Adventist Film Ideas

[Adventist Film]

PipeDream: The Adventist Film Company

good to see some discourse on this topic. my film company plans to be making some films over the next 5 years.

'adventist cinema' is a trick thing...

what do adventists want to watch?

what should define an adventist film?

what would you like to see a film on?

if you could make a film, what would it be about?

check us out:

http://pipedreamfilms.co.uk/

[Bravus]

I guess the issue is defining the difference between 'films Adventists would watch' and 'Adventist films'. There are lots of other companies doing great work in the nature field (even if sometimes it's necessary for Adventists to mentally change some dates). It's probably not a good use of resources to just duplicate or slightly change the things that are already out there.

Given some of the discussions here, a really good, clear, modern exposition of the Investigative Judgement doctrine might be a valuable and distinctively Adventist contribution.

[Sulla]

Adventist Film can you be more exact. Do you mean general entertainment or outrich films or anything?

[Neil D]

PipeDream: The Adventist Film Company

good to see some discourse on this topic. my film company plans to be making some films over the next 5 years.

'adventist cinema' is a trick thing...

what do adventists want to watch?

what should define an adventist film?

what would you like to see a film on?

if you could make a film, what would it be about?

check us out:

http://pipedreamfilms.co.uk/

How many films are you planing to bring to the big screen?

Are these films competeing for a larger audience?

Are you looking to use big names, ie Tom Cruise? Nichol Kidman? Nicolas Cage?

If you are looking for subject matter, specific to Adventist culture, then anything that shows "biblical truths" would be in order...That includes nature films, as well as biblical dramas as recalled from the bible, and revelation studies... or stories about/from the Great Controversy , and adventist history, or EGW......I am sure you will not get many reciepts from the box office, but you can make those films to which the adventist audience would be gratefull. Not a lucretive enterprise, but they would be grateful.

But *IF** you are looking for something other than the above, then I suggest that you create stories that include those biblical truths, glaring biblical truths....and see what happens...stories that include parables, allagories, and stories that make a heck of an impact....Stories that make the actors stretch in thier acting, films from classics like Scrooge or comidic stories with pointed truths, like Mid-summer nights dream or the parables from luke 15. Stories with a protagnist and an antagonist. Stories with a decided theme as opposed to stories whose sole purpose is to show how violent and how much sex/nudity they can put into a film without crossing the N_17 rating..or R rating...

If you want to make good children's movies, like Disney did, and then branch out to more adult type themes, that would be good too....

But ultimately, you will have to make those decisions....because if you can produce a movie that makes money, then you will be able to create more filmes...But if you can not do that, then not only will you loose out, but your backers will pull thier finances out as well. They are looking to make $$$$$$ as well...

[Dr. Shane]

Adventist films makes me think of the Christmas Tear Jerkers we have made. I think those are great but would like to see a bit more of an Adventist twist to them.

I would love family movies where Adventist doctrines like the Sabbath, vegetarian diet or state of the dead are subtly taught. The Voice of Prophecy use to make a number of half-hour dramas that were very good.

[Lineman]

If you are looking for subject matter, specific to Adventist culture, then anything that shows "biblical truths" would be in order...That includes nature films, as well as biblical dramas as recalled from the bible, and revelation studies... or stories about/from the Great Controversy , and adventist history, or EGW......I am sure you will not get many reciepts from the box office, but you can make those films to which the adventist audience would be gratefull. Not a lucretive enterprise, but they would be grateful.

But *IF** you are looking for something other than the above, then I suggest that you create stories that include those biblical truths, glaring biblical truths....and see what happens...stories that include parables, allagories, and stories that make a heck of an impact....Stories that make the actors stretch in thier acting, films from classics like Scrooge or comidic stories with pointed truths, like Mid-summer nights dream or the parables from luke 15. Stories with a protagnist and an antagonist. Stories with a decided theme as opposed to stories whose sole purpose is to show how violent and how much sex/nudity they can put into a film without crossing the N_17 rating..or R rating...

If you want to make good children's movies, like Disney did, and then branch out to more adult type themes, that would be good too....

But ultimately, you will have to make those decisions....because if you can produce a movie that makes money, then you will be able to create more filmes...But if you can not do that, then not only will you loose out, but your backers will pull thier finances out as well. They are looking to make $$$$$$ as well...

[Lineman]

what do adventists want to watch?

Not sure your target audience should be Adventists, but rather who Adventists want to reach.

What Adventists really want to watch is something that they can proudly share with their friends, something that will teach Bible truth in a non-judgemental way and not appear to be pushing any religion (especially the SDA one) other than the religion of Jesus and the Bible.

It should not be our purpose to just bring people into the church, but to bring people to Jesus. When they are totally ready to let Jesus do whatever HE wants in their lives many of them will probably become SDAs, but only when Jesus wants them to.

As I alluded to before, teaching the Plan of Salvation should be our primary focus it seems. Found this graphic online at http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/pain_without_borders_cambodia?size=_original and feel that something like this in a movie form, showing our hopeless condition without Jesus, might be of interest to you. This is such a powerful graphic:

As you might be able to tell, I am very excited about your "Pipe Dream".

Blessings,

Dan

[Lineman]

Evidently this guy got lost.

Anyone else have a suggestion as to who else is into this kind of thing?

[fccool]

Actually, he is right on money. I am a Christian Filmmaker myself. I have a couple advices that may or may not be what you are looking for.

There are many Christian film makers. Christiano Brothers would be a good example that I've followed through the years. Their latest "success" in the TIME CHANGER was rather a paradox. Paradox is that they do films to reach the non-believers and spread the gospel, yet they manage to accomplish the opposite. The non-believers are repulsed by the lack of imagination and bad acting, while believers embrace it as an achievement of Christian cinematography.

I would not encourage you to be Adventist filmmaker, but I would encourage you to be a film maker who is Adventist. Film is a representation of a reality, both the reality that we experience, and the reality that you want the audience to see. If you avoid the former for the sake of the later... it will not be believable. It just going to be a badly contrived story that only seeks to preach to the audiences. I would advice against that.

If you have not seen "A Walk to Remember", I would strongly recommend to watch it and learn from it. It is not a "Christian film", but it is everything Christian cinema should be. It is not forcing the gospel down your throat by means of sermon on a celluloid. It shows that love transcends and transforms... and it shows it without preaching to the audience. There are plenty of films such as these that do the job better than a wooden presentation of a gospel that comes across as contrived on the screen.

I guess, the last advice would be... take your time writing and developing screenplay. If budget is not on your side, be creative. Never sacrifice quality for "message". If the message comes from the lips of untalented people and captured and edited poorly... the overall quality will be the overwhelming factor that people will notice and be destructed by.

I come back to my alma matter to give a couple of tips to aspiring Christian filmmakers once in a while. My first advice is : "Learn to be a filmmaker first." The reason is the support for anything Christian in Christian communities. Thus once these kids take their work to the real world... it does not even being noticed outside of a couple appearances in some kind of low key film festivals. Thus the work gets stuck to entertain the choir, instead of going into the masses. Go for the masses without sacrificing the message. It's not an easy thing to do, but with God all is possible. We can certainly do for God what Hollywood does for money... just as well. Especially with today's desktop computing technology.

If you need some ideas for a shorts, or features... I'd be more than happy to help... as well as some techniques to get the Hollywood quality image for pennies on the dollar.

[Adventist Film]

Thanks you

We overall aim is to make 'feature lenth' pictures availible for commercial exhibition - (to be shown in cinemas)

But this is an 'overall aim' - for the moment, we have done work are are currently working on material to be viewed online and shown over church projection

[Gail]

You should check out "Secret of the Cave", done by our Southern Adventist University students. It was the second film I'd seen by the students and very well done.

They took an well-known story from an Adventist author and made a nice quality film that is suited for all ages. I would recommend it to non-Christians as well.

Quite a few people are interested also in the "Adventist Preaching" series, which is actually a series of sermons. So I'm sure that whether your target audience is looking for sacred or everyday film ventures, you will find interest in either.

[Adventist Film]

Thank you all for your comments - You've given me much insight.

Our overall aim is to produce 'feature length' films to be shown via commerical exhibition (cinemas).

However this is a longterm - 'overall' - 5 year aim.

At present, we are producing films to be shown on the internet and on church projection.

...

(Sulla) when i mentioned 'adventist film' - i was deliberately ambiguous - i wanted to see how people would react to such a concept

(Bravus) mentioned an "exposition of the Investigative Judgement doctrine" - nice idea

(Neil D) thank you for a thought provoking post - actors are actors. We dont reject actors based on religion (we do work with non-adventists). everything you said has been digested and taken into consideration - especially the concept of "films on adventist history"

(Lineman / Dan) You really do have an unconsummated drive for film production! i want PipeDream to be the voice for people in your position

"Not sure your target audience should be Adventists, but rather who Adventists want to reach." - this is a good point

We would like to compose films that reach adventists with certain films. We will then also have a line of films tailored for non adventists so that adventists "can proudly share with their friends, something that will teach Bible truth in a non-judgemental way and not appear to be pushing any religion (especially the SDA one) other than the religion of Jesus and the Bible."

(fccool) I agree that one must be a filmmaker first. Thanks for your suggestions and advice. You said if i "need some ideas for a shorts, or features" to give you a shout - thanks.

...

Its good to see such healthy discourse. Adventists for too long have rejected and avoided 'cinema' as a viable evangelistic tool.

(Dan, ive noted down your concept - I will keep you up to date on development.)

...

To everyone: What commercial films can you think of that had essentially a christian message?

(http://pipedreamfilms.co.uk/)

[Adventist Film]

.

[Gail]

Quote:

To everyone: What commercial films can you think of that had essentially a christian message?

I liked that one, Amazing Grace, about Wilberforce and his fight to abolish the slave trade in England.

[Sulla]

I just had a thought. Maybe you are asking the wrong people the wrong question. Maybe you should be asking God what to make:)

[Ben_White]

How about a film that takes place in 1984, introducing the concept of a "terminator", specifically a seemingly unstoppable cyborg assassin who has been sent back from the year 2029 by a race of artificially intelligent computer-controlled machines bent on the extermination of the human race. The Terminator's mission would be to kill Sarah Connor whose future son leads a resistance against the machines. As a result a rip in the space-time is opened and as a result Ellen White and some of the early Adventist Pioneers are brought forward in time to save and protect Sarah Connor? As a result of Ellen White having seen heaven opened she is thus equipped with special powers to defeat the Terminator with the help of the modern day Adventist Armies who battle against Skynet systems and usher in the the new kingdom as a result?

[GreatLakesGramma]

I love the films by Sherwood Pictures - Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and now Fireproof, which I have not seen yet - waiting for the DVD to come out in a couple of weeks.

All of the movies by World Wide Pictures are excellent. Recently, I finally got to watch The Climb. Netflix still doesn't have it so I found it on our library co-op network. A Vow to Cherish is another one with an outstanding storyline and message.

[Lineman]

I just had a thought. Maybe you are asking the wrong people the wrong question. Maybe you should be asking God what to make:)

Sulla has something here, but I think this is the right question, just the wrong "people". I hope no one is taking this lightly. We all believe in Him, yet we want to trust in ourselves more and more. It’s time we put our actions were our words are; our money where our mouth is.

I am guessing what we all want to see produced is something that will teach as much of the truth as possible in a short film, but done in such a way that EVERYONE will enjoy and remember what they have seen. Kind of like a modern day "parable", something that whenever something common is seen or heard you will immediately think of what was taught in the movie.

But how do you know which truth is most important? How do you choose from all that is found in the Bible seems to be the first question that must be answered.

There really are lots of films out there that "teach" love, but they never seem to help the audience make the connection with God's love. If they did though, would anyone other than Christians watch?

I think it would depend on how well the film was produced, but like Sulla said, we need to be asking the King of film producers what He thinks. (The neat thing is that He can "prompt" those who will be blessed into watching, unless they totally put their brakes on.)

Dan

[Lineman]

I read the following someplace, copied it into Word and now I have no idea where it came from. Anyone recognize where it may have come from?

I find it quite relevant to this topic of creating Christian film and so I am posting it here.

Quote:

The challenge of the evangelism today is not as much getting the message out there, but conveying the message in a way that gives it a fair chance to be heard and understood. We live in an increasingly busy world that is full of distractions and misconceptions. If our evangelism efforts to be effective, then essentially we have to not only concentrate on our message, but also modes of presenting it.

This is the reason why Jesus spoke and taught using parables. People understood the message of the gospel in context of their culture as Jesus was presenting it using by means of an interesting and culturally relevant story. Thus the mode was less of a confrontation and criticism, but of education and mindset change.

If we accept Christianity as our way of life, we have to be able to share it in context of the current culture, yet without conforming or adulterating the message. People don’t understand, because the concept is foreign to their culturally learned beliefs and contexts, which reside in the realm of fallen and thus spiritually dead world. Can a spiritually dead man understand the “meat” of the deeper spiritual things without first being fed the “milk” of Christ, or … even concept of existence of God?

Thus, instead of using the culture as a vehicle for the message, it cripples it. Instead of using the culture as Jesus did to preach to the masses of unbelievers, the church in its evangelistic efforts often ends up preaching to the choir, and often because the message is tailored and thus fit for the choir. Unfortunately this is the case for the most things that carry the label “Christian”, be it a Christian movie, Christian TV station, Christian radio, or a Christian book. I’m not trying to discard the need of such nourishment for existing believers. Yet many of these things that begin with mass evangelism in mind find their way in a place where the evangelism is needed the least – existing body of believers.

We need to understand and study culture. If we do, we may find that culture is not always “evil” or “good”, and that it may be a different way of doing the same things. God is a God of variety as He demonstrated through His creation, yet somehow we find ourselves canonizing our cultural preferences while criticizing those of others. We have to realize that cultural preferences are just that – cultural preferences. I’m not talking about cannibalism or sexuality. I’m talking about the gray issues. Knives could be used to prepare a meal, or to hurt and kill people.

Secondly, we have to stop separating the world into “spiritual” and “non-spiritual”. You know – “spiritual” things being the church activities, Christian books and music, while non-spiritual being everything else. We need to recognize that everything that we do is “spiritual” because it either draws us closer to, or further away from our Creator. What would you consider to be “non-spiritual” in a world created by the spiritual God, and that is being led astray by fallen spiritual beings? There’s absolutely nothing “non-spiritual” about it. God did not leave the gory details out of the Bible. Some Biblical events are described in a violent and at times even pornographic way. We have to face the reality, and be honest about it, yet with understanding that this is not the way things should be. Then we would be able to understand, and relate to people in an honest and caring way.

You see, the problem with this world is not all the violence, all the wars, all the pornography, all the lying and stealing and etc. The problem is misplaced love. People are being deceived into loving the wrong things. They are deceived to love money from the moment they can know what it is. They are deceived to love the Hollywood and Sports celebrities (or people that we celebrate) as examples of mainstream behavior. They are deceived to love alcohol and pornography as a way to relief the stress they are dealing with.

Unfortunately, today Christianity is on a fast track to be classified as an "alternative" lifestyle. We need to show the world that it is a better alternative.

PipeDream, who do you see as your audience anyway? Few churches have the ability to project any kind of movie unless they are in a fairly large city. Few SDA Christians are inclined to visit a cinema and watch even if the movie was created by an Adventist, so I take it that you are not wanting to "preach to the choir"?

What would you like to accomplish with this film (series)? Do you have a mission; is there something that the Lord has placed on your heart already that you want to accomplish?

Evidently there is so stay with your dream, but keep doing the research like you are doing (listening and learning) and keep praying. God can (and will if you let Him) do through you what you have never even dreamed was possible.

Blessings,

Dan

[fccool]

hmm... that would be from my article titled "Culture and Evangelism". I can post the entire article if you'd like me to.

[Stan]

fccool

That would be interesting enough to have it's own thread..

[phkrause]

I don't think that its EGW, she doesn't write that clearly. That has always been my problem with her writings. Very difficult to understand, at least for me.

pk

[fccool]

I think it has more to do with how people spoke and written back than than anything. It's like comparing KJV Bible language to the NKJV. But, ironically, that's exactly what I'm talking about in the article. For most people that we engage, we are speaking in KJV type language... what I like to call "religionese". It's like me starting to explain to you the depth of object oriented programming, without explaining the basics. Imagine someone spoke to you in old Shakespearian English? It'd be interesting to observe :)

[phkrause]

Don't get me wrong I appreciate what she had to say. Just hard to understand sometimes. Having not been born in this country I already have a hard time anyway. hahahaha I can't imagine having someone speak in Shakespearian English let alone KJV english. hahahaha

pk

[Lineman]

hmm... that would be from my article titled "Culture and Evangelism". I can post the entire article if you'd like me to.

Wow, thanks! Stan is talking about having its own thread. Is it already posted someplace else?

Any idea where I might have seen it?