Industrious Family Fun Films Blog

May 02, 2024

Join Us Right Now On Our Mary's Town Zoom Presentation!

We are on Mary's Town right now! If you have time, jump over to the zoom meeting and pray the rosary with us. Afterwards around 9:45 a.m. PT we will begin our FABIOLA movie presentation. Jump on for as little or as long as you want, we need 100 people to join the call so please don't be shy and join us! See you there!

May 01, 2024

Did Shakespeare Underestimate The Repercussions Of His Play Richard III? A Defense Of The Last Plantagenet King

Was Richard III, who took the crown of England in 1483, a usurper and a tyrant who murdered his nephews, or a true and just king innocent of that crime? With all respect to the Bard of Avon, historian Dr. Warren Carroll relates that what we know of Richard is in line with a play that was made to celebrate the downfall of the Catholic Plantagenets to please the current ruling Protestant monarch of England - Elizabeth Tudor. Perhaps Shakespeare underestimated the power of storytelling through the stage and of course the play could go no other way, but we are left with an unclear idea of the real Richard III because of it.

Continue Reading "Shakespeare’s Last Catholic Dynasty"...

May 01, 2024

Please Join Us Tomorrow At 9:00 a.m. For A Rosary Followed By A FABIOLA Film Presentation

Mary’s Town Rosary is a format that offers a platform for Catholic Action within the entertainment industry. We are very happy to be members of this group.

Getting an opportunity to network with Catholics in the entertainment industry while spreading the Gospels and begging for Our Lady’s intercession is a noble endeavor that we are happy to be a part of.

We have been invited to speak to this group on Thursday about our current film, Fabiola.

Join Call On Thursday, May 2nd

Mary, Faustina and Kathleen will be giving the presentation about our current film, FABIOLA. This story is about the journey of two pagans, one a Roman and the other a Syrian as they encounter the early Christian martyrs. One has an intellectual conversion while the other is drawn to the true faith through disastrous attempts to seek fortune and notoriety. It's timely as it shows how the Christians, though living in a pagan empire spread the faith through example and sacrifice.

May 01, 2024

Supporting Priests While Protecting Children From Pedophiles

Not only can you protect your children from pedophiles but you can also support holy priests by showing them respect and esteem.

Continue reading "Supporting Priests While Protecting Children From Pedophiles"

May 01, 2024

Taking Our Movie Making Hobby To Where Ever God Will Lead It

Hello, this is Kathleen and I hope your week is going well. Recently @Laurar introduced me to @Tyler Reid’s posts. I followed him on LinkedIn and signed up for his newsletter on his website.

This connection was providential as I had begun to budget FABIOLA and brainstorm production and distribution plans. His easy to follow advice and industry insights continue to be helpful as we fine tune our business plan, the FABIOLA proposal, and the way we present ourselves to potential investors.

We have taken our movie making from a hobby to a cottage industry and now where will God lead it? Let's find out together. Happy to have you along for the ride.

May 01, 2024

Happy Feast Of St. Joseph The Worker! Enjoy Our Free Coloring Page

God raised St. Joseph to the highest sanctity, and fitted him to be the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father and guardian of the Incarnate Word.

Being the shadow of the Eternal Father upon earth St. Joseph had every virtue that is most admirable in a man. Sacred Scripture says that St. Joseph was a just man, he was pure and innocent, gentle and tender and worthy enough to be called the father of Jesus. He was a lover of silence and a comrade of angels.

Print Coloring Page

Apr 30, 2024

Have You Heard About Our E-Course? Officially Launching Tomorrow!

At 75% off now's the time to get access to our newly launched Movie Production Guide. Do you have any students who would like to take a course in movie making? Then we have just the thing for you! This is your step by step guide to beginner filmmaking. The Movie Production Guide assumes a starting-point of no experience at all and leads you to a position where you can premiere and distribute your own films. If you've been looking for a way to get your own independent production rolling or you are a homeschool mom looking for a doable filmmaking course, we'd love to teach you how to make a movie with our all encompassing beginner's guide. This guide will take you through pre-production, production, and post-production.

Get E-course Access...

Apr 30, 2024

Nearly Counting Down The Hours Until Our Mary's Town Presentation! Will You Be There?

We only have a few days to go until our Mary’s Town Rosary followed by a Fabiola Presentation. We have been challenged to get 100 of our fans on the call. About 30 have RSVPed. Will you join us?

Time: May 2, 2024 09:00 AM PT

You don't have to actively participate in any way, you can have your mic muted and your camera off while you listen to us if you would like. But if you do want to ask questions you will be given the opportunity to "raise your hand" after the talk.

See you there!

Apr 30, 2024

Enjoy A Coloring Page Of St. Catherine Of Siena On Her Feast Day Today!

Today is the feast of Catherine of Siena. Celebrate with this coloring page that Mary drew in memory of this great saint. Coloring page features the apparition St. Catherine received as a little girl of the infant Jesus and this woman's courageous pleading with Pope Gregory XI. Maybe learn a little about the Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy for added historical interest.

Get the coloring page here...

Apr 30, 2024

Our Current Social Media Strategy Is Working! We Finally Have 100 Followers On One Of Our Platforms!

Good morning, Mary here.

Recently we had a little victory at the studio. One of our business social media platforms has 100 followers! LinkedIn in our most recent addition and it is the first one to reach this goal! Thank you to everyone who is following us on social media. This is a great way to stay connected with us and to see what we are up to on a regular basis. This recent celebration proved to us that our social media marketing strategy is working and we are excited to see how our following numbers continue to look throughout the rest of the year.

Not following us on social media? You can follow Industrious Family on:

LinkedIn
Gab
or Instagram

You can also follow us individually! Faustina is on Gab (@fn_bowen), I am on Instagram(@Mary.b.bowen) and Mom is on LinkedIn (Katheen Bowen).

Apr 29, 2024

Join Us This Thursday For The Rosary Followed By A FABIOLA Film Presentation!

Our presentation after the Mary's Town Rosary is this week! If you don't already plan on it, get this event on your calendar and please plan on being there. After the Rosary at 9:00 a.m. PT, we will be giving a presentation on our FABIOLA project and then there will be a time for questions. Learn more about this event here...

Apr 29, 2024

Fine Tuning Our Business Plan: New Strategy With The Pilot, Marketing, And Ever Onward

Faustina Bowen talking to you this afternoon.

We have been really working hard at getting our business plan as strong and feasible as possible. It is important for us to get a strategy down that will allow us to reach as much of our potential audience as possible. It is also, of course, important for us to build trust with this audience and I can see the FABIOLA Pilot playing a huge role in that! With the Pilot, we will be able to show audiences our best work, which will convince them that we have what it takes to make great movies.

But of course the Pilot won't do any of these wonders if no one sees it. That is where fine tuning our business plan in regards to making solid marketing choices comes into play. As we have a rather limited budget, we will need to stretch those dollars as far as possible and market using only things that can offer real visibility.

How can you help us? Please, please share what we do with everyone and anyone you think may be interested in our endeavors.

Contribute to the FABIOLA Pilot.

Join us for this week's Mary's Town presentation.

And please, pray for the success of the FABIOLA Film and IFamilyFilms.

Apr 29, 2024

Listen To This Morning's Podcast By The Gofer's Get A Grip

They're doing it again! All four boys are back in this week's Gofers Get a Grip podcast where they cover topics from reviewing last week, asking bosses about days off and vacation. The Gofers need to get 10 of their fans to join the Mary's Town Production Rosary so if you are available to joins on May 2nd please do so. Listen to this week's episode now!

Apr 26, 2024

Set Update: Hopefully We Are Getting Close To Finishing Up The Mudding And Texturing

Give A Customized Contribution

#fabiolamovie #catholicmovies #supportcatholicmovies #bookstofilm #fabiola #fundraising #goodstories #setbuilding

Apr 26, 2024

Please Join Us On May 2nd At 9:00 a.m. For A Rosary Followed By A FABIOLA Film Presentation

We have been challenged to get 100 of our fans on the call. We need you to join us! You don't have to actively participate in any way, you can have your mic muted and your camera off while you listen to us if you would like. But if you do want to ask questions you will be given the opportunity to "raise your hand" after the talk.

Learn More About Mary's Town

Apr 26, 2024

Announcing A New Member To Team FABIOLA: Film Colorist Aaron Kessler

I am ever amazed at the amount of people who have offered to bring their talent to the FABIOLA table. We were thrilled to have a meeting with our newest collaborator, film colorist Aaron Kessler. We are so excited to incorporate this element in our film, FABIOLA. We learned that color is almost as important as music in film as it helps elicit emotion. This is an area that was basically non-existent until recently and we are so excited to have a colorist on board in this project! Thank you, Aaron, for donating your talent and time! I can't wait to see what we will learn form this collaboration. Here's to hopefully many projects to come!

Apr 25, 2024

Watch The Mary Town Promo Video And Mark Your Calendar For May 2

One week from today, we will be praying the Rosary with Mary's Town. Please join us because afterwards we are going to be giving a presentation on FABIOLA. Online event starts at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 2nd. Please plan to join us as there will be opportunities to ask questions after the presentation!

Learn More About Mary's Town...

Apr 25, 2024

Make Your Inbox Awesome By Signing Up For The Journal

The Journal is packed with studio updates, recent articles, new releases and upcoming events. This is your weekly roundup covering everything you may have missed from our daily updates! Subscribe today and never miss a thing!

Apr 25, 2024

Bluegrass. Pizza. And Finding A Permanent Home For Our Sets

Hello, it's Kathleen again. We had a great week. Matt took us all to a bluegrass concert then out for gourmet pizza on Sunday. Even if it isn't a genre of music that we know and love, it is always great to get out and celebrate our American culture and listen to stories told through songs.

That's why we are in the entertainment industry. Entertainment is all about telling stories, and we are devoted to sharing our ever inspiring Catholic stories. The story we are telling now is the story of the early Church, the Church of the Catacombs.

In order to tell this story, we have relied on contributions from dozens of households. In lieu of monetary donations we have also teamed with families that want to help us tell good stories through film. A big donation that we are thankful for is the donation of space that Deacon Ryan Uhlenkott has provided.

Nonetheless, we have discovered that in the future our own building will be more feasible especially when we consider the work that will go into disassembling this beautiful set after filming in June.

We pray that we can salvage the set and reassemble it in a new location, and that a suitable permanent studio will soon become a reality.

Apr 24, 2024

Please Join Us On May 2nd At 9:00 a.m. For A Rosary Followed By A FABIOLA Film Presentation

We have been challenged to get 100 of our fans on the call. We need you to join us! You don't have to actively participate in any way, you can have your mic muted and your camera off while you listen to us if you would like. But if you do want to ask questions you will be given the opportunity to "raise your hand" after the talk.

Learn More About Mary's Town...

Apr 24, 2024

The FABIOLA Pilot Is 80% Funded. Can You Contribute Today To Help Us Cross The Finish Line

We are SO CLOSE to hitting our FABIOLA Pilot goal, with just 20% still needed to reach that important finish line! If you have not yet had the chance to give and would still like to contribute to this project, please do so here. God reward your generosity!

Apr 24, 2024

A New Lens That Is Helping Us Seriously Step Up Our Game!

Hello, Faustina here. I wanted to share something that is working really well for us here at Industrious Family. Our video, "Christmas 2024", took third place overall at the 2024 Industrious Family Film Festival! We submitted three projects and this one did substantially better than the other two. The main difference...our new camera lens!

When you use a smaller camera lens, you have to get really close to your actors (awkward!) and you don't have as shallow a depth of field. This means that everything is in focus - the character, the background and the props in the foreground. This isn't very cinematic.

With a larger lens, we can get a shallow depth of feel (meaning that only the object you are filming is in focus and everything else is "fuzzy") and from farther away. This is what made "Christmas" a step above the rest of the films we submitted, and we love our new lens!

Apr 23, 2024

Please Join Us On May 2nd At 9:00 a.m. For A Rosary Followed By A FABIOLA Film Presentation

We have been challenged to get 100 of our fans on the call. We need you to join us! You don't have to actively participate in any way, you can have your mic muted and your camera off while you listen to us if you would like. But if you do want to ask questions you will be given the opportunity to "raise your hand" after the talk.

Learn More About Mary's Town...

Apr 23, 2024

Planning 24/25 School Year? If So Our Movie Production E-Course Is On Sale Now!

Do you have any students who would like to take a course in movie making? Then we have just the thing for you! At 75% off now's the time to get access to our newly launched Movie Production Guide.

Get E-course Access...

Apr 23, 2024

Mudding And Texturing, Texturing And Mudding, Faux Paint, Faux Paint, Faux Paint

Hello, it's Mary. I've noticed that we are making leaps and bounds on our set building lately. I think this is largely due to the fact that we have completed the frame construction and we are only left with decorating the walls.

We are making great progress as we have come up with a system of three teams who are either mudding, texturing or painting.

There is only one job that is not fun and it is cleaning the texture rollers after they get gummed up with mud from the walls. This person gets switched out every half hour so they are not doing this mundane task for very long. Though we have learned recently that using a dish sponge make this process much more enjoyable. Why did we not think of this trick earlier?

This teamwork system is allowing us to get entire walls done at a time instead of mere sections of walls as before.

Apr 22, 2024

The Gofers Are Back, Well Some Of Them...

Michael and Becket take to the mic as Patrick and Declan are away house sitting. The boys are fresh off a Bluegrass concert so they crack banjo jokes and sing their favorite songs. Thing go down the gofer hole as they change their tunes to their favorite workout songs and their least favorite songs. Leave your favorite song in the comments and maybe the Gofers will sing it next time.

Listen To Today's Podcast

Apr 22, 2024

Working On The Set And Reaching 100 Zoomers

Happy Monday, Kathleen here. The entire family is currently working on the set. I'm not going to sugar coat this, it is getting a little tedious with little to do except mud, texture, and paint but we are powering through.

Mary, Faustina and I are working on getting 100 of you to join our zoom prayer meeting. We've been attending these weekly zoom calls with Mary's Town Rosary and we have enjoyed all the amazing speakers. Last week Shawn Kenney from the Museum of Catholic Art and History gave an amazing presentation with a virtual tour of the museum he runs. Road trip? It would be fun to see @John Amnah and his family.

If you plan on joining us on May 2 for our Mary's Town Rosary speaking event, let me know. Otherwise you might get an email from me asking you to attend. It is at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on a Thursday.

Apr 19, 2024

Please Join Us On May 2nd At 9:00 a.m. For A Rosary Followed By A FABIOLA Film Presentation

We have been challenged to get 100 of our fans on the call. We need you to join us! You don't have to actively participate in any way, you can have your mic muted and your camera off while you listen to us if you would like. But if you do want to ask questions you will be given the opportunity to "raise your hand" after the talk.

Learn More About Mary's Town...

Apr 19, 2024

Is The Pervading Cowgirl Culture The Same As A More Authentic Western Look For Ladies?

Wear your favorite style without risking looking provocative when you implement a western look for ladies with practical modest flair. Almost forgotten are the graceful styles of the second generation of pioneer women who braved the trials of life in order to help pave a new frontier. These women were hard workers, make-doers and would have cared less if their make up was not perfect for the rodeo.

Continue reading "Western Look For Ladies"...

Apr 18, 2024

Industrious Family Announces The Launch Of A Movie Making E-Course

We are launching an e-course!

When we decided to tell Cardinal Wiseman’s story of Fabiola we were originally going to make a seven part mini-series. Once we reached the 4th episode, we felt like there was a lull in the story and we could not get to the climax soon enough.

This led us to starting completely over to such a degree that we threw out the first draft of the script. We realized that we were relying too heavily on the novel and that we needed to write a script from memory. We started by sketching out only the important events depending on how memorable they were.

This helped a lot in narrowing down the story. We wrote characters’ lines from memory too and hardly opened the book. These edits helped us to realize that the story would be better told as one full length film.

What led to these decisions? What helped us learn how to recognize these issues? Can we help you better grow in your story telling?

We are launching an e-course to help Catholic movie makers just like us reach their dreams and goals of becoming great storytellers though film.

Get a course sneak peek by reading this pre-production intro article.