Come What May signs with Sony!

Another day, another tip from Awaken Pictures! I should just give him posting access.  (Seriously, if you're interested, drop me a line) Today's tip is that Come What May , which is our next movie up for review and which I just watched last night, has been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures!  Congratulations to Advent Film Group and the makers of Come What May .  Sony, you may recall, distributed Facing the Giants and Fireproof , so they are no strangers to the Christian film market.  I think its safe to say that Come What May  will be showing up in your neighborhood Christian bookstore and favorite DVD retailers soon.

EDIT:  I added the link to the Christian Cinema story that I forgot to put in.

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It's sure not a lamp shaped like a leg: The Widow's Might Wins Major Award!

A 19-year-old filmmaker beat out the makers of Fireproof  and Expelled  to win the best of festival prize at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival .  This is the prize that comes with $101,000 of cool, hard cash.  


The winner is the movie that we've talked about once or twice, The Widow's Might .  Now that its available for download and has won a major prize, we'll have to review it soon.  


The Rebelution Blog reports the full list of winners, scooping the film festival itself, which has nothing on their own web page yet, although the parent organization of the film festival, Doug Phillip's Vision Forum, does have a press release .  I'm late myself, and I've at least got the excuse of playing war with the national guard all weekend!  

All the rest of the categories are listed below.  Interestingly, the "Best Commercial Advertisement" and "Best Promotional Material" winners are not listed on either list of awardees.

Best Trailer:  Changing Lives  (this is apparently a "trailer" for the film festival itself, seems like a good way to get free advertising.  Anyway, you can watch it here , and it was made by Jeremiah Warren, who also worked on The Widow's Might 
Young Filmmakers:  A Journey of Hope
Best Treatment:  Sand Town (this is not a film, but an idea in the pre-script stage)
Best Creation Film:  Noah's Ark
Best Biblical Family Film:  Binding Faith
Best Short Film:  Prodigal Trilogy
Best Original Score:  The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry  (not to be confused with The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey )
Audience Choice:  The Widow's Might 
Best Documentary:  The Terry Schiavo Story (just when you thought CNN/MSNBC/FOX had wrung all there was out of that story.  But at least it beat Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed )
Best Feature Film:  Fireproof  (an interesting split with The Widow's Might .  Fireproof certainly doesn't need the money...)

Oh, and I should correct an earlier mistake.  The Widow's Might is available on DVD, in a limited edition run, for $20.  

(Thanks to Awaken Pictures for the head's up on this story!)
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Wait Your Turn

Another new Christian movie, Wait Your Turn, has just premiered its trailer!  

From screenwriter Maude von Ehnrekrook(awesome name!) and director Ron Newcomb, this film tells the story of "Eve Cassidy... young, single and disappointed by the dating scene until an old friend from college, Thad, comes suddenly back into her life.  Eve rediscovers the joys that chastity brings as she and Thad grow ever closer, but can it last?  Thad's shadowy past has broken her heart before.  To solve that question, both must decide if the other is someone worth keeping..."

Sounds like a pretty awful romance-tearjerker, but the trailer is actually really good.  The acting looks top notch, and the films looks like it could be interesting.  The only gripe I have is that the video quality is all over the place in the trailer, ranging from looking great to looking awful.  Not sure if that is the fault of the trailer being put online poorly, or if the film has visual issues.  Also, the trailer doesn't hint at what Thad's "shadowy past" might be, but I'd wager that its not all that shadowy.  Be sure to check out the trailer at the film's official website.  

The only bad news is that there is no set release date for this film yet, so who knows when we'll get a chance to see it.

I find it interesting that this is the second Christian romance movie of 2008 that has a theme of Christian singles(or divorcees) re-connecting with that "first love" from their youth.  The other film that I'm talking about is Me & You, Us, Forever(due out on DVD Sept. 9).  Interesting that this seems such a strong theme, but I guess first loves are always something that you remember for the rest of your life.  High Fidelity taught us all about that.  We really need a Christian High Fidelity, preferably directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack.  Maybe more Christian writers just need to read Nick Hornby for inspiration.  

Anyway, check out Wait Your Turn's website, where you can read some cast and crew blogs(which haven't been updated since filming wrapped, unfortunatly), as well as read about the usual cast & crew info.  

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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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Christian Cinema interview with Fireproof filmmakers

Christian Cinema has an interview with Kirk Cameron and Alex Kendrick, the two stars and one of the filmmakers behind the follow-up to the hit film Facing the Giants, Fireproof.

The interview is interesting, but it still leaves me with a nagging concern. The women characters in the previous Sherwood Pictures movies have always been the film's weak links, with poor acting and poor character development. This new film is the first one to feature a "name" actor like Kirk Cameron as the star, but the female lead is another unknown actress from the church. I hope that she is good, and that her character is well written, since that is my main concern for this film.

One interseting thing about the interview is that Cameron mentions training with his sister's(Candice Cameron Brue) husband to bulk up for the film. Apparently Mr. Brue is a former Russian Hockey player, which gives me all sorts of strange imagery when paired with the girl from Full House.

How odd is it that the only thing that could get me excited about a Kirk Cameron movie is the fact that it is an Alex Kendrick movie? Cameron, in his entire previous career, has convinced me that he has poor taste in movies. Will this one change my mind? It can't be any worse than his previous 3 acting roles, Left Behind: World at War, Growing Pains: The Returns of the Severs, and Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force. Fireproof needs to add a colon to the title to fit the trend.

(Original stories from Christian Cinema and Baptist Press)


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The Heartwood Dagger

Want to see a new Christian movie for free?

The Heartwood Dagger, a new film from Filmweavers, the makers of Clocks(which I've never heard of), who apparently had some of their crew members (DP & AD) work on another film we recently reported, Pendragon: Sword of His Father.

In keeping with the cutlery theme, this film is about a dagger that is passed down by the men of a family. It is passed through many generations, until one man fails to give it to his son. Now, years later, he has returned to find his son and his grandson conflicting. Can he finally pass on the family legacy and heal their relationship?

You can find out, for free! The film is having its world premiere this Saturday on TBN. It is at 4PM PST. Now, if you're like me and don't have cable TV, don't fret. Did you know you can watch TBN live streaming online? Just go to TBN.org and click the link at the top "Watch Us."

I know that, Lord willing, I'll be logging on this weekend to check it out. If I can convice Don to as well, we might just review this for our next episode.

You can watch the trailer at Filmweavers.com. Check it out!

Thanks to the Fond du Lac Reporter for pointing us to this movie with a great little story!



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Pendragon: Sword of His Father

The Chronicles of the Willi, apparently some sort of family blog, linked to the trailer for an interesting Christian movie a couple days ago.

Pendragon: Sword of His Father is an indendpendantly produced Christian medieval action/adventure, about young Artos Pendragon(get it?) who has to take up his father's sword (got it yet?) and fight the evil Saxon invaders in 5th Century Britannia(England). Do you get the idea yet? Don asked me if at some point an old man turns him into a fish. I can only hope, but regardless the movie looks interesting and exciting!

At the home page of Burns Family Studios you can see some photos from the film, learn about its produciton, and even sponser a character(for only $1000). The film is being supported largly through independant donations, although it looks as if it is nearly finished at this point.

Sure, it looks to have production values on about the same scale as Xena: Warrior Princess, but that is saying a lot for an independant production, and honestly I'm really looking forward to seeing what Christians can do when they set their mind to making a genre film. Is anyone else tired of every Christian movie being a character drama? We need more swords, knights and horses. Actually, strike that last one as horses are present in almost all of those awful 19th Century romances that are made based on Christian novels. So, no more horses but defiantly more flaming arrows!

This honestly looks to have a better story than the recent Hollywood hack-job, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Again, not saying a lot but a very, very refreshing change of pace for the indenpendant Christian film world. I am really looking forward to this one with high hopes!

Watch the trailer now!




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