Video Production from a Christian Perspective - Excerpt from the Zack Lawrence Christian Video Academy

Feb. 14, 2006 - Excerpt from the Zack Lawrence Christian Video Academy

On December 10, 2005 I held the first Zack Lawrence Christian Video Academy (ZLCVA for short), where I spent all day teaching some local homeschoolers how to make videos. Here's some of what I taught on Christian Video Principals.

As Christians, we should do everything for the glory of God. This includes making movies. We are on the verge of something magnificent that I believe God is going to use to rock this world, and change the culture. In October, my dad and I went to Vision Forum Ministries’ San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and Academy, and there we saw several dozen films made primarily by young filmmakers like you, that were outstanding in their production values and in their spiritual messages. The goal of the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival is to create an independent film industry, as a replacement to Hollywood. The goal set by Vision Forum is that by the year 2010, that there be two thousand independent Christian producers, each making one feature film every four years. That’s 500 films every year. With that many Christian films of professional quality, we’ll have a viable replacement to Hollywood. That’s why I’m doing this class, and why I plan on doing more like this: I want to help train some of those two thousand producers, if not be one of them.

Why do we need to replace Hollywood? It’s because Hollywood is dying. Did you know that? Their losing money because people are saying, “We don’t want to see movies that offend everything that we believe in!” which is exactly what almost every movie that’s playing in the theaters does. Movies nowadays have all sorts of terrible things in them. I mean, look at the latest releases, and at the top selling movies of the week: how many of them are rated ‘R’ and ‘PG-13’? I’d say 95% would be a good estimate. When a movie rated ‘G’ or ‘PG’ comes out, it almost always jumps to the top of the list. People want to see good, clean movies. But what people need are good, clean Christian movies. Our culture is so enamored with entertainment, especially the two hour feature film. If Christians are going to change the culture for Christ, we need to take back the cinema, which is what’s starting to happen all over the country. It started in San Antonio, and it’s spreading all across the country, from Georgia to right here, in the Antelope Valley.

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