Dennis' Liken Blog

Blog home move

2009-02-28T09:35:00.001-07:00

I've decided to move my blog home to a new address:

http://dennisagle.wordpress.com/

I've added a few entries there since my last entry here.

"Jonah" leaps off the page

2009-01-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

At a middle school in the middle of January 2009, the Liken version of “Jonah” made the leap off the page into the real world as we staged our first-ever public read-through of a script.

Our thought was that in the past, we’d read the script together as a group just before we started to shoot. But that was mostly to help the cast gel and find our characters before we started shooting the next day. There was no time to take a step back and look at the show to see if it was accomplishing what we hoped it was accomplishing, let alone revise it.

We had even talked about how beneficial it would be to put on a stage version of a production before we shoot it, so we’d have plenty of opportunity to revise the script, songs and performances to the point where we felt like it was ready to lock it down in movie form. But baby steps.

Our plan here was to assemble a top quality cast, rehearse it for a few hours, then listen to them perform the entire script, including songs, with a small audience. Then we’d assess how it went, make some revisions, then try it again about a month later with a different cast. It’s not a full-fledged stage version, but like I said, baby steps.

We’d been auditioning actors for about a month for the read-through. I was greatly impressed with the caliber of talent that was coming through our doors, which made the casting decisions difficult. Casting is always a bittersweet process. Most of the time, for every role you cast, you have another few actors you’d love to be able to work with, but can’t. At least not this time. On the other hand, we could console ourselves at least somewhat by the notion that we would be putting together a second cast for the read-through in February.

But back to the January read-through. About a week before the read-through, we started making our calls to notify the actors and get them links to copies of the script and songs. Although we were planning on doing the read-through with script in hand, our hope was that they’d be familiar with their lines and certainly their songs, because we knew our rehearsal period would be brief.

The day before the read-through, I met most of the day with Scott Eckern, my co-director on this project. Scott’s been in the musical business for many years, and we feel very blessed to have the benefit of his experience on Jonah. Scott and I read through the entire script out loud, pausing to map out some basic blocking, paring down the narration script, and working through any issues we thought might arise.

Then, on Saturday, Jan. 17, we assembled our cast at Mountain Ridge Junior High School in Highland, Utah, at 2 p.m. As is the Liken way, we opened with a brief word of prayer, had everyone introduce themselves, then dove right into the script.

The set up for the read-through was fairly simple. We did the whole thing in front of the curtain. We had a two rows of chairs on each side of the apron, then two mics set up in the middle of the apron, about 10 feet apart from each other. Directly off center stage, on the floor of the auditorium, was the piano, where Masa Fukuda would do his magic. (Masa was amazing. We had no sheet music, so he merely listened to Aaron’s demo tracks, then worked out how to play it.) On a riser stage right was another microphone for our narrator.

We quickly realized that the four hours we had allotted for the rehearsal would barely be enough to work through the script once, factoring in time for the basic blocking, such as which actor goes to which mic for which bits and the limited amount of staging that we did. I had thought we’d get through the script at least twice, with maybe a little extra time to polish any rough spots. But I knew that plan was out the window when we broke for our first break an hour and a half into the rehearsal and we were only about a quarter of the way into our script.

The time crunch meant abandoning some parts of the show that I had hoped would be in there, so that I could see how they played in front of an audience. It also meant there was little time to work with the actors and their characterizations. But the show had to go on, so focused on certain key points and left it at that.

To make matters more interesting, one of my key actors let me know just before we broke for dinner that something had come up and he wouldn’t be able to make the evening performance. So I had to scramble to find a replacement about an hour before the performance. Fortunately, the evening before, I had gone to a wedding reception with my wife, Suzanne. The reception was for the daughter of one of Suzanne’s former employers. We hadn’t seen this family in over 20 years, and our communication since then had been largely limited to exchanging Christmas cards. But we received an invitation, so we made the drive up to Salt Lake City. And when we walked into the reception hall, we were met by a young man who I recognized as having auditioned for a part in Jonah, but who happened to be the groom’s best man. Although we didn’t have a part for him in the cast for this read-through, I had made a mental note to do my best to find a part for him in the next read-through.

His name is Justin Williams, and as luck would have it, it turned out we got there just as he was about to sing a pair of love songs that the bride and groom had dedicated to one another. Justin’s accompanist turned out to be one other than Masa Fukuda. Small world. They did a great job with both songs, and as we were leaving, Justin had mentioned that he was planning on coming to the read through the next night.

So when I found out I had a hole in my cast, I found Justin’s number and asked if he was still planning on coming and, if so, would he mind coming a little sooner than he planned so we could have him in the show. He was completely gracious and a good sport. When he came in, I sat him down with some headphones and let him listen to the main song his character would be singing a few times. Then Jason Celaya, good sport that he is, helped him rehearse his basic blocking during the dinner break.

After the dinner break, we opened the doors and welcomed an audience of probably about 250 people, which to me was just about the right size – not so big to be overly intimidating to our troupe of actors who, as professional as they were, had only been working together for about four hours on this project, yet big enough to feel like it was a performance as opposed to another rehearsal.

I gave the audience a brief intro to the project, the actors and key behind-the-scenes people, then made my way to my seat in the audience and said a prayer that it would come together. And I have to say that, given that we had never been able to do a single run-through of the show, the way the show came off was nothing short of miraculous. My hat is off to that cast and Masa.

Since our usual delivery format is DVD, I must say that it is a real treat for us to be able to experience a Liken with an audience. To be able to hear them react with laughter and applause is something we don’t get to experience much in the DVD world.

When the show was over, we asked everybody to complete comment cards. We had a version for those 12 and over, and because the opinions of the kids are also important to us, we had another version for those under 12.

I’ve since read through all the cards. We were impressed with how many people took the time to complete the cards, as well as with how serious they took that responsibility. That, along with the results from a focus group session we held immediately after the screening, has formed the basis of a rewrite that I will be tackling soon.

In the meantime, we learned a lot about the read-through process and how we might do things differently next time, but I must say that I am very grateful for how well it went and for how useful the process and feedback was in our efforts to make “Jonah” the very best Liken we can.

Next up, we’ll restart the audition process for a different cast for the February read-through and see how our revisions to the script and songs fare with a new audience. More details on that later.

But for now, let me close by thanking and listing our final cast for the January read-through of “Jonah & the Great Fish”: Jeremy Elliott (Jonah), David Burton (Humphrey, the Great Fish), Dan Beck (Capitan), David Weekes (King of Nineveh), Jessie Clark Funk (Queen of Nineveh), Jeff Stevens (Chum), Edgar Zuniga (Chuy), Justin Williams (Logan), Jason Celaya (Ryder), David Smith (Alejandro), Paul Cartwright & Josh Tenney & Levi Larsen (The Sharks), Brittni Smith & Kimberly Roderick & Meagan Rudd (The Crabelles), Ashlyn Anderson (Chloe), Hailee Hodgson (Hope), Kade Tyson (Ramsey), Aisha Garcia (Lila), and Nathan Garcia (Lloyd). 

In Awe of Auditioners

2009-01-04T22:14:00.001-07:00

I have the utmost respect and admiration for those who willingly subject themselves to that most hideous of tortures called The Audition.

Personally, I’m batting a thousand when it comes to auditioning for roles and getting them. I wish I could say that was because of my masterful skills in auditioning. But the truth of the matter is I’ve maybe auditioned a handful of times in my life, and the roles that I’ve auditioned for mainly required a guy with a pulse who could stand in the background and move his lips like he was singing.

My first role was as one of the King of Siam’s kids in “The King and I,” as staged by what is now called BYU-Hawaii. Yep, for about three weeks, I played an Asian kid. To help achieve the effect, I dyed my hair black (it was supposed to be this temporary dye that washed out, but it stayed with me all summer that year – looked really weird as my bright red hair started growing back in and I was this two-tone haole). I also wore some serious eye makeup. (I remember how mortified I was after one daytime performance returning to school only to find out that I had forgotten to remove my eye makeup. After a classmate finally stopped laughing enough to point out this fact, I raced to the bathroom where, without any makeup removal cream, I resorted to rubbing my eye area red raw with damp paper towels. Looked like I had been crying for days which, in elementary school, was only slightly less embarrassing than wearing eye makeup.)

The last role I auditioned for was when I was 21. I had just moved with my family to England, and a local church group there was putting on a musical called “My Turn on Earth.” Say what you will about that show, all I know is that it paired me up with this adorable young beauty in a number called “Eternity is You,” a sign from heaven so apparent that even I could not miss it. Suzanne and I were married about a year later.

I enjoyed being in the few shows that I’ve been in, and would’ve loved to have been in many more, but wasn’t. Partly, it was because I had seen and heard myself on tape, and realized that that my gifts were likely elsewhere (I hoped they were at least somewhere), besides on the stage or in front of the camera. But if I had to be honest, the bigger reason I wasn’t in more shows was that most of them required that I first do this horrible process called The Audition. Who invented this, I wondered? The Marquis de Stage? It was horrible. My entrance into the audition room that I mentally practiced to be so full of wit and charm would turn into this catatonic shuffle by some open-mouthed mute boy. In front of The Table, my well-rehearsed monologue would vanish from my brain without a trace, which didn’t really matter much, because my voice, which projected so well in front of my mirror at home, would turn into this barely audible, breathy thing.

Though it has been many years since I have mustered up the courage to personally audition, I am freshly reminded of the pain they inflict as I witness my daughters venture off to audition for various projects in school and in the community. I see the prep, the battle of nerves, the waiting for the phone to ring.

While I have personally left the ranks of the auditionees (somehow the world of theater survived in my absence), I have the utmost empathy, admiration and appreciation for those who willingly subject themselves to this process. Those of us on the other side of the table at Liken could not do what we do without you.

Whenever anyone comes to audition for Liken, I try to imagine that he or she is a family member. Treat them with respect. Express appreciation for their time. Find something positive to compliment. Let them know what’s next. Takes a little longer doing it this way, but it feels like the right way to do it. At least for those of us at Liken anyway.

After conducting perhaps a thousand auditions, a few things have occurred to me about the process that I wish I could pass along to everyone who auditions for Liken. Again, I don’t profess to be an expert at auditioning, this may not have much applicability outside of Liken, and I only offer this for what it’s worth.

1. Audition a bunch. Yes, it’s a horrible experience. But if acting is in your blood, it is an unavoidable part of the process. The more you audition, the more likely you are to get over the awkwardness the process is, and the more you are likely to be the character you want to be.

2. Separate your performance in the audition from the outcome. I know this is easier said than done, but my dream is that those who come to audition could somehow manage to gauge their audition against a different set of criteria than whether or not they got the role. When your audition is done, assess yourself on how well you kept your nerves under control, how well you sang your song or delivered your monologue, how well you handled the cold read or whatever else was thrown your way in the audition. Don’t even glance at the phone. Instead, start working on lining up and preparing for your next audition, rather than wasting any energy on whether or not you got the part. I only mention this because sometimes we have people nail their audition, but because of various circumstances that maybe we didn’t even anticipate, we may not have a role for them in the current production. It pains me to think that someone might beat themselves up wondering what they did wrong or, even worse, that someone might throw in the towel just because they didn’t get a certain role.

3. Build your resume. Most people who are in a Liken have had a number of leading roles in stage productions and have studied their craft at school and in courses. Except for some very young actors (the child who played Baby Jesus in “The First Christmas” comes to mind), it is uncommon for us to cast someone in Liken who doesn’t have extensive experience. This is not an artificial screening mechanism we employ – it’s just that there is a lot to be said for how an actor’s experience on stage or on camera carries into the audition room. It’s also nice to know that an actor has been able to withstand the rigors and nerves that come with a production. The last place we want to see somebody freeze up is when there are dozens of crew people, cameras and lights staring at him.

4. Become the character. By this, I don’t mean you need to start speaking immediately in your character’s accent when you walk into the room or wear a period costume to the audition. But I do mean that when you start to sing or say your monologue, makes us believe that these aren’t lyrics or lines you’re delivering, but the heartfelt expressions from the bottom of your character’s soul. Our productions attract singers, and we are grateful to have had many talented recording artists in Liken. But the ones that can make the leap from the recording booth to a Liken are those that understand the need to let their character shine through their faces as well as the words they are singing. Don’t sing the whole song with your eyes closed. Don’t just stand there, hands at your side. Don’t be a afraid to take a step or two. Gesture. Get into it. Be the character.

5. This is a special note for parents of child actors. I suspect the urge to join your child in the audition room is tremendous. And I can certainly appreciate it. For one thing, if you don’t go in, it will be difficult to provide feedback to help your child in future auditions. For another thing, this is your child we’re talking about, and chances are you don’t know much about whoever is conducting the audition. I know that some people advise against going in with your child at all costs. The concern is that the child might be distracted by the parent. At Liken, we always let the parent decide. If they don’t come in, we typically have a glass window that the parent can watch through or leave the door open so they can at least hear what is going on. And we honestly don’t mind if they choose to come in. However, part of the audition process is to see how well your child responds to us as directors. We’ve had occasions where it is hard for us to get a word in edgewise during the audition, because well-meaning parents have taken over in an effort to get their child to do what they know they can do. As a parent, I completely appreciate the urge to chime in. But from our perspective, it is much more helpful if, when the child looks to the parent for direction or feedback, the parent simply turns the attention back to us with a simple nod our direction or a gentle word.

There are probably other things that I’m missing at the moment, but maybe the above is an okay start. Believe me, when you walk into the audition room, both you and we want the same thing: for you to really nail the audition. What they say about us needing you more than you need us is true: without talented actors, there is no Liken. We look forward to seeing you in the audition room and – at some point, we all hope – in a future Liken.

Fishing for characters

2008-12-21T10:46:00.011-07:00

Among the big challenges of "Jonah" is that of figuring out how to do the fish scenes. For this script, it's not just a matter of a whale quickly swallowing Jonah and then spitting him out three days later on shore. The scriptures tell us that the Lord "prepared a great fish" to swallow up Jonah (Jonah 1:17). So we're taking a little license with that to develop this subplot story of Humphrey, an oversized fish who doesn't fit in and wishes he could be like the other fish. Over the course of the story, he'll come to realize that there is a reason the Lord made him the way he is.
Originally, we were thinking of doing those sections as animation. But the Humphrey story constitutes a fair chunk of the script. Kids these days are raised on amazing animation, and that isn't cheap (budget for "The Incredibles," for example, was over $90 million). There are less costly ways to do animation, but if it doesn't look good, then it can detract from the story.

At one point, I wrote a draft that omitted the fish story entirely, figuring that if we can't do that part of the story right, then perhaps best not to do it at all. I called it "Jonah & the Ninevites." I shared it around with some people here. Nobody was too excited about it.
Then I saw some clips from the Broadway version of "The Little Mermaid." And it reminded me of how we handled the lions in "Daniel & the Lions," where the faces of the actors were prominently featured and helped define their animal characters. And it made me realize that that approach is much more "Liken." We need to figure out a way to make our actors characters shine through and stage the underwater scenes of "Jonah" as if it were a stage production (which we hope someday it will be).
So we brought in Brian Higginson, who has helped us with the graphics of much of our Liken work of late, and we brainstormed some ideas. He went away for a couple of days and came back this week with some rough concept sketches, which you see here. We went over them, talked about what we liked and disliked, and he is now working on refinements, which should be coming soon.
I know concept sketches are one thing, and actually making those into real costumes is another. But I like the direction this is heading.

Soundstage Shopping

2008-11-14T16:02:00.004-07:00

We shot the musical portion of the first two Liken movies on the soundstage of a television station near the Salt Lake Airport. An old friend of mine worked there and was able to make it feasible for us to shoot there. But he no longer works there, and even if he did, the stage there isn't quite big enough to set up more than one set at a time. So to shoot there, we would need to tear down a set right after it wrapped, then build the new set and paint it ready to go the next day. Obviously, that makes for a long night, not to mention a wet floor the next day when we're ready to shoot.

When we moved to Utah in 2004, we looked for an office with warehouse space where we could shoot our productions. We found our eventual "home" in the East Bay area of Provo, where we shot the next six Liken movies. The space wasn't ideal (too small, ceilings too low, inadequate power, inadequate AC, inadequate restroom facilities, etc.), but we made it work, because that's what you do in the indy movie project world.

With the long lay-off between Likens, however, it didn't make sense to keep renting the warehouse space. So we moved all the walls, props and costumes to off-site storage, which costs about a tenth as much as the warehouse space.

But it does mean that we need to find space to shoot "Jonah." So we went soundstage shopping. It doesn't appear that there is a huge number of options here in Utah. But we managed to find one up in Salt Lake City that we think is big enough to handle all of our sets at the same time. That makes the prospect of rehearsing and shooting (on dry floors!) an appealing possibility. We still need to check out a couple more options before we firm up those arrangements, but it looks like we will be heading north to film "Jonah."

Another plus to shooting in SLC is that it is a little more central for our friends in that area as well as the Ogden area. But it will add a couple of extra commuting hours a day to our Utah County contingent. Hey -- just like shooting in L.A...

Cue: Jonah songwriting

2008-11-12T11:04:00.005-07:00

Aaron has started writing songs for "Jonah and the Great Fish."

Typically, the way we work is I'll write a script, we'll massage it over time, get it fairly well nailed down. But it won't have any songs, just "song notes," which will be usually a quarter to a half page of suggestions on music mood, a description of what the song needs to accomplish, ideas for some fun business that could occur during the song, that kind of stuff. Then Aaron will do his magic, and then we'll massage the songs a bit, then I'll work the lyrics back into the script, which may need to be revised with more or less dialogue before or after the song, depending on how much the song covered or to accommodate any changes of direction it may have gone.

For "Jonah," the first one he worked on is the first song from the movie (it doesn't always happen like that -- Aaron says he takes them in the order that they come to him). This song is a bit of a departure from the full-cast, high-energy opening that most musicals (including Likens) typically open with. Of course, it's good to give the audience something big and fun to set the mood.

But structurally, this episode seemed to want to go a slightly different direction, because we want to open with Jonah (who's sorta the star of "Jonah"), but we couldn't open with him in Nineveh, because he doesn't go there until the end of the story. So to put Jonah in a big setting, we'd have to create a whole new town, like maybe his hometown. And, not that budgets should matter, but creating towns for Liken and populating them with villagers is sorta expensive. And in the Liken world, budgets do matter. We decided it would be better to save the money on creating a town setting for Jonah's opening song and instead use it to create a cool set for Nineveh.

But this left us with a slight problem for the opening: it was scripted to feature just one man -- Jonah, right after he receives a revelation to go to the dreaded city of Nineveh. So we thought we'd put him in the wilderness, maybe in a tent, like he's on a mission heading somewhere. A solo opening. Risky. But I felt like if we kept it brief, and kept it lively (there are opportunities for humor as an anxiety-ridden Jonah tries to decide if he's going to accept this mission), we could maybe make it work.

Aaron sent me a version of the song that had a fairly sedate opening verse, with Jonah pledging to do whatever God asked of him, and then he gets the revelation and it all falls apart. It was nice, but I was worried that we were already pressing the good graces of our younger audience in particular with our one-man opening, and then to give them a minute of this slow ballad before it turns fun -- extra risky. I hesitated to mention it to Aaron, because it was the first song he had submitted on this project. But then I realized that this would be the first song in the the first Liken after a lengthy absence, so we really want to get this right. So I mentioned my concerns to Aaron, and he was totally cool about it. We brainstormed some possible revisions to the song, like maybe just lopping off the ballad-like opening as well as some other ideas. Aaron went away to think about it.

A couple of hours later, he calls me and says he wants to go in an entirely different direction with the song, and asks if it would be OK if sometime during Jonah's song, three fish girl backup-singer types pop up out of a nearby stream and sing a little counterpoint melody that chides Jonah in a fun way. My first thought was water feature (ka-ching), three backup singer fish girls (ka-ching, each with costumes, ka-ching x 3). But my next thought was it would be a great way to make that risky solo-opening a lot fuller and more fun. Plus, as Aaron pointed out, it introduces the concept of fish as sentient beings in this show. All that has to be worth at least one or two ka-chings. When Ken (my brother/producer/budget man) and I sat down to lunch, I ran it by him, and he laughed at just the thought of the three fish popping up and said he thought it would be well worth it.

So the three fish-girl backup singer opening concept was in. Shortly thereafter, Aaron sent me an mp3 of the rough version of the song. He even did the girl fish voices -- that guy can truly hit the high notes (although he confessed that after he recorded
it, he had to sit down for 5 minutes because the high notes gave him a massive headache). And talk about a fun song! It's called "No Way!", and it is short -- about 2 minutes. But it is high energy, fun and will get this show off to a great start.

A Logo is Born

2008-11-05T02:39:00.003-07:00

Started work on a logo for Jonah. We typically do two over the course of the production. The first we use during pre-production and production. Then sometime during post-production, when we know a little more what our movie looks -- and feels -- like, we do our final logo.

As we are now in pre- pre-production mode on Jonah, we asked Brian Higginson to develop something for us. Didn't want something too whal-ish, since the "great fish" angle is something we're exploring in this retelling. Brian gave us several looks, and we ended up choosing the one you see here. I like that it captures the feeling of both the ancient scriptural nature of the story, but with a touch of whimsy. Thanks, Brian.

So now we have a logo. All we need is a movie. More on that to come...

Oh, The Lengths We'll Go...

2008-11-01T17:00:00.007-07:00

I was looking for a file on one of our servers the other day, and I came across a folder that brought back some memories of an example of the lengths we sometimes go to in an effort to make a Liken.

It was about a year ago this time that Ken's wife, Coppelia, suggested that Ken and I submit an application to a television show called "Amazing Race" (season 13, the one that's on now, without us, so let me nip the suspense right there). I had never watched the show, but when I heard the prize is a cool million, I realized that would fund more than a few Likens, and even if we didn't win, if we could get on, it would offer some amazing exposure for the series, so I thought it was worth at least investigating.

I ordered a season from Netflix and saw that it seemed a little more feasible for a guy like me than a Survivor (I've never been a huge fan of roughing it) or Fear Factor (I've never been a huge fan of eating cockroaches). The challenges that they do on Amazing Race seemed like they'd be sorta fun. Ken would be awesome in it, so I figured if by some miracle we got on, I could give him the hard ones and I'd take the ones that involved closing your eyes and jumping off of something high (now that I can do).

There was a lengthy paper application and they also require a 3-minute video application. So on Thanksgiving morning 2007, Ken and I hit the road with a small video camera, and Ken's daughter Aria and my daughter Katie, and shot our video application. We decided to be up front with the reason we were doing it (funding Jonah), hoping that might help set us apart from the gazillion other applications they probably get. Guess it didn't work.

I've kept the video under wraps (it would have been cooler to share if we actually got on the show). But when I came across it this week, I realized that even though we didn't get on, it was a pretty good representation of the lengths you have to go through to get a project made. It didn't work, but hey, so what? You try something, it doesn't work, you try something else. Eventually, hopefully, something will work.

Anyway, so here it is, our Amazing Race video application.

A Moving Experience

2008-10-26T09:13:00.005-07:00

Okay, there was a little gap in posting there. Been so long I couldn't even remember how to log in.

So let me turn to the matter of starting a brief catch up on activities since my last post.

Spent a good chunk of the summer clearing out the warehouse where we have shot the last six Likens. I've moved a bit over the years, and it is not my favorite thing to do. This was like moving ten houses. And not just any ten houses -- ten houses that have been lived in for a hundred years each, and stuff has accumulated, and half of it when you pick it up, you wonder what it is and if you need to keep it, chuck it or try to sell it (wonder what a prehistoric hair-dresser chair goes for these days on eBay?).

Eventually, thanks to some key helpers (I hope my daughters will someday forgive me), Josh and I got it done. We cleared out the warehouse, moved all the stuff we wanted to keep into storage units that cost about a tenth of the price of the warehouse. What a workout. The units are packed to the rafters, but at least we were able to keep all the pieces that will be useful for future productions or that are just items we couldn't bear to part with (yep, we kept the Esther chair).

It was sad to say goodbye to the "studio" (so many great memories), but on the other hand, it was good to get rid of the overhead that could be put to much better use. And frankly, it wasn't a great shooting space (too small, not adequately air conditioned, bad acoustics, and only two bathrooms -- not great when you have a hundred fifty people on set and you wanna break for five minutes).

To further complicate matters, we had our offices remodeled, so we had to clear out of them for about six weeks. And where did we move in the interim? To the warehouse space that we were in the process of relocating. Very tight quarters, and pretty much chaos during that period.

But we are now back in our offices (upstairs in the same building we've been in for the past four years), and though we aren't fully settled back in (still some boxes around, pictures need to be hung, that kind of stuff), it is nice to know where you're going to be working when you go to work and to know that if you need to make a call, you can pick up a phone and there will be an actual dial tone. All told, it was the biggest move in my life, yet strangely enough, when all is said and done, I still go to work in exactly the same office I did when I started the process months ago. Weird.

As for where we are going to shoot further Likens (and yes, there WILL be further Likens), it will be much more cost-effective and practical for us to rent actual working production stages. So the memories of shooting here in our East Bay warehouse can remain fondly preserved, but let's see if we can find somewhere better to shoot going forward.

More on that later...

Step by step

2008-01-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Christmas season has passed, a new year has arrived, and I thought it was time to dust off the ol' blog and see if it still works.

Liken titles enjoyed a modestly successful Christmas season. Our efforts to take our Bible titles to the broader Bible-believing market began to yield some success, but it is clear that it will be a lengthy process. We are refining our approach, implementing new strategies (well, actually the strategies aren't new to us, but implementing them will be), and are optimistic that there is much good that will yet be accomplished by the Liken series.

We introduced the Sing Along DVDs in November. Our hope was to, through some miracle (something like like when the townspeople rally around Jimmy Stewart in the end of "It's A Wonderful Life," for example, would be nice), our audience would rise up and we would sell thousands of these and thereby have the funds to produce "Jonah." Well, we had many wonderful people rise up and do what they could, but we only crossed the 1,000 mark last week. It will help, but it is clear that other efforts are needed.

It reminds me a lot of the early days of Liken. We didn't have many resources, usually only enough to take the next step. So we took the next step and then something would happen or someone would come along that would enable us to take the next step. And after enough of these steps, we would look back and see the long line of steps and only then realize how far we'd come. So we are in a step-taking mode.

What is clear from this most recent Christmas season is that the audience that has been introduced to Liken has become much more vast. Our titles aired on television stations and cable systems throughout the world. We've received emails from all over this globe. Many of these people then ordered DVDs to share with their families. Our hope is that as we refine our approach, this will happen with much greater frequency. The titles will be airing again this spring.

On the writing front, spent my early morning writing time the last few weeks rewriting the screenplay I had been working on just prior to starting work on Liken several years ago. Shared the results with a highly experienced script consultant last week. She called Friday to tell me her notes were on the way, but her overall reaction over the phone was something I won't soon forget. Still basking in that one. I will be making some tweaks based on her feedback, and then we will see what do do with it next (there's that "step by step" theme again). I've learned from years of writing screenplays and being among others doing the same is that it is absurd to count on anything happening with them beyond developing your craft. But it felt like the time was right to revisit this one, and it's a story with themes that are close to my heart. So it was good to revisit it, regardless of what happens. However, if something positive happened with it, that would sure help push "Jonah" along.

I also intend to work on the stage adaptations of more Liken titles. Leaning toward "Esther" for the next one. I did "Nephi" first, and it was performed by a church group up in Edmonton in 2006. Last year, about 10 groups did our second adaptation ("The First Christmas"). I've now been able to see three groups stage these productions live, and it has been very helpful to me as part of the adaptation process. I would like to roll out several this year, if possible.

Fade out

2007-11-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

This week on the Jonah script, I arrived at FADE OUT, those blessed words that seem so far away for so long that you can't even really allow yourself to dwell on them. You just write a little bit more each day, and if you are able to string enough of those days together, eventually, inevitably, FADE OUT comes.

It came on page 49. Likens are a little different than regular screenplays, weighing in at about an hour, or around 60 pages. This version has song notes, so when the actual songs go in, along with action descriptions for them, it will be probably about 60 pages.

The day I finished the script, Thursday, we coincidentally had a conference call with a former NBA star and prominent Christian about possibly playing a role in this show. We ended up needing to send him some of the movies along with a script, so the timing of FADE OUT was fortuitous. I would have liked to give the script a day or two to settle, then reread it with fresh eyes and give it a polish before sharing it. But opportunity was knocking, so I took another hour and made a couple of small tweaks, then printed it out and shipped it off.

So far, I've received feedback from a couple of people close in the company, and the early feedback is good. It will be a little challenging to make, in terms of production costs. It will really require the series to be embraced by a much larger audience this holiday season in order for "Jonah" to see the light of day. But I really hope that happens.

To that end, we're pushing our little company about as hard as we can. Yesterday, we shot our fourth and final (for this round) set of commercial bumpers at the studio. It was for "The First Christmas." I didn't finish the script for the bumpers until the day before we shot them. A little close for comfort, but during this crunch time, most things are.

Next stop Nineveh

2007-10-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Finally have arrived in Nineveh. Okay, I mean Jonah has finally arrived in Nineveh. He's got to deliver a message that is maybe the shortest prophetic message ever given after such a long, roundabout journey to deliver it. And maybe the most dangerous ever, pound for pound.

Weighing in at 8 words, here's what Jonah has come to say: Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Right now in the script, I'm working on how well that message is received. About page 45. Love this story. Hope we get to make it someday.

In Lightstone land, we're cranking hard a number of fronts. The timeframe we have left before this Christmas season is upon us is down to a few weeks. Much to be done. One front is a pair of Sing Along DVDs. Each contains 10 songs. The projects look nice and have some nice features. In a way, it's a bit of a referendum for the Liken series. We're hopeful people will buy them up to show their support of the series and help us have the funds to create more. We have a devoted following, but it is a modest-sized following, insufficient thus far to enable to fund future titles from past titles alone, which is what we're trying to work toward.

Another element we're working on is building awareness of the series beyond our local market. Right now, we have about 100 television stations that have committed to airing Liken titles in November and December. We shipped the first title, "David & Goliath," out the door this week. Next will be "Daniel," followed by "Esther" and closing the air window with "The First Christmas."

We're hopeful the increased awareness will mean increased sales. Time will tell.

But back to Nineveh. I'm hoping to reach FADE OUT this week. Then take a few days to polish. Then share it around for input.

A little more "Jonah"

2007-10-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

More stations are picking up the Bible titles, so that's good news. We've shot the commercial break bumpers for two of our shows, and tomorrow we shoot them for "Esther," with Lauren, the young actress who plays Amelia in the shows. Lots of late nights working on the production of those, the production of the commercials that will go in those, the preparation of our shows for broadcast, and the production of the two Sing Along DVDs, with all the marketing and graphics that goes along with it.

Plus our efforts to get into more Christian bookstores continues. We had good news this week that a chain of 25 stores has placed a sizable order.

All that has left little time for writing. But most mornings are starting this way. Leave the house at 6:50 to get the girls to school (school started at a much more civilized time when I was their age), get into the office at 7:35. Park myself in the back conference room overlooking the golf course, put on my writing music (soundtracks, mostly -- current fave is "Lady in the Water"), and dip into the world of Jonah -- at least the Liken version of it -- for about an hour.

It's not the speediest of paces -- right now, I'm on page 20. But at least it is a pace.

So far, I like how it is coming out. I thought it would go a little faster than it is, since I already have an outline. I've spent a week on one page, but I was okay with that, because before I could write it, I had to work out about 15 characters that would appear in that scene. Sometimes in the past, I would insert placeholder-type characters, if I'm more interested in establishing the plot at that point. But this time, I had already done that and was needing to take it to the next level, with actual characters. That's part of the fun for me, anyway, since that's when I can start more fully imagining these characters -- what they look like, how they sound. It may get changed a lot before it gets to the screen, but it's all part of the process.

Still fighting the good fight

2007-09-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

Oops, time got away from me a little. Okay, a whole summer, pretty much, since my last blog entry. Been busy, but things are moving along in a good direction. We're not there yet, but I think we're pointed in the right direction.

Looks like we have our first group of television stations on board to air Liken during November and December. Hopefully others will be following suit. It means we need to gear up to produce commercial "bumpers" (those little lead ins that are inserted just before going to commercial break), but it will be good to go into production on something.

Our Bible titles were just awarded the Dove Foundations seal of approval. They said many nice things about them, and awarded two of the four five "doves," the highest rating they can award.

Our titles are being picked up in more Christian stores throughout the country.

We're creating two sing along DVDs to help raise funds to produce "Jonah."

Meantime, we've been working on an industrial video. It was pretty intense, with a very condensed timeframe. But it gave the opportunity to work with some very nice, talented people, and turned out great.

Still, all that said, I was reading a book about screenwriting the other night, and I realized how much I miss writing. The business stuff is all very important, because the creative stuff needs a solid financial foundation to hang on. But still, I miss it. I decided I need to somehow carve out at least a little time each day to see if I can get back into the writing swing of things -- make sure it doesn't completely disappear.

So this morning, I got into the office a little early and closed my door, put on some "writing music," and started working on the Jonah screenplay. Before I started on the script (I worked on the treatment quite a bit earlier in the year), I wanted to write a little thematic paragraph. But it came out as a poem. Not a rhyming poem, but something more like free verse. That had never happened before, so I was a little surprised. But it was a surprise I liked. I don't think I will put it on the script, but I think I'll go back to it from time to time to try to keep the script on target as I go.

When?

2007-05-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

We get a lot of email from kind people expressing their appreciation for the series. Lately, we've been getting a lot of questions about when the next Liken is coming out. Firstly, we're glad they ask the question. It implies that there is a desire for more Liken. Secondly, we would love nothing more than to be able to fill that need as soon as we possibly can. And thirdly, we're doing all we can to make that happen.

But here's the trick. We first need to expand our audience base. We've focused so much on producing titles, but now feel the need to devote ourselves to connecting those titles with the audience base that we believe is out there and would welcome the series into their homes if they only knew about it. The challenge is how to get them to know about it.

To get the series discovered locally, we used a lot of traditional advertising means: billboards, TV and radio spots, magazine ads, etc. Even in our local market, which is not a very large market, it was a fairly expensive (relatively speaking, anyway) proposition. Doing the same thing on a much larger, nationwide scale would be cost-prohibitive and beyond our means.

So we have to be more innovative. And that's what we are trying to do. It is a challenge, and is requiring us to be resourceful and humble and, most importantly, to seek inspiration. Little by little, it is coming.

Part of that effort was to sign a deal with the largest Christian network to air our Bible series titles several times a year over the next few years. It wasn't a lucrative arrangement, but it is part of our effort to give our series broader exposure.

We're also trying to give our greatest ally -- our supporters -- tools to help them in their efforts to spread the word. Part of this is the Share the Light campaign (http://sharethelight.com). We've launched the first phase of that, but more phases are coming. And we're also working on a campaign designed to help provide us with broad exposure in the top media markets throughout North America. It's exciting stuff, but it is taxing on the limited resources we have available to us, and means that there are no resources at the moment left over for the creation of more Likens.

But each of us is devoted to doing everything we can to establish a broader base for the series so that we can get back to making more.

So the answer to the "when" question is simply this: as soon as we possibly can! Thanks to everyone who has thrown their support behind Liken and has helped to spread the word. We couldn't have made it this far without you, and we won't make it where we need to go without you, either.

Suzanne

2007-05-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today is my wife's birthday. Let me tell you, I have been extremely blessed with a companion who has encouraged me, supported me, and stood by me through the ups and downs. Not so easy in this line of work. I had to travel halfway around the world to find her, but I will forever grateful that we were brought together, and that this classy lady was willing to take an awful chance on a young college guy -- a Yank no less. Darlin', love you forever. (Picture: Wrap day on the set of "Daniel and the Lions." Not only is she supportive of the guy in the picture, she volunteers to spearhead craft services, feeding hundreds over the course of the shoot.)

Christmas thoughts come early

2007-04-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

I finished an adaptation of "The First Christmas" for the stage too late last year for any group to be able to have enough time to put it on. Determined to start letting people know about it a little sooner in the year, we announced a few weeks ago that we were looking for 12 brave church groups willing to be part of the inaugural run of this production.

In the three or four weeks since we made the announcement, we've heard from 28 groups from all corners of the globe. While most groups are from the states, we have three from Canada, three from Australia, two from New Zealand, and one from England who have expressed an interest.

Even within the states, they are far flung among Iowa, Indiana, Utah, Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Kentucky, California, and Nevada.

And while most of them are church groups, we’ve also heard from a college, a high school, a home school association, a performing arts academy, two community theaters, and even a city.

I met the woman who would later become my wife because courageous individuals like these people who undertook a musical production for my church group. I will be forever grateful to those willing to undertake such an effort. (I hope my wife feels the same.)

Currently, these 28 groups are reviewing a draft copy of the script. One group, a church in Australia, has committed by paying the licensing fee. We're still looking for 11 more groups.

Songwriting 101

2007-03-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Had the opportunity to attend a songwriters workshop the last couple days. It was sponsored by a group called Nashville West. I don't fancy myself a songwriter, but I get to work with them from time to time, and plus I'm looking for some songwriters, so it seemed like a good idea. Get to understand the craft a little more, hear what others are working on, broaden my understanding of the biz side.

So off I went. Met a bunch of talented people. Cherie Call continues to blow me away with her beautiful songs. I love her voice, too. Mindy Gledhill shared a couple of songs she's working on for her next album. Great voice, cool songs. Lots of up and comers were there as well.

The workshop was organized by Tyler Castleton and Staci Peters, a songwriting team. Tyler's also recently rejoined Deseret Book's music division. He's a solidly good guy and I'm sure will help their music wing take flight (just practicing some of those lyric skills).

Frankly, Nashville music isn't my personal style, but I can appreciate the artform. And I noticed close similarities between a good Nashville song and a good script. Honesty. Strong visuals. Have a point. Write what you know. Good is not good enough -- needs to be great. Practice your craft. Don't get married to your words. Be careful of being too clever.

The presenters were songwriting veterans Pat Alger, Bat McGrath and a rising star Rachel Thibodeau. All were very generous with their time and represented a good cross section of industry experience, styles and tastes.

I liked a little demonstration Pat and Bat did, where they modeled a songwriting session. It was built around an image of a little red balloon that was lingering on the ceililng in yesterday's session. The song started off with just a few chords and a hummed fragment of a melody. It meandered its way through several melody, chord and tempo experimentations, before they started trying different lyric pieces. It went on for about an hour, and given that they had to stop fairly frequently to narrate similarities and differences between this session and a real songwriting session, there was remarkable progress made toward a song. It helped demystify the process for me a little.

Not sure I'll ever actually write a song. But I woke up this morning with a song idea whirling around my brain...

Jonah Treatment Revisited

2007-02-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Spent a chunk of this past week reworking the Jonah treatment. We decided several weeks ago to consider expanding this Liken into a feature length project. First step in my mind was to see what a feature length version of the treatment would be like.

I didn't think it would help the project much if we just padded here and there. So I retooled the modern-day portion to make it a little meatier, and created a new subplot involving a "great fish" and a bunch of CGI. It seems to work a lot better. I've circulated it to a number of people and am waiting to hear what others think and to explore whether the CGI called for is feasible on our budget.

Thus far, I've only heard from my mom. She likes it. Bless her heart. But then again, that's her job. Wonder if she can do CGI? Hmm...

CeranAid and LDS Film Fest

2007-01-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

The CeranAid concert was a pleasure to attend. There were probably 750 or so in attendance. The hall maxes out at 1,000. It would've been nice to sell it out for the Cerans, but it felt and looked like a full house, so the energy was good.

There were several musical acts. My hat goes off to each of them. I want to list them here, because each shared their time and talents without compensation. Eclipse, Alex Boye, Jenny Jordan Frogley, George Dyer, Dallyn Vail Bayles, Cherie Call, One Voice Children's Choir, Daniel Beck, Paul Cardall, Katherine Nelson, Peter Breinholt and Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand.

It was an evening of heartfelt songs. I was unfamiliar (beyond knowing their names) with a number of the acts, so it was an opportunity to broaden my understanding of the local musical talent. I continue to be impressed with how much talent is in this area. I would love to be a part of an effort to provide more opportunities for this talent to be appreciated. Must work on that.

We also released this week the CeranAid Benefit CD, featuring songs from the artists in the concert as well as some additional artists. I've had the chance to listen to it a couple of times already, and I think it is not just a nice way to bless the Ceran's lives, but the lives of the listeners as well. If you want to pick up a copy, it's $15, and every single dollar goes right to the Cerans. Find it here: http://www.likenit.com/store/product_info.php?sku=CERAN02

I wrote and submitted an article on the Cerans for Meridian Magazine. It can be found here: http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/070115ceran.html

Also this week, Liken participated in the LDS Film Festival, which was held at the Scera Theater in Orem. We had a booth and a screening. The booth provided an opportunity to let many people see what the series is like. The screening was, too, for all 20 people in attendance. We didn't promote it heavily, and we were up against a presentation at the same time by the Steven Spielberg of our market, Kieth Merrill, but still the attendance was a little more underwhelming than I expected. On top of that, our invited stars either cancelled at the last minute or were too late (a blessing in retrospect), the festival's technical group couldn't figure out how to get the theater lights dimmed, and then when they did, it took them another 5 or 10 minutes for them to get the movie to play. Ah, the joys of show biz. Still, it's guerilla warfare. The 20 people in attendance were, for the most part, new to the series and in the Q&A afterwards, they expressed to us their delight in the series.

CeranAid

2007-01-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Since the Ceran Christmas Eve tragedy, much of our efforts have been devoted to helping this amazing family deal with the aftermath.

We are working on putting together a benefit concert and CD called "CeranAid." It is impressive to see the response from the performing arts community. We've had so many performers come forward to share their talents in one or both (concert and CD), that we've actually run out of room. The artists are all donating their time, and their labels are donating their songs. In addition, the producer, the sound team, the lighting, the local newspaper, the emcees, and more are donating their services. It's wonderful to see it all come together.

The concert will be held Thursday evening, Jan. 18, at Thanksgiving Point. It's a gargantuan project that Janna is spearheading. We're hoping to help the family raise many thousands of dollars, because it sounds like the funds are sorely needed.

The funeral was a tremendously uplifting experience. Yes, there were many tears, but there was also beautiful music, messages of encouragment, reminders of why we're here and the importance of loving one another. President Thomas S. Monson of the Church was there. He shared a message of hope, then read a letter from the First Presidency to the Ceran family. Afterwards, he presented it to Gary. I'll never forget how he bent over to present it to Gary and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

Sad news

2006-12-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

My heart is a little heavy this week. Early Christmas Eve morning, a family that has become part of the Liken family over the past few episodes, was driving home after a cast party for a production they were in. Their car was broad-sided by a drunk driver. The mother and the 15-year-old son died at the scene. The younger daughter was airlifted to a hospital, where she later died. The other three family members in the car suffered injuries, but nothing life-threatening.

The father, Gary (who played one of King Noah's priests in V4, the innkeeper in V5, and a Nephite in V8), was released first and had to break the news to the other two surviving children, Clarissa (who played one of the dancers in V4) and Caleb (who played Jarom, the exceptionally bright meteorologist boy in V8), about the extent of what had happened.

The three surviving family members, led by Gary, are handling their loss with such dignity and even compassion for the driver who hit them, that it is an inspiration to all who know them or have come to know them by the many news reports on the tragic accident and its aftermath.

We spent this morning in a meeting at the studio working on plans for efforts to benefit the family. We hope to help organize a benefit concert and benefit CD, along with donating proceeds of sales of our titles in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, they are in my prayers. If anyone would like to make a contribution to the family, we have helped to set up a website to facilitate that. It can be found here: http://www.ceranfamilyfund.com.

'Tis the season

2006-12-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

I have been devoting most of my time to various marketing elements, the side of the movie business they don't tell you about, but working for a small, independent company, is an important part of the process.

The company has installed "Lightstones," mall carts in 14 malls along the Wasatch Front. It was a gargantuan undertaking that I was only involved with in a limited way. We also launched a completely revamped website, called Likenit.com. (Liken.com, unfortunately, is used by a consulting company in the UK, which isn't interested in parting with the name.) While we are using an outside company on this, it still demanded a considerable time commitment on our part to get it up and running. This week, it went "live," and so far the bugs have been manageable, so that is a relief. I also spent some time drafting "An Appeal from the Producers of Liken," a letter to our mailing list. In it, I did my best to reinforce the connection between supporting Liken (whether by purchasing or spreading the word) and our ability to create more Likens. I think some people think that the series is already a solid success and that we are well in the black, when in reality we still have a ways to go.

We've also been meeting to discuss plans for 2007. I think it would be premature to discuss them here, but I am excited about the direction. I'll post more on that later.

Tonight, we're off to the Liken Family Christmas in Ogden, an event featuring Dan, Josh and Jared singing various songs, followed by a screening of "The First Christmas" in the lovely Peery's Egyptian Theater they have up there. Looking forward to it.

In the meantime, 'tis the season. Merry Christmas, everyone. But right now, I'm off to shovel snow.

Still alive

2006-12-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

Haven't blogged in awhile. Been a little busy and a little gone. Finished revisiting "The First Christmas." Next, we revisited "Esther and the King." Both look and sound great. Currently, we are working on the revisit of "David & Goliath." This is a larger project, because we are re-doing the modern-day bookends to make them more ecumenical. We've finished revising the visual portion and are about to start work on the audio fixes.

Along the way, I took off some time to be with my family. We visited London and Paris. It was a quick trip, but great fun. While in London, we took in "Stomp" (useful research for our Ninevah scenes in our next show, "Jonah and the Great Fish"), "Mary Poppins" (great family show), and 'Wicked" (maybe -- no probably -- the best show I've ever seen; that's us on show night).

While in England, I had the opportunity to present a fireside to the St. Albans Stake at Stevenage. What a wonderful group of people to be among. They were so gracious and welcoming. I don't know how many were there, but the chapel was full and they opened the overflow. My presentation was on a subject near and dear to my heart -- our responsibilities regarding the media (including shunning the bad, seeking the good, spreading the news when we find something good, and doing our part to create or support uplifting media). When it was over, we had such a great time visiting with many old and new friends (this was the stake I attended as a university student when I first met my wife, Suzanne, who is from this area). The Liken series doesn't seem to be well-known in England, a situation we would like to change.

Revisiting "The First Christmas"

2006-11-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

Spent most of this week retooling "The First Christmas." This was first released a year ago. We had only a limited amount of time (we shot it in September) for post-production. While I still love that movie, it had some technical things that have always kind of bugged us. For example, the night sky around Gabriel and the Heavenly Host Gospel Choir was the same curved walls that we used to shape King Noah's court. As King Noah's court, the seams connecting each section of wall were covered by pillars. As a night sky, however, the pillar option wasn't available to us. Darin has spent a chunk of the week going through those shots and create masks to help make those less discernible.

Another fix was the lead shepherd's voice in "He's Born." Michael DuBois has an incredible voice, but at the time when we were recording him, he was in another show at his school (Utah State), so by the time he got to our studio to record, there wasn't a lot left. We did what we could in post, but it was still not great. Always a good sport, Michael came in again this week to re-record and sounded more like the real Michael "Sam I Am" DuBois.

We also re-did the audio commentary. It was full of references that people who are unfamiliar with the LDS venacular would not get. In addition, it was recorded early in the morning after an all-nighter with just Aaron and me in the booth. We were not as fresh as we perhaps could have been. This time around, we invited a couple of stars from the show: Jessica Huffaker (Mary) and Dan Beck (Gabriel). Jessica was concerned she wouldn't be able to do it, because she's been battling a cough. I was glad she was able to get through it with just fine.

We're also redoing the graphic, which looks amazing, thanks to Brandon Scott and his team. I'll upload it.

Next up, we're going to do a similar tune-up of "Esther and the King."

Samuel has arrived!

2006-11-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

It's about 10 pm on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006. I just got back from the back-to-back screenings of "Samuel the Lamanite" for the cast and crew. We held it at Dixon Middle School in Provo, the school where we shot the modern-day bookends.

We probably had about 500 people at the two screenings. Between screenings, we had George's World Famous Christmas Snickerdoodles (actually, BYU catering provided them, but for the sake of the tie in to the movie, we prefer to call them George's). Everybody got a free poster, and many people signed autographs.

Two days prior, on Nov. 2, we had the movie's World Premiere. It was held at Thanskgiving Point in Lehi. We had probably 1,000 people in attendance. The evening went fairly smoothly, although the DVDs and CDs of the movie, which were supposed to arrive by 5 p.m. at the venue didn't actually arrive until after show had begun. Slightly nerve-wracking.

The movie seems to be well received. Many people have said it's there new favorite Liken. I think it's mine.

The Samuel Wire

2006-10-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

It's just after 11 pm, and the office is a hive of activity. Visual effects team is cranking away at making arrows fly, fake cities look real, and waterfalls fall. Downstairs, the audio team is working on what we hope will be the final mix. In the back, Greg is trying to squeeze out the last couple of bonus features.

The final deadline, as might be suspected, is upon us. This movie needs to be off to replication by Monday at 9 am. We don't work Sundays, so that means we have about another 24 hours to put this thing to bed. We've come up against the usual barrage of obstacles -- usual in that there is always a barrage of them, but the specific barrage components varies from each movie.

Still, it is coming together amazingly well. These are some talented people, and they are applying their skills and best inspiration to make this what seems like it will be a very special project.

A week from yesterday, we'll have our premiere of the movie at Thanksgiving Point. That is a whole 'nother project that we haven't had much time to wrap our minds around. But Janna is working hard on it and it sounds like it will be a nice evening of music and movies.

The Samuel marathon continues

2006-10-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I've been straggling in some nights at 3:00 am and other nights at 4:30 am. Wouldn't be so bad, except the next day, it's up and back at it at 9 am. The culprit? One "Samuel the Lamanite," a movie that seems nice, but I've learned better.

This movie has probably 10 times more special effects than we've ever had before in a Liken. Okay, maybe that's not saying much, but still it's a considerable factor. In addition to all the arrows that are fired (we elected not to fire live arrows on our set except under rare circumstances, so they are having to be inserted into the shots digitally), set extensions (necessary to create the illusion that Samuel is standing on a wall far higher than the 18 clear feet we have to our ceiling), and Zarahemla in the distance shots (we first see Samuel a mile or so away from the city), we also have fun little things like disappearing bottles and cans, heart-shaped clouds and a wondrous effect on the faces of people as they gaze up at the sky.

The other challenge is that this is our Christmas movie, and Christmas is right around the corner. Hence, the many sleepless nights and relatively few additions to my blog. Apologies.

But it is feeling like a very special addition to the Liken series, and that is creating a special feeling among the post-production team and a desire to get it right. It is a good bunch of people to work with. I'm greatly looking forward to sharing "Samuel the Lamanite" with our audience.

Samuel update

2006-10-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in awhile. Quite a few late nights and long days working on the various elements needed to get Samuel ready on time. This past week, we've gone through two rough cuts and on to our first picture lock. The rough cut turned out better than I expected. After some tightening over the next few days, it has come a long ways. I have a feeling this will be a very powerful addition to the Liken family.

Topical, too. Just read an article about an elementary school in Florida that is banning even songs about Santa Claus (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216973,00.html) because of the Christmas tie in. The modern-day tie in on this story strikes a chord with me and I hope will do the same to others who watch it.

This week, we start our ADR sessions. Lots of audio work to do, plus we have about 10 times the special effects on this episode than we've ever had before. We had a long meeting with our SFX team to try to figure out how we can pull this all together in two weeks. We're going to need several miracles on this title.

Memory lane: Day 2 of the Daniel and the Lions shoot

2006-09-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

June 23, 2006 -- After our brutally long day yesterday, we’re relieved to have a much lighter day today. On tap are the scenes that take place just outside the entrance to the lions den. We set it up this way to enable us to be able to use George Dyer as King Darius. We just loved George’s work as Nimrod, the leader of Zarahemla, in Vol. 8, which we actually shot prior to Vol. 7. We realized he would be ideal for the role of Darius, but when I contacted him to discuss it, he told me that, while he would love to do the role, he was in Arkansas doing the opera “Carmen.” In order for us to be able to use him, we would have to push our start date, never a thrilling prospect, and organize it such that we would need to have him record his song tracks and get him fitted with a costume on his first day of shooting. After thinking about it for about a second, we began working on exploring what it would take to adjust our schedule. It was painful at the time, but in retrospect, totally worth it.

George has such an incredible voice. We’ve long admired George’s talent, but had no idea how to use it, because he is known for his tremendous operatic voice, and opera voices can be a challenge for children to enjoy. But a few months ago, I attended a function commemorating the life accomplishments of a noted religious leader, and George was one of the invited performers. During the course of the evening, he sang a song called “Granada,” which played up the character’s pomposity. It really started my wheels turning. When it came time to put a face on the unnamed wicked people of Zarahemla, we created the character named Nimrod, and reached for the phone to see if we could entice George to take the role. I wasn’t sure how a performer of George’s stature would feel about playing a Gilderoy Lockhart-type of character named Nimrod. He was totally gracious about it and dug into the role with great enthusiasm.

Now, in Daniel, it was time to let George be a good guy.

The role of Daniel was played by a Liken newcomer, Casey Elliott. Casey was sent our way by Summer Naomi Smart, who starred with him in Hale Center Theater’s “Aida.” We are ever grateful to our talented alums who refer their talented colleagues our way.

Casey was another who showed up during the last couple of days of our audition period. Because we shot Vol. 8 just a few weeks prior to Vol. 7, our preproduction schedule was on the brisk side. We feel we were truly blessed to have Casey come our way right when we needed him.

Today, George and Casey sing a beautiful duet called “Peace.” It is my favorite song of the show. Very moving. Two great voices.

The set for this scene is tiny. It is built on a mezzanine level on the opposite side of the actual entrance to our lions den. It can handle maybe a dozen people comfortably. Counting the camera crew and actors, there are probably two times that. When it is time for me to get out and head on over to video village, I take advantage of a fun exit feature – the lions den slide – to get down in a hurry.

Memory lane: Esther and the Hamsters

2006-09-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

For our fifth movie, "Esther and the King," there's a scene where the various maidens are trying to outdo one another in their preparations to see the king. One of them believes that hair and make-up are the answer to winning the king's affection, so she overdoes both. Another overdoes the jewelry. Another overdoes perfume. But the one that has impacted me personally the most is the one who believed that it was the clothes she wore that would make the difference.

She decides that she needs an over-the-top pink frilly gown, and to make it, she relies on a sewing machine powered by a hamster (called a "Hampster-Matic" in the movie). My daughters already have a hamster (a huge one called "Goliath"), but we determine that one is not enough -- in case it decides it's sleepy at the moment we need it do turn the sewing wheel. So Tom L, our props manager, goes to a local pet store and picks up five dwarf hamsters.

We end up shooting the scene, and before we're done with our two second shot, we've tried all five hamsters in an effort to find one who would keep moving (apparently, we've never heard the expression never work with children or animals, because we tend to do both much more than is sensible). But we finally get what we need.

My youngest daughter, Alexandra, finds out that Tom has "inelegant" plans for disposing of the hamsters, so she conspires with my wife to provide "temporary" housing for the hamsters. The hamsters are divided by gender into a couple of aquariums that will serve as their houses, and they are brought home, where they housed in our hallway linen closet.

A couple of months pass by, and I'm walking down the hallway, and I see these five pairs of eyes looking up at me from an aquarium, and I look into one of my daughters rooms, where I see my wife working on cleaning out another aquarium with little critters running around. Then I notice more aquariums. Now, I was no math major, but even I can clearly see that we have more hamsters now than we have had before. So I make an innocent inquiry, only to be told that there was some confusion during the gender separation process, and now in addition to the original five (plus Goliath), we are now the proud owners of more than a dozen additional hamsters. I'd been a little busy, so I had somehow managed to fail to notice the proliferation of aquariums, let alone hamsters.

To try to get a handle on the process, my wife had taken the hamsters to a local veterinarian for gender identification. Apparently, this is not easy on a hamster, because within a few weeks, our hamster population is up to 27.

Unless you're willing to utilize one of the inelegant hamster reduction techniques (such as snakes), it's not that easy to get rid of hamsters. Their proliferate nature makes most pet stores less than eager to accept bundles delivered to their door stops. Their sometimes less-than-cuddly natures makes giving them away to other loving households a little tricky, too. But, over time, we are able to find homes for a number of them, and a pet store agrees to take a litter. A couple of them have succumbed to early demises due to their somewhat fragile constitutions. But, now, about nine months later, we still have about 10 that live with us, and I think those will probably live out the remainder of their golden years (I believe their expected lifespan is about 2 years) with us. That is, unless somebody expresses an interest. (Hint, hint -- anyone?)

We haven't had a litter in several months, so we feel like we have a handle on the gender issue.

Still, next time, should I, in a weak moment, decide we need animals in a movie again, I must pay closer attention to the complete plan of what to do with them afterwards.

Daniel Premiere

2006-09-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last night, we premiered Daniel to an audience of about 1,000 at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.

It's always an anxious evening -- partly because of concern about how the audience will respond, partly because of concern that the technical side (blowing the only bulb we could find for our projector) might not hold up, partly because I might mess up my brief little speech, and partly because I'm still not that comfortable in a tux.

But everything held up just fine, and it was a wonderful evening of celebration of what we are blessed to be a part of and to celebrate the results of the hard work and devotion of a lot of people.

Ken (Agle, my brother/producer) did a pre-show that was a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" type game show using Liken trivia. Then Dan Beck did a fun opening number where he sang a fast-paced tribute to Likens 1 to 7. That was followed by bringing a few of us on stage to introduce the new Liken management team and my aforementioned speechlet, which I managed to get through without botching it too badly. Then Lauren, who played Amelia in the past three Likens, came up and introduced the new imaginer child, Devin, played by a delightful 6-year-old named isaiah Smith. After that, it was house lights down and start the movie.

The audience responded well, laughing in the right places, applauding at the end of songs where appropriate, and afterwards, many people came up to me and thanked us for the work we are doing.

All in all, a wonderful night of celebration. Would love to savor it for awhile, but there is a huge workload piled up, so I'll try to enjoy the feeling for another day or so, then we're back at it with Samuel come the crack of dawn on Monday.

Daniel is wrapped wrapped

2006-09-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

After more than a few sleepless nights, "Daniel and the Lions" is off to the replicator. It seems like no matter how many times we go through the process and vow to never let it happen like that again, it always seems to happen like that again. "Like that" means that we are working on it feverishly through the night up until the morning comes. Then, somebody picks up the master DVD first thing in the morning and races up to the replicator.

It's a teeny bit nerve-wracking, but I must admit, I am pleased with the way the movie has turned out. How far it has come from the first rough cut. Despite watching it many times over the past few weeks in varying stages of progress, it hasn't seemed to get old. Lots of wonderful performances, great music. We're now a few days away from the premiere. I know it is cutting it close, but I'm reminded of our first installment in the series, when we pulled the all-nighter on the eve of the premiere. That was too scary.

Unfortunately, there is little time to rest. We have an amazingly short turn-around needed for Samuel. We had a meeting on Friday, the day after we shipped off Daniel, on how in the world we could finish Samuel in the timeframe we have available to us. To make it even slightly possible, we'll need to pull in some additional resources, plus a miracle or two.

Meantime, I'm still trying to catch up on some sleep and trying to stay healthy.

Memory lane: Day 1 of the Daniel and the Lions shoot

2006-09-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Production diary: Thursday, June 22, 2006

We start this shoot off with a bang: the lions den scenes. Because our production schedules need to run at a fairly brisk pace, we typically allow about half a day to shoot a song. Sometimes less. Seldom more. There are two and a half songs that take place in the lions den. We knew in the planning stages that getting the lions to look the way they do would be a painstaking process, starting ridiculously early in the morning (I think call time started at about 4 a.m. for some of them). So we wanted to do our best to not to have to bring everybody back for a second day. But we also knew that to get it done in a day would make for a long, long day.

The lions den looks amazing. Ken Eklof (set designer) and his team have created the immense structure out of this foam material sprayed over a structure of plywood and 2 by 4s. Tom Larsen (props manager) and his team have likewise done an incredible job decorating the place with cobwebs and bones.

Our cast of lions is a delight to work with. Most of them are Liken veterans. We decided it would be fun to give the lions distinct characters. Rex, the lions’ alpha male, is played by our good pal Dan Beck. Max, the gluttonous over-sized lion, is played by Dave Larsen, who played a wicked priest in Vol. 4 and a Philistine soldier in Vol. 3. His counterpart was Priscilla, the vain and prissy lion, played by a newcomer to the series, Valerie Walker. We found Valerie only a few days before we started shooting (by the way, her husband, Cody Walker, plays the angel that appears to shut the lion’s snouts).

Another Larsen, Levi, plays the role of Chill, the laid-back lion from California. Levi played Moron in Vol. 2 and was the puppeteer behind the jaguars in Vol. 4. Chill’s counterpart was Nell, the nervous lioness, played by Erin Sacks, who played Chanel, the perfume-obsessed maiden in Vol. 6. Then there was Norm, the depressed lion, played by our very own Josh Tenney, who has been in maybe more Likens than we’ve even made. Norm’s opposite was Ray, the optimistic lion, played by another Liken newcomer, Bryan Madsen. Bryan was a last-minute fill-in for an actor who had to drop out at the last minute. He was cast as a prince for his dancing skills. We subsequently discovered that he had an amazing voice as well. I’ve since discovered that a number of our dancing princes were not just amazing dancers, they are excellent singers as well. All around performers.

But today is about the lions, and not only are they talented performers, they are true troopers. In addition to enduring a long day, they spend it in huge wigs and fur. We can’t run the A/C at full strength, because we’ve filled the studio with atmosphere to create cool-looking shafts of light slicing through the cave.
Aaron’s songs for these scenes are terrific. “Meat’s on the Menu Tonight” is the song the lions sing when we first meet them, as they anticipate the arrival of Daniel. It’s an a cappella piece, and we have some very expressive performers who willingly give it their all. The second song, “I’m a Vegetarian Now,” is a hoot. Aaron came up with the idea that the way the angel might shut the lions’ mouths was to turn their carnivorous ways to vegetarian ways.

Pretty fun day, but by the time it is done, our lions are pretty much dead. (Maybe they should eat more meat.) They can pretty much wring out their costumes, which is another good reason why going to a second day might have been unpleasant for our actors.

Can’t wrap up today’s write-up without giving kudos to Janna Larsen (key hair and make-up) and Carla Summers (costume designer). Thought we might have tested their limits with the maiden scene from “Esther,” but I think this might have topped that.

Memory lane: The episode 1 funding miracle

2006-09-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

I think it probably takes a lot of faith to make any movie, but especially if you've never made one before.

Back in early 2003, Ken, Aaron and I were sitting around a table in Ruby's Diner in Pasadena at lunch. We decided to stop talking about it and actually pull the trigger on making our movie. We put together a rough budget, and set about raising funds. In a perfect world, we'd wait until we had all of our funding before moving forward. But because it is necessary to put a number of wheels in motion in the hopes that something will actually come of all of it, you sort of just have to plunge in and hope that it all comes together at roughly the right time.

We sought funding from a number of different sources. We had a good start that came via a friend of Aaron's up in Salt Lake City, where Aaron was living most of the time now. But we knew we needed more -- much more. It is a delicate matter discussing funding with family and friends. Certainly out of my comfort zone, but sometimes, when you know it is important, you go outside your comfort zone. And you ask. We put together an investors kit as best we could, but any savvy investor would look at what we were trying to do (make a movie that was somewhere between a short and a feature -- a musical based on a scripture story, no less), who was trying to do it (three inexperienced guys with little more than passion for a project), and probably run the other way.

But many of the people we approached were like-minded. They wanted to actually get involved in making something of good report. So investments came in small amounts. Sometimes $1000, sometimes a couple thousand, occasionally a little more. It takes awhile to raise funds this way, but it was the only way we it was coming.

Still, there comes a point when your scheduled shooting date is looming and you know you don't have enough money to fund the production and you realize that to start the production without enough to finish it would be throwing all the money down the drain. So we set a go/no-go date. This was the date that the money had to be in or we would pull the plug.

On that date, we had two people come forward seemingly out of nowhere with funds. One was an investment of $9,000. The other was an investment from my mother-in-law for $3,000. Both were unexpected. At that stage, we didn't actually know how short we were in being fully funded for the production effort. I think that was because we knew we were so far shy of our mark that we didn't want to know exactly how far. But I remember when we received these two checks, Ken dug in to figure out where we stood. It turns out he calculated that we were precisely $12,000 short until that day -- the precise amount that had come in.

It was one of those miracles that I didn't even realize at the time, but a couple days later, it hit me how amazing the timing was. And it further convinced me that we were participants in something larger than just ourselves, and I felt blessed, as I still do, to be able to be part of this effort.

A couple of weeks later, we began shooting our first Liken movie, which would become "I Will Go and Do," which would later become "Nephi and Laban."

Auditions

2006-08-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we held the first open call auditions we've had in months. We originally scheduled these auditions back when we were planning to shoot Jonah in October. When we pushed the production until after the new year, we decided to keep the audition date open, focusing not so much on specific parts for Jonah, but as part of our ongoing effort to get more familiar with the local talent pool.

The audition was scheduled to run from 10 am to 2 pm. It was fairly slow for the first couple of hours, during which maybe 10 people showed up. But then, the last two hours, we had about 45 people show up. We didn't get out of there until about 3:30.

In general, I was impressed with the caliber of talent we saw. We seem to be drawing more experienced performers. I'd guess that that was partly because more people have heard of us, partly because we haven't had auditions for awhile, and partly because this audition was publicized more heavily in places where our local experienced acting corps hangs out.

Because we do musicals, we draw a lot of talented singers. But one thing I've noticed that many singers do in an audition: they just stand there and sing. What we hope for is for them to become the character that is singing. Move around, look around, feel the pain, the joy, whatever it is the character is feeling. We typically don't have time in an audition to coach them too much, but if we did, that's what I'd tell them. Convince me that you're not a singer singing a song, you're a character expressing your feelings in the language of movie musicals. It happens maybe in one audition out of 10, but when it does, it is cool and makes it worthwhile.

We also get our share of auditioners who are fans of the series and think it would be fun to be in one of our movies. Sometimes they come as families. They may not have a ton of experience or a great voice, but they believe in what we're trying to do and it feels good to see them express their support in this way. They generally know that they are not looking at a lead role, but an opportunity for a secondary role or even part of the ensemble would mean a lot to them. Just nice, nice people. More than once, they expressed their appreciation for what we're doing and their hope that we would be able to keep producing these for a long time. We express our appreciation for their support and told them we'd do our best.

Also, when we audition, I can't help but feel for the actors and their anxiety levels. I can't help but picture one of my daughters as the auditioner and how I hope that they'd be treated is how I try to treat the auditioners. We try to never cut anybody off (unless they completely blow through the time limits we set), and we always try to find something positive to say. I hope that everybody who auditions for us finds it to be a positive experience, even if it doesn't lead right away to a role in one of our shows.

One last note on auditions. I advise my acting daughters and would say the same to anybody who asks, audition as much as you can. It's the truly uncomfortable part of the entire production process, but it is necessary. And the more you do it, the more comfortable the uncomfortableness becomes. Also, I tell my daughters that because they don't control the casting process, that they shouldn't judge their audition on whether or not they got the role, but on how well they did against their own set of criteria. I know, easier said than done, but worthy saying anyway, I think.

I've heard it said that good casting is 90% of the director's job. I'm not exactly sure of the percentage, but I believe the general gist of that is true. Auditions may not be anybody's favorite thing to do, regardless of what side of the table you're sitting on, but it is necessary.

Liken for the Stage

2006-08-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Getting that much closer to realizing the "Liken for the Stage" series. Finished a few final tweaks to the script of "Nephi & Laban." Still a couple more tweaks needed for the sheet music and music tracks, but then I'm hoping that this will be the start of a useful contribution to the cultural arts efforts of wards and stakes and other groups everywhere.

I'm biased toward these types of activities, since it was in such an activity where I first met my wife. We were paired up in a song called "Eternity is You" (not-so-subtle sign from on high, perhaps?) in the musical "My Turn on Earth." Say what you will about that show, I will be forever indebted to the writers, composers, directors and stake officials who made that show possible in England.

I'm including a picture from the world premiere of the first stage version of "Nephi and Laban." It was put on by a stake up in Edmonton, Alberta. They did a wonderful job, and were most helpful in the process of refining this production for the stage.

I also continued work on "The First Christmas" adaptation. These projects got pushed aside a little so I could focus on some marketing items, but I have been eager to get back to them. The "Christmas" adaptation is a little trickier, given that our version weaves together three separate stories. I think, however, with creative (minimalist) staging, it will work very well. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month.

Post-production work continues on "Daniel." We're pushing to have an official DVD for testing by this Friday.

On marketing

2006-08-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

The focus the last few days has been on marketing our series. Of course, all we want to do is just keep making these. But until a broad enough audience discovers our series, we're restricted on how much we can take on.

I remember back when we made our first Liken in 2003 ("Nephi & Laban," or, as it was then called, "I Will Go and Do"), it took everything we had to get that movie made. Many miracles along the way. As we staggered to the finish line (release date), we were naively hoping that "if we built it, they would come." Well, some did come, and more keep coming with each episode. But it still feels like we have a long way to go before "they" have found us. We are so appreciative of all those who share the series with their friends and family. Without them, who knows if we'd still be going.

Our new marketing guru is working really hard on doing some cool stuff with the artwork for the new movies. I'll see if I can post an in-progress version of the Daniel and the Lions graphic. It's not done-done, but I like where it is going. The Samuel poster he has done is really cool. I'll try to post that one soon.

We did some more tweaking on the Daniel picture lock, and it is getting even tighter. So now we're on Picture Lock 2. Rod's been doing a great job.

I stepped into a couple ADR sessions yesterday, with Matt Bellows, who plays our bad guy, Asad, and Matt Dobson, who plays one of his sidekicks, Hamzah. It's fun to hear the audio elements being added to the visuals. In the rough cuts, we only hear the sounds recorded off the camera mics, so there's lots of distracting noises, like the camera's focus motor, people dropping things off camera, directors speaking over the loud speaker. As each distraction is eliminated, there are fewer and fewer things that pull you out of the movie as you watch it. And that makes me happy.

We've got some fun plans for marketing this holiday season. Still a lot of details to work out, but I'm hopeful that they will help take this series to a much broader audience.

Stage adaptations

2006-08-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a few days in Southern California, where I went to visit my parents and do some writing. Though it has been devastatingly hot there recently, I enjoyed perfect weather during my trip. Enjoyed a few strolls along the beach and, of course, In-and-Out.

Before I left, I went through the second version of the rough cut of Daniel. Rod, our editor, had made many tweaks. We discussed a few more and he sent it to render. That process takes over night and then some. He then sent me a copy of what we're calling Picture Lock 1, which is supposed to be the finished version of the movie, at least in terms of shot selection and timing. But the fact that we put the "1" after the words Picture Lock suggests that we know there will likely be additional tweaks before all is said and done. That said, Picture Lock 1 is a considerable improvement over Rough Cut 1. Work is proceeding at a feverish pace on the audio elements. Each additional element that gets attached to the project enhances it more and more. I enjoy seeing the transformation the movies make from a rough collection of clips to a finished movie.

In California, I rewrote our stage adaptation of our first installment in the Liken series: Nephi & Laban. I had a few pages of notes I had made after viewing the "world premiere" of the stage version in Canada earlier this year. In addition, I have been in communication with the impressive young university student up there who was the director on the project. Michael had also prepared a 45+ page document called "Directors Notes" which will be invaluable for any ward or stake wanting to take this project on. The rewrite itself was fairly extensive. I added more interaction between the modern-day boy and the ancient characters and between modern-day characters to help cover the set changeovers. In addition to helping to keep the production moving along, I think it adds a new twist on the stage version, so that people who have seen the movie will hopefully find the stage version to be just that right combination of fresh and familiar.

I also started working on the stage version of our fifth movie, "The First Christmas." This is somewhat more challenging, in that this production interweaves three different stories and many different sets. In the movie version, it is no problem to cut back and forth from story to story. Not so easy in the stage version. But so far so good. I'm about halfway through.

After having spent the last several days out of town, tomorrow will most likely be a catch-up day on the many other elements of studio business. Then I hope to return to the adaptation of "The First Christmas" so I can get it done before the end of the week.

Jonah and Daniel

2006-07-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

The morning after I finished a draft of the Jonah treatment, I took a look at it with fresh eyes. That's always a good idea, and really helped this time. I had some thoughts on how I could flesh out the scenes involving Ninevah (introducing a new character -- the queen, which lets us work in a female role into this otherwise male-dominated story) and how we could have some fun with "Tarshish" in song (which is easy for me to say, but Aaron gets the challenge of seeing if it can fly lyrically).

Anyway, after a couple of additional hours of tweaking, I sent the treatment out to our key people for their review and input. We'll see how that goes.

Watched the first rough cut of "Daniel and the Lions" this weekend. The first rough cut is usually pretty devastating. There's no score, the audio is all over the map (sometimes inaudible, sometimes blaring, seldom balanced), there's no color correction, and other things that can make you depressed about the prospects for the finished movie. However, after having gone through the process a half dozen times, I've learned not to read too much into my feelings after viewing a rough cut. That said, while there were several elements that concerned me about this rough cut, I was not nearly as devastated as I have been. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think this will be a nice addition to the Liken line up.

This week I hope to start a rewrite of the "Nephi and Laban" stage adaptation based on what I saw on my trip to Edmonton, Alberta for the premiere of the stage version. I also want to start the first draft of a stage adaptation of "The First Christmas," which we hope to have ready for stakes for this Christmas. We have some interest from a stake in Arizona, and hopefully others will come forward. I know putting on such a project is a huge challenge, and that any stake that agrees to undertake this challenge deserves heaps of blessings and a lot of appreciation from their youth.

But first up this week is to work through the pages of notes we'll have on the rough cut of Daniel. That starts tomorrow.

Jonah treatment

2006-07-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've been holed up the last couple of days focusing on writing the treatment for "Jonah and the Great Fish." It's a challenge to sequester myself, since there are many things going on that are of interest. But I know that until I get a treatment done, all the other departments are in limbo. For example, I got a call yesterday from Ken Eklof, who has spent the past month in Nauvoo performing the role of Brigham Young. While Ken is a talented performer, he is also our set designer, and he is keenly interested in knowing what he can start planning on. He was hoping to send his boys down to the studio to start tearing down the village market set from Daniel. But I told him that it is possible we could want to hold onto that set to adapt for Ninevah.

But that, based on the principle of dominos, creates the problem of where to build our boat and great fish sets. At this stage, I don't see how we can fit all the sets in our current space unless we spread the shoot out to allow time for a major rebuild. But, we're early in the process and new ideas could still occur that could help us figure out a workable solution.

Anyway, I finished a draft of the treatment about an hour ago. I'm pretty pleased with it, although it still needs some massaging. For one thing, right now it's only got 5 songs in it. Normally, we get about twice that. So we'll have to look closer at that. I would like to flesh it out a little more, but on the other hand, I don't want the story to drag out, like some old musical that feels like it's breaking into a song every fifth minute. That problem notwithstanding, once again I am in awe of how rich the scriptures can be as you dig into them and start to imagine what the participants were like and how they must've felt in the various situations in which they found themselves. Plus, as I dig into the stories, I'm always struck by how many "liken" angles we could use.

On another front, saw a two-page spread on "Daniel" that is going in a magazine next month. It was designed by our new marketing guru, Brandon Very nicely done. He's very talented on the creative end, as well as the implementation of the creative stuff. Nice combination.

Rod's been cranking away at the rough cut of Daniel. If all goes well, we should have something to watch this weekend.

Getting tired. Think I must call it a night. Hopefully, in the morning, I'll have fresh eyes that will help me tighten up this treatment before I send it out to the team for their input.

Cleaning up and moving on

2006-07-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

Not much to report yet. After wrapping Wednesday, it was time to catch up on e-mails, management meetings and phone calls. That took up most of Thursday and Friday. Also, some much needed family time. We went to dinner together and also caught the new "Pirates" movie, which was a lot of fun.

Also on Friday, T.J. Young came in to do some post audio work. He was our Ammon in our second movie and plays the role of Samuel in our eighth movie that comes out in November, "Samuel and the Christmas Prophecy." It was good to see him again. He's been off climbing world peaks and is about to leave for several months to direct the national touring production of "Aida," so we had to get him in here before it was too late. It was a little bit of a mad scramble to get his scenes of "Samuel" roughly edited so we had something to ADR to.

Yesterday, Saturday, started to get serious about wrapping my mind around Jonah. Mostly, that involved organizing my Jonah binder, re-reading the scripture story, and doing some research Ninevah (those Ninevanians (Ninevites?) were nasty).

There is a whole lot of editing to get done in a big hurry for "Daniel and the Lions." We're hoping to have a rough cut done this week.

Wrap day

2006-07-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today we returned to the home in Mapleton that serves as Amelia Brown's family house. We were here pretty close to a year ago shooting the modern-day bookends for our last batch of movies. It was Christmas in July then, just as it was today. Fortunately, this scene involved only an interior -- no snowing up the outside of the house during a windstorm like we had to do last year.

We shot three scenes in the house involving Amelia, her father, and George the housekeeper. Each actor is very professional, and the day was completed a few minutes before 2 p.m., which also served as a wrap for the 5-day bookend shoot. Fast and furious, and it felt like we covered quite a bit of ground. Although you never fully know how well what you shot works until the final piece is edited together, it felt like we got what we needed, and many wonderful moments.

We had a really good crew as well. In our type of productions, it is important to have a crew on hand that knows what it is doing AND does it in a way that is conducive to what we're trying to do. Many times I hear somebody start to say something they shouldn't, catch themselves, apologize, then move on. At the end of the shoot, I had a number of people come up and say how refreshing and unusual it is to work in this type of environment where everybody is nice to each other and there is an atmosphere of respect. Although I don't have much experience in other types of sets, I still can appreciate what they mean and count myself greatly blessed.

No time to relax after the shoot, however. People are waiting on me for the script to "Jonah and the Great Fish," which is scheduled to go before the cameras in October. Although I have a rough idea of how I want to approach that, tomorrow, I begin work on that script in earnest.

A new "imaginer child"

2006-07-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

In the Liken series, we see the scripture stories unfold through the imagination of a modern-day child. Thus far, we have had two "imaginer" children, Spencer and Amelia.

We are now introducing our third, Devin. After much looking, we found an adorable young boy, Isaiah Smith. He's 6, and my experience in working with young children has made me leery of writing anything for such a young age. Not that I don't like children. It's just that shooting a movie sounds more fun than it actually is, especially for kids. By the time you're on your 4th take of your 7th set-up, not many kids that age are eager to do it again. But this episode seemed like it needed to be somebody about that age, and I felt that if we looked hard enough, we'd find a kid who could play this part. It took quite awhile, but we found him. He came to us via a referral of a friend of ours, Marvin Perkins, from Southern California.

When Isaiah came in to audition, I had my doubts. He was a cute young boy, but like many young boys his age, he was awfully wiggly and smiley, and this role called for the character to be a sad little boy. But we gave him some homework -- to go take a day or two to see if he could do a whole scene and look sad the whole time. When he came back a couple of days later, I still had my doubts, because he was still awfully smiley and wiggly when we were chatting before the call back. Then, when we called action, young Isaiah went to work. The smile and wiggles disappeared, and out came this sad little boy, with slow nods and mournful eyes. When we cut, the wiggles and smiles came back, but not until then. Suddenly, we were very encouraged. The topper was that he had two older sisters who came with him, and it just so happened that the script called for Devin to have two older sisters. We auditioned them, too, and when all was said and done, I was very encouraged.

A couple of days later, I called to give them the news, and there was a lot of rejoicing in the background as mom relayed the news.

We began shooting yesterday at Devin's Grandpa George's house. George is played by Amelia's housekeeper, who has since retired to live closer to his grandchildren. The scenes were shot at the Olmsted complex at the mouth of Provo Canyon, an absolutely beautiful park-like setting that my brother, Ken, lined up for us via the Utah Valley Film Commission.

The most difficult scene involved an exterior, when Devin's parents say goodbye to Devin and his siblings before leaving for a trip. The scene included Debbie Stapley, who played "Queen Lamoni" in our second movie. She played Devin's mom. Devin's dad was played by Marvin Perkins. The scene involved about 9 different set-ups, and we had to get it before the sun moved too much and showered our actors with sunlight, whereas they had been in shadow for the bulk of the scene. We finished just in the nick of time and got some great performances all around.

After we wrapped at Devin's house, we all rushed back to Dixon school in Provo to do a pick-up of a scene involving Thurl Bailey. We only found out this morning that Thurl would be available to do the shoot, provided we could fit it in a 90-minute window during the afternoon. It was a bit of a logistical challenge, but Ken managed to book both actors and the school in time. We finished the scene with minutes to spare. But I'm delighted we got it, because it will enable us to tie Thurl Bailey the stern school principal to Thurl Bailey as Goliath in Amelia's imagination.

One more shooting day, tomorrow, then we're done with the bookends shoot. Tomorrow, it's back to Amelia's house to shoot a portion of "Samuel and the Christmas Prophecy" bookends.

Shooting bookends

2006-07-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

In the middle of shooting the modern-day bookends for three Liken the Scriptures movies. On Friday, we shot two major scenes at Dixon Middle School in Provo. These were two rehearsals for two school school concerts.

The first is for an alternate, ecumenical version of our "David & Goliath" movie. It concerns a young girl, Amelia, who is asked by her choir teacher if she would be willing to fill in for another girl who has fallen ill in the concert's teacher-student duet. To help build Amelia's courage, the wise teacher, played nicely by Angela Winston, tells Amelia that sometimes we have something inside us that we may not see ourselves, but "Somebody up there does." To illustrate, she tells her the story of a young shepherd, named David. We have already shot and released another version of the movie, which features a young boy overcoming the challenge of giving a talk in Stake Conference, but we also want to release a version that might be more readily understood by a broader audience.

The second rehearsal involves the same young girl, Amelia, some months later, when she finds out that her teacher has been suspended for refusing to remove the song "Silent Night" from the upcoming Winter Festival concert. The district administrator, played wonderfully by George Dyer, steps in to take over as the choir teacher.

I was delighted with the way both scenes played out. It was a long day, but we got about 10 pages shot.

The next day, Saturday, was an even bigger challenge. We shot the two school concerts that went with each of the rehearsals we shot on Saturday. We had about 370 people volunteer (bless their hearts) to be members of the audience. In addition, we had about another 40 cast members, and a crew of probably 50 or so. If I'm right on my math, that's about 460 people on location -- a new record for us (and one that I hope stands for a long time).

Given the numbers, I thought the day went as smoothly as possible. I'm truly grateful for my wife, Suzanne, for heading up craft services so graciously. I thought yesterday how that project that she handles on a volunteer-basis has grown from feeding a tiny cast and crew on the early movies with trips to KFC to this fairly full blown operation. She's got some wonderful helpers, too. I noticed my daughter, Danielle, getting up at 4 a.m. to and pitching in throughout the long day without a complaint. (My other two daughters, Katie and Alexandra, help out too at the check-in table and wherever else they're needed.)

When it comes time to shoot the concert scenes, people are very patient and give it their best to get into the spirit of the scenes. In both concerts, I was moved to tears many times (granted, not an especially hard thing to get me to do -- but still!), and as I looked around, I could see I was not alone. Frank Gerrish, who plays George, the housekeeper, told me that he brought some stuff that actors put in their eyes to produce tears, but found that he didn't need them. Very touching scenes. I feel deeply appreciative of everyone who worked so hard to make those scenes possible. I truly hope we have been able to capture the feeling we were hoping to get.

When the day ends, there's still a few hours of wrap up work to do, and by the time we get home, we are zombies. But we are happy zombies, and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the rest of the Sabbath. Tomorrow, Monday, we are back at it at a different location in Orem. I'll write more about that (hopefully) soon.