I was in high school the first time I talked to Ron Howard on the phone. He shared a handful of Easter eggs with me and it permanently changed my perspective on directing. I’ve since taken time to learn from every director I meet, as each one has something of value for my utility belt.

The one thing that I’ve heard from many big box office directors that I haven’t heard from independents can be summed up in one of his quotes…

Ron Howard said, “Trust the audience is with the story.”

In other words, the audience is smarter than what we think and we need to present things to a intelligent audience, rather than dumbing down our material. Personally, I hate films that spell everything out for me, as if I’m an idiot.

Dr. Jenkins, my journalism college professor, agreed with my sentiment when he said, “Television and the news is written for the average 14-year-old, which is probably why big stars only do motion pictures.” Years later, television has become more complex and interesting, while sports, horror and faith-based films are still aimed at a sixth grade mentality.

Film is also an emotional medium, which must play at the appropriate emotional age level or the audience will be lost to the story. Unfortunately, many independent producers do not see film as the emotional medium that it is. Instead, they force facts and information into the story, destroying the very structure of the emotional format.

Ron Howard said, “When I was acting with John Wayne and I was talking to him a lot about (John) Ford…Ford had told John Wayne, ‘Don’t ever cry on screen. A good movie provides two thirds of the emotion and allows the audience to complete the other third themselves,’ and, sort of experience it themselves. If you do it all for them they just sit there, cross their arms and watch.”

The idea of hinting at a plot point in such a way so the emotional tone of the film plants the idea into the audience’s perception is valuable. It allows the audience to perceive or come up with the idea on their own. This in turn strengthens their sense of ownership of the idea that they just thought up.

I don’t remember who shared the idea, maybe it was Robert Zemeckis or Steven Spielberg who said, “The goal of film is to have the audience come up with your idea for themselves.”

If the message is overt, the audience has no recourse but to cross their arms and not consider your idea. However, a message that is subtly sprinkled into a film allows the audience to come up with the idea for themselves and own it.

The only reason this is possible is due to the intelligence of the audience. They are indeed smarter than most independent filmmakers give them credit for. Or, put another way, a filmmaker has to be pretty arrogant to dumb down their story and overtly put it into the faces of their audience.

Film is an art form that requires finesse. The more subtle the message, the more the audience must work for it and the longer they will deeply hold the message that “they came up with.”

The best way to leverage the medium of film for getting a strong message into the hands of the audience is to trust that they are following the story and don’t need to be hand fed. Then, and only then, shall the intelligent audience find ways of implementing the message into their own life.

Copyright © 2015 by CJ Powers

It’s my goal to introduce a new line of entertainment products that are wholesome and moral, while also being edgy. Some say it isn’t possible, but I believe it is – That is, only with your help.

STEELE BLUE is my first novel. It follows a maverick female detective into a drug lord’s dark world. Cassie is forced to make difficult decisions that will impact her relationship with her teenage son, while fighting to survive in an undercover world where her life is at risk.

When I was growing up, PG-Rated films were filled with action and adventure, and G-Rated films were for a tamer general audience. After PG-13 Rated films came into vogue, G-Rated films included content for little children and PG-Rated films were filled with sappy stories for all ages. This forced families to increase their tolerance for bad language, graphic violence and sexual content in order to watch well-made stories that received a PG-13 Rating.

I’m a firm believer in wholesome and moral content. I’m also convinced that there are tactful ways of sharing the wrong choices in life without dragging a person into it. The new line of entertainment that I’m working on does exactly that. The stories reveal the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, all through the character’s choices.

The STEELE BLUE storyline is written to entertain the reader. There’s no moral message forced down his or her throat, but I make it clear why each character makes the decisions they do – Giving the reader an opportunity to accept for themselves the various choices made by their favorite character.

Cassie isn’t perfect and makes a few mistakes, but readers can relate to her difficult choices and see the ramifications of her good and her bad ones. Some of her choices include issues faced by single parent homes, while others become moral dilemmas in her quest to take down the notorious Diaz.

These insightful moments are subtle and lightly salted in around a lot of action, adventure and some humor. The story is entertaining and I have completed the novel and the screenplay with the hopes of making the book into a movie some day.

But, none of this can happen without you believing with me that wholesome and moral entertainment can be placed within an edgy storyline. It hasn’t been done before and I believe that with your help we can launch a new genre of entertainment products that are thrilling and gutsy, without taking us down a destructive immoral path.

Please join me in this last week by supporting my Kickstarter STEELE BLUE novel campaign by clicking here. If every person who receives this link donates $1 the project will be over funded. Please consider joining those who are already believing that I can accomplish what’s never been done before. Thanks!

Last week I talked to a producer that worked on numerous Nickelodeon projects and has recently entered the faith-based production market. During a recent network gathering, he learned that most faith-based producers do not understand the business of filmmaking. This lack of knowledge has led to numerous films flopping during the highest demand for faith-based products in the history of cinema.

The producer also spoke with many investors who have risked money on unknown filmmakers that could make a nice short, but who had no understanding of how to produce a feature or run a film business. The obvious result was bad pictures that performed poorly at the box office.

Every independent filmmaker should learn the business of filmmaking because of the number of impressions a film can make by understanding the trends. The greater the amount of impressions, the more people take away the important message salted into the story, and the more investors get a return on their money.

Two weeks ago box office tracking firms, studios and investment firms released results from 2013 and part of 2014. They also gave projections on the trends for 2015, 2016, and 2017. The cumulative average of the announcements have been within a +/– 5% over the past 12 of 13 years.

The three most notable trends in the independent film industry are as follows:

Trends in Genre

The number one film genre destined for failure over the next three years is westerns. The main reason is that the audience no longer knows how to relate to the westerns and lifestyles of that era. Those producers set to shoot westerns within the next three years will find it wise to shelve the project for a time or make it a contemporary story set in the past.

The top two genres that will be in demand include patriotism and stories of redemption (not to be confused with faith-based stories). Investors will be cautious with soldier stories that don’t have an obvious streak of patriotism throughout the story.

Other notes of interest included niche market information. Horror film hits will include stories laced with comedy in between the scary moments. Faith-based films will see a decline until the producers shift from being supported by individuals who support faith-based films because it’s religious to individuals who support great storytelling.

Trends in Box Office

The biggest in demand item that is predicted to generate the largest margins and ROI will be strong female lead based action/adventure films – A perfect time to produce my STEELE BLUE title.

The box office will also tip during this three-year period to films with solid international casts. While audiences worldwide will still want to see specific local and nationally driven stories, they will desire it to have a worldview perspective within the telling of the story.

The stories expected to generate the biggest buzz outside of tentpoles, include personal stories filled with 3-6 set pieces. In common terms, the story has to take the audience on a journey that they haven’t seen before. Faith-based stories will suffer greatly from this trend, as most producers market the same basic story as their competitors.

Trends in Marketing

Horror producers are shifting to specialty advertising in combination with social media. The trend will reward companies that promote iconic messaging and specialty items with the message.

Sports producers are already shifting to a more reality based social media storytelling format to drive feature length projects. This trend takes the story from the love of the sport to following an accomplished person within each given sport.

Redemptive story producers are looking to create tentpole films for the general market with the hopes of drawing faith-based audiences to higher quality stories. The marketing campaigns will be split between audiences with distinctly different messages. The faith-based message will be subtle, rather than overt to avoid being pigeon holed into the faith-based market. Several producers hope to use excessive profits to train up faith-based filmmakers in redemptive story techniques.

The trends have been announced and those in tune with the industry are adjusting their portfolios accordingly. In the meantime, those who don’t understand the business side of filmmaking will continue to do whatever they think is right, regardless of the trends. And, if they do it really well, they will have huge success as a trend breaker, but if they fail, everyone will see them as a fool for not following the trends. So goes the world of entertainment.

Copyright © 2015 by CJ Powers