The Ignite Short Films are surprisingly different to what I anticipated. 

I was expecting cute cartoon characters running around retelling the classic H2O stories of the bible.

I genuinely thought when they described the genre of a clip as "Scary Movie" they were being facetious. The reality was less Veggie Tales and more Blare Witch (except Christian).

It is an eclectic mix of cartoon, music, drama and social comment, many of which are quite dark and grapple with significant issues.

Others are just plain strange, but that's part of what makes it interesting.

I don't think anyone set out to appeal to a target audience but it seems to hit the upper high school to mid 30's.

Just one word of warning "Calling down Fire" looks like a happy, kid friendly, cartoon, until the prophets of Baal start cutting themselves and then the G rating gets catapulted out the window.
It was one of my favourite clips, but I won't be showing it to my kids.

The Ignite competition gives creative people an opportunity to express themselves.

There are some amazingly talented Christians out there who know how to take a concept and make it work on film.

The challenge is to take a written message and reinterpret it into a visual medium, without losing the original intent of the message, and largely the clips are successful.

Some of the clips are modern art and I can imagine people's interpretation of them would vary significantly.

It would be really fun to sit around with a group and talk about what they were hoping to achieve (well I think it would be fun and it would be even better if there was pizza!).

The competition highlights the value of using a visual medium in communicating gospel truths and exploring the realities of living out the gospel in our modern context.

In a highly visual society we need to think about how we can communicate effectively beyond just the spoken word without compromising the clarity and content of the message.

You won't love every clip but there are still heaps that are worth having.

It would be great to watch as part of your home group or use in youth group or church.

It's never easy finding the "right" intro for a topic or a good visual backdrop as people walk into a service and a resource like this is fantastic.

On the "would I buy it myself rating" my answer is absolutely, and for 25 bucks it's bargain!