What’s up, gospel movie fans all over the world? You’re welcome to my mid-year review where I take a look at the progress made in the drama and film ministry in 2023 so far, and highlight areas where improvements can be made in the second half of the year. Without further ado, let’s dive straight into it!
1. NEW GENRES – I have always held the thought that there are countless genres we’re yet to explore in Christian film production. By God’s grace, this year has given us Bros, a movie in the Comedy genre that successfully delivers its Christian themes. In the words of the same director, the forthcoming Præy is a Thriller, Mystery, Crime and Faith-based movie, with a tinge of horror if you ask me, judging by a poster of it. Furthermore, the Biopic genre has a new addition in Enoch, which is only the second cinematic entry after The Train three years ago. I look forward to us delving into other genres like Sci-fi and Musicals.
2. TRENDING – It’s a thing of great joy to have two 2023 movies already hit and surpass the 1M views benchmark on YouTube in a matter of days – the biopic Enoch and The Winlos movie Prophet Suddenly. This has never happened before, guys, and a few days ago, the latter hit 2M views too! More people are watching gospel films and I’m glad they have two of the best as beacons of the Christian film ministry in Nigeria. Who knows? A couple more may yet make that elite list by the end of the year! Now, that would be something truly remarkable.
3. BETTER QUALITY – I genuinely believe that this year, the production value of gospel movies has gone up. More dynamic stories are being told in interesting ways. Project Steve, for example is a movie on marriage but has nuances that make it feel fresh. 30 Pieces isn’t the first movie about the police force but is creatively packaged. These and many more have resulted in a conundrum for me ahead of my Top 10 Movies end of the year list, because from the look of things, I might be having two or more movies in each position. That would be something special, wouldn’t it?
4. RELEASE MODEL – The movie Melita has provided a viable solution to an issue that has bothered me for a while. Unless otherwise stated, I personally expect a movie scheduled for YouTube release to be feature-length. Many times though, I’ve been momentarily disillusioned by them being shorts, episodes, parts, or worse still, amorphous. I’m not against the three forms previously mentioned in any way, but I consider it only fair that viewers have a fair idea of what they’ve signed up for. Enter Melita, which was announced BEFORE release to be a four-part film. It’s great to see regard being given to the traditional concept of a sequel, despite the evolution of streaming platforms like YouTube.
To keep things orderly, I hereby propose that feature movies split should have ‘Part’ attached to them. For instance, a film titled “Bent” would be labelled “Bent Part A”, “Bent Part B” and so on. This would be different from “Bent” and “Bent 2” which would represent the original movie and its sequel respectively.
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
1. FILM FORM: Like I hinted earlier, I’ve seen a number of Christian films seemingly having no form or suffering from a lack/loss of identity. I think that this has to be determined at the stage of writing the script, because it would inform choices that might be made about it later on. I’m not saying that it is wrong for form to change, but how it’s done matters a great deal. A short like 12 Years and a Day became the remarkable feature Surrender and looks set to be on what has been announced to be the final installment in the Surrender movies. That shows good foresight in planning and knowing when not to unnecessarily extend a franchise. A film that changes form without these two values would become a horrid time for the viewer.
In essence, I’m saying the film form – short, feature or series of episodes – is best determined ahead of production. And this should be communicated to the viewer before release.
2. SOUND DESIGN – I cannot say just how important music and sound are in film production. Though there have been minuscule improvements in this regard over the years, it’s still grossly deficient in Christian movies from these shores. I plead with producers and editors to give more attention to this aspect of post-production. I’m not sure but I might prefer a movie with no background music to one that repeats a single song from start to finish because it can be really, really distracting. I opine that it’s just a matter of application and doesn’t have to be something complex. If you check out The Chosen series directed by Dallas Jenkins, I don’t think it’s ever used songs as background tunes; it’s just soft strings and chants, effectively placed at different points. So, I urge directors to ensure that Christian movies with single music that causes monotony of sound become a thing of the past. Please.
3. SERIES IN SEASONS – Similar to my first point is the concept of seasons in gospel filmmaking. Typically, new seasons are released at different points of the year(s) – I believe that’s why they are called ‘seasons’. Also, the end of a season is usually marked by some level of closure to major plotlines and even cliffhangers ahead of the following season. Here however, I have seen non-resolution season finales and two seasons consequently released back-to-back. For me, those two are actually the same season cut in two by no known standard. I would like to urge Christian filmmakers to produce proper seasons of their series and release them annually, quarterly or at any other time interval that is meaningful.
4. RUNTIMES AND PACING – Whether a short or full length movie, pacing, which could vary at different points, plays an important role in how long the film can engage the audience. Closely linked to that is having just the right runtime for the production. My observation is that a fair number of movies don’t have the right pacing and are simply boring. Furthermore, I consider some of these movies to have bloated runtimes, and this should not be. Hence, I urge editors and directors to cut out what isn’t necessary in the flow of their movies and should not attempt to make them reach a particular length extrinsically. Time is life, and the audience should be given value for every minute they use watching Christian movies.
5. OVERFLOGGING – I am of the opinion that two entities – establishment shots and messages – are being overflogged in some productions. Aerial shots in particular have almost lost their appeal to me because they have been used in unnecessary places and indiscriminately repeated in movies over the past year. That is why seeing a creative take on it in this year’s Borrowed Time thrills me every time. There are innumerable ways one can transition between scenes and I urge filmmakers to embrace those. Also, I am a lover of the film medium and well-told stories hit the audience in unprecedented ways. Hence, I feel the audience need not be sermonized all over again, if the key thing was well done. That leads me to…
6. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT – One key element of story crafting is character development. Effectively done, the audience is engaged and invest in the journeys of authentic, relatable characters. I have noticed a good number of Christian films just launch into the conflict of the story without making me care about any of the characters. At the end of the day, I’m just an onlooker for such productions. To nip this in the bud, I believe screenwriters need to embrace Set-up in the first act of their movies.
Conclusively, I believe that whatever is good should be publicized. Thus, producers should put more effort into making movie viewers aware of their upcoming productions in different forms through social media.
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Till the next article, stay blessed!
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