Pirates in Sheep’s Clothing
A recent posting at PhilGons.com discusses what he calls “Christian piracy.” A friend told him about a Christian website where Christians share a variety of forms of illegal download content. You can even find pirated Bible software.
What is it about our mentality that causes us to want to find something for nothing? Are we wired to look for the ultimate bargain, no matter the real cost? Personally, I’m all for free stuff, but I want it to be legitimately free. The producers I work with work hard to make a film within their budget. Then, they hope and pray for strong enough sales to pay back investors, and then a really long tail in DVD sales to be able to make a living at it.
You can find pirated Bible software to download.
And for every producer I know, there are hundreds more artists and authors and filmmakers and musicians who are trying to make a living with their craft.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he uses a quote from Deuteronomy (”Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Deut. 25:4) to illustrate the point that the worker deserves a share in the harvest.
I know this type of piracy happens all the time, and it’s not limited to Christians. But why do we tolerate it?
What do you think? Where is the line for piracy? If something is copied and given to a friend, but not sold to them, is that legal? How do we help slow down the wave of illegal action going on?
This is what makes this industry so tough to survive in the first place. But there are ways to deal with it. Christians need to be taught that piracy is theft - stealing - and that it will hurt them in the end. Also digitally imprint the movies with digital watermarks visible to all recording devices (if the movie is released theatrically)so that if it is being recorded on a digital device e.g. camcorder, cellphone it will show/reveal the watermark all over the movie. Just a few thoughts.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I agree totally. Just because we can download it or copy it from someone else’s computer without paying for it, it is exactly the same as going into a store and walking out with the box under our coat.
It is stealing! Not only is it stealing from the store it is taking money out of the pocket of the software developer and especially the music or movie creator. You are taking away the income of someone who you would call to their face “brother” or “sister”.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I think that the problem is overblown. I don’t really think that many of the people who download “Christian” movies would have bought them if they couldn’t download them illegally. These are sales that most likely never would have existed in the first place, and can’t really be evaluated alongside sales figures.
That said, I do think that Christian, and other movie producers for that matter, should make their films availble to watch online, supported by advertisements or something. And how many Christian films can you buy from iTunes? I just did a search and found no Facing the Giants, End of the Spear but Amazing Grace was there. iTunes and other online venues are great outlets for independent productions.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I think that few people actually pirate movies-music is another story. I think sales are just down…I’ve only bought one CD in the last 3 years (a friend George Moss) and If I want to listen to music I just go to shoutlife and listen to the songs on the artists profiles…
I think that fewer people are buying DVD’s in general, I could be wrong though..I know i rarely purchase a DVD..I can now order PPV a movie I want-just did recently, and rent something….the actual value of a movie these days is about $3.99 for the general public..that’s unforntunate-it’s hard to make a living for filmmakers at that rate..I think eventually other forms of revenue besides sales-will have to be developed.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Lots of great thoughts & questions. What is the future of DVDs? They’ll probably phase out eventually like VHS did, but when? And what will replace that? Are we headed toward totally digital formats?
Reece, you have a great point that we are probably going to have to eventually develop other forms of revenues from films - that’s going to require some revolutionary thinking. So where does the filmmaker’s income come from? We all know that it’s the rare blockbuster that makes back the production budget. . .
January 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I have tried to buy Christian DVDs from ChristianCinema.com, but have been denied to do so since the DVDs are region protected. The only way to watch Christian movies in the country where I live is then to download them from the Internet, something that may - or may not - be illegal depending on where you live. Since the movies aren’t sold here anyway there is no loss of income whatsoever for the movie production company - but the Gospel is still spread.
Thus, I believe that “piracy” to spread the Gospel is according to God’s will, but piracy to get free stuff you just as well could have paid for is wrong.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Digital distribution is indeed the future. It’s only a matter of bandwidth that is keeping stuff like Blu-Ray alive now. Once you can download 50GB+ quickly, then the physical media will no longer be necessary.
I think it’s all in micro-payments. $1 here, $.50 there. You won’t make a lot of money, but movie budgets are inflated anyway.
Revenue, I think, is in advertisements or related. Like blogs, movies could generate money with embeded advertisements or product links. It’s possible to do some really cool things like that using new technologies, and that will be the future.
Independent filmmakers will also probably have to move away from the feature length model. Look at The Interior, small episodes released over time. The TV model is probably a better way of looking at the future of filmmaking.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Piracy is a difficult issue and a difficult question. I personally avoid it. I’d rather spend the money on something I want so that in a sense I can continue to fund it in the future. On the other hand, I am a big fan of free/open source.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I think your right that the TV model of entertainment and short form online content will eventually dominate the landscape. Fewer people will be able to afford to make features. To make a profit I think people will have to start thinking smaller-smaller budgets, smaller projects, ect. HOwever, unless you have a garunteed worldwide viewership you will find few sponsors, advertisers, ect..that’s still for the big fish-not the small guys.
I think if the smaller Christian filmmakers as a whole wanted to produce feature movies and survive they might have to mimic the studio model-band together and profit share where they all make movies under the same label (studio-not distributor), but bank on at least one blockbuster to keep things floating. The studios don’t make money on every film-in fact they lose money on allmost all of them..so indie filmmakers who make one at a time have a lot going against them.
If a larger Christian studio or coalition was formed being able to put out several movies a year (at least 12-15) then they’d have a chance to keep going year after year, even without wary and hard to find investors, plus it would multiply their brand name awareness and marketing power. But small companies can hardly afford to put out enough movies to beat the odds…movies are just expensive to make-and it seems like less and less traditional revenue is available.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I think you’re onto something Reece. What could a Christian studio look like? I think one of the challenges we face is attracting the type of talent that can really make a difference in the film quality. Maybe under a studio system, where financing would be less of a gamble and more stable, resources would allow the quality of film to improve, and better the odds.
Also wondering - what does the reduction of income from movies mean to the “star power” that’s wielded by Hollywood names today? Where will the filmmakers come up with the money to pay the fees of everyone involved in making a film? With so much of the budget dedicated to personnel, but so little income, will those commanding multi-million dollar salaries have to take pay-cuts?
January 31st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
[…] Trek episodes has become part of our everyday culture. As we ponder the future of filmmaking (see Reece’s great comments on that), I wonder what technology we’ll see in 5-10 years that we couldn’t even […]
January 31st, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I think what we need, Angela, instead of a studio system is a Christian distribution system. A market that will get Christian films distributed, to places where audiences can see them. God Tube is a good start, but something better would be something like a Christian Atom Films, where filmmakers can actually get paid for their work.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
How about placing older movies online and streaming them? For example, Mercy Streets, Hangman’s Curse, The Visitation, Thr3e? Make them available for a month and then pull them, add advertisements throughout, allow people to buy the film afterwards. I watch most of my TV now through the internet through sites like Netflix’s Watch Now, Amazon’s Unbox, Apple’s iTunes, Hulu, and the channels own sites - e.g. NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Storm where do you work? You have some great ideas! I agree with jonnyflash as well in terms of a creating an effective distribution system but it will still be great to have a combined synergy of companies making at least one major feature film a year and a series of small ones every year for week - week financial returns. The company I work for are creating something called CreativeCommerce which will bring together Christian film-makers to combine their creative talents once a year to make a big feature film. It was originally developed by one of my friends (we are based in the UK) in the late nineties. He called it AMALGAMATION and I think he is still developing it. Anyway, Storm you should be hired right now for such astounding ideas.:-)
February 1st, 2008 at 6:24 am
I believe you can build “stars”. There are hundreds of struggling artists who have better quality concerts, and music than the big names-yet they don’t have the name power. So finding talent should be easy. It’s easier to build a star than to buy a star-i think. Especially in an marketplace that is predominantly “indie”..with no known face or stars and it’s consumer base would most likely shy away from secular or hollywood stars in suspicion.
Skill (editors, directors, ect) is expensive and that’s why it’s obviously hard to get quality people to actually make the movies. With the funding obviously Christians or indies will be a bit behind.
As far as the studio, I have a lot of “nice” thoughts (too long for this blog) about how that maybe could work, but I don’t know if it would actually work. Even with free studio space and equipment the indies are so scattered I don’t know if it’s realistic.
Hollywood doesn’t rely on one film per year-it’s a bulk business. I don’t know how the Christian filmmakers can fix that, but maybe with somekind of “Studio” idea, which allows stars, branding, cross marketing, and leverage, and a more steady income. Distribution is easy for anyone and I don’t believe it’s the answer to revenue problems. In Music they have to tour all year to make it-sales aren’t even close to sustaining life. Movies are almost all “sales” driven-so that’s not good. With a movie typically taking over a year to get ready for market one filmmaker can’t do very many movies-or quickly enough.
I don’t know what will help the revenue crises. I have ideas like a lot of people. I was minorly successful in a two new forms (another topic) of revenue on our last project and definitely think that with more products I could refine that-I like to market but never have anything to market (sadness, lol). Most of what I’ve done has been trial and error-mostly error. Squad 77 was our great experiment with the whole movie costing less than $7,000-I think the reality is that people have to start making cheap movies and grow as revenue allows-don’t wait for that 10 million dollars that will probably never come in..
February 1st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
There is currently a studio that is doing exactly what you guys are talking about. You should check out these websites:
www.pureflix.com
www.outreachcinema.com
They are a Christian company dedicated to creating and distributing films to the churches. You can sign up your church as the outreach cinema church in your area or buy christian DVD’s from their website.
February 12th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
They are doing this on a very small scale. PureFlix has made a couple of films, and their idea for church outreach is good. But we’ve got to get to the masses. Should the churches become the theaters we bring friends to? Or should we get our films into theaters where parents are dropping off their kids while they go shopping or out to dinner, where the masses are gathering on the weekends?
I see more people standing in line at my local theaters to buy tickets than standing in lines to get into the churches for any events.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Great things start on a small scale or at least in a small way. The multiplexes came by way of growth from the large media studios of Hollywood. Hollywood did not start out this way so we can’t expect the films in the Church to just overnight become huge. I think that outreachcinema is a very good idea as it is a start in the right direction. But that said distribution into countries like where I am based, the UK, is very little and if not almost non-existent especially where DVD purchases of Christian movies are concerned because of region formats. But we are working on something that will accelerate the movies that honour God to have nationwide distribution and effective international distribution. It will happen it just a matter of when and technology (coupled together with finance) will be a very effective tool to make that happen. Power and authority belongs to God and the entertainment world is no exception - For the kingdom is the Lord’s, And He rules over the nations.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Christiancinema.com should have their own cable channel or have all their content available to download on ppv so anyone with cable or sat tv can order the movies PPV..that’s the direction its headed..
February 13th, 2008 at 6:00 am
The distribution to churches seems to be a good idea for certain types of films made by Christians especially if the message of the film is targeted to believers in general with a message to impact them or if its evangelistic in nature. This is actually a modern use of 16mm film distribution in churches of years ago (as I believe Rich Christiano’s company used to be involved in). But that is just one form of distribution for films of Christian nature. Some films are designed to impact churches and reach the masses and thus will have the potential to go through other distribution methods. It also depends on the audience the filmmaker is targeting their message with.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I was just talking tonight with some believes and how concerned they are about the commercialization of the church. Should a church have to pay to use a hymn? Should churches become marketplaces for either music or films? Just questions, I think both can belong in the church-but we have to be careful how we approach this. Remember, the Gospel is free. What obligation do filmmakers who target the church as a delivery system? Ministry vs money again and if we go to the new testament we see Paul’s example…not exactly what is happening with our ministries today…
February 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Storm, you bring up a good point about this. It’s something that would probably be a good topic for another blog — many wonder where does the line get drawn for us. I remember some talk show host arguing that if Mel Gibson was going to make millions on his Passion Movie then he better use that money for a church… even though he used his own money to finance the movie. And since he made a movie about Jesus then there was a question of using Christianity for a get rich scheme.
What choice does a filmmaker who is a believer have, though? We sometimes walk around with this stigma and this guilt that if we mention Jesus or God in our films we are not allowed to make a profit on our films. So then what’s the alternative — justify making something ungodly or something without mentioning God and then it’s okay to keep the money? It takes prayer and wisdom to know what to do sometimes. I believe the answer is having prayerful balance and continue to ask God to check our hearts and motives.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:52 am