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Patrol Mag Ralph Winters Interv: Show, Don’t Tell

PatrolMag.com writer Gail Patches had a chance to interview WOLVERINE Producer Ralph Winters recently at the Biola Media Conference and got some good stuff.  One of my favorite answers was this one because it shows both his experience and candor:

(EXCERPT) Winter: The better question is, “What possessed you to think you could do Christian films?” I set out to make Left Behind as a movie that would entertain people about what the Bible says about how the world will end and to put that movie out in the world in 2000 when people were hysterical about what was going to happen, “Is the world going to end?”

Yeah, um, and it went south with the filmmakers who really wanted to make an evangelistic tract out of it. That’s not what I wanted to do. Because I don’t think that has the same kind of power as a journey through the process of how the world ends. So it was successful in Christian circles. I mean, a lot of people saw the movie, but you know, the movie wasn’t that good. So I’ve since dabbled in some other stuff that is darker. Like The Visitation, Hangman’s Curse, House, Thr3e. You know, it’s been a tough struggle. We have not done as well in some of those as we thought. Lately we’ve been thinking that maybe we’ve been aiming at too specific, too narrow a market. We frankly struggle with what it means and what we’re going to do with it.

Making a movie is near to impossible, the experts will tell us.  Making a GREAT movie then takes a festivus miracle!  Balancing message and entertainment, form and content and connecting with your audience is a game of inches we like to say.  It’s not nearly as easy as some make it look.  Go too far one direction and all you’ve got is MR AND MRS SMITH (fun to watch, no point to it whatsover) go too far the other direction and you’ve got BATTLEFIELD EARTH (you know, the Scientology commercial).  

Anyway, good to hear that great filmmakers like Winters are hashing it out alongside the rest of us.

Head over to Patrol and read the FULL ARTICLE

Patrol is an independent daily magazine where young writers explore their interactions with art, culture, politics, and technology. We’re based in New York City, but you’ll find our contributors all across the globe. Patrol began in 2006 as a blog covering Christian and independent music in Washington, D.C. 

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