So you wanna make anime?

[The Doctor]

Ok, how many of us here want to make anime...or just be in pictures? Be in entertainment period?

Well, I found a book that is just for us guys. It's called "So you want to be in pictures?" written by Ted Baehr, a Christian who is a leader in raising up Christian filmmakers.

This book is ESSENTIAL to learning all you need to know. Pick it up and READ IT!!!

[bigsleepj]

Hmmmmm. Cool.

I'll have to check it out this book. I really want to make movies - I do believe that I'd be able to construct a competent movie. But I don't want to shove the Christian message down the viewers throat - but rather just present the Christian world-view. There are many spiritual movies that are loved by atheists simply because they show their world-view rather than preach it. I think this is sometimes a better way to reach people - to let them experience Christianity. That is what makes movies so good, as that Ebert fellow stated: "movies aren't especially good at dealing with abstract ideas -- for those you'd be better off turning to the written word -- but they are superb for presenting moods and feelings". If we can present Christianity not as a bunch of rules presented by old men with long beards but as a plausible and intellectual faith (as well as the truth) then we might be very successful.

I'm a Christian (duh) but I dislike it when I'm preached to with the camera focusing on a person (admittedly the only person who got away with this was Charles Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940) but the movie still would have been better without it). This is something a lot of movies, Christian or atheistic, love to do and which I believe all movies should avoid.

[Wingheart]

Wow, that sounds really interesting. My career goal is to be an animator (whether it's 2d or 3d), and it would really come in handy. Plus it'd be an awesome thing to read to incorporate my career dream and God.

[starfire]

I'll see if I can find teh book. soundz rockin. I want to be a journalist or something where I can wear a bodysuit, but I would also like to try my hand at being a voice actrezz. I feel that the world needz some decent dubz.

[Scribs]

Hmmmmm. Cool.

I'll have to check it out this book. I really want to make movies - I do believe that I'd be able to construct a competent movie. But I don't want to shove the Christian message down the viewers throat - but rather just present the Christian world-view. There are many spiritual movies that are loved by atheists simply because they show their world-view rather than preach it. I think this is sometimes a better way to reach people - to let them experience Christianity. That is what makes movies so good, as that Ebert fellow stated: "movies aren't especially good at dealing with abstract ideas -- for those you'd be better off turning to the written word -- but they are superb for presenting moods and feelings". If we can present Christianity not as a bunch of rules presented by old men with long beards but as a plausible and intellectual faith (as well as the truth) then we might be very successful.

I'm a Christian (duh) but I dislike it when I'm preached to with the camera focusing on a person (admittedly the only person who got away with this was Charles Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940) but the movie still would have been better without it). This is something a lot of movies, Christian or atheistic, love to do and which I believe all movies should avoid.

I agree with you 100%
It seems to me like most christian movies don't end up being fun to watch, they just seem to come off as preachy. The reason anyone goes to see a movie is entertainment. If you loose the entertainment factor, people wont go to your movies. If you could make a movie from a christian viewpoint, without the direct "you need to do this to be saved" line thrust awkwardly into the dialogue somewhere, it would probably do better.

[bigsleepj]

It seems to me like most christian movies don't end up being fun to watch, they just seem to come off as preachy.

Off course a lot of Christian movies fall into an absurd cycle. They are made to "turn people to Christ" but only get watch by Christians, thus ultimately they "preach to the choir". Because they are termed directly as "Christian" they put of a lot of atheistic viewers simply by that label. I can understand a movie that affirms our beliefs but if you want to make a movie to turn people to Christianity you must be willing to go as a missionary into "Babylon" and give them something they'd want to watch even if the ideas don't agree with them.

The reason anyone goes to see a movie is entertainment. If you loose the entertainment factor, people wont go to your movies. If you could make a movie from a christian viewpoint, without the direct "you need to do this to be saved" line thrust awkwardly into the dialogue somewhere, it would probably do better.

Actually, no. There are a lot of people who consider movie-making an art-form the same way someone would consider a comic book, a Dostoevsky novel or a painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be art. Not all art or movies is or can be entertaining (I wouldn't call "The Passion of the Christ" entertaining even if its a movie I admire - same goes for Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt"). I don't think anyone goes to watch an Ingmar Bergman or Robert Bresson or Frederico Fellini film expecting to be entertained. If I were to make a spiritual movie I'd probably make it for an art-house theatre because quite frankly the entertainment-factor would severely burden or outweigh the spiritual factor.

Off course entertainment can be art (Original Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones are works of art) but few such movies actually reach people on a spiritual basis despite such elements in them. The exceptions are "Star Wars" and "The Matrix" trilogies, but they don't really qualify as Christian cinema despite use of the symbolism. Both show however that it is possible to make movies (for mass consumption) that could touch people spiritually. But still the attempts to be entertaining might clash with the attempts at presenting Christianity. When I wrote the previous post in this thread I wasn't talking about making a blockbuster.

[plutogrl03]

I'm very late in writing this but I'm going to anyway. I'll have to look up this book. I'm a theater/film production major and I have been thinking about how in the world I'm to make it in this industry without having to sell my soul. I still don't know what I'm going to do but hopefully getting a Christian perspective will help.

[Bobtheduck]

Hmm... Well, I don't want to make YWAM proselytes (gah, I'm leaving it and likely for good, that would be quite stupid) but David Cunningham, son of YWAM founder Loren Cunningham and director of To End All Wars runs a digital film school (DTS is a prerequisite, and the course isn't accredited in the US) that could be good for people to get involved with... ABC was so impressed with his work and the integrity of the interns he raised, that now on at least one, maybe more, of their shows or movies, the crew is going to be exclusively YWAM film school interns...

I just hope he doesn't get caught up in the industry and forget his purpose, but he seems to be doing well right now.

*sigh* Man, I want to get into that, but my heart is primarily for Video games...