Some of the biggest behind-the-scenes names in Hollywood film production have shared their dream to make more faith-based movies that eschew violence for violence sake and instead embrace great spiritually uplifting stories with positive content.
Movieguide, an established family guide to movies and entertainments in the US, brought top producers and filmmakers in Hollywood together to share their thoughts on faith-based moviemaking at two special Movieguide Panels, reports Assist News.
"I want to do something that I can be proud of, that my children can be proud of," said panel member Leo Severino, formerly with the Producers Guild of America and the Fox Networks Group and first-time producer of Bella, a family-friendly Christian movie that became the surprise winner of the Audience Award at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival in September.
"Good stories with good content. Beauty, art and morality go together," he said during the panels, held at the recent Screenwriting Expo 5 in Los Angeles and sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.
Severino pointed out that filmmakers spend huge amounts of time working on perfecting the colour and lighting of each shot but challenged, "How much time is spent on the moral content of a movie?"
The founder of Movieguide and author of So you want to be in pictures, Dr Ted Baehr, led the panels.
"People want to see good news at the movies. People don't want violence for violence sake," he said, adding that China and Muslim countries, which represent at least 50 per cent of the world's population, do not allow sex or violence in their movies or on TV.
Joel T. Smith is a writer, producer and distributor who has worked on the TV movie Merlin and the TV series Tarzan. "There's a universality to Christian ethics that can be appreciated by many people," he said. "Christian products have universal themes that people in Spain, Germany and Scandinavia can relate to."
