Harold Cronk

{{Infobox person | name = Harold David Cronk | image =  | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Harold David Cronk | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1973|10|27}}  | birth_place = Reed City, Michigan, U.S. | death_date =  | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Director, producer, writer | known_for = ''God's Not Dead''<br/> ''Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Conspiracy''<br/>''Jerusalem Countdown'' | alma_mater = Central Michigan University }}

'''Harold David Cronk''' (born October 27, 1973) is an American writer, director and producer best known for his work in Christian films, and for being a founding partner in 10 West Studios and EMC Productions. Cronk won the Best Director award at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival in 2006. He is husband to Amy Cronk.

== Early life == Born in Reed City, Michigan, Cronk went to school in the Baldwin School District until about sixth grade. He then attended school in Scottville, Michigan, where he was active in the theatre department, and graduated from Mason County Central High School in 1993.<ref name="Mlive Interview"/><ref name="Matson and Cronk Background"/> Cronk graduated from Central Michigan University in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science in Art and K-12 Education.<ref name="Mlive Interview"/><ref name="Matson and Cronk Background"/>

== Career ==

Cronk taught high school art courses and was voted Teacher of the Year for two of his four years at Evart High School.<ref name=Celeb/> When the Reed City elementary school hired another art teacher in 1998, Cronk made a point of introducing himself to the new hire, Matthew Tailford. The two teachers found that they had a lot in common: both had participated in college athletics, both had studied sculpture and both had acting experience in school.<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|2}}

{{Quote box |quote = Back then, Cronk concedes, "I didn't even know people made livings as art directors." To him, movies just appeared on the screen, almost magically. "I didn't understand that it could take hundreds of people on a movie set to make it happen."<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|3}} |source = "Two Filmmakers Bring Michigan Movie Industry to Manistee", by Jeff Smith, April 27, 2010 |border= 3px |width = 45% |align = right}} In 2000, Tailford landed a job as the art director on a television pilot, ''Dear Doughboy''. Cronk and Tailford traveled to Los Angeles to work for the show.<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|2}} The experience in Los Angeles motivated the pair to try their hand at producing Cronk's screenplays ''South Manitou'' and ''The Agent''. Using their own funds, Cronk and Tailford completed the ''South Manitou'' and ''The Agent'' projects and considered the life-experience as equivalent to film school coursework.<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|3}} Upon completion, a film screening was set up by Compass College of Cinematic Arts with producer Ralph Winter in attendance. Winter enjoyed the film(s) and encouraged Cronk and Tailford to continue with film-making. Buoyed by the reception of the work, Cronk moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2004.<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|3}} Within months of the relocation to Los Angeles, Cronk and Tailford found themselves on location in Ireland, working on the ''Secret of the Cave'' (2006), starring Kevin Novotny and Patrick Bergin, with Cronk as production designer and Tailford as art director.<ref name=Fandango/><ref name="Secret of the Cave"/> Other assignments followed, direction of a Magic Johnson Foundation, Lincoln Navigator commercial starring Earvin "Magic" Johnson<ref name=Celeb/> and Cronk directed, Eve Ensler's, ''The Vagina Monologues'', Vday West (2006) at the Ivy Substation during this time period.<ref name=Celeb/>

Cronk and Tailford also had greater ambitions to develop their own screenplays, Cronk found that he enjoyed directing and Tailford was interested in producing and acting. With some industry experience behind them, they returned to Michigan to create a ten-minute short, ''War Prayer'', based upon Mark Twain's short story, "The War Prayer", a controversial war-story that was embargoed by ''Harper's Bazaar'', until six years after Twain's death.<ref name=MarkTwain/> A wind-damaged stand of pine trees near Evart, Michigan served as the set and battlefield props were fashioned from junkyard remnants.<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|4}} After receiving several rejection notices from various film festivals, the ''War Prayer'' was accepted by the Beverly Hills International Film Festival, the festival's Best Director Award for 2006, going to Harold Cronk, came as "a total shock."<ref name=mynorth/>{{rp|4}}<ref name="Canyon News"/>

=== 10 West Studios === Cronk is currently the CEO of 10 West Studios. His win for Best Director at the Beverly Hills Film Festival resulted in a three-picture deal with Origin Entertainment for the studio.<ref name=ReelChicago/> Cronk had already spent a year and a half on his screenplay, set in West Michigan, ''Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Conspiracy'', a children's comedy adventure film.<ref name="Mlive Interview"/><ref name="Matson and Cronk Background"/><ref name=mynorth/><ref name=10westAward/>

== Filmography == Cronk directed ''God's Not Dead'', starring Kevin Sorbo, David A. R. White and Willie Robertson. The film was Cronk's first significant box office opening, with a gross of $2.8 million on Friday (March 21, 2014),<ref name="Not Dead LATIMES"/> and $8.5 million for the weekend, in a limited 780 theater release.<ref name="Not Dead Box Office"/> {{awards table}} |- | 2006 | ''War Prayer'' | Best Director, Beverly Hills Film Festival<ref name="Canyon News"/><ref name=10westAward/> | {{won}} |}

{| class="wikitable" |+ ! Year!! Film!! Role!! Notes!! Reference |- | 2005 ||''Midnight Clear''|| Art Director|| style="font-size:75%;"|Jenkins Entertainment|| |- | 2005||''The Red Veil'' (short film) || Production Design|| style="font-size:75%;"|Under the Fog Productions|| |- | 2005||''The Agent'' (short film) || Co-Director|| style="font-size:75%;"|Mendicant Pictures||<ref name=mynorth/> |- | 2006||''War Prayer'' (short film) || Director|| style="font-size:75%;"|10 West Productions||<ref name="Canyon News"/><ref name=10westAward/> |- | 2006|| ''Secret of the Cave''|| Production Designer||style="font-size:75%;"|Carmel Entertainment, School of Visual Art and design, Southern Adventist University||<ref name="Secret of the Cave"/> |- | 2010|| ''Tug''|| Set Decorator|| style="font-size:75%;"|Jumpstart Pictures, TicTock Studios|| |- | 2010|| ''What If...''|| Co-producer|| style="font-size:75%;"|Jenkins Film Group|| |- | 2010 | ''Christmas with a Capital C''|| Production Designer|| style="font-size:75%;"|Pure Flix Entertainment||<ref name=AllMovie/> |- | 2010|| ''Johnny''|| Associate Producer|| style="font-size:75%;"| 10 West Studios, Pure Flix Entertainment|| |- | 2011|| ''Return to the Hiding Place''|| Associate Producer|| style="font-size:75%;"| Spencer Productions, 10 West Studios||<ref name="Jerusalem and Hiding place"/> |- | 2011 | ''Jerusalem Countdown''|| Director, screenwriter|| style="font-size:75%;"|10 West Studios, God & Country Entertainment, Pure Flix Ent||<ref name=AllMovie/><ref name="Rotten Tomatoes"/> |- | 2012|| ''Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Conspiracy''|| Director, screenwriter|| style="font-size:75%;"|10 West Studios, EMC Productions||<ref name=AllMovie/><ref name="Rotten Tomatoes"/> |- | 2013|| ''Silver Bells'' ||Director ||style="font-size:75%;"|Filmed in Manistee, Grand rapids and Ludington in March, 2013.|| |- | 2014|| ''God's Not Dead''|| Director|| style="font-size:75%;"| Pure Flix Entertainment, Red Entertainment Group ||<ref name="Not Dead LATIMES" /> |- | 2016|| ''God's Not Dead 2''|| Director|| style="font-size:75%;"| Pure Flix Entertainment, Red Entertainment Group || |- | 2017|| ''God Bless the Broken Road''|| Director and writer|| style="font-size:75%;"| Freestyle Releasing|| |- | 2018 || ''Unbroken: Path to Redemption'' || Director || style="font-size:75%;"| Pure Flix Entertainment || |}

== References ==

{{Reflist |refs= <ref name=AllMovie>{{cite web|title=Harold Cronk on AllMovie|url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/harold-cronk-p524829|work=Credits|publisher=AllMovie|access-date=23 February 2013}}</ref>

<ref name=10westAward>{{cite news|last=YUNG|first=KATHERINE|title=Manistee studio steals the show|url=http://www.wzzm13.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=115063|access-date=23 February 2013|newspaper=Detroit Free Press|date=26 October 2009}}</ref>

<ref name=mynorth>{{cite news|last=Smith|first=Jeff|title=Two Filmmakers Bring Michigan Movie Industry to Manistee|url=http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/April-2010/Two-Filmmakers-Bring-Michigan-Movie-Industry-to-Manistee/index.php|access-date=23 February 2013|newspaper=Traverse|date=27 April 2010|pages=5|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501114933/http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/April-2010/Two-Filmmakers-Bring-Michigan-Movie-Industry-to-Manistee/index.php|archive-date=1 May 2010}}</ref>

<ref name=Celeb>{{cite web|title=V-Day West LA 2006 Director Harold Cronk|url=http://www.celebrity-network.net/vday/vdaywestla/director.html|publisher=Celebrity-Network.net|access-date=25 February 2013|year=2006|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084243/http://www.celebrity-network.net/vday/vdaywestla/director.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Canyon News">{{cite news|last=Guis|first=Dee|title=Beverly Hills Film Festival: And the Envelope Please...|url=http://www.canyon-news.com/artman/publish/article_4280.php|access-date=25 February 2013|newspaper=Canyon News|date=16 April 2006|quote=Harold Cronk won the Best Director Award for War Prayer, an intense short film inspired by a Mark Twain story, proving that great art can come in small packages.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923060626/http://www.canyon-news.com/artman/publish/article_4280.php|archive-date=23 September 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Secret of the Cave">{{cite web|title=Secret of the Cave (2006)|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/secret-of-the-cave-v393463|work=Overview|publisher=AllMovie|access-date=25 February 2013}}</ref>

<ref name=Fandango>{{cite web|title=Harold Cronk|url=http://www.fandango.com/haroldcronk/filmography/p524829|work=Filmography|publisher=Fandango|access-date=25 February 2013}}</ref>

<ref name=MarkTwain>{{cite news|last=Twain|first=Mark|title=The War Prayer|url=http://archive.lewrockwell.com/orig/twain1.html|access-date=25 February 2013|newspaper=LewRockwell.com}}</ref>

<ref name="Matson and Cronk Background">{{cite news|last=ALWAY|first=ROB|title=Scottville director nears completion of movie|url=http://www.masoncountypress.com/2012/01/19/scottville-director-nears-completion-of-movie/|access-date=17 March 2013|newspaper=Mason County Press|date=19 January 2012|quote=Cronk wrote and directed the movie, which was filmed exclusively in Mason and Manistee counties.}}</ref>

<ref name="Mlive Interview"> {{cite AV media | people = Harold Cronk, Paula Homes-Greely | title = Newsmaker: Harold Cronk, filmmaker | medium = Radio broadcast | url = http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/03/newsmaker_harold_cronk_filmmak.html | accessdate = 3 March 2013 | date = 9 March 2009 | format = MP3 }}</ref>

<ref name="Jerusalem and Hiding place">{{cite web|last=Boissoneau|first=Ross|title=Northern Michigan's Movie Moguls|url=http://www.tcbusinessnews.com/news/northern-michigan-acirc-s-movie-moguls|work=Vol. 16 - Number 12|publisher=Traverse City Business News|access-date=17 March 2013|date=July 2010|quote=Right now, the duo has four films in various stages, from the completed What If starring Kevin Sorbo, to Jerusalem Countdown, which found the two back in California wrapping up production. The others are Johnny and A Return to the Hiding Place.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829034737/http://www.tcbusinessnews.com/news/northern-michigan-acirc-s-movie-moguls|archive-date=29 August 2010}}</ref>

<ref name=ReelChicago>{{cite web|last=Ratny|first=Ruth L.|authorlink=Ruth L. Ratny|title=10 West Studios ready for business in Manistee|url=http://www.reelchicago.com/article/10-west-studios-ready-business-manistee|access-date=5 March 2013|publisher=ReelChicago.com|date=30 March 2009}}</ref>

<ref name="Rotten Tomatoes">{{cite web|title=Harold Cronk|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/harold_cronk/|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref>

<ref name="Not Dead LATIMES">{{cite web|last=King|first=Susan |title=The religious drama 'God's Not Dead' surprises at box office |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-the-religious-drama-gods-not-dead-surprises-at-box-office-20140322,0,4526149.story#axzz2x5ECsSeR |work=Movies Now|publisher=Los Angeles Times |access-date=26 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326162518/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-the-religious-drama-gods-not-dead-surprises-at-box-office-20140322,0,4526149.story#axzz2x5pvNuZ9 |archive-date=26 March 2014|date=22 March 2014 |quote=Directed by Harold Cronk ("The Adventures of Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Treasure"), "God's Not Dead" revolves around a Christian college student (Shane Harper) who finds his faith challenged by a philosophy professor (Kevin Sorbo of "Hercules" fame)...}}</ref>

<ref name="Not Dead Box Office">{{cite web|last=Cunningham|first=Todd|title='Divergent' Scores $56 Million Box-Office Opening, 'A' CinemaScore – And a Franchise Is Born (Video)|url=http://www.thewrap.com/divergent-box-office-shailene-woodley-theo-james-franchise-born|publisher=The Wrap|access-date=26 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326163957/http://www.thewrap.com/divergent-box-office-shailene-woodley-theo-james-franchise-born|archive-date=26 March 2014|date=23 March 2014|quote=The independent faith-based movie “God's Not Dead” finished a surprising fifth, taking in $8.5 million from just 780 screens...}}</ref>

}}

== External links ==  * {{Official website|http://www.10weststudios.com/}} * {{IMDb name|1880561}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronk, Harold}} Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:Film directors from Michigan Category:Central Michigan University alumni Category:People from Reed City, Michigan Category:Film producers from Michigan Category:Children's and Family Emmy Award winners