Sweet, Beautiful Celebration

 News About What's in the Works for Film and Faith

Michael Jay Solomon (right) has accomplished a lot of things in his life. Chances are you've seen his handiwork in one form or another-probably without even knowing it.

As the co-founder of Telepictures Corporation (later becoming Lorimar Telepictures) and former president of Warner Bros. International Television, Solomon has been a figurehead in content distribution and syndication around the globe for more than fifty years. He's been the largest distributor of American content for the past four decades.

After all the national and worldwide success Solomon has garnered, he recently decided to take on a new venture, one that officially launched last month. It's called Truli.net and is a gathering place for individuals to view Christian and family-oriented content.  Truli is also a social networking hub where individuals can watch, share, and comment on sermons from various ministries, view family and faith-oriented films, and even enjoy faith-based music videos.

I recently talked with Solomon and asked him about Truli.net and Christian programming. For him, the advent of technology in the entertainment industry made the decision to create a site like Truli an easy one. There is no distribution over the air, so Truli is only accessible via mobile formats such as a phone, a tablet, or the internet via streaming [Google TV or Roku, for example]). As opposed to YouTube, which doesn't have a clear target audience, Truli focuses on one particular group of people:

Evangelical Christians.

The Unreal State of Reality TV  

"Reality Television... I am so tired of it, can't the networks come up with something new?" This quote or something similar is something I often hear. Of course the networks provides programming that gets ratings, if they continue to provide "Reality" television it is because they have the viewers to support the programming and they are making money. I am smart enough to know that it isn't about a moral conscience; it is to most of these companies, about making profits. And it is certainly not about reality. 

It was my own viewing of the program Ice Road Truckers Season 5, featuring as one of the drivers, David C. Redmon, that led me to this conclusion. As I watched the show, I noted in my review that much of what I was seeing on screen didn't make sense. I had also noted similar scenarios on programs like Big Brother. I decided to make contact with one of the apparent scapegoats on Ice Road Truckers.

If ever looking for honesty to the point of certainly creating controversy, speak to someone like Dave Redmon.

Losses and Lives  

Special Report from Columnist Michael Mordenga: The Shadows of Fax and One Horse To Rule Them All have had hostile reactions to the latest news. Substitute cast member White Beauty has received constant hate mail and threats for her to gallop out of town. In one instance, White Beauty found a goblin head in her bed. It took three counselors to get her back into production. "It's horrible," Peter Jackson rants. "White Beauty is going to lose her taste for Hollywood because of the cruelty of Shadowfax fans. It's not fair. We gave you money suckers Elijah Wood, what more could you want?"

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been shot in 48 frames per second, but not all theaters will be able to show it with the new technology.

Focused on "Ground-Breaking"