Who can participate? Anyone, via the portals created by each Creator in the Calendar.
Who can be a Creator? Anyone whose Application gets accepted.
Who owns the Movies? Creators own their own IP (Intellectual Property) and defend their choices.
FAITH-ALIGNED: A Christian Worldview, aka a Kingdom-Mindset.
GENRE-INCLINED: All types of stories, not just inspirational.
FANS-DESIGNED: Fans invited along for the ride, from inception thru test screenings and grass-roots marketing.
PLUMB: A plumb bob is a weight on a string that causes the string to point to True Vertical (Zechariah 4:10).
TRUE VERTICAL: The idea of Absolute Truth, because there can only be one Up.
PARABLE: The types of stories Jesus told, accessible, entertaining, with spiritual Truth.
KINGDOM-MINDED: Seeking and proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
PLUMB TALE™: A parable-like story that focuses on entertainment but seeks to ask questions that make people think about truth. A Plumb Tale avoids blasphemy, and explicit sex, violence and language.
EDGY FAITH™: Edgy Faith™ describes edgier Plumb Tales™, often not safe for all audiences.
MOVIE: Visual entertainment, such as a feature film or a series, that leaves preaching to the pulpit and propaganda to [insert your favorite woke media giant].
ENTERTAINMENT: An escape from reality with its blsphemy and gratuitous violence, language or sex
INDIE FILM: A movie funded and likely distributed outside the Hollywood studio system.
GENRE: A type of story, with its own rules and tropes, that is the language of culture.
FAITH FILM: Not actually a genre, more like marketing to please all audiences as a church outreach.
FANS: Movie lovers who especially love bold storytelling that respects their values.
CREATORS: Indie Filmmakers who agree to make Tales that are Plumb, while engaging with Fans.
FUNDERS: Anyone who supports a Movie through donations (cash or services), sweat (deferred or reduced salary), or investment (the general public up to $2500 per year through Reg CF, or high networth individuals through other SEC methods).
THE 3% FLYWHEEL™: Reseach data shows that 97% of indie films fail to make a profit. The 3% Flywheel™ is the strategy for indie filmmakers to join the 3% that make ROI for their investors.
CASH EQUITY: Hard equity, governed by SEC rules.
SWEAT EQUITY: Deferred salaries or in-kind donations that we believe should get part of the Investor-half of the pie.
R.O.I.: Return On Investment, or Return Of Investment. Sharing the risk and reward with the Investors.
KINGDOM R.O.I.: When an investor cares about a return for the Kingdom of God as well as a financial ROI.
RISK: Failmmaking is difficult and competitive. The risk is losing all your time and money.
P.R.O.V.E. Method™: Method for de-risking a Movie by validiating with audience data berfore making the Movie. (Popular myth, Real alternative, On-set test, Validate with data, Earn trust).
WINDOWING: Each time-window of a movie's release, laid out in a sequence from most to least exclusive.
THE WATERFALL: The process of windowing a movie's release such that if a movie doesn't become profitable in it's first release, either theatrical or streaming, then it has more chances as it moves from Premium to Transactional, to Ad-supported VOD (Video On Demand) etc. Each window requires its own marketing, called P&A.
P&A: Prints and Advertising is the marketing stage for each releasing window of a movie. P&A is last money in, first money out. Profits trickle town the waterfall until at last, hopefully, the movie pays its Investors off, plus a 15-25% increase, and finally the movie can see a profit, which is usually split 50/50 with the Investors.