by Dan Gibson

It wasn't that long ago that the idea of a Christian movie brought up high school youth group video tapes warning of the dangers of hell.  Recently, however, with films like Fireproof (which grossed $33,456,317 in theaters, making it the top independent film of 2008) filling the seats of theatres, Hollywood and theater owners are taking a second look at films about faith.

Jim and Rachel Britts wrote the screenplay for the forthcoming 2010 film To Save A Life, and sat down to answer questions about the writing process and how what was going to be a small film for the San Diego area became a movie to be released nationwide in a matter of a few days.

DG:  So, to start...tell me the short story of To Save A Life? JB:  The film's a real life story of teenage years, to the extent that students have been telling us that watching it is like walking on their high school campus.  There are tons of story lines, but the main story is a student, Jake Taylor, who is a senior in high school with a full ride scholarship to play basketball at Louisville, who is dating the prettiest girl on campus, but his childhood best friend commits suicide.  He realizes that if he hadn't turned his back on him his freshman year, maybe he could have saved his life.  So, he goes on a journey of starting to reach out to other people; to live a life of significance, instead of just a life of notoriety.  He ends up saving all these other people's lives without even knowing it.
DG:  How did the idea of the book come out, from working with young people as a youth pastor fulltime to writing the book?
JB:  Actually, the screenplay came first, before the book in this case.  I was a screenwriting major in college at Biola, and was planning on living in Hollywood and doing that, when I was invited during my senior year to intern at a church.  I worked eighty hours a week helping out high school students and I loved it.  So, for the next seven years, I thought I had the wrong major.  Another pastor on our staff came to me and asked what I thought of making a movie.  I had done some screenwriting on the side during that time, but my wife Rachel and I said that if we were going to do a movie, it would have to be something that would help teens.  I feel like teenagers today have it harder than in the past, whether they're considering taking their own life, or dealing with their parents' divorce or cutting, we wanted to do something that would bring hope to teens, going through difficult things and inspiring them to reach other to others.  In this hurting generation, the hope isn't going to come from other generations, but from within, so they might see their campus through the eyes of hurting and lonely people.
DG:  The characters and the storylines, are they reflective of teenagers that you've known during your work as a youth pastor?
JB:  I'd say that every character has an element of a real student that I've known, and a lot of the story lines came directly from things students experienced.  For example, there's a scene in the movie when a kid is at a party playing beer pong and he's hit with the realization that can't follow God and live life the way he is now.  So he drops the ping pong ball in a cup and walks away from the party.  That's based directly on an experience a student had, a huge moment in his life.
RB:  That student plays opposite the character in the movie actually, so he has a cameo.
DG:  Have the students in your youth group seen the movie yet?
JB:  Yeah.
DG:  What was their reaction?
JB:  Two things.  One, every time they saw themselves, they screamed.  Two, they were really impacted by it and they all mentioned that they were excited to tell their friends and have others see the movie.  Also, they really felt like they were a part of something, a movie that could change the world.  It was a life changing summer for them, getting to be a part of the film.
DG:  You mentioned the other pastor telling you about his idea to make a film, how do you get from there to having Outreach release the film?
JB:  At first, when we had the idea, we thought we might make a film on a scale that would make a difference in San Diego county, but as more and more people read the script, we kept hearing that this film really needs to get made.  So, at first, we were looking at college directors, things like that.  In the middle of that, I got a call from my mom who said my childhood friend's older brother married a woman whose brother is this guy named Brian Baugh who works on fifty dollar movies and maybe he could help you guys out.  I gave him a call and he said he would look at the script and see if he could pass it on to a director or something who does films this small.  A little bit later, he calls back and says that he was really moved by the script, he really connected with the main character, who was he was just like in high school, and he had a childhood friend who committed suicide.  He said, "I need to do this".  All of a sudden, the quality goes way up.  In this two day period, we got connected to this casting director -- at first, we didn't even know we needed one -- named Liz Lang, who did casting for Lemony Snicket and a bunch of other giant films, she says she'll take a look at it, and pass it on to someone who does these size films.  Within an hour and half, she calls back and says "I couldn't put it down, I loved it."  She says "I was just praying today to God that he had done so much for me in this business, what can I do that really matters, and within a half hour, you called.  Can I do it?"  Brian raised the level of the crew, and Liz raised the level of the cast.  So, it was a year and a half process leading up to last summer, which was crazy.
DG:  With the release of a movie like Fireproof and now this movie, do you have a sense of something bigger happening (that you're maybe a part of) with Christians in film, as opposed to the older idea of Christian films, quality-wise?
JB:  First, we never set out to make a Christian film.  We wanted to make a film for teenagers.  I feel like the word Christian is a noun and not an adjective.  Sure, we wanted to make a movie that had Christians in it and that the characters are real.  I feel like most movies that have Christians in it, they're either extremists or "goody-two-shoes".  The truth is there are Christians that are authentic and real, and some that are fake, and our film has both of them.  We didn't set out to stretch what was possible with faith based films, but we hope that it's happening.  We can make films that have a strong message that matters, but the first group we screened the film for was full of unchurched teenagers, and they loved it.  And, the character they liked the most was the youth pastor.
DG:  What's next for you after the book and the movie come out?  You have a full time job as a pastor, obviously, but what happens if this takes off?
JB:  I don't honestly know.  I think it's exciting to see that God has a niche for everybody, that there can be a youth pastor/producer out there.  It's been good for the students too, to see that you don't necessarily have to fit into a pre-existing mold, that you can make your own mold.
RB:  One of my students at school - I'm a teacher - read the script and said that if I could write a movie, that she was going to write a Broadway musical.
JB:  One part of this experience has taught me that I really love what I do as a pastor, and this is what I'm going to do for a long, long time.  I'll always have a passion for film, but whatever I do is going to be a blend.
RB:  There's no way we could have done this without being grounded in what we do in the church.

 JB:  Yeah, there's no way I could have written this film right out of college.  I needed the experience to make the movie real.