Trouble Writing Stories For The Christian Market

So, I’m in the Christian market, the Christian movie market to be more exact.  I work within the Christian movie market niche, which means my distribution window is much smaller, and my audience is much smaller.  Although there’s different niches within that niche regarding the viewers, there’s still a major through-line that most Christian movies tend to have.  It’s no secret that many filmmakers out there are frustrated with the restrictions that the market tends to have and although it’s slowly starting to soften a bit, there’s still pretty solid walls around what you can or can’t do.  By can’t I mean you can still make the movie you want, and possibly even get it on a shelf, but you’re not likely to move many units.  There’s a few key rules that someone typically has to follow if they want their movie to do really well in the market.  Someone has to get saved in the film and someone has to share the Gospel, and the spiritual elements tend to be on the nose and the more obvious the characters and situations are the better the film tends to sell.  You have to stay away from most violence, and when you use it use it very conservatively, because if the film isn’t safe for family viewing, then it’s not likely to sell much.  The movie has to has a happy ending, which is another thing I absolutely hate LOL.  Most of my favorite movies have sad endings, so when the time came to finish Standing Firm, I wanted to do an ending that was more honest and true to life and not all tied up with a bow.  Some people didn’t like me for that, but since I still gave it a happy ending in terms of the relationships (which get mended) I think I got a pass.

The problem with all of these audience requirements is they make it very difficult to make stories with different structure.  All the Sherwood films for instance, follow the exact same story structure, and I think Courageous finally had a lot of folks getting wise to the game.  Basically you take a flawed character or characters, and somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through the movie, take them through a specific change, and then see that change lived out or not lived out.  So basically that means you have a flawed protagonist (which you should have anyway) but have them either come to Christ or have their “aha!” moment somewhere, and then watch how that plays out.  In Flywheel, a used car salesman sees the error of his ways and gets right with God, gives money back to those he cheated, and mended his relationship with his family.  In Facing The Giants, a school and its coach are in the dumps spiritually and their football record stinks, and once they have their spiritial awakening, have the best season ever, the school busts out in revival and they win the State Championship.  In Fireproof, a man comes to Christ amongst his failing marriage and does the Love Dare (turned into a product after the fact) to win the heart of his wife back and eventually mend their marriage.  In Courageous, multiple fathers with various family issues sign a Resolution (also made a product) and then we see how they live out that promise in public and at home.  By the way, I’m not knocking the films, they’re great and have been a great kick in the pants for me to get going as a filmmaker!

In Standing Firm, Sherwood’s influence was obvious, with a character coming to Christ almost dead-center in the film, reconciling his anger with God, reconnecting with his son, and living out his new faith in his job/life.  It’s a formula that always works in its own right, all you do is swap out the situations, people, characters, jobs, etc.  Sound easy?  Well, it is.

Same goes for Bible themed movies.  Even if it’s awful, they sell like hotcakes by default with zero exceptions.  If you make another tired dispensational cheesy end-times movie, you’ll be sitting high and dry because those always make a few bucks.  Really, it’s not hard to just pick a well known target and shoot at it with a cookie-cutter story and come out on the other end with a couple hundred thousand dollars.  This isn’t rocket-science, and I think a lot of Christian consumers are unaware of just how easy they are.

This has been a real problem for me as I’ve tried to develop a new story for movie #2.  I’m trying to stay away from the stereotypes as best I can while still making something the market will accept.  With Standing Firm I think I broke a few rules, and came out on the other end ok, thankfully, but it’s hard to do.  I was even told to consider changing my cover when the release time was approaching because it was black, and you’ll almost never find a darker cover on a Christian movie shelf.  It’s always got heads floating on it that look happy, all lit with soft light, bright colors, and lens flares all over it.

Most of the buyers in the market are women ages 35+.  Moms, grandmas, etc.  Very few men are buying the Christian movies so most movies have that flare to them to attract female buyers.  Even movie made for men is marketed towards women even with main characters as men.  A movie like Courageous (in my opinion) although it was marketed through a ton of mens organizations, was pitched as a movie wives need to take their men to go see.  It always trickles back to the wives, the girlfriends, and the moms.  That changes how the movies get made, how they’re marketing, how the covers look, and on it goes.  It also puts a squeeze on the kinds of movies you can do and in return, how much you can risk.  It’s difficult to come to terms with and most first time filmmakers are oblivious to it, making whatever they think is proper without any thought given to who is and isn’t going to pick it up off the shelf.  It’s just the reality of being in this business.

EDIT: I’m throwing this in there and it’s likely to cause some anger but whatever, it needs to be said.  Many women are calling for someone to make Christian movies for women, and I understand I really do.  So many movies are made with men as main characters, nearly ALL of them.  But, you know what the real problem is?  Good luck making a movie in typical Christian movie fashion from the woman’s point of view.  Most of the time even in Christian movies, the men are shown to be the lackie’s, and the ones with the problem.  Now I realize plenty of women could be humble enough to buy a movie that outlines a problem they’re having, but it’s not as likely.  It’s far more likely they’ll buy a movie that involves a problem their husband needs to fix then the other way around.  Making a movie about the problems women have (meaning things they get wrong) has yet to be made, and we’ll see how the market reacts when someone gives it a shot. I won’t say who, but someone very high up on the food chain in the Christian market told me flat out that this assessment was accurate.  Women in the market don’t want to buy products that say they have something to fix, but they’ll always buy products that say their husbands have something to fix.  Don’t take that as a blanket statement for everyone, I’m talking collectively as a “market,” that is likely true.  Don’t like it?  My goal has never been to be popular, just honest.  Moving on.

NOTE: A movie I’m involved with called Georgia Justice is told from a woman’s perspective, but it’s got a different spin on the problem I noted above, so women are likely to embrace it all the more because of that.  So, it’s likely a winner.

It’s hard to come up with a fresh story because once you realize what a lot of people want to see, your story is almost always the same structure.  That’s why almost all the movies I’ll likely ever make are going to be (I hope) looking at the world from a very honest perspective.  Showing things how they are and being emotionally honest with folks.  I’m not likely to take a character and throw him into some otherworldly circumstance, or do an action movie, or do a big outrageous comedy or anything.  It’s been really hard to find something that story wise will be marketable and message wise can be strong enough to invest 2 years of your life into.  These movies take so much work that unless the idea grabs me by the throat, I just can’t justify the time spent.  I’ve shelved a lot of ideas for later as well because they’re just too good to do on the kind of budget I’de like to shoot for this next time around.  I realize movies are supposed to be exaggerated reality in a lot of ways, but I think we push things a bit too far, LOL.  Sometimes people aren’t looking for something extraordinary to “escape” their present life, but they’re looking for something to help them better understand their present life, and feel more secure and confident that they’re not alone.  Picking issues that are primal and easily relatable no matter your age, gender, background, etc. is what wins, because no matter what situation you pack into the story or even what character, it’s likely a lot of people will mold the story to their life experience…and that’s what I’m after, because overall I think that’s what made Standing Firm work the most.

The Christian audience is fickle, it’s picky, and it shows no mercy.  If you break just a few rules, you get ostracized really fast, it’s brutal.  I’m all for movies that are redemptive in nature, but we need to figure out a new way to show it.  The same old formula has been beaten to a pulp, and although I think the audience will still continue to drink the cool-aid (and boy do they like the flavor), I can’t handle it anymore.  I’ve been tormented for a year now trying to come up with the right story to tell, and I think I’m close, but I’ve thought that before.  I dont’ want to repeat myself, and I don’t want to wait forever either.  It’s difficult to know what God wants in these situations.

People have no idea how easy it is to try and satisfy their indoctrinated stereotypical minds/hearts.  That sounds harsh perhaps but it’s true, LOL.  Right now the typical Christian consumer seems so unwilling to accept something new because they’re being pounded over the head with product completely opposed to the idea.  Most trying to break the mold come out bloodied with angry investors, but I think there’s a way to get this right and do something out of the ordinary, but still satisfy.  The Christian market is one of the most difficult markets to be in if you want to be progressive.  Sad, but given the research and facts I’ve collected over the past few years, it seems to be the truth.  Originality need not apply if you’re interested in popularity in the market.

Prayers appreciated as I continue developing ideas…this is the hardest part of the process for me.