Musings from the Biola Media Conference
If you attended the Biola Media Conference in Los Angeles last week, I hope we had an opportunity to at least say “Hello” to each other. I had face-to-face meetings with some people I’ve only known via Facebook or email (Ben Watson-Brown of Con Dios in Australia), Rich Christiano (Christian Film Group), and others I see once or twice a year.
For me, one of the day’s takeaways was that key to anything you produce, you must have good content. Story truly is King, and if you don’t have one, then your project won’t go anywhere significant.
We heard about the highs and lows of the movie industry from a studio perspective. Plenty of luminaries were on hand: Dick Cook and Mark Zoradi, both former Disney executives; Ralph Winter, producer of some of the highest-grossing films from 20th Century Fox; Terry Botwick, former senior Vice President at CBS Television; Dr. Stanley Williams, script doctor for Will Smith, just to name a few.
In attendance were nearly 600 people, literally from around the world. It was a mixture of film students, independent producers, directors, and writers, and industry professionals working in Hollywood.
If you want to know what working in Hollywood is like right now, it’s the place to be. And if you don’t shy away from controversial subjects (horror as a redemptive genre), there are great conversations waiting to be had.
Congratulations to Peggy Rupple and Kathleen Cooke for putting on a solid event. See you next year!
