Well, we're off and running, working like busy little beavers here in the lab. Tim had to take some time away from the beta site development to make sure our new company (Jellyfish Media) was all set up and able to pay bills. Now he's back at the site. Bill is feeding the rest of our programming into the servers, and Liz is starting to lay out all that programming into weekly schedules.
As for me, I'm just sitting back eating bon bons. Ha! Not really. (Though my friend Daren Streblow did send us a whole bunch of Lindt truffles to celebrate our funding. Thanks Daren! Now we're all sugar-buzzed!)
I've been watching some of our first assembled days of programming and tweaking what we've got. I decided last week we need a little song to start each day and another little song to wrap up each day, so I wrote those last week and we're finishing them up this week. Paul Conrad (the fifth jelly) is creating the art for the new welcome song, and then we'll key the puppets into the art.
As we watch some of this stuff play out for the first time, I'm realizing what we're creating is really somewhere inbetween a show and a network. It feels a little bit like a small Nickelodeon and a little bit like Sesame Street, since it isn't just an "endless" stream of programming, but has a start and a finish each day. Hence, I decided it needed songs to start and end each day. Anyway, I'm eager to see what you all think of it.
We could really use more segments about missionary kids and relief workers in other parts of the world. If you know missionaries with kids in the field who might be interested in shooting some footage for us, let us know. We want to show kids the church at work in the world, and that's something we can't just shoot here with puppets. (Well, we could, but it would lack a certain… um… "authenticity.") So help us out, if you can!
We're hoping… really hoping… that we might be able to open up the beta site for you all to start testing by the end of next week. I'll let you know more early next week.
It's time for me to go eat a truffle…er, I mean, get back to work.
Jelly on!
Thanks for the update. To clarify a bit, we’re aware that you write/wrote the lyrics to songs, but who write the music to the songs? Who’s the musical jelly?
I still don’t have a clear vision of what is going to look like. Will kids login to their computers in the morning and watch the monitor… and then log in throughout the day to “catch” their favorite segments?
Sounds great Phil! But I’m with Justin too – not quite clear on how the whole thing will go down. Can I – errr – my kids just log on any time of the day and get the whole hour, two hours, whatever? Looking forward to it!
Where would I send info on missionary kids? I have a few friends in the mission field that have awesome kids. I could send them an email or I cold pass their email addresses on to someone at Jelly Telly.
Hi Phil!
Dave and I are really excited about your new venture. Can’t wait to see it! I’m sure our girls will love it. #3 will arrive here in just 3 weeks. Eat a bon bon for me. 🙂
~Cousin Angel
So excited! Congrats!!!
I told someone recently after watching your trailer that it kind of seemed like a cross between Nickelodeon and Sesame Street (well, back when Sesame Street used to have creative segments in it, anyway). We’re super-excited to see it.
Actually, I’m really glad that it’s not an endless stream of programming– my kids won’t have to feel like they’re missing something by, oh, playing outside occasionally. 😉
Keep up the good work, and know that we’re rooting/praying for you!!!
Great! I`m picturing a (very blurry) image of kids logging on to this site, or show, or webshite,or, whatever we`d call it!
That’s awesome!
I have some great missionary friends with kids-
not sure about video cameras, but I’ll ask this week and get back to you.
Hey, I want a truffle! (LOL) I’m very excited to see this new programming.
bfacademy.com.Hi Phil,
I’m an “all-grown-up” missionary kid over here in Germany and I was wondering if you’ve heard of Black Forest Academy, a school for missionary kids here in the southern Black Forest. They might be good people to contact regarding missionary stories. They have MKs basically from all over the world. Check them out at http://www.bfacademy.com.
God bless!
Hey,
This is sounding good. Do you think it will end up looking like a Jelly Telly show, and other programming besides that?
I really appreciate the way your sharing the details of the journey with us.
Jonathan
samaritanspurse.orgPhil,
Have you checked out Operation Christmas Child’s website, http://www.samaritanspurse.org/occ ? They have some videos there of the work they do in the field, maybe they’d let you reuse them.
Do I get a truffle?
I thought I’d add another comment… This morning during our devotions, I was introducing the book of Judges to my kids. Then I remembered the Bentley Brothers song about Judges that you have on your trailer for Jelly Telly. I pulled it up and played it for the kids– they LOVED it. My kids are now totally wondering when Jelly Telly will be up and running– they’re really excited to get to check it out! SO, Jelly Telly isn’t even offucially up yet, but it has already helped us in our daily devotions. Thank you!! 😀
Still excited!!!
when is Jelly Telly going live? What is the link?
It’s “jellytelly.com.” They have a free show every week, so you can see if you like it before you subscribe.