1. Speaking as someone that reads a lot of indie comics and such, and has been working toward being able to do indie projects in various mediums, I’ve certainly been one to strongly dislike a lot of the cheesiness, but came to realize that good storytelling takes a ton of work. Not even just with production, but in learning the craft itself.

    When I look at the indie communities I’ve been in/observed, I’ve seen work that people have done when they’re, say, thirteen, and how much of a contrast there is now that they’re in their late teens or early twenties.

    Here’s an example:

    https://tapas.io/episode/294802

    And this next one is the most recent episode. The artist improved a lot after a few years of hard work(the dark haired kid comes from a rich family and was kidnapped when he was little. So in this next scene he’s somewhat dealing with one of the people that was involved, even if he doesn’t exactly know it yet, and is having a bit of a PTSD like reaction to the whole thing, so that’s what’s going on in this scene):

    https://tapas.io/episode/1296953

    In a way, realizing exactly how much work goes into simply LEARNING good storytelling is why I sometimes feel really annoyed when I see fan entitlement issues crop up, or why I feel a lot more merciful toward writing flaws sometimes. Quality storytelling takes time and inspiration and skill that aren’t always available at the time of production.

    Some people might be really good at drawing and animation, or even writing, but there’s a big hurtle to jump when they try to turn that into a full production, which requires getting music and voice acting that fits the story. And then there’s so many hard-to-pinpoint aspects that can only be improved with experience. That might be mood setting, word choice in scripts, scene transitions, or even how loud or soft the music is in certain scenes. But, eventually, the hard work is worth it, and people learn how to make stuff like this:

    The song wasn’t originally made for this project, but the characters, story, planning, etc. were all done by one person, who has her own comic, etc.

    So…I don’t know. It’s fair to critique stories as cheesy, but people need to have a little mercy and understand how hard good stories actually are to make. If an artist really cares about their work, they’ll be invested in realizing where the problems lie and will get better and better until their products are amazing. That’s really what we need to do in the Christian writing/filmaking industry.

  2. Hi. My name is Sean Paul Murphy and I have written twelve produced faith-based films. I read your blog and wrote an answering one. You may want to check it out.

    https://seanpaulmurphyville.blogspot.com/2019/02/do-christian-creators-know-their-movies.html

  3. […] month I asked, Do Christian Creators Know When Their Movies Are Bad? Author and screenwriter Sean Paul Murphy answered. In short, his answer seems to be, […]

  4. […] I hope to hear more from Dallas Jenkins, a chap who already knows that many Christian movies aren’t that great, and wants to make them […]

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