Saturday, October 8th, 2005

9am- 5pm

at Metro Church

1231 4th St. Santa Monica, California 90401

Our One Day Conference was a big hit! Click Here for pictures of the day. Information on our speakers and panelists are below.

The Speakers:

Rev. Joel Pelsue, Founder of Arts & Entertainment Ministries: Joel Pelsue started playing in orchestra pits when he was 14, trained on Clarinet, Oboe, and in college studied improvisation and jazz on Tenor and Soprano Sax. His first CD, “Windsome Thirst” is currently out of stock and being reprinted. Joel has a B.A in Philosophy from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA., and his M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando Campus. He has been ordained in the P.C.A. (Presbyterian Church in America) for over 6 years, and has been ministering to artists for over 13 years. Joel was hired in New York for IAM (International Arts Movement) to speak at their annual conference, for Intermission NY to teach the series “Christianity, Culture, & Creativity”, which he has also taught in Florida, and in Los Angeles. Joel and also has preached at the Village Church in New York City. After being a pastor in New York for four years, he returned to California to be the Executive Pastor of Pacific Crossroads Church in West Los Angeles. During his 2 years there, Joel helped Crossroads grow from 225 people to 325 people by building the infrastructure and preaching once a month, Joel left Pacific Crossroads in order to launch AEM, and to finish co-writing a book with his wife:Christianity, Culture, & Creativity (available by Jan. 2006).

Neil Uchitel, Composer: Neil is an award-winning graduate of the University of Southern California School of Music, Uchitel holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Music Composition where he studied orchestral composition and conducting. After university, he found employment as an assistant editor and assistant producer for TBWA/Chiat/Day Advertising, and in 1995 after several years of working in advertising, he started his own company creating music and sound effects for television commercials. His current clients include: Ford, Lexus, Nissan, Infiniti, Sony, Miller Brewing, Budweiser and numerous others. Although a classical composer by training, his work in advertising has allowed him to write music in every style and genre, from jazz to hip-hop, lounge to electronica. Expanding into sound design has brought an entirely new sonic palate to his output. His sound design work has twice in the last two years given him the opportunity to work on commercials for the pinnacle of advertising showcases: the Super bowl. During graduate school, Uchitel also became interested in typography and letterpress book arts, and has extensive training on the graduate level in those fields. He is currently designing a 6-language, illuminated version of the Book of Esther. A member of Glendale Presbyterian Church, Uchitel teaches in the adult education department there. He wrote a 13-week course in Systematic Theology which he regularly teaches, but also has taught such courses as Theology Through the Hymns, Church History, and other subjects. He is newly married to his wife Carla, a physician (which pleases his Jewish grandmother), and lives in Los Angeles, CA.You can find his regular musings on art, politics, and theology on his blog “Digitus, Finger & Co”.

Brian Godawa, Screenwriter of To End All Wars: Brian Godawa is the screenwriter for the award-winning feature film, To End All Wars (www.toendallwarsmovie.com), starring Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Carlyle. It was awarded the Commander in Chief Medal of Service, Honor and Pride by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Best Picture at the Heartland Film Festival, and showcased the Cannes Film Festival Cinema for Peace. Mr. Godawa’s scripts have won multiple awards in such screenplay competitions as The Nicholl Fellowship, Austin Heart of Film, Fade-In, Worldfest, Writer’s Network, Scriptapalooza, Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project, and the Columbus Discovery Awards. Most recently, he has been hired to adapt to film the best-selling novel The Visitation by author Frank Peretti for Ralph Winter (X-Men, Fantastic Four), and was previously hired to rewrite the ABC/Touchstone mini-series, Ghost Soldiers, based on the best-selling book by Hampton Sides. He has recently written A Summer for the Gods, a feature film about the Scopes Monkey Trial, for Dean River Productions; and is writing and directing a documentary on the wall of separation between church and state for Boulevard Pictures. Mr. Godawa’s articles on movies and philosophy have been published in magazines and websites around the world, most recently winning First Place from the EPA for his article on the philosophy of The Matrix. He has traveled around the world teaching on movies and culture to colleges, churches and community groups. He has a movie review segment on Insight, a weekly cable television show, and his book, Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment (InterVarsity Press) is in its seventh printing. Mr. Godawa is a Board Member of Arts & Entertainment Ministries, LA; a member of the Studio Task Force at Biola University; a contributing writer for CRI Journal; the Senior Fellow of Film for the Center for Cultural Leadership, CA; and on the advisory board of The Apologetics Group, Nashville, TN. He is married to his lovely wife, Kimberly, and lives in Los Angeles, CA.

The Panelists:

Karen Covell: Karen is a television producer, Director of the Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN) and co-founder and producer for JC Productions, an independent television and music production company. Ms. Covell has had extensive experience producing TV specials, documentaries and children’s programming; most recently as coordinating producer for the PAX special Changed Lives: Miracles of the Passion, as associate producer for Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer, and as co-producer for the television special America’s Throwaway Children, starring Dennis Franz and Danny Glover. She also produced a documentary DVD for HPN entitled The Hollywood Crisis.  She created and produced the rock gospel music show pilot Good News Rock, and was associate producer with Shari Lewis Home Video including One Minute Bedtime Stories and One Minute Bible Stories. Ms. Covell was the post-production producer for the animation company TMS Entertainment, Inc. As Head of Development at Penthouse Presentations, a TV production company (not affiliated with the magazine), Ms. Covell created and developed both television movies and series concepts. She was the assistant to the Executive Producer for a CBS-TV movie The Two Lives of Carol Letner, and was co-writer and assistant editor for Players or Pawns, a sports documentary & winner of best documentary at the San Francisco Film Festival. Ms. Covell was also the producing director of the 8^th Annual Women in Film Festival in Los Angeles. Prior to that event she was one of the founders of Kino Women International (KIWI), an international women’s film federation at the Moscow Film Festival and in Georgia, Soviet Union. She has also been booking producer for TV specials and fundraisers, booking celebrities and interviewees for the American Heart Association, the American Lung Cancer Association and World Vision International. As the Director of the Hollywood Prayer Network, Ms. Covell also speaks and teaches around the country on how people of faith can stop hating Hollywood and boycotting its products, but instead pray for the people in the entertainment industry. She is also a published co-author of two books with her husband Jim and their writing partner Victorya Rogers. They are entitled, “How To Talk About Jesus Without Freaking Out” and “The Day I Met God,” both available through Multnomah Publishers and at Amazon.com. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America, a founding member of PREMISE, and a board member of the Biola University Entertainment Task Force. She is a graduate of USC with a BA in Producing. Karen is married to her best pal Jim, a composer. They are the proud parents of two Wonder boys-14 year old Christopher & 10 year old Cameron. www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org

Martel Hale: Martel recently moved to Los Angeles from New York City, where she lived for 13 years.As a makeup artist, her credits include Saturday Night Live for 8 years and such films as The Royal Tenenbaums, Hysterical Blindness, Thirteen Conversations about One Thing and Man on the Moon. In 2003, she received a Daytime Emmy Award for her special effects work on an episode of All My Children. Martel has been married for 2 1/2 years and she and her husband are expecting their first child.

Loren Johnson: Loren is an award winning singer/songwriter whose intimate, memorable, and passionately crafted songs join with an undivided hunger for truth and helped to label him as a modern day Psalmist. This two-time Los Angeles Music Award winner has been compared to artists like David Grey, Damien Rice and Cat Stevens and over the past seven years his songs have placed him before combined live audiences estimated at over 300,000. All of this is something that just a few years ago he could not have imagined. After earning his MBA, he spent the early years of his career working in the business and production side of the music industry-earning credits on over 50 national releases and as an author and co-creator of an acclaimed children’s series. It was a turning away from the status quo. A desire to remove the mask of pretension and duplicity to find the true calling, the purpose and design for his life that led him to cry out. The answer came at a point of near homelessness, living on the floor of his production office that he found the acceptance of his acceptance. He simply responded in song. The sings were crafted for an audience of one and yet doors soon began to open and for him to sing and present these songs first in the clubs of Hollywood and in amphitheatres, theatres and churches and later in such far away, unexpected and exotic places as Kazakhstan, Romania, Argentina and India. His third and latest CD entitled Wholly documents his personal journey. “Much as in Psalm 86:11-12, this project represents my desire to walk in truth with an undivided heart, praising God and bringing glory to his name.” Loren explains. Loren calls Los Angeles home and he has a love and passion for the city. He is a founding member of the Hollywood Transformation Coalition and sits on the board of the Oasis of Hollywood, an outreach to youth at risk. Loren is on staff as the worship Arts Pastor at King’s Harbor Church in the South Bay of Los Angeles and continues to operate a production company and recording studio in Malaga Cove. He lives in the South Bay of LA with his wife Christine, daughters Timmon and Hannah and son Evan.

Ted Neale: Ted has been working in showbiz since 1971, first as a print model, and later as an actor in many national commercial spots… Then got married, had babies, and therefore needed something more consistent. Ted then got a “real” job as a teamster, starting, Trams at Universal in 1985. Now Ted a transportation coordinator at CBS (Malcolm in the Middle for the last 3 years). Today, on the lot, people refer to Ted as the ‘God guy’ or the ‘preacher man’. God opens doors quite frequently for Ted for informal counseling on sets, evangelism, and generally being Salt and Light. Ted enjoys sharing his faith in “Reel life” settings. Ted is also ordained as a Pastor in the Presbyterian Church of America.

Rik Swartzwelder: Rik is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened at over 125 film festivals, internationally, and garnered over 45 major awards—including the Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival for his multiple award-winning 35mm short, THE LEAST OF THESE, and the “Student Emmy” for his highly acclaimed graduate thesis film, PAUL McCALL. Other honors include two CINE Golden Eagles plus one CINE Special Jury Award, four ITVA-DC Peer Awards, and the Sprint PCS Filmmaker of the Future Award. Coming from a strong background in traditional and experimental theatre, Rik learned and developed his film craft with wide-ranging production experience on over 50 narrative film and video projects. In addition, he has also sold two feature film scripts, SOMETHING ELSE and OLD FASHIONED, and one film treatment, THIRD DOWN & FOREVER— THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KING CORCORAN. While still in college, Rik founded the central Florida sketch comedy troupe STUDIO 13 which played exclusively to sold-out audiences for the entire two years he was the show’s chief writer-producer-director. Rik earned his M.F.A. in Motion Picture Production from The Florida State University Motion Picture Conservatory; his B.S. from Columbia Union College; and, his A.A. from Lake-Sumter Community College. A strong supporter of education, Rik served the State of Florida as a member of the Florida Institute for Film Education and as a gubernatorially-appointed member of Florida’s State Board of Community Colleges. Rik has taught at the collegiate level and continues to teach an occasional workshop and present keynote addresses around the country. He grew up in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has spent many years living in both central Florida and Washington, DC, and is currently in Los Angeles developing several projects for future production.

The Sessions:

From Primal Scream to Symphony:               Wrestling with God & Enjoying the Journey                          This lecture by Rev. Joel Pelsue explores our journey as artists and Christians in the mainstream culture: finding hope and inspiration for cultural renewal as we look at the first spirit-filled artist, Bezalel, and learning to embrace the beauty and mystery of the process.

Perspiration vs. Inspiration:                    Discipline in the Creative Process                                  This lecture by Neil Uchitel explores the nature of the creative process: examining the nature of creative blocks, how to overcome those challenges, and the intuitive journey of creating.

Art vs. Propaganda:                               The Voice of a Christian World View                                This lecture by Brian Godawa explores and defines a Christian World view and how it informs how and what we create.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: A Panel Discussion on Being a Christian Witness in a Pagan Culture by Working Professional Artists