Forgiven Re-write Completed

The next project on our list is a short thriller called Forgiven.  I originally wrote the first draft a few years ago.  I knew it was in need of some tweaking, but hadn’t had any time to work on it until now.

Forgiven unfolds as a young woman on the way to join a convent finds herself caught in a hostage situation and must decide whether she can forgive her assailants, no matter how abusive they become.

At the core of all of Sonlight Pictures stories is the battle of Christians living their faith.  Of course, because it’s a movie, we have to place our characters in more intense, exaggerated situations.  But the core challenge of struggling to maintain one’s faith, to live by example in this increasingly anti-Christian world, makes for good entertainment.

This story examines faith in the face of some extreme circumstances.  However, the circumstances are no more extreme than those of our savior.  After all, Jesus was able to forgive his persecutors while still on the cross.

Forgiven takes a modern twist on such forgiveness.  Could we look at our persecutors through God’s eyes?

We all hope we would live our faith when it really counts, but you never know until you’re put into tough situations.

Penning the first draft of Forgiven was no easy task.  I always pray for inspiration from the Holy Spirit before I write and, being a Hitchcock fan, I really enjoyed the suspenseful moments and twists in the story.

There was one scene, however, a pivotal scene, that I did not enjoy writing at all.

Successful stories have conflict and, at times, uncomfortable or disturbing consequences. Forgiven has a few of those.  After writing this one particular scene I simply threw down my pen in anger, looked up to heaven and said “There!  I hope you’re happy!” I had to put the main character into a highly unforgiveable moment so that person could then struggle with forgiveness.

I didn’t want to write, but I had to write it.

That’s the price of writing, really.  You have to create people you don’t like, go to places in your mind you try to avoid and deal with subjects that offend you.  However, you also realize that if they offend you, they’ll offend others.  And if that offense is important to the story arc, you write it and, thereby, experience it, no matter how unpleasant that process may be.

Our goal with Forgiven is to continue to grow as filmmakers, turn it up a notch when it comes to overall production quality, make a little cinematic noise and propel us into making feature films.

We’ll keep you up-to-date on our progress.