There are a few steps that faith and family filmmakers need to apply in order to compete against the secular tastes of the day that drive R-rated films. These steps seem to go against the norms of the G and PG rated film, but do not hurt it. However, each filmmaker has to consider to what depth he or she takes the recommendations.

1. Develop Strong Conflict. I use the GAC2 (Gack Squared) principle in all but transition scenes. The letters stand for Goal, Action, Consequence and Conflict. Every scene must have the main character (“MC”) of the scene experience GAC2 or the audience gets bored.

In the beginning of the scene the story has to reveal the MC’s goal, just like in the beginning of the movie the story has to reveal the MC’s overarching or universal goal. But, within each scene the MC has a minor goal that needs to be obtained like trying to get to someone for information, convince them to change their mind, or influence a person to hand over the whereabouts of the answer.

When the goal is well established, the audience has something to cheer for and can be taken on an emotional ride, especially once the action is taken. The action could be crossing the room, throwing a drink in someone’s face, or letting go of an embraced loved one.

Since the scene most likely has a supporting character to help reveal more about the MC, he or she has to respond in a way that reveals conflict. If the MC crosses the room toward a pretty blonde holding the answers to his forgotten life, a bodyguard might create conflict by stepping between him and her. Or, maybe the MC throws a drink in the boyfriend’s face to lose him in order to talk to the blonde, but instead he pulls a knife on the MC. Or, maybe the MC is dancing at a wedding reception with a loved one when he spots the blonde, he releases the loved one and walks toward the blonde, causing the loved one to jealously shout that she wants a divorce.

You can see that the possibilities bring interest to the scene. It also drives a question that forces the audience to desire seeing the next scene in order to find out how the story unfolds.

2. Give the Audience Something New to Think About. This is the hardest thing for most faith and family filmmakers, because it requires pushing their audience out of their comfort zone, which conservative families do not like. It can create animosity and shut down the filmmaker’s future.

Without it, the audience goes home saying, “Gee, that film was swell, but it’s just like all the others.” If the story doesn’t reveal something interesting, unique or life changing, then it should be a minor video release and not a silver screen presentation. Most people aren’t willing to pay $10 a head for a film that confirms they are living right or are better off than others.

People only find value in revelation and growth, yet those two items are the two things that no one wants to experience because it takes change and energy. Most people don’t want to think through a film, yet they talk about how stupid the show is unless it caused them to think.

People hate change, especially if the change is how they think. However, if the filmmaker has the audacity to attempt to change the minds of the audience, he will receive significant controversy – And, box office success. That is something few faith and family filmmakers are willing to bring to the table. They would prefer to make less money and not risk their mediocre career.

3. Introduce the Audience to a New Character or Location They’ve Never Seen. In the time of franchises puking out copycat films, the audience is hungry for something they’ve never seen before. I mean, how many different takes on Spiderman can we see without saying, “Enough already!”

Forest Gump, Amadeus and Rain Man won Oscars for Best Picture and were huge successes because the audience was introduced to a new character worthy of mental and emotional exploration. Similarly, locations that prompted the eye opening visual fascination and Oscars or Box Office successes include Avatar, Dances with Wolves and Slumdog Millionaire. Several films that combined both elements won an Oscar like Shindler’s List, Gone with the Wind, and Braveheart.

Most of these films took more production days and larger budgets to accomplish, something that is rare among faith and family films. That’s not to say it can’t be done, as Slumdog Millionaire was a low budget film that introduced audiences to new locations, cultures and characters.

Competing for screen time and drawing in the audience in this day and age demands the above three points be a part of every story. The question is, which faith and family filmmaker will risk his career to make a film that gives the audience a huge payoff mentally and emotionally, and drives interest in an Oscar nomination. I can’t wait to find out the answer. It makes me want to rewrite some of my direct to video scripts and take them all up a level or two.

When high quality independent productions appear on the Internet the number of hits it receives skyrockets. Many filmmakers have been discovered based on the popularity of their high quality production. Unfortunately, the average filmmaker can’t afford to produce a high quality film for the Internet, unless it gets notoriety – But, which camp will support his style: Faith & Family Films or R-Rated Films?

The ideal attention getting short film developed for the Internet is one with a high visual concept. These grab the attention of the viewer, but typically lack story. The show is designed for an emotional moment, but doesn’t bring to life a story that inspires a change in our lives.

Few high concept filmmakers are able to cross over to telling in depth stories that lead to social or personal change. However, they do get a lot of buzz. Most of these types of filmmakers are great at creating trailers, but not feature films that rely heavily on story. These two types of films require different skill sets and few filmmakers have mastered both.

Regardless of the format, the filmmaker must find investors or sponsors in order to survive. This has been true since the invention of film. Bad television shows continued airing regardless of its poor ratings when there was a sponsor who believed in the show and the audience it captured. Likewise, many shows have failed when the sponsor pulled out.

Sponsors or donors play the same vital role in the Christian film and television market. Unfortunately, few Christian companies want to fund the bad and low quality programming that plagues Christian media. The Christian television market has also seen the ramifications of the donors, who supported bad programming for the sake of getting some message out, getting old and dying – Without any new programming to inspire young Christians to donate.

This shift in the market forces all production people who want to earn a descent living to produce programs for the general market with or without a subtle message. Oh, there are a few who will do film part time, but their quality won’t be competitive or pull in a large enough audience to make a social difference in our country – Outside of a miracle.

So, how does one build a big enough audience to attract sponsors and get a message out?

Soon we will see another surge in the production of family films by Christians trying to survive in the industry. Competing for screens, will be cutting-edge artists creating more R-rated films to distinguish themselves from the family focused newbies in the industry.

I’m convinced that there will be a polarization of the two markets. It will be a race at the box office to see if a Soul Surfer or a Hangover type sequel will bring in the biggest audience. If I were a gambling man, I’d choose the R-rated films to win. Mostly because controversy sells and the secular community loves to generate it, while those producing family fair try to avoid it so they don’t find themselves shunned by their own audience.

This new competitive market was started when The Passion of the Christ broke all records and proved to Hollywood that R-rated films could make big box office dollars. Prior to it, no studio in their right mind would risk large dollars or big names on an R-rated film. Everyone knew that family films were the only moneymakers, forcing money hungry studios to continue producing them.

The tides have since changed and family filmmakers now battle to bring their audiences into the theaters, but with a great prize of impacting our social interests. And, of course, the one who generates the most controversy or newsworthiness will pull in the largest audience and make a deeper impact in our community and culture.

Who do you think will win… The faith & family films or the R-rated films?

It’s a small world in the Christian film market. Just about every filmmaker knows the Kendrick brothers. Other names within the field include: Ralph Winters, John David Ware, John Robert Moore, Kyle Prohaska, and David Nixon to mention a few. Additional names quickly rise for those filmmakers who frequent key Christian film festivals and workshops like the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, Gideon Media Arts Conference and Film Festival, and the Biola Media Conference.

Even though the Christian Film market now has a “who’s who” list in filmmaking, one thing has yet to happen that is frequent in the secular field: Creative partnerships.

Hundreds of people flock to see anything created by Pixar, who managed to have a dozen box office successes back to back since their Toy Story foundation in 1995. Their track record of having ALL of their films in the top 50 highest grossing animated films of all-time is amazing.

Developing a company that has averaged $602 million in gross box office dollars per film was only made possible through creative partnerships. George Lucas of Lucasfilm started the Graphics Group as part his computer division. The group created incredible special effects that won numerous awards. Unfortunately, Lucas was not able to make the division profitable and under the recommendation of John Lassiter, prepared to spin it off.

Steve Jobs of Apple fame, acquired the young company and added to the mix tech savvy Edwin Catmull as President of Pixar. This unique partnership with Lassiter shifted the company from a computer graphics organization into a great animation studio – All because of their joint love for seeing computers developed into a great medium for telling story.

It seems to me that Christian filmmakers have some of the greatest stories worth telling, yet many are still working in isolation. Surrounded by some of the best in the industry, you would think that friendships would be developed that lead to collaboration. In fact, since filmmaking is a collaborative art form, I questioned why it hadn’t already happened and explored a couple possible reasons.

One thing I noticed when attending secular film conferences is how willing everyone is to help each other learn new techniques and improve their craft. When attending Christian conferences it seemed that most attending were still star struck caused by some level of glamour. This elevated some filmmakers to a higher artificial level that gave them something to lose if others caught onto their tricks of the trade – Causing filmmakers to withhold important lessons from each other.

The other notable difference is that secular filmmakers pick a craft within filmmaking that they are good at and practice it until they are the best. Most Christian filmmakers feel compelled to be the writer, director, producer, editor and sometimes actor on every film project, not to mention manage distribution, leaving mastering any given job a distant dream.

I can’t help but wonder how things might be different if Alex and Stephen Kendrick wrote a film produced by Ralph Winters and David Nixon, with distribution managed by John David Ware, directed by Kyle Prohaska, and acted in by John Robert Moore. With each one having a growing audience and the ability to fit into the above positions, my speculation would suggest the film could be an independent success story.

But what are the odds of this combination coming together?

In the secular film market, the creatives share the joint desire to tell a great story. However, in the Christian film market story isn’t always a prime consideration, nor do all aspire to it. Instead, some Christian filmmakers focus on evangelism. Some might be in it for the sake of God’s art. One might see no problem working with secular crews in order to use the best craft, while another wants people that are right before God, so God can honor his or her film.

The list of variations is almost exhausting to review. All because Christian filmmakers share different passions when it comes to their filmmaking approach. So, until each filmmaker gets to the place where they’ve mastered the wearing of multiple hats, or they change their approach, Christian films will not be able to compete against the likes of Pixar.

Copyright © 2011 By CJ Powers
Photo © Disney/Pixar