Brothers and co-writers Alex and Stephen Kendrick have written four movies for Sherwood Pictures. From "Flywheel" to this year's "Courageous," the brothers have hoped their films bring to light an important issue. Stephen Kendrick, who also was a producer on "Courageous," said a lot of prayer and thought went into the film.
"God led us," he told his congregation last year. "We believe God is calling men to rise up with strength and with leadership in their homes, with their families and with their children."
Kendrick spoke with The Jackson Sun about the making of his latest movie.
Question: There seems to be a lot of emphasis lately on fathers and fatherhood. The issues was raised in "The Grace Card" this year as well. President Barack Obama has even spoken on this topic. Why is it so important?
Answer:When you look at what is happening in the nation — crime rates, poor education, child abuse, criminal behavior, gangs, violence — if you look at what is causing these issues, it's fatherhood. Without a father, a child is more likely to be poor, uneducated, a victim of child abuse. Children are 20 times more likely to end up in prison without a dad in the home. Consistently, we see this as gigantic issues.
Obama has said children need their fathers, and he grew up without a dad at home. If you look at the media, fathers are not honorable, they're not showing how to be a good dad. We wanted to tackle that issue.
Q:How did you come to decide on focusing your next film on this issue?
A:After "Fireproof," we were so exhausted with focusing on the issue of marriage. We saw so many marriages restored because of that movie. We were praying for God to show us what he wanted us to focus on next. He clearly led us to fatherhood. Dads are supposed to introduce the next generation to who God the father is. He's supposed to be leader, protector, an example. When you remove that role, you have a generation that tends to resist and reject God, because he doesn't know what God is like.
Q:The budget for each film has increased. How much did it cost to film "Courageous?"
A:The film cost $1 million in production and another $1 million in post-production — this time we had a score, special effects for the gunfire scenes and other costs. It's interesting, because we started with a $20,000 budget for "Flywheel," then we had $100,000 for "Facing the Giants" and a $500,000 budget for "Fireproof." Those are microscopic budgets compared to big Hollywood films, but to us it's a big deal. The first two movies came from private donors. The last two were funded in partnership with Sherwood Church and Provident Films (The distributor for all of Sherwood's films).
Q:How many people worked on this movie?
A:With this movie, we had about 36 paid crew members. That number is twice as big as it was for "Fireproof." We were also surrounded by 1,600 volunteers from the church and community.
Q:Were there any challenges or obstacles in filming?
A:This movie was two times the number of locations, a bigger cast and crew. It was much more difficult to navigate that many people. We'd have about 60 people on set at a time. You have to transport them, feed them, take care of them. A bigger crew increases that. Shooting an action scene in the heat on the street during an Albany summer — which was about 110 degrees — was very, very difficult.
Q: What was surprisingly easier than you expected?
A: We knew there were some scenes that were good that turned out great. The suit scene with Javy's wife ended up real strong. A lot of scenes turned out better than anticipated. The scene at the kitchen table with Adam Mitchell (Alex Kendrick) and his family was more powerful than we thought it would be. The whole "Snake Kings" scene was very, very funny. The audience would laugh so hard during the scene, we had to quiet them down so they could hear the rest of the dialogue. That scene turned out really well. Javy (Amaya) did some stage acting before this film. All his acting had been the stage, he had not really done any movie acting. We were praying for God to send us Javier. We knew we wanted a Hispanic guy, 28 to 35 years old who could speak English and Spanish. And he had to carry a humor scene and cause the audience to feel compassion for when he loses his job. He's everyone's favorite when they watch the movie.
Q:There are a lot of action sequences in the movie — mostly due to the main characters being in law enforcement. Did you have any help from the Albany police?
A: Actually, the Dougherty County Sheriff's Department gave us all the support we needed: vehicles, training with the guns, uniforms. Because this movie was about four deputies, they wanted to be represented well. We want to especially connect with men. Men love action. My wife love action movies as well. It was fun for us and a fulfillment of a 10-year-old's dream — to film an action sequence.
We had these things called electric guns and blank guns. We went in with CG to enhance the gun flashes and we added bullet holes in the glass and cars. We were a little skeptical, because we were ready to shoot up a police car. We had it in our budget to buy an old car and shoot it up. We shot a test plank and plugged that video into the computer. We tried out the effects. They looked so good, we said, "We can do this in post-production."
Q: Any final thoughts on the movie's premiere this weekend?
A:We're hearing really good reports about the movie. We're excited about opening weekend. We would encourage people to go on Fridays through Sundays because those are the numbers that count. We asked, "What would happen around the world if this generation of dads gets plugged into their families?" So many things would happen. It can change this country if the next generation of dads invest in their families. That is our hope with "Courageous."
"God led us," he told his congregation last year. "We believe God is calling men to rise up with strength and with leadership in their homes, with their families and with their children."
Kendrick spoke with The Jackson Sun about the making of his latest movie.
Question: There seems to be a lot of emphasis lately on fathers and fatherhood. The issues was raised in "The Grace Card" this year as well. President Barack Obama has even spoken on this topic. Why is it so important?
Answer:When you look at what is happening in the nation — crime rates, poor education, child abuse, criminal behavior, gangs, violence — if you look at what is causing these issues, it's fatherhood. Without a father, a child is more likely to be poor, uneducated, a victim of child abuse. Children are 20 times more likely to end up in prison without a dad in the home. Consistently, we see this as gigantic issues.
Obama has said children need their fathers, and he grew up without a dad at home. If you look at the media, fathers are not honorable, they're not showing how to be a good dad. We wanted to tackle that issue.
Q:How did you come to decide on focusing your next film on this issue?
A:After "Fireproof," we were so exhausted with focusing on the issue of marriage. We saw so many marriages restored because of that movie. We were praying for God to show us what he wanted us to focus on next. He clearly led us to fatherhood. Dads are supposed to introduce the next generation to who God the father is. He's supposed to be leader, protector, an example. When you remove that role, you have a generation that tends to resist and reject God, because he doesn't know what God is like.
Q:The budget for each film has increased. How much did it cost to film "Courageous?"
A:The film cost $1 million in production and another $1 million in post-production — this time we had a score, special effects for the gunfire scenes and other costs. It's interesting, because we started with a $20,000 budget for "Flywheel," then we had $100,000 for "Facing the Giants" and a $500,000 budget for "Fireproof." Those are microscopic budgets compared to big Hollywood films, but to us it's a big deal. The first two movies came from private donors. The last two were funded in partnership with Sherwood Church and Provident Films (The distributor for all of Sherwood's films).
Q:How many people worked on this movie?
A:With this movie, we had about 36 paid crew members. That number is twice as big as it was for "Fireproof." We were also surrounded by 1,600 volunteers from the church and community.
Q:Were there any challenges or obstacles in filming?
A:This movie was two times the number of locations, a bigger cast and crew. It was much more difficult to navigate that many people. We'd have about 60 people on set at a time. You have to transport them, feed them, take care of them. A bigger crew increases that. Shooting an action scene in the heat on the street during an Albany summer — which was about 110 degrees — was very, very difficult.
Q: What was surprisingly easier than you expected?
A: We knew there were some scenes that were good that turned out great. The suit scene with Javy's wife ended up real strong. A lot of scenes turned out better than anticipated. The scene at the kitchen table with Adam Mitchell (Alex Kendrick) and his family was more powerful than we thought it would be. The whole "Snake Kings" scene was very, very funny. The audience would laugh so hard during the scene, we had to quiet them down so they could hear the rest of the dialogue. That scene turned out really well. Javy (Amaya) did some stage acting before this film. All his acting had been the stage, he had not really done any movie acting. We were praying for God to send us Javier. We knew we wanted a Hispanic guy, 28 to 35 years old who could speak English and Spanish. And he had to carry a humor scene and cause the audience to feel compassion for when he loses his job. He's everyone's favorite when they watch the movie.
Q:There are a lot of action sequences in the movie — mostly due to the main characters being in law enforcement. Did you have any help from the Albany police?
A: Actually, the Dougherty County Sheriff's Department gave us all the support we needed: vehicles, training with the guns, uniforms. Because this movie was about four deputies, they wanted to be represented well. We want to especially connect with men. Men love action. My wife love action movies as well. It was fun for us and a fulfillment of a 10-year-old's dream — to film an action sequence.
We had these things called electric guns and blank guns. We went in with CG to enhance the gun flashes and we added bullet holes in the glass and cars. We were a little skeptical, because we were ready to shoot up a police car. We had it in our budget to buy an old car and shoot it up. We shot a test plank and plugged that video into the computer. We tried out the effects. They looked so good, we said, "We can do this in post-production."
Q: Any final thoughts on the movie's premiere this weekend?
A:We're hearing really good reports about the movie. We're excited about opening weekend. We would encourage people to go on Fridays through Sundays because those are the numbers that count. We asked, "What would happen around the world if this generation of dads gets plugged into their families?" So many things would happen. It can change this country if the next generation of dads invest in their families. That is our hope with "Courageous."
No comments:
Post a Comment