1 of 5

We recently had a chance to sit down and talk to Cris Cunningham, president (and, as he notes, sole staff member!) of Beamer Films. We talked about a couple of his films, the role of Christians in the movie-making business, and the advice he might offer to people hard at work in their own media ministries:

Cris, your company is Beamer Films. Could you tell me a little bit about the company? What's your staff size?

You're talking to him! Beamer's actually not even a year old, so we're still at one. I literally do all the writing, all the shooting, all the editing—I'm hoping to be able to change that soon.

Occasionally, I've had an intern or volunteer; on "Wounded Bride," I asked a 16-year-old guy to come help who had never shot a short film before. And I lived that thing—I was acting in it, doing sound, and directing. It was nuts!

Since we're so close to Christmas, I'd love to hear a little bit about your videos "Christmas Nativity Morph" and "Christmas: His Nativity." To start with, how do you come up with concepts like these?

Well, in general, I think I always love the idea that things are out of balance. Whenever I produce a piece, one of the first questions I ask is, What is out of balance for this character? Or for my audience, How do I want to touch them? What would be out of balance for them? And then, What am I trying to redeem, or What is God trying to redeem through me in this project? That's almost always the angle that I'll take. So, if the thematic component is grace, I'll come up with what's the inverse or the opposite of that. And then I'll "attack" the issue.

Then I'll come up with a topic. In this case, it's the birth of Christ, obviously, and then I will write and write and write and write; then I'll put that script down, and I'll come to the next script, and I'll put that one down, and so on. I keep writing because I think without a solid script, you're not going to produce a solid piece. Later, I'll selectively go through and I'll find which script resonates with me most. And a lot of times, that's at the risk of knowing that, Hey, if I produce this piece, it will probably sell better. But I want to produce the piece that I feel stronger about—that's what I am trying to say in culture and to people that are going to see this.

How does that tie into "Christmas Nativity Morph?"

Well, there's the idea of the "why" of Christ—not necessarily the "what," but the "why." Why did he come? Why did God wrap himself in flesh and come to earth? I think it has everything to do with even the meaning of morph. To morph is to transition or to change, and to change something smoothly. I think that's just a beautiful metaphor, and the concrete images of the nativity morphing from one image to the next is something so lovely and fluid.

next page... |  1 of 5