cv2011_03

Christian Video速 Magazine

March 2011 VOL. 4, NO. 3

6 Special Feature

Fowler Inc: Add a Camera - Multiply Your Possibilities

7 Article

Toy Story 3 Perspectives on Jobs and Love by MARTIN BAGGS

10 Greg’s Toolkit

Gotta Level with You by GREGORY FISH

12 Article

14 Article

Moving Hollywood in a Family Friendly Direction by ROBERT KRAMER

Christian Video® Magazine

Editorial 3 Cover Story 4

Church Streaming and Podcast Licensing for Webcasting Your Services! by STEVE HEWITT

March 2011

from the desk of the editor

by STEVE HEWITT

My Favorite Videos Since I have started a small church in Lee’s Summit Missouri, I have really enjoyed looking through the thousands of videos that are available on SermonSpice (www.sermonspice.com), and picking those that would make great illustrations. I thought maybe our readers would like to know what videos I found to be the best for our purpose and how we used them! Last week, my message was on our call to bear a cross for Christ. While the Christian walk is abundant and full of blessings, we are also called upon to bear a cross and sometimes go through suffering. I used a great “man in the street” interview on “Is Life Fair” by Stephen Hawkins that really helped make the point I needed. God is just. This idea of things being “fair” is a man-made idea. Recently, I used the video “Thoughts on Idolatry” by Moving Pictures. These “deep thoughts for shallow Christians” videos have quickly become a favorite at our church. Many times before our service, I have been asked if we are going to have another of the “deep thoughts” videos, and have probably used 5 or 6 in the last six months, either during our Sunday worship services, or in one of our classes we hold throughout the week. And, as I have shared in the past, we use many of the music videos provided by Integrity Music. We discovered the “In Christ Alone” iWorship Trax while surfing around in SermonSpice and purchased it immediately. It has become one of my favorite songs for our Sunday worship! And, finally, two of the videos we have used recently were also highlighted in the “Top 10” list provided by SermonSpice. This is one of the first places I check each week when I log into SermonSpice. Whenever a new video makes the list, I am sure to check it out! I was preaching about total commitment the other day and the video “Big But” by The Veracity Project was perfect. It is very entertaining and a bit humorous, but it really makes a fantastic point. And, two weeks ago we used the video “Invite 2” by The Sound Tank as a way to close our services after our closing prayer. People loved it and talked about it so much during the week, we were asked to run it again at the end of our services last. Our little church had six people attend each week during our services last October. We are excited about our growth, and have had as many as 22 attend one of our services a few weeks ago. I believe the use of video has helped our small church present our messages in a big way! Drop me an email and let me know what videos you have found works for you. Together We Serve Him,

Christian Video Magazine is published monthly by Christian Video Magazine, Inc. Editor-in-Chief Steve Hewitt – steve@ccmag.com Production Daystar Digital Design Mike Hewitt Contributing Editors George Temple Gregory Fish Stewart H. Redwine Mark Carroll Jay M. Delp Martin Baggs Robert Kramer Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

Corporate Home Office Mailing Address: PO Box 319 Belton, MO 64012 Phone: (816) 331-5252 Fax: 800-456-1868 Copyright 2010 by Christian Video Magazine, Inc. All Rights Reserved Written materials submitted to Christian Video Magazine become the property of Christian Video Magazine, Inc., upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Video Magazine reserves the right to make any changes to materials submitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publication is the sole property of Christian Video Magazine. Copy or distribution of articles or content can be done so on an individual basis. Multiple copies or distribution may not be done without the express permission of Christian Video Magazine. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Christian Video Magazine, or Christian Video Magazine, Inc.

Steve Hewitt steve@ccmag.com

Christian Video® Magazine

March 2011

Cover Story by STEVE HEWITT

Church Streaming and Podcast Licensing for Webcasting your Services!

any churches are discovering the advantage of webcasting their Sunday services on their Web site. Putting a webcast of your services up on your Web site is not just for your members to enjoy if they have to miss your weekly services – it also allows potential visitors the opportunity to really see what they can expect if they decide to visit. By webcasting your worship service up on the Internet, it will give people a feel for the type and style of worship they can expect. And, if you put video of your services up on your site, it will give them some insight on how to dress. No one likes to dress up to visit a new church, only to discover everyone is in jeans. And, the opposite is true as well. You don’t want to go very casual to a new church, only to find out most of the men are wearing ties! In addition, many people are now turning to view services from churches in their community, as they seek answers for many of their problems. While they may not be willing to drive into your church parking lot and walk through your doors, they are turning to the Internet when they find themselves in a time of need. And, they will specifically search out church sites with which they are familiar in their community. They want to know what local churches are providing in the way of spiritual help. The song service portion of our worship services are very important to those that attend.

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After all, we gather together to worship God, not just to hear a message. There is power in worship, and those who are seeking solutions to life’s problems, or who are already members but had to miss the service and desire to catch up on their time of worship, need the ability to listen to the entire worship service! However, what about broadcasting the entire service, including the song service? Is that allowed? Broadcasting the song service of your church service out to the Internet without permission is considered copyright infringement, and the pen-

March 2011

Cover Story

by STEVE HEWITT

alties can be up to $150,000 per infringement. I have talked to some that have thought that their current Church Copyright License would cover such a video webcast. But, it does not. The Church Copyright License allows churches to legally copy, store and project songs, to assist with congregational singing within the church’s worship service. But it has never included broadcast rights. But, there is good news! CCLI is now offering an additional license for churches seeking to webcast their entire service, including the song service! Now a church can purchase one license, for a reasonable price based upon the size of your church, and you are able to stream your entire service. You must first have an active Church Copyright License. Then, visit www.ccli.com/ streaming and order your CCLI Church Streaming and Podcast License. This license covers over 3,000 publishers and over 200,000 songs. Basically, any and all songs covered by your Church Copyright License will now be covered if you desire to stream or podcast your song service up to the Internet! Webcasting licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and others require some reporting. However, with the new CCLI Church Streaming & Podcast License, you do not have to worry about filing any reports!

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The cost for this new streaming license seems very reasonable and is based on the size of your church. For example; • Churches under 500 = $75 or less per year. • Churches 500-999 = $100 per year. • Churches under 10,000 = $300 or less per year. The CCLI Church Streaming and Podcast License does not cover the streaming of secular songs. If you wish to include these, you would need to contact performance rights societies such as ASCAP, BMI SEASAC or others for more information on purchasing a license for this purpose. Also, if you are using the CCLI Church Streaming and Podcast License, you are not allowed to charge to view the streaming or podcast services. We hope this answers your question, “Is that allowed?” and that you contact the www. ccli.com site for more information.

March 2011

Special Feature Fowler Inc: Add a Camera- Multiply your Possibilities

he video camera - Never has the addition of one piece of gear opened up so many avenues to your ministry. Streaming, podcasting, archival, recording to DVD, image magnification or overflow, investing in a video camera empowers your church to look beyond current needs and opens up numerous possibilities for future growth. It’s amazing how making a single investment begins to give “legs” to your ministry and message. And now with the coming of relatively inexpensive High Definition cameras and mixing equipment, whole new vistas are being revealed in many churches. With High Definition equipment there is an even greater ability for absentee congregation members to feel that they are still part of a worship experience. By recording your services, you can take advantage of internet delivery methods like streaming or podcasting, allowing your message to be delivered literally around the world! Maybe the camera system isn’t needed for distribution; perhaps it’s for accommodating an overflow room in another area of the church, or for archiving your services. There are myriads of uses for this one type of equipment! With hundreds of camera options and configurations available to the consumer, there are a few key questions to consider before selecting a specific camera for your needs: • Should you utilize manned cameras or remotely con-

trolled cameras (like a Pan/Tilt/Zoom option)?

• Will you need CCU control, which gives you the ability

to adjust settings for the camera(s) remotely to compensate for lighting exposure?

• Will you need to utilize this camera in a hand-held set-

ting or will it be used in a semi-permanent location at all times?

much wiser choices than others depending on the application. Before you invest in a camera, please call us and let us talk through the options with you! Another thing to keep in mind when adding cameras into your existing system is that this can cause a “ripple effect” of discontent with some of your older gear. For instance, the quality of the image from any camera is directly related to the lighting in the room. Even if your lighting appears to be fine in a live environment, it may appear sub-par on the recorded image. Inadequate lighting can cause some undesirable “graininess” in your recorded and projected images. If the lighting is too hot, then the camera image can “bloom,” or wash out colors. On the other end of the signal chain, if your projector is not bright enough, then even a well-lit, well-recorded camera image can appear dark and un-detailed on your projected image. Also, if your camera is a higher resolution and format than your projector your audience will not see the image quality that your camera has the capability of delivering. These are just a few of the many reasons why it is vital to have the help of a professional during any upgrade process. Get the information you need to make an informed, wise investment. To find out more information about camera systems for your church call Fowler at 1-800-729-0163 or visit http:// www.fowlerinc.com/contact-us-hd-cameras

All these options have pros and cons and some are

Christian Video® Magazine

March 2011

Article

by MARTIN BAGGS

Toy Story 3 Perspectives on Jobs and Love

op quiz time. Name the most successful Film Production Company over the last 10 years. Let’s be specific. Which one has won the most Best Picture Oscars over that period? If you said Warner Brothers you’d be almost correct. They had Million Dollar Baby (2004), The Departed (2006) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). They also produced Happy Feet (2006). But the golden goose, when it comes to movies, is Pixar, the reigning three-peat champions. They won a whopping 6 of the last 10 Best Animated Picture Oscars: Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), Wall-E (2008), Up (2009), and Toy Story 3 (2010). Fifteen-years ago, Pixar brought us its very first animated Western . . . at least until spaceman Buzz Lightyear (voice of feature:Toy Story. From there on, they raised the bar with Tim Allen) intervenes. But this introduction brings back every film they produced. With Toy Story 3 they set themmemories of the first film. Then we see this is actually the selves a tough challenge: a sequel to a sequel, normally a bad imagination of young Andy (voice of John Morris) as he plays sign indicating a studio out of creative ideas, wanting to milk intently and lovingly with his toys. some more cash out As Randy Newman sings of an audience with a the Academy Award winning Remember, before showing clips from rerun tale. Not so signature tune, the film moves here. The storyline is ahead 10 years and Andy is now movies, be sure you have a license to do fresh. It retains most a high school graduate and so. Check out Church Video License to of the original cast preparing for college. Signifibe sure you are legal. www.cvli.com while introducing cantly, Newman sings, “As the some fabulous years go by, our friendship will new characters. It pulls off the difficult task of standing never die.” Here is the key question Toy Story 3 is trying to alongside its predecessors, carrying its own story, and bringing answer: will toys simply be discarded when the owner grows the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. At the same time, it is a up? Or is there a friendship, a connection, which is deeper, 5-star barrel of fun that ranks up there with the best of Pixar’s longer-lasting? How should the toys handle this dilemma? earlier films. Beside some other themes developed along the way, director The film opens with an action sequence featuring Woody Lee Unkrich offers three answers to this problem, from the (voice of Tom Hanks) and Jessie (voice of Joan Cusack) on perspective of the toys themselves. And from these we can horseback chasing a train that is being robbed by evil bandits. mine some nuggets for our own relationships as well. This could have been taken straight from an old-fashioned When Andy’s mom tells him he must clear out his toys,

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March 2011

Article

by MARTIN BAGGS

depositing them in the attic, discarding them as trash, or donating them to a daycare, the toys realize their predicament. And the scene is set. The toy soldiers offer the first perspective. Telling the other toys, “We done our duty,” they pop parachutes and jump out the window to float away to freedom. Their response points to an obligation. They may have been Andy’s toys but their duty was simply to bring him entertainment, some fun. This is akin to a business relationship. Their job is to serve. When that job is done, they have no long-term commitment to the master, the owner. Most jobs are like this today. We work, putting in the hours, to serve a boss who may be personally unaware of who we are or what we do. Regardless, as followers of Jesus we do work hard with good attitudes as if we are serving our Lord (Eph. 6:5-8). Often these days our bosseswake up and realize they don’t need us anymore, then we are cut loose. Our parachutes may include an attractive layoff packageor simply a box full of our possessions. But when we exit the building that is the last we will see of them. It is a commercial relationship, superficial not sentimental. Through a series of accidents, the discarded toys find themselves donated to Sunshine Daycare, and are at least glad to be together. Here is the second perspective: “The important thing is to stick together.” We find this in other business relationships. Sometimes when people retire or leave, they enjoy their fellow employees or staff members so much that

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they miss the camaraderie. They may not miss the boss or employer, but they have significant friendships that last beyond the termination of employment. We see this when retirees volunteer back at the company, and meet regularly for coffee or lunch. Their job may be over. But some relationships persist. They want to continue to be together, in one form or

March 2011

Article

by MARTIN BAGGS

another. On their first day in their new “home” the toys meet the new leader of the toys, a cuddly, strawberry-scented bear called “Lots-o-hugging-bear”, nicknamed Lotso (voice of Ned Beatty). He is soft-spoken and appears to be a caring grandfatherly type, tottering around on a cane with some other toys as helpers. This couldn’t be further from the truth. He is a tyrant, running the place with an iron rule, keeping the new toys in their place: the Caterpillar Room, where unsupervised toddlers trash them and all-but-destroy them . . . on a daily basis. Lotso brings up the theme of appearances, which can be, and often are, deceptive. He seems so nice but is inwardly nasty. Lucifer is like this, too. He appears as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:4) but in reality is the prince of darkness. We are drawn to what we think we see, not always being discerning enough to look beyond the surface image. The devil knows this and plays to this aspect of our fallen nature. He presents us with temptations we are likely to fall for, and then once we have taken the bait he reels us in. We can and must be shrewder than a serpent (Matt. 10:16) in our ongoing battle with Satan. Woody, though, is a special favorite of Andy’s. This cowboy toy must escape the confines of the daycare center and find his way back to Andy’s home. His plan goes awry and gets carried away by the wind; he finds himself in the care of a new owner. Here we meet some new toys, including a thespian hedgehog named MrPricklepants and another dinosaur, Trixie. Perhaps the best pair of new toy characters are Barbie and Ken. Their lines are a hoot. Ken (voice of Michael Keaton) declares, when he first spies Barbie, “It’s like we were made for each other!” Barbie (voice of Jodi Benson), on the other hand, shows she is more than just a pretty figure, with her understanding of modes of government, “Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!” Eventually Woody realizes he must return to save his friends whatever the cost. Like the motto of the US Marines, the tagline for Toy Story 3 is driven home: no toy left behind! And that brings us to the second half of the film: it becomes an escape movie. Much like The Great Escape, the toys are prisoners in a compound that is guarded like a POW camp. Pixar brings a heightened sense of suspense, surprisingly so

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for a G-rated movie focused on children and families. Woody himself offers the third perspective on growing up. Andy says, “Now Woody, he’s been my pal for as long as I can remember. He’s brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special is he’ll never give up on you... ever. He’ll be there for you, no matter what.” His view is that toys like Woody are supposed to keep on loving their owners forever, even when they are about to be discarded because they have been outgrown. This is a deep theme, pointing beyond the casual business relationships we have explored in the prior two perspectives. This is more profound. It points towards an agape love that is sacrificial and focused entirely on the other, the one being loved. To switch the parallel, God is like this. He loves us sacrificially, having given the life of his son for us (Jn. 3:16). And he goes on loving us, never giving up on us. “His love endures forever” (Psa. 136:1). Nothing can separate us from this love (Rom. 8:38-39). He is there for us always, no matter what. We might at times grow tired of God. Perhaps we feel disappointed with how life has turned out and blame God for this. We pull back from him, tiring of him for a time. But he never leaves us. God will never leave us or forsake us (Deut. 31:6), though we might wish he would. As Woody keeps coming back for Andy, so God will keep coming back for us. We might graduate college, we might retire from our job, but no matter what age we are and how grown up we become, we never outgrow God. All three perspectives on the toys jobs offer a part of the truth. But which makes most sense and is most complete? Life is more than commercial relationships. It is more than friendship. It is founded on love, a love from God and a love for God. Have you found that love? Copyright ©2011, Martin Baggs Martin works in the high tech industry and leads a monthly film review group at Mosaic Church in Portland, Oregon. He writes film responses from a biblical perspective on his blog: www.mosaicmovieconnectgroup.blogspot.com Contact: martinbaggs@gmail.com

March 2011

Greg’s Toolkit by GREGORY FISH

Gotta Level with You

’ve gotta level with you, the picture straight out of your camera can be better. One way to improve the overall image is to use levels. A lot can be said about color correction. Many tools are available to do all sorts of color grading. Third party plug-ins are sold for that very purpose. I have found, though that a simple levels alteration can do wonders. It’s a great place to start, and often times it does the trick, and no more edits are needed. Welcome to the world of levels. If you’re not familiar with the term ‘levels’ Google it. You may have to include the words “adobe” or “histogram” to aid your search. This will give you a decent understanding of what you’re dealing with. My purpose in this article is to show you one helpful application with a simple levels adjustment. You’ll be able to get a lot of mileage out of this little trick.

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First of all, you want to start with a flat image. In a camcorder you can probably leave your settings alone. Try out the levels adjustment in post and see how you can leverage it to get your desired look or feel. To those with HDSLRs, check out this post and video on how to flatten your image in the settings: http://blog.tylerginter. com/?p=341.

March 2011

Greg’s Toolkit

by GREGORY FISH

I made a test video a while ago and a levels adjustment is basically all I did- http://vimeo. com/14748575. Noticeably absent when I shot this was a viewfinder or screen with a hood to be able to nail the focus and a Neutral Density Fader to be able to use a shallow depth of field and not be overexposed. That’s the wonder of this edit in post. Often times it can save the day. It is advisable, though, to get a properly exposed shot before going to the editing room! When you want to boost the straight-out-of camera shot and make the colors pop, like they do on film, here’s what I suggest trying first. Pull up your levels histogram and take a look at the situation. I’ve included two screen-shots to illustrate what I’m writing here. Notice on the first one that the image is flat. It’s pretty scenery, but still looks fairly drab. I showed the before and after to my eight year-old son and asked him which was nicer and he immediately said that the latter was better. Included in the screen shots are the difference makers—the sliders under the histogram. Most images, if properly exposed will have

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a sort of mound in the middle. A good rule of thumb is to drag the one on the left to where the mound begins, do the same with the right slider, and adjust the middle one left or right to your taste. What you are affecting are the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows in your image. You can see where I landed on my adjustment. Every scene will be different, but if you follow this pattern, you should be able to get some great looking shots fairly easily. Take your shots to the next level! Gregory is a preacher in South Texas with a passion for combining the timeless message of God’s grace with the technology of our day. On the side he produces videos for “FishXpressions” at various Christian video websites. He has set out on a journey to learn how to create better and higher quality films. Apart from this column, he also maintains a production blog with tips, helpful links, and other musings at www.fishxpressions. wordpress.com.

March 2011

Article

By RYAN GEESMAN

ast month I explained the copyright concept of Fair Use. At the risk of being labeled “The Copyright Guy,” I thought it might be good to explore some other copyright misconceptions and my favorite resources for legal media. People often ask me how I ascertain whether or not something is copyrighted. They have the impression that a creative work needs to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to be covered by copyright laws. In the United States, however, every creative work is automatically copyrighted upon creation. That means the video your son makes of his friends skateboarding has the same protection as the latest film by Steven Spielberg. The only way a work would have less protection is if the creator of that work voluntarily relinquishes some of his or her rights. Something like the Creative Commons licenses would make this possible, but more on that later. Another misconception is that everything online is fair game. There is a perception that the Internet provides a filter that strips all copyright protections out of creative works. The assumption is often that if the creator has posted a work online, they must know that people are going to find other uses for it. But many times it is not the original creator who posts media online. One only needs to look to all of the legal wrangling that goes on surrounding copyrighted material on sites like YouTube to know that. A copyright holder rightfully has control over their creations. If they choose to post something online, that is their right. It is not the right of others to download that media and do with it as they please.

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I find this myth that everything online is free to use is especially prevalent when talking about search engines and video sites. Google Images is not a royalty-free stock photo website. It is a search engine, and it searches copyrighted images. YouTube is not a royalty-free stock video website or free repository of movie clips. Every clip on that site has a copyright that belongs to someone, all the way down to the clips of people walking into fountains at the mall while texting (which happened just down the road from me). So if everything is copyrighted upon creation and everything on the Internet is not free for use, what options do we have? First, refer to last month’s article on Fair Use. If your particular use passes the test, go for it. Beyond that, there are many resources both online and off that can help you in your search for legal media. I have found the first avenue to explore is asking permission. It has been surprising how helpful even large companies can be if you find the right person to talk to. And that is probably the part of asking permission that takes the most work: finding the right person. I have gone down paths that have led me to four or five different people in different offices in different cities until I ended up with the right one. Keep in mind that everyone is just as busy as you are. Giving someone a week or two of notice will go a long way toward increasing the likelihood that they will be willing to assist

March 2011

Article

by RYAN GEESMAN

you. Sometimes the answer will be, “Sure, go ahead, and we will even send you a DVD.” Sometimes it will be more like, “Sure, if you pay a license fee of…”, and sometimes a flat “No” will be the response. I have also had people tell me, “I cannot give you permission, but if I were you, I would go ahead.” As to whether or not I went ahead, I plead the Fifth. Of course, easier than asking permission is not needing to ask permission. For that reason, our church holds a few blanket licenses. Licenses from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC allow us to play recorded music in our facilities. The CVLI license allows us to play movie clips from most production companies in our services. And the WORSHIPcast license from Christian Copyright Solutions even allows us to post recordings of music from our worship gatherings on the web. Of course, we also have the CCLI license that allows our worship team to perform songs live in our worship gatherings. We often create videos that play along with the worship team as sort of a live music video. CCLI covers us for this in the live worship environment, but whenever music is recorded with a video, it becomes more complicated. I am not talking about making a video recording of your worship service. Even that is covered by CCLI in most cases. I am talking about editing a video with a recorded piece of music as the soundtrack. This requires a Synchronization (Sync) License and a Master Use license. Again, what takes the most work is finding the right person to talk to, and in a lot of cases, each of those licenses will come from a different company. I always start by searching for the song on the ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC websites to determine who holds the rights. Once you find the right person, the whole process can take 8 to 10 weeks. Start early. There are also some great resources online for legal media. Searching for media covered by Creative Commons licenses is a good place to start. Creative Commons licenses (www.creativecommons.org) allow creators to grant certain rights to their work without the need for others to contact them directly when they want

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to use the work. For instance, a photographer might post a photo online with the Attribution-NonCommercial license. This informs those that would like to use the photo that it can only be used for non-commercial uses so long as the original creator is credited. Lately, I have been a huge fan of the Creative Commons search on Flickr. Flickr is sort of the YouTube for photos. By performing an “advanced search,” you can limit the results to those that include a Creative Commons license. I have also found a great site for sound effects, freesound.org. But really, just use your favorite search engine to search for Creative Commons and go crazy. In general, anything with a Creative Commons license is able to be used in a non-commercial environment so long as you give credit to the author, but you should always check the specific rights granted on a piece of media to see if it is legal for your purposes. Finally, there is royalty-free stock media: media that you pay for once and can use over and over without paying royalty fees. I love royalty-free music, sound effects, and motion graphics libraries. My favorite company for this is Digital Juice. You generally get a lot of content for the money. For stock footage and images, I prefer to buy specific pieces as needed for a specific project. My favorite resource for this is iStockPhoto.com. Don’t let the name fool you; they have video too. Let me leave you with a challenge. Do not look at copyright as something stifling your creativity. Look at it as motivation to be more creative; and go, create, in the name of the One who gave us the creativity. Disclaimer: Ryan Geesaman is not a lawyer or copyright expert. To receive professional advice on your situation, contact a copyright attorney.

March 2011

Article

By ROBERT KRAMER

Moving Hollywood in a Family Friendly Direction

n 1991, Dick Rolfe created a non-profit organization that has been instrumental in challenging the way Hollywood sees family films. He founded The Dove Foundation. Since its inception, The Dove Foundation has posted reviews on thousands of movies and has commissioned studies of the industry that have influenced the behaviors of the Hollywood studios, moving them in a more family friendly direction. The Dove movie reviews are based on traditional Judeo-Christian values. There is a content chart and descriptions that gauge six criteria: Sex, Language, Violence, Drug and alcohol use, Nudity, and Other. And while Dove’s scorecard reviews online are what Dove is probably best known for, the Foundation is expanding its reach as the world of new media interrupts more and more of our lives. We got a chance to talk with Dick about his foundation and their future. CVM: Why did you start the Dove Foundation? DICK: I was mostly interested in protecting my own family and the only thing we could do was prescreen everything before our kids watched it. And that became a little bit tedious. Then we thought God might have something better in mind. So, a group of 6 of us got together and met at a house in southern California for three days. The first two days we spent really just praising and worshipping God and sharing our stories and testimonies and focusing on Him. Then, on the third day it was as if God rewarded us for our perspiration with inspiration. He gave us insight into how we could create a list of movies collectively that we had reviewed and approved of. And out of deference to the Holy

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Spirit, who gave us this inspiration, we called it the Dove List. And after reviewing about 12,000 movies we came up with about 600 we felt were appropriate that we could endorse for our families. We shared that list with family, friends and church members. And one of the recipients of the list was a reporter for the Associated Press. She interviewed me and the article appeared in 165 newspapers across the country. Within 10 days I had over 2000 phone calls wanting a copy of the Dove List. And that’s when we decided that God had something much bigger in mind than family and friends. CVM: Since that humble beginning, your organization has done a number of studies with the intention of impacting Hollywood and their decisions. Could you tell us something about those studies? DICK: One of the things that we learned with dealing with the studio executives in Hollywood is that they were pretty profit conscious. Hollywood is an amoral business, not necessarily immoral, but amoral in that their focus is making money. So, for me to make an argument that they should make movies with a Christian world view would be like me trying to teach Latin to my parakeet. There’s no connection because they don’t really understand what a Christian world view is. But when I tell them March 2011

Article

by ROBERT A KRAMER

that a G rated movie is 11 times more profitable than its R rated counterpart, as a result of a study we did covering movies for 15 years; then they listen. And that’s exactly what we did. And our study, called The Film Profitability Study, really changed the paradigm in Hollywood for the next several years. They moved away from adult action movies and towards family friendly films. CVM: Do you think that now there may be an opportunity to revisit a study like that? DICK: We would like to conduct another study. The last one we did was in 2005. So, we are actually on a fund drive right now to raise enough money to commission an update to that study. We’re hopeful to produce that this year. In Hollywood they say you’re only as good as your last picture. With me, I’m only as good as my last meeting. So I have to continually remind the industry executives of who we are, why we’re here, and why they need us. CVM: Are you familiar with the Kaiser Family Foundation and their studies on the impact of screen time on children? DICK: Their studies have had more to do with the psychological impact of violence and sexual portrayals on television than they have on feature film or profitability. And the unfortunate response that Hollywood has to those kinds of studies is that they are viewer directed rather than producer directed. And so their response is, “If you think our movies are a bad influence then don’t go to them.” or, “Use your remote and turn the television off.” We have found that they are much more interested in studies that show what is good for them rather than what is good for their audience. And they have this denial that movies influence behavior. They feel that movies reflect society rather than influence society. And in spite of those kinds of studies, Hollywood still operates in a state of denial. They maintain that it’s all a matter of parental choice and

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that if viewers feel that a movie would affect them adversely then they shouldn’t watch it. CVM: So, with the new media revolution, are you doing anything in that realm now or in the near future? DICK: One of the areas that we got into quite quickly was iPhone apps. And it really came in response to a demonstrated demand. We would get calls from families standing in the ticket line at their local theater wanting to know what our review was on a particular movie. Or we would get calls from people at their local Best Buy, Target, or Wal-Mart standing in the DVD section wanting to know which DVDs we’d recommend and what our reviews were. March 2011

Article

by ROBERT A KRAMER

So, we decided that the best way to respond to that was to create an iPhone app. And it’s not just for iPhones, it works on all mobile platforms. So now a person can go into the DVD aisle and look us up with the app and instantly see our reviews of any movies and DVDs that are currently out or on the shelf. CVM: Have you been in contact with Netflix or Amazon to create Dove approved categories? DICK: Yes we have. We are currently using an XML feed to deliver our reviews to websites through syndication. For example, if you got to www.imom.com or www.christiancinema.com or www.gobmg.com, those websites all have Dove reviews on them. They are taken directly from our database and populated on their websites, in their templates. And our XML capability makes us applicable to iTunes, Netflix, Amazon and more. So, our next step is to approach them to suggest that they create a “walled garden” within their selection by creating a sub-set of Dove approved titles. This will allow people to connect with the titles through their content and messages rather than a demographic, which I think is a much more intuitive method for segmenting movies and would be much more effective in suggestive selling. CVM: So, you’re looking at creating a filter to help people more readily identify content that they would care about seeing. DICK: That’s exactly right. And our aim is to create sub-sets within the Dove approved category. We have movies ranked not only by genre, but also ranked by appropriate age. So while some of our titles are rated for all ages, some are rated for ages 12+. We also have Family Approved movies as well as Faith Friendly movies to indicate that they have a more spiritual message. And then we have a quality rating of 1 to 5 Doves, 5 being the highest quality. So, there are a variety of different filters even within the Dove brand that we can offer companies like

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Amazon and Netflix. CVM: Are there any other areas that you are looking to intersect with the Dove brand? DICK: We have a new television program in development right now called Dove Spotlight. It will be “Entertainment Tonight meets At The Movies from a family perspective”. There will be interviews of families and celebrities, not promoting the latest movies, but asking them more penetrating and values oriented questions. Like asking them if they were going to sit down and watch a movie with their kids, what would their choices be and why? And for celebrity parents of teenagers we’d want to know, what are your boundaries for your kids? Beyond that we’ll also review the latest movies, DVDs, and video games. That will be wrapped up into a ½ hour weekly television show. We’re hopeful to get it on network or cable television. Then we will break that show down into segments which can then appear in digital form all over the internet. We have several agreements with faith-based and family oriented websites pending who are anxious to take that content and put it up. We’re also talking to Christian radio about putting up a 60 second version of Dove Spotlight. CVM: Thank you for talking with us today. We appreciate your time. DICK: You’re welcome. Dick Rolfe will be speaking at the Athanatos Christian Ministries Online Apologetics Conference this April 7-9th http://onlineapologeticsconference.com/. You can find the Dove Foundation and their reviews at www.dove.org. If you’d like to help support the work of The Dove Foundation, go to http://dove.org/ donatenow.asp.

March 2011