New Online Technology can channel $millions into Local American Churches and give local Preachers & Gospel Artists $millions in media revenues, possibly for free!
Your church can be part of a new future in media. Organisations like the SAICFF [see video below] give away prizes of $101,000 for those who want to be part of Christian film, but if you are not in the position to win a prize, consultants can show members of your church how to become an organisation that can get the funds to get your church involved with film and other areas of media.
In this overview about how churches, gospel preachers and Christian music and film makers in America will be able to both save and generate $millions in revenue for their local churches through new media platforms and openings, possibly for free, radio interviews from the BBC, Christian TV as well as technology conference footage and ministry media statistics videos will be referenced through links in this article. Five years ago, writing this blog would have been impossible because the openings, the ability to blog and reference videos for readers to instantly check the validity of a statement would have been impossible. Today, the web and changes in other media is making a lot of things easy to do. This article will explain and then give links from industry experts to show that the church is living in a new time frame that will enable large revenue streams to go to those using and publishing media. After reading this article you can join a media group to help you get the benefits that have been spoken about and to help you access the revenue streams that are available or find a consultant to help your church, ministry or music group. What is contained in this overview is very easy to understand but the territory for most will be new, hence the video links. To get more information you can join my Skype Conference group by emailing derekworldwide@yahoo.com. [FF means Fast Forward to a point in a video to avoid unnecessary information because some videos are an hour in length. Many videos are short 3, 5 and 10 minute pieces. It maybe a good idea to read through the article once, using your mouse to find all of the links and then go through the videos one by one].
We have seen a change in the way the world communicates in the last decade, new developments are making it possible for companies like Google to do amazing things and these changes will impact how churches can generate money.
Every medium to large size church spends about $40,000 a year on advertising, the hiring of a graphic designers, photographers and printing to promote church events yet new technology can reduce annual advertising to $5000 to get more people interested in the same events. The church now has an additional $35,000 to set up a film company that impacts the world.
Imagine your church generating $10 million through a movie that got translated into 13 languages and was distributed in 13 countries, through a major Hollywood film company, from just $100,000 seed money. Well one church has done that, but the technology to do more, with less is here because of technology, but look at the video below first.
There are churches that have entered the film industry, as seen on CBN, with red carpet Hollywood premiers, and box office performances that outsell Brad Pitt movies with less money - truly David and Golieth. There are other ministries, as seen in the videos below, that are using the internet to give the world news information as a highly profitable media network. Unlike Christian Television where ministries pay to get their programs broadcast, media companies make productions like music CDs, TV shows and films and get paid by bigger media companies for the production. Most churches cannot afford to support a minister to be on TBN because they are forced to always be fund raisers. The video report at the beginning of this article and the CBN report above show that it is not necessary for a church to have the experience in a new area, all that is needed is the vision to move ahead and learn, and if done correctly, make a profit from the endeavour.
The Christian film Fireproof cost just $500,000 (£250,000) and went on to make over $6 million at the US box office in its opening weekend. Profits from international DVD sales will be even bigger. The secular world may not want to look at a preacher on Christian TV, but a biblical message in the form of a film can do things that the best on TBN cannot. What is more interesting is that the process pays for itself because people do not mind paying for a movie ticket or DVD. Media ministries are selling anything from 200,000 to 1.5 million copies of Christian based entertainment DVDs, and all of this is possible because of technology. If a church does not know how to start an entertainment media project, they can hire a consultant to help them raise the finance and put a series of projects together so a church can be part of the media revolution.
New Technology Gives Christians Access To $Millions In New Revenue Streams
Developments in technology are making media tools that once cost $1 millions available for $thousands. In the online world, resources and technology that were only available to Mircosoft or Google are becoming available to smaller organisations which puts these resources in the hands of any local church. Once, movie cameras that made films cost millions in the production process have gone digital, making movie production cheaper. In this improved technology climate, those in ministry can now plan to do what they thought was impossible or out of reach because even a small syndicate of people in a church could afford to get a new hi tech site as a means of generating large revenue streams or enter the film industry as a ministry. As said before, if a church does not know how to access the new openings, they can hire someone to assist them.
For generations, our idea of ministry has been based around the concept of the solo minister who fronts a preaching agenda, in contrast, for the last ninety years, the secular media has grown into a multinational force that sends messages to the world using an army of media talents that the church has found hard to beat. Now, new technology will give gospel ministries the ability to fund very, very ambitious media projects, but before we look at these technologies, the videos below shows us where the church is when compared to its secular counterpart.
The Media's Portrayed View of Christianity (10 minutes)
How We Can Change Hollywood Through Technology (10 minutes)
For the last 100 years of media, Christians have not had access to the same broadcast tools that CNN, NBC, Fox or the BBC have because of money and, as seen in the first video, the Church left its place in Hollywood in the 1960s and has not been able to recover from the consequences of that decision – now things are different. In the second video we heard about web technology and how it can be used for news and many other forms of media. The Christian news site quoted in the second video is the most successful news provider online because it does a great job. When we look at Christians in music as a whole, not just Gospel music, we see that there is no TV programming available but gospel musicians involved with movie soundtracks can launch an international career. TD Jakes has made two films, Sherwood Films gave us Flywheel, Facing The Giants and Fireproof, and there is the Left Behind series, but after a week, if these programs were on TV, there would be nothing else to see, yet the big media companies are now looking for good Christian products to get involved with. This is why local churches will be able to generate millions in revenue. Churches simply need to learn how to put projects together and be shown how to generate the investment money without the need to put a strain on their church. In the video below we see how one church is reaching the world through film.
The Christian ministers that have been on cable and satellite for the past forty years are not in the entertainment industry, they are in the teaching arena that comes to us through channels like TBN. We do not see the secular world looking for preaching based religious output to put on cable or distribute through the cinema because the public prefers the HBO format. When we look at Christian cinema, we see something different because the world will look at a good film with a Christian message. In a speech at a marketing conference, Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine talked about how Google technology will give advertisers the ability to spend $billions on advertising that comes with video content (look at first 60 seconds of this video).
For Christians, what the Chris Anderson statement means is this; if a Christian website had a film on it, that it produced, the advertising attached to the film via the web could be worth millions. So, if in a few years time you look at Mel Gibson's Passion of The Christ online, Mel Gibson will be generating millions in advertising revenue in exactly the same way that TV is supported by advertising. To make this point even clearer, in an interview with the BBC, Chris Anderson speaks about how websites that generate free content, like their radio and TV predecessors will be able to generate millions in revenue and get their media platforms for free through cross subsidies. {Radio interview Part 1 and Part 2}.
What we are in fact seeing is the development of the tools to make the web pay for itself in exactly the same way TV and radio does. What is possible in the world today has come about because of the drop in price of production and web technologies. We heard that Christians need to create alternative programming that competes with what is already out there. For many churches to do this, they have to hire talent outside of their own church while developing their own church resources. When we see Christians on TV, we see lone preachers, in contrast, the TV shows and films that the world looks at are basically parables which come in the form of sit coms, action movies, cartoons and more. Mel Gibson put his own money into producing The Passion, many other films are put together by small groups of people who put the money together to make the film a reality but Christians have not been in the position to duplicate what we see in the entertainment media because of the essential ingredient – money.
New technology can change how a minister or Christian film or music makers can look to fund their callings. At a tech conference, Guy Kawasaki, former marketing head of Apple Computers stated that web sites that once cost a $million could now be bought for as little a $12,000 due to the price in technology going down (fast forward video to 55 minutes to hear statement). There is no where in the world where something that once cost $1million can now be bought for $12,000. Most churches, Christian bands and artists have sites that cost them $100s, however the web 2.0 sites that can now cost $12,000 plus are the ideas like My Space, Google and Amazon. Five years ago, a web 2.0 site would have cost $1 million plus to set up because the technology had to be developed to deliver many of the complex functions that are with us now. Because of the drop in price of web technology, we will see a rise in the development of many new hi tech sites that generate huge revenue streams for the owners. It is in the use of these systems that Christians can generate the revenue they need for any media agenda.
If we look at most gospel bands, they very rarely have the money to launch their career which may mean paying for three months advertising in a Christian publication, getting a good music video produced and paying for their CD to be advertised on a Christian TV channel. This approach is very rarely adopted because it is hoped that some cheaper option will deliver the same kind of yield but we all know that the projects that are advertised are the projects that sell. Whether CC Winans or P. Diddy, without advertising in mainstream media, nothing happens. Even atheists that look to promote their agenda know that they have to be on ABC News. Atheist authors get coverage on CBN as America's new atheists which all helps to promote their books and cause.
When we look at artists like Celine Dion, we see that even if she has sold 100 million CDs in the course of her career, she has had to tour the world and be advertised internationally to do so. With the CD sales comes Billboard recognition, over 7 million YouTube visits, then airplay which creates radio royalties. The problem that many acts have found, whether saved or unsaved is that having a personal web site or being on ITunes does not replace the big media spend that majors engage in to sell a million albums. When we look at ministries and Christian music artists we see the same catch twenty two situation which is basically that without spending money, the chances of growth are impossible. We also know that if money is borrowed or spent from a fund raising initiative, there is a risk because it is not known if a return will manifest.
It is at this point that we go to the world of media to seek our answer for our ideas about fund-raising. Film is the only entertainment commodity that is pre sold. Let us say that you are the maker of the next James Bond movie. Before the film is put into production, cinema rights, Foreign DVD licences, cable broadcasting rights, TV rights, Mc Donalds Toy promotion rights and any other form of future buyer will stake their claim on a future involvement with the film and pay for that privilege in advance. By doing this, a film has a stream of income big enough to pay for itself before the project has even started. So even though a film may cost $150m to put into production, the film producer has essentially got the money from pre sales. All income after pre sales revenue is profits. What this means is that putting James Bond into production actually cost nothing. What the film company has to do is make sure that the film is produced for the budget that has been raised. For a new film company, starting is the hard part because without brand names like Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, James Bond or Transformers, raising money is impossible. However, for Christian movies we are dealing with something slightly different. If the film idea is good and the actors are good a Christian film can sell because Christians do not expect to see big name actors in their movies. The issue for the new Christian film company is money. Getting a good script is all part of the production process. A film company will have to get a script that has a good story which is within a budget that a small film company can afford. There is no point in having a script that demands loads of special fx and global locations because the cost of producing the script is prohibitive. If we go to the video Money For Nothing, which looks at the music industy, we see why it is almost impossible for anyone outside of those who get a lucky break to get in the music business. We already know that there are problems with launching a TV ministry that is dependent on donations for its survival, in the media world we see something that is different because funds are invested into good ideas.
We saw above that churches may spend $40,000 on a number of advertising agendas to get people to come to their events throughout the year but using new technology and media distribution platforms, the spend can be reduced to $5000. In this instance a church has now saved $35,000. If a church has a number of musicians in its congregation that are looking to pursue career goals in music which are not bearing fruit, we can see where the bands and artists are loosing money below.
A CD sells for $10 and the gospel band/artist would have to sell 100,000 units to generate $1million. The artist/band percentage from a CD, if sold though a major recording deal is about 15%, which means that for very dollar income, they get $0.15cents. If a band sells 100,000 copies of a CD, the income is just $15,000. Out of the $15,000, the artist/band has to pay the record company for the expenses incurred for the album.
The revenue from the CD would have to be split between group members, song writers and distributors after music video budgets, packaging costs, promotion costs, magazine advertising and record label deductions are removed. If, after expenses the artist/band has not sold 100,000 copies, to clear their costs the artist is bankrupt or to be more accurate, has not earned a penny from music sales. In a statement on video, Jazzy Jeff said that when he and Will Smith were collecting their Grammy, they had no money and were broke becasue of deductions. When we look at a lot of gospel artists on TV, we do not know what their financial situation is but in the world of Gospel, the revenue is not as good as the secular artists. What most aspiring gospel music people forget is that when a manager launches their career, they only intend for the artist to earn money initially from live appearances, merchandise, clothing, films, commercials, concerts and fragrances. Managers plan for artists to earn about 30% of their income from records sales but not until 2 years after their first CD is released. The thing is most bands and artists are not selling 100,000 CDs and so they need to be involved with an agenda that can get them known in 1000 churches without the risk of newsprint that often times does not work. A church with a multimedia team which includes preachers, singers and those that may wish to be involved in film has a group of committed people that have mutually beneficial goals.
The reason why secular artists are now involved in reality TV, as seen with Monica on her show The Single, or Simon Cowell pushes American Idol, and P.Diddy has Making The Band is because the TV show is really an advert for the bands that will be successful, however, as a TV show that is bought by the broadcaster, the artist gets there exposure for free. Even secular artists are finding new ways to promote what they do because the advertising costs of TV are expensive. What the movie industry does for both gospel artist and ministry give them an opening so that they can plan on how they can get exposure and do ministry simultaneously without unnecessary cost.
With what we have seen so far, we know that websites that once cost millions can now cost thousands and consultants can show churches how to both save and generate funds to launch a multi media department which covers every aspect of their communications,
In the video below, look at the first minute to see how the large media giants dominate the world and why.
The 7 American Media Giants that control what the world sees on televison are no match for the 100s of smaller media companies that try to compete for air time. 75% of media broadcast time is paid for by advertising revenue from the 100 biggest companies in the USA. America is the media capital of the world, infact American movies and TV media are the most successful export business of the country according to Dan Glickman, head of the MPPA , (Fast forwards 3 minutes 10 seconds).
This is not a pro movie overview, it is a pro multimedia overview. Many churches have musicians that will never have high profile careers because they do not have the promotional budgets. Many ministers will never be on TV because they cannot afford to pay to be on Christian TV. Now, if approached with a media mindset, a church can use more efficient means to advertise to its community that are less expensive and put into production films that have ministers cut into the movie storyline with sound tracks written and recorded by groups from their congregation, using the money and resources already in the church.
At a ministry event Medina Pullings spoke about how Christians would be in the position to win Oscars (FF 8.30). In another presentation Medina Pullings went on to speak about how Christians could experience impossible accelerations, be 10 times better than the world, impact sit coms, books publishing and manuscripts (FF 3.min – 7.45 min). These statements, if they are to become a reality mean that Christians would have to be in the same position as producers like Jerry Bruckheimer who are given huge budgets by companies like Disney to produce movies. As seen here, Jerry Bruckheimer makes Hollywood studios billions. We all know Simon Cowell of American Idol fame who gets $150,000 per episode of the show, signed a $2million book deal and .... Even if we look at T.D. Jakes movie promotion for Not Easily Broken, we see that the media profile is not like Jerry Bruckheimer's for the statement made by Media Pullings to become a reality. In essence, Christians would have to start setting up production companies that get millions of dollars per year to release movies internationally.
In the video Gods of Entertainment we saw that only a hand full of companies put out the films sold to the entire world. In the news report The Media Influence from Corel Ridge Ministries, we see that the percentage of Christians that work in the media is low. The thing is, entertainment media is not a job based industry, it is a business based industry which means that people who raise their own money get to enter the entertainment industry as producers, like Jerry Bruckheimer. The Lion Witch and The Wardrobe and Lord Of The Rings where mentioned by the speakers in The Media Influence because they are Christian movies that cost hundreds of millions to produce. As stated by the speakers in the first video of this article, God will give more success to those who are faithful with the resources that are with us now.
The huge websites that once cost $1millions are now available for $thousands making it possible for service offers to be made to an online world that as a business can generate large revenues for ministries. We know that consultants can help churches build a media agenda from scratch, reduce the cost of advertising from $40,000 to $5,000 and help them generate the money needed to launch their ministry and entertainment division. The only thing Christians have to do is start.
Because resources are cheaper, or free, and things that the church already spends money on can be done in more efficient ways, we are in a place where churches can launch multimedia agendas without cost being an issue. It is now about being more efficient with what we have.
For more information about what has been written, contact:
Derek James
derekworldwide@yahoo.com
In this overview about how churches, gospel preachers and Christian music and film makers in America will be able to both save and generate $millions in revenue for their local churches through new media platforms and openings, possibly for free, radio interviews from the BBC, Christian TV as well as technology conference footage and ministry media statistics videos will be referenced through links in this article. Five years ago, writing this blog would have been impossible because the openings, the ability to blog and reference videos for readers to instantly check the validity of a statement would have been impossible. Today, the web and changes in other media is making a lot of things easy to do. This article will explain and then give links from industry experts to show that the church is living in a new time frame that will enable large revenue streams to go to those using and publishing media. After reading this article you can join a media group to help you get the benefits that have been spoken about and to help you access the revenue streams that are available or find a consultant to help your church, ministry or music group. What is contained in this overview is very easy to understand but the territory for most will be new, hence the video links. To get more information you can join my Skype Conference group by emailing derekworldwide@yahoo.com. [FF means Fast Forward to a point in a video to avoid unnecessary information because some videos are an hour in length. Many videos are short 3, 5 and 10 minute pieces. It maybe a good idea to read through the article once, using your mouse to find all of the links and then go through the videos one by one].
We have seen a change in the way the world communicates in the last decade, new developments are making it possible for companies like Google to do amazing things and these changes will impact how churches can generate money.
Every medium to large size church spends about $40,000 a year on advertising, the hiring of a graphic designers, photographers and printing to promote church events yet new technology can reduce annual advertising to $5000 to get more people interested in the same events. The church now has an additional $35,000 to set up a film company that impacts the world.
Imagine your church generating $10 million through a movie that got translated into 13 languages and was distributed in 13 countries, through a major Hollywood film company, from just $100,000 seed money. Well one church has done that, but the technology to do more, with less is here because of technology, but look at the video below first.
There are churches that have entered the film industry, as seen on CBN, with red carpet Hollywood premiers, and box office performances that outsell Brad Pitt movies with less money - truly David and Golieth. There are other ministries, as seen in the videos below, that are using the internet to give the world news information as a highly profitable media network. Unlike Christian Television where ministries pay to get their programs broadcast, media companies make productions like music CDs, TV shows and films and get paid by bigger media companies for the production. Most churches cannot afford to support a minister to be on TBN because they are forced to always be fund raisers. The video report at the beginning of this article and the CBN report above show that it is not necessary for a church to have the experience in a new area, all that is needed is the vision to move ahead and learn, and if done correctly, make a profit from the endeavour.
The Christian film Fireproof cost just $500,000 (£250,000) and went on to make over $6 million at the US box office in its opening weekend. Profits from international DVD sales will be even bigger. The secular world may not want to look at a preacher on Christian TV, but a biblical message in the form of a film can do things that the best on TBN cannot. What is more interesting is that the process pays for itself because people do not mind paying for a movie ticket or DVD. Media ministries are selling anything from 200,000 to 1.5 million copies of Christian based entertainment DVDs, and all of this is possible because of technology. If a church does not know how to start an entertainment media project, they can hire a consultant to help them raise the finance and put a series of projects together so a church can be part of the media revolution.
New Technology Gives Christians Access To $Millions In New Revenue Streams
Developments in technology are making media tools that once cost $1 millions available for $thousands. In the online world, resources and technology that were only available to Mircosoft or Google are becoming available to smaller organisations which puts these resources in the hands of any local church. Once, movie cameras that made films cost millions in the production process have gone digital, making movie production cheaper. In this improved technology climate, those in ministry can now plan to do what they thought was impossible or out of reach because even a small syndicate of people in a church could afford to get a new hi tech site as a means of generating large revenue streams or enter the film industry as a ministry. As said before, if a church does not know how to access the new openings, they can hire someone to assist them.
For generations, our idea of ministry has been based around the concept of the solo minister who fronts a preaching agenda, in contrast, for the last ninety years, the secular media has grown into a multinational force that sends messages to the world using an army of media talents that the church has found hard to beat. Now, new technology will give gospel ministries the ability to fund very, very ambitious media projects, but before we look at these technologies, the videos below shows us where the church is when compared to its secular counterpart.
The Media's Portrayed View of Christianity (10 minutes)
How We Can Change Hollywood Through Technology (10 minutes)
For the last 100 years of media, Christians have not had access to the same broadcast tools that CNN, NBC, Fox or the BBC have because of money and, as seen in the first video, the Church left its place in Hollywood in the 1960s and has not been able to recover from the consequences of that decision – now things are different. In the second video we heard about web technology and how it can be used for news and many other forms of media. The Christian news site quoted in the second video is the most successful news provider online because it does a great job. When we look at Christians in music as a whole, not just Gospel music, we see that there is no TV programming available but gospel musicians involved with movie soundtracks can launch an international career. TD Jakes has made two films, Sherwood Films gave us Flywheel, Facing The Giants and Fireproof, and there is the Left Behind series, but after a week, if these programs were on TV, there would be nothing else to see, yet the big media companies are now looking for good Christian products to get involved with. This is why local churches will be able to generate millions in revenue. Churches simply need to learn how to put projects together and be shown how to generate the investment money without the need to put a strain on their church. In the video below we see how one church is reaching the world through film.
The Christian ministers that have been on cable and satellite for the past forty years are not in the entertainment industry, they are in the teaching arena that comes to us through channels like TBN. We do not see the secular world looking for preaching based religious output to put on cable or distribute through the cinema because the public prefers the HBO format. When we look at Christian cinema, we see something different because the world will look at a good film with a Christian message. In a speech at a marketing conference, Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine talked about how Google technology will give advertisers the ability to spend $billions on advertising that comes with video content (look at first 60 seconds of this video).
For Christians, what the Chris Anderson statement means is this; if a Christian website had a film on it, that it produced, the advertising attached to the film via the web could be worth millions. So, if in a few years time you look at Mel Gibson's Passion of The Christ online, Mel Gibson will be generating millions in advertising revenue in exactly the same way that TV is supported by advertising. To make this point even clearer, in an interview with the BBC, Chris Anderson speaks about how websites that generate free content, like their radio and TV predecessors will be able to generate millions in revenue and get their media platforms for free through cross subsidies. {Radio interview Part 1 and Part 2}.
What we are in fact seeing is the development of the tools to make the web pay for itself in exactly the same way TV and radio does. What is possible in the world today has come about because of the drop in price of production and web technologies. We heard that Christians need to create alternative programming that competes with what is already out there. For many churches to do this, they have to hire talent outside of their own church while developing their own church resources. When we see Christians on TV, we see lone preachers, in contrast, the TV shows and films that the world looks at are basically parables which come in the form of sit coms, action movies, cartoons and more. Mel Gibson put his own money into producing The Passion, many other films are put together by small groups of people who put the money together to make the film a reality but Christians have not been in the position to duplicate what we see in the entertainment media because of the essential ingredient – money.
New technology can change how a minister or Christian film or music makers can look to fund their callings. At a tech conference, Guy Kawasaki, former marketing head of Apple Computers stated that web sites that once cost a $million could now be bought for as little a $12,000 due to the price in technology going down (fast forward video to 55 minutes to hear statement). There is no where in the world where something that once cost $1million can now be bought for $12,000. Most churches, Christian bands and artists have sites that cost them $100s, however the web 2.0 sites that can now cost $12,000 plus are the ideas like My Space, Google and Amazon. Five years ago, a web 2.0 site would have cost $1 million plus to set up because the technology had to be developed to deliver many of the complex functions that are with us now. Because of the drop in price of web technology, we will see a rise in the development of many new hi tech sites that generate huge revenue streams for the owners. It is in the use of these systems that Christians can generate the revenue they need for any media agenda.
If we look at most gospel bands, they very rarely have the money to launch their career which may mean paying for three months advertising in a Christian publication, getting a good music video produced and paying for their CD to be advertised on a Christian TV channel. This approach is very rarely adopted because it is hoped that some cheaper option will deliver the same kind of yield but we all know that the projects that are advertised are the projects that sell. Whether CC Winans or P. Diddy, without advertising in mainstream media, nothing happens. Even atheists that look to promote their agenda know that they have to be on ABC News. Atheist authors get coverage on CBN as America's new atheists which all helps to promote their books and cause.
When we look at artists like Celine Dion, we see that even if she has sold 100 million CDs in the course of her career, she has had to tour the world and be advertised internationally to do so. With the CD sales comes Billboard recognition, over 7 million YouTube visits, then airplay which creates radio royalties. The problem that many acts have found, whether saved or unsaved is that having a personal web site or being on ITunes does not replace the big media spend that majors engage in to sell a million albums. When we look at ministries and Christian music artists we see the same catch twenty two situation which is basically that without spending money, the chances of growth are impossible. We also know that if money is borrowed or spent from a fund raising initiative, there is a risk because it is not known if a return will manifest.
It is at this point that we go to the world of media to seek our answer for our ideas about fund-raising. Film is the only entertainment commodity that is pre sold. Let us say that you are the maker of the next James Bond movie. Before the film is put into production, cinema rights, Foreign DVD licences, cable broadcasting rights, TV rights, Mc Donalds Toy promotion rights and any other form of future buyer will stake their claim on a future involvement with the film and pay for that privilege in advance. By doing this, a film has a stream of income big enough to pay for itself before the project has even started. So even though a film may cost $150m to put into production, the film producer has essentially got the money from pre sales. All income after pre sales revenue is profits. What this means is that putting James Bond into production actually cost nothing. What the film company has to do is make sure that the film is produced for the budget that has been raised. For a new film company, starting is the hard part because without brand names like Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, James Bond or Transformers, raising money is impossible. However, for Christian movies we are dealing with something slightly different. If the film idea is good and the actors are good a Christian film can sell because Christians do not expect to see big name actors in their movies. The issue for the new Christian film company is money. Getting a good script is all part of the production process. A film company will have to get a script that has a good story which is within a budget that a small film company can afford. There is no point in having a script that demands loads of special fx and global locations because the cost of producing the script is prohibitive. If we go to the video Money For Nothing, which looks at the music industy, we see why it is almost impossible for anyone outside of those who get a lucky break to get in the music business. We already know that there are problems with launching a TV ministry that is dependent on donations for its survival, in the media world we see something that is different because funds are invested into good ideas.
We saw above that churches may spend $40,000 on a number of advertising agendas to get people to come to their events throughout the year but using new technology and media distribution platforms, the spend can be reduced to $5000. In this instance a church has now saved $35,000. If a church has a number of musicians in its congregation that are looking to pursue career goals in music which are not bearing fruit, we can see where the bands and artists are loosing money below.
A CD sells for $10 and the gospel band/artist would have to sell 100,000 units to generate $1million. The artist/band percentage from a CD, if sold though a major recording deal is about 15%, which means that for very dollar income, they get $0.15cents. If a band sells 100,000 copies of a CD, the income is just $15,000. Out of the $15,000, the artist/band has to pay the record company for the expenses incurred for the album.
The revenue from the CD would have to be split between group members, song writers and distributors after music video budgets, packaging costs, promotion costs, magazine advertising and record label deductions are removed. If, after expenses the artist/band has not sold 100,000 copies, to clear their costs the artist is bankrupt or to be more accurate, has not earned a penny from music sales. In a statement on video, Jazzy Jeff said that when he and Will Smith were collecting their Grammy, they had no money and were broke becasue of deductions. When we look at a lot of gospel artists on TV, we do not know what their financial situation is but in the world of Gospel, the revenue is not as good as the secular artists. What most aspiring gospel music people forget is that when a manager launches their career, they only intend for the artist to earn money initially from live appearances, merchandise, clothing, films, commercials, concerts and fragrances. Managers plan for artists to earn about 30% of their income from records sales but not until 2 years after their first CD is released. The thing is most bands and artists are not selling 100,000 CDs and so they need to be involved with an agenda that can get them known in 1000 churches without the risk of newsprint that often times does not work. A church with a multimedia team which includes preachers, singers and those that may wish to be involved in film has a group of committed people that have mutually beneficial goals.
The reason why secular artists are now involved in reality TV, as seen with Monica on her show The Single, or Simon Cowell pushes American Idol, and P.Diddy has Making The Band is because the TV show is really an advert for the bands that will be successful, however, as a TV show that is bought by the broadcaster, the artist gets there exposure for free. Even secular artists are finding new ways to promote what they do because the advertising costs of TV are expensive. What the movie industry does for both gospel artist and ministry give them an opening so that they can plan on how they can get exposure and do ministry simultaneously without unnecessary cost.
With what we have seen so far, we know that websites that once cost millions can now cost thousands and consultants can show churches how to both save and generate funds to launch a multi media department which covers every aspect of their communications,
In the video below, look at the first minute to see how the large media giants dominate the world and why.
The 7 American Media Giants that control what the world sees on televison are no match for the 100s of smaller media companies that try to compete for air time. 75% of media broadcast time is paid for by advertising revenue from the 100 biggest companies in the USA. America is the media capital of the world, infact American movies and TV media are the most successful export business of the country according to Dan Glickman, head of the MPPA , (Fast forwards 3 minutes 10 seconds).
This is not a pro movie overview, it is a pro multimedia overview. Many churches have musicians that will never have high profile careers because they do not have the promotional budgets. Many ministers will never be on TV because they cannot afford to pay to be on Christian TV. Now, if approached with a media mindset, a church can use more efficient means to advertise to its community that are less expensive and put into production films that have ministers cut into the movie storyline with sound tracks written and recorded by groups from their congregation, using the money and resources already in the church.
At a ministry event Medina Pullings spoke about how Christians would be in the position to win Oscars (FF 8.30). In another presentation Medina Pullings went on to speak about how Christians could experience impossible accelerations, be 10 times better than the world, impact sit coms, books publishing and manuscripts (FF 3.min – 7.45 min). These statements, if they are to become a reality mean that Christians would have to be in the same position as producers like Jerry Bruckheimer who are given huge budgets by companies like Disney to produce movies. As seen here, Jerry Bruckheimer makes Hollywood studios billions. We all know Simon Cowell of American Idol fame who gets $150,000 per episode of the show, signed a $2million book deal and .... Even if we look at T.D. Jakes movie promotion for Not Easily Broken, we see that the media profile is not like Jerry Bruckheimer's for the statement made by Media Pullings to become a reality. In essence, Christians would have to start setting up production companies that get millions of dollars per year to release movies internationally.
In the video Gods of Entertainment we saw that only a hand full of companies put out the films sold to the entire world. In the news report The Media Influence from Corel Ridge Ministries, we see that the percentage of Christians that work in the media is low. The thing is, entertainment media is not a job based industry, it is a business based industry which means that people who raise their own money get to enter the entertainment industry as producers, like Jerry Bruckheimer. The Lion Witch and The Wardrobe and Lord Of The Rings where mentioned by the speakers in The Media Influence because they are Christian movies that cost hundreds of millions to produce. As stated by the speakers in the first video of this article, God will give more success to those who are faithful with the resources that are with us now.
The huge websites that once cost $1millions are now available for $thousands making it possible for service offers to be made to an online world that as a business can generate large revenues for ministries. We know that consultants can help churches build a media agenda from scratch, reduce the cost of advertising from $40,000 to $5,000 and help them generate the money needed to launch their ministry and entertainment division. The only thing Christians have to do is start.
Because resources are cheaper, or free, and things that the church already spends money on can be done in more efficient ways, we are in a place where churches can launch multimedia agendas without cost being an issue. It is now about being more efficient with what we have.
For more information about what has been written, contact:
Derek James
derekworldwide@yahoo.com
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