Soundstage Shopping

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.