The Photographer now available at CBD!

The Photographer: How the Rain Falls is now available at ChristianBook.com. If you want to support this movie, please purchase it here. The more this movie sells, the more CBD will promote it!

Sony Wants 50% Market Share

According to The Tech Herald, Sony wants to position its BluRay DVD format to hold a 50% market share by the end of 2008, with conventional DVDs holding the remaining 50%. It's unclear from the article whether they are referring to the market share of DVD players or DVD movie sales.

What should be our response?
Should Christian filmmakers seek to embrace this new format to be on the "cutting edge?" Or should we sit this out and wait for video downloads to takeover? I want to hear from you! Please leave a comment and give me your feedback.

Documentary Makes Box Office Top Ten!

Documentaries rarely find success with a theatrical release, but"Expelled" is breaking the rules. (A pun! Get it?)

This movie has benefited tremendou$ly from a national controversy and clever marketing campaign. Christian documentary filmmakers should sit up and take notice of what marketing strategies can be adapted for their own films.

From The Christian Post:

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," the pro-intelligent design documentary featuring actor Ben Stein, made history this weekend as it propelled full speed into the top 10 box office. It opened as the widest and one of the most commercially successful releases for any documentary film.

In an impressive opening weekend, the film debuted at No. 9 at the box office, earning a respectable $3.2 million while only appearing on 1,052 screens. ...

Click here to listen to Kevin Swanson's radio broadcast about the film.
Isaac Botkin has written a review of the film.

Free Shipping Sale!

At Biblical Worldview Media, we are currently offering free shipping on any U.S. order of $50 or more (offer ends April 30). There are no coupons needed. Just add products to your shopping cart and complete the checkout process.

BWM features many categories of family-building resources, including creation vs. evolution, evangelism tools, and movies (of course!). There are resources for families, young ladies, and young men too.

Pendragon Web Banners

Want to help promote the Pendragon movie? Burns Family Studios has some new web banners that you can post on your website or blog.

These banners were created by talented graphic designer John-Clay Burnett. John-Clay is also the director of Joel's Journey and the Sanctity of Life.

Distribution in an Age of Independence (Movie Distribution, Part 3)

In Part 2, we looked at the way movie distribution used to work. A filmmaker's only viable option was to sign an exclusive distribution deal with a major corporation. That option certainly still exists, but new options abound.

We all know that the Internet has changed life as it once was. Today, many businesses are built entirely upon the web, and just about every other business is impacted by the Internet in at least some way.

The movie industry is no exception.

The web has opened up a whole new world for filmmakers - especially independent filmmakers. It is now possible for filmmakers to effectively self-distribute without any help from a distributor.

A savvy filmmaker can...

1) Handle his own marketing
2) Sell DVDs at his own website
3) Approach ministries for partnership deals
4) Sell DVDs through a few online retailers that work directly with filmmakers
5) Sell his films through download sites like Glarity and Behemoth.com

Advent Film Group thrives on this model of self-distribution. This model is very lucrative for Christian filmmakers, and it will become even more lucrative in the future, as The Grid becomes more readily available and video downloads become the new standard. I can imagine a day when consumers will no longer buy movies on DVD, but instead opt for downloading Hi-Def videos to a home computer or TV.

Essential Aspects of Filmmaking
Even with all the potential for self-distribution now and in the future, many filmmakers will not jump at the chance to do it alone. Why? Well I'm going to have to go a little off topic at this point to talk about the basic aspects of filmmaking. I can see essentially four basic aspects to filmmaking:

1) Theological (e.g. biblical worldview)
2) Creative (e.g. the story and script)
3) Technical (e.g. lighting, etc.)
4) Business (e.g. marketing and distribution)

Hollywood is so successful because they have mastered #3 and 4. Sometimes they excel in #2, but usually they just take proven story formulas and try to tell the same stories a thousand different ways.

Most of the Christian filmmakers I know are really proficient in #1 and 2 or 1 and 3. Sometimes 1-3. Very few have mastered the business side of filmmaking (#4). This is why many films flop. You may have an excellent, creative, God-honoring film on your hands, but neglect the business aspect and you'll likely end up losing money. (unless, of course, you didn't spend any money)

The Typical Filmmaker
So what's a filmmaker to do? I understand that many filmmakers are "creative types". They are enamored by the moviemaking process. They love to develop new story ideas and write screenplays. They enjoy creating the right mood for each scene in the film. Editing may be the favorite part of the filmmaking process, because that's the part where all the piece of the film "come together" to form that final glorious masterpiece. Other filmmakers are "techies". They excel at the technical aspects of filmmaking and really know how to make a film that looks good.

All this is very well and good. There's nothing wrong with being a creative type or techie. You need those skills to make a good film. However, filmmakers are usually not business types. This means that they don't care much for marketing and distribution. The typical filmmaker would much rather focus on making films and leave that "marketing stuff" to someone else. You can see why this causes a problem for filmmakers. A very creative filmmaker might produce a very good film, but if he doesn't plan a solid marketing strategy, his film may be bound for commercial disaster.

If any of this describes you, you may want to seriously consider finding a distributor to handle marketing and distribution for you.

What if you excel in all four aspects?

The Ideal Filmmaker
While I'm sure that many filmmakers don't fit into this category, there are a select few who excel in all four aspects of filmmaking. I'm thinking mainly of Ken Carpenter and George Escobar.

Filmmakers like them may not see any need for a distributor. At the beginning of this post, I explained how the "ideal filmmaker" can succeed commercially without any help from a distributor. However, there's one important avenue for distribution that filmmakers cannot tap into unless they are assisted by a well-connected distributor.

What is that vital market?

Christian retail.

But wait a minute! Who needs Christian retailers when you have all these self-distribution options? Does Christian retail even matter anymore?

Indeed it does. It's a huge market with over 8000 stores and millions of dollars in buying power. In part 4, I'll explain why smart Christian filmmakers should seek to include Christian retailers in their overall marketing and distribution plans. Also, we'll learn why a well-connected distributor is essential to penetrate this vital market.

There's more to come. Much more!

Crosswalk, the SAICFF...and Prince Caspian!

Today, Crosswalk.com posted an interview with Doug Phillips. Topics covered include, the SAICFF, Hollywood, careful casting, and "imitation" Christian films.

After you read the article, please come back here and tell me what you think of Mr. Phillips' comments about the Prince Caspian movie. I'll withhold my opinion until after I have heard from you folks.

Stay Tuned!

Next week, I'll continue the movie distribution series. You won't want to miss part 3! First I'll tell you why you don't need a distributor. Then I'll tell you why you do.

Don't worry. It'll make sense.

The Grid: Internet in the Future

Have you heard about "The Grid"? It's the Internet of the future - 10,000 times faster than broadband!

When this new system launches, it has the potential to change the movie industry overnight. Imagine downloading feature films in mere seconds! Who wants to order a DVD and wait for it to be shipped when you can download it almost instantly?

You can read the article here, but you need to create a free account or log in.

Pilgrim's Progress movie pictures

Here are some stills from the upcoming Pilgrim's Progress movie. The release date has been pushed back several times, but the DVD is currently scheduled to release on June 30.





More pictures can be found here.

The Way Things Were (Movie Distribution, Part 2)

Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), the movie industry has undergone many changes since the early 1900's. As audiences became more refined and expected more realistic drama, filmmaking techniques changed over time. Technology has changed, acting techniques have changed, and – most disturbingly – moral values have changed for the worse in most cases.

Interestingly, with all the filmmaking changes that have taken place over the last one hundred years, movie distribution saw very few changes until the last fifteen years or so. In the early days, movies played in studio-owned theaters, which meant that filmmakers could only find distribution by going through one of the major studios. Yes, filmmakers could turn to smaller distributors, but those distributors still had to go through the studio system.


As one could imagine, movie studios wielded enormous power and influence in those days. If you wanted to succeed in the movie business, you had to go through Hollywood and play by their rules.


This changed somewhat in 1948, when the US Supreme Court ruled that studio-owned theater chains were prohibited by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. I won't go into all the ramifications of that decision, but I will say that this ruling loosened the grip that major studios had in controlling the distribution process. It loosened the grip, yes, but it didn't entirely remove studio control. Major Hollywood studios still to this day wield enormous influence over theatrical movie distribution. It is still very hard to succeed with a theatrical release unless you have Hollywood's blessing. This is changing, and there are some exciting developments on the horizon, but I won't get into that now.

Yes, there are many changes coming in theatrical distribution, but even today, if your film is distributed by a Hollywood studio, you have to give up all the distribution rights to the studio – just like the old days.

Distributors demand exclusive rights. This means that the distributor will handle the theatrical release, TV broadcasting, and the home video release.

DVD Distribution
I realize that most of my readers are not ready to produce theatrical feature films. Most of us have to be content with a direct-to-DVD release for the time being. So why spend so much time talking about theatrical distribution? For this reason – until recently, DVD distribution worked essentially the same way as theatrical distribution. If you wanted widespread distribution for your DVD, you had to work with mega-corporations who wielded enormous control over your movie release.

Even if you didn't work with Hollywood, your DVD release would still have been controlled by mega-corporations who demanded exclusive rights. Suppose you produced a movie that you wanted to release in Christian retail stores. If you wanted to reach a mass audience, your only viable option was to sign an exclusive deal with a major distributor. Usually, this distributor would have been a major Christian publisher like Tyndale or Thomas Nelson.

"What's so bad about exclusive deals?" you might ask. There are advantages to be sure, but many filmmakers will find that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

The Advantages of exclusive DVD distribution deals:
The distributor pays for DVD replication and marketing.
Your film will potentially reach an audience of millions of Christians.

The Disadvantages of exclusive DVD distribution deals:
The distributor has control over how and where your DVD is distributed.
The distributor takes a large percentage of all revenue.
If you want to sell your own DVD, you have to buy DVDs from your distributor.

I think most filmmakers would agree that the "exclusive deal" doesn't look very inviting. Take special note that the distributor would take a percentage of all DVD sales. So even if you had the ability to sell hundreds of DVDs on your own, your distributor would still get a portion of that sales revenue!

Now, I understand that some filmmakers are so engrossed in making movies that they would be glad to hand over all marketing and distribution to a distributor. They love making movies, not marketing them. If that describes you, then an exclusive distribution deal might be right for your film.

However, if you know you can generate significant sales on your own (without a distributor), then to sign an exclusive deal would mean you are giving up a large percentage of your hard-earned sales to a distributor who doesn’t have to lift a finger.

Are there any other options?

Fifteen or twenty years ago, I might have said no. You may notice that the title of this post is "The Way Things Were." Very perceptive of you. You're quite right.

An “exclusive deal” used to be your only viable option, but DVD distribution has changed drastically in the last fifteen years or so.

There are many more options today to reach a mass audience without the help of a distributor.

Interested? Stay tuned for part 3!