Filmmaker Brian Baugh makes his feature-film directorial debut today with To Save A Life, a church-produced film about the problems plaguing imperfect high schoolers as they make the transition to adulthood—and the problems facing imperfect churches as they attempt to help these teens in making spiritually-informed decisions along the way.

A 1995 graduate of USC’s film school, where he won the USC School of Cinema/Television Distinguished Scholar Award, Baugh has to this point established a career as a cinematographer whose credits include An American Carol and The Ultimate Gift.

The following is Brian’s short account of how the film came about.

Greg Wright: We take advertising for a lot of stuff at Hollywood Jesus, and when it’s stuff that’s produced by churches—or through the direct involvement of specific congregations—the expectations are not real high.

Brian Baugh:  Yeah.

GW:  So as an editor, I have to admit that I have my biases.  As I sat to down to watch the movie, I had my Very Critical hat on.  But I have to tell you that this is a pretty remarkable movie you’ve made.

BB: I’m very glad it was worth two hours of your life.

GW:  Well, I’ll tell you what really happened.  I got access to the film, via a publicist, through an online streaming site.  For whatever reason, the server kept hiccupping—and it kept hanging on me.  So I had to go back and restart six times in order to complete it. 

BB: Oh, no!

GW:  So it really hooked me.  The other two movies I saw in the same weekend, Extraordinary Measures and The Book of Eli, I wouldn’t have done that for.  If those had stopped in the middle, I would have just walked away.  This one brought me back.  It’s very remarkable in that it presents a fairly unflinching look at teen life—comparing favorably with rougher films like Alpha Dog or Dazed and Confused—and yet also an unflinching look at the Church, and the way the Church functions in our culture... and too often fails.   For a film that’s being distributed to mainstream theaters, that’s a pretty bold move.  Can you tell me about the genesis of the project and how it came about?  I don’t see that information online anywhere.

BB: It came from the dream and desire of the Executive Pastor at New Song Community Church, Steve Foster, who had seen some movies that other churches had done and wanted to raise the bar—but more so, just to do something for youth that youth would like.  He’s not much of a storyteller—more of just a dreamer and businessman.  It just so happened that on his staff was Jim Britts, the writer, who had gotten a screenwriting degree from Biola.  So they began to partner, and Jim wrote a script based on some of the experiences and a few of the stories that he had heard from people in his youth group.  But it’s not “based on a true story”—just a smattering of ideas, out of a desire to do something for these kids he had worked with and seen some of the pain in their lives.  

Continue: 1 2