Master Media Int'l 30th Anniversary Debrief

On March 3rd I attended the 30th Anniversary/Retirement Dinner for Larry Poland at the Universal Hilton.  This was my first time attending one of their events although I have followed Larry's ministry very attentively these past 30 years.  You see, Larry came to my church and spoke one Sunday evening back in 1985 or thereabouts.  I later bought a copy of his book "The Last Temptation of Hollywood" and took its lessons to heart.

In his book he recounts the collective Christian response to Universal's movie The Last Temptation of Christ. The film was loaded with blasphemous details that directly contradicted the clear history of the Bible.  Christian leaders at the time organized street protests outside the studio gates and letter writing campaigns to express their displeasure.  The movie wasn't very good anyway so it fizzled at the box office although, it might have done worse had the protest not drawn so much attention to it. The key take-away from the experience for Larry was the chasm of misunderstanding that existed between Hollywood and the church-going community.  You see, from the perspective of Hollywood, Christians are moralistic objectors and nothing more.  Hollywood never hears from Christians unless they're objecting to something. He sought to change that and I believe he succeeded in a lot of ways.

Not only did the ministry reach out to studio executives through personal contacts but the Prayer Calendar created an opportunity for Christians to do something positive for Hollywood without costing a stamp. Knowing that you're being prayed for can often be just the encouragement a person needs.  Especially a famous person who has to keep a safe distance from fans for his or her own protection. The prayer calendar was used by God in a number of ways and each story is very exciting, IMO.

Larry also created a list of Survival Principals called "Lion's Den Survival Principals" to help Christians like me who were working in and among the studios and Entertainment Industry. When I was working at Walt Disney Imagineering in the late 90's, I kept a print out of these principals on my cubicle wall as a reminder and encouragement.  I copied them and handed them out to other Christians along the way.

I should hasten to add that I am from Northern California and not a native Southern Californian. This is important because the culture in the California central valley has more in common with rural Indiana than it does with Burbank.  My move to Burbank surrounded by planes, trains and traffic was a very big step of faith and courage for this shy girl from Modesto.  And Larry Poland was the one who planted the original seed of my prayer back in the mid-eighties.  He never knew it until now.

So here we are 30 years later.  He was the only person I knew at the Anniversary event and he was the first person I ran into when I walked through the door. He recognized me!  I was so surprised by that although in retrospect, I shouldn't have been.  But it was because I had sent him the link to my video a few years ago (we had never met in person before).  Then he sent me a copy of his book detailing the coincidences in his own walk of Faith. My link is here: http://april14inhistory.blogspot.com  So I feel we are kindred spirits (As Anne of Green Gables was fond of saying)!

Here is a clip of the final song at the event.  I shot this clip because you can see Larry in the lower left as he appreciates the sentiments of the song. What a soft heart he has. What a dear child of God I see. Hollywood is a place of rawhide & stoney hearts so the juxtaposition of this scene is not lost on me.

As I drove home alone from the event (with a few contact business cards in my pocket) I felt grieved. This was Larry's retirement dinner that included the installation of his successor so this night signaled a big change. Why was I so grieved?  Why did I feel like bursting into tears? It took me several days to understand it.  I felt like I had lost a pastor.  Yes, I've joined and ministered in several churches in the area over the past 20 years and I've sat under the teaching of many qualified pastors with whom I have done the usual children's, women's & single's ministries. But none of them - not one - shared my love for the mission field that is Hollywood. Larry was different. So different. I feel a keen loss but like so many losses, I know God will fill the gap. For 20 years I sure needed Larry Poland's ministry in my life and I wouldn't be here today without it. Larry is moving to Carol Stream, IL and if he looks at these things the way I do - we'll always be connected by a thread.

I actually made it into the background of one picture from the event.  How appropriate! Ken Wales (pictured) is the only other person at the event that I had previously met.  He came as a guest speaker to the LAFSC one day in 1995 and I gave him a little "insider" scoop on a project he was exploring about George Fox (my alma matter).  He gave me a signed Christy poster at the time. :-)

Perceptions of Wedding Videography

     Most people are very traditional about weddings. There's nothing more ancient than marriage - it goes back to Adam & Eve - so people tend to fall back to their oldest traditions when the big day comes. They do whatever their parents did. Most of your parents did not get videography. 1) because wedding videos looked fuzzy & cheezy in the last century 2) a better film/video cost a mint  3) weddings are sacred ceremonies and video has a reputation for being just an entertainment medium.

     But that was then.  What about now? Wedding videography can look fabulous! There are filmmakers everywhere who love creating beautiful movies so they're not going to over-charge you for the privilege. Video is the best way to record a memory and people are finding that out. Video is the best way to validate and respect a special moment because it means you want to remember it. Yet there are still many who aren't up to speed on the importance of family event videography. I've asked many busy photographers how often they see videographers at weddings and they usually tell me, "1 in 10 weddings has a videographer." What is the reason for this disparity? I can think of at least two dark + dirty reasons for this (please don't hate me for saying it).

     Reason #1: Many wedding photographers hold videography in contempt. They don't understand it and they therefore talk it down to every customer they meet. The most obvious way they talk it down is by offering it on the side. Nothing says "cheap" more vividly than offering to throw it in. That's like saying, "I'll chauffeur you to the airport for $2000 and for an extra $500, I'll fly the plane." The second way to show contempt is by being unable to articulate the difference between photography and videography. This leaves the client with a poor impression of videography too - like it's some other-worldly enigma. The third method of contempt is to infer that videography will break your budget. They don't want you dividing your budget between photo & video - they want it all. (Here's the X-files secret: you can get decent photography with plain digital images for just $100/hr).

     Reason #2: Many (male) video enthusiasts are calling themselves videographers and presenting themselves to the public as such when they shouldn't. They took a few classes at community college and bought the latest camera. Now they feel ready because, after all, it's just a wedding video. Or worse - they're actually photography enthusiasts who do video "as a sideline". Their work is average-at-best but their ego is limitless and they talk like used car salesmen. (how horrible I am to say such things!) They say things like, "That's the fair market value" and "I know it's an easy thing to film (funeral/speech) but I gotta keep up with the industry standard fee." That's a full barrel of hogwash. How's a bride or a grieving widow supposed to sort through all this flotsam of pretentious snobbery to find a competent filmmaker who will capture her precious memory in a dignified way?

How is Wedding Videography Characterized on Television?

There are also serious perception problems related to the portrayal of event videography in mainstream entertainment. Whenever a wedding is depicted on a TV show or in a movie - there is never a videographer unless the videographer is committing a crime or facilitating some obnoxious comedy. Picture Perfect with Jennifer Aniston is the only movie I know of that featured a wedding videographer in a positive way (she falls in love with him). When John Watson got married on Sherlock, they didn't have a videographer there either...and the photographer turned out to be the murderer (surprise, surprise). Liar, Liar had a wedding episode where a team of 4 wedding videographers committed a crime at a wedding. There's a British movie called The Wedding Video in which the videographer is an obnoxious amateur. All the other famous wedding movies have no videographer at all and barely even a photographer.

If you watch those bride shows on television, you don't see videographers there either because the TV film crew for the show is itself the video coverage for that wedding. The show producers do give the featured couple a copy of the raw footage but it's not the same by any means. I edited the raw footage from a Hot Hawaiian Wedding not long ago and most of the ceremony was missing because they didn't need it for the show. I think the couple might have liked having that, don't you?

So you see, Hollywood never includes us as a normal natural part of a wedding experience. Hollywood doesn't do genuine realism ....not even on their reality shows! I once worked alongside a reality TV crew who was making a show about the wedding planner and they were pretty dismissive towards me. As entertainers, they did not appreciate my goal of capturing memories for the couple. Unlike me, they measure worth in dollars, not relationships. (Lets just say I'm more of a Frank Capra than a Harry Cohn!)

So, the mischaracterization of event videography in media has lead the public to believe that I'm 1) criminally inclined 2) obnoxious  3) irrelevant. Honestly, if I could sue Hollywood I almost would but it's a 99-headed snake with a nature that doesn't change ...and besides it wouldn't be very nice.  

Traditional Wedding Vows

These are known as Puritan Marriage Vows and are not often used these days although we often quote them when we want to remind squabbling spouses what they promised.  These words are profound in their simplicity and each word deserves a lot of thought. Not unlike the pledge of allegiance!

I _________, take you, ___________ to be my wedded [wife/husband], 

to have and to hold from this day forward, 

for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, 

in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 

'til death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; 

thereto I pledge my love."

"According to God's holy ordinance" is such a vital phrase. Marriage is from God and regulated by the state - not the other way around.  I believe those who most militantly desire alternate forms of marriage are driven by a desire to unseat God.  "Thus saith the Lord" is a most offensive phrase to them. Anyway, I know I would want to use these vows.