So I alluded to it a little in my last post, referencing the whole journey from preacher to filmmaker.
Growing up, two men in particular (other than my Dad) really influenced me in terms of the man I hoped to grow up to be. I've got a little plaque on my desk as I write this, a gift from the lead actor (Jeff Stout) on my first film. It's a picture of two stars on the 'Hollywood walk of fame'. The left star is Billy Graham's (never knew he had one...) the right is-you guessed it- Mr. Spielberg's. I wanted to be those guys. Well, not be them, but try to grow up and do, to some small degree, a combination of what they do.
It's not so different if you think about it.
Billy gets up on a stage and tells a story to tens of thousands. When you combine the TV broadcasts of his 'meetings' over the years he's reached millions. Steven Spielberg makes movies, which many of my 'Church-oriented' peers have confessed is the 'new preaching' in our day and age, and those movies reach millions. Billy's work is adaptation, taking an ancient text, studying it, working his imagination around it, listening to what it's trying to say, and crafting a message (or story) based on it to inspire, 'touch', and speak to, his audience. Same thing Spielberg's doing. Taking a script (whether he wrote it or not), studying it, listening to it, finding a way to translate it from paper to 'real life' in order to 'touch' an audience.
Storytellers.
And, in even later breaking news, it seems to me that both of them have a similar motivation. No, Steven's not trying to 'save souls', granted. But he's certainly trying to 'convert' his audience to his way of seeing things. All filmmakers have a bias. They see the world a certain way and the great privilege of being a director is being given the resources and the opportunity to tell a story that will be delivered to millions and that, if done well, will shape the opinions of those same millions. One 'sermon' every two years or so, if you're a director. But those 'sermon-movies' live forever, if they're good.
On the other side of it, a preacher preaches and, if he's any good, that sermon rises to the level of 'great entertainment', almost live theater if he's really on fire. The audience is moved, provoked, inspired, convicted, and on some deep level (if the preacher brings it back to the 'redemptive urge' as he ought) told that 'everything's going to be o.k'. Week in week out. Delivered then (mostly) forgotten, a sermon is a little 'movie of the Spirit', gradually hacking away at the listener's lives.
That's the kind of filmmaker Steven is; the 'it's gonna' be alright' kind. That's why, when he makes a departure from the kind of story we're used to him telling (from E.T to A.I), some of his typical audience of millions stays away because he's thrown them off-balance. It's cool for him to make that departure, that's his right as an artist, just like a preacher can mix it up now and again switching from a 'topical' approach to an expository one (or whatever) but at heart we've come to expect a 'thing', or a 'tao' (way), from our preachers and when they don't deliver we're disappointed.
That's the kind of work I try to do. I've always figured life is dark enough without me adding any to it. I tried to write a horror script a few years ago, but it scared the shiz out of me 'cause I happen to believe in 'evil' and the power of the dark. I had to stop. Plus my wife, who's ultimately the only one I'm trying to impress, would've hated the movie anyway. So I try to write, and preach, 'The Light'. Even while battling a minor depression (and a deep disillusionment) in 2006, the year after resigning from my Church and 'the year of the movie' ('The Storm') I tried very hard to live and preach and write and direct 'The Light' from the darkness.
That's not to say all is good all the time in my life or yours or in the world of our stories. Just that, from my perspective, much of life is about finding a way through to the good, the light, the life.
So here I sit, continuing to struggle with this voice that comes from inside and outside. I'm itching to shoot another picture and am itching to get back in the pulpit and just yesterday I get another facebook comment from a dude who used to listen to me preach week after week asking me when I'm going to stop playin' and get back at it. Seriously, I've been getting at least one of those per week, which seems to me to not be about ego or encouragement but rather about 'The Voice' prodding me to get at it and keep at it.
So, we'll see how it goes trying to keep both sides (and both voices) fed and well-served.
T
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