Watch “The Redemption of Cecil & Victoria Johnson”

April 13, 2010

This is a short documentary we shot last year in Florida. It was to be a part of the Seek Social Justice series but ended up not being used in the final product. It tells the story of how Cecil and Victoria Johnson were pulled out of a life of drugs, crime and prison and [...]

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“Illegal squatters. Anarchist Radicals. Devout Christians. Welcome to OUR HOUSE.” A new doc by Greg King.

April 9, 2010

This is the tagline for a new documentary by Greg King, a NYC friend of ours who helped us out when we shot the film Prodigal Sons as part of our Modern Parables series. Greg sent us an announcement yesterday that the film was an official selection for the 2010 HotDocs film festival in Toronto. [...]

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A Piece of Advice I Wish I’d Received 10 Years Ago

April 7, 2010

I’m in a bit of an odd situation since I was the one today giving the advice to an aspiring young documentary filmmaker. But I do wish someone had told it to me a decade ago instead of learning it from the school of hard knocks. So, here’s the advice: figure out how to build [...]

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How Mary Magdalene and a Dutch theologian changed my view of Easter morning

April 3, 2010

My favorite sermon was preached by a Dutch professor of theology over a hundred years ago. Just as some of the most beautiful flowers are found in the most unlikely places, this sermon given to a handful of seminary students provides the most extraordinary perspective on the morning of our Saviour’s resurrection. I discovered it [...]

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Watch what a clever actor can do with a single page

March 26, 2010

I always find it interesting to see what a good comic actor can do with a script. We shot a short film earlier this week in a dance studio here in Nashville. In previous posts, I talked about writing the script as well as working with actors. I can now show you how one of [...]

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The two best jobs.

March 19, 2010

When I was a young division officer in the Navy, I remember standing on the ship’s bridge with the captain watching the sea pass by. He leaned over from his chair and said, “Tom, the two best jobs in the Navy are division officer and captain. Know why?”  I said I didn’t. “Because they actually [...]

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12 tips on getting good performances if you don’t know anything about acting

March 9, 2010

I really know very little about acting. My only time in front of a camera was to drive a truck up to a curb so a small dog could jump into it. But I did direct our six Modern Parables films and we regularly get complimented on the good acting. To set the record straight, [...]

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Family worship is simpler than you think; and this proves it

March 8, 2010

As I continue to read on family worship for our next curriculum series, I often run across books that are particularly good. Merle d’Aubigne’s sermon on family worship is a case in point: clear, simple, and practical, it outlines the reasons behind spending time doing it, then provides direct steps to implementing it. His sermon [...]

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A conceited method for exploring theological ideas in film

March 1, 2010

I recently finished a draft of a screenplay for a short film on the roles of men and women in marriage. (We’re doing it for a family ministry to use in a new curriculum they’re developing.) One of their ideas was to use dancing as a metaphor for roles in marriage. I thought it was [...]

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Writing in strange formats is a necessary part of the job

February 24, 2010

When I first started writing screenplays as a student in college, I had a vague idea that there was some kind of “proper format” to screenwriting. So I found a copy of an old screenplay and tried to mimic it with Word. I later found out there were computer programs that would format for you, [...]

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