Superbook: The Test
CBN.com Writing a script for a superbook episode would, at first glance, seem really easy. After all, the story has already been written. For director Paul Richardson, the difficulty is translating the story of Abraham and Isaac to a modern audience.
“We try to take the story and simply make it something that is relatable and relevant to a child’s life.”
Making it exciting for viewers is one goal for producer member Erin Zimmerman.
She recalls, “I got to see the Abraham and Isaac episode, you could hear a pin drop in the theater. These kids are glued.”
Superbook provides a creative way to tell the next generation of kids about stories found in the greatest selling book of all time.
John Schafer explains, “The Bible is an edgy book. And we needed to do it in a way that kids would be drawn to it, kids would be captivated by it, but also at that point, something would resonate in their hearts, because at the core of it is a Bible story.”
The theme of the latest episode, The Test is about sacrificing our own desires, for God’s plan… a pretty heavy subject for children to grasp. The creative team of producers and writers who design each Superbook episode work hard to make Biblical concepts easy to understand.
Paul says, “We try to focus in on what are the dilemmas kids go through today.
The scripts constantly go through a refining process, even from script to animatic story reel, to the final product.”
Throughout the process, writers tweak the scripts, until the dialog is just right.
“We do take great pains to really refine it down so that we are-are telling the biblical story as accurately as possible within that 22-minute timeframe,” says Paul.
Then, they have to find the right people to play each character.
Paul explained, “That is part of the casting process to find actors and performers that can take the actual scripture and make it sound relevant, make it sound real, to make it have that motivation behind it that sounds the characters are speaking it off the cuff.”
Erin says, “Some of these stories are so exciting they have adventure, and war, and betrayal, and things like that. So we don’t play with the Bible story. Now where our wiggle room comes in, are we have two kids and a robot to play with, and that’s kind of where our creativity comes.”
Sometimes the writers have to make decisions about scenes that are not vividly described in the Bible. For example, should the sacrifice scene occur during the day or evening?
Erin describes, “We decided to have the binding of Isaac at night as an extra reminder, the stars are out there. Abraham, God made you this promise. And so even in the midst of him holding the knife, even in the midst of him looking at his son on the altar and thinking, ‘This is the end of my son, this is the end of my lineage.’ There those stars are and that’s God’s promise to Abraham, ‘Your generations, your seed is going to be as many as these stars, the nation of Israel.’ So, we decided to make it at night because it brings that promise full circle and you see the stars and you remember Abraham’s promise.”
