Written by…a Mormon

It was 2002. I was a budding sprout of a young woman, spending most of my life in a blissful little bubble composed of all things Mormon—my family, my friends, my clothes, my hobbies and probably my dog. That is, if your definition of Mormons pertains not to Mormonism, but to Mormon-ness—one being a religion, the other, a social paradigm.

But something was missing in the perfect sphere of my mormonhood. What was it…? It was Mormon movies! Yes, non-Church sponsored movies made by Mormons, about Mormons, for Mormons.

Although I don’t believe I would have noticed this absence in my life, when Mormon cinema made an appearance in it that very year under the title, The Singles Ward, its presence certainly captured my interest as well as the interest of all my fellow Green Jell-O-ians. (That was a Mormon joke in case you didn’t know.)

Poking fun at all of the oddities and quirks of our unique culture, the film became a sort of mass inside joke—a gauge of one’s mormon-ness, if you will—that subtly implies, “If you’re one of us, you’ll get it.” The more “Mormon” you are, the funnier the movie is. Dialogue from the screenplay worked its way into our everyday conversations.

Technically, “God’s Army” jumpstarted the craze in 2001, although, in my opinion, it seems that more people hopped on the bandwagon with “The Singles Ward.” The novelty and success of the film (that grossed around $1,250,798 by the end of the year) kicked off a series of Mormon films of various genres from comedic to inspirational. Mormon film releases became so normal that I recall thinking to myself one day, “Why did it take so long for us to start making Mormon movies in the first place?”

However, as time passed, that question changed. Now, ten years later, as these films continue to trickle into the media stream, I find myself asking, “Why is it taking so long for us to start making non-Mormon movies?” Surely, we have the brainpower, the talent, the imagination and resources to appeal to a larger audience. Don’t we? Of course we do. Just look at “Napoleon Dynamite,” now an American cult classic. Still, that’s one movie among dozens that has managed to break into the mainstream channel.

I recently had the opportunity to talk to film editor, Wynn Hougaard, about this very topic. Hougaard, an adjunct professor at BYU since 1994, has taught classes ranging from film editing to 3-D animation. He has also edited numerous films in the LDS movie industry such as, “The Singles Ward,” “The Best Two Years,” “The R.M.,”

“Saints and Soldiers” and other prominent productions.

I asked him what he thinks is holding LDS filmmakers back, and he gave me some interesting food for thought. He said the first problem the LDS film industry faces is funding. He told me that currently, either due to our bad economy, or bad returns on previous film ventures, a lot of these filmmakers cannot get investors to fund their projects. Part of this, he says, is because “most Mormon families are not going to shell out six to seven bucks to see a movie. They’ll wait until it comes to the dollar theater or get it from Redbox later. Mormons aren’t going to go see it in the big theater.” The best the companies can hope for is recouping costs in distribution.

So why try to stay in the Mormon channel? As Hougard puts it, “If a Mormon movie is going to make it, it has to have appeal outside of the Mormon market.” Like “Napoleon Dynamite.” When I asked what would happen if LDS filmmakers stopped making “LDS” movies, he said, “It would open the investment pool. It decreases the popularity of a film if you stick Mormons in it.”

The solution seems simple enough. Just stop making movies that are tailored primarily to “Molly” and “Peter.” Hougard thinks that LDS filmmakers sort of got stuck in the Mormon rut. He says, “Initially it was new, and ‘God’s Army’ did well, so they all thought, ‘Let’s hop on this band wagon.’” Hougaard explained that some LDS filmmakers are actually trying to open the investment pool by shooting their scenes in doubles—one Mormon, the other generically Christian, in hopes that they can tap into a broader audience.

He thinks LDS filmmakers can get around the budgetary issue if they can just find “stories that are simple to tell that don’t require huge budgets.” He says, “We’ve got plenty of talented people here to make movies.” He went on to suggest that some of these filmmakers have shot themselves in the foot by hurrying to pump out a stream of productions that could have been better if they had just spent more time on them.

One of Hougaard’s favorite films to work on was, “The Best Two Years” because the director, who had directed the stage version twenty years prior, had had enough time to really work through the process. He didn’t rush it, and it’s apparent in the quality of the film. He admitted, “I’ve heard people say, ‘We should have taken more time on these.’ We just need to take our time in telling them to make sure we have a good story.”

To me, it sounds like we need to go back to the drawing board, or rather, the word processor. Interesting to me is that Hollywood’s budgets are so big that I sometimes wonder whether they’ve forgotten the power of a simply good story, while “Mollywood’s” (no I didn’t coin the term) budget is so small that they can’t survive without one. A call for good stories…maybe this is not such a bad thing. Heck, what am I saying? I’m a writer! Of course this is a good thing!

~Catie Shaw