Stories
Of Premieres and Purpose
by Lauralee Farrer, director It always seems that just when it’s most important to post, most interesting, there is least time for it. Blog posting for me, like journaling, is nearly always frustratingly anticipatory or reflective, losing the amazing energy of the “now” of filmmaking. Rather quietly, and without fanfare for the Burning Heart Productions…
ReadA long-awaited story
by Lauralee Farrer, director In a little more than a week, after years of work, the first installment of Praying the Hours will be seen publicly. The story of None has become very dear to us and we are glad to put it out in the world. The fact that something from this project will…
ReadReflections on None
by Patrick O’Neil Duff, editor Today I turn 32 years old. My life consists of daily interaction with my two-year-old daughter, my four-year-old son, and fifty-some-odd college students. In other words, I live in a cesspool of unwashed hands and runny noses, surrounded by individuals who don’t know how to keep themselves healthy. For the…
ReadDu, gestern Knabe, dem die Wirrnis kam
Yesterday you were a boy, today blind passion makes your blood swell. You do not mean to seek lust but joy; you have been chosen as a groom whose desire is only for his bride. But the spirit of lust pulls at you, even ordinary arms suggest nakedness. Even pale cheeks on pious paintings blush…
ReadSetting Things in Motion, Keeping Them in Motion
by Lauralee Farrer Francis Ford Coppola said that a film gets made three times: when it’s written, again when it’s shot, and yet again when it’s edited. These are all crucial stages to storytelling in film, and each one has its own demands and creative requirements. We are in a season where all those stages…
ReadWhen the Heat is All the Way Up
by Lauralee Farrer A few weeks ago, we stopped tweeting at Compline (bedtime) and started tweeting at noon, the hour of Sext. That’s because we have finished the script for the story of the recovering stranger and are heading into production this month. [Some who follow us @praythehours might be happy that we’ve moved on…
ReadThe Self-Curse of Denial
by Lauralee Farrer In our story on “Terce,” we consider a woman (played by Liz Montgomery) facing difficult times in her marriage and with her first baby. Some of these hard times can be traced to a series of bad decisions and her insistence that she is able to accomplish anything she must without asking…
ReadTime Shaped Like an Arrow
by Lauralee Farrer Somewhere I read that “time” was the noun most often used in the English language. Who knows how (or why) such surveys are conducted, or by whom; nevertheless, that result would not surprise me. We live in time the way fish live in water, so talking about it—or making films about it—opens…
ReadFighting Our Way Through
By Lauralee Farrer There’s a popular quote from Ira Glass, host of “This American Life,” that makes much of the idea that our creative work often outstrips our good taste. I admit, even though I am not a beginner, I find it soothing: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told…
ReadTweet Dreams
—by Lauralee Farrer For those who follow us on twitter @praythehours, you know that we tweet at the Hour of prayer on which we are currently working. Our “Terce” tweets ended a week or so ago because we’ve finished shooting it and we’re entering a month’s worth of assembly cuts, scriptwriting, perfecting our shooting experience,…
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