Today I announced the open registration for a new LDS-themed filmmaking marthon, Sun Swing Blitz. This idea has been several months in the making and had evolved from the idea of a film festival to a very content specific campaign to produce the remainder of the stories that I had rights to produce from the Friend magazine. To invite other participants on board required a degree of divestment from the project, and an ever greater degree of humility. At the same time, the thought that there would be other working on these projects is exciting. Full details can be found on the production blitz pages.
If you’ve got the time and any inclination towards filmmaking, I’d warmly encourage you to consider your involvement in first Sun Swing Blitz.
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Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
A New Kind of LDS Filmmaking Marathon
Thursday, January 12th, 2012 -
Our Focus on LDS Kids Videos
Monday, December 26th, 2011 -
Recently we pushed live a new page discussing our focus on LDS Kids videos and family entertainment. Our reason for doing so was purely strategic, but it also allowed us to turn our attentions to those terms that people could be using to find more information about our project. In other words, I’ve kind of been shying away from branding our animated series of stories from The Friend magazine as being “LDS Kids Videos,” but at the end of the day, we realized that we were not giving people the information that they needed to find these videos online. (more…)
Introducing Production Blitzes
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 -
I’ve talked about and shopped around the idea of starting a film festival for some time. More recently, in discussions with friends and my wife/secretary, we had been talking about film making workshops for youth. We really like this idea and hope to see it gain even more momentum in months to come. However, there still remains before me one over arching immediate objective: the goal to produce a series of short stories from the Friend magazine. (more…)
Production Resumes on “A Gift for Kathryn,” Again
Friday, November 18th, 2011 -
I can’t even recall what has caused me to take up production again on this first animated project that initiated the Friend magazine animated series. (more…)
The True Stories of Christ
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 -
The time is at hand for me to start work on yet another exciting chapter in the evolving purpose for the Sun Swing Media Company. I suppose for a company of one (two if I count my wife) official announcements aren’t much of a big to-do, so there’s not really any fear of letting the cat out of the bag prematurely, so to speak.
Yet, before I jump to the “big” news, here is the reason for it. It has been brought to my attention, on several occasions, how the true stories of Mormonism are actually the continuation of the work of Christ in our day. What is most interesting about the bulk of Christian and even a fair amount of LDS media is that, and especial for children, we are only telling the stories of Christ anciently, those that are taken from the Scriptures. Now that’s all fine and good, but there is a reality of which as LDS media producers that we must come to appreciate.
Starting with Joseph Smith, who did the best with what established Christianity had given him, and then had God the Father and His Son appear to him, the opening of a new canon of living scripture began to be written more abundantly. In reality, only the doctrines and the covenants associated with that “scripture” have been recorded and officially canonized. The stories have not been committed to scripture in our day, except for the very beginning of Joseph Smith’s work as a prophet. But the stories of the rise and spread of the work of Christ in our day are here and they are here in abundance.
It is not my purpose here to elaborate in greater detail at this moment in time about the stories, these true stories of Christ’s modern ministry. Yet, it is the recognition that there are so very few of such stories being told, that has promoted me to organize a film festival dedicated exclusively to the story telling of the work of Christ in our day, with all its attended suffering, hardship, dedication, work, and rejoicing.
Without having worked out details of any venue or other logistics, of which I know there is much to do, I am beginning work on the development of an online and local film/media festival in Phoenix metropolitan area. To stay abreast of the latest details, like “Sun Swing” on Facebook or sign up for our email newsletter. Our Facebook page is setup to receive our latest blog updates. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for the site directly located at the top or bottom of any page on the site.
Why? Because the sun is rising.
17 Miracles Download Online For Free
Monday, October 10th, 2011 -
So if you’ve come to this page, you’re probably like me: looking for some where to watch 17 Miracles as a download or online, maybe you even want to do it for free. (Well, perhaps I should chide you ever so mildly for wanting to watch it for free, especially when we’re otherwise very willing to plop down $10 for less-than-worthy entertainment elsewhere. But that’s not my point in posting this article.) This is something of an experiment to see how much web traffic I can drive to a single post about the movie 17 Miracles being available for download online. Which as far as I am aware, it is not available legitimately online anywhere for download. (more…)
“Why No Moral Movies”
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 -
I was reviewing the search terms this morning that are bring people to my website, and one of them (though it was a bounced result) was the question, “Why No Moral Movies?” So doing a search, I was curious to see where my website would show up in search results for the term. It was no where near the top… but there was on Yahoo’s Q & A nearly the same question posed. I’m not very satisfied with the answers posted, so that I thought I’d present my own answer here. (more…)
Bloggers Blogging about “The Decision”
Friday, September 9th, 2011 -
As a part of our efforts to increase exposure and awareness of “The Decision,” my wife has volunteered to begin the very arduous task of contacting bloggers individually to do a review on the short animation. The response has been encouraging in a big way. Below is a list of those who have taken up the invitation to spread the word — each with their own unique take on the subject, each caring deeply about the importance of this project. We can only say thank you for your participation, but we wish we could do more. (more…)
“Lost in a Blizzard” Added to Friend Series
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 -
Just a quick note today to announce the addition of one more story to the original series of Friend stories. I’ve received author release to produce “Lost in a Blizzard.” The story is told of a young boy on a snowmobile, who instead of following his father’s directions, veers off on his own in the thick of a winter blizzard. I’m very excited by the artistic possibilities for this story in addition to the powerful message. More details will be forthcoming.
Christopher Noonan, Where Are You?
Monday, September 5th, 2011 -
I have long felt that in order for filmmakers to have a positive social impact on society, there had to be a degree of abundant productivity either individually or collectively as a group. Notice my premise and the reason for this discussion. My premise is that film does have a tremendous impact on the social dialog of a society, especially our youth culture. The other assumption that I’m making is that a group of morally responsible filmmakers can grab this industry by the reigns and pull it out of its downward spiral. This will not happen with one film alone, it will not happen with one filmmaker alone, but a collective group of responsible filmmakers, that work together to repeatedly produced content that lifts up the common man to consider the higher views of humanity and the beautiful world we live in, can have such an effect. (more…)