So this time we did something different. We took the script directly from the podcast conversations. And so we didn't deliver the animation studio just a script on a page, but we delivered them a short audio conversation to listen to. And that's what I want to talk about first. Okay, so I've got two people here with me in the studio.
Bot, you're the creative director of the animation studio. And Everett, the director of the Ten Commandments series. And we're here to talk about the first part of production, what you call the story sprint process. All right, Bot, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Hi, Everett.
Hey, John. Good morning. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I had a sunny, cold bike ride in.
Yeah.
My face is still cold.
It's one of those rare, sunny Portland winter days. So let's go back in time to, I guess it was May of 2025. Yeah. You guys were delivered some scripts for Ten Commandments, and then you go away to do what has now been known as the story sprint. Tell me, what is a story sprint?
So story sprints are a time where we could gather certain select people, stakeholders for the video that can speak to, hey, these are the most important parts of this video. What are we going to want to carry throughout this project? Essentially, it's like a week of deep diving into what this is going to be.
Yeah. And what do you want to have by the end of a story sprint?
After a story sprint, we will have teased out any of the tone, the mood, or any main symbols that we need to kind of really thread throughout the video. Enough information that I feel confident being able to run into production, and I can guide it if I'm a director on the video. Because I don't want to continuously have to check in with the writers to see, like, oh, is this what you mean? By the end of the story sprint, I will have such a great... idea of what that vision is that I can carry it through the rest.
Yeah. So many of the specifics can change along the way in terms of, oh, you know, what's the color palette? What's the character design? What happens in what moments of the video? But I think you landed on it. You have to figure out the tone because the videos can go so many directions. It can be like, this is going to be very grandiose and kind of awe inspiring, or this is going to be very kind of gritty and down to earth. This is going to be A little more lighthearted, a little more fanciful. And you really don't want to mess that up at the starting line. And also, I think you're figuring out kind of storytelling mode. Is this going to be something that focuses on like individual characters doing stuff?
And we're going to kind of see them going through scenes. Yeah. Or is it going to be more abstract and we're going to be kind of moving with maybe geometric images or images from nature, maybe without a lot of human characters doing things?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–4:41
2
How did the team translate podcast conversations into a video script and audio for animators?
4:41–10:57
3
What is a 'story sprint' and what outcomes did it produce for the Ten Commandments series?
10:57–25:47
4
How did the studio decide that 'wisdom' would be the core motif for the series?
25:47–30:16
5
How did the team develop the collaborative sketchbook art direction and tactile mood?
30:16–44:34