Updates at SonlightPictures.com

I've updated the Sonlight Pictures website (sonlightpictures.com) with a new layout for quick links to each of our current projects as seen below. We'll have more info there and at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

Stop by every once and a while and see our progress.

Iron Man (2008)

Only one actor on the planet could pull off the lead character of Tony Stark in the film Iron Man and that man is Robert Downey, Jr. Who else could effectively play a billionaire playboy, womanizer, wunderkind, computer and mechanical genius, arms dealer with a soft heart surrounded by a thick skin of self indulgence who turns into a superhero?

Seriously. Name one other person.

To say Downey, Jr. is perfectly cast is an understatement.

The story for Iron Man is very well told, both smart and funny. It utilizes the refreshing Stark character to play against the awe-shucks superhero type and give us a flawed man we both want to be and could see ourselves being, yet know we'll never get there. We identify with this imperfect man who turns his gifts that have benefited his wallet and into something that benefits everyone.

He goes from selfish to selfless. From conceited to a man with a conscious.

Actor and director Jon Favreau from Rudy, Swingers and Elf fame, puts on his directing cap and guides us skillfully across the world and into near-fantasy as man and machine become one in the form of Iron Man.

A fun, smart and memorable superhero action flick. Bring the popcorn, bring the wit and enjoy the ride.

Rays in First Place?!?!?!

Do not adjust your sets. The Tampa Bay Rays are now officially in 1st place in the AL East.

The Rays!?! The once awful Devil Rays, now just Rays, have won 8 of 12 this month and have swept the Jays, the Angels and the Red Sox this season.

After beating the stinkin' Yanks 2-1 in extra innings last night, the Rays moved ahead of the Red Sox by a 1/2 game to hold onto first for the first time in franchise history.


I know it's a long season. I know it's only May. But, this team is vastly improved. Four out of the last five starting pitchers for the Rays have left the game pitching a shutout. That's amazing.

So, we'll enjoy this run as long as we can. Tonight Gabe and I are heading to the ballpark to watch our stud James Shields pitch against Mike Mussina, I believe.

Should be fun!

Merrill's Alter-Ego Identified

My niece, Merrill, recently took a job position in Tampa. In Sunday's newspaper she was pictured twice, once as Merrill Stewart and another as Michael Nielson.

Now that I think about it, that actually explains a lot!

Click on the pic below for a bigger image and see for yourself.

Click on me!

Do any of you have any Merrill Stewart, err, Michael Nielson stories you'd like to share?

Great Sermon

Talk about tough love.... this is a great sermon from a Baptist preacher. A wonderful eye opener, discussing the difference between being "saved" and being "holy."

They say...

"This is a Shockingly Powerful & Biblical message preached to about 5,000 youth in a day when youth are appealed to through shallow and worldly means. At one point in this sermon the 5,000 Youth are clapping and yelling BUT THEN the preacher makes a comment that CHANGES THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE TO WHERE YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A PIN DROP... As you can imagine, the preacher was never invited back."

He presses that saying "I believe in Jesus" is not enough... we must live a holy life. He says "It is not that you have sinned, but that you have done nothing but sin!" Later he says "It is more than just acknowledging Jesus is Lord. Satan acknowledges Jesus is Lord."

If its true he was never invited back... well, I can see why. He holds no punches.

Check it out. It's worth it.

Creation of Sonlight Pictures

Over the next five days at the Sonlight Pictures blog I'll be sharing the humorous creation and faith journey that culminated in the creation of Sonlight Pictures.

Check it out if you like!

Little League - Games A' Plenty

Due to scheduling issues, what was supposed to be a game Thursday and a game Saturday turned into a mini-tournament. So, we played one game Thursday (we won), a game Friday evening (lost 4-1) and another game Saturday (lost 4-3).

The team did well. The losses were competitive games, which is all you can ask for at this level. Gabe did well pitching and at the plate. I'll have highlights in a few days.

We'll have one more weekend tourney just for fun next week and then it's prepping for all-stars.

Club God Rough Edit Complete

Spent the last few late evenings finishing the rough cut edit of the short Club God.



You can see more screen captures from the edit and info on our progress at the Sonlight Pictures Blog website.

Little League - Cards Down Dodgers 13-8

The game started out like any other... accurate pitching from Gabe, good hitting from the other team and a lot of errors by the Cards. That put us in an early 8-0 deficit after two innings. After that Gabe shut down the Dodgers and the Cards bats started to come alive. Everyone contributed. Gabe went 1-3 with a triple, a walk, a ground out and a strike out.

One by one the Cards clawed their way back into the game, ending the fourth inning down 8-7. After hitting away the opposing starting pitcher, the team was patient at the plate with the next pitcher and made solid contact with the ball, ending up rallying to win 13-8.

The game was important to Gabe because the Cards had not beaten the Dodgers this season, he incorporated a lot more of his off speed stuff in the game and he elevated his starting pitching record to 4-2.

The Cards and Dodgers go at it again on Thursday. The opposing pitcher is Gabe's best friend, Robert. That should make for an interesting game.

Little League - Cards Win 5-2!

After a long drought that included two tournaments, the Cards finally put together a solid game to win yesterday evening, beating the Pirates 5-2.

Gabe went 3-4, beating out a throw for an infield single and followed up with two hits to right-center to setup some runs. The Cards had solid defense, especially the second base play of Phil Sorensen and a reshuffled batting order helped on offense.

You can watch Gabe's at-bats HERE (big file, IExporer)


But the real hero was pitcher Tommy Dailey, who struck out eight, made a cross-body diving catch from the pitchers mound on a shot hit right up the middle and went 3-3 with three RBIs.

So, the win was nice. We celebrated by spending the evening at the family sports bar called Varsity Club.

Funny thing was, the Varsity Club is located next door to the Cinema Cafe, where we started earlier that morning shooting Club God! Life can by cyclical at times.

Club God Shoot a Success

Well, the aggressive Club God shoot schedule seemed insurmountable, but we managed to pull it off.

On the set of Club God.

Everything came together. We were very blessed! You can read more and see more pics at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

Little League - Gabe Hits Four in Loss

Gabe's new and improved swing is finally coming around. After weeks of tweaking his swing to incorporate his hips more, thereby giving him more power, he's finally starting to make consistent contact.

Tuesday night he went 4 - 4, with two line drives to the outfield and two strong hits through the infield. You can see the highlights HERE (you know the drill, big file, Internet Explorer).

In an otherwise typical night at the fields, we fought back, but ended up losing 13-9 to the Oldsmar Indians. Gabe pitched three-innings and struggled a bit, but for good reason. He's trying off-speed pitches (change-ups, no curve balls) during different counts... they require a different release point, so, like his swing, these additions to his pitching repertoire will offer some challenges at first, but we're hopeful he'll have it all worked out by All-Stars.

Sonlight Pictures Blog - Update

Don't forget to frequent the Sonlight Pictures Blog, where we're updating our progress on our first Christian short film called Club God.


The Club God short is scheduled to shoot this Saturday, May 3rd and stars Brian Shea and John Snell.


On the blog you can read about how to make Do-It-Yourself (DIY) lights and Props being used for Club God and future projects.


After Club God, we'll be shooting a six-part Christian web comedy series called Purgatory, USA. It's a very funny comedy about a young girl, Nikki (played by Dorothea Bauer) who must spend the summer with her flaky cousin, Babs (played by Tiffany Ross).

The Purgatory, USA script is already written and we've had a successful read-thru... we'll have more on that in a few weeks.

I'll be keeping the blog updated with all of our busy work this summer, so stop by and make the Sonlight Pictures Blog one of your favorites.

Fox News Promo - Update

So, as mentioned in our trip to New York City, while showing the kids the Statue of Liberty we were asked by some people from Fox News to participate in a pro-American promotion.

Well, about two weeks ago we got a call from the producer, Brad, asking us if we could send them some pictures and home videos they could incorporate them into our spot. Apparently there is going to be a website that shows all of these videos... Brad will let us know when its up and running.

So, this past week Dea and I scoured our old pics and old videos and picked out 50 pics and 20 video clips over the years that augment what we said during our interview. I put them on a DVD and sent them up to NY. Sending these personal memories off to Fox News certainly takes a fair bit of trust, but Brad had been a stand-up guy so far, so I'm confident they'll be used in a positive manner.

Can't wait to see the end results.

Little League - Games Continue, So Does Losing

The Cards finished up a three game tournament this past weekend, finishing 0-3. As a matter of fact, we were the only Safety Harbor team to go winless in the tournament. We could have won two of the games, but found ways not to do it. That's been our season.

This is the first season where I've seen a large portion of a team simply choose not to improve over the course of a season. It's not for lack of coaching or practice... they simply don't care enough to make the extra effort or to think ahead.

Frustrating for the few players who care and who are competitive.

Gabe's pitching went well and his hitting is finally coming around. The last game, from the left side he hit a line drive over the center fielder's head and got a single. The next at bat, on the right side, he hit the ball so hard we thought it was going to be his first home run, but it was caught at the fence by the center fielder. So there were some positives.

Gabe hates losing... really hates it. So, he's been really challenged being on a team with kids who don't share his drive. That's Little League, though. It's supposed to be more about fun than it is about winning.

So, we talk about it, saying the Lord is challenging him to lead by example through the tough times. By not giving up. By working hard. By staying positive.

And I shared my experiences with him... when I was in a kid I was on a Little League team that went winless one year. Right after that I played football and was on a team that went winless.

I remember asking my Mom why God won't let me win? She said, "Perhaps the Lord is preparing you for something later on in life."

And she was right. Not settling, not giving up... that's a strong part of who I am. It's what allowed me to handle the numerous rejections actors get in their careers. And what continues to drive me today.

So, it's tough for my son right now, but it doesn't mean the struggle will go to waste. I wonder what fruits this time in his life will bear years down the road.

Cloverfield (2008)

A long time ago... about ten years ago, I made a short film called Raw Footage. My directorial choice was to have the audience watch the film unfold as if they were watching the raw footage of a tape found at a crime scene. Where my story revolved around the murder and eventual killing of a news crew, Cloverfield revolves around the raw footage of a going-away party in NYC that ends up capturing the attack of something massive and mean.

Viewing Cloverfield on my fairly large movie screen in my house was hard to endure, at times, because the hand-held camera shaking was almost unbearable. Sure, the director had to show the kids running from the menace and that wouldn't entail smooth camera shots, but a little less verocity to the camera shake would have been nice. Normally, I wouldn't mention such a thing as directorial choice, but in this case it actually got in the way of me enjoying the story he was trying to tell.

The story itself is about a surprise going-away party for Jason Hawkins (Mike Vogel). The camera is manned by his brother Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and his best friend Hud (T.J. Miller) as they collect goodbye messages from the awaiting guests. Soon after Jason arrives and some personal drama unfolds between him and his girlfriend, who abruptly leaves, the party continues until the apartment shakes violently. The party goers rush onto the roof of the Manhattan building to see what is happening and find, in the distance, something destroying the city.

Jason receives a call from his trapped and injured girlfriend in her apartment across town. Unwilling to leave her behind, Jason, along with his brother and friends, head off to rescue her even though she lives directly in the vicinity of the creature killing everyone.

The story moves very quickly and the acting from a cast of relative unknowns works well enough. Despite the camera shaking, which lessens the impact of the film, the end result is an entertaining movie. If you're prone to motion sickness, car sickness or vertigo, I'd watch this film on a regular-sized television... or have a bag handy, just in case.

On a side note, the cool thing is that the camera I own, the Panasonic HVX200, was used to shoot many shots in this film.

The Mist (2007)

When I realized I wanted to make films, I knew that they would more than likely have to be low-budget. So, ever since then I've had a certain affinity for low-budget flicks. I started by watching the renowned, genre redefining film, Halloween, directed by John Carpenter. I followed that up by watching Carpenter's The Fog... which is still a guilty pleasure for me. When I first watched The Fog I kept saying to myself "what a brilliant idea... fog as the bad guy... how low-budget can you get! And it's creepy!"

So, the idea for The Mist immediately intrigued me... a group of town folk end up getting caught in a grocery store by a heavy mist. When someone tries to leave... well, bad things happen.

Based on the story by Stephen King and written and directed by Frank Darabont, I expected great things. The King/Darabont collaboration had worked exceptionally well with The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, so I wouldn't think there would be any letdown with The Mist.

Though not as heartfelt as Green Mile and Shawshank, The Mist can be equally as effective within its own genre story-telling.

The film is an ensemble piece and stars Thomas Jane (Punisher, 61), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River), Lauren Holden (The Majestic) and one of my favorite actors, Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Streets). The story deals with the effects of fear on a group of people and how the breakdown of civilization can so quickly occur as mans survival-of-the-fittest instinct kicks in. Along with it is what is waiting in the mist... and it ain't pretty.



Darabont, who is one of the most talented writers in Hollywood, does a wonderful job of making the breakdown of civilized behavior not only intriguing, but painful to watch unfold. The escalation of fear is exponential and the eventual outcome is frightening.



With The Fog and The Mist now having successfully explored the "evil in a cloud" theme, I wonder what Hollywood will come up with next... They'll have to be creative... how about The Cold Front? The Damp and Hovering Weather System? The Vaporized, Yet Low-Moving Collection of Air-Bound Moisture?

As for this current incarnation, The Mist is spooky and suspenseful, thought provoking and, at times, devastating.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

3:10 to Yuma is one of the most interesting films I've seen in a very long time. It unfolds in such a unique way, with such flawed lead characters and unexpected paths in the mix, that it really took my by surprise.

A remake of the 1957 film, this film is directed by James Mangold (Copland, Girl Interrupted, Identity) stars Christian Bale as Dan Evans, a one-legged ex-Civil War vet who inadvertently crosses paths with a ruthless outlaw, Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe. After a heist and an error in judgement, Crowe is captured and Bale is one of the men being paid to make sure Crowe gets on the 3:10 train to Yuma.

What is so wonderful about this film is that the characters are so well rounded. You have Bale who is both noble and impotent. You feel his pain as he struggles to maintain his land and keep his family intact, yet you get frustrated when his own weakness interferes with his own success. You have Crowe as a cold-blooded killer who can be both charming and scary. You feel, if things had been just a little different in his life, he would have been a great man.

In the end, you feel that both men are not where they want or intended to be, but simply where they ended up. And that their paths happen to cross and eventually join is mere happenstance.

The last half-hour of 3:10 to Yuma is pretty great cinema and you'll find yourself drawn in and moved by these two very flawed, very human characters.

DC Goes to Prom

DC got invited to a Home School Prom by her best friends. She got all dressed real pretty and had a great time.

Sarah, Mary, Marisa, Caitlin,
Kenny (token male), Mary, DC, Ali, Kelli

DC, Kelli and Mary
(aka My "Daughters")

DC looking all beautified

Yeah, this whole teen daughter thing isn't going to work out too well for me.

Funny Headline

From the exceptionally funny satirical website The Onion comes this great headline:

****

Suspicious Package Industry Falls On Hard Times
New security measures put in place to allay terror fears are threatening to drive suspicious package retailers out of business.