What is Moving?

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 Story So Far! 
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  In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God, and God is everything. Everything is moving. Therefore, the Word was Moving.

     We believe that our film is the realization of divine prophecy. This becomes obvious when one examines the Holy Doctrines in context of the filmmakers. Let us begin with the simple and proceed to the more sublime: The first Gospel was written by Matthew; the primary writer for Moving is Matthew as well. Coincidence? Let these further exhibits stand as proof. The four Gospels of the New Testament are by Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke. Matthew and Jon Friedman are two principal screenwriters, and they have a brother named Marc. (The spelling difference only points up the obvious correlation--it is indisputably a message from God. The "c" in the name is God saying, "See?") Luke corresponds to the third principal screenwriter, Leslie--the closest feminine etymological cousin to Luke.

      Three screenwriters. A trinity.

      Now let us examine the textual evidence. The Biblical book of prophecy is Revelations. Chapter 9, verse 21: "Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." None of the artists involved in this project have recently repented of, or even admitted to under oath, any crime or sexual act or magical spell. The prophecy is made flesh.

      "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Ar-ma-ged'don." (Rev 16:16) The box-office success of this recent film is one of the signs of the coming of prophecy; the mere fact of the enormous appeal of this formulaic movie can only be adequately explained by the fact of holy prophetic intervention.

      "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." (Rev 16:13) This is obviously a reference to the recent film, Magnolia, whose arrival and whose frogs presage the dawning of a new era in film, yea even upon this earth. "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." (Rev 20:5) We believe Moving represents this resurrection, being filmed at the outset of the new thousand year-era, just as Magnolia was filmed at the end, the "finish," of the last thousand years.

      "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent...." (Rev 16:21) The weight of whose talent? Clearly, again, we believe we stand in fulfillment of prophecy. We believe it is our talent that shall be hailed.       Indeed, this prophecy has already been partially fulfilled. Witness the critical praise garnered by our first short film, which can be found here on this holy website. And again, witness Revelations: "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." (Rev 20:12) We were judged, and found worthy. Film festivals will soon stand with books open in judgment, and the prophecy shall be complete.

      To conclude, we leave you with a final passage from the Book of Revelation, words that appeared to the filmmakers upon commencement of the script in a vision of holy light and indescribably lengthy music: "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done." (Rev 21:5-6)

History!!!

  First came Ninja Wars.

      In the 1980's, the Handcam revolution spawned a new generation of fledgling filmmakers, much as the teenage Steven Spielberg's work doing war films with his father's 8mm camera led directly to his illustrious career and his Academy Award as Best Director for the film *batteries not included.

      In his acceptance speech, Mr. Spielberg uttered the words which were considered by many idealistic aspiring filmmakers as his most inspirational ever: "Whenever you want to make a lot of money, just make an Indie film." Determined to duplicate Mr. Spielberg's success, and not realizing that what Spielberg had actually said was "Indy film," a young Jonathan Friedman shot two home movies, Ninja Wars and Ninja Wars II (Ninja Wars II being the sequel). These met with enormous popular support among family and friends.

      Years later, following several fruitless years as a Snorkeling major in college and a career-ending football injury, our protagonist began taking film classes. In this new pursuit, he had finally found not only a new life purpose, but a surprisingly easy way to graduate.

      His study led to several screenplay sketches and a short film idea, Scattering Ashes, which was filmed and edited in the summer of 1994 despite the astonishing unreliability of one its principal actors, Derek, some of whose scenes actually had to be shot over the phone. The film met with interest (see review) but made no money.

      Over the next few years, life and love intervened, but the groundwork was nonetheless being laid for the next project. A graphic design business and a second business dealing in professional video & film equipment allowed for the slow accumulation of not only publicity, marketing, and artistic expertise, but also for the accumulation of the high-end digital video and audio equipment needed for Moving.

      The time had at last come for a full-length feature film.

      Notices went out, and some parts were cast, including two of the leads. Unfortunately at the time, but fortunately in the long run, the entire project had to be suspended due to unsympathetic girlfriends.

      Well, really, it was suspended in order to finish, polish and revise the script, and to accumulate not only more of the aforementioned equipment, but financial capital as well--but the filmmakers have requested I not mention that, so I am complying with their request.

      In 1999, the script completed and the financing lined up, the filmmakers decided to re-commence the production process, and the film is currently being cast from scratch and storyboarded, with shooting to take place in spring and summer of 2000.

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