THINKING ABOUT 'BIG LOVE', OUR RESPONSE.

You wouldn't believe the week that we are having. Well, I should say, you wouldn't believe the week the other guys in the production are having. This little thing that Todd and I started six months ago in the Chili's on 4th South is suddenly a 45-man film crew, roughly $125K worth of donated equipment and labor, and a ten-member cast that even a month ago would have seemed impossible. And everybody's been gracious enough to give me something that I've never had during preproduction: Namely, a little space to sit silently and pick over the script.

Does that mean it's perfect? By no means, but it's something that we're proud of, and I hope it's something that merits all the attention that it's getting. Tomorrow night, flights are landing and the L.A. half of our production and cast will join our local talent. We're going to get together, read the script and I'm going to rush last minute changes in dialogue and staging. Then, Friday morning we'll be setting up camp in some neighborhood in Provo to shoot the ten pages I've put together.

This is right about when I get so nervous that I throw up. And I'm only half joking about that.

Over the past few days we've been camped out in various local agencies trying to cast the last actress that we need for the short, and we've had them reading dialogue out of the script. Brad has been giving direction and has pushed the material so beautifully from the point where I had written it. I'm not sure about other writers, but after I put so much time and planning into a few lines of text, I love to watch this same material in the mouths of actors guided by a talented director. Everybody brings so much more dimension to these characters...

But, I'm getting off track. I promised something up there in the heading, didn't I? And since that's the topic that's filled our conversation between our production meetings, I thought I'd weigh in on what was rolling through our heads today, planning what we're planning and so forth. It's on the front pages of newspapers, HBO's 'Big Love' is giving away the secrets of Mormonism.

I'm not sure if you read the Church's PR website: newsroom.lds.org: but, every time something like this happens, that's the first place I go. The Church doesn't dabble with petty polemic or winded diatribe. And when it comes to issues like this, you can always count of the upper hierarchy to provide a rational and reasoned response. I linked from that over to HBO's statement where the network explains that their intention is simply to tell the best version of their story, and that they made every effort to present the material in an accurate way.

And the thing is (please hear me out) I believe them. I've sat in these rooms with other writers, each of us trying honestly to just tell a good story. I'm also the sort of guy that likes to give others the benefit of the doubt. So I'm taking for granted that both press releases reflect an accurate point of view of this issue. And I can easily understand how a writer (or writers) on the outside of our community might not understand the spiritual weight that we attach to our worship practices.

That said, I'm personally very much on the side where most of you are. I'd rather not watch things which I hold sacred depicted on TV out of context, whether that be temple worship or whether that be something as simple as taking the Lord's name in vain. In fact, in all of our discussions today, not one of us was happy with the story decisions that HBO had made. That was never the debate... So over and over, we asked ourselves variants of one question:

What do we do about it?

A rush to anger would call for boycotts, but HBO's never going to feel the bump. And for all the attention a boycott would drive toward the network (including new subscriptions, honestly) any action along those lines is just going to draw more people to the episode. It's counterproductive. Think about it. Any loud noise that we make will only give publicity. And if you think about it, in the age of the internet, there are no secrets. Any boycott of HBO would necessitate similar boycotts of Google or YouTube, or... what? The internet itself? As Mormons, we have to accept that if it wasn't this show, this week, it was inevitably going to be some show, some week. What we share as members of the Church in our worship services isn't secret, it's sacred.

And so the question is, what do we do about it?

In light of all of this, I'll tell you what my answer is: We need to take our stories back, we need to tell them ourselves.

Let me go one further and stir up a hornets nest here with a bold statement: As members of the LDS Church, our film movement has failed us. Our productions have never had the intelligence or the quality to compete on a national or international arena. And because of that, outsiders are telling our stories about our people and frankly, they're doing a poor job of it. And what kills me, having said that, is the admission that they're still doing a better job of it than we are.

And it's easy to think that because we're a minority, that our stories have limited appeal. And I know a lot of filmmakers that use that as a crutch to cushion the blows of their own failures. But, it's simply not true. There are less members of the polygamist splinter faiths than the Mormon church, and 'Big Love' is entering it's fourth season. The failure is our own, because a well-told story will always find it's audience. If we feel like we have no voice in TV drama or in the movie theater, it's because we haven't produced a voice worth listening to. There. I said it.

You need to demand more. And that said, you need to support more. What do we do about it? Well, here's what I'm going to do about it. I hope over the last few months of writing here that I've earned a little good faith on your part. I hope you've read through our storytelling philosophy, that you've come to trust our intentions.

I hope that you understand, that we've muscled together a production to film an eight-minute short that no other LDS filmmaker could presently muster for a feature film. And we've done it all based on the strength of our vision, and a solid pilot script that tells a unique and beautiful Mormon story.

So if you want to know what you can do, I'll tell you again: Come stand behind us.

In a few weeks, we're going to have something to show you that is going to absolutely blow you away. With this short behind us, Todd and I are swinging hard into bankrolling the first three episodes of the series. You can't sit around and wait for HBO or NBC or CBS to tell our stories in a way that honors our beliefs. You need to make this happen.

If you're skeptical (and you should be because talk is cheap, right?), wait for the video. But, if you've been checking in here, and you want to know more, if you want get involved, or if you want to invest (our business plan is solid) ... send us an email.

Either Todd or myself will get in touch personally, because we'd like to tell you why we're putting together something that's seriously never been attempted, and why we're so convinced that we're putting together a breakthrough -- That email: info@thisistheplace.tv or find us through the Facebook group: I'm Chris Larsen, he's Todd Bay.