See what happens when I get sidetracked? I realized that I didn't post much about the Biola Media Conference yesterday. Here are the highlights.

Opening speech. Sting the professional wrestler was there. Though I am not into wrestling, it was cool to hear his journey and how God worked through him and changed him. His talk with Hulk Hogan was great, and went somethig like this: Sting "You are probably wondering why I don't go out and drink, party and do the crazy things I used to. I am a new man and Jesu..." Hulk: "Say no more man, I understand".

Session #1: Doug Tennapel. GREAT GUY! Funny, educated, smart, hard hitting. It was about stop waiting for your big break and start working on your skill now by just doing stuff. This guy created Earthworm Jim, a popular videogame and cartoon, created numerous graphic novels (comic books), sold one to Fox to be turned into a movie, writes, directs, composes music, and none of it was a "gift from God". It was a skill he developed and refined. He said that too many times Christians think our "talent" is a "gift" from God. He stated that gifts are given in entirety, as a whole, while skills need to be trained. I see his point, all too often we call it a gift, when in reality it is something we need to work on to refine and make better. Quality of our work should be priority. He asked how many people have seen bad Christian "art". Everyone raised their hand. Why do Christians make such junk? Because they often think it is a gift. Quality of our work should be priority. He asked how many people have seen bad Christian "art". Everyone raised their hand. Why do Christians make such junk? Because they often think it is a gift, when it's not. Though we should strive for high quality, we should not become lathargic and not get any work done, waiting around for our big break. We need to go out and do stuff. To hit this point home, he showed us a quick movie he made in a weekend with some friends and $300. It was called Sockbaby (www.sockbaby.com). Yes it was low budget, but the fight scenes, production value and audio were all top notch. It encouraged me, as I could do this, and even do better!

Session #2: Arthur Anderson. He is assistant Director to John Woo. He has worked on such big films as Mission Impossible II, The X Files (tv show), Windtalkers, Face Off, Paycheck, and the new Bewitched. I saw him last year, and this year he showed us behind the sceen footage and how the BMW Film "Hostage" was created.

Lunch: Steve Taylor was awarded to his contributions to Christian music. This guy has created numerous albums, and produced Newsboys, Six Pence, and many others.

Session #3: Short filmmaking and film festivles. We saw some shorts, and analyzed how to make our short films better, and even how to get them into film festivles. A lot of practicle advice.

Ending Session: Discussion with the 3 main guys behind bringing The Chronicles of Narnia to the big screen. It was great to hear how they all had different connections, some working for Disney, and how they met on campus of Biola, made some phone calls, and made this movie take off the ground (which is sure to be a HUGE hit). Not only was this written by a Christian (CS Lewis), it has many Christians behind it. We saw the trailer, which they just got their hands on the night before, and everyone was excited. They are going to be faithful to the book, and if this movie does well, they WILL make more.

Movie Screening: I had a choice to see Steve Taylor's movie, or see the xxxchurch.com documentary called "Missionary Positions". Yeah..... I'll tell you what I chose in another blog.