![Hi [YOUR NAME], Hope for a Nation](http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/images/Remember911_top-1.jpg)
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Hi friend,
Last weekend I went camping with some friends in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was beautiful! At night, the sky was clear and millions of stars shone overhead. In the midst of such splendor it was easy to tune out the world and enjoy God’s creation.
Driving home, I remembered that all is not idyllic. We are a nation at war because 6 years ago, we experienced brutal terrorist attacks. Do you remember where you were Tuesday, September 11, 2001? Maybe you received an urgent call from a friend or watched the news in horror. Possibly you experienced the terror up close and personal.
In November 2001, I visited New York on business with a colleague. One evening we went to a Broadway show and dinner, then headed to Ground Zero. As we walked the streets close to the areas of devastation, it was almost overwhelming. We tasted ashes of fires still burning and wept for the many lives lost. Yet in the midst of the ruins small signs of hope emerged.
Walking by St. Paul’s Chapel, we saw flowers, mementos, and notes expressing the condolences of people around the world. As days passed, stories of amazing survival were told.
Jon and Andy Erwin heard of a cross that appeared in the rubble of Ground Zero, created by beams deep within the structure. Following that story led them to document some amazing stories of hope from those dark days.
This September 11, let’s celebrate the miracles and events that remind us all is not lost. Let’s remember the ordinary citizens whose extraordinary acts of courage made them our nation’s heroes.
In October we celebrate the men and women who serve as clergy in our churches. If you’re looking for a gift, I know some great videos they’ll enjoy.
From the screening room,
Angela Walker
ChristianMovieNews.com
3 powerful documentaries of God at work in the midst of one of our nation's greatest national tragedies
September 11, 2001 - A day that will never be forgotten. A day when ordinary men and women would face the unbelievable, and experience what few ever dreamed or thought possible: A terrorist attack in the heart of New York and the Pentagon, claiming nearly three thousand lives and leaving scenes of incomprehensible destruction. Yet God was still at work...
As rescue and recovery began, a select group of men and women would be forced endure their worst nightmare: living and working inside ground zero. Yet in the midst of the devastation, an amazing discovery would bring hope when it was needed most. Follow the lives of seven individuals who’s lives were changed forever, not only by the horrific day of September 11, but by the stunning symbol of hope they found buried beneath the rubble of ground zero. Witness though firsthand accounts this stunning story of hope, a story that has never been told.
The Heroes of Flight 93 reveals the untold story of the plane's heroic passengers and crew with details you've never heard before. Pieced together from years of painstaking investigation and the heart-wrenching testimony of those who received phone calls from the plane…the true story of Flight 93 can finally be told.
Are miracles a thing of the past, or does the hand of God intervene in our lives even today? In a world filled with news of violence and tragedy, it’s sometimes difficult to accept even the possibility of supernatural help. But if we look beyond the headlines, we find there are untold stories of miracles to be found in the most unlikely of places.
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Featured Filmmaker: Jon Erwin
by Angela Walker
Andy and Jon Erwin, of Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures, got their big breaks as cameramen for ESPN. While millions of people sit in their chairs watching Monday Night Football, the brothers were right in the middle of the action as part of the crews bringing this celebrated sport to life.
Jon just celebrated his 3-year anniversary with his wife Beth, and Andy just married Mandi 4 months ago. Their father is Senator Hank Erwin, who is serving his second term in the Alabama Senate. Before becoming a state senator, Hank Erwin was heavily involved in radio and television, hosting a Larry-King like Christian show in Alabama for 14 years. Because of their dad’s involvement in entertainment, Andy and Jon literally grew up in the business.
CC.com: How did The Cross and the Towers come about?
Jon: The project was brought to us by Scott Perkins and Philip Wentzell of Atlas Productions. It was mine and Andy’s first venture into filmmaking, back in 2005. We knew we wanted to go in the direction of feature films and documentaries, but hadn’t yet. We were involved in another production they came to us about a pastor named Carl Keys who had done relief work for several months at Ground Zero. They kept telling us that we needed to talk with him, that we needed to interview him. We turned them down twice.
They came back and said they were going to interview him, could we at least take a camera and film it? That initial interview lasted 3 hours and left us all in tears. That led to an investor telling us to please go find the rest of the story. We went on a year and five months’ trek to find the stories he was talking about.
We discovered this wonderful story about the only monument at Ground Zero for 5 years. It was a cross; one that New York City didn’t want to give any publicity to. It was discovered in a cavern at Ground Zero, literally in a place that became known as “God’s House.” It wasn’t made by any person; it was just found standing straight up and down, formed from beams. So the story just evolved.
Another funny thing about that documentary is that there was never a word put to page for that film. There was never a script; no narration. It just evolved little by little. We did a couple of little paragraphs of synopsis, but there was never a script. And it was on spec (done without any pre-arranged distribution or sale), which a lot of those films never see the light of day. We were very fortunate that some people came to the table to help with distribution. Paul Crouch, Jr., (from TBN) saw it and liked it, so it aired on TBN. The fact that it got out to the public was a miracle in itself.
It did really well at festivals. The response is very polarized. In the Christian community, obviously, it’s embraced as a great example of God giving hope in the midst of your worst nightmare. He’s not going to necessarily take you out of your worst nightmare, but he will give you hope in it.
My brother-in-law is an example of that. He had a son who died of a brain tumor at the age of 5 two years ago. We all walked that journey with him. In the film is the story of a retired New York firefighter (Lee Ielpi) who had 2 sons that were also firefighters; one survived and one didn’t. The first time my brother-in-law saw that film, he said, “If that guy can find hope, so can I.”
Debra Burlingame, whose brother piloted the plane that went down in Pennsylvania, saw it and called it inspirational. She thought we really captured the meaning of the day.
On the secular side, though, obviously we’ve been accused of interjecting religion where it doesn’t belong. At the Palm Beach International Film Festival, where we first showed it, a guy walked out of the theater saying it was propaganda, and you can’t mix God with 9/11. We’ve gotten a lot of that from people in secular places.
We’ve found that people absolutely love it or they absolutely hate it. It’s very polarizing. The best compliment we’ve received is that it leaves people feeling hopeful. A lot of documentaries leave you feeling like you know the facts, but are more depressed than when you started. It’s really a celebration of hope, of the heroes of 9/11. We understand the suffering and heartache they felt, but also the hope they found in the cross.
CC.com: So far the films you’ve done have been documentaries. Do you have plans to stay in documentaries, or do you want to go a different direction?
Jon: Like many people, Andy and I want to direct feature films. We’re open to other people’s scripts, obviously, but we have our own we’re developing. We decided to follow Pixar as a business model. Pixar had a commercial company for years, and all the while they had a creative team developing ideas and scripts. Then they reached a moment where they shifted, went public and struck up a deal with Disney to make the films we all love. What I love about Pixar is they consistently hit it out of the ballpark. They make great films. Not just good animated films, but great films.
We understand that we have to pay our dues and earn our way, so we decided to use a commercial production company as a school. We’ll use it as a way to hone our craft, build our company, build the studio, and develop our stories. We’re developing 4 films, and the frontrunner which will probably take the longest.
It’s our grandfather’s story about receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. His name is Red Erwin, and there’s an incredible epic story and love story about heroism and this moment of courage. It was part of a movie in the 1940s, and a studio in the 1980s tried to make a film of it, but it didn’t take off. We still have the rights, so we want to make a feature film of his story.
The key for us is if there’s going to be a Christian moral or message, it has to be integrated extremely well into the story and the story has to be so incredible that a secular audience has to respond just as well as a Christian audience. When Jesus told parables, they didn’t all have the Gospel in them, but they all contained truth. That’s what we want to do; make films that emphasize truth.
So some films we want to do have a clear presentation of the Gospel, others don’t. I think that’s where we differ philosophically from other Christian film makers. We’ve been part of the secular industry for so long that I’ve grown to really love people who work in entertainment. They’re messed-up people who have a lot of needs, but I don’t want to isolate myself with Christian people making Christian movies. I’d rather engage the secular industry and not shy away from what I believe.
A long time ago when we were thinking about starting a Christian film ministry, someone told us not to miss the mission field of our own organization. That’s definitely high in my priority. From what I’ve read, that’s completely opposite of some other filmmakers, and that’s OK. For me, I’d love to make a film for Paramount and work with Tom Cruise because they’re hurting people. I think a person like me would have an open door because we have a mutual love of films.
Andy and I are a little more secular in our approach than other people. But I don’t want to shy away or compromise the films I make. But I don’t have any problems working in secular entertainment. Andy and I don’t make Christian films. We’re Christian filmmakers. C.S. Lewis said, “The last thing the world needs is another Christian book. What it needs is Christian authors.” So I think that’s powerful and that’s where I stand.
We’re doing a project right now in association with Crown Financial, called “The Widow and Oil,” that we’re really excited about. It’s part of a series of short films about stories in the Bible that you’d probably skip over. They want to make teaching about Biblical principles of finance available to the world’s poorest, who would probably not respond to other methods of teaching, but would respond to a film. This first one turned out incredible.
We did it down at the Holy Land Experience down in Orlando. We had a crew of 40, about 150 extras, and was probably the biggest set Andy and I had as directors. We’re signed to do 10 of them; fully-dramatized Scripture stories brought to life. I love that they haven’t been brought to life before.
We’re also doing a short film series called “Resonate,” kind of similar to Nooma. There are a lot of distribution outlets for short films right now, which is good for us. We’re also putting together a documentary on our grandfather’s story, and developing a feature film. It might be a year from now or 5 years from now that those come out.
CC.com: You’re full-time with Erwin Brothers Production. Will Andy come on board full-time soon?
Jon: ESPN has been a great employer, and we’ve gotten to travel all over the place. At first we were doing things for the fun of it, but now we’ve got a good group of employees, and I’ve been married a few years, so I got to the point where I didn’t want to travel that much any more (4 days a week). So I decided I’d rather have a clean break.
Andy is full-time with Erwin Brothers, but he still loves the game. I’m more the extrovert, more of the front man of the company. So I do the song and dance, which has some travel with it. Andy is the “Behind-the-scenes” brother, and in fact some people accuse me of inventing him. They think he doesn’t really exist.
But Andy is one of the most renowned hand-held camera operators in the sports world. He’s very sought-after, and has been wildly successful. So it’s a little harder for him to put that down. I’ve never done a Monday Night Football game, but he’s worked them for years. He told me at the beginning of this football season that he wants just one more season. It’s really not about money any more; it’s about his love of the game.
Right now, my job is traveling the company and selling the idea of Erwin Brothers. Andy is traveling for ESPN. I’m suffering withdrawals, because I really enjoyed what I did, but I’m done with it. But that’s also my nature. I do something for a while, really enjoy it, but then am ready to move on to something else.
We decided at the beginning of the year to really push to make our own films, rather than make films for other people. That’s a scary transition because we have 5 employees to care for, not just ourselves. But it’s worked out so far, because we paid everyone this month.
CC.com: What are your roles when you and Andy are working together on a film?
Jon: I’m usually behind the camera, and Andy is usually doing the interview. I’m more of a craftsman and a techie, whereas Andy is more of a storyteller. He’s like Stephen Spielberg in that he’d like to forget about the technology of creating a film and focus on the characters and story. I am a craftsman more like a Michael Bay or Ridley Scott, so I like diving into making the film really cool. That works really well for us.
We joke around that if I made a film about him, it would be a technical masterpiece, but no story. And if he directed a film about me, it would be this incredible story but you’d fall asleep midway through. So that’s the way we work together.
We want to earn a trust and respect with the audience so they know if it’s an Erwin Brothers’ film, they’ll be entertained and get their money’s worth. It will be something they can watch with their family. We want people to know us, and know what to expect from us.
CC.com: When did your big break come?
Jon: I was 12 and Andy 15, and we got internships at the TV station where our dad worked. We haven’t done much else since then. When I was 15, someone got sick on the TV crew for an ESPN football game. They needed someone desperately and I got a call. I lied about my age and level of experience to get on that crew. I’d never seen a camera that big, let alone worked one. The director was very cooperative. He knew I was green and coached me right through it. I loved it.
My name got on a list somehow, and I got a call back for another game. Of course I lied again so I could work for them and got on a few more crews. That led to a career in sports filming for Andy and I, which is really our background. We were very fortunate, because we’re usually working with guys twice our age, and this kind of experience is invaluable.
He’s on the ESPN PrimeTime crew for Sunday Night and Monday Night Football, and I was on the ESPN 2 PrimeTime crew for years. This past year I finally quit because the film company has gotten so big I couldn’t really do both. So I decided to give it up.
While working for ESPN, we put together a few dollars, got a loan and bought our own camera and editing system. We got one of the first Macintoshes that would edit video and started working. We were doing whatever would pay the bills; a kajillion weddings, bar mitzvahs, missionary videos, whatever.
One thing led to another, and after 8 years, it’s a hobby that’s gone completely out of control. We have a studio with 5 employees, and we spend 60-70% of our time producing content for other people. The backbone of what we do now is music videos and commercials. We just did videos with Point of Grace (“How You Live,” which was featured in “Saving Sarah Cain”) and Michael W. Smith (“How to Say Goodbye”), as well as Casting Crowns.
The other 30% of our time we spend developing our own films. Eventually, we’d love to see those numbers reverse. We’d like to spend 70% of the time on our own films, and 30% on work for others. Right now, we squeeze our own projects in between commercial productions for others.
CC.com: How did y’all connect with Michael W. Smith to do his video?
Jon: A bunch of people submitted treatments, and ours was based on a Polaroid picture that transcended two moments between a father and daughter; one when she was very young, and one on her wedding day. Our idea was on that day, he’d give her a Polaroid picture and say, “Remember me.” Then at the very end of the video she’d stop for one last goodbye before she goes away.
We submitted the treatment, then they went away for several months before coming back and saying (like most people) they wanted it very quickly. It’s just a short little song (2 minutes, 11 seconds), so the challenge was to fit the story into that little space of time.
We wanted to ask if they could write a bridge or a third verse, or something like that, to make it longer. It’s a great song, so we did our best and sent it in.
It’s gotten a great response. Any man that has a daughter that sees it tells us, “I cried, I cried!” So we’re glad to know it worked well. (See it at www.michaelwsmith.com)
When you create a video for a song, are you responsible for developing the concept? That must be a challenge when the song is someone else’s creation.
It can be a lot of wasted time to develop concepts and write stories for something that may not be done. But it’s a lot of fun to hear a song and come up with an idea for a story.
For Michael’s video, I sat down with his manager Chaz, who told me the story behind the song. Michael had written it after he dropped his daughter Whitney off at Pepperdine University in California. He went back to Nashville and wrote the song with Amy Grant. So after hearing that story, we developed the idea of a Polaroid photo as the center of the video.
For Point of Grace, we wrote a couple of treatments. We presented a more story-driven idea, like Smitty’s video, but that’s not what they wanted to do. What we’ve found is best is to sit down with the artist and ask what their vision is for the song, and use that as the basis for our treatment. Sometimes we write a very detailed story, and other times, it’s more of a broad concept, like for Point of Grace. It’s a beautiful piece that doesn’t really have a storyline, and it developed after sitting with them and asking them for their ideas.
We’ve done several projects with Casting Crowns. It’s also just been confirmed that we’re going to do Nicole C. Mullens’ next video. She had a very specific concept – two ideas, actually – so it was a matter of sitting down with her, taking her two ideas and making a seamless story of that.
That’s what Andy and I really like to do – create a story for the video. A lot of music videos are beautiful, but they’re not story-driven. I like to see and make music videos that tell stories. We always try to bring that to the table and tell a story that touches the audience emotionally. Otherwise, you get to the end of the piece and aren’t moved. What we all remember are the videos that really touched us.
CC.com: How did you make the shift from ESPN crews to making music videos? To go from being the cameraman to the one who develops these stories?
Jon: My father has three college degrees, and we have none, so we kid around that he got a degree for each of us! We jumped right into the frying pan as teenagers and learned by doing. We founded our company on the “Wow!” factor. In other words, if our client and audience don’t say “Wow!” at the end, we’re not done. Because of that, we go a little insane, and we overspend on projects; probably spending more time and money on what is healthy or efficient. We always go overboard on our product, and what we’ve found is that our clients become our greatest sales force. They’re so impressed that they tell all their friends.
We’ve never tried to sell or advertise the company; we’re not even in the phonebooks in Birmingham. Some people say we’re like an urban myth. The company has grown because we keep blowing away every client. Beyond that, God has brought opportunities to make some really cool connections our way.
Why he has done that, I can’t say, except that I think there’s a void right now in the “Wow!” factor in Christian entertainment, especially in movies. Right now, there’s an audience, and there are lots of producers that want to make great films. But there seems to be a lack of great Christian directors that really understand the Bible and church and can make great Christian films.
For whatever reason, God has given us some great breaks really early. Also we have a killer staff; one guy from Boston, another from Atlanta. They are talent I’d put up against anybody, and we’re all really hungry to do quality work. We’re all really young and impulsive too, which helps. So a lot of things happened very quickly for us.
We never really set out to have a production company, it happened one project after another. We look at what we’ve done or what we’ve billed for a month and think, “Why did I do this?” But it’s a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
CC.com: Who are some filmmakers that are getting the “Wow!” factor?
Jon: First, I want to say that I emphasize that because as Christians, we should portray excellence and represent God in that way. I sure wouldn’t want to go into an OR to have surgery and have 4 secular rooms and a Christian operating room and hear the Christian guy say, “Well, I’m not as good as those other guys, but I’m a Christian, so it doesn’t really matter.”
It should be the same in movie-making. We should try to be the best filmmakers we can. We should aspire to the same Academy Awards and the same degree of professionalism. As far as people I admire who do that. There are a few. I’m a huge advocate of the Heartland Film Festival. It’s not so much a Christian film festival as it is one that celebrates truth in movies. It’s as close to a Christian film festival as you can get.
The headliner last year was Amazing Grace, which Ken Wales produced. I’m a huge fan of that movie. Michael Apted directed it, it had a great script, and it was an incredible Christian movie. I love that film. I was blown away by it, and I have a tremendous respect for Ken Wales. I think he’s looking at doing “The Great Divorce” and a sequel to Chariots of Fire .
I also really like Rick Eldridge, who has a production facility in North Carolina called The Film Foundry. He did The Ultimate Gift, which my wife loves. I would like to emulate him, because he runs his company successfully and also produces films.
In terms of Hollywood, I’m a mainstream guy, and I love a lot of directors’ work. I love Ron Howard’s work. I think “The Cinderella Man” is one of the best films I’ve seen on marriage. I really like Ridley Scott, and several others.
I think sometimes as Christians we put the message of the film before the craft of the film, and think, “As long as the film has the Gospel in it, that’s all that matters.” In my opinion, I’d like to see that reversed. Craft, I think, is more important than the message of the film. The Wachowski brothers, who made “The Matrix,” were able to reach every teen in America with their worldview because it was so ingenious, out of the box, and well-made. If the film wasn’t well-made, then their worldview would be meaningless.
I think as Christians we need to put the craft of the film before the message of the film and earn the right to share the message. People pay $8.00 to see a movie, and until we can give them an incredible movie with an incredible story, I don’t think it’s right to put it out there. I think it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth if it’s a bad movie with a “message.” I would like to be a part of a group of Christian filmmakers who want to put the craft of filmmaking and story up on a higher pedestal and make movies that are absolutely incredible. Then I think we’ve earned the right to speak to the audience.
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