John Ware

Sandra’s Bullock’s recent Oscar Best Actress win for ‘The Blind Side’ has focused attention on faith-based films and their mainstream marketability. But faith is a long-time bestseller in Hollywood: Just consider the success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” “Ben Hur” and “The Ten Commandments,” and the 2008 indy hit “Fireproof.” Faith also plays well on mainstream television, as proven by the hit series “Touched by an Angel.”

Brian Bird

Understanding the dynamics of faith-based films and television is at the heart of today’s Super Session “Faith in Film: A Roadmap for Success in Hollywood,” 3:30–5:30 p.m.

The session will be moderated by John Ware, founder and president of the 168 Film Project. The Film Project is an annual competition in which filmmakers are given one week – 168 hours – to write, shoot and edit a short film based on a randomly assigned Bible verse.

TELLING A GOOD STORY

Paul Lauer

Ware will host a panel comprising writer/producer Brian Bird of “Touched by an Angel;” Paul Lauer, founder of Motive Entertainment, which marketed “The Passion of the Christ;” and “Stained” writer/director Joshua Weigel. “Stained” was the best 168 Film of 2008.

The key to making a successful faithbased film is “that you have to make it a good story, one that the agenda does not force its way into,” John Ware says. “It is a difficult thing to do well.” This Christian filmmaker is also adamant that the story must come first, for a faithbased film to succeed.

Josh Weigel

“It all goes back to narrative excellence,” he says. “No one will care about your message if you don’t have a good story to carry it. The message should also be fair and balanced, and it must fit. You don’t want the audience saying, ‘whoa, where did that come from?’”

The Super Session will give attendees a chance to pick the brains of Ware, Bird, Lauer and Weigel, all of whom have successfully combined faith with mainstream production. It will also provide the chance to delve into some of the thornier issues of faith-based production, including the place of profit, how to balance the message and how to decide which audiences a production should try to reach.

“You’ll always have some people saying, ‘that’s too Christian for this audience,’ and someone else saying, ‘that’s not Christian enough for that audience,’” Ware said. “In my opinion, you can’t please everyone. The best you can do is try to please God.”

Ware has a few goals for the “Faith in Film” session. First, he hopes that it will inspire more mainstream producers to create faith-based content. Second, Ware wants ‘Faith in Film’ to mimic the participatory success of The 168 Project, which has so far helped spur the creation of more than 450 faith-based short films.

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“We serve as a farm team for filmmakers, where they can learn their craft in making faith-based films,” he explains. “Basically, we’re Roger Corman with a conscience.”

Finally, Ware hopes the session will prompt content makers, distributors and TV executives to set a goal to get more faithbased content on air.

“Faith is a powerful theme, no matter what your personal religious views are,” he says. “Films and TV programs that touch on faith really resonate with audiences, because questions of ‘who are we?’ and ‘why are we here?’ matter to everyone. So it only makes sense for mainstream broadcasters and distributors to look seriously at faithbased content, and what it can do for their viewership.”