191: How Youth Filmmaking Builds Real Life Skills

Your kids are already making videos on their phones — but what if that creativity became something much bigger? Youth filmmaking is one of the most powerful ways to build storytelling, teamwork, and real-world skills all at the same time.David Alford, of Cross Purposes Products, pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to make a film from scratch, sharing 5 practical insights every aspiring young filmmaker needs to know before they ever pick up a camera:✅Why the story always comes before the equipment in youth filmmaking✅The biggest mistake young filmmakers make that loses the audience every time✅How to find free locations, borrow gear, and a willing crew in your community✅What 4 months of pre-production looks like and why it makes everything work✅How a $6,000 short film made it to film festivals and international distribution✅Why telling stories from a Christian worldview matters more now than everVisit Crosspurposes Productions to watch the films mentioned in this episode and reach out if you want guidance on getting started.Resources for You Cross Purposes short film and all filmsContact email for filmmaking questionsCross Purposes available on Pureflix, Tubi, Apple TV, TBN, Amazon, and international platformsLife Skills Leadership Summit Show Notes:Making Movies With Your Kids — A Conversation With Filmmaker David AlfordToday I have filmmaker David Alford here, and we're talking about a topic I personally think you'll find exciting — making movies. When I think about my grandkids, they're always making movies with my phone. Kids today are walking around with little movie studios in their hands. So let's talk about what's actually possible.How David Got Started — And How Homeschool Kids Changed EverythingDavid is a graduate of UT Austin with a degree in radio, television, and film. He worked in Christian radio for about 12 years as a drive-time radio host, then did some television work at a local ABC affiliate. But he'd never done the film part of his degree. So in his 50s, he decided to round off the trifecta — and he started making movies.He also became a homeschool dad. His kids grew up in a community of homeschool families, and over time that community became his surrogate family. He was a drama teacher at a local theater and had this pool of artistic, creative kids around him who were interested in storytelling.When it came time to make his first film, he pulled those homeschool kids in — some as actors, some as crew. All you have to do is put a task in front of homeschool kids and they'll figure it out. Tell them to learn about makeup or lighting, and they'd go study on YouTube and come to set ready to go.With a makeshift crew of college film graduates and homeschool kids, they made a short film called Cross Purposes over four days. It had heart. A lot of heart. And that little film — made on a shoestring budget with mostly volunteers — got picked up by a distribution company and is now being distributed worldwide in several languages.Where to Start: Tell the Story Only You Can TellIf you want to make a movie, start with what's around you. Start with your environment. You're not going to wow anyone with special effects on a $3,000 film. What you can do is tell a story that only you can tell. A story that comes from your heart, that God has put on your heart to tell, told to the best of your ability with what's around you.Take people somewhere they don't normally get to go. If you work at a grocery store, you see a side of it that most people never see. Take people on that journey. Your world doesn't have to be giant or spectacular. It just needs to be different — because people who watch movies want to go somewhere they've never been before with people who are interesting to spend time with.Writing Characters That ConnectWhen writing a screenplay, look for a character who is conflicted. Nobody likes to see stories about perfect people — there's only one perfect person who ever walked this planet. The rest of us fall pretty short. We don't relate to perfect characters and we're not interested in them.Find a character who fascinates you. Someone you want to spend time with. Someone when they walk in the room, you perk up a little. Warts and all. They need to have problems, because we all do. If you look at Bible characters, so many of them had serious issues — and we learned from those issues. Christian films are the same way.The biggest mistake new filmmakers make is that they telegraph everything too quickly. Two minutes into a scene, the audience already knows exactly what's happening and they're just waiting for it to end. You have to constantly feed your audience new information — about the character, about the conflict, about the scene. Every scene needs to be triggered by the scene before it. If you can remove a scene and not feel any difference, that scene doesn't belong in the script.And your main character must change from beginning to end. They need to have gone through a metamorphosis. Something real has to happen to them.From Script to Screen — The Production ProcessOnce your screenplay is locked — meaning you and your team are genuinely happy with it and it's been through feedback — that script becomes the foundation for everything else. Then you find your team. A director of photography, lighting people, sound, set design, costume. David's oldest daughter is their production designer. His youngest daughter is the assistant director. His son worked on sound.You storyboard the entire film — drawing what the camera will see in each shot, almost like a comic book. By the time you get on set, the movie is already made in your heads. It's just a matter of making it happen.Pre-production takes about four to five months. And when you do get on set, you have a short amount of time. Even with volunteers, treat them like paid professionals — start on time, end on time, don't waste their time. People will work hard for you even if they're learning their jobs for the first time, as long as you respect them.One more thing — please do not cheat on your actors. If you have two actors doing a beautiful job and then you cut to someone who can't act, the whole story falls apart. Find actors who can genuinely convince you.Funding a Film on a Small BudgetCross Purposes was made for about $6,000. David went to local locations and asked if they could shoot there for free. Most people said yes. The hospital where much of it was shot had an entire wing closed due to staffing shortages and let them use it for free. All you have to do is ask.Equipment can be rented from production houses for a couple hundred dollars. Some local universities will let students check out cameras. Free editing software is available online. Work lights aren't fancy, but they work — just make sure the shadows are off the faces.Cross Purposes has now been making money for about five years. The money it earns funds the next film. The budget has gotten bigger every time and the quality has improved. It's a snowball effect.Where Films Can Go After You Make ThemAfter post-production and editing, short films can go to film festivals — Christian and secular ones all over the country. Cross Purposes was accepted at 13 out of 15 festivals it was submitted to. Those acceptances led to a distribution company reaching out, which now distributes the film worldwide — on Tubi, Apple TV, TBN, and platforms in Russia, Australia, Europe, and South America.David's First Step AdviceHave a story that when you tell it to people, they react. It makes them smile, it makes them cry, it makes them something. Don't start until you have a story you feel like you have to get in front of other people.And don't make it about you being in front of a camera. It's a service. You're there to serve the people who work with you and the audience watching. If it becomes an ego trip, it shows up on screen. Start with the story, and the pieces will start falling into place.People need to hear your voice. As many voices as there are out there, people need to hear yours. Do it because it's something God wants you to do. Make it joyful. And make it joyful with the people you do it with — because this is a team sport.You can find all of David's films and links to where you can watch them at crosspurposes.productions. If you want to get in touch with David directly or ask questions about getting started, you can reach him at [email protected]. Links to both are below this video.to both are below this video.