Coming out on DVD Tuesday: FIREPROOF, one of the most profitable movies ever made!
by Steve MasonLast fall, a small, unheralded movie called Fireproof (IDP/Samuel Goldwyn) arrived in theatres and became a huge surprise hit and among the most profitable movies ever made (at least according to budget-to-gross ratio). Now that the film will be released on DVD this Tuesday (January 27), I thought it was worth revisiting the mysterious recipe for the movie’s success.
“I’m not impressed with Hollywood in general. They don’t make a lot of movies that lift our standards and morality.” That’s what director Alex Kendrick told me in a telephone interview on the Monday after his new movie Fireproof generated a downright shocking $6.5 million opening weekend. Despite never being on more than 839 screens, the little Christian-themed indie released on September 26 finished its theatrical run with a stunning $33.4M in ticket sales. Los Angeles and New York are filled with talented film professionals, who spend countless hours and millions upon millions of dollars making movies. The cost of development, production, a director, actors and marketing make the craft of filmmaking prohibitive. So how did a little church in Georgia score a legitimate box office hit?
Director Alex Kendrick with his FIREPROOF co-stars Erin Bethea and Kirk Cameron
The answer, according to director Kendrick, is prayer. “Before we shot a tough scene, we prayed. This movie was bathed in prayer.” He is serious. Although Alex and his brother, co-writer and producer Stephen Kendrick, “grew up making silly movies in the backyard with a video camera,” they have no formal training in the business. They are both associate pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., three hours south of Atlanta. They are in “the prayer business” full-time.
About seven years ago, the Kendrick brothers approached Sherwood senior pastor Michael Catt with the idea that making movies should be part of the church’s ministry. Their church has about 3,000 members, with about 1,500-1,700 attending services on the average Sunday, so Sherwood is not one of the so-called mega-churches, but Catt agreed to let the brothers try their hand at filmmaking.
Their first effort was the 2003 movie Flywheel about a car salesman with a crisis of conscience. The movie was made for $20,000 and shot on a Canon XL1 digital camera with a cast and crew made up entirely of church volunteers. The Kendricks intended to sell the DVD online with the proceeds being pushed back into the church’s ministries. “We thought it’d be neat to show the movie at the local movie theatre,” Kendrick told me, and Carmike’s Wynnsong 16 Theatres in Albany agreed to a limited four-day engagement. The movie proved to be very popular playing for six weeks and expanding to two other Carmike locations. The newly-minted, nonprofit Sherwood Studios hoped to sell 10,000 copies of Flywheel on DVD, and, to date, the movie has sold 200,000 units.
Based on that relatively modest success, the Kendricks proposed a movie called Facing the Giants about a Christian high school football coach. They raised the stakes with a budget of $100,000, mostly to pay for a five-person professional crew from Orlando and the equipment necessary to shoot a “real” movie. Still, there were no paid actors and the bulk of the crew was untrained volunteers from the Sherwood Baptist Church congregation.
When the Kendrick brothers finished a rough cut, they approached a Christian record label called Provident Music Group in order to license some music for Facing the Giants. When the record people saw the movie, they got parent company Sony involved, and, faster than you can say an “Our Father,” the movie had a distribution deal with IDP Films/Samuel Goldwyn. The picture rolled out on 441 screens in September of 2006 and delivered $1.34M on opening weekend for a $3,046 Per Theater Average. Giants showed great playability and finished with $10.17M domestic.
What did the church do with the profit from Facing the Giants? No perks for these mini-moguls. It was funneled into the building of an 82-acre sports park for the Albany community with baseball and softball diamonds and soccer fields.
Emboldened by box-office success, the two associate pastors began working on their third movie. They chose marriage as a subject. Alex told me, “We saw so many marriages struggling. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, 70 percent of second marriages end in divorce, and first responders, like firefighters, police officers and military men and women, have an even higher divorce rate than everyday Americans.” So, their movie Fireproof is about a firefighter who is working to save his struggling marriage.
Shot on just a $500,000 budget, with that same crew from Orlando (slightly expanded), and plenty of help from their congregation, they made their movie. This time they had a star. “Kirk Cameron saw Facing the Giants and called us and said, ‘I gotta help you guys do this,’ ” said Kendrick, but Cameron auditioned like everyone else. Ultimately, he was cast as the lead, and in Sherwood Studios tradition, he was not paid anything. No salary. No residuals. Nothing. They paid his travel and hotel and made a donation to his Camp Firefly charity.
I was curious about what Alex had up his sleeve next, but he says that his flock needs his attention. “The movie business can’t take the place of what we do in church. We would never want to do these movies at the expense of our members.” The plan is for Sherwood Studios to make a movie every two years, and they have not even started thinking about the next one, but when Alex and his brother make movies in the future, he told me that they “will tell stories that middle America can relate to. America has two cultures. There’s New York City and California — and there’s the way the rest of the country lives.”
Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.
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67 Comments
The trailer for this movie makes it look like an advertisement for a book.
I saw this when it came out in the theater. Great movie. Cameron was excellent, and could handle the little bit of comedy. The script moved along, amazing for such a “home made” movie made by amateurs. The whole theater was crying at the end. I told two people at work (women), and they both LOVED it. One told her mother, who also loved it. This is “movies for the rest of us.”
I’d like to see if they can make movies that are still just as profitable while paying everyone who works for them. As a BTL guy, and a Christian, I have trouble with the idea of making movies for profit (for whatever purpose) and not paying your people, and then lauding how profitable it was. At the budgets they’re working from, they can’t possibly be paying any of their crew or post production people the wage they need to make in order to pay their bills, their equipment, etc.
All movies are a collaborative art, and if the church wants to be a blessing to people, it should first start by being a blessing to the people who help make their films a success – cast, crew and post production. I personally won’t work for free for anybody when their project has profit aims, even if that profit is for “ministry” purposes. I have to make a lot of money beforehand to be able to take the time to donate my services to somebody else’s work. When the aim is profit, crew-persons should get paid.
The hatred of Christians in Hollywood is so great it overrides their primary impulse–to make money. I find this remarkable. For example, the “Left Behind” books have sold over 50 million copies, yet the only response from Hollywood was for a small company to release a couple of low-budget, poorly-made films. Do you think Hollywood would so ignore any other book series that sold 50 million copies?
I’m not a Christian but those I know who are devout are not the raving “God-pushers” the liberals think. They are, without exception, decent and kind people that I am honored to call friends.
Neil;
Many politically-correct organizations such as Greenpeace and PETA make enormous profits and yet rely on volunteers for much of the grunt work. In fact, people fight to get those jobs. How do you feel about that?
People can do whatever they want. I’m not morally opposed to working for free for things I believe in (i’ve done it plenty), what I’m opposed to is the Church asking from the artisans who really are the ones who put the polish on a production, precisely what every other low-budget film maker does: make a movie for me so I can go on to make more movies/money/accolades. Meanwhile, those artisans have to pay bills. You can’t get good at your craft if you don’t have the financial wherewithal to do it full time. And, it is my experience that indie movie makers (Christian or not) almost never remember the people who helped them get to the top.
I never, ever, don’t pay the people that work for me. As a business owner, I consider it my one of my primary functions (the first being to do good work) to pay the people whom I hire a wage that is honorable to the amount of time and effort they put in. That is how I feel I can be an immediate blessing – by hiring people and paying them. Most often I simply ask what their normal rate is, and then I decide if I can afford it or not. Producers are constantly asking favors and sacrifices from crew, and almost never returning them. Shouldn’t Christians who want to make movies actually strive to change the corrupt, top-heavy business model of the industry, in addition to changing the content of storylines?
Regardless of whether the profits for these movies are used for “ministry” (i.e., presumably a “non-profit” purpose), the art form is still entertainment. It’s an indirect “proxy”, if you will, for fund-raising. If they want me to give $50 to the food bank or building fund, or convalescent home, then I’ll do that. If they want me to volunteer at the foodbank, that’s also fine. That’s more like what Greenpeace and PETA ask of people. But, they also pay alot of people as well. However, I would not give my services for free to an organization that uses entertainment to raise money for projects whose purpose is to be a blessing to humanity, when they miss the obvious of being a blessing to the humanity right in front of them: the crew. Believe me, having a professional production and post-production crew will make or break your film, no matter what talent is in front of the camera.
I forgot to add what is my whole point: There is a scripture in Deuteronomy: “You shall not muzzle the ox that treads the corn.” Meaning, even the laborer has to benefit from your harvest.
Neil;
So you think it’s all right to volunteer to work for a for-profit company/project as long as it’s not a Christian one. Okay, fine. I was just checking.
It doesn’t make sense to me, but if it does to you, that’s okay.
This is a great story. I’ve never seen the movie, but I just think it’s so neat when the underdog shows people up.
Neil
I’m a nurse. I work with the CERT team (community emergency response team) in my city. By your logic, instead of volunteering my time with the CERT team, I should demand that they pay me. I am, after all, a professional uniquely trained in doing first aid, CPR, etc, etc. Therefore, I shouldn’t volunteer in things for which I am uniquely skilled to help with.
Interesting theory. Too bad, I’m not selfish enough to do that.
I thought this was clear in my first sentence, but I’ll say it again: People can volunteer for whatever organization they want to volunteer, Christian or not. I couldn’t care less. I’m not concerned about what the volunteer does with his or her own time, I’m concerned about what the organization who needs labor asks of the laborer, and from what motive they ask it. Any organization that has or can find the ability to pay labor, and yet asks labor to work for free, esp. an organization whose whole mission is to directly benefit individual human beings, spiritually and physically, is missing their own point and doing a disservice to their message. This article was about how a church that made a movie made “the most profitable movie ever made!” It might not have been as profitable if everyone got paid, is my point. Or, it might have been even more profitable! Maybe they would have made more money. Low cost films don’t get as wide a distribution as higher cost films. Also, these pastor-producers (Pastor-ducers?) said they made the film with prayer, which I’m all for. Just as long as part of that prayer included getting more funding so they could at least offer pay the crew a real wage, regardless of whether that crew member wanted to work for free.
I can’t do my craft without very expensive equipment, which I have to update continually. Thus, I have to make my craft profitable. And, I can’t make it profitable if everyone always asks me to work for free. Somebody, somewhere has to pay for the services I contribute to a film. It seems to me that a Christian organization wanting to make a film should have the great motivation to figure out how it’s going to pay it’s hired hands. The scripture in Deut I referred to, isn’t speaking to the ox, it’s speaking to the farmer (i.e., the employer). If the ox wants to plow for free, that’s his business, but the farmer isn’t to muzzle him.
You see, if I have to trust God for my daily bread as a post prod guy, then producers of Christian entertainment should have to trust God for enough bread to feed the five thousand (meaning, the crew), while preaching the message.
MK – But you don’t work for free for your hospital do you? Movie production companies aren’t the film equivalent of CERT, they’re the film equivalent of a hospital. They’re a temporary employer on a large scale for the purpose of making a profit. Also, Pastors get paid don’t they? Some of them get paid too much, but most of them don’t get paid enough. It’s a sickness in the church that people think that those who serve for a greater purpose shouldn’t also get remunerated. Churches fund/support/pay missionaries to go out and deliver the Gospel. You can’t do something professionally always for free, and the Church shouldn’t expect it (which it has).
My whole point (which seems to be lost no matter how many times I say it) is that Christian movie makers should want to pay their crews and artisans and do everything in the power to do so, regardless of however noble their profit motive is. Remember, the Kendrick Bros wanted to make a movie for one very important reason: to fund ministries. I can see doing the first couple of movies with a volunteer model to get started, but I think it’s wrong on a production company or studio level (which is what they’ve become) make it THE business model.
Anyway, since the budgets of the Kendrick Bros movies has gone up, I’m assuming that they are paying their crews something. I just don’t want other Christian filmmakers to come away thinking they can or should think about movie making this way. Movies are entertainment (unlike a hospital), no matter what the financial purpose of making it is.
Sunny,
Kirk Cameron is a highly paid actor who can afford to volunteer over and over and over again. Most crew people/artisans are not, and don’t have their own outreach programs you can donate to. Most of them work paycheck to paycheck.
And believe me, I’ve told every wanna be Christian director/producer I’ve ever come in contact with that they should always strive to find a way to properly fund their films. First, you usually get better people. Second, it’s never dishonorable to pay people for their services (assuming those services aren’t illegal or immoral). Besides, I just wanted to make a small comment on a blog, not nail my 95 theses to the Sherwood door.
Neil,
Your point is well taken. It’s a matter of testimony. Jer 22:13 is a similar verse which speaks to the same point. Jeremiah 22:13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
The Laborer IS worth his hire and should be compensated. That being said, the films are excellent and brought multiple tears. I’ve watched Facing several times and responded the same each time.
Neil-
That’s a strawman argument. To you these movies may be only entertainment, but movies, as well as books, music, all art (and by “art” I mean something with real beauty) can have a major impact on people.
It can be a catalyst to higher transcendence (by catalyst, I mean a motivation and inspiration to higher principles and values as well as God).
The Pastors and Church have already used some of the profits to help the community, and I see no evidence of arm twisting here. I’m sure anyone struggling to feed their family would be working one or more jobs rather than volunteering their time for this, much as they may want to.
Just as I’m sure this church helps folks that ask for their help, as most churches do.
So it’s not like the Pastors are just getting wealthy and living high on the hog at everyone elses expense. I doubt they would keep getting so many volunteers if they were just conning their parishioners.
These folks like volunteering and being a part of something that can change lives, and by all I’ve read, the Pastors set fine examples.
No one is getting “muzzled” here or taken advantage of. No one volunteered for possible future profits. Quite the contrary really. These volunteers have been blessed and they want to see this effort grow; get more movies out there that most folks can relate to, and possibly be inspired by. I salute their efforts and hope they continue to make profits, help their community and make more art.
I see Hollywood going the same way as computer operating systems and applications. Market share will continue to erode to the less expensive to produce. Thanks for the info and I’ll rent this movie.
Neil-
As for your hospital example: Yes, I have volunteered time at our local Catholic hospital, and yes it does make a profit. Part of that money is used to help folks who can’t afford insurance, with many free clinics.
So again, I don’t see your point here.
The scriptures you site are about employment, not volunteering.
Dan and Duhrev understand what I’m saying…
I’m not criticizing Sherwood specifically. I’m just saying that if a company like Sherwood were my production company, I would never set it up so that the business model is based upon people volunteering their services (and I’m not saying their is set up that way), esp. the least financially able of those people (the production and post crew), regardless of the fact that I might think I’m making movies to enlighten or uplift people, and reinvest those profits. In my book, whatever profits you have AFTER you’ve paid everyone is how the sports park gets built. The glories of high art is not a good enough reason not to offer to pay your laborers. If you laborers want to work for free, that’s their decision, but it’s not righteous to make it the way you do business. The laborers in the Jewish temple got a portion of every other tribes “fruits”, because their inheritance was not land, but God. They were slaves, of a sort, yet they got remunerated for their labor!
I’m not talking about doing one or two movies for free. Sherwood already did that and I applaud them for it. But now, they’ve got money. We’re talking about a studio-level enterprise. Whatever they do with their profits is fine by me, as long as they remunerated, either up front, or on the back end, all the tiny little talented and important names on the credit list like “best boy” and “assistant dialog editor” who made it possible for them to make those profits.
I know so many Christians in various parts of the movie business, and almost categorically, the Christian production companies are the cheapest/most miserly. I get asked to do favors all the time by various productions companies, but none of them expect me to work for free all the time. Focus on the Family, TBN, and so many other Christian organizations that are making entertainment “For the Lord” seem to make it their business model to underfund projects and personnel and yet, want an excellent product. If God “owns the cattle on a thousand hills”, you’d think he could cough up some extra coins via these organizations for the guy digging a ditch.
Even with my own business doing post production, if I ask for help, I always pay the people who work for me, regardless of whether the job itself is pro bono, or low-budget or whatever. I would rather lose money on the job and get people’s best effort and honor them with remuneration than expect they should take their time to volunteer for me. I’m speaking as an employer. So, when I am in the role of a vendor (which I am simultaneously with being an employer), when I am thus hired by somebody to do work for them, I would like the same respect that I give to those I employ.
I want to support Neil’s position here. He seems like the lone voice crying in the wilderness. While others of you have made valid points regarding volunteerism, and Neil finally got to the issue I had at the top. There’s a matter of the required time that is invested by a professional on a project like this. Time that a lot of people have little understanding of when it comes to film production.
More often than not, it becomes a full time commitment. When you are living paycheck to paycheck, as a lot of “below the line” people do, (BTL means anyone who isn’t a producer, director, major star, and the like), and you voluteer as crew on a production project that takes maybe three or four weeks to shoot, all of a sudden, you don’t have the bucks to cover your rent, car, or phone payments.
Sometimes these projects shoot sporadically, say over three months of weekends. Or a couple days one week, then a couple the next month. When this happens, you often don’t get the same people in the same positions. This affects the quality of the work being done. Not that it is unacceptable a lot of the time, but sometimes it is. A producer would much prefer to be able to take a block of time, use the same people throughout, and get the shots done and into editing.
Editing is the kind of art that becomes time consuming. It makes it so much harder if you don’t work day to day. When you take a week or so off, you need a good amount of time to get back into the thought process. And that pushes the schedule even more as well as interrupting the flow of the creativity.
Thus, if you’re volunteering post production time and resources, you often forgo revenue generating work, or pay overtime to the people who work for you (if they’re not the volunteering types). Then that becomes a heavy burden, much more than the person who does a four or eight hour volunteer stint once or twice a month. Not to mention the wear and tear on some very expensive equipment.
I have volunteered for some production work that was “no budget”, I’ve done free work for “low budget” things trying to get noticed in the biz so as to get further work. I’ve volunteered for my church’s Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless. I have given away my skills to do handyman work for those who need that service. There is always a price to pay, but that is part of volunteering.
Neil’s point is that when you can, you do. But you need to make sure you take care of your own first. Then you can help others. And when a producer, of any type of project, asks you to help them accomplish their goal, you need to make sure they’re not taking unfair advantage of those who are willing to give.
I doubt the Kendrick brothers would have any qualms paying their crew a going rate if they knew they were going to make a $50 million profit. They didn’t know they were going to enjoy the success they had on Fireproof. And it was nice that they put in the sports facility they did. But there are a lot of producers who would be just the opposite, even if they knew they were going to make $100 million. I’ve worked on many mainstream Hollywood projects where they still ask for something for free, or next to nothing. It’s just part of being a producer, I guess.
I hope that the Kendricks do it again and are just as successful. I encourage them to budget a fair amount to pay cast and crew next time, then make provisions for those who would like to defer a portion or all of those payments.
Ronsonic – Well said. That the Sherwood movies have gotten such viewership is, as you say, the real (good) news.
ISITC – To metaphorically quote The Right Stuff: “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” Thanks for precisely the explanation I was getting too tired to pen myself.
I’ll support em! Facing The Giants is a great little movie, bought it, can’t wait to see Fireproof! Just watch it and enjoy!
Neil: I find your position sensible, honorable and well-expressed.
Neil,
As I understand it, neither the church nor the filmmakers are lauding the profitability of these films, only those of us on the outside looking in who are writing about them and who are reading what’s been written.
Amen, Thomas Johnson, for and from those of us who do all manner of things every week, every day -pro bono- in the name of ministry for our Lord.
Neil: thx for your clear expression of experiences and your work ethic. OK, I’ll go out on a limb here. There are good dentists and some not-so-good. Good mechanics and some not. Good teachers and those who shouldn’t teach. Likewise, there are good Christian organizations and those who make some (of us) shudder. I regret your experiences with some. For those who believe in a triune God, like Sherwood and the Baptist faith, there is a force called The Holy Spirit. It’s God’s presence that’s like the wind; not seen but indeed, felt. I believe Sherwood and its members make decisions ruled and influenced by this remarkable force; not their own. It’s something that just “happens” and of limited human discernment or logic. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about? Apologies. Those who do? Then I’m with you by accepting how this supernatural power that can create things beyond one’s wildest dreams. It is weird, defies human explanation and cannot be intellectulized. That’s why you just surrender to it and be amazed. BTW: saw the movie. It stirred up emotions that were of little effort to relate, comprehend and know. I’ll be watching ALL of their release from here on out.
I do my work elsewhere so that I CAN support somebody like Sherwood Productions – or whoever – with my time, talent, and expertise.
All three of Sherwood Prods.’ movies have been heavily invested with volunteer efforts, bottom to top, as the credit roll after “Fireproof” shows.
Neither the church nor the Kendrick brothers are suddenly “rolling in the dough” and nobody was dragged off at gunpoint to work on the show, any more than they dragoon people into teaching Sunday School or ushering at Sunday morning services at Sherwood, or any other church in North America.
If Neil was less concerned about how other people choose to FREELY spend their time, he’d be looking for scripts as wholesome as what the Kendrick brothers have been cranking into movies, paying his crew whatever he felt was right, and kicking Hollywood’s collective anti-religious, anti-marriage, anti-family butts with pictures for the 95% of the country that Hollywood ignores.
Yes, I get that it “would be nice” if they chose to HIRE people at industry rates to make their movies. But that’s between the asker and the giver to decide. The fact that the same congregation came back for two more helpings after “Flywheel” pretty well answers any objections. And the fact that the quality (and profits) improved with each subsequent outing should be reason to stop carping about the salaries (or lack thereof), and start looking at the REASON for the underlying success.
They didn’t make a pile of cash simply because they were stingy; they made a pile of cash because they MAKE FILMS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WANTED TO SEE.
I, paltry BTL Hollywood workerbee that I am, just like Neil, have some vague inkling that there MIGHT perhaps be some more important message in that for about 500 people in Hollywood who’ve been greenlighting sewage for 10 or 30 years.
Don’t you agree, Neil?
When my wife brought this “pre-street” copy home from work and the kids and I sat down to watch it I was in awe of the tone and feel of the movie. It was fantastic.
When the movie was done my youngest daughter (11) said to me, “Maybe if you would have known of the 40 days you and mom wouldn’t have gotten divorced.” I put my head in my hands and sobbed.
My kid’s mom and I were divorced about five years ago and I have remarried since then, but every day I live with the thought that I might have done things differently and maybe she would have wanted to stay married. I miss living with the kids daily, that is the hardest part. Being a divorced father is very hard to stay connected with the kids when they are at their home.
My wife has even said that although she loves me deeply, it would have been better for the family if my former wife and I had kept the marriage together and the kids would have both their mom and dad to live with.
My current wife is my motivation for doing things like the 40 day plan outlined in “Fireproof.” I have tried since day one that I met her to do these sorts of things. I hope that there is a guide, similar to the journal in movie that is available to people.
Fireproof is inspirational and I look forward to ordering the other 2 movies they produced.
WTG! It’s nice to hear stories of successful indies that are made outside of the “indie system” (meaning no Affleck’s, Damion’s, or Weinstein’s need apply). I have not seen “Facing The Giants” or “Fireproof” but i have seen “Stolen Summer” and “The Battle of Shaker Heights” and I surmise the two former films that are made from the heart are much better than the two latter films that were made in Miramax’s marketing department. No wonder that studio collapsed under it’s own hubris. That whole Project Greenlight disaster only proved Affleck and Damion can’t pick a winning script or competent directing talent. What a pair of Boston blowhards. Congrats to all at Sherwood Baptist Church and I wish you great success in all your subsequent films.
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I think it is great that a local church just beat the pants out of 75-90% of what holly wood puts out. Just glad to see that God still blesses local churches
A lot of you probably have heard the observational saw known as the 80-20 rule. I first heard about it when I was doing volunteer work with my church. Since then, I’ve heard it applied to the business world as well. In a setting where anything has to be done, 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people.
The point in this context is that while I think it’s great that the Kendrick brothers were able to utilize so many volunteers from the church, there will come a time that those people who have given of their efforts to support a genuinely valid undertaking will get burned out. How many other outreaches by the church have had supporters drained from their ranks so they can have their time on a Movie? Fewer and fewer people will be available to help the movie ministry because they will see their other concerns falling by the wayside. Many of these people will feel that they’ve had their time on the national scale outreach, then go back to their pet projects of local help or another large effort where they are a more predominant part of the whole.
There will eventually be the minute number of people who have aspirations of working in the biz who are willing to be part of the volunteer crew. But how long will they be willing to do something for free if the producers are finding the need to pay a professional crew to do what they do for a living? Eventually, everyone has a breaking point on how much they are willing to give to get position and recognition.
Believe me, please, the movie production business is a just a factory. It has been made out to be more than it is through the use of smoke and mirrors. They need to pay people to be willing to work in that factory and to do their best work. If they want to make a product that can compete with the perceived state of the art, they will need to pay people fairly to get the desired outcome. Just giving someone the opportunity to see their name in the credits is not enough to accomplish those goals.
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I couldn’t agree with Neil more. Being in the entertainment industry, nothing raises my hackles more than companies of all types in the industry looking for “interns” so that they don’t get paid. Craigslist in Los Angeles is replete with them. The bottom line is that yes, volunteerism is great, and it is a labor of love to create good tings at times, but at the end of the day, people still need to put food in their mouths, put a roof over their heads, and if they’re so moved to, tithe. I wrote and shot a short film and to this day I feel guilty about not being able to offer my talent more than a screen credit. In retrospect, I should have waited until I could pay them. Hopefully one of these days I can make enough money off another project that I can surprise each and every one of the people in the cast and crew of the short film with checks equaling what they would have made at least as non-union talent. I would challenge the producers of Fireproof to bless their cast and crew accordingly.
There is a Bible Study workbook that goes with this movie.
Every church has a type of DNA, how they minister, the type of programs they offer etc. For Sherwood, this is their ministry, to make movies…Church members do all sorts of volunteer work to further the ministry of their church,To complain that these ministers do not get paid is absurd..next you will complain that the folks at the food pantry should receive store clerk union wages etc.Musicians at church Union wages, the sound guy and power point guy etc. This is their ministry and I applaud them
[...] I Can’t Wait to See “Fireproof” January 26, 2009 at 9:06 pm | In Uncategorized | Tags: Christianity, film, movies I Can’t Wait to See “Fireproof”: Good job, guys. [...]
Neil, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
D:
Go back to DailyKos.
I never said anything about “pro-war, pro-death penalty”.
Hollywood audiences are shrinking, even as ticket prices rise.
The psychotic depravities and sick perversions of the 5% of America that Hollywood caters to are its bread and butter, and have been for decades.
Why do you suppose one “G” rated movie usually outperforms any 10 or 20 “R” rated ones?
Hollywood is all about producing Tintorettos of barf. Usually by the dozen.
I just came back to this post…I have to laugh at some of these comments. It’s obvious that people who don’t work in the industry just don’t get how it works. The whole process of film making is what’s broken, not just the content. I’m not criticizing Sherwood for making movies that people want to see. I’m not even criticizing them for using volunteers. What I’m warning against is making that the modus operandi, because this article was about how profitable Fireproof was, not about how many people it positively affected.
None of us are talking about doing a one-off for free to “take one for the team.” We are the ones busting our butts in this industry, which until the last few years most Christians have utterly rejected (and by extension, our groundwork and labors) until The Passion. We’re the ones doing that sort of work for all our Christian bros and sisters who want to make movies. We do it BECAUSE we want to promote good things in cinema. What we don’t want to see (and what my original comment is addressed to) is Christians in this industry progressively behaving like their non-Christian studio counterparts, and making it their way of doing business – making money without paying those who work for them. Why? BECAUSE MAKING MOVIES IS EXPENSIVE, and leads people to do corrupt things in an natural attempt to mitigate those expenses. Producers are constantly trying to save money – that’s their job. But what often happens is that they ask for favors for their own benefit, and never return them. Or they underpay people because they can, and it becomes a habit. If Christian production companies/studios start doing this (and I’ve worked with plenty of Christian producers who don’t understand how much things cost, and don’t want to pay it), not just here or there for a special occasion, but AS A BUSINESS MODEL, then what differentiates them from any other production company trying to make as much money as possible (for whatever reason – noble or not)? Nothing…that’s what. It’s not just content that needs to change in Hollywood, it’s the entire business model. The film business is a business, and in the end, it is the business practices of Christians in the industry that will largely change the INDUSTRY itself. Content is just the superficial part of the problem with this industry, and content by itself won’t redeem the industry. Take Disney, for example. A company built on the idea of making good wholesome movies. But, nowadays people who work there call it “Mauschwitz”. Not good. My point: Shall we do evil that good may come of it?
Not all industries are like this. In the video games industry, for example, if you’re a staff worker bee at a gaming company, you get your little wage, work crazy hours for 2 or 3 years on a title and then the game gets released. If the game does well, guess what? At a lot of game companies, workers get bonuses or stock in the company (and more companies are doing this)! So, you suffer up front for a little with the hope of greater reward in the end. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s a great motivator for doing good work. It’s called capitalism. But, the movie industry doesn’t work like this, partly because of its relationship to and history with unions. Union workers would rather have a bird in the hand than two in the bush, so they get their money up front. Why? Because movie studios built their empires on the backs of grossly underpaid labor, and people got tired of it. I’m not generally a fan of unions, but when you have industries that do that, you need a some sort of counterbalance. But here’s the dirty little secret: Everyone in the industry doesn’t get union wages. Production companies hire smaller companies who say they will pay union wages to their workers and then hire freelancers at substantially less-than union wages. Wages you can’t possibly survive on unless you live in a tenement building with no family and no pets. The big production company gets off the hook with the unions by saying we hired a union company, and the small union company says “You tell the union about the shaft we’re giving you, and you won’t work in this town again.” And believe me, you won’t, so you don’t say anything. Well, are we as Christians supposed to be doing business that way? No. That is evil, and I don’t want to see Christians doing anything that even remotely resembles that, no matter how good their material is and how many lives are touched.
Because movies are so expensive to make, the slope inevitably slips towards that sort of behavior. It’s hard for it NOT to work that way. And, not every Christian who wants to make movies does it for noble reasons. So, all I’m saying is, wouldn’t it be nice if some Christians who start a production company (it’s no longer relevant that Sherwood’s company is a “church outreach ministry” because they’re a for-real production company now), would make it their business model to insist on paying their workers enough to do it for a living, regardless of where the profits are going in the end. I can’t imagine God would be displeased, or the workers. What better way to continue to empower the Christians already in the industry or who want to do good in the industry by helping them pay their bills so they can “live to work another day.” The industry needs as many Christian professional people doing what they do at all levels to make great movies. Any one of the below-the-line artisan crafts (cinematography, sound, wardrobe, makeup, lighting, etc.) can kill an otherwise good story. Movies are a collaborative art – a movie isn’t made by 1 person with no help. That’s why the credits take 10 minutes to scroll.
For those of us who actually do this for a living, we would love to work on great films that have a great message and promote the cause of Christ in the world. But I can’t pay for all my gear (which is hundreds of thousands of dollars) that allows me to do the most professional work possible, without getting paid for my time, in which are amortized equipment and operational expenses. So, AESOP, I think subject matter is very important, but I also think I’d rather make my WAGE working with good people on good projects than not. I’d rather not have to have a moral quandry every time I take a gig so make it affordable for me to work on stuff for free that doesn’t require a moral quandry. How we do business in the world is just as important as what kind of product we produce.
Nuff said…
Well, one last thing, which I (crucially) forgot to mention: exactly what I’m talking about happened to the Christian music industry in the 80s. And look what happened to that industry: mostly lousy quality work that made lots of money via business practices that weren’t very different from that which preceded them, and thus didn’t do anything to change either the music industry, or the art of music, or the public consuming it. And now, the whole music industry is all but dead. Christian involvement in the film industry is going this way, and imho, we are poised to make the same mistake. Unfortunately, Christians often look at the artistic media as a “direct marketing” tool for evangelism, and this is a critical mistake.
[...] Kirk Cameron, is about a firefighter trying to save his marriage. Made for around half a million, as Steve Mason reported on BigHollywood, “Fireproof” finished its theatrical run with $33,000,000 at the box office. What makes [...]
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