The McPassion is coming... [news]

So...my friend Rik had this great idea to raise the issue of commercialism intersecting with religion. He came up with the premise, "What if McDonald's had done a product tie-in with Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of The Christ?" You'd get The McPassion, that's what!

Rik and I polished his original script and I set about putting the pieces together to make the film around April 2005. We assembled a great cast and crew, called in favors from friends and business associates and shot in mid-July.

In between other work, I edited the film (on Avid Xpress Pro), with a great many positive additions and suggestions by Rik of course. We had voice over done by veteran Bill A. Jones, recorded a jingle with the amazing group "Ooh La La," and had the film scored by the very talented John Carta. By October the film was done and I set about working on the DVD materials in my spare time.

We'd both hoped to have everything done by December to coincide with the release of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but the holidays and busy work schedules (for both Rik and I, as well as Jade Productions which was doing our DVD authoring) made that target impossible.

The holidays passed and schedules cleared enough in January to get the ball rolling on making the DVD. By mid-January everything was off to DiscMakers to print it all up and replicate the discs. It's been a lot more work than I had originally imagined, but we're awaiting the arrival of the DVDs today. I'm crossing my fingers that it all looks good.

Stop by the web site I made for the film. The Discussion page offers some insights as well as some laughs. We'll see what happens with this film. It should be interesting since it provokes a lot of different responses!