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Does it really take sex and violence to create a block-buster film in Hollywood? Recently I had the opportunity to speak with a director-writer-producer in the entertainment industry. He is known as “the pitch master,” meaning he knows how to pitch a film idea to the people who have the authority to give the screenplay a green light for pre-production. The first thing he revealed about the pitch process is that you must be a provocateur when you pitch. You’ve got to make the executives, who hear thousands of these pitches a year, either love or hate your protagonist.
He gave several examples of what might catch their attention. Some were sleazy, some were completely inappropriate, and some were family friendly. The bottom line is, in order to get a film bought and made, the film must provoke the audience. Basically, if the film doesn’t bring out a strong feeling in the audience, good or bad, then they won’t have a reason to keep watching the film.
The easiest way to provoke someone is show them sex and violence. It’s a guaranteed money making machine for big studios. And let’s face it, they are passionate about profits. Surprisingly, the film Alexander (2004) has recently taken a plunge upon its release. So the dilemma becomes “How can we get more family friendly films into the mainstream?” The answer is quite complex.
First, stop going to see the films that you shouldn’t support. This is difficult for the simple fact that we want to be literate in modern parables and modern language. If we want to be in dialogue with our friends, a good way to know how to speak with them about faith and Christianity is to use films that they’ve seen as illustrations. So it might be appropriate to see some of the films once, but don’t buy the DVD and don’t take a big group of people, unless you are in a movie-going discussion club where good may come from it.
Second, support independent Christian filmmakers. The more they are supported, they’ll have more experience, hone their craft, get more money, more sponsors, more venues and more fans. This leads to more Christian based films and quality entertainment. Mel Gibson’s The Passion contained a lot of violence, but it was completely appropriate to the content of the film. This film opened doors for discussion among people that would have never even heard the story of Christ. Michael W. Smith is making a small film. When that comes out, whether it’s in select theaters or DVD, I plan to support it.
Third, write it yourself. I’ve just finished a screenplay writing class and would love to continue writing on the side. The problem with this is that a big studio may option to buy the rights to your screenplay for a certain period of time wherein if they don’t start pre-production within the said time frame, the rights will expire and be given back to you. But they may hire a different writer to fix or spice it up. The upside is that you’ve been paid for writing something you believed, though the monetary incentive should not be your guiding light. Even if someone changes your script and produces a terribly trashy film that is loosely based upon your screenplay, that gives you the opportunity to discuss what happened (and why) with other believers and nonbelievers. God can use this seemingly terrible thing to start a conversation that builds upon the Kingdom of God.
There are inevitably other options for you. For example, don’t watch films. It might seem impossible for some of us, myself included, but doing this will make you more culturally literate with a different crowd of nonbelievers. Whatever you watch, films or not, watch for the ultimate glorification of God.
Micah Foster is a Religion major and Creative Writing minor at Pepperdine
University. He has recently become engaged to Erica Solberg and has a career goal of youth ministry.
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