As you can see from the video of the Selection, it was a lot of fun, and the contestants had an amazing time. We were really impressed by how they improved their skills during the week, learning how to work together and to produce a quality video of their own.
Our three judges set the students to work on a series of tasks, so that we could assess their filmmaking skills and their ability to work as part of a team. It was tough trying to work out who to put through to the summer Video School that PAK7 will run in June-August, but over ten days we were able to form a good understanding of each of the students. We can't announce which ones got through as we will try to keep this a secret until it is aired on television later in the year - but there was plenty of drama to make it an interesting production!
For a brand new organisation, this was an incredibly complex production, as we needed to film multiple groups of young people simultaneously - bringing together camera feeds from different locations and activities. Consequently, the show had a freelance crew of almost 40 people, including director, production manager, director of photography, cameramen, audio, lighting, runners, data managers, makeup, creative designers, contestant managers, presenters. And in addition to that there were the 20 contestants!
It was not without its challenges - including some catering disasters, the accommodation not being ready on the first night, and a few students who didn't show up on the day. But our young team did a fabulous job - after all, it's not whether you have problems, but rather how you deal with them that counts... and they handled everything that was thrown at them :-)
We are excited about what God is doing through this program - how he is helping us identify and train future media professionals who will begin to shape the way Jesus and Christians are perceived in Pakistan. Please pray for us as we get this edited and try to license it to a national TV channel in Pakistan.