Dr. Ted Baehr Urges Christians to Write More Movie Scripts and Novels
| By: Dan Wooding; ©2002 |
| Dan Wooding reports on a speech given by Dr. Ted Baehr at a Christian Writer’s Conference at which he encouraged Christians to “break into the mainstream media.” |
Dr. Ted Baehr Urges Christians to Write More Movie Scripts and Novels
Dr. Ted Baehr, a world-renowned Christian expert on the mass media, urged Christians to write and sell movie scripts and novels.
“Christians need to be out in the marketplace with their movie scripts and novels,” said Dr. Baehr, founder of the Christian Film and Television Commission and MOVIEGUIDE®, a family magazine, radio program and TV show which reviews all movies from a biblical perspective. He made the comment during an interview at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference at the LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center, where he was teaching a course in scriptwriting.
An award-winning producer and director, Dr. Baehr said, “It is extremely important for Christians to break into the mainstream media. We get our example from Jesus and his ministry. Over 60 percent of the time that Jesus said the word preaching, he used the Greek word “kerysso,” which means proclaiming or heralding the Gospel in the marketplace. We use other types of preaching in our churches, but I don’t think Christian writers do enough to answer his charge to go into the marketplace and preach. We need to equip more Christians to write stories and scripts that capture the public’s imagination.”
Dr. Baehr has been teaching scriptwriting since he was the director of the TV Center of City University in New York in the late 1970s. In 1986, he also wrote an acclaimed scriptwriting book, Getting the Word Out, for Harper & Row, a major secular publisher.
I was amazed when I was here last year at Ridgecrest and the judge for the writer’s contest said he loved judging the book manuscripts, but hated judging scripts because they were usually so poorly written. However, he read one script that was truly excellent and so presented the grand award to the writer of that script. When the writer’s name was called, a young girl came up to the platform. The judge expected someone older and asked her how she had learned. She pointed to me in the audience and said, “by e-mailing Ted Baehr.”
I think it is important that we teach really practical things like how to write a premise, how to do the structure of characters and also the details of how to do it right. There are many different styles of teaching scriptwriting, but the basics are often neglected because we get caught up in different people’s styles. People need to know the simple rudimentary elements of scriptwriting: the premise, the characters, the themes, and the plot.
When asked what he thought the impact would be if Christians learned the craft of scriptwriting and eventually get some of their movies made, he replied, “I have to admit that more and more Christians are getting their movies made but, to be honest, I think they need to make better movies. They are making good movies but they need to make better movies. That includes the four Christian movies released recently: Carman: The Champion, Left Behind, Billy Graham’s Road to Redemption, and The Amati Girls.”
To explain further, Dr. Baehr singled out Randall Wallace, the writer of Braveheart, who went to seminary and then decided to become a scriptwriter. “There are good opportunities in the industry,” Dr. Baehr declared. “Every year we see a person winning an Academy Award who had never written a script before. Most of those people are not Christian, but some of them are, and we need to give people more opportunities to write these scripts. And, it’s not just scripts, but also novels, to get people motivated and equipped.”
Dr. Baehr recounted a conversation he had with Ken Wales, the veteran filmmaker and Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed and award-winning CBS television series Christy, who was also a speaker at the Ridgecrest conference.
Ken once asked me, “Why don’t you make movies?” I said, “Ken, it would be better if we could train 300 people to do the work rather than just to have just one of us fulfill our own private goals.” I believe we must have the multiplication effect. We have to equip people so they can go into the marketplace to proclaim Good News, rather than bad news.
Dr. Baehr said that he is continuing to teach the art of scriptwriting as well as media-wisdom throughout the world.
Hello, my name is Steven (S.R.) Keelan, and I write a Christian book series for children called Crash Testerz about crash test dummies that come alive to share the Bible with kids.
http://www.CrashTesterz.com
I just completed writing the screenplay, and I am looking for someone to talk to in regards to my next steps in having it read by the right people.
Am actually looking for a good script for kids.
Since this last post i am replying to, i have submitted the screen play to numerous studios and production companies. I have come to the conclusion… i need you Mr. Billionaire that has a huge heart and being led by the Holy Spirit to fund this movie to fruition. Please contact me at [email protected]
Hello, my name is Tess Paje, and I have written 3 Christian books and published 2. I have a burden in my heart to write scripts for children’s book/video, animated. I already have the characters of the book, have the setting, stories in a series format. I also have the actual stuff animal characters (hand made by myself and my daughter and made out of felt) about 20 of them. These are the characters of the book and most of their names are from the Bible. (Paul, Timothy, Stephen)these 3 characters portrays actually who they are and their teachings; (Raham, Jabin, Ethan) Men in their late 30’s who are the main characters who would become leaders of a church mentored by a friend known to them as Timothy and Stephen who appeared to be the real Timothy/Stephen in the Bible; (Tabitha and Keziah) Mother and daughter who are missionaries. These mother and daughter Tabitha and Keziah respectively, are almost parallel to our real life stories with my daughter. Please help cause I have no clue who to contact re this vision. But I would like to bring these materials all over the world as a learning tools/books for children esp in Christian schools and in the third world-county. In retrospect we have a project called Hope Collective (sustainable livelihood project all over the world.) God willing this project could help a lot of the impoverish countries financially and spiritually and most importantly for them to come to know the Lord through these process. Our ministry so to speak is to spread the gospel through there materials. Thank you so much
Pls I would love to see what you’ve put together. Am also interested in Christain cartoons for kids.
I just finished writing a book that is a romance, conservative by all christian standards, with an other worldly twist. It ends with a proof of the existence of God.
I’ve had much feedback from secular and religious millenials to people 60 years old telling me they love the story and characters. FOX told me they particularly like the way the scenes “Jump out of the pages”. That being said I would like to turn it into a movie with a conservative director to insure the story is kept conservative.
The tagline: “This is a story about a young man who’s taken to a place no one, even the reader, will understand. His life is seen through his memories and dreams.”
I’m currently turning this into a screenplay using templates from FOX to insure it has the format most directos like to see.
This story will make the reader laugh, cry, and jump out of their seat. This story is suspenseful and will attract all audiences. The ending is very touching and spiritual in nature.