Food for Thought: Mistakes Christians in Entertainment Make - Apr 23
Read an article recently about mistakes Christians in entertainment/media often make. Here’s a summary of the points. Do you think these are valid mistakes? Or can we ever expect our productions to be as popular as the world’s since we’re “not of the world”? :
1) Just because we’re Christians, we don’t have to produce explicitly Christian programs.
2) Most movies by Christians fail because they’re just not good stories.
3) We’re out of touch with cultural trends.
4) We have no idea how to “brand” ourselves and our product.
5) Christian lingo doesn’t work. We’ve got to speak in a language the people around us can understand.
6) Didn’t take the time to do our homework about who we’re pitching to, what a pitch looks like, what the market is accepting, etc.
There are more mistakes listed in the article, so check it out. I wrestle with how much “popularity” Christian films should aspire to gain…I mean, how popular was Jesus? Speaking truth isn’t necessarily a route to widespread acceptance by the general public. That being said, some of these points are really valid, and some I question. But what do you think? It’s good to think through this type of stuff and figure out what your philosophy of filmmaking is. Ask yourself two questions: 1) What has God called me to? and 2) Is my vision in line with the Bible?
Pro-life: the new Hollywood standard? - Feb 25
Has Hollywood gone pro-life? In this interesting article from Christianity today, several ’07 films are highlighted for their surprising pro-life content. From Knocked Up to Waitress, from Bella to Juno, keeping your baby is the “in” way. Or is it? This article takes a look at why writers might be pro-life…but just for the moment. None of these movies, with the possible exception of Bella would be called good wholesome films, so it’s interesting that they chose to get at least one moral aspect right – life is truly valuable, even at conception.
Trailer: Expelled - Feb 7
Don’t know much at all about this film, its content or its message, so I’m not promoting it, but thought some of you might be interested in it. Sounds like a compelling premise, though I wonder how many theaters it will actually play in. Here’s an article about the film and some trouble that came up when some of the interview subjects discovered what the film was actually about.
The Real 24: A Day in the Life of a Military Family - Jan 22
Last night on ABC World News, they played the following story about a day in the life of a military family. I thought it was cool how they connected the two stories, and gave you a glimpse of life for both the soldier in Iraq and the family waiting for him at home. For those of you that are documentary producers, I thought this might be an interesting watch.
Political Commercials - Watch Your Heart Out! - Nov 30
Presidential campaign ads are back in full swing, as various candidates battle it out on airtime. If you’re a fan of this sort of thing, you might enjoy livingroomcandidate.org, a complilation of presidential commercials dating back to the 50s. Kennedy, Nixon, Regan – they’re all there. It’s amazing to see how much advertising has changed since the ’52 ads. Anyone have any favorite ads to recommend? Maybe we can feature some on this blog as November ’08 hastens upon us.