Interpreter needs a quarter million to finish Brother Brigham’s film

[Moksha]

Why don't they use the profits from the last film to completely finance the making of this one?

I would guess that has been put into the budget for Dr. Peterson's world ambassadorship travels.

[drumdude]

I haven't read such an earnest appeal for money since the days of fundraising for the FARMS Ziggurat or Royal Skousen's Book of Mormon critical text project. Or perhaps since the days of Oral Roberts. (Roberts knew how to raise millions.) I suppose that quality film-making teams don't work for cheap, but $256,000 seems a little steep.

I will pass on this fundraising letter to the Relief Society sister in Parowan, although she may demand full transparency from the Executive Producer about the movie's budget. Thus far we haven't seen anything close to it.

I would give a substantial gift, but I recently donated a handsome sum to another worthy church history project. See here (now that's how I envision Joseph Smith).

An addendum: I didn't notice the curious "very seriously yours" close of the letter until now. The last time I read such a close was in the Proprietor's 2012 email to Jerry Bradford. Odd.

Posted from Mountain Creek Fork (Moun’un Crick Fark), Utah

I may have slipped in a "very seriously yours" for fun!

[Doctor Scratch]

Good to see the Executive Producer being upfront about his motives for a change:

This story is vitally important today. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve have led the Church, and senior apostles have presided over it, ever since those dramatic days in early August 1844. Attacks on the legitimacy of the Twelve’s assumption of leadership over the Church in 1844 are, whether deliberately or not, attacks on today’s apostolic authority.

*Not* an avowedly anti-Community of Christ production? Yeah: sure. Because who else is leveling “attacks” on “today’s apostolic authority”? Not that I think that the CoC is doing any actual “attacking.” Apparently, in Mopologist Land, the mere existence of the CoC constitutes an “attack.” Suddenly, all those passive-aggressive swipes about the Kirkland temple are coming into clear focus.

And really: who would want to donate to a project on these grounds, let alone go see a movie for this sort of dumb reason. “Hey, watch out! Someone’s saying that BY wasn’t the real prophet! Good thing there’s this movie we can watch!” lol.

[Tom]

I haven't read such an earnest appeal for money since the days of fundraising for the FARMS Ziggurat or Royal Skousen's Book of Mormon critical text project. Or perhaps since the days of Oral Roberts. (Roberts knew how to raise millions.) I suppose that quality film-making teams don't work for cheap, but $256,000 seems a little steep.

I will pass on this fundraising letter to the Relief Society sister in Parowan, although she may demand full transparency from the Executive Producer about the movie's budget. Thus far we haven't seen anything close to it.

I would give a substantial gift, but I recently donated a handsome sum to another worthy church history project. See here (now that's how I envision Joseph Smith).

An addendum: I didn't notice the curious "very seriously yours" close of the letter until now. The last time I read such a close was in the Proprietor's 2012 email to Jerry Bradford. Odd.

Posted from Mountain Creek Fork (Moun’un Crick Fark), Utah

I may have slipped in a "very seriously yours" for fun!

LOL.

[Marcus]

This seems to be a recurring strategy (with inflation), from the Interpreter.

$250,000 more is needed in 2024, beyond the donations already given, and after filming is finished, to complete the project:

..Gifts from generous donors have paid for filming, but there are still considerable expenses to prepare Six Day in August as a finished project ready for theatrical release.
Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to help us raise the $256,000 we need to fund post-production efforts, associated with cutting raw footage, assembling that footage, standardizing and enhancing the color of the footage, adding music, dubbing, and sound effects.
We seek your support now to help us cross the finish line to bring this entertaining, informative, and inspiring story to hundreds of thousands of people....

And $200,000 more was needed in 2020, beyond the donations already given, and after filming was finished, to complete the project:

...the theatrical film is pretty much finished...He recommended a substantial additional investment–roughly $200K. If we want to get beyond the “Mormon corridor” at all, we’re going to need something like that amount. And fairly soon.

But, thus far, we don’t have that additional money. And I agonize over that. If Brandon Purdie is right — and he is, by universal consent, the expert on the distribution of LDS-oriented theatrical films — we may underachieve even with a very good film. And the thing we want most, once the film is done, is for it to have as wide a positive impact as it can possibly have...

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... 5184211333

Also known as the Sunk Costs Appeal. Both times.

[Tom]

Don’t sleep on the video clip: https://vimeo.com/880637147/76c80d1778?share=copy

I did not spot James Strang in the clip, but I trust he’ll be in the film. (The Six Days in August website identifies him as one of six “central figures of this true story.”)

[I Have Questions]

This seems to be a recurring strategy (with inflation), from the Interpreter.

$250,000 more is needed in 2024, beyond the donations already given, and after filming is finished, to complete the project:

..Gifts from generous donors have paid for filming, but there are still considerable expenses to prepare Six Day in August as a finished project ready for theatrical release.
Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to help us raise the $256,000 we need to fund post-production efforts, associated with cutting raw footage, assembling that footage, standardizing and enhancing the color of the footage, adding music, dubbing, and sound effects.
We seek your support now to help us cross the finish line to bring this entertaining, informative, and inspiring story to hundreds of thousands of people....

And $200,000 more was needed in 2020, beyond the donations already given, and after filming was finished, to complete the project:

...the theatrical film is pretty much finished...He recommended a substantial additional investment–roughly $200K. If we want to get beyond the “Mormon corridor” at all, we’re going to need something like that amount. And fairly soon.

But, thus far, we don’t have that additional money. And I agonize over that. If Brandon Purdie is right — and he is, by universal consent, the expert on the distribution of LDS-oriented theatrical films — we may underachieve even with a very good film. And the thing we want most, once the film is done, is for it to have as wide a positive impact as it can possibly have...

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... 5184211333

Also known as the Sunk Costs Appeal. Both times.

It reads like a scam.

[I Have Questions]

Which is fine, what are their measures of success? I can’t think of any measure that they could use that the film would rate as “highly successful” against.

Daniel’s goal is to create the genre of Mormon cinema that is artistically noteworthy outside of the church. Religions have produced great art that is respected and appreciated universally, regardless of one’s beliefs.

I think he considers the film a success by that standard. Others may disagree.

Which again is fair enough. But I’m struggling to see how Witnesses has been deemed artistically noteworthy outside of a very small group of people directly involved in making it. It bombed. It was a terrible movie by any usual cinematic measure you could use.

My view is that the movie projects are Dan’s latest attempt at notoriety, to fill the void caused by his failure to be deemed of sufficient calibre to be a General Authority. To show the Church that they made a mistake by allowing him to be cast out in 2012. To make the point that he should be President of BYU or The Maxwell Institute or a GA. But no, instead he had to set himself atop a self-made organisation to achieve that status. And even that hasn’t satisfied his need, so now he’s wasting $millions of other people’s money and yet another unnecessary vanity project.

If this latest film was as vital as he is trying to make it sound, the Church would have made it themselves, and done a better job of it. This film is not about Brigham Young, it’s all about Dan.

[High Spy]

Why don't they use the profits from the last film to completely finance the making of this one?

I would guess that has been put into the budget for Dr. Peterson's world ambassadorship travels.

Joseph was commanded to pretend to no other gift.

The delivery of the church is one of man’s greatest deceptions.

[Kishkumen]

This story is vitally important today. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve have led the Church, and senior apostles have presided over it, ever since those dramatic days in early August 1844. Attacks on the legitimacy of the Twelve’s assumption of leadership over the Church in 1844 are, whether deliberately or not, attacks on today’s apostolic authority.

Great statement! I think all of this is true. It is also an acknowledgment that the Q12’s leadership role was a new development. That’s a healthy acknowledgment. I, for one, see nothing amiss in recognizing that the Q12 could and did assume control. At the same time, I think it is important to recognize that BY did not initially intend to be Joseph Smith’s successor, and, furthermore, that in some respects he never was and never could be. What bothers me is the oversimplification of the succession and the idea that the Q12’s assumption of leadership was a seamless and straightforward continuation of the structure Joseph Smith restored.