Spencer Burke :: Weblog

Grass Roots Film Making on the Web

If you have not checked out the web and all of the resources for grass roots film making here is a great place to start. I have been a member for a few years now and I am always amazed at the community interaction as well as the quality of the scripts and films.

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TriggerStreet.com

Trigger Street Productions, Inc., was formed in 1997 by Kevin Spacey to develop and produce entertainment in a variety of mediums. Realizing that the path to his own success would have been much rockier without the support and encouragement of many outstanding mentors, Spacey has sought out a way to inspire, nurture, and help bring exposure to new and undiscovered talent. If you are in a position to help others, if you find yourself in the building of life and you can send the elevator back down, that becomes your earnest duty. This philosophy has become the catalyst for the second step of his vision - TriggerStreet.com.

TriggerStreet.com was founded in January 2002 as the web-based filmmaker and screenwriter's community of record - an interactive mechanism for the purpose of discovering and showcasing new and unique talent. Based on the principles of creative excellence, it provides industry access and exposure to help build the careers of notable new filmmakers and screenwriters of our day.

Our mission is to encourage the creative process of filmmaking and screenwriting by providing hands on, peer-to-peer, objective criticism and letting the material be judged on its own merit. We offer an engaging avenue of exploration for both first time and veteran film directors, writers, and enthusiasts, anyone at all, who is attempting to bring his or her vision to the screen.

Our team has been extensively researching and designing TriggerStreet.com to ensure that it encapsulates every aspect of the user's desires and needs. We are using the Internet with its initial intention and design in mind: a tool to communicate. As such a constructive tool, we hope that it will be an inventive, productive, and exciting experience for all.

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Tomorrows CS Monitor Story

I was interviewed about the passion film and here is the closing of the article you can read the full story here.

Evangelicals have seen the movie principally as a great vehicle for reaching the unchurched. In addition to buying out theaters and inviting people to attend, they've developed other outreach projects.

Spencer Burke, an evangelical pastor in California with an Internet ministry, questions that effort. While he enjoyed the film, "if I was interested in striking up a conversation with someone in my community tonight by purchasing a ticket to a movie, inviting them to dinner and a spiritual conversation, my money would be on 'In America', " he says.

Both films deal with the same themes, he says, but he thinks "In America" speaks more "to the soul of the average person who wonders about the struggles of everyday life and whether God is good or bad.

"The passion is only one part of the story, he adds. "My thought is that the passion wasn't about the cross. Jesus didn't really look at the cross; he looked at me."

Saw the Passion Last Night

As someone who was well acquainted with the back story - context - I enjoyed the film.

Mel has said he wanted to be "over the top" (Diane Sawyer interview), and I think some will see the biblical character as caricatures.

If I was to invite a friend out to see a movie tonight, with the desire to engage in a spiritual conversation - my money would be on "In America", if you have not seen it, I encourage you to.

If you get a chance on Monday to pick up the Christian Science Monitor (or go online) I was interviewed as to my personal reaction to the film. It will be interesting to see what they use...

The Passion Thread on TheOoze

I wrote an article for TheOoze this month about the passion movie. The article has a discussion thread and it has been quite active. Here is a post I wrote this morning in response to "clamdude"
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[QUOTED]
This movie can be a great opportunity for you to share your faith...but from what I've seen in your column...it seems you've "written off that idea".
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Again my comments are not about the content of the movie - although the more I hear about it and talk to those who have seen it, I get the impression that only “insiders” who have the context for the brutality will be able to appreciate it. Maybe it could be compared to the last hours of Gandhi or MLK as they were cut down by assassin’s bullets – without seeing their lives and what they LIVED for you will never understand what they DIED for.

[QUOTED]
Besides our goal here isn't to be cool and liked by the world...last I checked the Jesus said we’d be hated by this world because they first hated Him. (Just so you know I've worked in Hollywood for 8 years now, and I have a great love for the movies).
[/QUOTED]

As we near the opening – tomorrow - I would argue that most of culture does not “hate” us because they hate Jesus, they hate us because we appear to not “love” them the way Jesus loved them. (This is the main point in my book about evangelism, when we use a “warrior” metaphor rather than a “gardener” mindset).

[QUOTED]
Why worry about how people go about doing it...Who cares if believers act like freaks and run around selling this film...God bless them (Read Phil 1:18). Besides our goal here isn't to be cool and liked by the world...
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I do believe we can do more damage to the gospel by not seriously considering the ways in which we choose to “love our neighbor”.

In the last 12 months we have seen the activation of the “Do Not Call Registry” and the legal right to legislate sales calls was upheld in the courts. Then the passage of the first sweeping “Anti-Spam” laws, criminalizing unsolicited email. So why do some Christians believe that “unsolicited” – “sales calls” in front of theaters, with free bibles, tracts and cleaver signs with slogans like “saw the movie now read the book”, will be effective?