Christians in Cinema

AGENTS: Live the Mission - Writer/Producer/Actor

No one is too small, too young, too old, or too anything for God to use in His plan

MISSION BRIEFING: Obtain background on Agent Nicole Romero to develop cover story

LAST SEEN: Newport Beach, California

KNOWN ASSOCIATES: Jared Romero, Christopher Go, Kathryn Go

DISCLAIMER: ChristianCinema.com disavows knowledge of any subterfuge used to capture the following information. Known facts: Agent first gained notoriety while on assignment in Hollywood, California. History in production and development for Sony, Disney, and Fox. Agent has no training in underage creations, but shows great willingness and aptitude for on-the-job training. Following is a transcript of a recent telephone conversation.

Angela: The ship sails at midnight.

Agent Romero: The eagle flies at dawn. All clear on this end.

Angela: Agent Romero, thank you for taking a break to talk with us. I hope we’re not keeping you from any high-level spy activity!

Agent Romero: Please – call me Nicole. You do know the spy stuff is our tool for delivering our message, right? We’re not really secret agents.

Angela: I know – it’s just that it’s more exciting than most of my daily activities. So, Nicole, maybe you can start by telling us about your background.

Nicole: I’ve been interested in films almost as long as I can remember. After high school I attended USC film school and then began working in Hollywood. I worked for Sony, Disney and Fox in feature film development and production, and also did a lot of television work. My husband Jared, who I met in high school, also attended the USC film school and he was writing for television. He’s also done a lot of work in games, video, and all kinds of digital media. We were both really busy in secular Hollywood and had successful careers. But what we really wanted was to produce Christian media and films.

Angela: You’ve certainly done quite a bit of that with AGENTS: Live the Mission. How did that come about? Is that a project y’all started yourselves?

Nicole: No – that’s something we started with some friends of ours: Christopher and Kathryn Go. We met them through our church: Crossing Church in Newport Beach. Christopher has an MBA from USC, and his background is in Operations and Web Technology. Kathryn was in children’s ministry for over 10 years. When we met them, they were writing, producing, and acting a weekly live stage show for kids at the church. It was great! They involved the kids, parents, and lots of volunteers, like Jared and I.We hadn’t really thought about doing anything with kids before we met them, but we soon found out that we loved it! We told them we’d do anything we could to help.

Angela: That can be kind of adventurous – to offer your help in “any way”…kind of leaves the door wide open.

Nicole: It sure does - we found ourselves writing, producing, and acting in a 5-minute video every week. It was exciting and fun, and really challenging, too. After we had been making these videos for a while, some friends encouraged us to try to reach a larger audience and invested some money so we could make a DVD – and we went for it! That’s how AGENTS was started.

Angela: AGENTS is kind of a unique concept in children’s material, isn’t it?

Nicole: It is unique, but we’re very passionate about it. See, so much of kids’ lives are spent waiting to accomplish something. School always works toward the future – you need to learn the alphabet, learn to read, learn math, learn algebra, etc. Sometimes it seems as though we don’t place a lot of value on who kids are right now. They can have a sense that they can’t do anything for God until they’re older, stronger, and wiser. But that’s not true! God says He set us apart before we were even formed in our mother’s womb – He knew us then and has a plan for us. He doesn’t say we have to wait. All of us need to be ready at any time for God to use us – no matter if we’re 10, 30, or 65. We matter to God and He has a work for us to do! All we have to do is be ready, and God will show up.

Angela: So how did you go from producing 5-minute videos for Sunday services to developing and completing a 40-minute AGENTS video?

Nicole: The four of us teamed up: Jared, myself, Kathryn and Christopher. We knew we wanted the viewer to be involved in the video somehow, so we made it as interactive as possible. Some of the actors and crew were people who worked with us at the church: Agent JD was with us from the beginning. Then we had an open casting call; that’s where we found “Doc” and “Alex”. It was really great to see the cast and crew together. Some were Christians and some weren’t, but everyone worked really hard and well together.

Angela: How long did the production take?

Nicole: Well, the shortest part was probably the casting and filming. We only spent 10 days filming – all at donated locations! What’s really amazing is that we were able to do it in 10 days. I was involved in 2 car accidents, the sewer at the school we used overflowed and we had to stop filming for a while, and Kathryn and I were both pregnant at the time! The real work and time went into post-production.

Even though Jared and I have both been involved in television and film work before, it was amazing to me how much the editor and Jared contributed during the post-production work. The people doing that work really make a substantial contribution. Personally, I know that our team has a lot of confidence in our vision and theme. We want to communicate to as many people as possible that this idea of being active for God at any age is straight from His word. We know that the idea came from God – He’s the Creator. We’re honored and excited to be able to create for Him.

Angela: Tell us a little about what has happened since the production, and about your future plans.

Nicole: One of the first things was that Kathryn and I both had our babies. They are only 2 weeks apart, so we’re really excited about raising them together, and hope they become best friends. We have also both left our previous jobs to work full-time on AGENTS Entertainment. That’s been really exciting! We’ve set up a distribution deal with Appalachian Distributors, which will help get our DVDs into more people’s hands. So we’re hoping to see sales of AGENTS: Live the Mission increase.

We have our website up and there is curriculum there for teachers or children’s pastors who might want to use it. We also have some fun things that kids would enjoy on the website. Go visit it! (agentsrock.com) We’ve already written AGENTS 2 and are looking for investors so we can begin production. In the meantime, Jared is writing a book to go along with the first movie.

We’re also involved in outreach programs. We’re partners with a foster agency (Concept 7), and work with them to help get school supplies for the kids in their care. We set up screenings of the AGENTS movie and encourage people who come to bring donations. It’s been very successful so far, and a great way for us to remain hands-on with children’s ministry.

Angela: You mentioned that you and Kathryn are working full-time on AGENTS. What about your husbands?

Nicole: Chris and Jared have kept their “day jobs”, and do a lot of AGENTS work in their “off-hours”. Our dream is that all 4 of us soon be able to devote ourselves full-time to the AGENTS concept. We have a dream to have worldwide reach through all different media. There are kids literally everywhere who need to know that today they are ready for God’s Mission – that He’s excited about them and cares for them.

No one is too small, too young, too old, or too anything for God to use in His plan. We keep going back to Jeremiah 1:5, because that verse reminds us that it is GOD’s PLAN, not ours, and that being on His Mission is about Him, not us. Our part is to trust that God is going to use us no matter what our circumstances – that He is ready to use us at all times. When we’re on God’s mission, He makes us all powerful, no matter our age!