Interview With Brian Bird by Moments with Mercy

Hey y’all,  I was recently able to do an interview with Brian Bird, Brian is a…..
Film scribe, producer, culture-tweaker, husband, father, chum, executive producer and writer of the film @Captive and the original series,#WhenCallstheHeart.

And here is the interview.
1.Tell us a little bit about you and your family.

I’m the son, grandson and nephew of pastors, so I was raised in a Christian home. My father, Robert Bird, left the pastorate after some time and got into the radio business in Southern California as a DJ. He had always had a “radio” voice, so I essentially grew up with both a sense of church and media, and that shaped me for what I’ve been doing in my career.  I started out as a journalist and morphed my way into film and TV writing.  My wife, Patty, and my kids have made it possible for me to do what I do.  It’s a very challenging, gypsy life going from one production to another, and I couldn’t do it without their love and support.

2. When did you get saved?

I was 6 years old, living in Salinas, CA, where my father was working at radio station KSBW.  We attended a Baptist church there, and I was involved in a Bible class on Wednesday nights for kids.  One of those Wednesday nights, the salvation message was presented and I stepped forward to become a follower of Jesus.  But it was not until my college years in philosophy class at a secular school that my growing-up views were tested and I had to decide what I really believed. One of my journalism teachers was a Christian and he mentored me through my confusion.  He believed that in the marketplace of ideas, truth always rises to the top, so Christians should never be afraid of questions or challenges to their faith… because God’s not afraid of questions either.

3. What sparked your interest in producing movies?

Well, producing came as a necessity in the wake of writing films and TV shows.  I will always be a writer first.  It’s the best thing I know how to do.  In fact, it’s pretty much the only thing I know how to do.  (I would be wandering around, like a hobo, mumbling to myself if I didn’t know how to write).   Producing my own projects came as a result of wanting to protect the integrity of my scripts.

4. What is your favorite production that you’ve worked on and why?

That is like asking which of my five kids I like best.  I don’t really have an answer to that because they are all my babies, just like with my film and TV projects.  I love them all, or am proud of them all, for different reasons, just like with my kids.  Some of come more easily than others.  Some have been impossible to get finished, until somehow they weren’t.  I suppose those are the ones that make me the most grateful.  When Calls the Heart falls onto that list.

5. What interested you most about producing When Calls The Heart?

All of Janette Oke’s books are wonderful because they project a sense of innocence and chaste romance, which has hooked 30 million readers over the years.  When I read When Calls the Heart for the first time, I loved the family values and faith elements she weaved in so beautifully to her story-telling.  \ The idea of a clash of cultures (wealthy, big city with prairie town) seemed like a great venue for stories for Elizabeth Thatcher and her Mountie beau.

6. Are you presently working on any new projects?

I have a movie coming to theaters September 18 called Captive, starring David Oyelowo and Kate Mara. It’s a contemporary true-life thriller about the Atlanta hostage crisis of 2005 and very much different than When Calls the Heart, but in terms of redemptive themes.  I also have another feature film I’m writing calls The Boy From Babyhouse 10, an amazing adoption story based on an internationally acclaimed book.  And hopefully Season 3 of you know what!

7. What is something most people don’t know about you?

Well, my first episode of TV I wrote in 1984 for . . .

To read full interview, see http://momentswithmercy.blogspot.com/2015/06/interview-with-brian-bird.html