The Banner, a magazine of the Christian Reformed Church, reports that a Christian screenwriter and a Christian actor have put together a company called "Act One" which is designed to provide Christians with training in screenwriting for Hollywood Movies. Barbara Nicolosi and David Schall are the two entrepreneurs-- or missionaries-- depending on your point of view.
Some of the teachers in this program have writing credits for shows like "Batman Forever". I'm not kidding.
It only cost $1800 U.S. for one month, including room and board. That's pretty steep, in my view. A red light goes off in my head. Aren't there a lot of scams in Hollywood? So many people want so badly to become celebrated Hollywood writers, directors, actors.... there's a lot of snakes out there quite eager to take advantage of them. This couldn't be one of those scams, could it? Do Mr. Schell and Ms. Nicolosi give their students a realistic assessment of their chances of actually selling a script to a Hollywood producer?
And what are their chances? About a million to one?
The truth is, if you don't know somebody in a key position at a studio in Hollywood, your chance of selling a script is almost nil.
Schell says, "I know Christians on the sets of several sit-coms and soap operas who make a positive difference in what is shown on the screen by creatively intervening in productions whose messages or stories are heading into areas that run counter to a Christian worldview."
That's the key right there. That tells you a lot about where Schell and Nicolosi are headed.
When, I asked myself, does a sitcom or soap opera begin to head into areas that are counter to a Christian worldview?
1) at the moment they insert advertising?
2) at the moment they promote their actors as "celebrities" who deserve our admiration and emulation because they are famous for being famous?
3) at the moment they engage in escapist fantasies that allow viewers to avoid confronting real life issues?
4) at the moment they pass off inane and repetitious formulaic plot devices stolen from "Mr. Ed" and "Gilligan's Island" as "original" work?
5) at the moment they add a laugh track, to convince the audience that these tired mindless jokes are actually funny?
6) at the moment they eliminate every brand name, political party, identifiable religion, pop song, television show, social issue, and financial concerns from every episode of every show, in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator?
7) at the moment they select only actors who are physically beautiful or colorfully ethnic or comically fat?
Who knows?
Well, I suppose we do know. We know that what they mean is that when the script editors of a soap opera want to have two of the characters commit adultery with each other, the Christian on the set will pipe up with, "Whoa Nelly!" and put a stop to it immediately.
The main problem with Christians and the arts is that most Christians see art has having a function beyond the revelation of things seen and unseen. This function is propaganda. The trouble with most Christians who see themselves as more sophisticated than that is that they see art as having another potential function: to entertain and make money.
What we need are more Christians who, like Bruce Cockburn, see art as the revelation of things really seen and unseen-- a very biblical standard that most great atheist artists and almost no Christian artists adhere to religiously.
