16,000 Christians Rally Together and Raise $10 Million to Fund TV Show about the Life of Christ
A new multi-season series about the life of Jesus is finally coming to fruition after 16,000 Christians invested their personal funds into it.
“The Chosen,” the story following the life of Jesus, might not have been possible if it wasn’t for Christians all over the world donating to its production. The series raised over $10 million from 16,000 investors, making it the number one crowd-funded media project, according to the Christian Post.
This might not have ever happened if filmmaker Dallas Jenkins hadn’t taken a leap of faith.
It all started with a short film he created for his church called “The Shepherd.” The short film depicted the shepherd’s point of view while observing the birth of Christ. An idea was brought before him to use the short film to crowdfund for a larger series, “The Chosen,” to which he laughed at, at first.
“When the idea was offered to use [“The Shepherd”] to raise crowdfunding for this series, I laughed. And I thought, ‘That’s ridiculous. That’ll never work.’ But I was in that place in my life where I was thinking, it’s not my job to feed the 5,000,” Jenkins told The Christian Post.
He decided to go forth with it, and eventually, the film would make history as the largest crowdfunded media project in history.
One of the main reasons “The Chosen” was able to generate $10 million in crowdfunding was due to the success of Jenkins short film, “The Shepherd,” because of the loyal viewership of the short film.
Jody Brown, the author of The Sun Still Shines, invested in the series after finding out about the project on Facebook.
“The moment I saw the video for the first time when I saw the pilot, ‘The Shepherd,” it just spoke to my heart. I could immediately relate to the main character, the shepherd, and his brokenness and his desire for the Messiah to come. And it just really hit a very tender spot in me, and I thought: ‘This is the kind of media they want to see. This is what I wish there was more of,’” Brown told the Christian Post.
“There’s so much garbage in the world. I don’t even like to have my kids turn on the television at all ’cause you just don’t know what they’re going to be exposed to,” she said. “This is what I would love to see more of.”
Brown explained that she saw the movie a few times on her Facebook feed before she watched it, but when she did she couldn’t stop.
“I did see it come up a couple of times my feed and I finally stopped to watch it not realizing it was a full-length episode, but I knew it was different. As soon as it started, I could feel that there was something different about it. From that point on, I probably watched it at least a half dozen times and shared it with other people. And as soon as they said there was an opportunity to be involved, I knew I wanted to.”
At the end of each “The Chosen” episode, the credits roll for an incredibly long eight minutes, but for good reason.
It takes eight minutes because it includes every person who invested in the creation of the short series and believes in the powerful message of the film.
You can find episode 1 of “The Chosen” at TheChosen.tv.
Photo courtesy: Milkovi/Unsplash
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