So… I saw a video this morning on a certain distributors website which shall remain nameless. The video is a “Christianized” copy of a video put out by the ONE campaign. The ONE campaign video uses highly recognizeable faces and a stark black and white aesthetic to draw attention to the startling statistic that a child dies every three seconds from AIDS or extreme poverty. The video is really well done, highly creative and very effective in communicating its message. Click here to watch it now.
Imagine my surprise when I’m looking through the new releases on a certain website and I come across a video that is an exact copy of this video. It’s black and white, shot on a white background, the people in the video aren’t the same celebrities but they are snapping every three seconds. Then the text comes up and it’s been changed to reflect that every three seconds (same as in the ONE video) six people die. The point the video is trying to make is that people are dying every second and a lot of those people don’t know Christ as Savior. I get that. And I applaud the filmmakers for trying to make that point. I just wish they would have taken inspiration from the ONE video and used that inspiration to creatively come up with their own original idea. As it is, to me it seems they’ve just stolen the idea. They give no credit to the original creators and they are passing it off as an original work. I could go on but I think I’ve made my point.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this in the church video space. It’s one of the most blatant copies I’ve seen, but it’s not the first. We need to be innovators. We need to be drawing on the creativity that God has given us to come up with original and powerful ways to communicate truth. And we need to be above reproach. There is a difference between parody and stealing. There is a difference between homage and rip off. And it just seems wrong.
I would really love it if you guys would weigh in on this topic and let me know your thoughts. I really feel like this is a discussion we all need to be having as makers and users of media and most importantly as bearers of the image of Christ.
Tags: conversations, copyright, General, internet links, making videos, storytelling, videos
May 18th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Right you are Storme. It drives me crazy to see our Christian brothers ripping off other people’s creativity. Come on. God gave you a brain and some ability. Use it. Don’t rip off other people.
May 18th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Hi guys,
I agree wholeheartedly. If you’re in the business and can’t manage to come up with something original to say, maybe you’re in the wrong business.
This also touches on my other pet peeve: Christian Music. Soooo much of that is the sound that was popular in so-called “secular” music a few years ago. By the time the sacred artists get around to mimicking the same sound, the rest of the world has moved on and the Christian stuff sounds dated and out-of-touch. Hey! Just the thing to intrigue people into wondering about your faith: out of date music styles!
I’ve seen stuff that is amazing and fresh and inventive and innovative and arresting in the Christan media/arts scene, but it is unfortunately rare. When we are able to bring our best to the altar and to the world, we really do stand out. When we’re just pale copies of what is out there (or blatant ripoffs) we may make the paycheck, but we give nonbelievers one more reason for their disbelief.
JasonY
May 19th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Hi!
My name is David, a video production specialist at North Coast Church in Vista, CA. I’m new to your blog; just discovered you from Church Videos Ideas.
I see your point here, and I agree that we need to be innovators in media, but I also see the reason for the church’s decision. They took a well known PSA and changed it to reflect a different statistic. I don’t quite understand how this is “wrong.”
Now…if they had used the EXACT commercial and just put different text at the end, now THAT would be stealing and wrong. But they didn’t. They used their own people, and their own information. That sounds like a parody to me.
We just got done doing a parody of the iPod silhouette ads (youtube.com/watch?v=_KdDUZmGwBY). We didn’t say anywhere that we got the idea from Apple, but people know, because it’s become popular culture. Now, maybe it’s just because I’ve seen the ONE campaign ad before, and that in reality it’s not truly become known in the mainstream, but it seems kind of like the same thing to me.
Wow…I just sounded really intense. I don’t mean to, it’s just my thoughts.
This is a great blog and I’m glad I found it.
May 20th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Good thoughts, and this is something that always bugs me at some level. I think there is some great music by Christians out there that is just as creative and cutting edge as anything else, it’s just usually found outside the “Christian Music Business”. I also think churches too quickly latch onto ideas from popular culture without really thinking about how to segue from one to the other. I’ve seen churches advertising sermon series with “Desparate Housewives”, “Apprentice”, “Lost” and “Survivor” references without really doing anything that creative with them. It’s just catchy and an attempt at attention getting.
I think there’s a fine line between using culture to communicate, and just mimicking it to seem more in touch. One is genuinely seeking to communicate truth and engage culture, the other is simply aping what we see in the world and slapping a Christian label on it.
Another pet peeve of mine is the Christian t-shirts that are blatant copyright infringements with popular logos changed to a Christian message. Maybe these are legal as a “parody”, but I think they are un-original and cheesy.
Thanks for the blog.
Durb