Nate Fleming's Blog, page 10

Christian Film Distributors, What Are You Doing To Us?

This month, three big Christian-made films are being released within a two week period.

I Can Only Imagine, the new film by the Erwin Brothers (Woodlawn, Mom’s Night Out) about the life of singer Bart Millard (of Mercy Me fame) is being released on March 15.

Paul, Apostle of Christ, the spring’s annual sword and sandal Bible movie starring Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) as Luke the apostle, is being released thirteen days later on March 28.

And God’s Not Dead 3: A Light in Darkness, the third film in the Pure Flix God’s Not Dead franchise, is being released two days later on March 30.

March 15, March 28, and March 30.

Guys, what are you doing to us?

First, it’s important to point out the key audience for these kinds of movies. While the people behind the movies probably hope that the films will be seen outside the Christian subculture, the truth is that all three were custom made for the Big Christian Audience. And if believers don’t turn up for any one of these films, then they will have miserable opening weekends, shortened in-cinema lives, and unfortunate box office returns.

So then why release them so closely together? If all three films are depending on the same audience, why put yourself into a position where you’re forcing that audience to choose between them?

Consider the average costs associated with going to see a film in 2018.

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(JACOB AMMENTORP LUND/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO)

According to Deadline, the average price of a movie ticket last year was about $9.00. Time tells us that the average price of babysitting is about $14.00/hour. And then if you want snacks at the movies, you’ll pay around $5.00 for the restrained purchase of a small drink and $7.00 for an equally restrained small popcorn.

Forget about a box of Junior Mints (another $4.00 if you don’t sneak it in after buying the same box at the Dollar Store for, yes, a dollar).

And then we have the miscellaneous costs. Transportation, parking, and dinner before the movie.

Now, let’s imagine a couple with children decides to support these films, but leave the kids at home. They will potentially spend about $80 each time they go, and that’s not including the miscellaneous expenses. So, if they support all three of these films, they will be spending close to $250 in the month of March in movies alone.

I don’t know any couples with children who budget that kind of money on movies.

Heck, you could pay $12.00 a month for unlimited movies on Netflix, including faith-based movies, all while staying in the comfort of your home eating snacks bought in bulk at Costco.

[image error]And guys… all of this congestion… it’s so unnecessary! Looking over the calendar of faith-based films being released this year, there really aren’t that many on the docket. Samson, the last big faith-based release, came out in February, but there aren’t that many big budget releases happening this year aimed at Christian audiences.

And yet, we have these three, all jockeying for position, all wanting the same butts in the seats, and all bottle-necked around Easter.

The Christian faith’s most sacred time of year.

I can only imagine that this blog post will somehow find it’s way to the folks who make these sorts of decisions, and so I’m going close by addressing them directly. And I’m going to call them Monica and Chandler to make it seem more personal, and because I’m currently binging old episodes of Friends.

Hi Monica and Chandler,

I really appreciate what you guys are trying to do by making and releasing films for Christian audiences. I’m grateful that you are exploring how to use the medium of film to promote the Gospel, and how you are improving the product you release with each passing year. Things really are getting better!

But you really need to do a better job thinking through this distribution thing next time. After all, it’s in your best interest to maximize the return on the investments made by the film’s backers, as well as to give your audience the chance to support the work that you do. It’s like if three studios released three superhero movies at the same time. None of them will do as well as they would have if there’d been some breathing room built into the releases. I don’t even work for Hollywood and I recognize this.

I have to confess – most of us don’t know or understand the mechanics of doing what you do, we just know the finished product. We don’t understand the politics behind the relationships of your companies, we just know that we want to watch what your company produces.

But if you claim to share our faith and share each other’s faith, then you need to work together in this sort of thing. Spread things out. Give us some breathing room. Allow us the chance to get our affairs in order between films. Even though we may not turn up to see your films every time like you’d like, you should really remove all the obstacles that would prevent us from doing so, should we want to.

It just makes sense.

Thank you!

Nate

(on behalf of the Big Christian Audience)

Thimblerig’s Picks, Oscars 2018

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Last year, my predictions were absymal, with only 25% of my picks being correct. Let’s see if 2018 is a better year for Thimblerig’s Ark!

BEST PICTURE

Call Me By Your Name

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Get Out

Lady Bird

Phantom Thread

The Post

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ACTOR

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

BEST ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Meryl Streep, The Post

BEST DIRECTOR

Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan

Get Out, Jordan Peele

Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig

Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson

The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Mary J. Blige, Mudbound

Allison Janney, I, Tonya

Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water

Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory

The Disaster Artist, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Logan, Scott Frank, James Mangold, Michael Green

Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin

Mudbound, Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani

Get Out, Jordan Peele

Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig

The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Martin McDonagh

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Blade Runner 2049

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Blade Runner 2049

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Mudbound

The Shape of Water

COSTUME DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Darkest Hour

Phantom Thread

The Shape of Water

Victoria & Abdul

SOUND EDITING

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

SOUND MIXING

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Dear Basketball

Garden Party

Lou

Negative Space

Revolting Rhymes

LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM

DeKalb Elementary

The Eleven O’Clock

My Nephew Emmett

The Silent Child

Watu Wote/All of Us

ORIGINAL SCORE

Dunkirk

Phantom Thread

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

VISUAL EFFECTS

Blade Runner 2049

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Kong: Skull Island

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

War for the Planet of the Apes

FILM EDITING

Baby Driver

Dunkirk

I, Tonya

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Darkest Hour

Victoria & Abdul

Wonder

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

A Fantastic Woman, Chile

The Insult, Lebanon

Loveless, Russia

On Body and Soul, Hungary

The Square, Sweden

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Edith and Eddie

Heaven Is A Traffic Jam on the 405

Heroin(e)

Knife Skills

Traffic Stop

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Faces Places

Icarus

Last Man in Aleppo

Strong Island

ORIGINAL SONG

“Mighty River,” Mudbound

“Mystery of Love,” Call Me By Your Name

“Remember Me,” Coco

“Stand Up For Something,” Marshall

“This Is Me,” The Greatest Showman

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

The Boss Baby

The Breadwinner (Cartoon Saloon will finally win if there is any justice in the world…)

Coco

Ferdinand

Loving Vincent

The 90th Academy Awards will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 4.

Thimblerig’s Ark blog celebrates 300,000 Hits!

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It’s hard to believe, but today the blog had it’s 300,000th hit! I wish I could figure out who the person was who took us over the 300K mark so that I could give them a prize, but since I can’t, I’ve decided to give everyone a prize! Also, I’m going to be counting down the top five posts of all time on the Thimblerig’s Ark blog.

But before we get to the top five, to celebrate this milestone, I’m giving away copies of my novel, Thimblerig’s Ark, for anyone who would like to read it!

To get your free copy for Kindle, just click on the picture below and don’t forget to tell your friends! Share it on social media! Paint it on your roof for passing planes to see!

And let them all know that Thimblerig’s Ark will be free until Sunday, February 25.

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And it would be really, really super cool if you actually gave the novel a try, and then took a couple of minutes to write a review on Amazon. I appreciate my 29 reviews, but want to get many, many more!

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And just for fun, I thought I would show the five most popular articles to come from this blog since we began in 2014.

Drumroll, please!

5. Nine Things I Learned from 40 Days (and Nights) of Christian Media. Yes, it’s over. (5,295 hits, published April 27, 2015)

In 2015, I decided to spend 40 days (and nights) consuming nothing but Christian media. It was a long 40 days, but in the end I think I learned some valuable lessons.

This article got a good bump when it was featured and discussed by Phil Vischer (the creator of Veggietales) on The Phil Vischer Podcast, episode 151.

4. A Memorial to the Family of Tambii Jee, lost on MH17 (11,673 hits, July 14, 2014)

How often do we hear about tragic events of the world, shake our head at the tragedy, and then go on with our lives?

[image error]On July 17, 2014, a tragic event far away struck very close to home for me. On that day, Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine, and one of the heartbreaking stories was a family of six, three of whom were my former students from Atyrau, Kazakhstan. The family of Tambii Jee was returning home to Malaysia after many years in Kazakhstan, and this blog post was my response to this tragic situation, sharing some memories of this sweet family, especially the youngest son Afruz, who was in my homeroom.

3. My Review of Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter Theme Park (12,403 hits, published July 19, 2016)

When Ken Ham’s Ark Park opened on July 7, 2016, my family was there. The ark was an impressive feat of building, but entertainment-wise, it was a letdown. “But it’s a ministry!” some would say. “Why should it be entertaining?” Considering that Ken Ham compared the place with the Disney and Universal parks, I would have expected the entertainment factor to be higher.

When The Friendly Atheist, an atheist blogger, linked to my review, the article blew up and was seen by thousands.

You can read his thoughts here. 

2. Unpacking that God’s Not Dead 3 Teaser (21,916 hits, published April 12, 2016)

If you would have asked me when I was writing this blog post if I thought it would be the second most popular post I would write, I would have laughed. But, the God’s Not Dead franchise is unarguably popular for a Christian film franchise, and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that my dissection of the claims made at the end of God’s Not Dead 2 would get so many visitors.

1. What’s Wrong With Christian Filmmaking? (107,234 hits, published March 25, 2014)

The post that started it all. God’s Not Dead had just been released, and reading a critical review sparked me to scribble down on my blog what I had been learning and thinking about since taking the Act One screenwriting course a few years earlier: the importance of Christians artists doing everything with excellence, including filmmaking.

And the bigger importance of the Big Christian Audience allowing Christian artists to do it.

And so, that’s it! Thank you, loyal readers, for being a part of this journey!

Enjoy reading Thimblerig’s Ark…

…and here’s to the next 300,000!

The Winners of the 26th Annual MovieGuide® Awards

Each year for the past 26 years, MovieGuide® has held an awards show where they award films and television shows using a completely different set of criteria than most awards shows. While shows like the Oscars and the Golden Globes highlight films and television programs based on their artistic merit, MovieGuide® looks at the “moral and spiritual principles as well as… production values… movies that tell a story that is both redemptive and inspiring to their audiences.”

I’m pleased to announce the winners of the 25th Annual MovieGuide® Faith & Falues Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry (gasp) which was held this past weekend at the Hilton Los Angeles / Universal City. You can see the entire list of nominees here.

And the winners are:

The Jeannette Clift George Award for Furthering Entertainment with Faith & Values

Given to Rich Peluso of Affirm Films



[image error]Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Movie of 2017

The Star

Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Television Program of 2017

The Long Road Home: Black Sunday, Part 2

The Faith & Freedom Award for Movies

The Faith & Freedom Awards for Promoting Positive American Values are awarded for entertainment value, for craftsmanship, and for creating programming that is uplifting, moral, insightful, compassionate, and that shows America and its people in a positive light.

The Promise

Best Movie for Families

The Boss Baby

Best 2017 Movies for Mature Audiences

Darkest Hour

Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performance for Movies

John Corbett for “All Saints”

Christie Peters Grace Award Nominees for TV

Paul Sparks for “The Crown: Veregangenheit”

—

Interestingly, in the past, MovieGuide® has given awards to actors in both the male and female categories. This year, they only gave to performers, regardless of gender. This is an interesting and progressive step for MovieGuide®, although the result was that the women were shut out from receiving awards.

Secondly, this is only the second time an animated movie has won MovieGuide®’s big award, the Epiphany Prize. The last time was 1999’s Prince of Egypt.

And finally, I’ll end this post by asking the three big questions I ask each year:

Dear MovieGuide®:

Who decides the nominees?

Who decides who wins?

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, is it just a coincidence that your award statue is a crystal teddy bear and the founder of MovieGuide®’s name is Ted Baehr?

 

 

Today’s Ironic News: The MovieGuide Awards Get Attacked For Being Too Liberal

In what might just qualify as the most delicious irony of the year so far, the MovieGuide Awards Facebook page is being trolled by supposed far-right conservatives for being another liberal awards show.

To give a bit of background, MovieGuide is an organization that reviews Hollywood content from a conservative Christian, pro-family, pro-American, pro-Capitalist point of view. Every year for the past 25 years, they’ve hosted an awards show that gave out prizes to films like God’s Not Dead, War Room, Duck Dynasty, and The Passion of the Christ.

I mean, these guys are basically the Fox News of awards shows, and now they are being hammered by people making the following comments:

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I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, but someone at Far Right HQ apparently didn’t get the memo, and now we’ve got a bad case of internet friendly fire. And considering how many of these comments are being made by people with few or no friends, it might just be some of that famous Russian trolling we’ve been hearing about.

Ah, don’t you just love 2018?

Happy Groundhog Day from Thimblerig’s Ark!

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And if you haven’t gotten your copy of Thimblerig’s Ark, the ultimate groundhog novel, what are you waiting for?

Click here to get your copy of Thimblerig’s Ark!

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The Sermon on the Mount Proposal

[image error]I think that we can all agree that the Church in America is a bit of a mess right now, and so I – a simple blogger though I be – want to propose a simple solution. If all followers of Jesus, regardless of denominational background, would agree to what I am about to propose, we might just be able to start turning things around.

The first part of my proposal is this: set aside the month of April. No matter what you and your church have planned, just set it aside. Does your church follow some sort of liturgical calendar that helps you plan the focus of your worship? Set it aside for April. Do you have a big sermon series planned for that time? Hold off until May.

“Wait!” I can hear some of you saying. “The first Sunday of April is Easter! Does this simple blogger realize this?”

Of course I do! That’s why I chose April! And yes, I know that you probably have something big planned for that day. Special music, a drama maybe – and maybe you’ve already put down the deposit on a rented donkey. Well, keep your normal big plans in place, but pastors should plan to preach something else than what they’ve already planned, and I’ll get to that something else in a moment.

But before I do, keep in mind that for this to work, everyone has to be in on it. Catholics, Baptists (all stripes), Episcopalians, Presbyterians, churches of Christ, Non-denominationals, Pentecostals… everyone.

And it needs to be across the racial, cultural, political, and language lines, too. The saying goes that the most segregated hours in America are on Sunday morning, and so this is something that needs to happen no matter what your congregation looks like. Are you a Trump supporter? A Never-Trumper? A Republian? A Democrat? A Libertarian? It doesn’t matter. For this proposal to work, it needs to involve anyone and everyone who claims to follow Christ. EVERYONE.

Speaking of which, maybe you are a person who considers yourself a Christian, but you don’t feel the need to go to an organized church. For the month of April you should. Maybe you’re an Easter/Christmas Christian, and you’re just not interested in the other fifty Sundays of the year. Well, you need to include church on your schedule for the month of April. You’ll be there for April 1 anyway, so just keep coming for four more Sundays.

It’s just a month, and it’s really important.

But what happens in April? What is this big proposal that I’m making, and insisting on as being so very important and potentially groundbreaking? This is the best part, because it’s really easy.

I mean, really, really easy:

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Sermon On The Mount, 2010 By: Laura James

I propose that every Christian in America spend the month knee-deep in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

That’s it. That’s all I’m proposing.

I’m simply suggesting that we Christians in America, all of us, commit to spending one month collectively wrestling with Jesus’s words about what it really means to follow Him. That we work through the Beatitudes, and find out who is truly blessed in God’s eyes. That we learn about true murder and turning the other cheek. That we – all of us – sit and listen to Jesus’s tough teaching on how we respond to enemies and figure out just who is supposed to take care of the needy, and how to pray. Forgiveness, mercy, worry and fear – the sermon has it all. And we all need a refresher course.

Because folks, the Church is in trouble, and not because of some outside threat. We’re in trouble because of the way we’re treating each other and the way we’re treating those outside the church.

We really need Jesus to help us to see this, and the Mount Sermon could do it.

That’s it. That’s my simple proposal. And while I know that it’s probably impossible that we could pull it off…

can you imagine what might change in our country if we did?

***edit***

If your pastors aren’t into changing their preaching plans, then go ahead and commit to a personal in-depth study yourself, or get a group together to do it!

 

 

The 2017 MOVIEGUIDE® Awards Nominations

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Yes, it’s that magical time of the year, where the six or seven loyal readers of this blog interested in all things MovieGuide® get to find out what films from the past year Dr. Baehr and company have decided deserve their coveted accolades.

While I don’t know exactly how these movies are chosen, I do know that – as opposed to most film awards – the MovieGuide® Awards don’t necessarily have to do with quality filmmaking or acting (although some of the nominees are quality nominees). Rather, the award nominations are based on the films that Dr. B and company decide are best for the family

The Shepherd – The Must-See Christmas Movie of the Year (and it’s less than 30 minutes!)

I love Christmas movies.

[image error]On the Friday after Thanksgiving, I start pulling them out, and I watch the gamut with my kids. We always start with Home Alone, and then Elf, and then everything else from Arthur Christmas to The Santa Clause.  Yes, we even watch and enjoy Home Alone 3 (although it stops there… Home Alone 4 and 5 are dead to me).

The movies we watch celebrate the Christmas season by telling stories about presents, Santa, magic, trains to the North Pole, Red Ryder BB guns, and ghosts of various time periods. None of them (with the exception of Charlie Brown) even consider the importance of the birth of Jesus or the idea that Christmas has any holy or sacred aspect at all. Thinking about this even led me to argue that Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is more of a Christmas movie than most Christmas movies a couple of years ago.

But this year, I happened upon a gem of a little movie: a Christmas movie about the birth of Jesus that is powerful, fresh, well-made, and worth every moment of your time to watch.

The film – less than thirty minutes in length – is called The Shepherd, and it was made by Dallas Jenkins (The Resurrection of Gavin Stone). This is apparently the pilot of The Chosen, a series Jenkins is hoping to make about the witnesses of Jesus’ life, and if the quality of The Shepherd is any indication, we need to make sure The Chosen gets made. Watch the end of the video for a pitch from Jenkins about how you can be involved in this endeavor.

[image error]The Shepherd tells the story of the birth of Jesus from the point of view of one of the shepherds, and while the “eye-witness” conceit may not be original in and of itself, in this case the execution is. The Shepherd succeeds where so many faith-based and Bible films fail – showing and not telling, using the visuals and music to sell the story (and yes, even the message), and making an otherwise oft-told story seem fresh and real.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I don’t give Christian-made films an easy pass, and that if I gush about something, it’s truly gushable. In this case, The Shepherd is absolutely gushable, and if you watch it, it’s liable to become mandatory yuletide viewing in your home as well.

So, here’s the link. Check it out, and you’ll see what I mean. Then come back here to the comment section and let me know what you thought, and then we can argue about Interstellar.

Heck, you can even give me your arguments for Die Hard as the ultimate Christmas movie. I’ll disagree with you, but you can make your arguments.

Nanowrimo Day 30 – life is rarely this sweet…

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