In the Spring of 2005, an incoming freshman inquired of me, an outbound senior, my position about the film program at BYU, from which I was graduating. My answer surprised both him and me. I told him it was perfect. Perhaps there was some skepticism on his part, but I confidently reinforced my position. The faculty of Brigham Young University’s Media Arts Program were and are still today the very best any university program has to offer.
There was an important discovery, however, that gave my schooling the meaning and significance that enabled me to reply with unflinching confidence to my freshman associate. What I came to BYU seeking– an education in moral film theory and production– wasn’t there, not because it was being blatantly ignored, but because a school of moral film as I had expected it to be, it wasn’t. This is partly my fault for bringing a preconceived notion to the program. BYU is as close as it gets to an education in moral film studies, but as with any college education, it is not the ending, but a good beginning.
I finished my undergraduate studies with the sense that there was more. There the adventure began, daring me to define the undefined, to organize the chaos, to establish a moral media production house that would point people to God. It already existed individually among working professionals, my university professors, and lay artists alike. The challenge remained to extracted it from those inner sinews of creative minds and hearts — a resource to educate future media producers. Until we have reached a level that would easily be termed “prolific,” we have much work to do. When we get there, then there will be even more work to do.
Thus, the formation of the Sun Swing Media Company and its accompanying papers on moral media theory. The life blood of these studies is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yet, all are encouraged to participate regardless of religious creed. Out of the abundance of wholesome living exudes expressions of gratitude and peace, of which all human beings are capable of obtaining. This organization aims to funnel these expressions into engaging and entertaining media projects. The self-centered and self-promoting need not apply.
You’re visiting the Sun Swing Media Company: a production house for animation, a repository for moral media theory, a web shop to pay the bills, and a refuge from the raging storm of immorality!
-Brent Leavitt
May 2011
This article was first published in June 2008, it has since been revised and republished with the launch of the new sunswingmedia.com.