big_Picture

The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood
$15.95
An informative read that will provide the reader with a good understanding and overview of the economics of the film industry. The author provides a brief history of the major studios (consolidated into the current Big Six: Disney, Time Warner, Fox, Viacom, NBC Universal, and Sony) at the beginning and the leading men that transformed the business from post WWII into the eighties and nineties. These men provided the initial vision for licensing, international distribution, integration with home electronics and the continuing digitization of the industry.

The economics for the industry are that films at the US box office are money losers but once the revenue streams from International Box Office, DVD, Pay TV, Network TV, Foreign TV, product licensing and other forms of distribution are collected even box office failures can break even or even become profitable. The studios have developed a compensation system for the major players in the process to share in the revenue but not all of them through some unique accounting practices. Everyone knows about this but still willingly participate.

The other very interesting note is that the true money makers are films that are fairly consistent in plot (action) and audience (young) and character (young hero/super hero) but all the studios continue to make the adult movies and art house independents to please the inner world of Hollywood.

The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business
$26.95
This book is truly an inspiration for me, as a future teacher. The points the author hits coincide with what I believe to be the purpose of education. Although the message is somewhat idealistic, I believe that to be a quality in order for teachers to motivate the change they wish to see in their students :)

The Big Picture Story Bible
$24.99
This is a great children's Bible specifically designed to display the metanarrative of Scripture (big picture). Beginning in Genesis, this Bible shows the fall, pictures the proto-evangel (Christ crushing the head of the serpent) then the flood. It moves into God blessing Abraham, working through Israel, Christ lineage through David and proceeds into the New Testament along with other stories.

The New Testament contains some of the same pictures as the Old Testament. This can help your child see that the Bible is 66 books with one theme. I found the writings and pictures were superb for showing the culmination of Christ from the Old to the New. This is definitely Biblical theology for kids. This children's Bible does not contain every story that a complete Bible would, but that is certainly not the intent. This Bible is great for helping kids understand the big picture from the Old to the New and fitting it together as a whole. The age recommendation is 4 to 8, but I would recommend 3 to 7.

The Big Picture
$13.98
I have all his albums and this one definitely did not disappoint. As another reviewer noted, you really don't need to skip any of these songs because they are all great. This Album is a must buy...Enjoy!