FEATURE: NO GREATER LOVE - Official Thread - Feature Film

Brandon,

Excellent trailer! Very engaging and solid. I look forward to seeing this film.

Todd
 
Yah. Super Professional. Really well done.

I'd like to offer a couple suggestions eventhough it's already really good. You might be able to use these, but you're good to go without them.

Intro was great with the flashback stuff... highlighting the newspapaer article was genius... and how you staggered the highlight for the "Missing" to stay on longer... very cool.

But it might be cool to try and transition smoother into the restaurant scene where the lady says, "When was the last time you saw her?" I think it would mesh slightly better if some of the tones were bleeding over from the flash back stuff. The restaurant scene has a few too many beats too. Could have been cut slightly faster.

And I guess my only complaint would be the music that comes right after that restaurant scene. I understand it's a religious movie and so you need that upbeat music, but there might be a better alternative... that song just sounds a little too canned. Like you grabbed it from a royalty-free cd or something. Something more like the music at 1:04. That music is perfect.

Am I the only one that gets turned off when the guy says,
"You're telling me I can't be with her because she's a Christian?"

I know I don't have the full reference of the line, but it sounds really manipulative. Really turns me off to religion. And I am a Christian. But Diehards won't be fazed by it.

You could probably also cut an ALT version of the trailer to be a bit more secular to maybe widen out your audience. Cut out some of the religious references (in the trailer) and grab that middle-of-the-road, romantic-drama crowd.

Pretty slick trailer though. Really does its job. A few hooks, some story, and the tease of whether or not he gets his girl back. PERFECT.
It's a good piece for others on this site to reference. If you're still tweaking the trailer hopefully these are some things you can consider.
 
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Some great notes there... thanks :) the teaser is locked... but I'm sure we'll be recutting a theatrical trailer?
 
Some of you have been wanting to chat about the marketing of faith-based films such as FIREPROOF, FACING THE GIANTS, and soon NGL. I'd be interested in talking about the market in general, and some of the marketing strategies that are used for these types of films... as you can imagine I've been a student of the market for several years now, since I first produced SMUGGLER'S RANSOM in 2006.
 
Cool man,

I asked Chappel if he wanted to do the honors and start a thread but since you have more experience than us would you like to take the lead here?
 
Sure, I'd be happy to. It'd be great to discuss it here, since it's quite fitting for this film...

What exactly would you like to discuss?

To start us off I'd say one of the biggest things I have learned about the Christian niche market is that in order to really be successful as a film, it requires having a strong ministry angle toward the film... this is the reason the grassroots movement of FIREPROOF was so successful... you would be surprised how little actual money was spent on the marketing of the film... I was shocked to hear how little it was... still a lot compared to the budget (which was about 1mil. btw) but for a film in the market nowadays it was peanuts.
 
Thanks Brandon!

I'll start with a couple basic questions to get the ball rolling.

Can you give us some insight into the marketing and distribution for NGL and the avenues you will use to get your film into the homes of fellow Christians?

What type of PR campaigns do you have planned for NGL? Christian newsletters, Church news letters? What else?
 
ChipG said:
Thanks Brandon!

I'll start with a couple basic questions to get the ball rolling.

Can you give us some insight into the marketing and distribution for NGL and the avenues used to get your film into the homes of fellow Christians?

What type of PR campaigns do you have planned for NGL? Christian newsletters, Church news letters? What else?
Click to expand...

Regarding your first question it depends on a lot of things... we still are not sure exactly what sort of distribution we'll be looking at. It could be limited theatrical, it could be DVD... who knows... but we do know we'd like to get on Christian radio stations, websites, TV shows, etc. and get the word out that way. We'll also obviously be looking for endorsements from Christian leaders and authors.

Regarding your second question, as of now we are compiling a database of names and email address's which we'll be sending out update newsletters to when we have a firm release date, etc.
 
Lets talk about the straight to dvd market, marketing and dist. for now and the theater, tv stuff later.

What are some of the avenues / methods used to get faith based films into the Christian market?
 
Really nice job on the trailer Brandon. Mind if I pick a few nits? No? Ok then... : )

Only two really:

-I thought there were a few too many consecutive fade-to-black-and-back transitions near the end. They drew attention to themselves in a way that took me out of the otherwise well drawn mini-story.

-The music cue aurantaurant mentioned does feel a bit weird to me as well, but I think it could be greatly helped by the timing of its fade-up/entrance point. As it is it leaps out volume-wise right on top of the phrase "...because she's a Christian?". I think if you delayed it about a second and a half so he says the line over the subdued music as you had it, then had the volume push/music climax hit just as the screen goes to the text you'd do two things:

-Get it out of the way of his line.
-Let the uplifting music climax reinforce the very positive "there is something greater" text screen rather than the more negative "Are you telling me I can't..." dialog line, with which it's emotionally at odds. It would also set up the payoff in next cut, the "I'm not giving up...!" line. So the sequence would be:

-Conflict: "Are you telling me I can't..."
-Turning Point: music climax/"there is something greater"
-Decision to Resolve: "I'm not giving up..."

This would flow much better I think, and feel more emotionally connected. When you have a chance to revisit it you might want to give that a shot.

In the meantime, I think it's a very very fine trailer and I expect the people you want to impress with it will be very much so...

I hope my comments are useful to you.
 
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ChipG said:
Lets talk about the straight to dvd market, marketing and dist. for now and the theater, tv stuff later.

What are some of the avenues / methods used to get faith based films into the Christian market?
Click to expand...



If we're talking strictly DVD, it involves a lot of what I mentioned earlier... websites, radio shows, TV shows... ads on Christian DVD websites... It's also good to get endorsements for Direct to DVD films... We've done very limited marketing for SMUGGLER'S RANSOM (direct to DVD released on June 10, 2008) and we've already sold many thousand copies just by word of mouth... the key is to have a film people want to see and will recommend to people... the Christian market more than anything else is very word-of-mouth.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Really nice job on the trailer Brandon. Mind if I pick a few nits? No? Ok then... : )

Only two really:

-I thought there were a few too many consecutive fade-to-black-and-back transitions near the end. They drew attention to themselves in a way that took me out of the otherwise well drawn mini-story.

-The music cue aurantaurant mentioned does feel a bit weird to me as well, but I think it could be greatly helped by the timing of its fade-up/entrance point. As it is it leaps out volume-wise right on top of the phrase "...because she's a Christian?". I think if you delayed it about a second and a half so he says the line over the subdued music as you had it, then had the volume push/music climax hit just as the screen goes to the text you'd do two things:

-Get it out of the way of his line.
-Let the uplifting music climax reinforce the very positive "there is something greater" text screen rather than the more negative "Are you telling me I can't..." dialog line, with which it's emotionally at odds. It would then set up the payoff in next cut, to the "I'm not giving up..." line. So the sequence would be:

-Conflict: "Are you telling me I can't..."
-Inspiration: music climax/"there is something greater"
-Decision to resolve: "I'm not giving up..."

This would flow much better I think, and feel more emotionally connected. When you have a chance to revisit it you might want to give that a shot.

In the meantime, I think it's a very very fine trailer and I expect the people you want to impress with it will be very much so...

I hope my comments are useful to you.
Click to expand...

Hey Ted, thanks :) so far it certainly has done it's job... as I mentioned earlier, I appreciate the comments, and I'll be sure to reference them when it comes time to cut a theatrical trailer, though I'm certain a studio will do that, and probably do a much better job than I ever could... if I learned anything from cutting this teaser trailer it was how stinkin' hard it is to cut a good trailer! lol. It truly is an art form...

Thanks again for your comments, I appreciate them, and thanks for checking the trailer out as well.
 
Sample Cue

Sample Cue

Hey guys... Michelle is really creating some wonderful music for this film, and I wanted to share a very brief cue we received last week...

Keep in mind that this is still not a polished, finished piece, but I think it'll give you all a good idea of the style and feel of music in the film... some truly beautiful stuff.

Enjoy.

NGL Sample Music Cue
 
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Good to hear

Good to hear

Brandon Rice said:
If we're talking strictly DVD, it involves a lot of what I mentioned earlier... websites, radio shows, TV shows... ads on Christian DVD websites... It's also good to get endorsements for Direct to DVD films... We've done very limited marketing for SMUGGLER'S RANSOM (direct to DVD released on June 10, 2008) and we've already sold many thousand copies just by word of mouth... the key is to have a film people want to see and will recommend to people... the Christian market more than anything else is very word-of-mouth.
Click to expand...

That's great to hear you've sold so many copies on DVD. After paying for expenses are you now into profit on the film?

I'm looking to release our first hour long documentary on to DVD next year. The film has a built in audience, any advice when approaching DVD distribution companies? I will be approaching www.sodapictures.com here in the UK first.
 
pekar1876 said:
That's great to hear you've sold so many copies on DVD. After paying for expenses are you now into profit on the film?

I'm looking to release our first hour long documentary on to DVD next year. The film has a built in audience, any advice when approaching DVD distribution companies? I will be approaching www.sodapictures.com here in the UK first.
Click to expand...

Yes, we're into profit for the film now...

The only advice I can give you regarding an approach is be persistent... not annoying, but persistent... if you have a good piece, and believe in it, you'll get it out there, one way or another.
 
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