Thanks to those of you who gave me some insights. These are exactly the kinds of details I need for my screenplay. I know I picked the right people to ask, because my story is about a very disfunctional mormon family and so will expose a darker side of these "perfect" people.

I want to make my screenplay believable, so get the right wording for "blessings" at meals or what would typically be read out of the book of mormon or how the bible in incorporated in to daily lessons, etc. I want to get the details right and that's not easy for someone who has never been a mormon.

I expect to have questions on a regular basis, but not so many that it would be a burden. I might have several one week and then none for a week or a month. Depends on when I working on this project (sometimes it gets set aside for a while) or what parts of the story I'm working on at the time.

Again, thank you all in advance for your help and perspective...I'll buy you a ticket when it hits the theaters. :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/2011 05:20PM by Susan I/S.

Been along time since I was a mormon. However I remember how much my family and friends growing up were controled and influnced by the mormon leadership. If you said a wrong word,,had impure thoughts,,didn't say a prayer to start any school games,, or any gathering ,,you felt the guilt. Almost all homes had pictures of temples or mormon leaders. It was like wearing a wet guilt blanket wherever you went. When I moved away from the small mormon town and bailed from the mormons,,felt like a new and free person.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Blessing the food:

Our Kind Gracious Heavenly Father,

We thank the for all our many blessings and for the food that thou hast blessed us with. We ask for a blessing on the hands that prepared this food and ask that it might strengthen and nourish our bodies and do us the good we need. We are grateful for thy gospel and that we can be an eternal family. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Mormons say they don't have set prayers but I've heard variations on this same prayer a million times in Mormonism. Those sentences are very over-used, even if they are supposed to be spontaneous and from the heart. Good luck with your screen play. If I think of anything else re: your post, I will add it to this thread.

Typically read out of the BOM--
I will go and do Nephi and Moroni's Promise:

1 Nephi 3:7

7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Moroni 10:4-5
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Typical ways Bible/BOM is taught at home--with family home evening lessons--
http://lds.org/family/home-evening?lang=eng
Look at Lessons by Topic

Think of any prayer like a piece of paper with 4 corners--this works good if you have a kid saying a prayer and they aren't as wordy as the above example, the corners are:
1) Dear Heavenly Father
2) Thank you for..
3) Ask for something..
4) In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
http://lds.about.com/od/basicsgospelprinciples/p/prayer.htm

A darker side besides Mom and Dad busy all the time with callings are the things they hide or lock up. Pop with caffeine locked in a small fridge or cabinet like liquor; R rated movies in the closet. Indiscretions covered up by sending their girls away for a "vacation" when it's really an abortion or adoption (adoption is preferred); boys kept from missions because of masturbation (when the bishop is doing the same thing or worse); "camps" for wayward children; family members that abuse other family members and use their temple covenants as justification.
Kids completely clueless about sex. Kids who are pollyanna-ish and have never left Utah. Missionaries sending porn home to their brothers...

One other thought, LDS are always comparing themselves to other LDS families. If another LDS kid did something wrong--have long hair to pass the sacrament for example we had a discussion during FHE about it. Good Mormon families don't watch the Simpsons, go to any movies rated higher than G/PG, read books without their parent's approval first, or go to sleepovers. They like to hand out BOM's for birthday and Christmas gifts and give them to their teachers at school. They are always looking for that "missionary" moment to talk about in testimony meeting, it may be a discussion on an airplane, taking cookies to a non-member family or randomly giving a stranger a BOM. Their families are far from perfect but they don't see their own faults, only others faults.

You might try watching some movies made by Mormons to get the feel. The single's Ward, the RM, Mobsters & Mormons, etc.

Mobsters and Mormons is funny!

One of the most interesting aspects of Mormon home life is the church-dominated weekly schedule and the regimentation.

Chore systems are very popular. We had the word BASIC to describe the children's daily work expectation

B - Bedroom

A - Appearance

S - Sanitation

I - Individual (free choice of lesson practice - piano, or ?)

C - Chore

I switched chore systems frequently sometimes using Blitz (everyone works rapidly on one room for five minutes)

Another was Half A Job better than All. I assigned the children half the job- like half the lawn mowed. Another child had the other half. If a child didn't do their half, their punishment was to get the whole job.

Child/chore management became my hobby--I played with recipes and chore systems.

Another aspect of Mormon life that is unusual is the reluctance of Mormon mothers to let their children play freely with anyone in the neighborhood. Also, the number who homeschool their children to prevent corruption with worldly ideas (like evolution and fact-based investigation as used in science).

Anagrammy

In our home, (sorry for all the replies on this but it is interesting and helpful talking about it) our family was large so chores got assigned on a daily schedule that was fair to everyone except the girls. Since the boys worked with my Dad, the girls had more work inside with Mom. If you talk to my brothers they thought they were working in a sweatshop and we had it easy inside, which may well be true. My Dad never helped with dinner, the babies, or any indoor work however. I grew up hearing no man would ever marry me because I hated cooking and cleaning and couldn't sew worth a damn.

We didn't have a dishwasher and dishes were the only job distributed to everyone equally. Think huge Christmas dinner happening to fall on your night to do dishes with no additional help...pure hell. I noticed more recently in time, in other families, they chose to wash dishes by hand even if they have a dishwasher to keep the kids busy and interacting with one another, I find more fun things for my kids to do together than intentionally making chores harder than they should be.

That and washing dishes by hands is not really all that sanitary.

Mom is trying to throw together a "lesson" for Family Home Evening. Dad is groaning because he wants to watch football. Daughter is ragging because she has homework, but happily makes cup cakes for refreshments with fruit punch to drink.

They have dinner (son is told to quit texting). The male head of family (dad) picks who says the blessing on the food. He picks the son. The son rattles off the rote blessing, "Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this food. We ask thee to bless it in the name of Jebus Christ, Amen."

After some considerable prodding, the family is all gathered for FHE on the couch in the living room. On the wall are scads of pictures of family members at all ages and a picture of a Mormon temple. On the table is a white statue of a pioneer women praying. On the facing wall is a picture of Jesus and a sign that says, "Love at Home."

They have an opening prayer (the son says, "Me again? Heavenly Father. We're thankful for our family. Please bless Uncle Ned so he won't be tempted to peep in windows anymore. Please bless all the poor people. Help us be attentive so we can learn from our lesson. In the name of Jebus Chris, Amen."

Mom presents the lesson. "This week our lesson is on honesty." She reads a pathetic story about a little boy who took a pair of socks because his little brother didn't have socks. But it was wrong and he worked to get the money to pay to the store back. He told the man at the store how sorry he was, and gave him the money. He repented to Heavenly Father and learned a valuable lesson. Mom holds up a picture of socks.

Then they have a closing prayer (dad who has been sneaking wistful glances at the TV). Then they have cupcakes and punch and the entire family feels righteous that they have held a successful family home evening.

If you are going to do a screen play about Mormons, be aware that it will put everyone to sleep!

Good luck.

You forgot the game! There is always some weird game you play like Mormonopoly or some other popular game turned Mormon. Mormon Prophetic quotes or some such nonsense, can't play regular games. And you are definitely missing more family members we need a baby crying or a two year old throwing things. And surely there will be a song? LOL.

http://deseretbook.com/Trek-Zion-Pioneer-Plus/i/5051375

Trek to Zion seems like a good game to learn history. Then in the summer you can go on a real Trek!

I forgot the "activity" that comes after the lesson. They should play one of those mind numbing games!

It is surprising how many Mormon guys don't like football. Or, don't watch football because it's usually televised on Sunday and watching it would break the sabbath or Monday when it's FHE. I've known plenty of stereotypically Mormon guys who act like football is for heathens or at least for less committed Mormons and take pride in only watching an occasional BYU game or local college game. I had to teach my husband the rules of football when we were married but it wasn't until very recently, when the Saints were in the Superbowl, that he really learned to like football and look forward to the Saints or Broncos playing.

Fortunately, my son has been raised with a better sense of standards :)

From a child:

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank thee for our food. We ask the to bless it. We say these thingsinthenameofJesusChrist. Amen.

From a more devout and not really humble adult:

Dear Gracious Father in Heaven,

We are indeed thankful today for our loving family and for the blessings thou hast bestowed upon us. We thank thee for the opportunity we have to gather together in nightly prayer that we may turn our hearts to thee.

As we humbly bow before thee tonight, we are so very thankful for the food that has been prepared for us this night. We ask a blessing upon those that prepared it. Please bless this food in which we are about to partake that it will nourish and strengthen our bodies and do us the good we need.

In the name of thy son, Jesus Christ,
A(h)men.

Don't forget that the heads should be bowed and arms folded. I know a few UBER-TBM families that actually kneel at the table (usually leaning the elbows on their chairs) at either breakfast or dinner for family prayer.

Fun times.

And lest we forget....a prayer at the close of Primary,YM YW-"help us to drive home safely...."

Don't forget to add the morning prayer that they have in TBM's homes, and the evening prayers, oh, Mondays are "Family home evenings, and you can hear the rest from others as well. Cant wait to see your project when you are done with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2011 01:57PM by Susan I/S.

From someone who knows something about the industry....hire an ex-mormon consultant and writer to clean up your script. If you can sell it, make certain set dressers, props, wardrobe, and the rest of the depts. get the the details correct.

On BIG LOVE, the set dressers and props had Xtian type decor on walls. The wardrobe took some fleshing out. Creators were neither Mormon nor polygamist, and got an ex-mo writer on board, some ex-mo consultants, and some friends in the biz to help.

One thing to also be aware of....over the years, some things have changed. One...Black PH, garment styles, the shift to limited geographic location of the Book of Mormon, correlation. Also, the mainstream toward being Christian, not Mormon...so to speak. There is much, much more. The sterotype is not reality. If you are doing a look back, or some type of timeline, these things are the detail that make it more believable.

It sounds like a fictional drama, (right?), and it does not need to be perfect. My advice, write it about what you know, then get an ex-mo consultant to work with you on re-writes.

Good luck!

... François Truffaut, the celebrated French film maker who played Dr. LaCombe, told director Steven Spielberg, "You can't create a story that you haven't yourself lived in some way. Otherwise you are just a craftsman."

Line Upon Line, In The Shadow of The Temple, September Dawn and Helen Whitney's "The Mormons" all received harsh criticism from this board and elsewhere. My own film "Breaking The Spell" fared no better. Of the aforementioned endeavors, mine was the only one produced by someone who has actually lived the story in some way. Go figure.

Part of the problem is that it isn't much of a story to those who haven't lived it, while those who have lived it don't make-up much of an audience. Don't know how or why you intend to expose the "dark-side" of these "perfect" people, but if your aim is to bolster the credibility of another faith by exposing mormonism as a fraud, you're not likely to get anywhere near the target, much less the bull's-eye.

In any event, good luck!

You're going to need it.

Timothy

My story isn't to promote any other religion, or even to make Mormons look bad. First, I came up with the idea (sorry, can't give away my surprise ending here), then I needed a family to fit the bill. I needed a family with several kids and since they tend to have larger families, it worked. There is some molestation and disfunction in the story and I'm certain that Mormons are not ammune to problems of that nature. I also picked Mormons because it was be a bit unique. There just aren't that many dramas where the family just happens to be Mormon...as opposed to stories where the family just happens to be generic Christians.

Thanks to "wings" and Timothy, for your advise from inside the business. Always helpful. My intent in coming to this site was to find a story consultant...still working on that.

One last question, I see TBM used here frequently. What does that mean?

I jokingly say I'm the product of 2 cults, because I have both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses in my family. I have spend some time on the ex-JW site too, but since I left the minute I turned 18 and it's been nearly 4 decades since I left, I have no need to go there. I don't even think about it anymore. It's funny though to listen to some of the similarities between the two religions.

And finally, I want to say that some of you have delightful senses of humor and I sit here and laugh out loud at some of the things you say. Too much fun!