Church of the Masses

Dec. 3rd - Save the Date!!! GREAT Event!

2011-10-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Much More Than a Little Feature: The Splendor of the Short Film

Film Night and Conference

Hosted by the Galileo Studio at Azusa Pacific University

Mediocrity Takes on Some Champs

2011-10-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

I don't have the time or will to do a complete analysis of all the faults in The Mighty Macs. It is yet the latest disappointing movie effort to be produced and financed by committed Christians. It will not make its money back and will not add anything to the journey of the exclusively Christian audience that will be coaxed into theaters to support it. Subjecting it to a serious analysis would make me look like a fool, because it would mean applying more serious thought and experience to the movie than the filmmakers obviously did. Here follows a few comments I put on Steve Greydanus' Facebook review of the project.

Great sports movies, like Hoosiers, Brian's Song and Moneyball, always remember that the movie is not about "the big game." The movie is about the internal struggle of the main character which is complicated by the big game. Of the myriad things that made The Mighty Macs lame, the worst was the absence of any real internal conflict. There is no sin in the movie which means there is no tension or real stakes. Flannery O'Connor condemned this in Catholic art as an "overemphasis on innocence." We Catholics should know better because we know what is in the heart of men. Secondly, the movie was lacking in most of the things that make a movie great. There was no subtext, no imagery, no layering, no complexity of character, no theme, no surprises and then, some really lame dialogue. Finally, the movie was a terrible depiction of religious life utterly lacking in any real Catholic sensibility. See Ida Lupino's classic The Trouble with Angels for a wonderful portrayal of nuns as real, flesh and blood people. The big question of The MIghty Macs is why the filmmakers didn't get some help on the script. They had to know they were over their heads, right? I mean, they must have seen a good movie once or twice before?

Screenwriting Grammar Matters

2011-09-06T14:40:00.001-07:00

Somebody wrote me recently that their project got rejected in Hollywood for improper formatting. The writer was irate that such a small thing would be used to reject his script. Here, for the general edification was my response....

I wanted to express a brief defense on behalf of those of us who are sticklers about screenwriting grammar, aka formatting. Considered under a professional lens, formatting is not irrelevant. In the vast majority of projects, a correctly formatted page equals one minute of time on the screen. The margins for dialogue are shorter and allow for the actors to add expression. The longer margins allow the audience to get a good enough look at whatever is being described. Beyond timing, capitalizations are signposts to casting agents, line producers, directors and DP's for all their respective tasks.

The best way to consider a screenplay is like unto an architectural drawing. People outside the profession do not appreciate all the industry standard norms for drawing, and would probably dismiss them. But they have their uses. Essential uses from a professional standpoint.

Considering that these things are essentials, it could be a disservice to discourage your readers from giving them proper attention. Christians already have a bad rap in Hollywood for lack of professionalism. We don't want to add condescension to ignorance.

People who haven't learned the industry standard for formatting are better off writing their story in a straight narrative fashion, as in a treatment. There are some expectations for a treatment, but few people in the business will quibble over them.

On Visual Imagery

2011-07-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am giving a two day workshop on the use of visual imagery in storytelling in Colorado in February 2012. They asked me to write a short piece about the topic for their magazine. I wrote too much and they will probably lose half of it. For posterity's sake, here's the whole thing.

A Good Visual Image is Worth a Thousand Words

By Barbara Nicolosi

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Mt. 13:44

Poetry is the most respectful of art forms. The whole reason for a poem is the acknowledgment that reality is too complex and mysterious to be reduced to the limits of wordy definitions. Poetry searches for metaphors to reveal facets of reality by likening them to other things. In the famous poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Godfrey Saxe, we laugh to hear that an elephant is alternately like a wall, and then, like a spear, and then like a snake, and a tree, a fan and a rope. The poem assures us that an elephant isn’t any of those things, but is something like all of them.

Poetry is also eminently respectful of the reader, because it has to have faith in his or her intelligence, sensitivity and imagination – basically in the reader’s humanity – to succeed. The poet is a riddler who crafts a picture puzzle and hopes that someone will be enticed to go through the difficult process of unraveling it. If they do, the labor they have expended will make the solution valuable to them. You know what I mean if you have ever been driving along on a country road, and then suddenly understood what Emily Dickinson meant when she wrote,

I had been hungry all the years-

My noon had come, to dine-

I, trembling, drew the table near

And touched the curious wine.

Suddenly, as C.S. Lewis said about the purpose of literature, you know you’re not alone.

Sadly, my sense of so much Christian literature is that it fails because it neither respects the mysteries underlying the human choices it describes, nor the humanity of the reader. Why is it that people of faith have so little faith in people?

Our Lord set the example for all Christian storytellers by extensively utilizing visual images. One has to presume that He could have given a clinically accurate description of His reality as the Second Person of the Trinity. And yet he chose to describe himself as “the Vine”, “the Good Shepherd,” “the Light of the World,” “the Bread of Life.” The Kingdom of heaven is presented to us not through geometrical and philosophical definitions, but as “a great net cast into the sea,” “or a vineyard,” or “a lost coin,” or “a treasure in a field.” Hence, following the example of the Master, Christian artists through the ages have tended to approach reality humbly through images that in their distortion or emphasis bring us wisdom infused with reverence. It was a good way to be.

So what happened to us? Why is so much contemporary Christian art and literature banal? Why do our works not only not cause the world to brood, but cause them to dismiss us? Part of the problem is that so little Christian work today has any powerful lyrical imagery. In so doing, we separate ourselves from storytellers like Homer and Dante and Hawthorne and Poe, all of whom were masters of visual paradox.

My sense is that many contemporary writers couldn’t even say what a lyrical image is or why it is important in a story. At it’s basic level, a lyrical image is sacramental in a story, giving the reader something to see in their mind’s eye that points to hidden realities. Imagery should come into play particularly to get an audience to brood over a project’s theme, but also can be very helpful in making a character’s motivations and choices more resonant.

In her story Good Country People, the great writer and Christian, Flannery O’Connor, created a character who was a PhD with a wooden leg.

“She believes in nothing but her own belief in nothing, and we perceive that there is a wooden part of her soul that corresponds to her wooden leg. Now of course this is never stated. The fiction writer states as little as possible. The reader makes this connection from things he is shown. He may not even know that he makes the connection, but the connection is there nevertheless and it has its effect on him.” (Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners)

The truth is, it is easier to tell people what you think, then to entice them to think on something, which is what a good visual image does. Coming up with a good visual image for a story requires a double portion of the intelligence, sensitivity and imagination that a reader will need to unravel it.

New Article from Barb on Euthanasia

2011-06-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a new piece I wrote for my friends at Crisis Magazine about the coming battle for euthanasia. Please click on the link, and send it on to other friends. This issue is critically important, and, as always, our side is staring off into the sunset missing the massing of the opposition.

"The evidence is undeniable: Somewhere in the middle of the Terri Schiavo tragedy, Hollywood and the cultural left climbed aboard the latest human-killing bandwagon and have since thrown the weight of their talent and creativity behind it. As with abortion, the forces of darkness are outmaneuvering the forces of good on what will certainly be the moral issue of the 21st century.

If we lose the fight on euthanasia, we lose our souls. By removing suffering and the meaning of suffering from our culture, we make the final step in denying and defying our creature-hood. Once again, the seductive lie of Eden will trip us up: “If you will do this thing, you shall be like God.”"

Mass for Artists in NYC

2011-04-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

Just passing this on....

_______________________________

Dear friends and fellow artists,

It's a great pleasure to invite you to the inaugural event of the Catholic Artists Society on Sunday, May 15th at 5pm at the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan.

A Solemn High Mass of the Holy Spirit will be celebrated for members of our growing Catholic arts and media community. All artists, their families and friends of the arts are invited to attend. Following the mass, Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ, from Fordham University, will give a talk on "Ignatian Prayer and the Work of the Artist". A reception will follow.

You can sign up for updates on this and future events at http://catholicartistssociety.posterous.com/

The Solemn extraordinary form Mass will be celebrated by Fr. George Rutler, pastor of Our Saviour’s. Fr. Michael Barone will be deacon and Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ will act as sub-deacon. Sacred music will be provided by the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary Church (Norwalk, CT), under the direction of David J. Hughes. Guest organist Herve Duteil will provide additional music.

The Catholic Artists Society was initiated in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s Address to Artists at the Sistine Chapel in November, 2009. Following the Holy Father’s call for artists to be “custodians of Beauty” and “heralds and witnesses of Hope for humanity” the society seeks to foster solidarity and fellowship amongst the faithful engaged in the creative professions, encouraging the ongoing artistic and spiritual development of all artists and media professionals, so that their work may more perfectly reflect God’s glory, enriching and ennobling men and women, our society and our culture.

We look forward to seeing you on the 15th. Please let me know if you plan to attend so we can get an idea of numbers for the reception. An invitation with details is attached.

Yours in Christ,

Kevin Collins

What Happened to the Good Stories?

2011-04-19T10:01:00.001-07:00

Here's a snippet from an interview I just did with a Christian magazine called Aletheia. It will be coming out later in the summer.

Q: Where would you say our culture stands in regards to good storytellers and stories?

BN: My opinion is that we have nearly lost the ability to tell a good story. Part of this is the loss we are seeing in all the art forms, which I think has something to do with the loss of rigor and discipline that is the doorway to the beautiful. Also, I think a lot of the artistic impulses in our time have been drowned in Ritalin and Prozac. Finally, I think the urge to make something beautiful comes from a sense of gratitude and immortality. In our culture, both those values are ever more quaint.

When we consider the Church, nothing is clearer than that we seem to have proudly cast off the beautiful as an elitist throwback to a less enlightened time. In the Church, we spurn the beautiful in favor of egalitarianism, politics and utility. I have had priests tell me that they can’t afford to ensure beautiful music for the liturgy, or else that beautiful music is relative, or that beautiful music is less important than in making Doris and Stan, the untalented but warm-hearted music ministry folks, feel appreciated. After the terrible music, the next most egregiously bad practiced art from in the Church today is oratory. Too many of our pastors seem to take it as a point of pride that their homilies have nothing of the basics of a good speech about them. Far from making our hearts burn within us, most homilies today leave the faithful’s brains burning with indignation. I’m waiting for people to finally crest with all the banality and start shouting back at the pulpit.

In Hollywood, storytelling has been lost mainly due to the fact that movies are seen first as commercial products and second as whole, harmonious and radiant stories. There is no change to any part of a story that today’s studio wont make to please an egomaniacal actor or director. There is no part of a movie too sacred not to be cheapened by product placement. There is no overarching theme that can survive the endless tinkering of producers trying desperately to bring the project in on time and under budget. The only real future for good storytelling seems to be outside the studio system. It’s sad, but I think Hollywood’s days of having access to the imagination of the world are gone.

The Grand Inquisitor and Lent

2011-04-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a talk that I will be giving to our Hollywood RCIA folks this coming Thursday, April 7th, at Family Theater in Hollywood. It's a good talk. Feel free to attend if you are in the area.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 – 7:30pm – 9:30pm

TEMPTATION AND PENITENTIAL ACTS / THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING: PENANCE AND ANOINTING OF THE SICK

Instructor: Barbara Nicolosi Harrington

Reading: CCC 1434-1439; CCC 1422-1424, 1440-1470, 1499, 1511-1525; “The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

To learn: The Act of Contrition (see p. 191 in the Compendium)

For journal: What is it that tempts you? How do you respond to temptation? How do I understand the sacrament of reconciliation?

See Barb at Hedgebrook Workshop

2011-03-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a wonderful writers' conference at which I will be presenting next month.

HEDGEBROOK ALUMNAE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL:

LOS ANGELES CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

Saturday, April 9, 2011

At Mount St. Mary's College, Chalon Campus - Los Angeles, CA

The Hedgebrook Alumnae Leadership Council: Los Angeles is pleased to announce its second annual series of creative workshops. This year's focus is on writing for film and TV and magazines. Join us for panels with writers from Seinfeld, Mad Men, Big Love, The United States of Tara and more. We've got workshops on finding representation, breaking into advertising, and travel writing, as well as our popular E-Marketing for Documentary and Independent Filmmakers course. Come for a single class, or the entire day. A portion of your donation is tax deductible and will benefit Hedgebrook.

SUGGESTED DONATION: $40 per class (general public)/ $30 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

Any 4 classes for $120 (general public)/ $100 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

Panels 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM	Getting Representation as a Writer – Kalia York and Alicia Lipinski of Headlong Entertainment
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM	Women in TV – Tracy McMillian, Jude Weng, Julia Cho and Jen Grisanti
2:45 – 4:15 PM	Conversations on Comedy with Seinfeld – David Mandel and Peter Mehlman
4:30 – 6:00 PM	Breaking into Copywriting & Advertising – Simon Foster, Michael Faella & Marc Jensen of Agency Division

Workshops 9:00 – 10:30 AM	Writing Powerful Dialogue – Crickett Rumley
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM	Traveling, Writing and Getting Paid For It – Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM	Creating Haunting Moments in Storytelling – Barbara Nicolosi
12:30 – 2:30 PM	Writing Reality TV, a Hands-on Workshop – Jude Weng
3:30 – 6:00 PM	E-Marketing For Documentary & Independent Filmmakers – Judith Dancoff

The workshops will take place at beautiful Mount St. Mary's College. Nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains over Brentwood in West Los Angeles, with views of the Pacific Ocean and the Getty Center, Mount St. Mary's is a true retreat from city life. Attendees are invited to use the campus common areas as a relaxing writing retreat between sessions.

The Hedgebrook Alumnae Leadership Council: Los Angeles represents Hedgebrook Alumnae in Southern California. Together with Hedgebrook, we support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations to come.

Course Descriptions

The Perfect Line: How to Write Compelling Dialogue with Crickett Rumley

Saturday, April 9th, 9am – 10:30am ROOM 201

Everybody loves a great turn of phrase, whether it’s a snappy punch line or an inspiring monologue. But what’s the secret to writing good dialogue? Understanding that it is not mere chit-chat—it is conversation with intent. In this lecture class, we will use a series of film clips to identify the way dialogue serves both the writer’s and the characters’ intentions as well as discuss techniques for crafting lines that create multiple layers of meaning. All writers, whether novelists, playwrights, or screenwriters, are welcome!

Class size limit: 50

Hedgebrook Alum Crickett Rumley graduated with an MFA in Film from Columbia University and now teaches screenwriting at the New York Film Academy (Universal Studios). As a screenwriter, she has developed projects with PBS, Pink Slip Pictures, Killer Films, and Gigantic Pictures. Her debut young adult novel Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell comes out in June 2011 from Egmont USA.

Getting Representation as a Writer with Kaila York and Alicia Lipinski of Headlong Entertainment

Saturday, April 9th, 9am – 10am ROOM 204

Whether you ’re looking for representation or unhappy with your current people, Kaila York and Alicia Lipinski outline the difference between agents and managers while giving hands on advice on how to find the best person to represent you. Using anecdotes from their careers, Kaila and Alicia will share their experiences and any insider information they’ve gleaned. Part discussion, part Q & A, Kaila and Alicia will dispell myths and dispense knowledge to best help participants find the management they need.

Class size limit: 90

After leaving Paradigm, Kaila York formed Headlong Entertainment, a literary management and film production company. She represents a select and diverse range of clients, including film and television writers (Matt Graham, Secret History of America for Oliver Stone/Showtime), book authors (Gemma Halliday, Spying in High Heels franchise) and directors (Tamar Halpern, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life). On the production side, Headlong has just wrapped production on a supernatural feature, and recently created a television series based on the book and blog, Art of Manliness, at Warner Brothers Television.

Women in TV with Julia Cho, Tracy McMillan, Jen Grisanti and Jude Weng

Saturday, April 9th, 10:30am to Noon ROOM 204

As television shows take on riskier, boundary-busting storylines, women have risen in the ranks as writers and producers. From The United States of Tara and Big Love to Army Wives and Mad Men, our panelists are making their mark on the TV world. Come join these impressive writers and producers as they share about their experiences about breaking in and staying on top cable, network, and reality TV programs.

Class size limit: 90

Hedgebrook Alum Julia Cho’s plays have been produced at Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public Theater, The Vineyard Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory and New York Theatre Workshop among others. Her play, The Language Archive, was awarded the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Television work includes Canterbury’s Law, Fringe and Big Love. She is a member of New Dramatists.

Tracy McMillan is a television writer currently working on the USA network show Necessary Roughness. Her credits also include Mad Men, The United States of Tara and Life on Mars. Tracy is also developing book and television projects from her viral Huffington Post essay, Why You're Not Married. Her memoir I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway is now available in paperback from Harper Collins/It Books.

In January 2008, Jen launched Jen Grisanti Consultancy Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping talented writers break into the industry. By drawing on her 12-year experience as a studio executive when she gave daily notes to executive producers and showrunners, Jen personally guides writers to shape their material, hone their pitches, and focus their careers. Jen has worked with over 300 writers working in television, features and novels. She has had success getting writers staffed and has had two of her clients sell pilots that both went to series. Jen Grisanti is the Writing Instructor for NBC’s Writers on the Verge, Blogger for The Huffington Post and author of the upcoming book, Story Line: Finding Gold In Your Life Story.

In the last decade, Jude Weng has produced, directed, or written for over 200 hours of alternative television. Jude has enjoyed a prolific and diverse career through genres such as ob-docs (Secret Lives of Women), makeovers (Real Simple Real Life), competition game shows(Survivor, The Mole, Next Action Star), docu-soaps (Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant, Tommy Lee Goes to College), and social experiments (Black White on F/X). Currently, Jude is showrunning a confidential pilot for Lifetime, and Shedding For The Wedding, a new weight-loss makeover series with the creator of The Biggest Loser for the CW.

Traveling, Writing and Getting Paid For It with Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee

Saturday, April 9th, 11am – 12:30pm ROOM 201

Wouldn't you love to get paid to take a food and wine tour of the south of France or go on an all-expenses paid trip to a Hawaiian resort? That's what makes travel writing seem so romantic. In this workshop, you'll learn the joys, pains and realities of travel writing, variety of markets and options available, the writing craft elements, and the where and how to market your work.

Class size limit: 50

Hedgebrook Alum Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee is a travel and food writer. Author of Frommer's South Korea and Frommer's Day by Day Seoul. She has written for numerous publications, including Yahoo!Travel, Food and Wine, Eating Well, Hotels.com, and the Los Angeles Times.

Writing Reality TV: A Hands-on Workshop with Jude Weng

Saturday, April 9th, 12:30- 2:30 ROOM 204

The Reality Behind Reality TV workshop will discuss the numerous career opportunities that exist in non-scripted TV. This fun and entertaining workshop will unfold through anecdotes that translate directly into practical advice for those seeking a career in the creative or entertainment industry, with the last portion of the workshop dedicated to a hands-on DEVELOPMENT & PITCH exercise.

Class size limit: 90

In the last decade, Jude Weng has produced, directed, or written for over 200 hours of alternative television. Jude has enjoyed a prolific and diverse career through genres such as ob-docs (Secret Lives of Women), makeovers (Real Simple Real Life), competition game shows(Survivor, The Mole, Next Action Star), docu-soaps (Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant, Tommy Lee Goes to College), and social experiments (Black White on F/X). Currently, Jude is showrunning a confidential pilot for Lifetime, and Shedding For The Wedding, a new weight-loss makeover series with the creator of The Biggest Loser for the CW.

Creating Haunting Moments in Storytelling with Barbara Nicolosi Harrington

Saturday, April 9th, 1pm – 3pm ROOM 201

Flannery O'Connor noted that in order to make a story "work" what is needed is a "haunting moment." This class will discuss what it means to make a story "work", and how to construct moments that will get stuck in a profound way, in viewers minds, hearts and imaginations.

Class size limit: 50

Barbara Nicolosi is a screenwriter and the founder of the prestigious Act One: Writing for Hollywood program. She is an adjunct professsor of screenwriting at Pepperdine University and Azusa Pacific University. Her most recent credit will be the 2012 MGM release, Mary: Mother of the Christ which she co-wrote with Ben Fitzgerald (The Passion of the Christ) and which will star Al Pacino, Camilla Belle and Peter O'Toole.

Conversations on Comedy with Seinfeld Writer/Producers David Mandel and Peter Mehlman

WRITING SEINFELD

Saturday, April 9th, 2:45pm – 4:15pm ROOM 204

Join us for 90 minutes of laughs and insight into what it takes to create a hit comedy series with David Mandel (exec. Producer Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld) and Peter Mehlman (Seinfeld, It’s Like, You Know). Mehlman and Mandel are responsible for some of the greatest episodes in the popular Seinfeld series and continue to make us laugh in film, TV, and print today. Q&A will make up part of this panel and who knows who else might join in?

Class size limit: 90

David Mandel is an executive producer, writer and director of Curb Your Enthusiasm. His previous credits include the movies Eurotrip (writer, uncredited co-director), Saturday Night Live (92-95), and Seinfeld. His Seinfeld episodes include "The Bizarro Jerry," "The Betrayal" (co-written with Peter Mehlman), and "The Pool Guy,” for which he won a Writers Guild Award.

Peter Mehlman An executive producer and writer on Seinfeld, he is the author of such now classic Seinfeld-isms as “spongeworthy,” “shrinkage,” “double-dipping," and the “Yada Yada” episode. He is the creator of “It’s like, you know...,”and numerous other TV shows and continues to write screenplays and humor pieces for NPR, Esquire, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

E-Marketing for Documentary and Independent Filmmakers with Judith Dancoff

Saturday, April 9th, 3:30pm to 6pm ROOM 201 You've made a great film, but it hasn't made you any money—yet. Judith Dancoff has found an untapped market that can turn your creative darling into a cash cow. Libraries and universities regularly pay hundreds of dollars for DVDs on a myriad of topics. Let Judith Dancoff teach you how to reap the benefits of these sales, without paying film distributors, or having your project languish inside of a distributor’s catalogue. This course will cover the rudiments of identifying the academic, library, and specialty markets best suited for your film; how to put together a website and pitch letter that will effectively sell your film to these markets; introduce free and inexpensive ways to reach potential buyers; the best ways to reach potential buyers, including the use of inexpensive and free lists; navigating legal issues, and how to tackle commercial marketing. Class size limit: 50

Hedgebrook Alum Judith Dancoff is a Los Angeles writer, documentary filmmaker, and marketing consultant, who learned the rudiments of e-marketing through selling her own film, now owned by hundreds of universities and museums in the US and abroad.

AGENCY DIVISION Breaking into Copywriting and Advertising

Saturday, April 9th, 4:30pm – 6pm ROOM 204

Agency Division is a full-service advertising boutique made up of dedicated professionals. In this panel, three advertising veterans will discuss how they broke into the business, what has kept them there, and what they look for in a good writer. Q & A will be opened up to the audience along with tips on how to hone your copywriting skills. Class size limit: 90

Simon Foster is the founder and CEO of Agency Division and a 15-year veteran of the TV advertising industry. He was the head of Creative and Integrated Production at the advertising agency SpotRunner and before that ran GlobeShooter, a Los Angeles based production company. He has produced dozens of commercials for national brands such as Apple, Pepsi, Budweiser and Cicsco.

Michael Faella is the Executive Creative Director of Agency Division. He has led campaigns for brands including Microsoft, Forex.com, Buy.com , Enzymatic, Legal Zoom, AIG, and Diamond Promotion Service/DeBeers. Faella is also an accomplished commercial director, having directed over a hundred spots for brands ranging from Ford to Microsoft. Marc Jensen is a Creative Director at Agency Division. He began his copywriting career at Valentine Radford where he worked on national accounts for Hallmark, Pizza Hut and Spring. He’s been with several advertising agencies in Los Angeles, working his way up from Copywriter to Creative Director where he has managed teams of writers. Throughout his career, he has written for print, television, radio, online, direct response as well as collateral and outdoor campaigns for a diverse range of clients.

HOW TO RESERVE A CLASS

$40 suggested donation per class (general public)/ $30 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

Any 4 classes for $120 (general public)/ $100 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

A portion of your donation is tax-deductible. See payment page for more details.

To make payment and reserve your seat, click here and follow the directions at the bottom of the page, or visit www.hedgebrook.org and look under Events.

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with driving directions and parking instructions. Please print your confirmation email and bring it to the workshop for admission.

Love Angelus.

2011-03-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

News from my friends at Actors Co-op

2011-02-18T12:33:00.001-08:00

Sent by: Actors Co-op at the Crossley Theatre
Reply to the sender

KING LEAR MEETS THE WILD WEST

4 LADCC NOMINATIONS FOR WIT!

MID-SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS STILL AVAILABLE!

Actors Co-op presents a KING LEAR unlike any you've ever seen . . .

Set in a sprawling California of the 1850s, newly awash in gold, this innovative production is placed against the backdrop of a young Wild West where ambition, power and morality are destined to collide. Arguably Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, this LEAR is a brutal and intimate examination of humanity that will leave you breathless.

Tickets are on sale NOW!

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM andSundays at 2:30 PM. Saturday matinees are scheduled for March 5 and 12 at 2:30 PM.

This production takes place in the Crossley Theater.

To make your reservation, CLICK HERE or call 323.462.8460, Ext. 300.

Actors Co-op Receives FOUR Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award Nominations for WIT!

Photo Credit: Lindsay Schnebly

Actors Co-op is proud to announce that last season's acclaimed production of WIT has been recognized with four Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nominations including BEST PRODUCTION. Congratulations to the nominees!

Lead Performance: Nan McNamara

Direction: Marianne Savell

Lighting Design: James L. Moody

Production: WIT, Actors Co-op

NEED TO PURCHASE TICKETS? CLICK HERE!

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN THE ACTORS CO-OP SUBSCRIBER FAMILY!

Mid-Season Subscriptions to our 19th Anniversary Season of Peerless Playwrights... Superb Storytelling... and Thrilling Theatre are still available. Join us for a night at the theatre. With two wonderful shows and subscriptions available for as little as $55, it’s the perfect night out on the town!

Click here for more information!

In its 19th season of illuminating theatre,

Actors Co-op operates two 99-seat Equity-approved theatres

on the campus of Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

Actors Co-op
1760 N. Gower Street * Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 462-8460 www.ActorsCo-op.org

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2010-09-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

[NOTE FROM BARB: Here is the outline for a talk I gave this weekend at the San Diego Christian Writers Guild Conference. Several people asked me for the notes, so I told them I'd post them.]

Who Is Your Audience? Writing What Your Soul Knows

for the San Diego Christian Writers Conference

September 25, 2010

II. This talk will have three parts.

A) Part One will talk about the question of what it means to write what you know.
B) Part Two will talk about the issue of commerciality. What is it to be commercial – to have mass appeal – such that editors or investors or producers will want to give you money?
C) Part Three will look at the particular moment we are in as writers who are disciples of the Lord and hopefully get some answer to Jesus’ query, “Can you not read the signs of the times?”

III. If there is anything that is clear, it’s that writing is more than any other art form, an attempt to communicate in an articulate way. The sole color on the pallet of the writer is words. Great writing moves immediately from being a rambling monologue, and becomes a dialogue with the reader’s heart and mind. The pictures you create with your words get matched to the reader’s memory and imagination, and he or she begins to edit and highlight and fill-out what you offer from his or her own experience. This happens more or less according to whatever level of history the reader brings to your work.

Having said this, I am not sure I believe I the idea of writing for a demographic. I do basically permit the idea of using fewer and more simpler words and plots for young children. But beyond that, if you are too concerned with writing “for a particular kind of person, you run the risk of pandering. (Except in certain kinds of very specific non-fiction situations: A book for recovering adult alcoholics, or a book for teachers, or a book on how to be a better gambler.)

Great writing is basically just great communication, and it understands that to last and to make a big impact, you should always speak to the reader's humanity, not to their particular moment. Flannery O’Connor was great because she mastered the art of writing from the inside of her readers. She was very conscious of human psychology and the dynamic process that a reader goes on in a story. She wasn’t thinking about writing for Southerners, or for academics, or even for Christians or unbelievers. She was writing to any one who was engaged in the activity of dodging Divine Grace. Basically all of us.

It would be an interesting meditation to consider what Jesus would find if he walked in to the average Christian Publishing House.

“Good Morning. Welcome to Faith House. We Save Your Stories So You Can Save the World.”

“Thank you. My name is Jesus. I’d like to speak to an editor.”

“Okay. Which editor would you like to see?”

“I’m sorry?”

“What kind of things to you write?”

“Mostly stories.”

“For whom?”

“I’m sorry?”

“For whom are your stories meant?”

“Um, humans?”

“Tell me one of your stories.”

“Oh, okay. Well, there was a man who had two sons. Now, the younger son ---“

“Oh, that’s young adult fiction. That’s Larry. First door down the hall.”

So, the Lord walks down the hall.

“Hello, Mr. Jesus, isn’t it? So I understand you have some stories for us. Tell me one.”

“Okay. One day, a man set off on the road to Jericho. But on the way, he was set upon by thieves. They beat him, stripped him and left him for dead –

“Whoa! Just a sec. This is a bit too much for the young adult market. What else do you have?”

“Well, I have one about a man who owns a vineyard that he had leased out to tenants. And when he sends his son to collect the rent, they kill him and –-
“

“Wait, wait, wait. There you go with that violence stuff again. It’s a bit too much of an edge for us. Do you have any stories where people don’t get killed?”

“Well, yes. I guess. I have one about a woman who loses her gold coin –“

“Great, great! That’s Family Stewardship!”

“And then, she sweeps her whole house to –“

This is Women’s Devotional. That’s Laura down the hall.”

IV. Start with clip from a movie that demonstrates this “writing to the human person” because it speaks to the whole broad audience out there. Tell me, who do you think is the audience of this piece? Here is the opening of “UP.”

V. If an editor tells you to write for a certain demographic, I would nod my head and conclude that they are asking me to be intentionally narrow in my focus. Narrowness is not a descriptor of great writing. (I don’t know about your church, but in the last thirty years mine has gone through an exhausting experimentation process of trying to make special services for “young people”. We’ve been dragged through the antechamber of musical and liturgical hell in pursuit of crowds of keening teenagers who might some day all proclaim with one enthusiastic voice, that this or that service is “cool.” Invariably, the young people demur and if pressed will shrug with a touch of embarrassment that the “Contemporary Worship Service music is kind of, well, lame.” We need to give them more credit that if kids are in Church, they are there as part of the Body of Worshippers and they are willing to join themselves to however the other sheep are bleating. We have a Gregorian Chant revival going on in the Catholic Church….

VI. Idea for this talk came from working with our Act One students – the “problem of commerciality.” Good editors always tell you two seemingly contradictory things:
A) Write what you know, AND
B) What you Write Must Be of Interest to the Market
C) These are not really contradictory

VII. Write What Your Heart Knows
A) What do they mean by, “Write what you know?” I was a nun. I worked in a fish market for a Mormon minister fisherman. I lived in the servants quarters of the Marble House in Newport. I have worked in Hollywood for ten years. I have a family member who is an alcoholic.
B) They mean at one level – DO YOUR HOMEWORK. On this level, editors are bemoaning the writers who literally haven’t earned their place at the table. The writer’s job is to do the research. It is to fill out a new world, or to add fresh details to a world we thought we knew so that we now see it in depth. Research is always doable. It helps me to set a script in Newport, RI because I have already done the research. Don’t set a script in a scuba diving school near the Great Barrier Reef unless you have done your research in the kind of people who become divers, intricacies of scuba gear, diving education approaches, ways divers die, how cool the underwater thing is, Australians, and the Great Barrier Reef. SO, WRITE WHAT YOU HAVE COME TO KNOW ABOUT.

C) But editors and their ilk mean more than this too. Write what you know is an appeal for you to basically write what your soul knows. I was tempted to say “heart” here, particularly because it sounds nice to say “Write What Your heart Knows,” but I mean more than just your emotions. Animals have emotions. Your soul, in the classical sense, is where your intellect, will and desires reside. Your soul is the place where your humanity lives. Write from that place. It is where you brood from – as opposed to just reason. It’s where you dream from. It’s where you suffer from. It’s where you feel remorse from. It is where you choose from. It is where you love from. It is where you pray from. If you write from that place, then you are speaking soul to soul with your reader. Not to “young adults” but to “young souls.” Not even to children but to “baby souls”. Speak to their fundamental condition not to their particular situation. What is it they yearn for? Of you write to kids as if they are yearning for the newest skinny jeans, or the latest iPod, you are dehumanizing them and they will disdain you. Rightly so. These are not truly the things for which a human soul yearns.

D) You speak to human souls through beauty. Using words to achieve wholeness, harmony and radiance are the primary task of the writer. We have to remind ourselves over and over, with Dostoevsky, that it is Beauty that will save the world. Not cleverness. Not cuteness. Not the mere witness to God. (I am going to give a talk this afternoon on What is the Beautiful.)

E) The philosopher Etienne Gilson says that beauty is in more than just wholeness, harmony and radiance. He says there is also style, originality and universality. Style has to do with talent. Originality has to do with a new thought. Universality has to do with the fact that it speaks to thoughtful people beyond their time or culture. Don’t write a jealous character until you have something unique to say about jealousy. Or at least, a fresh way of showing us how it looks when it is asking for the salt shaker at dinner. Don’t write about the power of art. Write about the way the purple paint feels on the fingers of the three year old as she smears it with wonder across the new white carpet in the living room. Don’t write about friendship until you have something profound to say about friendship. Or at least, how it looks on Joe’s seven year old face the first time his “ Mike” best friend opts to throw the ball to Matt the fourth grader instead of Joe.

VIII. What is Mass Appeal? My sister and her husband stand at the movie theater. They look up and read the movies. “What’s playing?” “Well, there’s an indie movie about two sisters who were abused—“ What else is playing? “Fire and Ice…” “That sounds interesting.” “It’s about two guys on a cooking show who .” “What else?” “There’s that new drama , House of Love and Pain.” “What else?” “Me, Myself and Irene.” “What’s that?” It’s a comedy – about a guy with split personalities. And they are both in love with the same woman.” That’s funny. Let’s try that.

IX. Commerciality – that is the quality that makes an editor shove other editors out of the way to have lunch with you, is found in the intersection of “What Your Soul Knows” with the most pressing cries of the world of this moment.

X. What is the cry of this world? Maybe start by asking what was the cry of the world in 1968? What were the mantras of the age? What are the mantras of this age? “Whatever.” “Don’t trust anybody over 50.” “My mother is my best friend.” “The American Dream is dead.” “That is so five minutes ago.”

XII. Having said all the above about opposing narrow demographics, it seems to me to be perfectly appropriate to size up the souls who are out there, so that you can address them with intentionality. We are living in a moment of generational change. Nobody is perfectly defined by their generation. They are defined by the choices they have made. It tells me almost nothing at all about him if you say that your character, Johnny is the son of a serial killer. In the same way, it tells me nothing if you say Suzy is the daughter of a pastor. You begin to tell me something about Johnny when you note that he generally slips his snack to the poor kid in the class.

XIII. I am thinking a lot about the choices made by many people in the Boomer Generation, and from a pastoral sense, what they need to hear now so that they will cleave to God in their final years.

A) The Boomer Soul reality: Disillusioned. They say things like, “I long for unconditional love, but it doesn’t exist. Life is a cruel joke.” “I wish I hadn’t had that choice.” “Don’t fret! Life begins at 70!” Many are coming around to tremendous guilt. Many are without real bonds of family because of divorce, abortion, various kinds of disassociation and clamoring after unfetteredness. What looks like being free in your vigorous years, looks very much like loneliness in your twilight years. Still outraged. Still fighting against the man. Probably, having their stored up riches jerked out from under them. Hence, very angry at how unfair it all is.

B) What do they need to hear? “While there is life, there is hope.” There is still time to be the elders. Accept that death is coming and prepare for it with grace and generosity. Don’t try to compete with those who have youth. Be unfashionable and slower and sicker and tired. Be gray haired and a little dry. Learn to pause and sit, and stop having to be looking to be recreating the Woodstock thing every other year in your life. Realize that it isn’t all about you, but that there is a lot of joy in making life about the people.

XIV. A) The Millenial reality: Worried. Unmotivated. Resentful. Entitled. Under-educated. Lazy. Impatient. Paralyzed. They are a generation that has been bred on having easy, fast solutions. (Airplane story.)

B) What do they need to hear? Perseverance is possible. Commitment is possible. Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to you – the loss of your humanity is much worse. The best things take time. Think abut it. At a certain point, we are all equally unlovable to each other. We are only worth it to each other because we are worth it to God. Family is something that lasts through effort. Babies haven’t changed, even as mommies continue to change.

XIV. In conclusion, I would say that as writers, we shouldn’t try so hard to be relevant as if that was something outside of ourselves, over there on a shelf. The fundmental relevance is human nature. What it longs for. What it is innately directed towards. Your Our effort should be, as JPII expressed it, to create new epiphanies of beauty that will remind your readers what it is to be truly human. And make them long for their true nature. And love it in a way which will be gratitude to the Creator.

Have We Forgotten?

2010-08-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

[Note from Barb: This is something I wrote in the weeks following 9/11. It seems appropriate to repost it now amidst the background of the 9/11 Mosque debate. I think it would have seemed insane to me then, that we are having this debate now. And I would have been right.]

"No One Here Is Working Today"

Annoyance: “This better not be a wrong number.” Negotiation: “Better a wrong number than bad news.” And finally amazement: So many thoughts can crowd the human mind so fast. Then, all of these get jumbled around in suspended animation until the voice on the other end settles things.

“Sorry to wake you. Turn on your TV. There has been a terrible accident in New York.” Susannah, a friend from the office was doing her part to rouse the West Coast. Hanging up, I flip on the television. If only I could have back a few more of those minutes before horror invaded and changed everything.

It is still early into the horror of 9-11, but I am already afraid of forgetting. The certainty that time deadens every sensation seems itself to be one more blow to add to the terrorist sucker-punch. Then, I am afraid of never forgetting. The thought that civilization could be forever altered by hate is a devastating concession to the negative. Civilizations should be substantially altered by the good – by the inventiveness of the human mind, or by a growth in understanding.

One of the towers of the World Trade Center billows smoke. Katie and Matt try to make sense of it for me. I’m not sure it’s worth waking up my roommate over. Someone’s stupidity and a lot of people end up dying. The 1993 WTC bombing flashes through my mind. “What is it with those buildings?” Mental note: Never accept a job in a landmark. Another plane trolls into the back of the other Tower. I see it before Matt. Because he doesn’t comment, I start to wonder if it really happened. Maybe it is a helicopter circling around. But then Matt starts to stammer. It has happened again. This is no accident.

9-11 has been called this generation’s Pearl Harbor. This comparison has to do with the shock that invaded American society, and then became a battle cry to marshall a nation. The resemblance stops there. How I envy the Greatest Generation their Pearl Harbor. The enemy was known. The task was clear. The end was in sight even by sunset on that first terrible day. America knew victory would be costly, but victory itself was never in doubt.

Still in our pajamas an hour later, my roommate and I watch quietly as both towers tumble down in quick jerks and starts. They look like dominoes. A lesson from childhood invades. As long as they are lined up, every domino will fall down. And they do. The perfect symmetry of the astonishing towers renders their complete collapse a certainty. I have an appointment this morning to edit together a video of ‘haunting moment’ film clips. I know with certainty that the Towers collapsing will haunt me till the end of my life. Calling to cancel the session, I find strange comfort in the dull grief of the receptionist who takes my message. “No, no one here is working today.” Could anything be so irrelevant as Hollywood? Will I ever again find a movie haunting?

The Hour of Heroes and Saints

Our street borders on the usually bustling region of the city known as the Hollywood hamlet. Tonight, there is an eerie stillness. Several pedestrians pass me on the sidewalk. Each time we avert our eyes from each other. We have all been surprised by grief and it is embarrassing to have been caught unawares. We were all buying and selling and going about our business, and meanwhile groups of people have been hating us and in their simmering anger have been plotting our deaths.
I have heard people say that 9-11 shattered our sense of security. Rather, 9-11 shattered our illusion of security. There can be no security in a world in which there is sin.

I reach the corner impressed by the deathly quiet. I turn and face the row of restaurants expecting to see them all empty. But no, the street cafes all overflow with people. Solemn people. Grieving people. Frightened lonely people. Some few speak in hushed voices. As I pass along the sidewalk, hundreds follow me with their eyes. They too are out desperately seeking distraction.

Just up ahead, a young woman appears on the corner holding a lit candle. Must be an actress. Too thin. Too blond. A passing car lays on its horn in a sign of support. Before long, hundreds more stragglers join her vigil. They sing “God Bless America” crying and staring into the passing traffic. More and more cars add their horns to the strange cacophony. Once again I weep. But I am glad too. I suddenly feel close to these strangers.

My whole life I have never been able to bear “God Bless America” without tears. I have always thought it a curious quirk because I am not sentimental. Now, every hymn about God or country brings with it the sensation of holding back waves of emotion. It is so pathetic. “He had compassion on the crowd for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” I am so tired of weeping.

For the fourth time in two days, an Evangelical Protestant friend calls me with a variation on a single question. “What are we to do? What does the Catholic Church say?” I put my own confusion on auto-pilot. Somebody needs what was invested in me years ago. I draw on my Great Books education, once again grateful for my long-suffering professor’s insistence that thirteenth century philosophical principles are eternally relevant. I lay out for them the standards that the Church labels “Double Effect.” They are comforted.

Even in the horrible darkness inflicted by a brutal sucker-punch, Americans are still concerned to do what is right. Very striking in the aftermath is the universal desire of our people to respond with justice to injustice. There are few if any voices of revenge, and these are silenced immediately by the grief that has given to all of us a new gravity. This is not the time for reprisals.

For all her failures, the Church is still regarded as a voice of moral authority. Especially by those outside of her embrace. My non-Catholic friends call me because, as one put it, “I know the Catholic Church must have some teaching for times like this.” And he was right. We are allowed a proportional response. We are allowed to remove instruments of evil from children who would harm others through them, even if some die while we remove those instruments. We are not allowed vindictiveness. We are not allowed hate.

God only permitted this because in the span of eternity, He could handle it. He can weave out of it more good than evil in the long run. I have had a treasured bookmark since I was in the fourth grade. Mrs. Pierce, my religion teacher gave it to me and I have managed to hang onto it throughout the years. “The hour of crisis is also the hour of heroes and saints.” There were only a handful of evildoers. There are so many hundreds of heroes.

Will God Return to Us Now?

My friend Sylvia is a reporter and a friend of NYC’s Chief of Police. He told her months later that they knew by noon of the attack day that there would be no survivors to find in the rubble of the World Trade Center. The rescue efforts were a ruse instigated by Mayor Giulani to give the city time to get counselors in place and to let families adjust to the possibility of loss. I remember that Sylvia, who had lost a network news job in an Insider-like scenario, was as grateful as I for the lie.

I imagine 9-11 is better compared to Bull Run, or Gettysburg or any of the bloody battles of the Civil War. The enduring source of dull pain comes from the certainty that the enemy is not fighting for territory, but for ideology. It must have felt very futile to many Americans to fight over an idea like personhood. You can’t change a person’s mind by winning a battle. As long as one person is unconvinced, the evil lurks and has power. The Civil War did not resolve the issue of racism as the evils of Reconstruction and segregation proved. Legally, it took over a hundred years to realize the victory of Appomattox. How long both black and white America will suffer the long-term effects of slavery is anyone’s guess.

“The Pentagon? What is that about?” For the hundredth time this morning I am confused. “Alright, I’ve had enough. What the hell is going on?” I look at my roommate for answers but she has none. Neither does CNN, FOX, MSNBC or any of the networks. Waves of anger shake off the grip of shock. “Who did this? Why don’t they take credit for it?” We keep making trips to the refrigerator like movie fans at an all day horror marathon. Food is comforting.

Theoretically, an ideology could be stamped out by literally wiping out all of its adherents. Hence, the suggestion raised by some pundits that we should carpet bomb Afghan mountains. But who are we kidding? Who are the adherents of this kind of hatred against sky-scrapers and airline passengers? My sense is that they are many. I’ve been educated through the years by periodic news footage of Islamic boys dancing and chanting with rage at strange effigies and burning American flags. The impotence of their demonstrations has often struck me as obscene. Naked rage like any human nakedness should not be exposed in the marketplace.

Ideology can only be overcome by conversion. Conversion takes a long time and patience. You only bother to convert someone who is worth it to you. It is so much easier just to kill them. If only we could kill them all. But I am horrified by the thought even as it flashes across my mind. We wouldn’t kill them all even if we could. We are not them.

A reporter interviews a priest in front of the rubble. The priest’s black garb is strangely gray with the pulverized dust of the Towers. There are particles of thousands of people in that dust. After a few preliminary questions, the reporter forgets his training and his humanity spills out at the foot of the rubble mountain. “How could God let this happen, Father?” The priest is moved by the man’s grief and touches his arm. Just then, God interjects. Four firemen carry a wounded man on a stretcher in the background. The priest points at the pile of rubble, “This isn’t God.” He points at the rescuers and their burden, “That is.” The reporter weeps in a strange kind of relief, “Yes. You’re right. Thank you, Father.” I weep too. What has happened here?

I resent every effort to glean lessons from 9-11. We don’t sit at the mouth of hell for instruction. The only lesson is to convict us that there is a mouth of hell and that were it not for the presence of a greater good, we would all be swallowed by the darkness.

Prayer everywhere. Prayer on Capitol Hill. In a display that was unthinkable just a week ago, now Daschel, Kennedy, Lott and Armey linked arm-in-arm sing “God Bless America” on the Capitol steps. The President calls for national prayer services. Thousands of neophyte believers stream into the Church where I work for a time of prayer at noon on the 14th. The minister directs them to sing a song in one of the hymnals. In front of me, a row of leather clad professionals from the studio down the hill look at each other in confusion. “What is a hymnal?” I am weeping again.

Has God abandoned us? The bizarre spectacle of our public officials suddenly leading us all in prayer reveals the truth. We are not used to prayer in public. We have abandoned God. Will He return to us now? Are prayers issued in fear and terror heard? Will God be fooled? Ah, but He knows we are sheep. The Shepherd does not sneer at the sheep who bleat in fear during a storm.

It is finally night and the cameras in NYC relent in their ceaseless combing of Ground Zero. I need to distract myself until morning when we can count on more televised pictures to fill the hours. Walking outside, the loveliness of the warm L.A. evening strikes me as unfair and inappropriate. Just then a police helicopter surges overhead sweeping the street with a bright light. For the next several weeks, the helicopters are constantly overhead. Everyone who works in Hollywood is absolutely sure the industry is on a terrorist hit list somewhere. Lots of people in entertainment are weathering intense survivor guilt. “It’s our fault they hate us.”

God Bless America Indeed

Some last impressions of the time that I wish to never forget.

The President walks out alone to the mound at Yankee Stadium. Before the eyes of the world, he stands vulnerable. Takes his time, and sights the catcher and pitches a perfect strike to open the World Series…

Those firemen and policemen stay in Tower One even after Tower Two collapses. They continue to race upward. The gravelly last words of one such hero pours out of a brother’s walkie-talkie, “There are still people up there. We can’t leave them.”

The passengers on Flight 93 become aware that they are being used as human missiles. They take a vote.

To the last Americans. De Toqueville had written two hundred years ago about this strange propensity of Americans, “They think that any problem can be solved if only they get together and take a vote.” They decide to die so that other Americans will be spared.

Freedom makes heroism possible. The essence of heroism is in exercising a choice. The hero’s choice is to prefer another’s life to his own. Aristotle wrote that because the state exists to allow men to become virtuous, freedom with all of its pitfalls must be preferred, because there is no virtue without choice. We had become cynical about our countrymen, but the events of 9-11 have surprised us all. We are still more than decadent. Our instincts are still to save life, to give to those in need, to draw together in times of tragedy, to do the right thing even when those who oppose us operate under no such limits.

One last recollection. It is late in September. Fairfax Boulevard is typically frenzied with traffic and pedestrians. Approaching a crowded cross street, I see a plastic car flag flapping through the air, landing in the middle of the intersection. And then a miracle happens. The car ahead of me stops in front of the green light. Hazard lights flash and then a middle-aged woman emerges grim and resolute. She makes her way toward the flag, walking in the center of the intersection. All the cars slide to a stop. Windows are rolled down and a gathering applause fills the air. The woman picks up the flag and pivoting around to all of us, she waves it high in the air. Car horns add quick pulses to the applause as she walks back to her car. As traffic starts up, I am weeping again.

Flags are our new vigil lights. Every flag that waves is suddenly a prayer that America will recall the blessings of God. Freedom, not license. Community not diversity. Prosperity to make virtue possible. Speech to utter the truth. Opportunity to advance human potential and achievement. God bless America indeed.

Fawn, Pander, Blather

2010-08-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

It seems hugely anti-climactic to end my two year movie review silence for the likes of the new Julia Robert's soft-focus orgy Eat, Pray, Love. (Hmmmm... I'm a bit out of practice. Have I just tipped my hand a bit here as to how I felt about the film?)

The main flaw of the piece may proceed from the nature of the source material itself. The movie was preposterously, stylishly, Hollywood big-budgety, and insultingly banal. And while a scriptwriter always has the duty of making the source material better, still, sometimes, that is an impossible task. I mean, this is a book with a title that could be found scrawled as a caveman grunt on a Stone Age wall: "Me man thing. Me eat, do rain dance, have sex." (Call me judgmental, but I'm taking the tack that the "love" and "pray" presented in the movie are largely not. They're kind of pagan perversions of these activities. They did get the "eat" right, though, which has everything to do with the fact that that part of the film was in Italy, where they truly are geniuses with food. All the evidence is to the contrary that India and Bali are geniuses with the Deity and self-donation respectively. )

And, I'm not just complaining that the resolution (I can't bring myself to write "answers") that the movie offers is lame. The very questions that the film proposes to be asking are banal.

Eat, Pray, Love is not a journey of a woman in search of her soul. It's really the travelogue of tax deductions of a New York writer in search of a book.

So, granting that the "big questions" weren't really the preoccupation of anybody making this movie, it remains to ask, "Why?" Hummmmmmmm... What was really driving the making of Eat, Pray, Love? Let me meditate for a minute. Hummmmmmmmmmm....

Still thinking here. What were they thinking? Hummmmm......

Are you tracking with me?

This movie is possibly the most shameless star vehicle since Julia's self-aggrandizing stint in Ocean's 12 in which she played her goddessness self. She pulled a similar thing in Notting Hill, "I'm just a girl. Standing in front of a boy. Asking for him to love her." waves of intense nausea) but that movie had enough other stengths to salvage the project as a whole. (Please Julia, go to healthy irony school. Or, in other words, the anti-Iraq war crowd called. They want their earnestness back.) It was embarrassing to watch so much Hollywood talent go through this ultimately masturbatory exercise in celebration of the god Celebrity. Particularly painful because of the lack of irony that took in a movie purporting to be about a spiritual quest.

At its core, Eat, Pray, Love relates the tedious pilgrimage of a selfish, immature narcissist (don't think of that as a redundancy as much as an emphasis) who manages to evade true spirituality (in the sense of sacrifice and repentance) true connection with other persons (in the sense of sacrifice and repentance) and plot points (in the sense of sacrifice, and well, repentance.... Note to self: There's a great new talk on the core of the successful transformational story arc there....).

Thoughts that ran through my head while viewing.... "Her poor husband!"......"We have seen this scene already. Three times."....."When people reject the good God, they always make themselves a bad one."....."I never thought of chanting loudly as a way of drowning out the voice of your conscience.".... "She's a succubus."......"Did she just say that awful bad dialogue or was I dozing?"......"Need pasta."....."Something is wrong with a religion that leaves you toothless and unable to use a copy machine."...."Getting your friends to write checks is not a selfless act."....."Her husband should be glad he is rid of her."....

Should I talk about the false religion exemplified in the line from the film, "God is in me AS ME." No, God is in you to draw you to Him. We are not the Godhead. We aren't even headed for losing our identity in the Godhead because he loves us as individuals. When Oprah interviewed Julia for the movie she asked her, "So, what's your favorite food? What's your favorite pray?" as though every kind of prayer is fine as long as it makes you feel, what? Heard? Validated? Sated - the way the movie characters sate themselves with food and sex? My dark side had me imagining Julia answering, "Oh, well, I like to torture little animals while playing the soundtrack to Tommy." And Oprah would surely have responded with her wide eyes, "And does that work for you?"

See, your "favorite pray" is not neutral. It is good if it leads you to lay down your life for your friends. It is bad if it leads you to "forgive yourself" for abandoning your son, or your husband, or if it leads you to justify fornicating with a virtual stranger, or into concluding that basically you can do whatever you need to do as long as it floats your boat. God, please tell me I will live to see this Boomer lie scorned in the popular culture!

This movie is plodding, repetitive, and anti-climactic. There is an artificial inciting incident - the main character's festering narcissism erupts and makes her regurgitate her marriage vows - there is no character establishment - they seemd to think we woud be on the character's side because she is Julia...note to producers: ref. Mary Riley - there are no sub plots - there is no imagery - there is no suspense - there is nothing surprising - there is no ending, the audience torture just stops. Thank God, but really, inexcusable.

In summation, Eat, Pray, Love is a bad movie in terms of it's storytelling and in terms of what it says. Or, um, what it doesn't say. Or, um, that is, what it says really badly. Oh, just eat, pray, pass.

A Call to Common Sense

2010-08-16T17:28:00.001-07:00

Now that Obama has weighed in on the mosque at Ground Zero, it seems to me that we all get to.

The gist of a lot of the left leaning blogs and pundits seems to be that people against the mosque are so full of fear and hate that we are willing to void our own Bill of Rights to stop it.

I think it is, well, hateful to acuse all people who are against the Ground Zero mosque of being simply full of hate. Isn’t that just repeating the same cycle of oversimplifying and demonizing which you are decrying?

It is far too dark a picture of America to contend that the 67% of people against the mosque are just consumed in hate and fear. There is so much more going on here. Namely, pain.

My mother used to say, “If you know someone has a sore toe, you should go out of your way not to step on it.” 9/11 is still much more than a sore toe. It is still a horror.

I wish I believed that the mosque would be an interfaith community center to promote love and understanding. The truth is, the principle driver behind the mosque has refused to condemn Hamas. He seemed in one statement to excuse the attacks of 9/11 as something America had earned by her foreign policy. A decade or so ago, a bunch of Muslims told us that they just wanted to learn how to fly airliners, so we taught them how. One of the hardest blows of the 9/11 tragedy was that they used our own open society against us. Dare we trust them again to use our own 1st amendment against us? Excuse me for being leery.

In an article in The Atlantic kind of pathetically called, "What Obama Meant to Say About the Mosque" (who says the elite media don't see themselves as defenders of Obama?), this liberal writer notes in an idealistic frenzy, "What could be a more powerful counter-argument to the idea that the West is warring with Islam than the American president endorsing the construction of a mosque a few blocks away from (our) sacred site?"

This writer is making the mistake of making the Islamic world in his own image: "What could be a more powerful counter-argument to the idea that the West is warring with Islam than the American president endorsing the construction of a mosque a few blocks away from a sacred site?....See, Islamic fundamentalists aren't engaging in an argument. They are engaging in jihad. Hearing Mayor Bloomberg say that the mosque would make Muslims around the world stop fearing us reminded me of Neville Chamberlain waiving an agreement from Hitler and proclaiming that, "We will have peace in our time!"

I was terribly impressed four years ago to visit the Holy Land. Beside nearly every Christian and Jewish holy site, the Muslims have built a mosque. These mosques scream the call to prayer five times a day and make quiet meditation and celebration of the mysteries of our faith nearly impossible. There are seven in the Old City of Jerusalem alone. They go off in syncopated fashion during the day and almost made me crazy. A member of the Knesset noted to me that the mosques are a provocation, and in the minds of the Islamic faithful, they are a sign of Islam’s domination over its enemies. Part of me thinks that a mosque at 9/11 would be a way of giving succor to the millions of Muslims who hate us as the great Satan and cheered the Towers going down.

I am less interested in whether Muslims have a right to build a mosque at 9/11. (And that they might is not as cut and dry as the appeal to 1st Amendment freedoms would have it seem. There is loads of legal precedent for individual property rights being ceded to the common good. You can’t build a bar on your property if there is a school nearby. My grandfather lost our family farm so Waterville, ME could build an airport. (They never actually did.) The Supreme Court ruling in Kelo a few years back said that property rights could be voided if a town could make more taxes by seizing the land and dedicating it to another use…) But whether there is a legal right to build it, this seems to me to not be the moment. The terrible grief and horror is still too fresh. America has not even rebuilt on the 9/11 site yet. The Freedom Tower is still on the drawing board. The Russian Orthodox Church that was destroyed at Ground Zero is still waiting to be rebuilt. It seems to me inappropriate that a mosque would come first.

It is too easy and even unkind to mistake the pain of our people for hate. The memory of those innocent people falling to the ground is still too raw.

Another Nice Review

2010-08-05T18:37:00.001-07:00

Here's a nice review of a book for which I wrote a chapter. They had some kind words for my piece:

Barbara Nicolosi’s chapter on shepherding artists was one of my favorites. She offers suggestions for identifying, teaching, nurturing, and challenging artists to pursue excellence in their field “for the general edification of the body of Christ and for the world,” because beauty and art, when done excellently, can “open a channel of revelation between God and man.”

Thanks to Arts Books.

Eden on West on JPII on TOB

2010-08-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

You either know what I mean by that headline or you don't.

For those who do, there is a good discussion going on over at Sr. Lorraine's blog. The discussion centers around the Theology of the Body movement in the Catholic Church, and specifically, Christopher West's interpretation of John Paul II's work in the area of sexuality. The (great and wonderful....in case anybody wants to know what I think of her...) Dawn Eden has recently completed a Masters thesis critiquing Christopher West's work. Because West has attained to celebrity status in the American Catholic Church, Dawn's thesis is being met with what seems to me to be knee-jerk dismissal, and even hostility.

I don't really have too much of a dog in this race. The theology of sexuality is not my area of expertise or training. But, I did do a fairly rigorous study of JPII's writings on sexuality as regards art for my work in Hollywood. Also, I have been a catechetics teacher for ten years, and before that was a member of a religious community for ten years, and before that, I did study Catholic theology and philosophy for four years as an undergrad.

I am always leery of the panacea impulse in the Church. Bandwagons and circumspection don't often co-exist. I have used West's work with my catechumens, basically because they couldn't seem to plumb and appreciate JPII's work. Maybe that should have been a red flag right there. Maybe this subject isn't one that tends towards being popularized. Anyway, here is my comment from the discussion at Sr. Lorriane's blog.

I have found JPII's insights on shame to be brilliant and helpful. Love and Responsibility is a tough work, but I was very glad that I made myself plow through it. I have used many of his ideas with my students especially in the area of the ethics of using the human body in art. Unfortunately, unaided, very few students/catechumens are able to derive anything cohesive from the work. This opened the door for West to enter in and make himself a go-between. This seemed to me to be good - until the work of mediating became a whole cottage industry and West himself a celebrity needing to push past clarifying the Pope into waters he wasn't prepared by training to navigate.

I see West's efforts mainly helpful for people who are completely new to Catholicism, or who have been poorly catechized. He seems to have mastered over-simplification of teaching to people who are looking for that in the realm of sexual behavior. I teach RCIA and I know that very often, our catechumens just want to know what the Church says they can or can't do. Christopher West is there with a helpful list.

Success has encouraged Chris to push more and more into developing an always more populist approach to the Theology of the Body. I find the results of the straining after populism in some TOB speakers to be lacking in reverence, and even crass. As St. Paul said, "Some things should never be mentioned among you." I also like Emily Dickinson here: "They speak of hallowed things aloud, and embarrass my dog."

I would also suggest that the new evangelization doesn't mean finding a populist approach to dogma. My sense of what the Pope meant by the term is that we need to find new forums for the same message.

In the interests of putting something specific out there for people to debate.....I think one of West's most troubling over-simplifications surrounds the issue of the lack of conscious control that surrounds sex. In one talk I heard him give, Chris seemed to want to eliminate the loss of control as always being akin to the sin of lust. This is an error. There is a lack of control that humans can experience that proceeds from joy. Laughter is the same kind of lack of control. It isn't sinful for human beings to desire the lack of control that comes from joy.

But even this error isn't original to West. St. Augustine had the same fear of sexual desire. He wrote that Adam had perfect control of all of his body's functions. In other words, Adam never laughed?

Finally, one of the things that has made me circumspect about West's work is the way that it has been championed by the disciples of the now disgraced sexual pervert Fr. Maciel. Regnum Christi and Legion of Christ sycophants like the National Catholic Register have been a huge part of the cheering chorus for TOB and West. This isn't Chris' fault, but he would do well to extricate himself publicly from all the tentacles of the very bad tree of Maciel.

There is room in the Church for Dawn Eden and others to question and challenge any popular movement that purports to popularize Catholic theology.

I mean to impute no ill motives to West or TOB here. Basically just inviting more discussion. (If people can't do that without insults than they should delete their comments before I do.)

Over 1,000,000 Served!

2010-08-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

This blog just passed that rather cool benchmark. Thanks so all of you who have stopped by.

More soon.

Turn, Turn, Turn

2010-08-02T13:22:00.001-07:00

Here's the long version of my article on the Boomers and their cultural legacy. Thanks again to The Anchoress for coaxing this out of me.

Turn, Turn, Turn

2010-07-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple of years since I have written anything for publication. There are a bunch of reasons for the sabbatical and maybe I'll get around to writing about it here before long.

But recently, I got a personal request from Elizabeth Scalia over at First Things to contribute to a series on Patheos about the future of religions. When I thought about the pastoral challenge for the Church in terms of the culture, it seemed clear that the biggest trend impacting art and storytelling is all wrapped up in the changing of the generational guards. Culturally, the Boomers are finally losing their clout and the Gen Xers and Millennials are struggling to define themselves. I'm suggesting that this will mean a two-sided pastoral challenge for the Church.

First is the effect on the gargantuan Boomer generation of a lifetime of listening almost exclusively to their own voices. The movies being created by and for the Boomers today are a very unentertaining mix of "Never regret! Life starts at 70!" and "Life is a cruel joke, ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'" Movies like It's Complicated showcase a bunch of grey hairs still acting badly, swallowing their shame, and ignoring their appropriate role as the wise mentors of the younger generations. The Dorian Greyish dark echo of this kind of story, are movies likeThere Will Be Blood and the chillingly titled No Country for Old Men, in which the characters' lives of narcissism and greed devolve into cynicism and brutality.

This article is a redacted version of a larger piece that will be coming out on another site shortly. The longer piece includes some yummy incendiary quotes from recent movies including this one between Millennial, Natalie and Boomer, Ryan, from Up in the Air.

Natalie: Would you stop condescending for one second? Or is that one of the principles of your bullshit philosophy?

Ryan: Bullshit philosophy?

Natalie: You’ve set up a way of life that basically makes it impossible for you to make human connections…. Jesus. I need to grow up? You’re a twelve year old! (From Up in the Air, written and directed by Jason Reitman)

I'll link to it when the whole thing is up.

I fully expect that this article will bring down a hard rain of indignant rebukes from Boomers. Which will kind of prove my point. Indignant denial has been raised to a high art form by the Woodstock generation. I should say that my piece is not meant to be an indictment of the whole generation. My task was considering the Boomers who have had the clout in the culture. I'm thinking mainly of the folks who "culturized" the Sexual Revolution - the angry, sneering, self-righteous, dogmatic folks for whom everything in storytelling and art (not to mention education, business and government) is politics and power. These are the folks who spent the better part of my life ridiculing me and my family and friends and advocating whatever allowed them to best live out the exhortation of the serpent, "But you shall be like god, deciding for yourself what is good and evil."

Here is the rest of the piece. Let me know what you think. Many thanks to Elizabeth Scalia for playing Barnabbas here.

National Day of Prayer for Hollywood

2010-05-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, HOLLYWOOD

The Entertainment Industry and LA Churches are gathering together to PRAY!

Join us on May 6th, from 7:30 – 9:30pm. The evening’s prayer leaders include Pastor Lloyd Ogilvie, Dr. Greg Waybright, Rev. Rankin Wilbourne, and some entertainment industry professionals. There will also be incredible music, including The Hollywood Mass Choir and much more. We invite you to experience and participate in this gathering of prayer for our country, our state, our city, our churches and our media.

National Day of Prayer:

Thursday, May 6th
7:30 – 9:30pm,
Bel Air Presbyterian Church,
16221 Mulholland Drive, LA, CA 90029

The Entertainment Industry Christian ministries and the local LA Churches are partnering on THURSDAY, MAY 6th at Bel Air Presbyterian Church for a National Day of Prayer Celebration. The third annual partnering of industry professionals and local churches at Bel Air Pres. marks a growing unity of Christians in our city to gather together to pray for God’s blessings on His people.

For more information, list of Prayer Leaders, or directions,
visit http://www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org/NDOP or call 818.788.4210 x550

Act One Alumni Praise Report

2010-05-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

Kudos and best wishes to Bob Martinez (WP-00) and his writing partner who recently sold their original screenplay, currently titled “Deathgames,” to the Motion Picture Corporation of America. Principle photography begins May 5th in Baton Rouge and stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kellan Lutz (of the “Twilight” saga) and Daniel Dae Kim (of “Lost”.) The movie is set to come out next year.

Everything is proceeding as I had foreseen.

At Focus on the Family...

2010-04-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

What a lovely place and group of people. I spoke to a gathering of the staff and then did a few interviews. There will be a podcast coming up on Plugged In. Look for it somewhere here.

I'm off to CT tomorrow for a couple days and then on my way to Spain on Wednesday. There is a symposium being hosted by the Catholic University in Valencia next week, at which I will be speaking. My talk will be on heros and the movies. It will be a development of a talk I first gave a couple years ago to the San Diego Christian Writers Guild. I've been warming to the topic even more in recent years and am looking forward to presenting on the topic in Spain.

Eventually, I will get back to blogging regularly.

Boston Area: Cinematic Storytelling Workshop

2010-04-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Skip the BBQ on Memorial Day! Come and talk movie writing with us!

See Barb in Boston!

2010-04-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

If you are serious about writing and producing movies, skip the BBQ on Memorial Day and come up to Gordon College in Boston!

The Craft and Business of Cinematic Storytelling:

A Day-longWorkshop for Writers and Producers (And Those Who Want to Be)

Memorial Day, May 31, 2010, 9am-5pm

Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham, MA 01984

Featuring Hollywood writers, instructors and script consultants,

Charles Robert Carner and Barbara Nicolosi

- What makes a movie great and why does the world need them?
- How do you craft screen moments that will haunt the viewer?
- What’s the best way to introduce a character to the audience?
- What kind of ending sends the viewer spinning away satisfied and delighted?

It’s no secret. The global movie audience is starved for great stories. As the generations change in Hollywood, the impulse to find fresh storytelling voices has never been greater. And the opportunities for getting a movie made and out to the audience have never been broader. But if ten million YouTube movies have taught us anything, it’s that in the end, excellence of craft, talent, and a brilliant story will mean the difference between a few minutes of fame, and a lasting career in entertainment.

Lots of people talk about how to write great stories, but few thinkers bring the practical experience, broad societal vision, and dynamic articulation of Charles Robert Carner and Barbara Nicolosi. Together, they have over forty years of experience in Hollywood in producing, directing, screenwriting, script doctoring, and mentoring young filmmakers. For the first time, they will be together on a public stage in Boston, for an intense day that will delight anyone who loves the movies, and challenge to the next level anybody who wants to make a serious go at the craft of cinema storytelling.

Limited to thirty participants! Register today by emailing brnicolosi@aol.com! (You will be sent an evite invitation.)

Specific Topics to be covered:

- Should it Be a Book or a Movie? : Elements of a Great Screen Story
- Creating Haunting Moments on the Screen
- Creating Rich, Intriguing and Compelling Characters
- Movies that Really End and Don’t Just Stop
- The Current Commercial Landscape
- How to Get Started As a Screenwriter or Producer
- The Ethics and Societal Meaning of the Movies

Cost for the Workshop, 9:00am – 5:00-pm
- $125 per person
- $100 for students with ID
- (Optional) $15 lunch
- (Optional) $25 for fifteen minute one on one meeting

Barbara Nicolosi is an screenwriter and has an M.A. in Cinema from Northwestern University. She is the co-writer of the 2011 Lionsgate/MGM release Mary, Mother of the Christ, wrote Polosuasion for IMMI Pictures in Beverly Hills, and is currently writing Fatima, Miracle and Message for Origin Entertainment of Manhattan Beach, CA. She is an Adjunct professor of cinema in the Seaver Graduate School at Pepperdine University, in Malibu, CA and lectures on cinema and screenwriting at universities and conferences around the world. Barbara was the Founding Director, and is now the Chair, Emeritus of the acclaimed Act One program in Hollywood, CA. As such, she has been instrumental in launching hundreds of young people into Hollywood careers as writers, producers and executives. Barbara has also worked in the industry as a Director of Project Development, a documentary researcher, a theater producer, and as a consultant on features and television shows including The Passion of the Christ, A Foreign Affair, and Saving Grace. She is the co-editor of the 2006 Baker Books release Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith and Culture.

Charles Robert Carner was the valedictorian of his film school class at Columbia College in Chicago, before movie to Los Angeles for a long and successful career as a writer, director and producer for both television and the big screen. He has personally written over fifty screenplays, and has directed twelve of his projects for some of Hollywood’s top companies. Some of Charlie’s credits as a writer and director include, the Lionsgate 2008 release, “Witless Protection,” the award-winning Showtime feature, “The Fixer,” and one of the highest rated cable movies of all time, “Crossfire Trail,” for TNT. He has been a jury member for the Angelus Awards Student Film Festival, and is a member of both the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America, and is on the Board of the City of Angels Film Festival and Family Theater Productions in Hollywood.

Directions to Gordon
From Points West:
- Take an east-bound highway (e.g., Mass Turnpike, Route 90) to Route 95 North
- Stay on Route 95 North until it separates from Route 128
- Take Route 128 North towards Gloucester, passing through Peabody, Danvers and Beverly
- Take Exit 17, Grapevine Road
- Turn left at end of ramp, going 0.6 mile to main entrance

From Points North:
- Take Route 95 South to Route 128 North
- Remain on Route 128 North, passing through Peabody, Danvers and Beverly
- Take Exit 17, Grapevine Road
- Turn left at end of ramp, going 0.6 mile to main entrance

From Points South:
- Stay on Route 95 North until it separates from Route 128.
- Take Route 128 North towards Gloucester, passing through Peabody, Danvers and Beverly
- Take Exit 17, Grapevine Road
- Turn left at end of ramp, going 0.6 mile to main entrance

From Logan Airport:
- Leaving the Boston/Logan Airport, look for signs for 93 North
- Take 93 North to Route 95 North
Follow the directions (above) for "From Points South"

Another Act One Alumni Movie!

2010-04-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Snowpeople --

Well in case you were wondering — finally — there are SNOWMEN in the forecast!

We have been “officially” invited, and SNOWMEN has just been “officially” accepted to make it’s WORLD PREMIERE this Saturday, April 24th at the TRIBECA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

SNOWMEN was one of 5500 entries and the only family film of the 85 films selected.

Below are all the screening times, location and demographic breakdowns for Tribeca. Would love you to pass along and invite any friends/family/associates/Studio Execs/wealthy investors/fans/facebook stalkers etc who might be in the greater NY area.

Saturday, April 24, 2:00 pm, SVA 1 333 West 23rd Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) New York, NY 10011 (Silas): Seats 479 In competition for the “Audience Award”. This will be our “premiere” screening and will have Ray Liotta, Josh Flitter and Bobby Coleman(other cast TBA) in attendance. We need this screening to be filled! A small private party is TBD.

Sunday, April 25, 12:00 pm, VEC-01 Village East Cinemas (VEC) 181 Second Avenue (at 12th Street) New York, NY 10003: Seats 370 In competition for the “Audience Award”. Stars Ray Liotta and Bobby Coleman will be in attendance.

Thursday, April 29, 2:30 pm Village East Theater 3 Village East Cinemas (VEC) 181 Second Avenue (at 12th Street) New York, NY 10003: Seats 155. In competition for the “Audience Award”. Rob Kirbyson will be in attendance. This screening is a smaller setting for those who would benefit from a more intimate experience of the film.

To purchase tickets:

Let's support Robert Kirbyson and his first feature film DEBUT!

SNOWMEN WEBSITE
Our director Rob Kirbyson just finished building the new website. Yes, he writes, directs...and designs websites. It's here

INTERVIEW:
The festival put up a transcribed interview with Rob on their website. (The festival is tracking hits to this link so every click counts. Thanks!)

Meet Robert Kirbyson, director of the TFF 2010 family film Snowmen, a sweet movie that is one of the few TFF 2010 films perfect for families!

More info here:

Movie Night

2010-04-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Popcorn Lovers,

It's that time again. You're invited to another Fourth Friday Movie Night this Friday, April 23rd. This one's a little different.

We'll be watching the Allen Wolf movie In My Sleep on it's opening night.

Executive produced by an Act One faculty member and connected in various ways with the Act One community, the film is described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a well-stirred titillation that will appeal to twenty-something audiences and movie-buff viewers who appreciate the pursued-pursuer, Hitchcockian style of suspense."

Instead of meeting at the Act One Office, we'll be meeting at the Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, 90046:

Map: http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=8000+sunset+blvd&sll=34.07991,-118.3327&sspn=0.041801,0.104628&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=8000+Sunset+Blvd,+Los+Angeles,+California+90046&z=16&start=0

It's probably a good idea to get tickets in advance, just in case it's sold out.

Buy ($11) tickets here:

Let's try to meet in the lobby at 6:40, 30 minutes before the show. Let me know if you're coming so I can look for you.

Hope to see all ya'll there.

Act One staff

Still Stirring it Up

2010-04-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview that I did a few months ago for the web site Patheos. I expect lots of email for suggesting that EWTN and CBN are doing more harm to the Church culturally than Hustler and Big Love.

Bring it on.

Some newish thoughts here as I have been in semi-interview retirement this past year and have had time to put some things together. Here's a new one:

I am a political animal in many ways. It's a big hobby for me. But I have, with the rest of my generation, almost completely lost confidence that real good in society can be achieved through politics. I don't think that's the pathway to lasting good. I think that politics can clear the field for good to be done, but I don't think it actually achieves anything. I think culture is what creates good in the world. That's the realm of the artist: the storyteller, the musician, the poet. And I see myself as a storyteller.

Also some of my favorite beasts to beat. Like this familiar and (beloved) psychoses:

Things are changing, too. The boomers are dying and ceding power, and the power is going into the very troubled, introspective hands of the Generation Xers, people like Jason Reitman, who made Juno and what I consider this year's best film, Up in the Air. These folks are completely ambivalent about the promises of the sexual revolution. They don't have other options, but they know the way they were raised was wrong.

You're starting to see this in so many movies. I think four or five of this year's academy award nominees are very hopeful pictures. They're seeded with hope, not infected with the kind of cynicism that the boomer generation had come to. The boomers, after exhausting themselves with every kind of sexual license and permissiveness and me-centeredness, basically had come out with a "whatever" attitude in their movies. That is not the spirit of the Gen-Xers.

Thanks much to the very patient Timothy Dalrympal for transcribing my hour-long rant.

For the Beauty of the Church

2010-03-08T08:55:00.001-08:00

Just released! I have a chapter in this book called something like "Identifying Real Artists and Ways to Shepherd Them." The book was based on a series of talks given at a wonderful symposium held a few Springs ago on Austin, TX. The book was compiled by the gracious and astute David Taylor and includes talks by great thinkers like Jeremy Begbe, Andy Crouch, Eugene Peterson. (The only real question is, what yours truly is doing in a book with all of them!?)

Here is an excerpt of my chapter, more of which is posted at David's blog:

THE NATURE OF BEAUTY
As a precursor to answering this question, I want to lay out a few ideas about the nature of the beautiful, because beauty is the terrain of real artists, and one way to recognize them is if they dwell in this terrain….

Thomas Aquinas gave a definition of the beautiful that is still helpful and relevant seven centuries later. The beautiful, he said, is “wholeness, harmony, and radiance,” and these define the terrain of the artist.

WHOLENESS
Wholeness means nothing is missing. All parts are present, suggesting completeness. No one looks at the Pietà and says, “You know, Mary needs just a little more fringe around her veil. Oh well.” Or, people don’t listen to Mozart’s Ave Verum and say, “Needs another high G in there. Oh well.” There’s something about these works that suggest completeness. Wholeness also means there is nothing extra, nothing gratuitous that isn’t an essential part of the whole. Isn’t that one of the primary complaints about so many movies? “Gratuitous sex and violence.” That is, too often there is no context for these things in a project, so it feels to the audience like they were just slapped in there to try and distract from some flaw in the storytelling. A beautiful work has nothing gratuitous.

And what do we get from wholeness? We are all creatures who have been cut off from our source. There is always a partial emptiness, a longing that can only be filled by divine love. As St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” We yearn to cleave to the One, and when we experience completeness, we have a sense of being at home and at rest. So the beautiful gives us a sense of peace….

Anyway, if you are interested in how the Church got where she is with banality and the arts, and if you would like the beginnings of rumination about finding our way back to the beautiful, check out the book here.

Act One Inaugurates Movie Discussion Nights!

2010-02-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

Hey Friends!

You are warmly invited to the inaugural Fourth Friday Movie Night at Act One.

It will be a relaxed and casual evening this Friday, February 26th at 7:30 pm.

We are going to watch Shadowlands, a movie based on a true story about C.S. Lewis. It stars Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis and Debra Winger as Joy Gresham, the "feisty, abrasive New York divorcee whose sharp-edged, no-nonsense attitudes take Lewis by surprise."

We'll gather at the Act One office and watch the movie on the projector screen.

Beer and snacks will be plentiful. (Especially if you RSVP!)

Feel bring to bring your dinner if you are coming straight from work. We'll start the movie after some catch-up time.

This is not just for Act One alumni - please bring friends and significant others.

Reply to let me know if you are planning to come so I know how much food to get and how many chairs we'll need.

Act One Office: 2690 North Beachwood Drive, LA, CA 90058.

Looking forward to seeing you!

RSVP to Genevieve at Act One at 323-464-0815.

See Barb in Reno

2010-02-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

I'm speaking to a group in Reno, this Thursday. It's the Catholic Busines Club and their meeting is at an ungodly hour - like 7am - for breakfast. They tell me you don't have to be in the club to attend the breakfast and speech.

Info here.

Announcing "Bump"

2010-01-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a message I was forwarded by some friends. I am pleased to help get the word out.

In 1973, The U.S. Supreme Court gave women a choice. Thirty-seven years later, we're giving them a voice.

Yellow Line Studio announces the premiere of BUMP+, a web series that follows three women facing crisis pregnancies. The pilot is scheduled to launch on Friday, January 22, 2010. Thirteen episodes will follow in February and March; and the final cliffhanger is so unpredictable, even the writers and producers don't know how the series will end.

From Juno and Bella to Glee and Desperate Housewives, a woman's right to choose has been explored across the media landscape. What makes BUMP+different? We're letting the viewers decide how our characters' stories will end. We've opened the official website to comments and invited people to share their personal stories. Our team will craft the final episodes, including the ultimate decision about each pregnancy, based on audience feedback. This isn't a moral or political statement - it's an experiment to see if story can succeed where nearly four decades of angry rhetoric and political posturing have failed.

That experiment is already underway at www.bumptheshow.com. A trailer for the pilot has attracted several comments and personal stories from viewers; and theYouTube, Facebook and Twitter following is growing quickly; and as someone with a strong commitment to quality, thought provoking entertainment, we'd like to invite you and your audience to be part of it. For more information, or to schedule an interview with members of the BUMP+ creative team, please contact me personally using the email address or phone number below, or visit our website.

Watch the episodes. Share your story. Join the conversation.

Regards,

Lauri Deason, Marketing/Publicity

858-384-1156/lauri@yellowlinestudio.com

New York Encounter

2010-01-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

I am happy to spread the word of this event. I generally admire the Communion and Liberation movement.

_______________________________________

Dear Friends,

I am very proud to invite you to the “New York Encounter” a weekend-long cultural festival of four exceptional events taking place on the weekend of January 16th.

“New York Encounter” - New York’s most “widely anticipated yearly cultural event” is organized by Communion and Liberation - the Catholic movement that organizes the annual Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge on Good Friday - and the Crossroads Cultural Center taking place the weekend of January 16th. Summaries of each presentation are below and details are available on the attached flier and at the New York Encounter website: www.newyorkencounter.org.

The “New York Encounter” cultural festival opens with a presentation on the Rimini Meeting - a week-long public cultural Catholic event that has been taking place in Italy for 30 years - at the New York Marriot Marquis hotel in Times Square on Saturday, January 16th at 8:30 pm. The presentation is titled: Rimini Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples: An Extraordinary Example of Faith lived in the Public Square. This event is free and open to the public.

On Sunday, January 17th at 2:30pm, there will be a presentation on “Charity.” The presentation - “Charity: Is It Possible to Live This Way?” - is a discussion on charity in light of the newly published third volume of Msgr. Luigi Giussani’s book Is It Possible to live This Way?” The presentation will take place at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square and the speakers are: author and columnist Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete; Fr. Julian Carron, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation; and Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, theologian at the Divinity School of Duke University. This event is free and open to the public.

On Sunday evening at 8:00pm, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent film masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc, will be shown at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square. The film will be accompanied by the Metro Chamber Orchestra and the Communion and Liberation choir. Tickets for this rare presentation are a modest $30 and can be ordered atwww.newyorkencounter.org.

New York Encounter will close with a presentation on literature titled “Words and the ‘I’: How Literature Helps Us to judge the world and our Experience.” The presentation will take place on Monday, January 18 at 10:00am at the Hyatt Regency in Jersey City at 2 Exchange Place. Travel to the Hyatt Regency is as simple as taking a short 15 minute Path train ride from the World Trade Center site in downtown Manhattan. This event is free and open to the public.

I urge you to “come and see” how Christ continues to manifest His magnetic beauty in the annual “New York Encounter”cultural festival!

In Christ,

Henry Artis

2009-11-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Barbara,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the June 2010 launch of Act One's newly formatted 14-month Producing & Entertainment Executive Program.

The 14-month Certificate Program provides students with a strong foundation in producing and executive management for mainstream film and television to prepare them for entry-level careers in the entertainment industry that focus on becoming a producer or entertainment executive.

The program is similar to past Executive Programs, but offers more ways to connect. The summer begins with a two-week Producing Seminar, that can be taken as a stand alone class or as part of the summer long or 14-Month Program. The Seminar is followed by an eight-week Producing Workshop, including an internship at a studio or production company.

These new Master classes are open to Alumni as well as new students. Check out the website for further information.

Todd Burns, Act One graduate and co-founder of MPower Pictures says, “I have been a part of programs at UCLA, USC, and numerous other industry training seminars and by far, Act One’s Executive Program is the most thorough educational and inspirational program targeted to young professionals in the entertainment industry.”

Please forward this message to a friend you think would be an excellent candidate for the 2010 Producing & Entertainment Program. They can find more information about the program here and download an application for the 2010 Producing & Entertainment Executive Program here.

We cannot continue to provide expanded program offerings without your support. We ask for your prayers for Act One graduates, for those considering applying, and for the students who will enter the programs in June. We also ask for your continued financial support. We are just $4,000 away from reaching the $30,000 Matching Board Grant.

Click here to go to our website where you can give directly to our online giving page!

By giving to Act One you help fund our new programs and train a growing community of writers, producers, and Hollywood executives who are committed to following Jesus through artistry, professionalism, meaning, and prayer.

Together, we can bring the Light of the World to the most influential industry on earth.

Grace and great mercy,

Dr. Gary Stratton, PhD
Executive Director, Act One Inc.

New Movie from Act One Writer, Director and Producer!

2009-11-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

See Barb in Grand Rapids, MI in 2010

2009-08-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about this one. I have wanted to attend Calvin's famous "Festival of Writing" since I first heard of it ten years ago. They always have an amazing roster of writers, many from outside the usual suspects of Christian conferences. It's an honor just to be invited...

New Programs Brewing at Act One!

2009-07-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release July 30th, 2009

  ACT ONE LAUNCHES NEW PROGRAMS FOR 2010
 
 **Writing Program Info Night Sept. 2nd at 8 pm***

 *RSVP at 323-464-0815 or

info@actoneprogram.com

 After 10 years of principally Summer programs, Act One is pleased to announce several new training formats for

 aspiring Hollywood screenwriters.

  Starting in January, 2010 Act One will be launching these NEW writing programs:

Writing Program Certificate: Writing for Screen and Television

 Dates:   January 4, 2010 – March 27, 2011 |  Applications due: October 1, 2009

               June 21, 2010 – August 27, 2011   |  Applications due: April 1, 2010

 The 14-month certificate program provides students a strong foundation in writing for screen and television, and

prepares them for advanced alumni programs, such as Act Two, Act Three and Advanced TV Track. Students in the

 14-month program will write two full-length scripts under the mentorship of  professional writers.

Certificate programs are offered in the following order:

   Feature Writing Track:                                    TV Writing Track:

Writing Seminar (2 weeks*)                              Writing Seminar (2 weeks*)

Writing Workshop (8 weeks**)                          Writing Workshop (8 weeks**)

Writers’ Spiritual Journey (14 months***)       Writers’ Spiritual Journey (14 months***)

Writing Group Mentoring (6 months***)          TV Spec Script Writing I (6 months***)

Individual Mentoring (6 months***)                 TV Spec Script Writing II (6 months***)

 *  These classes meet during a two-week retreat, with students in class “all day and night”

**  These classes meet on 8 consecutive Saturdays, to allow students to work a full-time job

*** These classes meet on weeknights or weekends to allow students to work a full-time job

          In addition to the 14-month certificate program (see above), incoming students and Act One alumni may also take the

following courses individually or, “a la carte” as opposed to consecutively as part of the 14-month Certificate Program.

Please see www.actoneprogram.com for more information.

Writing Seminar for Screen and Television

Dates:  January 4 -16, 2010      |  Applications due:  October 1, 2009

              June 21 – July 3, 2010  |  Applications due: April 1, 2010

Developed over ten years of training aspiring writers for mainstream film and television, the Writing Seminar

is Act One’s flagship program previously offered only in a 4-week format now offered in a two-week retreat

where students hear from writers and industry professionals, who literally step off studio lots to teach.

The Writing Seminar grounds students in the Act One values of artistry, professionalism, meaning, and spirituality.

 It includes over 100 hours of instruction in both the craft of screen and television writing and the spiritual journey

 of a Christian writer. Writing Seminar pricing includes all fees, as well as room and board.

While it is highly recommended to continue taking Act One courses, the Writing Seminar is designed to allow students

outside of the Los Angeles area to partake in the Act One experience, and opens the door to other alumni opportunities.

Alumni of the Writing Seminar are eligible to take additional Act One courses and are granted entry into the Act One

Alumni Association, which provides a wealth of resources and networking.

 Writing Workshop for Screen and Television

 Dates:  January 23 – March 28, 2010 (Meets on Saturdays)

              July 10 – August 28, 2010 (Meets on Saturdays)

 Students who can spend ten weeks in Hollywood are encouraged to also take the 8-week Saturday

Writing Workshop immediately following the Seminar for a hands-on writing experience.  The Writing

Workshop is a series of rigorous exercises designed to prepare students to write a full length script.

(The 2-week Writing Seminar is a Prerequisite for this Writing Workshop.)

 Writing Group Mentoring: Small Group Mentoring for Screenwriters

Dates:  March 29 – August 28, 2010 (Meets bi-weekly, during nights or weekends)

              Sept. 13, 2010 – March 12, 2011 (Meets bi-weekly, during nights or weekends)

Act One now offers improved mentoring programs designed to support students through the entire process

of writing a full-length script.  Current students and Writing Program alumni are encouraged to take this

course immediately following the Writing Workshop. Online programs may be available- contact Act One for

 more details. (The 2-week Writing Seminar and the 8-week Writing Workshop are Prerequisites for taking this

 Small Group Mentoring class)

 TV Spec Script Writing 1: Small Group Mentoring for Television Writing

Dates:  March 29 – July 15, 2010 (Meets bi-weekly, during nights or weekends)

               Sept. 13, 2010 – February 15, 2011 (Meets bi-weekly, during nights or weekends)

The TV Track simulates a real writer’s room and mentors students through a full length half- hour (comedy)

or hour (drama) spec script. (The 2-week Writing Seminar and the 8-week Writing Workshop are Prerequisites

 for taking this Small Group Mentoring class)

 The Writer’s Spiritual Journey: Spiritual Formation Community for Screen & TV Writers

Dates:  January 23, 2009 – February 15, 2010 (Meets bi-weekly, during nights or weekends)

              July 10, 2010 – August 25, 2011 (Meets bi-weekly, during nights or weekends)

A 14 month tutorial in developing an individualized road map toward spiritual vitality in one of the most spiritually

challenging environments on earth. Through classroom instruction, small group interaction, and personalized

spiritual direction, students are challenged to grow in the spiritual disciplines of solitude, community and artistry

in order to live lives of personal holiness so that through their lives and work they may be witnesses of Christ and

the Truth to their fellow artists and to the global culture. (The 2-week Writing Seminar is a Prerequisite for Writer’s

Spiritual Journey.)

For more information, fee schedules and FAQS, please visit our website at  www.actoneprogram.com.

Act One Annual Alumni BBQ and Film Festival

2009-07-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release July 29, 2009 - Act One Training for Hollywood

Act One’s 10th Annual Alumni BBQ and Inaugural Film Festival @ AFI.

WHAT:   Join us for Act One’s Annual Alumni BBQ, celebrating our inaugural class  of 1999.

This year’s BBQ will be preceded by our first ever Film Festival,  including the initial

installment of a year-long community conversation, “What  Is an Act One Film? (and TV Show).”

 Screenings (10AM & 3:30 PM): Join the students in the 2009 Executive and Writing  Programs

in screenings of award-winning features, shorts and network episodes  from Act One alumni:

- Clare Sera (WP ’99), Pie ‘n Burger;

- Rob Kirbyson (WP ’04),  Ctrl Z;

- Ben Lobato (EP ’06), The Unit;

- Scott Teems (WPNY ’01), That Evening  Sun.

Each screening will be followed by Q&A sessions with the writers,  directors and producers.

Discussion (1PM): The day will also feature a panel discussion entitled “What Is  an Act One Film?"

 led by board members: Dean Batali, David McFadzean, Barbara  Nicolosi and Chuck Slocum. This will

 be the first in a year-long series of Act One community conversations exploring this topic.

BBQ (6:30 PM): The annual Alumni BBQ, celebrating the Class of 1999.

WHEN:  August 1, 2009, 10AM – 10PM

WHERE:  American Film Institute (AFI), 2021 North Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027 -1657, 323.856.7600

HOW MUCH?:   $45 for an All-Day Pass (Two Screenings, Discussion, Lunch & BBQ  included)

or $15 per each of the five events. (Seating for the Film Festival is LIMITED, and available on a first-come,  first-serve basis.

Register NOW!)

WHO CAN ATTEND:  The Act One community and the general public.

TO REGISTER:  Vicki@actoneprogram.com or call 323-464-0815

Orange County Catholic Prayer Breakfast

2009-07-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

2009

ORANGE COUNTY CATHOLIC

PRAYER BREAKFAST

Keynote Speaker

MATTHEW KELLY

International Speaker & Author

"Daily Prayer"

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Principal Mass Celebrant

Bishop Tod D. Brown

with all priests in attendance concelebrating

6:30 a.m. Rosary

7:00 a.m. Holy Mass

7:45 a.m. Breakfast & Program

9:00 a.m. Conclusion

Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort

12021 Harbor Boulevard

Garden Grove, California 92840

www.catholicpb.com 949.528.3223

Single Tickets: $30 Table of Ten: $300

All are welcome. Scholarships are available if needed.

2009

Orange County

Catholic

Prayer Breakfast

Organizing Committee

Bishop of Orange

Bishop Tod D. Brown

Chairs

Terry & Kathy McGaughan

Rob & Berni Neal

Committee Members

Msgr. Lawrence J. Baird

Fr. Al Baca

Fr. Joe Nettekoven

Fr. Steve Sallot

Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S. J.

Sr. Irma Gomez, MESST

Kathleen Beckman

Ellen Buchanan

Cheryl & Merrill Butler

Jenny Cahill

Cheri Coughlin

Tony Di Nino

Mick Fern

Joan Jacoby

Joe Kromanchly

Pete & Jan Lauder

Patti Ledesma

Barbara McGuigan

Manny Montanez

Susan Miller

Evie Pilkington

Jill & Scott Richmond

Lucinda Salinas

John Scola

Zita Sevilla

Sherry Van Meter

Meg Waters

Founded & Organized by

Magis Institute

2532 Dupont Drive

Irvine, California 92612

www.magis.us

Next Entertainment Industry Mass

2009-06-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

The Hollywood Project of the Magis Institute, presents,

A Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Rome Rite with
Gregorian Chant & Sacred Polyphony Music

MASS & SPECIAL BLESSING
For Your Current Projects and Your Special Calling as “ARTIST”

Music conducted and sung by members of
The Los Angeles Master Chorale

June 19th, 2009
8pm at St. Victors Parish
8634 Holloway Dr. West Hollywood 90069

[Ample parking will be available across the street]

Reception with food, drink, and entertainment following the Mass
In lower level of the church

Entertainment afterward provided by Eric Genuis, composer, virtuoso pianist. (www.ericgenuis.com)

The Hollywood Project – frdon@new-ethos.org or rosario@new-ethos.org

Mr. and Mrs. Norris Harrington

2009-06-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

Just married at the Gesu in Rome, June 9, 2009.

Phew!

Never the Bride Released Today!

2009-06-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

Seeing the theme of this blog lately is all things weddings....friend and Act One alumna, Cheryl McKay has a new novel being released today! Here is some info about it and a link to it on Amazon.

NEVER THE BRIDE

Review
“What girl can’t identify with Never the Bride? This is a fabulously funny novel with deep truths embedded in its pages.” –Kristin Billerbeck, author of What a Girl Wants

“I admire writers who employ words to paint touchable pictures, likable characters, introducing us to instant friends who lead us to unexpected endings. That’s why I love Never The Bride.” –SQuire Rushnell, author of the When GOD Winks books

Product Description
“What girl can’t identify with Never the Bride? This is a fabulously funny novel with deep truths embedded in its pages.” –Kristin Billerbeck, author of What a Girl Wants

“I admire writers who employ words to paint touchable pictures, likable characters, introducing us to instant friends who lead us to unexpected endings. That’s why I love Never The Bride.” –SQuire Rushnell, author of the When GOD Winks books

Eleven Bridesmaid Dresses Don’t Lie

Since she was just a little girl, Jessie Stone dreamed up hundreds of marriage proposals, doodled the romantic ideas in her journal with her treasured purple pen, and fantasized about wedding dresses and falling in love. She’s been a bridesmaid nearly a dozen times, waved numerous couples off to sunny honeymoons, and shopped in more department stores for half-price fondue pots than she cares to remember.

But shopping for one key component of these countless proposals hasn't been quite as productive–a future husband. The man she thought she would marry cheated on her. The crush she has on her best friend Blake is at very best…well, crushing. And speed dating has only churned out memorable horror stories.

So when God shows up one day, in the flesh, and becomes a walking, talking part of her life, Jessie is skeptical. What will it take to convince her that the Almighty has a better plan than one she’s already cooked up in her journals? Can she turn over her pen and trust someone else to craft a love story beyond her wildest dreams?

Cheryl McKay is the screenwriter for the award-winning film The Ultimate Gift. She also wrote an episode of Gigi: God’s Little Princess, based on the book by Sheila Walsh, and Taylor’s Wall, a drama about high-school violence. She’s been writing since the tender age of five when she penned her first play. Cheryl is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Rene Gutteridge is a critically acclaimed comedy writer and novelist. She is the author of fifteen novels including the Boo series, My Life as a Doormat, the Occupational Hazards series, and the novelization of the motion picture The Ultimate Gift. She lives in Oklahoma with her family.

Order it here.

June wedding...in Rome!

2009-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Barbara Ruth Nicolosi and Norris Archer Harrington are pleased to announce that we will be married on June 9th, at the Church of the Gesu in Rome. We will be spending our honeymoon in Rome and Sicily, and then beginning our life together in our little flat in the shadow of the famous sign here in Hollywood. We are confident in the prayers of all of our friends and family as we take this exciting next step.

We will be having an open reception celebration on the evening of Sunday, July 26th at the Police Academy Rock Garden in Elysian Fields, from 7pm to 11pm. If you are in the area and want to come and celebrate with us, we would love to have you! RSVP to brnicolosi@aol.com so we can keep the caterers posted.

Arrivederci! Hopefully married people get to blog more than single ones...

Biz Mass

2009-04-30T07:04:00.001-07:00

MASS & SPECIAL BLESSING

FOR ALL IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

For Your Current Projects and Your Special Calling as “ARTIST”

[All Other’s are Very Welcome]

Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Rome Rite with Gregorian Chant and Sacred Polyphony Music

When: Feast of St. Joseph the Worker – May 1, 2009 at 8:00pm

Where: St. Victor Church

(8634 Holloway Drive, W. Hollywood, CA 90069)

* Mass will be presided over by the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael’s Abbey

* Music conducted by a professional choir.

* Guest homilist will be Fr. Darrin Merlino, C.M.F (Hollywood Project).

*Special Blessing for Entertainment Professionals with Exposition of The Blessed Sacrament and Benediction will immediately follow the Mass.

* Reception in the Parish Hall following Mass & Benediction (located on 1^st level, below Church)

In a gesture of love and support for entertainment professionals, and in an atmosphere of truth, beauty and goodness, The Hollywood Project is offering Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Also, a Special Blessing and Novena Devotion will be offered for those who wish to have their ‘special vocation’ as an entertainment professional and their current projects put under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

{This Hollywood Project Event is offered in collaboration with St. Victor Church and the 1^st Friday “Holy Spirit in the Media” Group and in conjunction with Hollywood ministries [Open Call, St. Charles Borromeo’s Catholics in Entertainment, Family Theater Productions, , Catholics in Media Associates (CIMA), Catholic Underground, Bibles and Brew, Act One Inc, and Una Voca}

“An artist has a special relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of ‘artistic talent’”

-Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists (1999), n. 3.

The Hollywood Project – frdon@new-ethos.org

See Barb in Simi Valley

2009-04-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

SONscreen Film Festival

Scheduled Guests & Events

Sat. April 17, 2009
2:30-4:00 pm

Reel Community: Rediscovering the church's role in a place like Hollywood hosted by Melody George

...What if community--real, raw, genuine community--was still one of God's primary ways of reaching the world? Join our panel of filmmakers and church leader as we discuss Reel Community and what a community of artists & believers can create together...

Panel member: Barbara Nicolosi, Founder, Board Chair, Act One: Training for Hollywood

Ms. Nicolosi is the founding Executive Director of the Act One, Inc, a non-profit training and formation program for Hollywood writers and executives. Now in its tenth year, Act One keynotes artistry, professionalism, ethics and Christian spirituality.

Panel member: Ryan Bell, Senior Pastor, Hollywood SDA Church

Ryan has been a pastor for over 15 years. But for the past three and a half years, he and his new congregation have been active in the Hollywood community working for solutions to social problems including homelessness, affordable housing and human trafficking through advocacy and faith-based community organizing.

Panel member: Rajeev Sigamoney,, Comedy Writer/Director
JESUS PEOPLE movie & web-series

As one half of Ewald/Sigamoney, Rajeev Sigamoney landed on the map with "The Room," which was shot one weekend in 2004 on the CBS Radford lot...SONscreen is proud to have screened previous Ewald/Sigamoney films in past like 'Happy Wednesday,'

Panel member: David Magidoff, Artistic Director, Monkey Butler Comedy Company

David is the Artistic Director for the Los Angeles-based Monkey Butler Comedy Company, which currently hosts five free workshops in improv and stand-up comedy every week. David's vast and privileged career on the stage includes performing at The Oval Theatre (London), The Majestic House Theater (New Zealand)... The National Comedy Theatre (San Diego).. and more.

DEADLINE in 4 days: Next Week April 14
April/2009

April 14 - Last Day to purchase tickets online
April 14 - Last Day to get hotel discount
April 16 - SONscreen Festival Begins!

www.sonscreen.com

FREE Admission...Become a Volunteer!
MONTH/YEAR

We're calling for volunteers in the following areas:

Production Asst.
Photography
Camera person (we'll supply the camera)
Blogging for the festival
Hospitality (ticket taking, etc.)
and Registration...

Contact Volunteer Coordinator Mark Thomas at VOLUNTEER@sonscreen.com

See ya next week at SONscreen 2009!

Contact Information:

Stacia D. Wright, Festival Producer/Co-Founder
SONscreen Film Festival
866-766-3146

Off the Market

2009-04-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I have been such a bad blogger friends. As Emily Dickinson wrote, "Real life has intervened." There is some news to report, however, particularly for all those friends and family members out there who stop by here.

I got engaged yesterday, Easter Sunday, at the Santa Maria Inn, in Santa Maria, CA to Norris Archer Harrington. My whole life has been the Blessed Mother and St. Paul, so it was perfect to say, "Yes!" in that place. Norris is a Texan, was a career Navy deep sea diver, is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA,.....and is an Act One alumnus.

(So, I guess it turns out that the whole REAL reason I started Act One was just to find a husband? Ha! But really, God is so weirdly faithful....)

We are hoping to get married in Rome in June (the month of St. Paul) - during this wonderful Pauline year. And I just wrote and asked a priest named Paul to witness our vows.

Stay posted. Often God corrects my plans.

But please do send up a prayer for us. We are very happy. But I think poor Norris has no idea what he is getting himself into!

One of my friends said, "So, now you have a date for the apocalypse." Yeah, it's hard not to think of Jesus saying, "But in the end times it will be as in the days of Noah, when they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage right up until the rain started to fall." So this is my part in filling out Biblical prophecy for the last days?

Cool!

See Barb in Vegas, uh, Baby

2009-04-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Christian Bound Ministries is hosting two Screenwriters sessions on April 25, 2009 in Las Vegas Nevada at the Watermark Executive Suites from 8:00am to 2:00pm. The cost is $25.00 per-person and includes a lite breakfast & snack. Limited seating in a private atmosphere. Call for more information & register today to hold your spot@ 702-485-5377.

Session One:
Barbara Nicolosi, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Act One: Training for Hollywood
Nicolosi has an MA in Film from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She has been a director of project development, a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a consultant on many film and television projects. She is an adjunct professor of cinema at Pepperdine UNiversity, and a partner at Origin Entertainment.

Barbara recently wrote the movie "Mary, Mother of the Christ" with Ben Fitzgerald (The Passion of the Christ). It is being produced by Aloe Entertainment for an MGM release in spring of 2010. The movie stars Al Pacino, Peter O'Toole, Jessica Lang, Jonathan Rhys-Myers and Camilla Belle.

Barbara’s topic 9-11
-Things to Think About Before Choosing Your Story
- What Aristotle Knew about Plot, Character and Saving the World With Stories
- What Flannery O"Conner Knew about Finding Mystery Amidst Manners
- What Does It Mean to Have a Story Be Universal, Irrevocable, High Stakes, Active and Visual?

Session Two:
Joseph &Charla Apana (Worship Writers)

Joseph & Charla traveled with “Isaiah” A Christian Praise and worship band evangelizing throughout the states. With over 17 years of experience in intimate worship. They Led worship for The International Church of Las Vegas Childrens Ministry for five years and trained children to lead worship. In Worship they found a call to write while in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

They’ve written numerous songs and devotionals and are coming out with their first book, “Forty days of Fasting”. Charla finished her first screenplay in 2006 “Beyond Blessings” and is now working on their second script “Hawaiian Cowboys”.

The Apana’s specialize in teaching intimate worship to writers and emphasize on bringing the Holy Spirit-Gods presence as the ink hit’s the paper. Being modern day scribes in this 21 century. They will worship and bring the presence of God and activate writers to hear God’s voice and write it out. The Apana’s will show examples of what it looks like to hear Gods voice in every area of life, especially in writing through a life style of intimate worship. Matthew 5:3-10 The beatitudes teaches us to have a humble heart to carry Gods presence everywhere you go.

Last Two Weeks to Register!

2009-03-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

presents…

What's the "Big Idea" in Movie Writing? Act One and world reknowned story expert, Bobette Buster, have the answer and you have only TWO weekends left to find out!

Participants of Weekend One are saying…

‘Through her love of cinema, Bobette draws you into the multi-layered craft of truly great films--it's a deeper journey than you'll get in film school or anywhere else. Bobette shows you how the master filmmakers create a richer story… inspires you to pick up new tools for your craft.’ – John F. Colorado Springs, CO

‘Bobette Buster makes you think about movies in a different way. The way she talks about story has inspired me to write every day. If you're experiencing writer's block, she can help you. If you need tips on how to punch up dialogue or improve character arcs while in rewrites, she can help you.’ – Kara H. Los Angeles

‘Bobette is right on target. This is the most insightful and valuable seminar I have been a part of. Her big picture thinking is exactly the kind of wake up call our generation of filmmakers and executives need.’- Josh R., Santa Monica, CA

‘This weekend writing class was amazing for me both as a Producer and a writer. Bobbette's style of lecturing is top notch... Bobbette has clearly defined the structure of cutting edge story telling. It truly has broken open my creative mind and given me a new sense of what makes a GREAT story.’ – Rochelle W. , Hollywood, CA

‘Bobette's lecture series is nothing less than fantastic! Her insights are profoundly interesting and valuable, I could have stayed another several hours. Can't wait to come back next weekend!’ – Martha L., San Diego, CA

Or check her out for yourself here.

Sign up TODAY for parts 2 and 3 of the Act One Lecture Series ‘What’s the Big Idea?: The Art of Cinematic Story-telling’ with Bobette Buster!

Only $250 per weekend:

Weekend 2: March 28/29 - Weekend 2 - Advanced Story Physics & Sound Design: Cinema is the orchestration of emotions. Learn how the master film storytellers create complex chords of feelings while creating clarity of insight.
To register - click here!

Weekend 3 : April 4/5 - The Future of Cinematic Storytelling: How Fractured Narrative Works. And Understanding Hollywood Economics and Target Audience: How to create smart scripts that connect with the right audience.
To register click here!

For more information or to register please contact Rosario Rodriguez at rosario@actoneprogram.com

Considered by many to be the next ‘Robert McKee’, Buster's course is taught at USC, Pixar and all over the world, and her students have gone on to write and produce international blockbusters.

"Bobette Buster's…insights and thoroughness in examining every aspect of a film; from structure to marketing, acting, cinematography, editing, and sound, have been immensely valuable to our ongoing commitment to learning and creativity," says Elyse Klaidman, Pixar Animation Studios.

“Bobette Buster is an absolute wizard at understanding story and passing that understanding along to others,” says Kathy Fogg, Associate Director, Peter Stark Producing Program at USC.

Visit our web site or contact Act One directly at info@actoneprogram.com | (323) 464-0815

"I come not to praise BSG, but to bury it."

2009-03-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's over. And I have lots to say as a requiem. Unfortunately, I am swamped for the next two days with legitimate writing work. And really, I think I am still a bit too grief stricken to write yet. I will soon, however, as I think there are some key lessons about bad storytelling, and the problems of sustaining excellence in television in general, that we can pick off the carcass of this once great series.

I'm opening a thread here for anybody to comment on the "Emperor's clothes" journey that has been Battlestar Galactica, Season Four, and particularly the last episode, Daybreak, Pt I and II.

Feel free to just write that you are heartbroken too. There is, as Emily Dickinson notes, a certain comfort in knowing you are not alone in your discomfiture.

More as soon as I can defend the time expenditure...

Quote for the Day

2009-03-20T07:56:00.001-07:00

From Marcus Tullius Cicero, on W vs. Obama?:

"I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity."

New Site Alert

2009-03-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

I found some folks coming over here from a new site called Notes on the Culture Wars. It seems to be a clone of Drudge, only with a Catholic filter. I'm honored that this blog is under the list of selected columnists and I'm adding it to the side bar.

There have been times in the past in which I have vigorously opposed the phrase "culture wars," as it seemed to me that it set up "my people" (ie. my Christian/traditional Biblical values brethren) against my, um, "other people" (ie. my Hollywood artist media making elite brethren). I wasn't sure where I fit in to the world if both halves of my family were at war, and as long as there was still hope for detente between the two sides, I wasn't sure it was helpful to employ militaristic language in the relationship.

That, however, was before I woke up to the Connecticut State Assembly debating a "special" law last week, to rein in the authority of Catholic bishops in their dioceses. It was before the House passed a bill this week to make three years of mandatory service to the federal government, um, well, mandatory. It was before my parish church had human excrement rubbed all over the vestibule in vicious retaliation for our support of Prop 8. It was before the city of West Hollywood denied our parish the permit to have a preschool because of the assertion that "Catholic ideology" is dangerous to children. It was before Obama administration brown-shirts sneeringly dismissed the idea that Christian physicians should have a "conscience clause" exempting them from being forced to perform abortions. It was before the Treasury Department asserted that major gifts to charities(ie. churches and ministries) should not be tax exempt. It was before the member of a formerly oppressed group, President Obama, signed the execution orders for little humans to be grown in labs and mutilated for scientific research. It was before House disdainfully proclaimed a few weeks ago that "all doctors who care about their patients are doing it" about euthanasia. It was before the CA Supreme Court began brooding over whether there was any way it could AGAIN throw out the man and woman marriage passed by the voters, um, again.

In this moment it seems to me that as inflammatory as words like "culture wars" are, it is much more dangerous for any of us to assume the posture of critiquing the names by which others of us want to be called. When NY Sen. Chuck Schumer is comparing talk radio to pornography, it seems to me that First Amendment free speech is getting near to be toppled like so much other 18th Century idealism - freedom of conscience, religion, property and arms. And it all started by stripping the "right to life" guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence of its application to little humans. Weird how the 20th Century Popes have been so consistently right about that slippery slope, eh? How freakishly haphazard of them to all seize on the notion that the right to life is the pre-eminent foundation of all other rights? I mean, how lucky can a bunch of guys in white cassocks be?!

Anyway, so if you want to call yourself Culture Warriors or Freakin' Wild-Eyed Maniac Shock Troops for Jesus Christ, go for it. I expect a horde of us will die for your right to do so. So, do make it worth the sacrifice.

Barb on Haunting Moments

2009-03-12T08:40:00.001-07:00

Here is my talk about haunting moments in storytelling, from the Storytelling Conference that Act One hosted last October. Following my talk there is about thirty minutes of discussion with our panelists which included Dr. Peter Kreeft (Socrates and Jesus), Bill Marsilli (screenwriter Deja Vu), Karen Hall (writer Judging Amy), Christopher Riley (author, The Hollywood Standard) and Bobette Buster (studio story consultant), among others.

I listened to it yesterday and am humbly going to proclaim it a real blast to listen to. Very smart discussion...and, oh yeah, I wish it had gone on one more minute because I could have TOTALLY answered Kreeft's last question about the heart being more important than the mind. (The answer is that haunting moments appeal to both...)

Dr. Kreeft's talk and the discussion afterward is already online and can be heard here.

MEGA thanks to Clayton Emmer for making all this online stuff possible. You're my hero Clayton...wherever you are! We miss you...

We are gradually editing and transcribing all the talks from the two days for what will be an amazing and unique book. Stay tuned...

Quick Movie Warnings

2009-03-10T10:28:00.001-07:00

Watchmen

WE WALKED OUT.

Awful. Disgusting. Degrading. Vile. Barbarous.

The kind of entertainment the Roman mobs were watching just before the barbarians came over the walls.

Did I say depraved? I meant to.

If you let your kids go to this piece of absolute unmitigated garbage, you deserve whatever nightmare lives they end up inflicting on you.

I fear I haven't expressed myself strongly enough...

Ghost Town

We stopped watching.

After twenty five minutes when we realized we hadn't laughed once yet. And Tea Leoni still hadn't made an appearance in the movie. She might have saved us as viewers, but it wasn't to be.

This movie is a badly over-written rip-off of Ghost and The Sixth Sense.

Stupid. Lame. PASS.

Push

We walked out.

Only after the mob of young fellows gave up and we were the only ones left in the theater and then we realized that if the Millenials had given up on the movie, it must truly, madly and deeply be a waste of time.

This weird mess of a movie comes from Icon Productions. What are they smoking over there these days?

Anyway, I went to see it just to get a glimpse of Camilla Belle on screen, as she is the one playing the titular role in Mary, Mother of Christ. She definitely looks good on screen.

But that was the only thing good about this stupid waste of millions of dollars and over an hour of my life.

PASS.

Benjamin Button

We stopped watching.

After about an hour when we figured out that this whole movie is about its main idea and not about storytelling. And once you had seen enough of the big idea, than there was no need to watch more. I'm just not a big enough fan of the latest technology in 3-D makeup effects to hang in there for three hours.

I know I am really late to the party on this one, but I only just managed to get to the screener. This is one of those movies that got nominated because it happened to be a big stylish and pretentious study movie in a year when the best films were all small. And the best films were also not really that good. Hence, a big fuss over Benjamin Button.

See it or don't. I was bored and didn't make it through.

Obama Killing More Little Humans....But it's Just One Issue, Right?

2009-03-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2009

Bishop Finn on President Obama's Executive Order

Kansas City - St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn issued the following statement today responding to President Barack Obama's Executive Order on Embryonic Stem Cell Research:

Statement on the President’s Order for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Most Reverend Robert W. Finn
Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph

President Barack Obama has kept another campaign promise today as he signed the executive order which will allow federal funds to be spent on destructive human embryonic stem cell research.

I join my voice to that of other Catholic leaders, and other men and women of good will, in denouncing this newest step by the President to eventually remove all legal protections for innocent, nascent human life.

The President boldly proclaimed that he was taking the politics out of science. Rather, it seems clear that he is only asserting “his politics” over life itself.

In the Fall of 2006, we proved in Missouri that if we teach the truth about human cloning and scientific experimentation with human embryos, more and more people will reject the pretense and false hope of this still unsuccessful research.

While breakthroughs continue to be documented in adult stem cell research, taxpayer money will now be siphoned into the coffers of medical researchers to fund projects so dubious that they would never waste their own money on them. These experiments on human embryos, while they have always remained legal, have never produced any medical benefits. The thing that differentiates human embryonic stem cell research from adult stem cell research is that, with embryonic experiments, there are no results. There are no cures. The great “hope” that was promised is an illusion.

Americans should urge the Congress to appropriate no money for such research. Missourians should urge their Missouri Legislature to quickly pass The Taxpayer Protection Amendment (SJR 17), to prevent Missouri tax-dollars from paying for these destructive experiments.

Act One Lecture Series

2009-02-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

Click on it to enlarge.

Kudos for Act One Alumni!

2009-02-26T12:24:00.001-08:00

A feature written and produced by Act One alumni Rajeev Sigamoney (WP '02) and Dan Ewald (WP '99) just got a great review in Christianity Today.

The project is based on their hit web series (which had more than 500,000 views). It is a mockumentary about Christians and the arts and features a top-flight comedic cast including Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno 911), Jennifer Elise Cox (The Brady Bunch Movie), Joel McCrary (Princess Diaries), Octavia Spencer (Bad Santa), Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers), Tim Bagley (Knocked Up) and many others.

Act One alumn Ryan Elliot (WP '06 and EP '03) served as production manager on the project.

Jesus People will be screened next at Plush Design Lab, 207 N Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92832 on March 6, 2009.

Go to www.jesuspeoplefilm.com for updates about the project.

Kudos Dan, Rajeev and Ryan!

Act One Application Season is Upon Us!

2009-02-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

APPLY NOW for the Act One Summer Writing Program or Executive Program and SAVE $700!!

Fulfill your dream of becoming a FILM and TELEVISION WRITER or an ENTERTAINMENT EXECUTIVE in Hollywood. Go here for more information about the programs.

Hurry! Time is running out!

Apply by March 1 and save $700 on your tuition towards either program.

Act One exists to create a community of Christian professionals for the entertainment industry who are committed to excellence, artistry, and personal holiness, so that through their lives and work they may be witnesses of Christ and the Truth to their fellow artists and to the global culture.

CURRENT FACULTY INCLUDE:
• SHERYL J. ANDERSON, writer, Flash Gordon, Charmed.
• RON AUSTIN, writer/producer, Mission Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, and Matlock.
• DEAN BATALI, writer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and That 70s Show.
• SCOTT DERRICKSON, director, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
• JOCELYN DIAZ, director of drama development for Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and Invasion.
• BARBARA HALL, producer, Joan of Arcadia, Judging Amy, Chicago Hope, and Northern Exposure.
• HOWARD KAZANJIAN, producer, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Return of the Jedi.
• BILL MARSILII, co-writer, Déjà vu, with Denzel Washington; writer, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo.
• DAVID MCFADZEAN, creator, Home Improvement with Tim Allen, and What Women Want with Mel Gibson.
• BARBARA NICOLOSI, writer, Mary, Mother of the Christ, VP Origin Entertainment, Founder, Act One
• CHARLES B. SLOCUM, Assistant Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America.
• MICHAEL WARREN, executive story consultant, Happy Days, co-creator, Step by Step, Family Matters.
• RALPH WINTER, producer of the XMen feature film series.

RECENT ALUMNI SUCCESSES INCLUDE:
• TODD BURNS, Founder and CEO, MPower Pictures.
• STEVE CHANG, staff, Mis/Guided (CBS).
• SEAN and TERRY DILLON, staff, Two and a Half Men (CBS).
• MELISSA GLENN and JESSICA RIEDER, staff writers, Leverage (TNT).
• CASSANDRA JOHNSON, Comedy Development, ABC.
• ROBERT KIRBYSON, writer/director, Snowmen, and Sundance Award-winning film, CTRL Z.
• MONICA MACER, writer, Lost (ABC), and Prison Break (Fox)
• CHERYL MCKAY, writer, The Ultimate Gift, starring James Garner, and Abigail Breslin.
• MEGAN NASH, assistant to executive producer, Medium (NBC).
• CLARE SERA, writer, Curious George, (Universal Studios)
• RAJEEV SIGAMONEY and DAN EWALD, writers/producers, Jesus People, with Kate Flannery (The Office), Joel McCrary (American Beauty).
• SCOTT TEEMS and TERRENCE BERRY, writer and producer, That Evening Sun, starring academy award nominated actor, Hal Holbrook.

2690 Beachwood Drive
Hollywood, CA 90068
info@actoneprogram.com
www.actoneprogram.com
(323) 464-0815 (Office)
(323) 468-0315 (Fax)

Lenten Prayer at Act One

2009-02-26T12:10:00.001-08:00

Here's a message from Dr. Gary Stratton, the Executive Director of Act One, Inc.

____________________________________________

Greetings on this Ash Wednesday,

Lent has been a traditional season of reflection in anticipation of the hope of Resurrection on Easter Sunday. I can`t help but notice that the hope of Resurrection is especially appropriate in our nation`s current economic crisis. We certainly need reflection and repentance on the greed and addiction to debt that brought us to this point as a nation. However, we also need hope that this season won`t last forever.

So from now until Easter, Act One will be hosting a one-our prayer service every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10 AM at the Act One offices. It will be a time of spiritual direction, fellowship and prayer.

I don`t think you have to be a genius to see that along with the rest of the nation, the entertainment industry is really hurting as a community right now. Jobs at Starbucks, let alone in the industry are in short supply. I`ve faced unemployment before and I know that just having someplace encouraging to be in the morning can be an incredible boon to start the day. I also know how hard it can be to get a writing project going when you are staring at a blank screen in your pajamas.

A mid-morning prayer time is designed to help you start your day in Christ whether you are writing, job seeking or just in between appointments. There will be coffee, tea and pastries and we are going to start TOMORROW!

Stop by for encouragement, prayer, and worship.

Grace and great mercy,

Gary

Gary David Stratton, Ph.D
Executive Director
Act One
2690 Beachwood Drive
Hollywood, CA 90068
http://www.actoneprogram.com/
(323) 464-0815 (Office)
(323) 468-0315 (Fax)

Getting Ashes in Hollywood

2009-02-25T11:18:00.000-08:00

Here's something the folks at Magis' Hollywood Project made up for today.

Oscar Night Thread

2009-02-23T08:19:00.001-08:00

I'm teaching today and then am going to have to disappear most of the week to work on writing commitments, but wanted to register a few thoughts about last night's liturgy for Hollywood's High Holy Day, the Oscar telecast.

Overall, I thought it was a great show. The only real way I can think it might have been better was to have perhaps a bit more comedy from Jackman (he's more of a showman than a comic), and then, of course, a slate of films worth celebrating. It was ironic to me that there was more overall excellence and mass appeal in the Oscar telecast than there was in most of the nominated films. This point underpinned Jackman's funniest quip of the night, in which he noted something to the effect that the nominated films had everything but fans.

In an annual viewing exercise that usually defines itself for me by cringe-producing embarrassment at my industry, I found last night's party was classy, fun and almost completely free of political lecturing by the assembled learned league of alumni from "Maimee Mulally's Discount Acting School - 6 week course and a headshot for $187.50." (Let's face it, the first five rows of folks at the Kodak last night have to be the best dressed, richest, most surgically altered group of non-higher educated brains on the planet.) The one damnable exception was the dour and haughty Sean Penn, who had to tell us how annoying he is, before he proceeded to irrefutably demonstrate it. Sean really, really, really hates people who (his brain has decided) hate.... so I guess all hate isn't completely bad? It was shameful hubris for him to think the general audience of the Oscars cares that he is glad Obama won, or to lecture us all on how our grandchildren are going to be embarrassed by the fact that for one brief shining moment, California voters have elected to go with thousands of years of Western Civilization's thinking on the nuclear family (you know, as opposed to Sean's.) But hubris is the rule of the day so it is certainly moot to make to big a deal of the audacity of dopes.

I loved the major acting award format of having the five past winners come out and say nice things about the five nominees. Really lovely and poignant for the most part and great television. (I am still amazed that Brad Pitt managed to not run screaming from the room in horror while Sir Anthony Hopkins described the chiseled Pitt as a"brilliant" actor. Sir Anthony is gracious.)

I was thrilled to see Jerry Lewis be honored, and to see how classy he was in accepting the honor, regardless of the fact that the comedy he is famous for is so loutish and goofy. (Earth to Robin Williams and Jim Carrey...)

I thought the acceptance speeches are still too long on names that mean nothing to the rest of us, and that it is long overdue for Oscar to figure out a way to adjust that part of the show. They should have a scroll of "People to Thank" alongside the winners so they don't have to sit there trying to remember the name of the grip and craft services guy from two years ago, at arguably the most emotional moment of their lives.

About the awards..... Kate Winslet would not have won if she hadn't spent half of the The Reader nude and deflowering a fifteen year old. This is the kind of performance actors think is brave.... Sean would not have won if Prop-8 had lost. Then, everybody could have happily voted for Mickey Rourke whom even Penn had to acknowledge in his speech was the real acting tour de force of the year.... Meryl Streep is the unabashed Queen of Hollywood, and everyone dutifully paid her obeissance from the stage. She is the greatest. There is no other.... Danny Boyle looks to be a lovely boy and he had the most fun last night. I loved him apologizing to the choreographer of the closing number for leaving him off the credits. Very sweet man. Much sweeter than his movies.... It's a bad year for music when two of the nominated songs are in Mumbaian dialect and accompanied by bongo drums...Hugh is cool, and a classy gentleman.

Again, the only real deficit in the show was that non of the films seemed to me to be that, you know, great. I mean great in a way that will transcend this moment and see them enter into the lasting canon of great films. (Wall-E is the exception. It will last as part of the Pixar canon.) But nobody, N-O-B-O-D-Y will be watching Slumdog in ten years. Or Doubt. Or The Reader. And certainly not Milk.

Too Weird Not to Be God Portent

2009-02-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

So, I am in the middle of working on writing a mainstream feature-length movie about the apparitions that took place at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. I discovered a few years ago that Bl. Jacinta, one of the two visionaries had died on Feb. 20th, and took that as a kind of cool divine thumbs-up, because February 20th is my birthday.

But just yesterday, I discovered that Feb. 20th has been made the Feast day of both Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco (Jacinta's older brother and one of the other visionaries).

It really hit me. Like one of those moments when you get the sense that somehow you are stumbling blindly into destiny. Or that Somebody really is in control of the whole mess.

New Angelus Website!

2009-02-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

The new Angelus Student Film Festival website is officially up here.

I've been a judge for Angelus for several years now, and, in my opinion, along with Act One, it is the coolest most effective program that Christians run in Hollywood. The principal genius of Angelus is in its outreach to the most-talented young filmmakers coming up through the secular schools. By reaching out to them with love and support and money, Angelus creates a bond of friendship that will always be there as the filmmakers go ahead. And beyond that, it runs like a clock - professionally and always with a lot of class.

Check it out!

Grand Torino

2009-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

I shocked myself this week by really enjoying Clint Eastwood's latest offering Gran Torino. I thought it was charming in many places and it made me laugh out loud several times. The violence was surprisingly unbrutal for an Eastwood film, and most refreshingly of all, unlike almost all of Eastwood's projects, Gran Torino knows what it is about storywise and thematically and stays on target. The film has none of Eastwood's trademark, "character motivation confusion mistaken for internal conflict" that I usually end up scratching my head at from Clint.

On top of that, the film is unabashedly patriotic and basically hopeful about at least a segment of the generations now coming of age. There is also a very cool and respectful religion sub-plot, in which a priest is actually portrayed as a compassionate, thoughtful and three-dimensional human being.

All in all, there's a lot to like.

The main stuff not to like is in the unevenness of many of the supporting performances. There are a lot of cliches riding on the "really bad urban gang members" and the "really ungrateful and worthless adult Boomer children." Clint himself is channeling Dirty harry through much of the film, albeit a 76 year old one, but it is something we haven't seen from him in a while, and it is mostly played for laughs in a way that worked with our audience.

The language is very tough in Gran Torino If you can't stomach the F-word and pretty nearly every racial slur known in sveral languages, you won't be able to enjoy this film. But I did. I recommend Gran Torino as a good and humane story that will get to you in that catharsis of pity and fear of evil way that stories should.

BSG Season 4 Update

2009-02-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Very, very spoilery. You've been warned.

There have been some undeniably brilliant moments in the last few episodes of Season 4.5. "The Oath" about the squelching of Gaeta's/Varek's rebellion was as great as anything we have seen since Season One, or even those first amazing four episodes of Season 3... Remember those? Sigh...

But the first few of the last ten episodes have been weirdly devoid of the answers that the show is going to have to provide if it is going to resolve in an even remotely satisfying way to the audience. Well, that all ended this past week, in which we were served up an episode that was so ridiculously, absurdly "exposition-y" (to use a screenwriting diss) that even though I had been clamoring for answers, I ended up staring at the screen with my forehead thoroughly wrinkled, and not understanding the answers that were flying past at FTL jump speed.

The answers churned out in the worst way - not through character choices, but through a monologue of Sam and a dialogue between Cavil and Ellen in which they say lots of things both of them already know just so the audience can hear it too. This is the definition of bad, bad way to out your back story. It wasn't worthy of BSG although, arguably, inevitable in light of the deep plot holes the show had dug itself into and all the time that has been wasted in meandering brooding episodes these last two half seasons.

Frak. Season 4 has all but abandoned the former glory of the show - that of being a non-sci fi show that was a brilliant way to examine the tensions of living in a post 9/11 Western Civilization. The episodes this last year are in no sense the clever metaphorical shadows of our lives today that we couldn't believe were on television back in the first few years of the show.

The show has also failed to live up to its pretensions to being all about what it is to be human. Recent interviews with Katee Sackhoff ("Starbuck") and Ron Moore (Executive Producer/Creator) have tried to defend the lameness of the recent 5th cylon revelation by posturing that the real point of the show wasn't about the Final Five anyway, but about uh, an epistemology of human nature. The show hasn't really had much insight to add to that question, and seems to be in serious danger of subverting itself on this level, at least at this point in the final season.

So, all those folks out there whom I have goaded into watching the show so as to think deeper thoughts about post-9/11 geopolitics and ethics, please know that you can only find that through about episode 4 of Season 3.

Since then, BSG has been flailing around with occasional moments of psychological/character brilliance (Dualla's end - Kara's Maelstrom - Cylon Civil War) but mostly just a lot of standard episodic sci-fi angst (Hero - Helo vs. Genocide Doctor - Tyrol Friend of Downtrodden Workers) for which few of the "special audience" of BSG (ie. non sci-fi fans) would ever have succumbed to obsessive love of the show.

But back to last week's answer-smorgasbord episode "No Exit."

So, there were two devices introduced to catch up the audience to all the plot points that should have been coming out in tantalizing ways over the last four years, but couldn't because basically, the show writers didn't have any idea where they were going until apparently the end of season 3. The first device was Sam's bullet-to-the-brain which conveniently released all his thousands of years of memories and which he then proceeded to dump on Kara and the other Final Four. The next device was a flashback to a newly resurrected Ellen Tigh, engaging in a weird mother to teenage son spat with Cavil, in which they argued evidently once again about why it is better to be nice (Ellen) and why it is icky to be human (Cavil).

From a character standpoint, the ensuing regurgitation of exposition was a mess. I guess it answers some of the questions they need to, but it was done in such a filibustery and "need to get this over" way, that it didn't feel fair. And so, even though we have been dying for and demanding answers, the result was unsatisfying.

The biggest problem is, of course, in the whole Ellen thing. What is it about being resurrected that turned Ellen the Ditzy Whore into Mother Teresa, eh? Ellen Tigh was a narcissistic, unbalanced, sexual predator, who routinely betrayed anyone who got n the way of her own desires and ambitions. Now, we are supposed to believe that she is the wise, technically brilliant, maternal, creator of the skin jobs and resurrection technology. Yeah, I'm buying that like I bought Denise Richards as a PhD in physics in one of the Bond movies...Just having had your memory stripped wouldn't turn you into a silly serial sensualist. She would have remained brilliant and loving, even if she couldn't remember having created a race of nearly perfect human clones. The truth is, Ellen was such a lightweight as a character, that the show's writers had killed her off. She wasn't coming back. Until they needed to dig themselves out of a whole.

It's all wrong.

Then, we are supposed to believe that Cavil actually knew who were the Final Five the whole time he was fighting Deanna over her quest to discover their identities. We are supposed to believe that he was having sex with his "mother" Ellen on New Caprica in some kind of Oedipal way, and plucking out Saul Tigh's eye in a fit of adolescent pique, all the time sadistically enjoying his power over not only the Final Five but the whole cylon race? It just isn't on the screen, folks.

No, none of it is there. For these revelations to be satisfying, the writers would have had to have planted seeds of them back there when we were watching those characters years ago. But they couldn't plant any seeds because they hadn't been able to think it all through.

Now, the writers want the audience to just go with them, and accept that there was this whole other AMAZING but hidden level of stuff going on. But there wasn't.

This is bad storytelling. It's so bd, that frankly, I don't even care any more how they resolve Kara's "death" and whether the characters make it to any place as a new home. My sense is the writers will just say anything in the style which has made me averse to sci-fi which always has bizarre impossibility as a plot device possibility.

Oh well. Notwithstanding what seems to be a disastrous slide towards thematic mediocrity, we can all still enjoy what's left of Battlestar Galactica for the buckets of beloved character angst that the writers can surely stuff into the last few episodes. We can enjoy the ways in which they are going to kill off Roslin and certainly the Admiral. We can look forward to Lee and Kara's certainly tortured last good-bye just before they kill her off - I'm banking that Lee, Helo and Athena are going to make it. It's still been a great show in many of its parts, and has surpassed nearly anything I've scene on television before.

So say we.... oh well.

Oscar Party for Charity

2009-02-07T23:04:00.001-08:00

My friend Staci sent me this heads-up. I'm happy to share it...

--------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends:

On February 22, 2009 from 4-10pm, Hollywood PAL (a non-profit that utilizes afterschool programs to cement the bond between youth in at-risk areas and police officers) will be holding an Oscar Viewing Party Benefit at the Hollywood Museum. It is an exclusive access VIP party at the museum, which is located located near the SE corner of Hollywood & Highland and is adjacent to celebrity arrival area for the awards. Free champagne for the first 2 hours, buffet dinner, deejay, cocktail bar (no-host), dancing, awards show displayed on large screen televisions, auction prizes (including tickets to Oprah and Jimmy Kimmel's After-Oscar shows), self-guided tour of Hollywood Museum exhibits, open to event-goers only this evening. This award-winning museum includes four floors and over 10,000 exhibits, including recently installed exhibit of costumes from this yearʼs Oscar nominated films. Visit the largest collection of costumes, props, posters and photographs Hollywood has to offer. Guests who purchase a block of 10 tickets will have a table reserved in their name; otherwise it is open seating.

All proceeds will benefit the programs of Hollywood Police Activities League.

Here is the link to the invitation:

We hope to see you there! Please pass this on to others - especially if you have friends and family who will be in town and might want an exciting way to spend Oscar Night. The closest party to the Oscars without having a ticket to the Kodak Theatre!

Thanks!

It's Official: Mary, Mother of the Christ Coming to a Theater Near You

2009-02-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

Here at long last is the official trade announcement from Daily Variety for Mary, Mother of the Christ on which I will get a writer credit.

Here's a snip (the photo is of Camilla Belle who will play Mary):

Cami lla Belle ("10,000 BC") will star as the titular character and will be joined by Jo nathan Rhys Meyers in the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer and Peter O'Toole as Symeon.
Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess.
Mary Aloe is producing along with Dune Films ("Hidalgo," "Prince of Persia").
Argentine helmer Alejandro Agresti ("Valentin," "The Lake House") is directing the film, which begins lensing in Morocco in May.
MGM plans to release the film wide in 2,000-plus theaters April 2, 2010, which coincides with Good Friday.

Here is the announcement from The Hollywood Reporter. Not sure why we writers got left out of Daily Variety. Here's a snip from The Hollywood Reporter:

Camilla Belle, who is onscreen in "Push," which opens Friday, has been cast as Mary. Jonathan Rhys Meyers will take on the double role of Gabriel and Lucifer, while Peter O'Toole is set as Symeon, who meets Mary and her family in the temple shortly after Jesus' birth.

The filmmakers are seeking Al Pacino and Jessica Lange for the respective roles of Herod and Anna the Prophetess.

Argentinean director Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House") will direct the film, scheduled to begin shooting in May in Morocco with production partner Dune Films. Benedict Fitzgerald, who co-wrote "Passion," wrote the "Mary" screenplay with Barbara Nicolosi.

Mary Aloe and Rodrigo Berlanga are producing. The executive producers are Mike Dolan, Mauricio Sanchez and James Volk.

Although New Line recently told the story of Jesus' birth in "The Nativity Story," released in December 2006, to modest boxoffice returns, Aloe said of her project: "This is not a Christmas movie. This is a part of Mary's life that has never been shown on the big screen before. It takes us through Mary's youth, young love, her life as a new mother and the triumph through the absolute terror of Herod the Great's reign. It is truly a story of real female empowerment."

For updates as cast and crew are added, keep checking here.

Please keep this project in your prayers. So much can happen to a screenplay.

BOGUS MARY MOVIE TRAILER

2009-02-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

If you are coming over here from the National Catholic Register link, please note that the trailer they have posted has NO CONNECTION to the movie Mary, Mother of the Christ that I co-wrote and which is in pre-production right now. That trailer was basically a devotional tribute to Mary made by some well-meaning person out there -- but it has nothing to do with our movie.

It is rather irresponsible for the folks over at the Register to have posted the trailer without ascertaining if it has any connection to the movie. It doesn't and because it is so unprofessional it isn't going to help us.

I get that the folks over at the Register have bigger things on their minds this week what with the verification of the corruption and perversion of their Founder, Marcial Maciel. But one would expect better sourcing from a national newspaper than just picking something up from YouTube.

Barb on the BBC

2009-02-03T09:40:00.001-08:00

I was interviewed for a special show that BBC Radio did called "God and the Movies." A couple of producers flew out here to Hollywood from the UK and spent a week talking to movie people about where the whole question of religion is today four years after The Passion. I was really rambling and ranting that week as it was two days after the election so God only knows what I said. The interview will air tomorrow. I'm thinking they will post it up here.

Kudos Susan!

2009-01-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

My friend and fellow Act One faculty member, Susan Isaacs, has a new book out, and has just gotten a starred review from Publishers Weekly (which I am excerpting below). Susan is one of the funniest people I have ever met - AND she's a Christian. Check out her book - it will be a riot, I'm sure.

----------------------------------------

Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir

by Susan E. Isaacs. FaithWords, $19.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-59995-062-4

God in couples counseling? Sounds sacrilegious, but in the adept hands of comedian, writer and actress Isaacs, it’s a success. Isaacs reached bottom at age 40: no job, no boyfriend, no home. Of course, she blamed God. So off they went to counseling with the ever-patient therapist Rudy. Isaacs moves easily between recounting her life story and her counseling sessions. She describes encounters with the Nice Jesus of her Lutheran upbringing; the “Oakie” Pentecostal church and the militant counselor; the “Rock-n-Roll” church and the “Orthopraxy, Dude” church, plus her rocky acting career and her love life, including guilt-ridden sex and Mostly Mister Right. Isaacs readily admits to being snarky, but she’s honest about her quest and its conclusion: “I saw now all too clearly why I had married God: for the power and the glory. For the money.” Isaacs goes on a Job-like search for explanations from God, but instead finds the problem to be her. She’s funny, biting, earthy and brilliant. (Mar. 12)

Entertainment Industry Mass

2009-01-29T19:51:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL MASS & BLESSING

for ALL IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

SUFFERING FROM EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC CRISIS

"Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." -[Mt. 11:28]

February 3, 2009 (7:30 pm)

St. Finbar Catholic Church (2010 W. Olive Ave., Burbank, CA.)

Many people within the entertainment industry are burdened with great anxiety over immediate or future unemployment and other economic hardships.

St. Finbar Catholic Community in conjunction with Hollywood ministries [Family Theater Productions, Open Call, Catholics in Media Associates (CIMA), St. Charles Borromeo’s Catholics in Entertainment, and The Hollywood Project) want to offer a sense of solidarity, concern, and consolation.

A special Mass will be offered on the Memorial of St. Blaise (including a blessing of throats along with a special blessing for those facing economic hardships). Fr. Don Woznicki (Hollywood Project) will preside along with Fr. Willy Raymond, C.S.C and Fr. David Guffey, C.S.C (Family Theater Productions), Fr. Ron Schmidt, S.J. (Open Call), Fr. Anthony Scannell, O.F.M., cap. (CIMA), Fr. Darrin Merlino, C.M.F. and Fr. Dominic Delay, O.P. (Hollywood Project). All ARE INVITED TO ATTEND, including those who wish to show their solidarity through prayer with friends, family, and colleagues.

A reception in the Parish Hall with light refreshment will follow the Mass.

An Actor Tells the Truth

2009-01-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here is an astounding piece by actor, Gary Graham (Star Trek: Enterprise), posted over at BigHollywood.com, about his journey from being a pot-smoking, baby-boom, free-lover and pro-choicer, into being a shell-shocked, "I killed my own children" pro-lifer.

I can't tell you how much courage it takes for someone in the Hollywood cosmos to say clearly and uneqivocally, "I don't care that you think you need it. Abortion is murder." God bless Mr. Graham. (Thanks to Jeff C. for the heads up.)

Here's a snip:

I have been on all sides of this issue for most of my life, and I can simply not escape the logic. That fetus a pregnant woman is carrying inside of her, regardless of the gestation stage, is a living, breathing human being. Yes, breathing – the amniotic sac forms 12 days after conception, and in the second trimester the baby is actually breathing the amniotic fluid. It’s not an ‘unviable tissue mass.’ Not a wart, a mole, a skin outcropping, a boil, or a bundle of uncoordinated cells. It’s not just a ‘fetus’.

It’s a baby. Not fully developed, true. Like an infant is not a fully developed and mature adult. But it’s a baby.

And the first time I got a girl pregnant, I would have wrestled you to the ground for saying that. How f*cking dare you? You don’t know what you’re talking about! You piece of crap, you don’t know!

Well I do know. And I stand condemned. I’ve paid for three of them and was responsible for probably several more, I’m not really sure. But it breaks my heart. Because I’ve been convicted in my soul. It took years after the fact, but I was shown the Truth. And not to get mumbo-jumbo, oogly-boogly on you, but it was a spiritual awakening that did it. It happened unexpectedly, and it threw me to my knees in sudden tearful epiphany of what it meant for a man to be with a woman, what sex was really designed for by our Creator and… what abortion is.

Oh God, have mercy on us.

Theology of the Body Script Contest

2009-01-27T22:27:00.000-08:00

My friends over at Family Theater asked me to post the following announcement.

************************************************

Theology of the Body Script Contest

Choose one or more of the following major lessons from Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”, write a short film script 5 to 10 pages long that helps illustrate that point (or points) and submit it to us at tobscripts@gmail.com by April 1st, 2009.

The winner will receive $100... and fantastic food. Runner ups and other finalists will receive cool prizes as well. Here are the major points...

1. The family is the fundamental building block of society. Hence, the way we treat marriage and procreation has a direct effect upon society (positive and negative). See October 22, 1980 audience and January 16th 1980 audience (section 5)

2. Earthly marriage and the conjugal union between a husband and a wife is meant to mirror the relationship between Christ and the Church. Hence it is a sign pointing us to heaven (i.e. God). Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the Church: selflessly. However, it is dangerous for us to get caught up in the sign (conjugal union in marriage) while not paying enough attention to where it is leading us (heaven). See August 11, 1982 audience

3. Christ not only calls us to avoid being lustful but to allow Him to change our ethos, or the inner desires of our heart in regards to lust. He wants us to follow his teachings out of love, not obligation or guilt. He wants us to find lustfulness unattractive. He wants us to attain the freedom that allows us to be in a relationship with God and away from the emptiness of sin. See September 10, 1980 audience

4. Christ calls us to affirm the value of the person in "every" situation by never treating another human being as an object for our own selfish pleasure. We are called to always think of the dignity and welfare of others, before our own desires. See January 7, 1981 and January 14, 1981 audience

5. The use of contraception is directly opposed to the free, total, faithful and fruitful love Christ calls us to in marriage. See August 22, 1984 audience

6. The body has a "language" that is meant to proclaim the truth of God's love. However, if we are able to speak the truth with our bodies we are also capable of speaking lies. See August 22, 1984 audience (section 4 specifically)

Here are a couple good examples from movies...

Vanilla Sky: In the scene right before the car crash Cameron Diaz tells Tom Cruise "Your body makes a promise whether you say something or not!" The language of our bodies can speak the truth or it can speak lies.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: After using each other for selfish purposes Matt McConaughey and Kate Hudson's characters begin to openly insult each other during the diamond gala scene near the end of the film. The use of others (as opposed to selfless love) is empty and ultimately hurtful.

FINAL NOTE: Any genre is welcomed...Avoid being preachy, lean towards subtleness and most importantly be like Jesus...really, really cool.

Email your script to tobscripts@gmail.com by April 1st, 2009

Also check out and join our Facebook Group at this link... http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=97175405450

And We're Off - "Kill the Babies! Kill them!!!"

2009-01-23T09:04:00.001-08:00

From the Associated Press this morning:

Obama to Reverse Abortion Policy

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that promote or perform abortions, officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The move, long expected in the Democratic president's first week in office, will be welcomed by liberals and criticized by abortion rights foes.

Obama was expected to sign the executive order at a low-key event, one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

The move was not a surprise as both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the gag rule during the presidential campaign.

Organizations that had pressed Obama to make the abortion-ban change were jubilant...

And how about you "Obama Christians"? Are you still jubilant too? Own it, because you made this happen. Here is the mantra for you to say 87 times today, "Their blood be upon us and on our children!"

Have a nice day.

Thank you, President Bush.

2009-01-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

I'm grateful that our country has been kept safe from any terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. I'm grateful that our President redirected his whole focus to protecting us after 9/11, so that nothing else like it would ever happen again on his watch.

And I'm grateful for the following proclamation, the likes of which we will certainly not see for the next four years.

_____________________________________________________

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2009

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 15, 2009

The White House, President George W. Bush

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2009
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy
of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country
recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has
a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication
to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and
voiceless among us.

The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My
Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by
vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing
Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and
funding crisis pregnancy programs. In 2002, I was honored to sign into law
the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to
children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to
ban the cruel practice of partial-birth abortion, and that law represents
our commitment to building a culture of life in America. Also, I was proud
to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities
to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a
separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother.

America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the
gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never
abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we
all seek with reverence for the gift of life.

The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this
day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every
child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our
fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that
with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best
instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and
laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National
Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day
with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting
and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of
January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence
of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

GEORGE W. BUSH

********

BSG: "Sometimes a Great Notion"

2009-01-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in the town
Sometimes I get a great notion
To jump into the river an’ drown

(from the song Goodnight Irene, by Lead Belly)

Oh dear.

They blew it last night. The revelation of the final cylon was far from "a great notion" and seemed to me to be quite, thoroughly and stunningly lame. I was staring at the television in those last three minutes that the show ran long and said aloud, "How dare they?"

No, but really. What a disappointment. I have read a hundred fan theories in the last year or so, many of which would have been much more clever than the way the show went. You know you are in trouble when the fans are thinking about the show more than the creators. I am particularly disgusted at all the marketing hype and suspense that the show and its creators went through to set up the revelation. It was not worth it.

Still, in deference to those who don't want to spoil the (lame, not worth it, hugely disappointing) surprise of the identity of the final cylon, I am not writing the name in the substance of this post. However, the comment thread is open to be a full discussion of this, so if you don't want to know the (stupid, absurd, not worth the build up) identity of the final cylon, then don't click on the comments.

Now I get why Katee Sackhoff and even Ron Moore, said in recent interviews that the point of the show was not the revelation of the final cylon and the various mysteries of the mythology. They were saying that to lower expectations and try to cover for the lameness of the actual revelation. I can't imagine what happened to the writers, except that they must have just dug themselves in so many holes with other characters that they didn't have anybody left to turn into the Final cylon.

The solution the show went for, however, does nail the coffin on the idea that reincarnation makes a person in any sense a grown up. Nuff said.

Having said all that, I thought the pacing and look and tone of the episode was excellent and well up to the BSG standard. I so didn't see the suicide of THAT main character coming - although, afterward, it struck me as perfect - "a great notion." I LOVED the long scene between Tigh and Bill. All those ECU's with the actors practically spitting and sputtering on the camera. And the Kara stuff with her, um, finding herself in that, um, ultimate way. Genius.

Of course, now, they've dug in a much bigger hole with Kara which has the name, "just how did she get from nebula to here?" They better answer it.

I can't say I like where the show seems to be heading about the "what exactly is human life?" question. But I'm holding out hope that, in trying to be "bold" the writers don't betray the innate spiritual essence that they have revealed in their human characters all through the run, and which have made the show so worth watching.

But I feel strangely free of the thrall of BSG this morning. I feel superior in the way that exposure to great art never makes me feel...

Okay, so I'm a bit bitter. But it was supposed to be smart. They really let us down.

P.S. I just found a link here to a long series of interviews from the TV writer at the Chicago Tribune with Ron Moore and the writers and director of "Sometimes a Great Notion." Moore discusses at length the thinking behind the choice of the final cylon.

I found his thinking on the matter to be not impressive. Also, I found his desire to even do an interview like this about this decision, emblematic of defensiveness that comes from knowing you have messed up. Generally, when you are talking about great storytelling, the story choices speak for themselves. Anyway, the "reasoning process" behind the choice of the final cylon seemed to be kind of silly and emotional actually, in light of the creepy way that the final person lived on the show. In this interview, Moore wants us to get all sentimental about the character, but the character was not at all sympathetic.

Moore does reveal that the writers had no idea whom to make the final cylon until well into Season 3. Hmmmmm.... so then they had to try and make it seem like it made sense in the backstory. It doesn't. Rats.

Much better in the interviews is the discussion of THAT character's suicide. I think that sequence was one of the great moments of the series in terms of its psychological depth.

Act One's 10th Birthday Party!

2009-01-16T12:42:00.000-08:00

Dear Friend -

This January 25th, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, marks the 10th Anniversary of the founding of Act One. We are celebrating this special benchmark anniversary with several events this year, but will be marking the actual birthday of the program with a party for all of our area friends, alumni, faculty, mentors and board members.

Please do consider coming to celebrate with us. It will be just an evening meant to enjoy each other and thank God for the precious community He has raised up as Act One.

Information follows below. I look forward to seeing you on the 24th, but if you can't come, please do join with us in sending up a prayer of gratitude to God for Act One and all the good that He has done and continues to do through the program. God bless -

Barbara Nicolosi

P.S. If you can't attend, but would like to express a tangible sign of thanksgiving, (you know, in these troubled financial times in which it is even tougher to be a struggling non-profit...) please do click here.

Act One's 10th Birthday Party

Saturday January 24th, 7:00pm.

Dave and Buster's
400 S Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia , CA 91007

$25 includes dinner, presentation, and a $10 game card. You may pay ahead of time, or you may choose to pay at the door. Either way, we need to know you are coming. It will be a fun-filled night, and we're only 10 once. Don't miss it!

Special for Alumni! Bring two prospective students and you get in free! Call Karen Veazey for details. 323-464-0815

We need an accurate headcount for the caterers, so please RSVP no later than Monday, January 19th. You may RSVP online, call Karen Veazey at 323-464-0815, or by clicking here.

Hear Barb Brood on Storytelling

2009-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

I did another interview with the great magazine Salvo last October for their R&R feature. These are conversations I have the pleasure of doing quarterly with Bobby Maddox, the editor. Our October conversation was in anticipation of the then upcoming Act One conference on storytelling. There is a long podcast version of the interview here. Click on "What's the Story?"

I'm getting some good feedback about it. Check it out.

See Barb and Act One in Colorado!

2009-01-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

ACT ONE BRINGS HOLLYWOOD TO COLORADO SPRINGS

HOLLYWOOD | JANUARY 2009. Act One is bringing Hollywood to Colorado Springs, and the best minds Hollywood has to offer along with it.

With Act One’s latest “Training for Hollywood Seminar” in Colorado Springs this January, we got the best trainer we could possibly find. World renowned screenplay consultant Dr. Linda Seger will be delivering the keynote address, “Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success.”

Seger created and defined the job of script consultant in 1981 and has consulted on over 2,000 scripts since. She has worked on scripts for more than 40 produced filmsand 35 television projects, including works from TriStar Pictures and Ray Bradbury. Additionally, Seger has given scriptwriting seminars in more than 30 countries on six continents, and is the author of nine books. Her latest, And the Best Screenplay Award Goes To... Learning from the Winners will be published this February by Michael Wiese Productions.

Also slated to speak is Barbara Nicolosi, VP of Creative Development at Origin Entertainment and the founding Director of the Act One Program. Nicolosi is a sought after speaker and commentator on culture, and an accomplished writer, producer and director. She is a member of the WGA and is currently writing the screenplay adaptation of Sheldon Vanauken’s A Severe Mercy.

In addition to our slate of speakers, participants will study the Hollywood storytelling process, from story development to pitching, and the craft of producing spiritually engaging entertainment that is commercially appealing. Writing track participants will learn practical lessons on writing outlines and treatments, creating compelling characters and stories, as well as the basics of screenwriting format. Those choosing the business track will cover lessons on the marketplace, commercial creativity and how to option materials.

In addition to the “Training for Hollywood Seminar,” Act One will be hosting a Hollywood Insider Panel and Discussion from 7-10pm on Friday, January 30. Open to the public, the event will feature a presentation on the activity of the church in Hollywood, Dr. Linda Seger’s keynote address, and a Hollywood Insider Panel, a no-holds-barred Q&A about life and work in the world’s most influential mission field.

Conference Details

Date: Friday, January 30, 1pm to 10pm and Saturday, January 31, 10am to 6pm
Location: Glen Eyrie Castle and Conference Center, 3820 N. 30th St., Colorado Springs, CO 80904

Cost: $285 - includes study materials, meals (Fri. dinner, Sat. breakfast, lunch & dinner) and Hollywood Insider Event
$435 - includes study materials, meals (Fri. dinner, Sat. breakfast, lunch & dinner, Sun. breakfast), 2 nights stay (Fri. & Sat.) & Hollywood Insider Event
*LIMITED ROOMS ARE AVAILABLE, SIGN UP TODAY*

Speakers: Dr. Linda Seger (Author, Making a Good Script Great and Making a Good Writer Great)
Barbara Nicolosi (Screenwriter, Editor, Behind the Screen, Act One Founder, VP
Development at Origin Entertainment)
Dr. Thom Parham (writer JAG, screenwriting professor, Azusa Pacific University)
Monica Jimenez-Grillo, Executive Program Director
Vicki Peterson, Writing Program Director, Act One, Inc.

For more information: info@actoneprogram.com or call 323-464-0815

Act One, Inc., is a nonprofit organization that has trained Christians of all denominations for careers in mainstream film and television for the past ten years. Stressing artistry, excellence, professionalism, and Christian spirituality, Act One prepares students to pursue careers marked by personal integrity and professional excellence, in writers rooms, on sets, and in studio and network offices. The end goalis not to produce explicitly religious entertainment, but movie and TV projects that respect and serve the global audience, combining mastery of craft with great depth and meaning. Over ten years, Act One has amassed a vast alumni network of writers, producers, directors and entertainment executives who are dedicated to producing excellent work for the global audience.

One more week! One more week!

2009-01-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

Next Friday marks the beginning of the end of the great and wondrous Battlestar Galactica (2003). It's really all I can think about! (You know, in between working on a script about Fatima, and teaching cinema to undergrads, and watching award screeners, and buying a car, and....well, you get it.) I'm actually kind of weirdly dreading the last twelve or so hours of the series. I really thought half of season three was kind of a let down (in terms of depth of insight), and I found the first half of season four to be full of sound and fury, but not signifying very much. There seemed to be alot of running around yelling and crying and firing weapons, but not a lot of real delving into the many questions that the series has raised in its chronologically meandering run. They've kept us waiting a year to finish the story. That will be judged a really nasty thing to have done if the show doesn't pay off.

I'm not sure the writers haven't dug themselves into a pit too deep to be filled in in only twelve more hours. For the record, I was thinking to write down the questions that I would need to see answered to feel satisfied. Any of you other BSG enlightened feel free to chime in in the comments any others. The rest of you, go rent the mini-series.

1) Is there anything sacred about human life? One day during the WGA strike last winter, I found myself walking next to one of the BSG writers. I started talking to her about the show and at one point she stopped me and said, "So, you are assuming that there is something sacred about human life?" To which I said, "Uh, well, yeah." She laughed and said, "The show doesn't have any such presumption." Or words to that effect.

Now, for me, Battlestar Galactica would be ultimately kind of, you know, disgusting, if having been so insightful and provocative about some things (like suicide bombing, and the case for stealing elections in some situations, and the need sometimes to suppress civil liberties in the name of a greater good) could get the big, huge question of the sanctity of human life wrong. If the show shrugs off that human beings are just another kind of machine/material being, then it seems to me the whole journey of the show will be wrecked and it will not then be something that I would ever want to return to as a viewer. Because who will ever want to revisit the toils of a bunch of things who weren't really "alive" but were rather delusional piles of matter?

The only way I think such a conclusion to the show would be moral - because it is, after all, a lie, would be if the show was meant to shock us into horror at the imaginary idea of a human world in which all of the humans were actually just material beings without any innate dignity which comes from their spiritual potential. But I think an ending like that would be a cop-out and very disagreeable to the audience. It would be bad storytelling, I think, for reasons that have to do with what the needs of the audience are in the area of story endings.

The last thing the show might do is not attempt to answer the question at all, but leave it out there. That too would be a bad storytelling choice. A storyteller needs to have a point of view, and when you are talking this, the central issue of the whole drama for four years, the storytellers just can't back away and say, "Gotcha! Who's to say?" That would be really annoying to the audience. In a bad way.

2) "We only asked how to survive, but never if we deserved to survive." This was the heart of Bill Adama's speech in the opening minutes of the mini-series, and more and more, I think it too is one of the points of the show. Why are we all fighting so hard to stay on the world stage - 'lighting fools the way to dusty death, a tale told too often by idiots...'? Oughtn't we have to do something as a people to justify our survival?

Of course, from the Creator's standpoint, all we have to do is fulfill our nature. We don't need to do or make something as though God needed it. But from our standpoint we should be moving collectively towards becoming a kind of being that makes the cosmos more beautiful. More intelligent/profound/thoughtful. More loving/self-sacrificing/life-giving. More grateful. More open. Which are all the opposite of a planet of warring, self-indulgent, narcissists.

I would be okay if the show didn't really venture a thorough opinion on this one, because it's too big for a TV show, but I'd like to see the last half a season raise it again as kind of the point of the whole series.

Then, along with the revelation of the last cylon, and what happened to earth, and where they should all go now, and where is the cylon home world, and who is running the show there, there are the more mundane story problems that need to be resolved...

3) How did Baltar survive the original nuclear attack, when at the start of every episode we see the windows of his house getting exploded in on him?

4) What the heck was Head 6 for Baltar? Was he insane the whole time she was appearing to him, or what force was generating her in his brain?

5) Why isn't Nicky as special as Hera if he was the product of a cylon and a human too?

6) What is Kara Thrace now? (And all the million Kara questions - why her? how did she get her destiny? where was she when she thought she went to earth? )

7) How could Sam be one of the Final Five - because he had no possibility of surviving on Caprica? It was just a fluke Kara met him and fell for him and then went back to get him. (This one really bothers me inordinately as a story problem. I hate hate hate flukes as key story beats.)

8) Where the heck do the cylon hybrids come from?

9) How could Tigh and Caprica have a baby? And if they can, then how come all the cylons aren't just having babies with each other?

10) What made the music flow through Galactica that only the final four could hear? (Maybe Galactica is the Final Cylon? That would be a terrible thing to do...)

11) Who built/programmed the skin job cylons? It seems like the Centurion models just aren't bright enough.

12) What is the opera house?

That's twelve questions for about twelve hours of television. They have a lot to do. They also better give us satisfaction in several of the relationships in the show - most notably between Kara and Lee. Enough with all the angst.

Anything else I'm missing?

I hope it's good! I hope it's good!

-----------------------------------------

P.S. I just found an interview with Katee Sackhoff ("Starbuck") from the Wall Street Journal on-line which has some fodder for us about the substance of the final episodes. Katee generally says things that are worth reading into. (There's also something oddly refreshing about an actress who can acknowledge without fanfare that she's 29.) I'm glad to see the part about the point of the show being about "the human condition." That's always been the main draw for me, and that's why I guess I found so much of Season 3 such a let down. It was as if they forgot what the show was about.

The thing about the ending being sad doesn't do a lot for me. As a fan of the show's intelligence, I want the resolution to be smart, not emotionally manipulative.

WSJ: Your co-star James Callis said of the show's finale: "I think if Adolf Hitler were back, he'd be crying in his handkerchief." How would you describe it?

Ms. Sackhoff: It's sad. It's extremely emotional. A lot of the tears you'll see are real. I'll leave it at that.

WSJ: You can't give away anything more than that?

Ms. Sackhoff: The remaining episodes are wrapping up every single thing that has ever happened on "Battlestar." Because the show is considered science fiction, we have been able to talk about issues in a post-9/11 world that other shows have had to tiptoe around. We could really play out the reality of those emotions and circumstances. It will break your heart.

WSJ: The most recent episode of "Battlestar" (which aired in June) ended with a cliffhanger -- the crew discovered that the planet they had spent three and a half seasons trying to find, Earth, was a nuclear wasteland. Since, there has been a speculative frenzy among fans.

Ms. Sackhoff: ...What's interesting about the show, and what it's always tried to convey, is that the literal issues and questions that motivate the story -- who is the final cylon? will we get to Earth? -- is not what the show was ever really about. [Creator] Ron Moore had this much more profound global concept. You find out really early [in the final episodes] what everyone is. In my opinion, Ron and the writers really just want you to focus on what the show's really about, which is the human condition.