In this episode we delve into the rising trend of morality and faith-based films. With Hollywood increasingly producing content that challenges the comfort of family viewing, this genre offers a refreshing alternative. Chevonne O'Shaughnessy, President of American Cinema, shares her expert insights on the surge of these films and what the future holds for this rapidly growing movement in the industry. Tune in for an enlightening discussion on the evolving landscape of family-friendly cinema.
https://www.youtube.com/@ACIOnTheGo
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Counted among the outlaws, he said.
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Come follow me. People from all walks of life
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since have been becoming outlaws.
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There's been a significant shift in recent years on how we view
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media content, particularly movies, with the advent of
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streaming services and high speed Internet.
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Like most cultural advancements, this change has brought about
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both positive and some negative aspects.
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On the positive side, we can now enjoy a wider variety of movies
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from the comfort of our very own homes.
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On the negative side, the boundaries of what was once
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considered morally objectionable are becoming or already have
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become blurred. However, with the increased and
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stronger violence, explicit language and sexual content in
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movies, there has also been a notable rise in more morally and
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value centered entertainment. This includes films I would just
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categorize as ones you could watch, you know with granny in
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the room. Things such as, you know,
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romance, fun romance plots and faith-based movies.
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Today we have Siobhan O'Shaughnessy, a filmmaker and
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the Co founder and president of American Cinema to discuss this
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very topic and welcome Siobhan Hi.
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Ken, how you doing? Good, great.
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Good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
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What is American cinema? American Cinema International is
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for the longest, it's not American Cinema inspires, right?
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It's American cinema inspires. And we are a distribution
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company majority wise. I mean, we put our stuff through
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worldwide distribution. We're in every single country.
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We're in the United States, We're on the platforms.
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We have our own ACI on the Go YouTube channel, which we have
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over about 667 subscribers and at the same time we produce
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movies. So I'm going to be producing 10
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movies within the next 18 months.
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So it's a lot of movies. So let's talk specifically the
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on the Go channel. So if people wanted to, so this
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was where you would go, if I'm correct, if you wanted to see
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these kinds of movies, a whole selections of them, right?
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Hundreds of them. What would you find if you go to
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there? If you went to YouTube and then
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you just searched, how would you?
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Exactly find it you go onto YouTube channel and just put in
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the letters ACI on the go and there you'll have about 200
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films. All of them are clean, very, you
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know, dev approved. So we have the devil wards on it
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that the whole family can watch without having to worry.
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I We were very lucky that before COVID we had all our movies just
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put on the platforms and because everything was clean, we ended
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up doing really well during COVID due to the fact that the
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family really liked it and they saw it.
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So we have been growing, we trying to get more content and
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continue on that path of clean content with moral values.
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Is the market that? Well, it must be.
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It's, I think it'd be surprising to find the market's that strong
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to be able to produce that many movies.
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Is that how has it evolved? Was it slow and then it exploded
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or what's going on there? I think there's two fold.
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I you said the market has changed.
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The market really changed when these, the major studios started
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doing their own platforms. The channels in the foreign
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markets or these other places were like going, OK, what's
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going to happen to us now? If they're going to be putting
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their own channels, then are we going to get the product?
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Cause a lot of the channels internationally, we're getting
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stuff from Disney, they're getting the product from Warner
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Brothers. And they were like the exclusive
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distributor in those territories.
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And for at least a year, almost a year and a half, all the
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distributors like going, we're holding and we're waiting to
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see. So while they were holding and
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waiting to see, a lot of the countries started doing their
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own films in their own language. So a lot of the spots that we
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used to be able to get for an afternoon slot on these channels
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all of a sudden is being occupied by product of their
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own, which is the same as ours, except they're made in French or
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they're made in German now, or they're made in Italian, which
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has taken a lot of the big monies out of our numbers.
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And at the same time, when Netflix came about, Netflix
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started doing something that was never done before in that they
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pay big amounts of monies upfront for subscription beauty,
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but they pay it off in four years.
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See, before I used to go to market and I would get 20% on
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signature and then I would get 80% before I deliver.
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Now the producers are saying, you know, I mean the channels
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are saying, well, we're going to pay you that same amount or a
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little more, but we're going to pay you quarterly for four
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years. So kind of imagine like a big
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pool of money and somebody's going with an ear dropper and
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they're giving you the money. You know, it's, it's taking so
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long, the banks will only, they want you to pay back their loan
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within 12 to 18 months and now you're having to pay interest
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reserve. It's it's getting a lot harder.
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That's right. We sell these internationally.
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Are there certain countries that are really hungry for this?
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That is, it's getting significant traffic in that's
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kind of driving it. It used to be like I was saying,
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you could go to get Germany, Italy, France, England without
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even making the movie yet. You could just put it up there
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and just tell them an outline or give them a pitch.
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Because I've done so many of them.
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They would take it automatically for that afternoon slot.
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And now those afternoon slots are either gone or they're doing
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their own product. So it's it's getting to be a
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different way of doing the business now.
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A step back from a business model perspective, more of like
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take it to a cultural value of why these are being successful.
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Is there, is there a competing? It kind of feels like, you know,
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so I was, let's say raised in the 70s and there were a few TV
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channels you would watch. There would be a channel or two
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where you got to watch some reruns of movies.
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So you'd see old westerns, maybe Jerry Lewis or an Elvis movie or
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something. Other than that, you really had
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to go to the cinema or theater and to go see a movie.
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And it was select then just how many times you could get out
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what was rated for your age group or whatever.
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And now there's so many choices that you could sit home.
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Some people never go to the theater anymore and you just
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wait and you see them all. But culturally, oh, which I was
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leading to. The next step was when we got
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cable is. Well, there was cable, but then
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now the bad words, the UN varnished movies could be there
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that weren't allowed on TV and there's kind of this moral
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question going on. Then you could rent if you were
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old enough, you know, the R movies or whatever.
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Now anybody can really just sign into a streaming service and
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pretty much find whatever you want no matter what age you are
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at home. It's pretty easy to do and for
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free. And they're free.
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And they're free. And they're free.
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Which over a culture has really inoculated how we view what used
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to be, you know, objectionable content, the way younger kids
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are seeing, what only adults were seeing, you know, just a
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couple decades ago. With that kind of becoming the
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norm more on a cultural level, what's driving the morality or
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has it gone so far kind of in a dumpster that there's just a
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desperateness for just some wholesome content that's
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allowing this genre to even exist and grow?
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I think it's a desperateness. I really do.
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I mean in 2008, Cindy Bond and I started Mission Pictures and
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that was kind of like the first one in the international market.
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You know, the market was very strong here in the United
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States, but the foreign market had not really had any kind of
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faith-based kind of movies. So we showed up at the market in
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2008 and that was the year of poor titles.
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I don't know if you remember when you go to the market, it
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was like animals, Dragons, you know, crocodiles eating you.
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And all of a sudden we, you come to our booth and the buyers
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walked in and they walked up, 'cause we had letters to God, we
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had to save a life. We had Noah's story, you know,
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so they kind of walked in and go and then they walked back out.
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So then all of a sudden, slowly, slowly, the buyers were coming
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quietly. They say they would come up
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quietly and say, you know, I've been looking for this kind of
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product, but I didn't know where to find it.
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So that was one of the reasons. But again, it it as Cindy and I
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started the mission pictures and we were doing well.
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We had about 75 titles of Christian films and the majority
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of them were from Pureflex before they started their own
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distribution. But it was, you know, we learned
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that if you make it too religious, then some of the
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foreign channels or TV movies won't be able to air it.
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For example, if you open a Bible and you start quoting from the
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Bible, that is a restriction on the channels in France, Germany,
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Italy, because then you're just quantifying one religion over
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another. But if you make it more vague or
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you can see somebody going in the church, you can see them all
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praying is just that they can't be quoting from the Bible.
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So we were trying to guide him so he can get more seed planters
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out there to get the people thinking about it instead of the
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religious. And then we still have the
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religious version, but we try to make 2 verses do.
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You think this genre continues to grow and as a on the business
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side, you know, brings in more money, becomes a bigger player
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and that's what people want. That those kind of guidelines or
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restrictions could come down because it comes to the bottom
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line. If if it sells money to start
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using scripture then you do it. It all comes down to the bottom
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line, no matter what even, but there was a long time that even
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the studios or the decision makers, the decision maker in
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some of the studios were just saying no, They were like, no,
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we're not doing this. This is not the product we want
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to keep mainstream. We want to make everybody.
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We don't want to have these things being told to us.
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And that's where the whole problem I think started that,
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you know, it's it's looking at product that the kids are
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watching, but they're not educated on anything.
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I mean, I mean, not that I don't like Marvel, I do like Marvel.
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But if you look at our kids, at the end of the day, they don't
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know anything that's happening on the world.
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They're not educated of what's happening or even moral values
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that you sit in your home and you talk about things.
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You know, it's it's now become like a hero that really doesn't
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exist. I know your background hasn't
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been totally not that valueless, but you know, not faith-based of
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it yet, just a business background distributing movies
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and you end up in this genre. Did you end up in this genre
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because you it was growing and a good business move and did that
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affect your faith over time or was it the opposite?
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Did you move into it because of faith in your values?
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I think I got into the business because I felt like I was pushed
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into it, not because I was in the film industry.
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I was more international business, but as I had learned
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over the 10 years and we were doing product that was selling
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worldwide. I mean, we were even putting
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sales or notices on our office saying sold out.
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So that means I learned really well the whole world.
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It wasn't just the United States.
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We were selling every country. And, and when I'm looking at my
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daughter, 'cause I was a single mother trying to raise a child
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that I was very busy and I'm leaving her in front of a
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channel that I thought was very, was good because it was a Disney
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Channel. I'm thinking that she's watching
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product and I don't have to worry about it.
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I, I went to Disney, I worked at Disney World, you know, so when
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I started looking at the content that they were doing, it wasn't
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that it was right in your face. It was more innuendos, innuendos
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that I saw my daughter really trying to change herself because
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of what was being shown on the air.
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And I said, if I'm in this market and I'm here, I really
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want to make a difference of what I'm selling.
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Not that my action titles had any bad language.
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They didn't. They were just kind of like a a
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Mission Impossible, but they didn't have any more things for
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the children to grow. So that's when I decided to go
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in a different direction. And then as you know, God has a
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way of giving you what you want. And even though I was making my
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action movies, all of a sudden that $1.00 we were putting in,
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we were getting $3 back was gone.
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So I ended up our part of my partner and I were fighting and
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then some people go to drinking. I went to a Bible study course
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and I met Cindy Baum. And that's how the whole thing
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ended up happening. So.
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It was. The first direction I really
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wanted to go in at that time. You met her at a Bible study and
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she was did she create the animated 10 commandments or what
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was her role in that? That was that was she created
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that and she when I met her in the Bible study course, she had
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asked me to take on this film to distribute worldwide.
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She had domestic. So I had the rest of the world
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and I remember looking at Cindy going to Cindy.
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I I don't sell these type of movies.
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I sell action. I'm the queen of crash, boom,
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bam. I don't know what I'm going to
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do with this. I don't.
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Please, Siobhan, please, you know, see what you can do on it.
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So I remember going to my partner and saying, you know, we
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got 18 posters up. We'll just put one of the
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posters up in our booth. We'll put up the 10
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commandments. We got the voices of Alfa
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Molino, Christian Slater and Ben Kingsley.
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It's not going to hurt us. Let's just see how it goes.
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And we ended up selling the whole world outside of the
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United States except one territory.
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And the funny part was I thought it was going to be my first
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territory. And that territory was Israel.
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And basically they said to me, we already know the story.
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Yeah, don't tell our story. Yeah, don't tell our story.
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Yeah. So I sold Middle East for
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Ramadan. I sold China.
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I sold, you know, II did and Australia and all these places
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that that I was so surprised. Remember that I did not think
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Japan would take it because they had their anime.
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I didn't think China would take it.
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I didn't think the Middle East would take it, but the Middle
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East ended up all the countries took it.
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So it was a really eye opening. So it's successful, you're
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professionally successful in doing this and you personally,
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how do you find fulfillment and that you're spreading
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faith-based and valued movies at this rate, this number to so
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many people? I'm just happy that a family has
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an alternative, you know, I'm not saying the other stuff is
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bad. I just want the families to be
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able to know there's something that they can go to, that they
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can make their own decisions of what they put their family to
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watch. You know, before, for the
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longest time though, you had no other way.
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And everything was so hyped up on HBO at that time.
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Then it went to stars. So it was a nice to know that
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now we have a choice to go to. Yeah, I find your story, so many
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stories of people that it just seems to be a pattern, whether
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it started with Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, who wrote the
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New Testament. It's people who never planned to
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be in ministry or to do things, you know, powerfully around the
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world. They just had a certain skill,
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like in your case of business skill, and God allows them to
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hone it, to build it, to be successful at it, and then he
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finds ways to maneuver you to use those skills for probably a
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divine purpose. That typically seems to be the
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way it goes. Yes, I agree.
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I mean, sometimes you're looking at it and you're going, what am
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I going to do? And then if you listen to them,
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it comes about it. And I've said, yeah.
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And so many Bible studies are groups and people are they have
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a normal job and they're they're at a church sharing.
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I just feel like I should be doing something.
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I need to find a job at the church or I need to be a
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missionary. I don't know.
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And I always tell them, just do you like what you do?
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Are you good at what you do? Keep doing it because there's
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value to that. And it doesn't have to end up
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leading to ministry, but just the working is, you know, in the
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Old Testament, they had people that would be gifted Masons.
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Well, then they built great things that God called them to
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do. And so whether it's a great
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business person or, or Mason, I just, you know, anybody
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listening, if you think, you know, how can you affect your
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community or your family or the world?
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Sometimes you just do what you keep doing.
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If that's if you're enjoying it and you're good at it, that
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could be your purpose. And, and one thing I could say
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is I am so excited. I've been doing this for 34
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years and this is the only thing I want to do.
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I mean, I love it. I wake up every morning feeling
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blessed that I get to do because not only do we make the good
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movies, but I'm also incorporating charities.
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Like in some of my movies, I put Habitat for Humanity.
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And another one would be we put LeBron James, you know, so
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people can also learn how to give back as well.
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And we have a big one that we're doing now with the Mercy Ships.
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And the Mercy Ships are the ones in Africa where they go in and
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they help these children who have tumors or something like
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you're orthopedic, you know, just to give a feeling of yay,
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there's something other than war in our lives right now.
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How do you see this growing or developing?
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The rest of your years in it and and possibly past?
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What would you predict? I think, I think the world wants
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to unify. I really do.
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I think the world wants good content.
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I think the, it's not just United States.
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I mean, sometimes I think we, we think it's just us, but it's
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everywhere. And I think they all just want
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all the families just to be able to be united and sit down and
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watch. I mean, years ago, like you
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said, from the 70s, you used to sit down with your mom and dad
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or your brothers and your sisters and used to watch a
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movie together. Now dad goes to one room, mom
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goes to another, the kids go to YouTube or whatever.
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You know, I think we lost the communication with one another
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through this and that's what I'm trying to get.
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I want people to sit down, laugh, joke, see what they
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liked, what they didn't like, and just be together as a
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family. Well, thank you for your work
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and how could people support what you're doing is going to
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the YouTube channel, I'll have this in my notes, but the
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website, the YouTube, is that what they can do?
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Is there anything more? I would love they would join and
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subscribe to our ACI on the Go YouTube channel.
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That would be fantastic. If anybody wants to follow what
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I'm doing, I have an Instagram where I'm telling everybody
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everyday the little things that I do to make these 10 movies and
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how we're doing. And if anybody wants to DM me
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and ask me questions on it, I'll be glad to answer.
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All right, great. Thank you Siobhan for your time.
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Thanks. Counted among the outlaws who
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said come follow me. People from all walks of life
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since, but then becoming outlaws.