Stories of Light Surround Us

One of the most unique challenges we have as mormon artists is the fact that we are trying to stay true to someone's character and what they would do in certain situations while trying to keep the film that we are making a good representation of who we are. An example of this is when we are writing a script, or filming a movie we may have some characters in the film who are not the most upstanding people. They make mistakes, they are not perfect, and they do things that we may not feel comfortable portraying in film. The difficulty is being genuine in story, but doing so in a way that is not offensive to the spirit. This has been a struggle for Latter Day Saint artists in the past, and it will continue to be a struggle in the future. One of the things that we can do is pray for the spirit to guide us. I feel like that answer is a bit cliche, but it is completely true. The spirit can lead us to create things that will not drive him away. If the spirit is helping us to create, then not only will it be genuine and real, it will be uplifting and inspiring; and that is what I believe we are trying to do in our films.

Places we can find stories of light are in our everyday lives. We are constantly surrounded by people and their incredible stories. Even those who are closest to us such as family members and friends have stories that we can share that will uplift and inspire. The trick is learning to recognize them. This is the most difficult part. What may seem like a normal thing to us because we have lived with it, and are used to it, may not be normal at all. It really could be an incredible story that people would love to hear. I had an experience like this not long ago. I was trying to think of a story to do for my creative sample, and it wasn't until my Dad pointed it out that I realized my youngest brother had an amazing story to share. My brother was born deaf, and has been deaf his whole life. Five years ago he got a cochlear implant and began to learn how to play the piano. He can now read music, play several hymns, and is even learning to sing. That is an amazing story, and I didn't even realize what I had until it was pointed out to me.