Alternative Christian Writers Workshop

On a more wordy subject today, I have a couple of story deconstruction of the Bible from the Alternative Christian Writer's Workshop.   I've never heard of it before either, but it seems like a cool idea, especially considering some of the work that apparently has come out of it.

The first is a deconstruction of Job, which is rather lengthy but does a great job(Job?) of breaking down the book of Job(¿job ) and providing a spiritual analysis.

The second, which I found more enjoyable and more related to scriptwriting, is an breakdown of God's command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  This one is a bit older, over a year now, but it is liked to from the first post and presents this story in a new and fresh light.  It even caused me to re-consider some notions I had about this particular incident in the Bible.  This powerfully illustrates the value of an exercise for writers, and I would love to see this particular take on Abraham made into a film.  This one essay has more spiritual depth and insight than almost any film we've reviewed here.

Be warned, those who don't like literary analysis of the Bible will not like these.   (Digital Cinema Forum) Save This Page

Christian Pre-History?

Dancing from Genesis, a blog all about young earth Creationism, has a fun suggestion.  

James Nienhuis suggests, in a bizarrely formatted but intriguingly worded post, that Young Earth Creationism in general, and specifically the stories alluded to by the book of Genesis, are a ripe ground for Christian filmmakers to mine from.  

I have many reservations about Young Earth Creationism, but I have to say that this sounds like a grand setting for an adventure.  Nienhuis himself suggest such great ideas a sunken "Cyclopean cities," "Bronze Age Kingdoms," and "Ice Age Civilizations."  How such a setting could be made into a "Christian" movie requires a bit more thought, since God didn't reveal himself to Abraham until sometime around 2000BC, well after the construction of the Pyramids and presumably after the continents had shifted and any "Ice Age" Cyclopiean cities had been swallowed by the flood.  Maybe a more general idea of God along the lines of Noah's experience, but it would be hard to have anyone actually worshiping God in anything that a Christian, or even a Jew, would recognize.  

Still, I think there is some fertile ground here.  How many antediluvian epics could you make about Nimrod, the unstoppable killer who is finally destroyed in an confrontation with the Angel of the Lord on the slopes of Mountain of the Lord? 

I'd pay to see that.  Nimrod and his Mammoth calvary vs. Angels with flaming swords.  Conan has nothing on that.

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The Making of Fireproof

Sorry for the long time between posts.  Work, school and life in general have really been busy.  I'll try to be better from now on, at least until other things pile up again.  

Anyway, lets jump right back into it with an update from Sherwood Pictures on their film Fireproof.  I'm really hoping this film turns out to be great, and I found some more material on it hidden online.  

Firefighters for Christ has a behind the scenes video, as well as another scene from the movie.  I'll be honest and say I haven't seen either of these videos yet, since I'm sitting in class at the moment, but I'm looking forward to them.  Check them out and see what you think!

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Episode Twenty Five - The Visitation

Mysterious happenings.  Mysterious strangers.  Mysterious church revival meetings.  Mysterious veterinarians.  

The Visitation abounds with mysteries and mysterious happenings in general.  From the Director of Thr3e, but don't hold that against him, Robbie Henson brings you Martin Donovan(Saved), Edward Furlong(T2, Warriors of Terra) and Randy Travis(The Wager, CMT).  This supernatural thriller is from a book by Frank Peretti.  Hmm... Peretti wrote The Hangman's Curse.  Henson directed Thr3e.  Will this combination buck the trend?  Tune in and find out in the always surprising SuperCandid PODCAST!

Sorry we're a couple days late, but as we mention on the show we had some technical difficultites.  

SHOW NOTES:

Genius Products anncounces DVD release of Pure Flix's movie, The Wager(starring Randy Travis, of The Visitation!).  

Sherwood Pictures releases the first trailer and footage from Fireproof, the latest film from the Kendrick Brothers, starring Kirk Cameron(Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers).  You'll find the other footage hidden in the "His & Hers" section.

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24 Hour Christian Filmmakers Contest

I guess I missed this last week, but I was busy and don't get paid for this, so give a guy a little slack.  Anyway, the ChristianFilmmakers.org wrapped up their 24 Hour Film contest.  And the winner is someone who's work will be familiar to readers and listeners of this blog/podcast.  

Nathan Webster, producer of The Heartwood Dagger, won for his short film The Lost Sock.  It's very well filmed, although I felt that it kind of dragged, even for a 3 minute film.  The concept is sound, and the little kid is quite good.  I was a bit confused with the payoff, as it wasn't made clear who the last character revealed is, but I'll leave that to you, dear reader.

My own entry, Solomon, was a super-quickie, recorded and edited in about 2 hours.  I kept having problems with the sound so it sounds like crap, and the Youtube encoding didn't work out that great so you'll see some artifacting at the beginning.  It came in the mid-40s or something, out of 70 odd entries, so not bad I guess.  I would have liked to have done more but that was a crazy day anyway.  One of the judges posted some very good criticism on the Youtube comments, so I'm grateful for that.  I might even revisit the idea someday, perhaps over the summer.

You can watch the winning video, and mine, below.  And all the rest are listed on Christianfilmmakers.org.  I'd like to watch all 70, but I just don't have time right now.  If you find any other gems, let me know.

The Lost Sock

Solomon

(Christianfilmmakers.org)

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Smuggler's Ransom

Here's some cool news!  Christian Newswire reports that Smuggler's Ransom has been picked up by Cloud Ten pictures for distribution!  

Never heard of it?  Neither had I, but I checked out the official site and it sounds pretty cool.  The basic plot is, during the cold war, a girl is arrested for smuggling Bibles behind the iron curtain.  A professional assassin is hired to retrieve her, and, of course, there's more going on then you might think at first.  

Watch the Trailer over at the official site.

Now, Cloud Ten sure sounds familiar.  Where have I heard that before?  Oh, yeah.  Left Behind.  And Left Behind 2.  And Left Behind 3.  AND, Apocalypse, Revelation, Tribulation, Judgement.  Not one, but two independent movie series about the end times.  Why they haven't done a cross-over yet is beyond me.  Besides those movies they have a couple of oddballs, a drama starring Burt Reynolds and a movie called Deceived that sounds like it had the idea for The Signal a few years earlier.  

I've seen a couple films from Cloud Ten, and they are pretty bad.  Hopefully this means that they are starting to make, or at least distribute, more interesting films.  I'm looking forward to Smuggler's Ransom.  

(Christan Newswire)

(Noa/Rice Digital Smuggler's Ransom official site)

(Cloud Ten Official Site)



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Endure

I'm not really sure if this qualifies as a Christian movie, but the screenwriter taught a filmmaking class at a Christian school, so that has to count for something, right?

Screenwriter and director Joe O'Brien is heading up an independent production near Lakeland, Florida.  The film, entitled Endure, is about a detective who is trying to find an unknown woman.  All he knows is that a picture of her tied to a tree was found in a car wreck.  He must race against time to solve the mystery.  

I love a good Florida noir, since the swamps and heat mix well with the seamy underbelly of society that a good noir explores.  The article details some of the fundraising tactics that the production has used, and is a good primer for independent productions on some steps to take to make a bigger film.  You can also read the official blog of the movie, which has a detailed(ie. Spoiler-filled) plot summary and some other news.  It sounds like they're a ways from filming yet, but good luck to them and I hope the film turns out great!

(Polk County Ledger)

(Endure Movie Blog)


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The Bible Illuminated

You might recall that we wrote about St. John's Bible a while back, the deliberately anachronistic hand-made and illustrated Bible that married Medieval techniques with Modern art.  

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on another radically different type of Bible, The Bible Illuminated.  

A Swedish publisher published The Bible Illuminated in late 2007.   It is formatted like a glossy magazine, and illustrated with big black & white photos.  As you can see in the picture above, the pictures are chosen to be provocative as much as to be beautiful.  Among other photos include a man who drowned trying to enter Europe across the Mediterranean, photos from Concentration camps, as well as newly shot photos specifically for the book.  

The publisher says that his goal was "to foster under understanding about the common heritage between Christians, Muslims and Jews and to get people to think about the bigger moral questions through the ancient texts of the Bible."  He also says that he wanted to introduce the Bible to a new generation and get rid of the "old, heavy book."  

An English version is promised for the US sometime in 2009.  We'll keep you updated.

This version of the Bible certainly looks cool to me.  I love the design, and the photos look cool and thought provoking.  Imagine having this and St. John's Bible side by side in your house.  Two modern takes on the world's oldest book from very different directions.  Stunning.

(Wall Street Journal)

(The Bible Illuminated)

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Episode Twenty Four - The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

In this episode we review The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, a movie based upon the book by Susan Wojchiechowski(try saying that out loud, its fun!). The movie is directed by Bill Clark and stars Tom Berenger and Joely Richardson.

We don't have many show notes this week, but you can read my top 10 Christian Friendly movies of 2007:

1. The Host

2. Enchanted

3. Reign over Me

4. Juno

5. I'm Not There

6. Paprika

7. Transformers

8. 3:10 to Yuma

9. I Am Legend

10. Stardust

Listen through our RSS feed(on the top right of this page), through iTunes(up there too) or from the direct download.

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