Wow, what a full day! Registration opened at 8:00am and the first session started at 10:00am. There’s over 450 aspiring filmmakers attending the academy this year, which makes for great networking opportunities. The sessions are posted below with short recaps of each.

Biblical Worldview and the Theology of Christian Filmmaking
Speakers: Doug Phillips and Geoffrey Botkin

Doug Phillips started out by sharing everything that has happened in the last 12 months. Fireproof won the best independent film in the United States, and the festival and academy has garnered international attention. He shared that major distribution studios are attending this year’s festival to keep an eye out for the next big independent film. They don’t want to miss out on the next ‘Fireproof’. Big things are happening and they know it.

Mr. Phillips asked the question, “What is a Christian film, and what does it mean to be a Christian filmmaker?” and proceeded the answer it. He explained that a film doesn’t qualify as Christian just because it doesn’t bash Christianity, it’s G-rated, or even that it has some good morals. Either a film is God-honoring in every aspect, or it isn’t. There’s no middle ground. He also pointed out that you can be a Christian and a filmmaker but not be a Christian filmmaker. There’s a big difference.

A common theme in this opening session was the power of visual media. Film has to be one of the most (if not the most) powerful weapon in the world. It effects culture, and Hollywood knows it. Vision Forum hopes to have thousands of filmmakers use this weapon for the advancement of the gospel.

Mr. Botkin spoke the last 30 minutes of the first session. He stated that “film has weakened all the gates.” But you can play a role in changing all of culture by standing up for Christian principles. He re-stressed the point that film is a weapon, and if you don’t know how to use it, you could destroy the Christian culture.

He reminded us that as Christians we will be accountable to God for each film we make, and whether it advanced his kingdom. Then, he left us with one last challenge:

Be the filmmaker who is remembered by historians to as a culture-changer for the better.

The twelve most common mistakes by a new director
Geoffrey Botkin

Geoffrey Botkin spoke in the next session and shared a list of the 12 most common mistakes that a beginning director can make. Here they are:

1. Choosing projects for the wrong reason
2. Failure to properly consider an audience
3. Refusal to consider alternate mediums
4. Failure to plan theologically
5. Failure to study the art and the craft
6. Careless attitude towards the current industry
7. Failure to be objective
8. Desire to be too creative
9. Desire to be too derivative
10. Jumping the gun
11. Having an unrealistically large vision
12. Having an unrealistically small vision

Watch out for bad production design (i.e. voices, costume, lighting, framing)
Storyboarding is important, make sure to storyboard your entire film before moving into production.. Mr. Botkin gave examples of how people would storyboard films, and then showed the final product which was very useful.

It’s important to convert your storyboarding to animatics so you can realize what your film will look like roughly. Remember to integrate disciplines. Allow the departments to interact.

Cinematography Part 1
Isaac Botkin

C: Composition
C: Contrast
C: Color
C: Class (Quality)

Isaac shared examples of good framing and composition. Clever ways of using cinematography that isn’t distracting.

Cinematography Part 2
Isaac Botkin

In the second session Isaac Botkin shared his suggestions on high-end cameras. The list contained Red One, Sony F23, Panavision Genesys, etc. Afterwards he moved on to post production lighting and effects. Showing how to properly light different shots, and point out what is wrong with others. Most of it was really technical, so it probably wouldn’t make sense to some of you.

Symposium of Science Fiction and Christian filmmaking
Doug Phillips

Doug Phillips shuffled through Relevance, defininitions, theology, history, and vision of Christian Science Fiction. He said, “Science fiction is possibly the most expressive genre” since it displays the writers view on the future. Science fiction is such a force in our culture that we either have to attack it and denounce it, or take over it. Mr. Phillips believes it would be beneficial to use this powerful genre.

Defined properly, Science Fiction is not only a lawful genre for Christian filmmakers, it is a helpful, creative and necessary genre for cultural influence.

He explained how modern science, admitting that evolution doesn’t explain everything, concludes that it must be extra-terrestrial life because they could never admit that there might be a God. This is not just believed by the simple minded either. Richard Dawkins, one of the leading evolutionists in the world, stated on film that life probably was started by extra-terrestrial life that planted it on the earth.

The summary of his teaching is, Science Fiction is a genre that is powerful enough that should and will be used by Christians. It can portray what we understand the bible says will happen and the future, and what happened in the past. But we must be careful to always portray it in a biblically solid way.

(Photo Credit Josh Eddy and Isaac Harris)