Large Revenue Streams For Churches, Christian Music Makers and Preachers In A World Of New Media Part 2!

Churches, Christian Music Makers and Preachers In A World Of New Media Can Access Large Revenue Streams in the years to come because of technology!

In this continuation from article 1, we will look at how churches can be part of this new media world and access revenue streams that were thought to be impossible through new forms of sponsorship openings that come with cutting edge technology. In the previous article we saw that the SAICFF gives away prizes of $101,000 to encourage Christian film makers to continue in their calling. We also saw that ministries are entering the world of TV and film because of the price drops in new communications systems. Obviously, not everyone can win prizes of $101,000 but everybody in a church can be involved in a Match Funding program that can generate the same kind of money and beyond.

This article will look at a number of options churches have to launch into media. At the end of this article a series of recommendations will be given with the understanding that these recommendations are put forward because you can hire a consultant to assist you with putting a media agenda together. In this article we will look at funding strategies or options. The key strategy a church should look to use is a licensing strategy through a record label. Many people in media, start their careers in music and then they move into film and TV. Film has a different set of skill requirements to television and music has another set of skill needs also. One of the main reasons that music artists, secular and Christian alike, do not move into media is because as an artist, a successful live stage career can be very lucrative. The need to move into the area of TV or film as a discipline is seen as being a burden too big to carry. For secular artists, getting the occasional appearance on a TV show or film is great for the personal career but does little for anyone else. In the world of gospel, many artists try to develop their careers separate from their church. This is neither right or wrong but what you end up with are artists trying to battle the world with no support and a church allowing a partnership resource to disappear. Churches that help their artists make it as a media commodity can end up with artists that are the bridge to The church being in the world of TV and film. In this article we will talk about film as a solo entity however, many churches simply wont be able to use the tools to raise finance, hence the recommendations at the end of this article focusing on a church setting up a record label as a multimedia vehicle.

Christian TV isn't new and Christians in movies isn't odd, there are many people, like Dean Jones (famous in the 1970s) who have worked in the film industry but the need to be visibly Christian wasn't important back then. What is taking place now is that many are starting to become high profile and what this means is that many churches will be getting involved in music, film and TV because of a new set of changes. We will see that whether a Church wants to support a solo Tyler Perry project by someone in their congregation, market music albums releases or as a church, a congregation wants to be involved in film, TV or music, a Match Funding approach can generate $millions to get a project started. Today the world is multimedia and what this means is that anything under the audio video umbrella can become a resource that as a product has a value. With churches having music, TV and publishing potential under its roof, churches can become multimedia enterprises relatively easily. In times gone by churches getting involved in media was about raising large sums of money, today it is not, it is about working with people who can bring money into a church.

Gospel is big, whether we see Yolanda Adams and others at the White House or
Kirk Frankin performing in Poland and other parts of Europe. Live shows tell us how big gospel is outside of America and there is a world waiting for those who know how to market products successfully in and outside of the USA. In the past, the way we thought about marketing weighed heavily in the belief that secular artists had an easier job of being successful but in 2007 major labels were in uproar when Prince proved that often times the success of an artists and their marketing is often times best handled outside of the major labels that get it wrong. Using a slick approach to the concept of Match Funding, Prince was able to promote a number of sell out concerts at London's O2 stadium. Match Funding is one of the latest innovations in the world of promotions for developing cash returns which will be looked at though this article. Using another secular news story, we have been told that Madonna, U2 and Jay Z did not resign with their record labels because the artists opted for concert promotions deals instead. Music CDs are increasingly becoming promotional items for big concerts because the value of a CD in the internet age is depreciating.

Without a Match Funding Program to start their film making ministry, Sherwood Church, seen in the video below became the talk of Hollywood when their low budget film made $30 million.


Without a Match Funding program, Sherwood Church started a film ministry that has got them noticed in Hollywood and in other parts of the world. As a church, Sherwood Ministries entered the film industry, as a sole Christian play write, Tyler Perry, seen in the 700 Club interview below, became part of the Hollywood mainstream too.


What we can see from both of the videos above is that there is a change in Hollywood that is impacting churches across America. A new set of doors are opening for churches that want to enter the world of music, film, TV, book or magazine publishing, the thing is, most media endeavours, especially film and TV costs money to start, but in this article we will look to answer the money problem and give your church a fund raising insights that are part of a step by step system. In the video below you can see how Amazon is changing the book, magazine and comic industry through its new Kindle, an Ipod for books.


In the video below, Casey Corrigan uses the skills of public relations to get free publicity for an arts festival. Without having to pay for a commercial, Cathy's appearance on television gets the festival she represents all of the air time needed to make the pubic aware of an event. In like manner, churches that understand new media will be able to get free air time on local TV and radio stations to promote events because the nature of the events meets with the criteria that news platforms will accept.


Match Funding is the easiest fund raising concept to understand. Match Funding can be creatively used for anything. Let's say a church was looking to raise $1 million for a children's hospital and all they had was $20,000 to put on a series of concerts. In the concert promotions world $20,000 does not go very far. However that $20,000 in the hands of an experienced concert promoter could do the impossible when compared to their inexperienced counterpart. The experienced promoter would call on industry friends, get a few special guests, rally some stage hands, P.A systems personnel, event marketing pros and others to skilfully deploy the $20,000 to do what someone else could not. The $20,000 has been used to achieve the goal of earning $1 million over a year by running a number of successful events. Obviously, the person raising the money isn't doing the job for nothing, but paying them is worthwhile because they have earned what you could not. As said in the parable of the talent in Matthew 24/Luke 19, putting money out to the interest giver when you do not have the talent yourself makes sense. Match Funding is simply a way of using resources, skills and the knowledge of an industry or area of trade more efficiently. As seen in the publicity piece above, some people can create the vehicles that can get someone in the media on a regular basis. As a result of that media exposure, a profit can be earned. The festival example above is one way in which access to an audience can be done at a profit.

In a nutshell Match Funding is a from of commercial activity. Party A promises Party B that for every $1000 they are able to raise, they will give them an equal amount of money. In essence, Party A is sponsoring Party B but expects to see some effort or something tangible from Party B in exchange. In the example above Cathy got paid a wage for getting the festival she was working for an amount of media coverage, which if paid for would have been beyond the budget of the festival organisers. In essence Cathy became the cost cutting medium for the festival owner.

The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg was shot in an airport and the logos of Borders bookshop, Baskin Robbins Ice Cream and Starbucks Coffee shop spent a lot of time in the movie. In exchange for the advertising value, brand owners will give film makers money for their logo being in the film. Placement advertising is a form of Match Funding because as a method of revenue support towards the film, the Starbucks logo being seen world wide in association with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg has value. Creating Match Funding initiatives for a Church that wants to move into media is not as complex as a big Hollywood flick agenda and is not about what a church does not have, because we are looking to raise the amount of money needed to fund a church based movie, documentary, TV show, album promotion or any media agenda that a church wants to accomplish.

When we look at Christians and their desire to be involved in media we see that the openings available include, music, preachers on TV, documentary program making, radio shows and more. Each area of media has its barriers to entry, the problems that make entering into a specific field difficult. If however you have money, gaining access to any area of media becomes easy because you can buy or hire the services necessary to achieve any media objective you have. This is why Match Funding is important because with a Match Funding program, a church can orchestrate any financial goal it has for itself. Match Funding programs are progress, but each church has a unique starting point. A congregation of ten people has a smaller human resource pool than a church with a thousand people. In a news piece about Sherwood Ministries, we see that a major part of them being able to put together a successful film was the fact that the church had a lot of volunteers.

Match Funding is about being very efficient with how you use media and its resources. Churches prints flyers, print CDs and DVDs that are held in stock, pay for TV adverts, have radio spots, give out tracts, advertise in the local press, have a web sites designed and maintained, in fact churches engage in many activities to get the public aware of the church and to promote the gospel. If a church is spending $40,000 a year on its media and a consultant can reduce this amount to $5,000 a year, the church has “saved/reduced its annual expenditure” by $35,000. What is being asked of the consultant is two fold; 1- to reduce the cost of today's expenditure and, 2- raise the money for tomorrow's media needs using any form of Match Funding program that is appropriate.

In the case of the arts festival, Cathy Corrigan was the vehicle that reduced the cost of advertising and by making the festival a success ensured that money was in place for the following year. We all know that Michael Jackson has spent most of his life as a news story, whether living in a oxygen tent or buying the elephant man's bones, all of these stories brought international attention to the singer and helped him sell millions of albums. An arts festival or a ministry event is not as wacky as a Michael Jackson story but publicity is a media vehicle that is a Match Funding tool because you are using a professional to crate means by which what you do can be included in the local or national news and as a result promote a church based event, product or concept.

Usually, the bigger the church, the more that is spent on media, making the Match Funding agenda easier. Match Funding made simple means that a church is going to use professional help to raise capital knowing that a church is being assisted to be more effective and efficient with what it has.
If we have saved $35,000 a year, then a church is in the position to keep a consultant on for a year and get access to some new technology to start communicating to the world. In the first article we saw that websites that once cost $1million can be bought for anything from $12,000/£6,000. So far we have simply looked at the idea of lowering a churches overhead. Using Skype, I am able to talk to 25 people at a time from anywhere in the world as long as they have the program on their computer. In a week I could talk to 100 people by just spending one hour with each group. A church of 1000 people, all with Skype, speaking to 100 people from their community is now reaching out to 100,000 people a week. The cost for this form of outreach is actually nothing because Skype is free. As seen from the GodBlog conference video below, the tools to communicate with the world today have little resemblance to the tracts and flyers of yesteryear and they are free. This is why I say you can take a $40,000 a year spend on marketing and reduce it to $5,000 and not reduce the quality of impact.

Today, one of the major components in the news is the celebrity update. After the war news, weather, regional updates and job news comes the who has broken up with who reports. What most people don't realise is that many of the celebrity relationships are created for publicity purposes. The big announcements about who is dating who followed by the big engagements report, followed by the big break up news that is also seen in all of the women's glossy magazines and ABC prime time reports are part of the planned news strategy of the management of many actors and musicians. O.K., not all celebrity relationships are cons but a lot of them are. The point here is that many of the things secular artists do to get in the media cannot be engaged in by Christians because most of the P.R. agendas are falsehoods. The relationship between the tabloid press, the stars and the paparazzi is all part of the public hype that exists in the world of celebrity. As a Christian music artist, film maker or preacher the National Enquirer, CBN, TBN and the New York Post and London's Evening Standard are all viable platforms for P.R. but how they are used for a Christian has to be thought through very carefully.

In the video below, we see what a publicist can do for an artist and that the better ones can cost up to $5,000 a month to create the campaigns that launch careers.


The fact that a good publicist costs $5,000 should not be a hindrance to a band or a church because the idea is that the publicist is used to launch a career of a group of people that want careers in media which is what preaching and being a music maker are. Remember, PR is not the same as marketing. Fundamentally, marketing is what you pay for. The adverts on TV and in the press that cost you money is marketing. If you are on TV then you will need a video or an advert which, if produced to TV standard may cost an initial $5,000 - $$20,000 outside of the actual advertising cost as seen in the following video.


The catch twenty two every one is trying to avoid is the initial outlay that needs to be spent before a return comes in. Anyone can afford the $1 lottery ticket that offers the chance of a $1million payout but the $20,000 investment that gives access to a managed way to get to the $1million is the problem. For a church paying any form of specialist personnel is not a problem because a church is hiring the personnel needed to bring in the return on their behalf. The fact that a publicist is being used to launch a preacher, film maker and series of music acts from the same church should be seen from the premise that a series of successful people brings in revenue to the church beyond the initial outlay. Getting audiences the size seen in the Kirk Franklin video above is all about a church working with a strategist who can bring in those results and paying them to accomplish the same on your behalf.

We can divided churches into five categories, 1- Passive, 2 - Active, 3- Involved, 4- Industry and 5- Cross over. The Passive Church is the type of group that as individuals will go and see The Passion of The Christ when it comes to a movie theatre but was not part of the grass roots promoters of the movie, the Active Church is the opposite. Any promotional campaign agenda that an Active Church can get involved with, it does. An Involved Church is the type of group that, like Sherwood Ministries has a core group of people that spearhead a media agenda and is involved with the creation of content that will be seen on TV, in the cinema or heard on radio. An Industry Church, is Sherwood Ministries in ten years time. In the future, Sherwood will be giving members of its congregation access to media careers because of the foundation that is is now building on. The Crossover Church has more in common with Tyler Perry who, as a Christian has entertainment content that is seen by and supported by the unsaved viewers. A Cross over project is evangelical but its reach is definitely in the world of the unsaved. Christian TV stations like TBN exist to cater for Christians and as such is not a cross over medium in the strictest sense. In contrast to TBN, there are production companies like Paulist Productions who make TV shows for mainstream media.

The reason for making the distinctions between the different forms of Christian media is that knowing what you want to do governs the type of Match Funding program that is going to be created. Each Match Funding agenda will be different. For a ministry that wants to get onto TBN the method used to raise funds may be different to someone who wants to be on mainstream TV and set up a company like Paulist Productions or get involved with film like Sherwood Ministries or be part of the Christian music industry. America and England have different opportunities available to them but the bottom line is that in each case, the raising of money to the amount needed to start a company is the objective.

It is understood that churches do not use the latest technology for their web sites, the problem is that not using the latest technology is actually costing the church money because the new web sites are going to be the backbone of how a church can generate its Match Funding income. If a church wanted to put out a movie, it would have to raise up to $1 million in funds but there are strategic ways about thinking about the money. Launching a series of bands and solo singers form a church is not as financially demanding on a church but the publicity needs to be strategic enough to ensure that a band is launching an international career that is large.

Sherwood Ministries raised some of its initial capital by raising donations from its congregation but the problem with this approach to fund raising is simple, a church is limited to the amount of money that can come from its congregation. Most media companies set their sights on being able to raise their money from the sale of their productions so if the objective is to get on TV as a documentary maker, the need to raise the kind of money necessary for a film is not there.

The new technology websites mentioned in article one give a church the ability to do some things that are amazing. At the 2008 GodBlog conference, Christians could learn about some of the technologies that could be used to communicate to a neighbourhood or nation using the internet as seen in the video below.


The key thing to remember is that cost reduction is not the same as cost cutting, is not the same thing as Match Funding. With cost reduction, you are lowing the expenditure but retaining the same level of efficiency. With the use of a publicist, the arts festival reduced the amount of money needed to effectively market its festival but the target audience was still reached. Cost cutting without retaining effectiveness is pointless. With a Match Funding exercise, you are asking a professional or team of professionals to achieve a series of end results based on their ability to be effective in a number of arenas that you have no experience in. Because we know that a publicist may cost as much as $5,000 a month, we can see that by lowing the amount spent on yearly advertising agenda, a publicist can take a church agenda to a local, regional and national audience. Money isn't the issue, its how money can be used that counts.

In the video below, Jeff Clanagan speaks to Forbes Magazine about how he can make a full length feature film for the cost of a music video. (Fast Forward to the 3 minute mark). Obviously, Jeff Clanagan is not a Christian but we see that his thinking, from a production perspective makes sense and why.


Before we move on to film and ministries, we need to look at what Jeff Clanagan said from another perspective because he was talking about music artists who are successful. In the video below we are told that only 5% of artists signed to labels earn royalties. What is said in this video is the central problem that all artists have who are signed to a record contract, but the same parallel applies to people in film and TV. In the video below we see that for people in any creatve field to become good takes 10,000 hours. In otherworrds a filmmaker, can't be judged until they have finished 10,000 hours of hands on experience in a field. Look at Malcolm Gladwell's interview to see how to look at human performance development.


With Malcolm Galdwell's statement in mind we can see why very few artists earn royalties, or why very few TV presenters become the next Oprah Winfrey or a hopeful film makers becomes the next Steven Spielberg. To become good at any art takes time to develop a style that captivates an audience. At the London Business School, Malcolm Gladwell explains why there is a specific time development incubation that people go through.


The media industry is in fact a talent industry. Talent is not developed by the media industry, it is capitalised on. The fact that we have the internet is separate to another fact, which is that in the online world, nobody can afford to give ten years of their life to developing presenting, live band performance or film making skills for free. This is why you have to have a method of getting web technologies to pay for themselves now so that you or the people you will work with can spend more time becoming a better film maker, TV presenter, live musician, singer or group or media maker in your chosen filed. The 5% rule is not about how many people get paid, it is about how many people get developed and the economics of talent development.

As we heard from the Fleetwood Mac, Mozart and chess grand master explanation above, the 10 year rule applies to all. This is why being great in the secular field is not about selling out, it is about development and having a talent with a buying audience that can be sold on its own merits. If a film maker is to become as good as Steven Speilberg, he or she must spend the years it takes to master a craft. That does not mean to say that you first film will be bad, it means that your first music CD or tenth film will not be as good as your thirtieth So, lets go back to money and the web.

If you have ever put a book on Amazon or an album on CD Baby or ITunes, you know that you do not sell many. You also know that without a lot of marketing, the project is not going to work. Anyone who is in a Church who is looking to be part of the media world needs to get their church to become part of a buyers groups. A buyers group is not a unit of people who you sell things to, far from it, these are the people that will help the church earn a lot of money. If I gave you a DVD and asked you to look at the DVD and give me a review on it, you would do that because there is no threat to you. I could also offer you the DVD, CD or book at a reduced rate if you thought the DVD, CD or book was good, could be of help to you spiritually or was of use for some other reason. The reason for forming a buyers group is simple, you need to learn what people will want and you need to access productions that are not famous.

A book like The Purpose Driven Life or a Christian speaker like Joyce Myers cannot be buyers group projects because the authors and speakers already have a high profile. A buyers group is also not about sales in the strictest sense. I you were part of a mega church that had 10,000 members, going in front of the congregation and asking them to buy a CD may help with you making a lot of money but that does not help you find out what is part of a national trend. When a movie is tested, different cities may get test screenings and if the reaction is proved to be the same in all of these cities, the studio knows what the reaction to a movie is going to be nation wide. If the movie has a bad reaction, it is known before hand what the word of mouth value on a film will be. If necessary extra shots will be made or the ending recut to reshape the story. The film is retested and then launched once it is known how the public will respond. Obviously not all movies go through this process but many do. Comedians do something similar. By going on stage and trying out their jokes time and time again, they find out what works and what does not, then they mould their performance to what they discover to be their strengths. This is what a buyers group is to you – you are developing your nose for what will work – but here is where the money is. The internet is a non human infrastructure, it does not know what is funny and it does not know if something is being sold incorrectly. In a video later on in this article you will be able to look at a story about Prince. In 2007, Prince caused a riot in the music industry in the UK because he decided to sell his album without the help of any record label or any of the UK major chain stores because they had been doing a bad job with his previous releases throughout the years. In fact the way many major artists are selling their music and live careers is changing. Some are refusing to sell downloads, others are going for exclusive Wal Mart deals as the AC DC report below shows. We know that AC DC is not Christian and the metal band may not be preferable listening, but the news story here and the one on Prince show us that in music, there are many different ways to make huge cash returns. The same goes for DVD sales, Christian albums and DVDs, teaching materials and online media because as you get better at finding product that is good, you can sign an options deal with the film maker, DVD copyright owner, band or artist which offers them distribution in exchange for a fee from the returns. Look at the AC DC article first.


Putting a film on the web, at the moment does not make any money but in the future it will, however learning to be a buyer is the essence of production. There are now millions of productions that are online and loads of small production houses that cannot get mainstream distribution. Like many other needles in the internet haystack, there are lots of productions, bands and books that will never be found. If, with your buyers group you find a product that 20 or so of your friends say is really good, your next point of enquiry is to find out if people in another town, city or country think that what you have found is good. If they get the same reaction as you, then you know that the product you have is worth something, its problem is distribution, not quality. As you saw from the AC DC article and as you will see from the Prince article, what people once did to sell their music or film has changed but the problem is that the creators of many products are not current with the latest distribution models. If Prince and AC DC had to address how their products are being sold because the traditional approach was not working, then how much more the same applies to a new gospel singer or film maker. If you found a good DVD that others thought was good, that one project, if sold through a distribution channel could earn you $50,000. If you located 20 items in a year, that is more money than you could earn any other way. The reason for creating a buyers group at your church and joining a network of people that are doing the same thing is because you need feedback. The issue isn't that you like something because you on your own constitutes a niche, the issue is finding out if lots of people like what you like. If you are a Jazz fan who has is introduced to Pat Matheny by a friend, you will give the musician a try because the recommendation may be good. What people do not like is being marketed to, being informed or updated is different. If you form a good relationship with the creatives that you meet, where they are today and how good they will be in a year or two is about tracking their development curve as explained by Malcolm Gladwell. Anna Maria Jopek is not the same as Kirk Franklin and there are music forms outside of the traditional American based music that many of us are exposed to. So being a buyer is about strategically choosing what you want to be involved with and why.

The Canne Film Festival is simply a buyers group on a grand scale, producers and buyers with distributors. What is sold and bought with the hope that it is a hit is subjective. Being a buyer is close to being a producer because your judgement is on the line. Let's say you are looking at Christian film makers, bands and singers, being able to spot what is good across genres and platforms is the skill you need for yourself and the best way to cut your teeth is to find out where your buying strengths are. When Steven Speilberg commissions other writers and directors to work on projects, he is buying into their skills, not his. The less money you have, or the harder you think it will be to get money to start your own productions, the more you have to lean towards others that have already moved in that direction that have climbed walls that you can't.

This look at buying is given because many of those reading this article may not be of the disposition to raise $1million from their church for a film or artist project. What anybody reading this artile can do is form a buyers group in their church and explain to friends and pastors in other churches that they can do the same. Building a network of 1000 buyers is the object of this article because within a year you also have access to a good Christian market research group that everyone benefits from. What do you think the reaction to Kirk Franklin's first album would have been if you were the first person with it and it was presented to your group of friends. Would they have bought it? How many people would have wanted it? Would you have been the person who was getting a percentage of the manager's royalty because you helped get the group a distribution deal?

The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most successful DVDs of all time, however as a box office release the film was a failure. The problem was the marketing, there was no way that the prison drama could be made to look good in a 2 minute commercial and so there was not enough cinema interest. The studio did not market the film, word of mouth did. Once the film was on DVD, video stores recommended it to their customers who in turn recommended it to friends and people then opted to buy it. – biggest cinematic failure. TV ads did not work.

Whether we look at AC DC, Prince or the Shawshank Redemption, we see the same thing, often times conventional approaches to marketing, even if you are a multi national company does not work. This is why you have buying groups, what you are in fact doing is testing the water with a big group of people. If their reaction is good, you know you have something that should be pursued. The UK offers American media makers a platform where their media can be sold outside of the harsh competitive elements that are in the USA. Obviously you need a good product, taking a bad idea into a new environment does not change the fact that you have a bad product but you are improving the products chances for making it.

Four years ago it would have been impossible to find good films by independent producers, or music from unsigned bands and artists, today, millions are online. Most churches already have buyers groups because if your church has a book store or a book selling resource of any kind then buyers already exit. The problem is that these buyers are purchasing products that have proved themselves in the market, they are not buying something new.

Whenever a product is being sold or made available to the public, “options” for that product can be acquired. An option is an arrangement to give a party a fee for the performance of a task on the condition that the task is not a requirement. Options can also be enhanced with Confidentiality and Restraints of Trade Clauses. If I said to a oil company, I know where oil is but I will only show you on the promise that you do not tell any third party and that you do not try to profit from what I show you outside of me getting 10%, if they agree, I can show the oil company my discovery because they are bound by law to pay me and not leave me out of the process. Options with confidentiality clauses and restraints of trade is a way of ensuring that you will get paid for work. An option can also have an Advances clause which states that upon you shoing the oil company a profitable commodity, they pay you an advance of $50,000 on the 10%. Music was once sold with advances because record labels used to give artists an advance on the projected earnings. Advances in the music industry do not happen today however the principle makes sense in the world where new marketing approaches bring in the profit.

If a magazine is selling 5000 units per month and you can assist the publication to sell 50,000 a month, an option exits for the “improved performance” which is sales above 5,000. Options can exist for new territories. A product may be sold in the USA but you could have an option for sales in Japan, China or New Zealand. A product could be sold online with the proprietor stating that they are already selling to the world. If however you see a way of increasing the sales, you asking for an option for sales above their monthly or yearly average is where your future profits are. The newly developing online world gives us an increasingly competitive market that can work in our favour because as competition increases, anyone who can create a way to make somebody else's project work better becomes very important. With the improved performance of a client comes the ability to ask for an advance based on the new sales perfomace. When you have finished reading this article, you will have seen a number of new approaches to the sale of music, for a lot of music acts in America, the new options exist in the UK.

Making options deals works take some skill. For example, for a script reader to become good at assessing good scripts, they would have had to read 1000 scripts to be able to know what to look for in the ideal script. The fact that some of the scripts may only be read part way because of finding some fatal error early on does not change the fact that the 1000/1 Rule may apply. For a script writer, the rules are different. Once a script reader has found a good idea, they can sign it to an options deal knowing that when they pass the script on to people in the industry, they will get an OK. The reader has two thing working for them, firstly they have a contact network and second they know what to look for in a script. We see both skill and network at play here.

As we saw with Prince, AC DC and the Shawshank Redemption, the primary method of sales did not work and a new one had to be created. With a product in hand, the skill was in creating the sales vehicle. With all of the potential of the internet, all of the free software and the lower prices in technology, the issue today is not lack of openings but lack of know how. The reason why options are so important is simple, you gain access to the potential to be paid windfalls for a product that someone else has made but cannot find a way to sell it.

Options deals gives you the ability to partner with people who can sell or find markets for the items you find. Prince is one of the world's most famous black performers but sales of his albums in the UK had fallen to a low that was beyond normal. The value with Prince was found in a new approach to sales. So it is with ministry, music and film. Options deals can also be progressive. A band that is only selling 20 CDs a month from it web site is not cash rich. An options deal that offers a progressive way of achieving more sales on the basis that the band deploys 10% of its income to marketing is where options can take on a whole new meaning because 10 bands signed to options agreements gives you some scope to grow rapidly. Remember, options are not management rights but you could have a management option drafted into an options contract. Lets say you met Steven Speilberg at the begining of his career and he had no money, the more cash you help him make, the more resourses he is able to acquire to become the director of Jaws. The more money you help a media creator make, the more power they have and the more creative they become. Finance is the fuel that makes creative people do their best work because the tools needed cost money which is why you have to think long term about the people you meet. In the last article you heard from the BBC about all of the new toys that will make distribution easy, the issue for you as a media creator or in any other capacity is the need to get hold of product that you have some form of interest in. Your tie in with the people that you work with needs to be long term and the commitment can be progressivly built on options.

More products are becoming needle in a haystack commodities and as we saw from the major record deal synopsis above, only 5% of artists generate enough sales to earn royalties. What is happening to the other 95%. major record companies do not have the time to micro manage projects. It is easier for them to discard the 95%. however, when what they were doing fails to work for their big artists, the lack of performance become an issue because results are being demanded in changing times. The likelihood of getting a contract to work with Prince or Kirk Franklin is slim, but the unknown, unsigned or people in the 95% arena is you focus.

When an artist is part of the 95% it means that their career is not selling enough CDs or downloads to be financially viable. If the intention of a ministry is to be involved in media then a ministry, like an actor or documentary film maker has to have products that generate an audience. In this video below you will see what it takes to become exceptionally good in a field. If it takes 10 years to become exceptionally good then someone's improved performance in sales gives them the financial stability to continue to develop in their field. This is why you have to think clearly about where you are. Some people can back their callings with finance, others with resources, the online world gives you the tools to function either way and options is like virtual cash. If you sign someone to an options deal, then they have given you the ability to make money on their increased performance.

OUTLIERS

As seen in the Sherwood Ministries piece below, the church had to hire a professional film crew and spend half a $million on post production, but many of the other requirements for making their film came from the support of church volunteers who gave time and prayer support during the production process. The end result was a film that hit the world. In the previous article (video below) we saw how Sherwood Church was able to cut its production costs because the church members served as volunteers and their homes were used as shooting locations. What we can see is that cost reduction in any field, whether it is the church's media expenses or the production of a movie is about planning and knowing a field.


For Sherwood Church to reduce its production costs, a church full of volunteers, with donated locations all helped in making the cost of a film that, under Hollywood conditions would be more expensive, possible because everything that needs to be used and paid for came through a church effort. In the video below, which was quoted in the last article, Guy Kawasaki, former marketing head of Apple Computers tells us that web sites that once cost $1million can now be bought for $12,000 plus. If a church has an old school website, then there is no way that what they have is going to be as effective as what something that once cost $1million. Before we go on, you need to look again at Guy Kawasaki tell us that websites that once cost a $million can now be bought for $12,000.{Fast forward to 55 minutes to hear cost reduction statement}


10 years ago, Yahoo started giving out free email addresses – now almost everybody has one, in recent years, web sites started giving away the protocols for anyone to set up their own social network site, so people are being given more free stuff that is useful beyond the scope of email. As seen in the video above, we are able to get a lot more with less money when it comes to web media.
The problem with the free social network sites or anything that is given away is that sometimes these systems are not tailor made for a specific purpose. In the interview below we see how in America, grass roots support for Faith films and special interest movies have to be done without film industry support. The new online technologies makes managing talking to 1 million people an easy to manage exercise.


In this news report we here about why Jesus is popular in America to the dismay of some people in media. Again, this video shows why Christians in the USA take care of their own media and the video above shows that the web is the tool for today.


In the last 10 years we have seen a number of Christian movies separate from Mel Gibsons, Passion in 2004 come to the big screen; The Left Behind Series, The Moment After, Unidentified, The Time Changer, and the Genius Club are a few of the titles that come to mind. However, very few movies become a Facing The Giants or Fireproof. The issue is not marketing, money or lack of commitment on the side of Christian TV program or film makers or a local church. It has often times proved difficult to organise a publicity and marketing campaign for Christian movies and DVDs in the same way you could for the next James Bond flick. Now, with the new internet technologies being cheaper, it is easier to organise more sophisticated campaigns because the technology to do this exists at much lower costs. Earlier on we looked at churches in categories, there were the Passive Churches, Involved Churches etc. In each group you have church people and congregations that have differing levels of involvement in Christian media. When the next Hollywood Christian blockbuster comes out, some will go and see the film but they will not actively promote the movie to friends. Sometimes that maybe because the film isn't that good, sometimes it maybe because, movies like Facing The Giants and Left Behind do not get cinema releases in Britain and the rest of Europe. It may not be until a year later that Christians in Europe hear about a new Christian film.

The reason for this is that the international companies that market movies usually have Christian Movie Marketing divisions in the USA but they do not have them in Europe. In the video below we see that European TV companies are now using the internet to find TV producers and if you fast forward to 10 minutes, you see that major record labels in Europe are using the internet to find artists to sign. Because America is over subscribed with artists trying to get recording contracts, it is easier for Gospel artists to promote themselves in Europe to major labels, getting noticed as the next Staci Frenes, Kirk Franklin or Yolanda Adams in the USA is difficult because of the sheer number of Christian artists trying to make it. A church in America could supply Europe with artists that they want signed in the USA by using Europe as the launch pad. Some American gospel acts may waste $1000s trying to get signed and noticed in America but approaching the major American companies through a European arm would be easier. In the video below you can see how artists in Europe are getting signed in Europe. Fast forward the video to 10 minutes 30 seconds. By looking at the Kirk Franklin video you can see how well American Gospel acts are received in Europe.

Clipmania

Staci Frenes – San Francisco

Kirk Franklin in Europe – Oslo, Norway

Hopefully with what you have learned by reading this article and looking at the video references is that Match Funding is about using one principle but understanding that the principle has numerous methods of implementation. For the Christian that is looking to the world of media, the issue is not can a band, documentary or international preaching ministry be launched with minimal funds, but how can a church start a multimedia division that can be global with minimal funds.

We know that sites that once cost $1 million can be bought for $12,000 and above. We know that a movie and music video can be costed into the same budget if the right production approach is used. We know that a publicist can promote a band, ministry or church multimedia project for $5,000 a month to a global audience. We also know that America is the movie capital of the world. Movies can be bought into if you have the money, television is different. You cannot buy time on NBC, CNN, HBO or the BBC. In fact Britain is the TV capital of the world because although TV shows like Friends and Seinfeld come from the USA, concepts like Dancing With The Stars, American Idol and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire come from the UK because the Britain is the biggest TV format exporter in the world. Christians are not going to be working in key UK TV industry positions and exporting great programming ideas about religion to the world. TBN and stations like it are American but the format of Joyce Myers, T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen preaching from a pulpit only works for ministries that are huge. The starting point for many churches will be the launching of bands and preachers into the international arena and earning revenue from these activities. With a laptop a preacher can be travailing the world and typing their future best selling book.

Before we move to book publishing we need to take another look at the music industry again to get a full understanding of Match Funding. We have all heard about piracy and how many industries are being affected by it. Prince is a well known artist in America with high ranking CD sales to match however in the UK his sales do not do as well. In 2007, the sales of Prince albums in the UK did not go above 8,000 units. Piracy and a combination of low sales meant that traditional TV advertising would not work and created a loss because there is no point in advertising on TV when you cannot get more than a few thousand buyers. What Prince did was abandon the record stores and sell the rights to give away his album to a UK Sunday newspaper for $500,000. The newspaper gave away 2 million copies of his album, the Sunday paper achieved record weekend sales and the give-away was tied into a series of concerts at London's O2 stadium. You can see the news report below. The point is that using traditional methods, Prince could not raise the sales or the value of his album. His Match Funding approach found another way for his album to have value when sales in record shops we not working. Many other bands are doing similar strategies because the idea of simply trying to make sales from an album is not the approach any more.


So far we have looked at film, music and television but the device below gives us the ability to look at book publishing. With the launch of the Kindle from Amazon, an author only needs to think about downloads of their book. Unlike the Ipod, which has music industry connotations books do not. A band or singer can be great but unless they are seen on MTV or the Gospel Music Channel the public often times does not take those in music seriously. With the Kindle, the downloadable book, magazine or comic becomes a reality and a bon fide product. All an author has to have is a great promotional tour that makes their books available as a download and a best seller is made possible. The video below shows how the Kindle is changing publishing.

Kidle

Recommendations

This article looked at many ideas in the area of media. With an understanding that there are different types of churches in terms of congregation size, levels of experience and differing media goals, the following recommendation for starting a media agenda is given.

Learn how to use options as a means of generating cashflow by offering media producers improved performance with their sales.

Each church should look to set up a record label because record labels, if licensed to a major music group is a conduit to TV and film.

Using sites like My Space and God Tube, find twenty gospel acts from various backgrounds, and launch a stable of artists onto the market simultaneously.

Become part of a buyers network which you can cash in on in the future.

Use a good P.R strategy to launch all of the artists globally.

Use a maximum budget of $40,000 to make a film that is international in make up and use your acts to star in the movie within 12 months of signing your artists. Use options to ensure that you have sales.

Use the UK as an international platform to ensure that the label is known in Europe and America.

Ensure that you have a human resources team in the church that want to be part of a project. Any work done as a volunteer could become a career in the independent leg of the program is managed correctly.

If you can sell your artists as a collective, through the medium of film to the world, then the record label you licence to will have a TV and film production arm and will give you the resources to get into the other areas of media as part of a multimedia contract.

In closing

The objective of this article was to give an in depth understanding about many of the possibilities that are available to those with minimal funds. Today it is not about money but a small amount of many and the use of a number of church volunteers to assist with the launching of a global agenda for a church that wants to be in the world of media

For service updates and to become part of the phone conferences email network derekworldwide@yahoo.com

Derek James

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