Blog

A Thousand Questions from ProlifikFilms on Vimeo.

Ben Arment asked “if you were a filmmaker, why would you try to make anything other than epic films?”

It’s a fair question.  But a little word substitution helps us qualify the perspective a bit . . .

“If you were an author, why blog or work on anything other than a best seller?”

“If you were an architect, why not design anything other than the most celebrated buildings and monuments?”

Clearly, we were all created with different passions, connections and experiences leading us all on different journeys.  But beyond that, there’s a desperate need for filmmakers on many levels, not just on the epic features.

1. There’s a need for “industrial” level production in business, non-profit organizations and churches.  And by that I mean the three-to-five minute pieces that do things like set-up a topic.  Create a moment.  Celebrate a success.  Enhance worship.  If we consider these to be “one-off” videos to be created by the a/v club, only to be shown once, then that’s all they’ll ever be.  We’ve all seen plenty of examples of that.  The real question there is “is this worth the effort?” and despite the fact that the spectrum of acceptable delivery has never been wider (from HD to YouTube) are these types of videos actually doing more harm than good?  Too often the answer is “yes”.

2. Videos that MATTER need to be made with a filmmaker’s mindset.  The art, experience, tool box and storytelling ability that a filmmaker brings makes a huge difference.  In some cases the goal of a project is to help believers be the hands & feet of Christ by caring for the homeless, digging wells for people who need water and providing mosquito nets or inoculations for those who are senselessly dying.  And when that’s the goal, I’m not sure that an 18-month epic feature is an effective use of time or money—even for a brilliant filmmaker.  Organizations like Nuru International and movements like Advent Conspiracy use short-form content very effectively.  If those producers (some are good friends of mine) felt called to create nothing but epic films, we’re back to pairing up the a/v club gang with a marketing director.  And that’s not a formula for success.

3. You can be a filmmaker, called to a different mission than creating epic films.  Nick started out as a journalist and photographer—moving rapidly around other countries, documenting the impact that missionaries were having.  I got my start creating corporate content—communicating internal priorities and processes that changed every few weeks.  We LIKE the idea of creating epic films, but our passion, experience and obedience has put us in a place where we get to tell stories and create experiences by making short films in place of church videos.  On set with a battalion of production crew, trailers, catering, and diesel fuel trucks to fill up the generator trucks just doesn’t seem like a good fit for us.

I wouldn’t consider A Thousand Questions to be “epic”.  And technically it’s not even a “film”.  But it was created with a filmmaker’s mindset (and, ironically, the main character—the device used to connect to viewers—IS something of a filmmaker.)  But of the documented quarter-million people who have seen this, we have a virtual ream of responses indicating that God used these ten minutes to impact, inspire and change people around the world.