Lifetime of Childlike Faith a Semifinalist!
A Lifetime of Childlike Faith will be competing in the Documentary category, with second qualification for the Young Filmmakers Award.
So, that means that Doug Phillips and his buddies liked the movie; Or at least they weren't offended by it. I'm glad. See, Leonard Knight's theology is not exactly the most accurate in all areas; in fact, it's somewhat Childlike in a lot of ways. See the connection? He's very pentacostal leaning with his theological views. I'm not (nor is Doug Phillips), and yet in spite of this, I have a great amount of respect and admiration for his dedication.
Anyway, be sure to check out the 'program' page on IndependentChristianFilms.com to see what other fabulous films will be at the festival, and what the play times will be. If you're going the festival, let me know. I'd love to meet up with you and get a picture. :-)
So, again, we'll be at both the Christian Film Academy as well as the Festival, and we'd love to meet up with all of you at some point and say hello. Don't miss this awesome experience. Also at the Festival will be Stephen Kendrick, and The Duggar Family, two characters known for great endevours.
Also recently, David Heustis and I were interviewed by Kelly Reins, co-author of the ever more popular blog 'Ah, The Life'.
The following quote is the entirety of the interview:
(read the original post here)
"How is it that you came to meet Leonard Knight?"
John: I came to know about Leonard Knight through my parents who had visited the Mountain a year prior to the start of the project. I read a bunch of material about him in newspapers, on websites, and of course, in his autobiography.
David: I personally have never met him. Though after watching twenty hours of mini-dv tapes with him on it, I feel like I have. I plan to meet him someday
Does your documentary "A Lifetime of Childlike Faith" reflect what you had in mind at the outset?"
John: I don't think the documentary truly reflects in any way what I had originally envisioned. I think it is ultimately the way God intended it, of course, but far from what I expected. Mostly this was due to the way we interviewed Leonard. I figured we could set him down and ask him some questions, knowing his story ahead of time and thus knowing what response we could get from him. Well, Leonard's 74 years old right now, and he's had his share of reporters interviewing him and asking him questions. He wasn't interested in being interviewed according to the standard traditions. Instead, I would have conversations with him and record his answers to conversationally geared questions. Leonard was still pretty closed about telling his story again, until he decided that we were 'for real' Christians, wanting to glorify Christ with our film. Then he started talking to us.
David: Not really. At pre-production, John and I had a good understanding of Leonard's history, and we threw some ideas around for how the movie would play out. Our original idea leaned more towards a docu-drama, with loads of re-enactments and such. We thought it was going to be smooth sailing, but after about four days of working on it, we knew we were in for a complete re-structuring of the entire idea.
What would you say was the most climactic moment in your production of ALCLF?
David: Wow. Hard question. This would be easier to answer if it were any of our other movie projects, but this one... well, strangely enough, for me some of the most exciting moments were right at the beginning. Right when the footage came in, and I was indexing all the video, thinking to myself how awesome this is going to be when it's finished. Ha ha. Maybe the most climactic moment would be when I accidentally erased an entire hard drive containing a months worth of work.
John: Most climactic moment? Definitely when the film got played by International Leadership Development at their Summer Conference. The film wasn't finished yet, but it was pretty close. At any rate, the film was played for an audience of somewhere around a thousand people, who received the film very well. For the next two days, our phone was ringing off the hook as people told us how much they appreciated the film. David and I were both thrilled at that point.
Are you satisfied with the end result?
David: Ah, John and I could work on this thing forever! If we had our way, there would never be an end result! But since we were trying to make the SAICFF's Aug 1'st deadline we had to stop sometime. You know what they say, "A movie is never finished, you just run out of time." For the time and effort we put into it, I am very satisfied with the end result!
John: Satisfied? Never. I can think of at least five major fixes to the technical area of the film, and about eight areas in regards to the editing and presentation that I would change if I could, but at this point I just have to let it go. David is tired of working on it, and so am I. The average FX shot took David two passes, but there is one particular shot where David did over 15 different passes, and each one took him hours to work out.
How many hours went into the production of ALCLF would you say?
John: It would be very difficult to try and estimate the number of hours spent on this project, but I gave it all of my spare time for about three months, and David did the same. Together we spent about a month where David was at my house, and we would literally work on the film from the time we got up 'til the time we hit the sack. Neither of us ate very much. It was probably a pretty bad idea, health wise.
David: We didn't log our hours, so I would have to guess. Maybe somewhere between 300-450 hours individually.
How did you fund this production?
David: Well, our biggest investors were our parents, and our own pocket change (which came from our parents, too!). With the money we make off of this project we plan to pay them back though.
John: My parents basically funded everything, and while I technically had every dime I needed in my savings account, breaking into the savings account is just something that I don't do. However, David and I did purchase equipment with our own cash. However, the film has already nearly paid for itself, and there should be a few checks coming in from a couple different distribution centers.
How did previous productions help with this one?
John: None of our previous productions really prepared me for what I was about to do. This film was radically different from either of the Siblings films, and I was amazed by how difficult a documentary actually is! I thought it would be pretty easy to knock together. In fact, I remember back when we started that David and I thought we could finish the rough edit in 'about three days'. Yeah right.
David: Well, the previous projects helped out by mainly showing people that we're completely serious about what we're doing. I dare say that we never would of had the same opportunity to make ALCF if it were not for Bubble Trouble.
You had to travel for this film, what was that like?
John: Well, I was gone from home for over two weeks traveling. I left with a caravan of businessmen and their families towards Denver, Colorado. It was a great time of fellowship and relaxation as we all headed for a conference. After Denver, my parents and I continued on to Arizona to meet with some folks about business as well. Basically, the whole trip revolved around business meetings, and the four days I had to film the documentary were just tacked onto the end. After Arizona, we shot over to California where I spent a lot of time with friends and extended family in another several days of fellowship. By this time, I had been gone from home for nearly two weeks by the time I began my four days of filming. Then we took a couple days to drive home from California, just in time for my sister's birthday.
David: I traveled fourteen miles to John's house to work on the movie. The scenery was beautiful. John went to California to do the camera work, though. And I say the footage he got was awesome! Everything we needed John got! Two thumbs up for him!!!
What is the most important responsibility of a film producer?
David: Between John and I, we had a lot of responsibilities to take care of. I think John had the biggest responsibility, seems as how he was the one with the camera, getting all of the footage and interviews. At such the small scale that John and I are working at right now, the responsibilities of producing a movie are pretty easy to handle, but when we move on to bigger projects where we may be managing large amounts of people, the responsibilities will get bigger. I look forward to that day!
I think the hardest responsibility is keeping all the files organized. We had over 11,000 files to keep organized, and at any point we needed to be able to pull up a file without chaotically sifting through mountains of data.
John: I think the most important responsibility of a film producer is to maintain an aesthetic purity within the film. Because we can always reject wrong theology, but aesthetics are so subtle that we often times don't even know that we need to reject them. Theological accuracy is a must as well though. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that all elements of creating a Christ glorifying film are the filmmakers most important responsibility, but the most neglected is the aesthetic end of the deal. We really need to pick up the slack in that area.
What are the advantages of studying film production at home?
John: I think the biggest advantage to learning at home is the ability to give it every spare second of my time. I can learn at any pace I like, and of course, my learning is constantly checked by my parents, so I never go off into the weeds with some new ideas from secular filmmakers. Also, it allows me to keep my younger siblings updated with the latest filmmaking knowledge as well, and since they're lead actors, it's helpful that they know a little of the lingo.
David: Advantages? Many! For one, it doesn't cost much. Today, everything you could learn at a film school you can learn online. If you're dedicated and have a passion for movie making, with a camcorder and some time, you can easily teach yourself the principles of cinematography for very little money, all in a wholesome environment.
What skills and abilities does an aspiring producer need for his job?
John: Skills and abilities? All of them. A producer has to be able to write, direct, and act, if only to be able to judge the writing, directing, and acting of those working with him. David Heustis and I have both had experience during our course of working with each other, acting, writing, directing, editing, working with visual effects, etc.
David: I think that in the beginning, skills and abilities don't matter much. In the beginning all that matters is that you be dedicated, and willing to learn. You just need to be an auto-didactic person who could spend all day and all night holding a camera or a boom pole, just 'cause he likes to.
What is your favorite aspect of being a film producer? Editor?
John: For me, the film isn't really about one element or another, but the production as a whole. I kinda like sitting back every hour or so and looking at how all the elements come together. I guess technically there is no term for it. It's not really editing, but it requires editing. It's not really sound design, but it requires that element. My favorite moment of this process is laying in the music. Music to film is like paint to a building; it’s really the last thing you do, and it hides the problems in other areas.
David: My favorite aspect of being a video-producer is the fact that whatever I help to produce has the power to influence people's thinking.
What is the most challenging aspect of being a film producer?
David: Well, right now the most challenging thing is going on faith that John and I can start something that will actually pay the bills. We're going at this in a very unconventional way, which is awesome in my opinion.
John: The most challenging element for me is finishing the pre-production phase; scripting, planning, storyboarding, etc. Once I hit production, I go non-stop until I'm done. Running a close second for hardest element is starting the edit. It was particularly painful on A Lifetime of Childlike Faith.
What are your prospects for the next five years?
John: David and I have a lot of big plans for the next five years. First we want to shoot a bunch more episodes of Siblings; 24 episodes, to be exact. At the same time, we hope to be working in co-operation with Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed to develop a Men's Bible Study series. We'd also like to shoot a feature length film in the next two years sometime, (as though we won't be busy enough) and start scripting for our historical series. During that time, we hope to work alongside a lot of other new talented and creative faces at HeuMoore Productions, but David and I still get to give orders.
David: Well, John and I are still planning. We want to start on bigger projects, and get more people to jump on the wagon with us. In five years I believe we could be working with a healthy Christian film industry. When it comes to specific projects, we're still planning for our next ones. We're thinking something along the lines of a Siblings series, and from there we've talked about historical movies. Let's see.
Thanks for your reading time everyone. Soli Deo Gloria!~ In Christ, John.
posted at
7:52 PM
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