January 15, 2007
By Sarah Pride
Movie poster
Advent Film Group (AFG), an independent Christian media production company, will return to PHC for a special “Film Day” on January 30, and is inviting supporters of its first feature, Come What May, to tag along. The special day will include critical “pick up” shots for the film, shot at the College in July, and brings principle cast and crew back to campus to reshoot scenes and add effects to the rough cut.
Film Day participants will learn about moviemaking in general and hear from AFG Founder George Escobar about the burgeoning revolution in independent Christian film. They will be able to witness the filming of a few actual scenes and have photos taken with the cast and crew of Come What May.
In its mission to produce films “that will train a new generation of highly qualified filmmakers who are soundly Christian,” AFG’s objectives mesh well with the goals of Patrick Henry College. A homeschooling dad himself, Mr. Escobar promotes the AFG vision with fervor.
“We are training students who will one day direct big-budget films with moral integrity,” he says. “To get there we’re turning the traditional film school model upside-down.”
As the AFG website states, “[S]tudents who go to film school typically pay about $10,000 to $30,000 tuition per year . . . They ‘practice’ learning to make movies, rather than actually ‘making’ movies. That doesn’t make sense in any other profession.”
In contrast, Escobar intends to produce five “microbudget” movies over the next three years, using affordable digital technology and employing a business model similar to that used to produce Facing the Giants, filmed by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. These movies, say Escobar, will serve the dual purpose of creating a good, pure product that families can watch together while giving young Christians hands-on experience in the technical skills needed to produce their own movies.
Come What May is AFG’s maiden project, centering on the story of “Caleb” (Austin Kearney), a new addition to Patrick Henry College’s championship-caliber moot court team. Torn between his newly-Christian father and his feminist mother, who also happens to be a U.S. Supreme Court attorney, Caleb, along with moot court partner “Rachel” (Victoria Emmons), confronts a moral dilemma: whether to vigorously defend an abortion parental rights case from a distinctly Christian perspective or to argue points that seem more likely to win the national moot court tournament.
AFG’s vision of moviemaking has already inspired many. Escobar has been interviewed on radio, local Virginia print and TV sources, online, and on blogs. In addition to several requests to speak at Christian conferences nationwide, he has received unsolicited financial support from donors who share his vision.
“What is absolutely amazing is when I receive a call from a potential investor who has been referred by a friend of AFG,” says Escobar. “We talk for a while, exchange emails and documents, talk some more, and then they invest. The Lord is definitely at work, because we are batting an incredible 100%.” In fund-raising jargon, which projects one viable investor for every 30 prospects, AFG’s success ration can only be considered remarkable. “We are at 18 out of 18.”
Production office at PHC
during summer filming
Escobar, who spent many years training to produce films within the Hollywood system before determining that the Lord had another plan, funded a significant portion of the first film himself. He sought and received permission from PHC to film on campus in early 2007, citing the school’s compatible mission, its core of film-savvy students, and deep ties to the homeschool debate community. In July and early August, Escobar, co-producer Manny Edwards, a handful of paid professionals, miscellaneous homeschooled students, and an assortment of PHC students and alumni, convened in Purcellville for a closely-scheduled month and a half of filming. Vision began to turn into reality, and many professional relationships forged.
Since the summer, AFG students have proceeded to work independently on their own short projects. Daniel Noa, PHC alum and First Assistant Director for Come What May, has successfully sold a 45-minute film to a national production company. Kearney, Emmons, and others have formed their own music group, the Ivy Street Band, with tracks available on iTunes. Pick up filming at the end of January, says Escobar, is intended to pass along technical expertise gained by the previous AFG crew to more students.
The future of AFG looks bright. “We have four projects in development,” Escobar reports. These include a movie centered on marriage and commitment slated for a fall 2008 production schedule, as well as a coming-of-age story placed in a “brand-new setting not seen before in a movie.” That one is tabbed for summer, 2009.
The public release of Come What May is targeted for late May or early June, 2008.
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