- Have you ever given to a GoFundMe cause?
Well, these days entire TV shows
are being crowdfundedwith these kind of sites.
"The Chosen" is the largestcrowdfunded TV show to date,
and it's about the life of Jesus.
John and I recently sat down
with the man behind the show,Dallas Jenkins, take a look.
(swooshing)
Dallas, tell us about "The Chosen."
- Well, this is a projectthat came out of a desire
to see something thathadn't been done before.
There's been movies and miniseriesabout the life of Christ,
but there's never actuallybeen a multi-season show,
where you can binge-watchit with your family,
where you can get into the characters
and into the stories in a deeper way
than is traditional formost Bible projects.
Typically you've got90 minutes to two hours
to tell the story ofJesus and you've gotta go
from miracle to miracle,Bible verse to Bible verse,
and you don't get achance to really connect
with the characters, you'rejust kinda seeing the stories
portrayed onto film, and in that show
that you're binge-watchingwith your family
or with your wife or whatever
you're actually getting a chance
to explore these charactersand these stories
over the course of multiple seasons.
And so you can take your time more.
You can get deeper into it.
And so as someone who hasbeen a believer my whole life
who's heard these stories dozens of times,
the opportunity to tell the same stories
but from a differentperspective and in a deeper way
was really appealing to me,and it's been proven now
to be appealing to the audience as well.
So I think their experiencingwhat I've experienced
as we've been exploring these stories.
- Yeah, audience habits have changed
to binge-watching rather than just--
- Right, and creating a universe
in which they can see thingsover the course of time
as opposed to fitting itin to one quick movie.
- Well, I understand that your project
wasn't easy getting off the ground.
- When we went to our audience and said,
we want to crowdfund this project
and have you be part of the making of it
and you'd be part of the financing of it
and that's gonna protect the story
and keep it from the voices
that may be antagonistictowards a story like this,
we're gonna maintain the control.
You know, Hollywood's golden rule is
he who has the gold makes the rules,
and so we're gonna make our own rules
and we're gonna do thisoutside the system,
and on one hand, that hasmade things very difficult,
I mean, it just takes more time,
these systems have beenin place for decades,
so we're trying to maybecreate something new.
But on the other hand, it's been joyous,
because the crowd themselves, I think,
trusts us even more,
because of the fact that weare outside of the system.
- This is the largestcrowdfunding media project ever,
is that right?
- We ended up gettingover 10 million dollars
from over 19 thousand people,
which shadowed the all-timecrowdfunding record,
and, I think, spoke to the passion that
especially believers arehaving in this country,
for something that'sdifferent, that speaks to them,
because they're tiredof trying to binge-watch
the only shows thatthey have to binge-watch
that they can choose from,
or stuff that doesn'talways reflect their values,
and so a Jesus show that they can watch
like their friends arewatching other shows,
I think is really exciting for people.
- I'm glad you said that,
because when you think about the audience,
you want a wide audience to watch this.
However, you're targeting a niche,
in relying on a nicheaudience of believers.
Is it difficult totackle a movie like this
about Jesus with people whoare familiar with Jesus's life,
is it difficult to take that on?
- Yeah, well, you mentionedthat we have a niche audience,
it's interesting, becauseI think the niche audience
is what helped finance this,
because they have a spiritual compulsion
to see something like this done,
but in terms of the audienceit's actually been quite wide.
We hear from atheists andagnostics all the time,
who feel like this is a show
that they can appreciate as well.
Because it feels like a regular show,
it doesn't feel like a sermonput into a visual category,
it feels like the kind of show
that they would normally watch,
and that's what's cool.
Even our actors andsome of our crew members
who didn't come on tothe project as believers,
have loved the script somuch, it's open them up
to wanting to see more from the scripture.
So it's opened 'em upto wanting to know more
about who they're portraying.
And that's been one of themost exciting (mumbles)
about this project, is tosee people including those
who are working on the showbe exposed to Christ in a way
that doesn't feel like it's formula,
it doesn't feel emotionally distant,
which I think, whether it'sgrowing up in Sunday school
with a flannelgraph Jesus,doesn't always feel authentic
or watching a moviewhere it's very reverent
and stiff and formal, andJesus is a European white guy,
who speaks in King James English,
this is something thatwe're really going for:
more authenticity, somethingthat feels raw and real,
and that has, you know,
which shouldn't surprise us as believers,
that has appeal to a wide group of people,
because the message of theGospels is one for everybody.
