Making it in Hollywood: An Interview with Actor Mark Atteberry

Every year, thousands head to Los Angeles, CA with the hopes of becoming icons for the film industry. Those that are in the mix will you tell you it’s certainly not as easy as one would think. Overnight success is a rarity, and very few find the gleaming lights of public notoriety and stardom. If one wants to navigate properly through the maze of connections he or she can find help from those who have already found some success in the business.

Enter, Hollywood Connect. Hollywood Connect (HC) exists to “[equip] creative artists and professionals to thrive personally and professionally in the arts, media, and entertainment industries” (HC website). HC hosted a well-attended Q&A with Mr. Mark Atteberry recently, and in this gathering, Shun Lee Fong led discussion and then fielded several questions from the audience to get Mark’s responses. I took notes feverishly and thought to share the wisdom – with Mark’s approval, of course.

Church Can Stink for Creative People

I’m not sure exactly how I came across Jon Reid’s blog, and I find his statements sometimes challenging, repulsive and crude, or sometimes even both at the same time. He seems to be a muckraker of sorts in the matter of Christianity, and I think every generation needs one or two. It helps us to see where we are and challenges our thinking so that we can further solidify our stance. Those who fear such things (setting aside new converts to Christianity) likely prefer to be blind, segregated, and likely unwilling to consider change for the good anyway.

Leaving that topic, I saw the video on his page that really spoke to me, cuz I’m a creative. I like to do things off the cuff. I like freedom to dream and to make dreams happen – to experiment with just about anything that you put in front of me. I don’t like numbers unless they are calculations for the use of keyframes in Adobe After Effects. And while I enjoy order, I like to bend it a bit. Yeah, I am the right-brained guy who comes up with the occasional off-the-wall statement in a staff meeting when discussion gets too dry (ho-hum), but I can also turn a basic concept or spark of thought into something that people will talk about for a long time after.

Here’s where I think that Jon is on the money:

An Oracle on Life’s Problems from Psalm 74

Psalm 74 is a Maschil (or Maskil) Psalm, meaning that it was written for learning and instruction. Likely written around 578 B.C., it focuses on the lamenting of the people over the destruction of God’s temple and the great loss at not having access to God’s Word or to have a prophet in the land. That said, the ongoing oppression of the Jewish people during that time would have been immense. Certainly, their identity was in their religion. God gave them their land, and after hundreds of years of failing leadership and warning, the Lord allowed the people to fall under the ownership of the Babylonian Empire. Hence, the remnant begin to seek God’s face once again, knowing that it was their own failure, not God’s, that took them to their present condition.

Being a Psalm of instruction, one can certainly find truths about God and how he or she ought to live in the present day. Here are a few snippets I found in my own study:

Keeping Pace Spiritually in a Physical World

This morning I was drawn to Facebook, finding encouragement in a dear friend who is working out in California, trying to make an impact on lives for God’s glory. Just recently, he was rewarded with several joys as a result of his years of effort – years of hard work, discouragement, and even abandonment because of his non-standard approach. Instantly, I was reminded of Hebrews 12:1-2, which states, …“let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

What a shot to the solar plexus it was, knowing how often I get sidetracked and decide to sit on the sideline, rather than participating in the race. Well, here’s my internal contemplation put into words…

Standing at the Threshold: Finding Provision for Your God-Given Vision

“When God gives a vision, there will be provision for it” – Mark Batterson. “What you order you pay for. What God orders He pays for” – Tom Messer. The statements are true. The Creator leads His own and will always meet needs as they follow His will.

3 Keys for a Healthy Ministry or Business

What can you do to have a healthy ministry or business? How do you refuel to keep your edge? Just listened to a short interview of a church planter who has been at his work now for five years (sorry, I don’t recall his name). When asked how he keeps focused and fresh in his work, these are some of the points where he focused.

Theater Attendance Continues Despite Recession

Walking out of the Trinity Baptist College Library about a month ago, I noticed an article that caught my interest, so I picked up the paper and read through what was some surprising information… In the article, Maria Puente of USA Today notes that the movie industry is

Getting through the Insurmountable

In his experience of persisting through a difficult challenge in obtaining the rights to a story for a short film he was producing, Eric Kripke said this,

“‘The Lesson here is get it done, no matter what. You can never give up and never quit. If you find an insurmountable obstacle, then you weren’t meant to be making movies in the first place. The whole thing is  about impossibility, so you have to be willing to conquer the impossible in every realm’” (Levy, Frederick, Short Films 101, New York: Berkley Publishing, 2004, pg. 24).

So far on my short journey into the film world,

A Change of Perspective: What’s Really Imortant in Life?

Today was quite a different day. It started with a quick chug of my vitamins on the way out the door to teach my 7 am class at Trinity Baptist College. Then, there was the playing of a short film as an illustration in a high school chapel. Just after that, I was in my wife’s classroom teaching second graders about the 4 major forces involved in flight and how to fold paper airplanes. Now, I sit in the back control room running screens for a funeral.

Life gets so busy that we have a tendency to forget about the one element we need for all the hustle and bustle to exist –

Enjoying the Ride? Living a Meaningful Life

I started and finished a great little book today called Enjoy the Ride, written by Steve Gilliland. The book becomes a concise tour guide for life in its 102 pages, and while brief, it has some very excellent principles that everyone should follow if they want to be successful. Here are a few of the items that stood out to me: