Monday, July 17, 2006

Why Are We Losing to the Competition?

Here's an excerpt from a great article my dad cut out for me about production and creativity.

We're losing the culture war because our competitors are telling better stories than we are. Let's face it, we work in the industry, yet how many of us race home from work so we can enjoy our favorite Christian TV or radio program? We're being out-thought by the secular world and it shows in the creative aspects of the programs we produce.
I'm sick to death of people pitching me programs with the line "Phil, what we need is a Christian version of Oprah," or "Have you seen Jay Leno? Why can't we do a Christian version of that?"
I'll tell you why I hate it: because we ought to be doing so much better. We worship the ultimate Creator of the universe, and yet our creativity stinks. My dream is to walk down the corridors at a major Hollywood studio and overhear a conversation from their executives saying, "You know, what we need is a secular version of this really great program I saw on a Christian network last night."

"Fostering a More Creative, Visionary Environment" by Phil Cooke. NRB Magazine.

1 comment:

Shannon said...

totally interesting thought...

i think our big thing is that "every program has to have some kind of moral or educational piece" in it... we aren't out to just mindlessly placate the masses... and we, in our sinful state, just want to be mindlessly placated.

Christianity doesn't rest easily with a lot of people because of the conviction that comes with it... i don't know if we'll ever get a blantantly Christian show to be that popular.... and if we don't put Christianity into it, but just use "the moral code"... i don't know if you can truly call it Christian programming...

To me (but not many others), Christian programming would proclaim the Word of God and the name of Jesus Christ. There really aren't many of those shows out there.

MAKE ONE. :) i'll pray that it sells like hotcakes ;o)