So we showed Colony Bay members a bit of this the other day, but we color-corrected and added Rotem Moav’s score to the version above, and I have to say, well, what other people have been telling me — that it’s goose-bump and chill-down-the neck stuff.

It’s also been the subject of no small amount of argument.  My son, Nicholas, believes that a television show should only have one promotion that you work to death, on the the assumption that you don’t want to overexpose the material.  Others have told me that a movie typically has at least two trailers (one with a “male” justice theme, and another with a “female” emotional arc).    Personally, I wouldn’t mind six or seven, on the theory that people are drawn to story for different reasons.   It seems to me I remember being sold on a movie once, based on the trailer’s humor, and then finding out, by buying tickets, that the movie wasn’t even intended as a comedy.

And that’s just the argument over the number to produce.  I’m not even talking about how long to make the cuts, which performances to feature, what themes to strike.  It was actually a little brutal.   I always thought starting a film company would bring the family together, but there were a few shouting matches over the last few days.

That’s okay, because I’m always a little suspicious of people who want to have peace at all costs.   My sense is that God gives everyone a unique perspective, some keen insight into a problem no one else sees, and that the family, and the nation, grow stronger by hashing it all out and finding out which ideas can stand the refiner’s fire.   Of course, the job of the actual story teller, the Frank Capra of the outfit, is to make a final decision.  I’m getting a little more comfortable in that role, because I know what story I want to tell, and I can endure people being a little miffed with me on the way there.

I would like to submit, however, that there are certain words that I am trying to ban from the debate.  They are ‘amateur’, ‘cheesy’, ‘professional’, ‘comic book’, and ‘MTV.’   I use ‘comic book’ and ‘MTV’ to imply lack of depth and immaturity.   The kids use ‘cheesy’ because they are young and immortal and they don’t know what it’s like to feel how sweet and sad life can be, so they distrust emotion.    The odd thing is that they’ve seen so much Bond and Batman and Bourne they also distrust anything too slick and stylish.     I still reserve the right to use “James Cameron” as an adjective because anyone who casts a coltish Leonardo Di Caprio opposite a nubile Kate Winslet is just, well, a philistine, selling tickets to 14 year old girls.  (Too ‘James Cameron’ means shallow ideas hiding behind CGI that will be out of date in 5 years.)   The word ‘professional’ is particularly dangerous because:  1) we employ a lot of professionals, so there’s no issue of us promoting an ‘amateur’ status 2) no one wants to be told their contribution isn’t worth purchasing and 3) professionals can be offended if an amateur claims they have professional skills.

The point here is that there are certain words which shut down discussion.   They all but declare a participant unworthy of the discussion itself.  Processing fair criticism is difficult enough, but if you get the feeling you can’t be talked to because you’re too old, too young, too “inside” or too “outside,” well then nothing gets done at all.