Episode 114 - The Mission of 3 Days Studios and Guild

In this episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast, hosts Jaclyn and Geoff are joined by George Escobar and Dr. Joel Bunkowske from 3 Days Studios. They delve into the mission driving the studio, focusing on faith and family-centric storytelling. The conversation also covers the upcoming series 'Prairie Winds', aimed at filling the demand for wholesome, Christian family entertainment, inspired by shows like 'Little House on the Prairie'. They discuss the guild model for community involvement and education, the business strategy of vertical integration, and their innovative approach to crowdfunding and distribution. 

Highlights Include:

• The Heart Behind 3 Days Studios
• Joel's Missionary Background
• Impact of Christianity on Society
• 3 Days Studio's Mission
• Prairie Winds Project
• Creating Compelling Screenplays
• Vertical Integration and Distribution
• Empowerment Guild and Community

Bios:

George Escobar is an award-winning writer, director, and producer of seven faith-based feature films and over a dozen documentaries, including the Oscar-nominated “Alone Yet Not Alone.” His films: “Come What May” and “The World We Make” have been distributed by Sony, Amazon Prime, Netflix, PureFlix, and others. He has won screenwriting awards from: Kairos Pro Award, Content Media, ScreenCraft, and Coverfly’s Red List. He has taught over 3,500 students in filmmaking from a Christian worldview. Escobar is now writing the “Prairie Winds” streaming series for 3 Days Studios, and producing the feature film, “Missileman" with Academy-nominee Terry Rossio as executive producer. Escobar served as Executive Producer for Focus on the Family, VP of Product Development at Discovery, and Executive Director at AOL/TimeWarner. He is a producing graduate at the American Film Institute.

Dr. Joel W. Bunkowske, Esq. is one of the world's most educated, experienced, and successful corporate and entertainment lawyers. He is an award-winning attorney with over 30 years of experience in the music, television, and film industries. He is the recipient of Grammy, Dove, and Gold Record Awards for his legal work in the music and film industries. He has worked with Academy Award-nominated actors, Grammy and Dove award-winning recording artists, and legendary producers. His areas of practice include corporate law; film, television, and music Chief of Legal and Business Affairs; film production, finance, and distribution; contracts, dispute resolution, and University teaching.

Dr. Bunkowske has worked extensively in the film, music, and television industries doing corporate law, finance, distribution, consulting, producing, executive producing, directing, and contracts for hundreds of projects worldwide with Warner Bros., Universal, Disney, Sony, Paramount Pictures, ABC, NBC, FOX, Capitol Records, EMI, Curb Records, Word Records and many more. Dr. Bunkowske has done extensive venture capital deal structuring for film companies, record companies, and a $180 million foundation.

3 Days Studios and Guild: https://3daysstudios.com/

FAFF Screenwriting Bootcamp: https://www.faffassociation.com/screenwriting-bootcamp

Writers Retreat - Mexico: https://www.faffassociation.com/writers-retreat

Jaclyn's Book - In the Beginning, Middle and End: A Screenwriter’s Observations of LIfe, Character, and God: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9R7XS9V

VIP Producers Mentorship Program https://www.faffassociation.com/vip-producers-mentorship 

The Faith & Family Filmmakers podcast helps filmmakers who share a Christian worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. Releasing new episodes every week, we interview experts from varying fields of filmmaking; from screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers, to film scorers,  talent agents, and distributors. 

It is produced and hosted by Geoffrey Whitt and Jaclyn Whitt , and is brought to you by the Faith & Family Filmmakers Association

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Jaclyn: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:02

My name is Jaclyn, and Geoff and I are here today with George Escobar and Joel Bonkowski, Dr.

Jaclyn: 00:00:09

Joel Bonkowski.

Jaclyn: 00:00:10

And I've really enjoyed getting to know you guys in our first episode and hearing about the projects that you have worked on and are pursuing.

Jaclyn: 00:00:16

And so we're excited to really talk about what you are pursuing now with Three Days Studios.

Jaclyn: 00:00:22

First, can you tell me what is the heart behind it?

George: 00:00:26

If I.

George: 00:00:27

Good start, Joel.

George: 00:00:29

we put it right on the tagline for, our logo.

George: 00:00:33

You know, faith and family on every frame.

George: 00:00:36

So, we're going to be telling stories that are, unashamedly about how God is working in people's lives, how they resist, as well as how they accept and how it affects their families, themselves, of course, families and their communities.

George: 00:00:57

Because we, we have to start telling stories that, both from a historical perspective, but contemporary, and how God works through time and space, but not in a preachy way.

George: 00:01:09

You know, um, people need to, to have a sense that, wow, that, Sounds so true and authentic.

George: 00:01:17

I mean, the word authenticity seems to be the, the, the byword now for practically everything, unless it's authentic people, you know, sort of shy away from it.

George: 00:01:25

So that's part of it.

George: 00:01:27

And Joel, I, you know, he's got all sorts of, ideas about three day studios.

George: 00:01:31

I mean, more than anybody, I think he's the one that's responsible for launching it.

George: 00:01:36

Dr. Joel: Well, I'm just a missionary at heart, right?

George: 00:01:38

I grew up on the mission field, and so I have that same worldview.

George: 00:01:43

And I saw how Christianity changed the tribe where we were.

George: 00:01:47

Wonderful, amazing Yala people in Nigeria.

George: 00:01:51

And at this point, when we first went there, I mean, there was no written language.

George: 00:01:57

my father was linguist, actually a PhD from UCLA.

George: 00:02:00

He created a writing system, then translate it with me.

George: 00:02:04

Uh, Ferdinand, the New Testament into the new writing system that he created, and then with my mom, Bernice, taught the people how to read, and then, so their first reading in the entire tribe is, in their own, language, to read.

George: 00:02:22

is the Bible.

George: 00:02:23

And we just see that transform.

George: 00:02:26

And there's, there's a hundred thousand people in that area now that are Christians.

George: 00:02:30

And, again, there were other missionaries there at the Catholic Church there, uh, at different churches.

George: 00:02:34

But that work together of, translating God's Word into the Bible transformed the entire tribe there.

George: 00:02:43

And I just say, I've seen that.

George: 00:02:47

I guess I I'll go back to Isaac Hernandez, right?

George: 00:02:49

Isaac Hernandez, close friend, a wonderful man of God.

George: 00:02:54

he says that film is the new Paul.

George: 00:02:57

So

Geoff: 00:02:58

hmm.

Geoff: 00:02:58

Mm hmm.

Geoff: 00:02:58

Dr. Joel: see this film work as any different than our translation work in Africa.

Geoff: 00:03:05

Well, all we're doing is we're finding the most compelling way.

Geoff: 00:03:08

to take the Bible and Christianity and transform the world.

Geoff: 00:03:13

And here's the thing people don't understand is, because in the Western world, our entire legal system, our entire society, our entire ethical norm is all based on, uh, Christianity.

Geoff: 00:03:24

Everything.

Geoff: 00:03:25

And people tell you different, but they're lying.

Geoff: 00:03:27

it is all based on, if you go back historically, all based on Christianity.

Geoff: 00:03:31

The first 13 colonies in the United States, every charter said it was a Christian nation.

Geoff: 00:03:38

Every charter of all of that.

Geoff: 00:03:40

So the U.

Geoff: 00:03:41

S.

Geoff: 00:03:41

is born as a Christian nation, and yes, there are other religions in the United States, but to say the ethical norm is not Christianity, and so we take that for granted.

Geoff: 00:03:56

Even as America moves away from Christianity, so many people, we're still living in a Christian paradigm, and so we're still blessed by the Christian paradigm, and that is the golden rule, love your neighbor, love God, love your neighbor, and spread the gospel.

Geoff: 00:04:12

That's all that God says, right?

Geoff: 00:04:14

So, you know, the rest of the Bible is, look at what happens when you don't obey me, and then come back to me, and I'm pursuing you, and I'm going to keep pursuing you over and over that's the whole thing in a nutshell.

Geoff: 00:04:25

So that's what we do.

Geoff: 00:04:27

We're missionaries.

Geoff: 00:04:28

Three Days Studio is a mission organization.

Geoff: 00:04:30

In fact, it's a non profit, uh, Christian Worldview Church Ministries, and it's not about wealth or fame or fortune or, or anything except for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in such a compelling way that people who are non Christians can get sucked in to the love of Jesus, and they realize this paradigm, this Christian worldview that is central to the United States and the Western world, it not only creates eternal life by belief in Jesus, but it creates this amazing society.

Geoff: 00:05:07

It's the most successful society in the history of the world.

Geoff: 00:05:10

That's because we've been blessed by following God's ways.

Geoff: 00:05:15

and as we move away from it, then we take away the blessing and we bring the curse.

Geoff: 00:05:20

That's the story of the Bible over and over and over.

Geoff: 00:05:23

People become successful, they move away from God, they say, I want to sit on the throne, I want to be God now, and move over Jesus, move over God, I'm going to take over, and now you know what's going to happen.

Geoff: 00:05:37

The Bible, the stories of the parables of the Bible are predictive of the reality of what is happening, and that's why As the remnant in the United States, and there are a lot of people, there are a lot of Christians, believe me, and a lot of them are quiet, but it's time for us to step up and say, no, we want to show you that a Christian worldview that we take for granted, that most countries don't, most societies don't, will make the world an incredible place.

Geoff: 00:06:10

It doesn't, it doesn't mean we're not going to go through problems, we're going to go through problems, But guess what?

Geoff: 00:06:15

God will see us through, and He will bring us to that promised land that He has promised.

George: 00:06:20

The namesake itself, Three Day Studios, Joel came up with that and I love it because it speaks to the resurrection of Christ after three days.

George: 00:06:29

That's

George: 00:06:30

Dr. Joel: Actually, I need to give credit where credit's due.

George: 00:06:32

My wife, Susan, came up with it.

George: 00:06:35

ah, okay.

George: 00:06:37

Thank you,

Geoff: 00:06:37

I was guessing that connection.

Geoff: 00:06:40

Let's talk about your, um, your project Prairie Winds.

Geoff: 00:06:44

Now, I know a little bit about it.

Geoff: 00:06:45

I was in a meeting with you guys a couple of nights ago and, I know what's behind it.

Geoff: 00:06:50

not just the story, but the purpose for, let's say targeting that type of story.

Geoff: 00:06:55

So tell us, what's behind all of

Geoff: 00:06:58

Dr. Joel: Go, George.

George: 00:06:59

Well, again, I have to give credit to Joel because he asked me, I believe he's the one that asked me this question.

George: 00:07:05

It goes, have you seen Little House on the Prairie?

George: 00:07:07

And I said, yeah, of course it goes, well, you know, a lot of people have seen it, but not since 40 years ago when it came off the air, you know, we've only seen reruns and it occurred to me and both of us that that's a remarkable piece of property where A family goes out into the frontier to have to depend not just on themselves, not just on their neighbors, but really they have to cry out to God, help us with the rain and the crops and the floods and, also, you know, with our neighbors, and health.

George: 00:07:37

Everything is going to center on what God's blessing and what a ripe field to be able to communicate that.

George: 00:07:45

But also, we think we're wanting to do something that there's a pent up demand.

George: 00:07:51

Just like The Chosen, I think, was very successful because there was a pent up demand for stories about Christ told in a different way that hasn't been done before.

George: 00:08:00

And so, we wanted to look at the landscape.

George: 00:08:03

Well, there's a pent up demand, 40 years of, people watching or having watched Little House on the Prairie, and now those kids are grown up.

George: 00:08:10

They've got kids, and some are grandkids, and yet they, they don't have that.

George: 00:08:15

Except for the reruns, and nobody owns the Prairie or the Pioneer Era, so we decided that's perfect for us.

George: 00:08:22

So that's one aspect, the pent up demand.

George: 00:08:24

The other, you know, the storytelling.

George: 00:08:26

Joel is about to add one really important thing about that.

George: 00:08:30

But we also wanted to make sure that the entire family can watch it.

George: 00:08:36

safely and, and excitedly, um, where the kids are not the ones that are taking the kids along, hey, watch this, but rather the parent says, hey, we gotta, I'm excited to watch this, bring them along.

George: 00:08:49

So

George: 00:08:50

Dr. Joel: I'm gonna set the record straight, uh, Brian and Sally Oxley, who, uh, were missionary kids, Brian was a missionary, his family missionaries in Japan, and Sally, they were missionaries, I think, in Hong Kong.

George: 00:09:04

they own the Johnny Cash Farm in Nashville.

George: 00:09:07

So we were there and I was talking to Brian.

George: 00:09:12

Brian was got involved with the little house on the Prairie folks 'cause they were gonna come there and do an event.

George: 00:09:18

So it was actually Brian and Sally talking about the, uh, little House on the Prairie that kind of said.

George: 00:09:26

Wow, look at this wonderful farm, look at these Christians, and I was like, we could do a version of Little House on the Prairie here, and then George and I started talking about it, and we said, well, you know, that the rights are tough to get, and all this, and so we had a meeting.

George: 00:09:44

So it was me and George, and Brian and Sally Oxley, and Scott as well.

George: 00:09:51

And we just kind of started fleshing it out and talking about how do we do this.

George: 00:09:57

And we said, well, no one owns the prairie, right?

George: 00:10:00

No one owns, so we can do a Christian version of Little House on the Prairie, but the key here is to really put the gospel into it in a very natural and normal way.

George: 00:10:15

And George wrote the first, uh,

George: 00:10:17

The pilot episode.

George: 00:10:18

Dr. Joel: pilot

George: 00:10:19

episode.

George: 00:10:20

And in that, there is Christianity from the beginning to the end, all the way through it, And when you read the script, because you guys are in the Guild, right, uh, and

Jaclyn: 00:10:30

Mm

Jaclyn: 00:10:30

Dr. Joel: and so the in the Guild are going to get a chance to actually read the scripts before we shoot them and give us feedback, which we're excited about our Guild and everything.

Jaclyn: 00:10:40

George will talk a little bit about that in a minute.

Jaclyn: 00:10:42

But the key is that George Escobar's screenwriting, uh, I'm a stickler on

Jaclyn: 00:10:50

No film can be better than the screenplay.

Jaclyn: 00:10:53

And people bring me screenplays all the time and those attorneys say, Hey, what do you think?

Jaclyn: 00:10:57

and I would just say, listen, spend a year on your script, do whatever it takes to get it awesome.

Jaclyn: 00:11:03

I said, a script is not good enough if you can set it down and go get a hamburger.

Jaclyn: 00:11:09

It's not good enough.

Jaclyn: 00:11:10

The script has to be so good that when you start, you cannot stop.

Jaclyn: 00:11:15

Even if you start at midnight and you're going to read it till 1:30 or whatever it is, It's so compelling, you know you're hungry, you know you're thirsty, you know you gotta go to the bathroom, but you don't want to stop.

Jaclyn: 00:11:27

That,

Jaclyn: 00:11:29

if you're not there, don't waste investor money, don't waste resources, don't waste your time.

Jaclyn: 00:11:36

No film is better than the script.

Jaclyn: 00:11:38

So George sends me the first version of it.

Jaclyn: 00:11:41

it was one o'clock in the morning, I read it straight through, until the very end, and I just like We could shoot this tomorrow.

Geoff: 00:11:50

wow,

Jaclyn: 00:11:51

So

George: 00:11:51

wait till Jaclyn looks at it.

Jaclyn: 00:11:55

No, I'll do my best to poke holes in it.

Jaclyn: 00:11:57

I'll do my best to, you know, give ideas, but we'll see because it sounds like it's already something amazing.

Jaclyn: 00:12:03

So I'm looking forward to reading it.

Jaclyn: 00:12:04

I want to give you, um, like just a little bit of value for you and the listeners of like a show like Little House on the Prairie.

Jaclyn: 00:12:12

so when my son, he's in his twenties now, but when he was four or five years old, uh, he was at my sister's house.

Jaclyn: 00:12:18

She was babysitting him while I was at work.

Jaclyn: 00:12:21

And so she would put Little House on the Prairie on for the kids sometimes.

Jaclyn: 00:12:25

And so she told me when I got home from work, uh, one day, she said, My son had done the cutest thing.

Jaclyn: 00:12:32

He was watching a scene where the barn was on fire and so the horse was in danger, and my son was literally praying for God to save the horse.

Jaclyn: 00:12:42

Like, it's just so sweet.

Jaclyn: 00:12:43

And my sister was not a believer.

Jaclyn: 00:12:46

She still isn't.

Jaclyn: 00:12:47

I'm still praying for her.

Jaclyn: 00:12:48

However, was such a testimony.

Jaclyn: 00:12:51

For her to see that sweetness and that innocent and that faith of a child, he was praying for this horse and his safety and yeah, and I'm sure that obviously I was teaching him how to pray, but the show was also fostering that and so this kind of show that you're producing where Christianity is a normal part of life, it is teaching how to normalize and how to bring that behavior into our everyday lives.

George: 00:13:18

Yeah, it's actually a very straightforward, simple format that we're creating, which is, um, there's a natural opening for reading the Bible, by one of kids, uh, Sarah or Emma.

George: 00:13:30

And that's going to be the theme of that particular episode all the way through.

George: 00:13:35

and then there's a voiceover at the end.

George: 00:13:37

And so the storytelling.

George: 00:13:39

Uh, you just lift it up to the Lord, Lord, how do you want us to use this, scripture verse?

George: 00:13:44

And for the first episode, I was at, our local church here, and I was praying, Lord, how do you want this to open?

George: 00:13:51

And then he just downloaded it.

George: 00:13:53

And so I just started writing from that opening and, and all the way through, you know, in the

George: 00:13:58

Dr. Joel: Lean not on your own understanding.

George: 00:14:00

yeah, yeah.

George: 00:14:01

And, um, as we were talking earlier, our plan is to have, four seasons, eight episodes per season.

George: 00:14:08

This is not like the old days where a season, you'd have 24 episodes back in the network, TV days.

George: 00:14:15

somehow that model's gone, but that's still 32 episodes.

George: 00:14:19

So, you know, I want to establish the, the story bible, the characters, the whole world, and, Joel, you know, obviously he's going to infuse that with his, uh, wisdom and his knowledge, and so that becomes our story bible, and I'll be responsible for writing maybe the first three episodes, maybe more, I hope, I want to, but then, you know, that will, I'll, allow other writers to come in and make sure to reflect that in the storytelling.

George: 00:14:46

We're going to do something else, uh, very unique that, um, I don't know if anybody else is doing it this way, right at the onset, which is we plan on making those first or three episodes, in a way that it can stand alone as an episode, but integrated storytelling so that we can launch that as a theatrical release.

Geoff: 00:15:06

great idea,

George: 00:15:06

So that people can experience it the theater, and then it has its own currency in the film world, you know, theatrical release is always a big deal, that then, uh, launches, and hopefully, There's sufficient box office return using the fast follower model that we've, been, um, planning based on the Angel Studios model, uh, investor crowdfunding and the guild and all that, to then launch the financing for the rest of the episodes.

George: 00:15:33

I mean, we'll, we'll have that in place, but again, It'll just be a much more integrated, and maybe Joel can talk a little bit about our vertical integration approach.

George: 00:15:43

Dr. Joel: Yeah, I think from a business standpoint, vertical integration just simply means that from idea all the way to distribution and marketing, you control the entire process.

George: 00:15:54

And that's one of the things that I have felt as an attorney and as a business person, that the, I have a lot of clients who basically are like, I want to make a film, I'm going to make the film, and then there's going to be somebody there to hand it off to, to do the marketing and distribution.

George: 00:16:10

And they get done with the thing and then guess what?

George: 00:16:13

Nobody shows up for the marketing and distribution.

George: 00:16:16

And so I tell all of my clients, uh, that you're only looking at half of the job.

George: 00:16:22

The second half of the job is the marketing and the distribution.

George: 00:16:25

And you need to, when you're doing financing, You need to finance everything all the way through distribution and marketing.

George: 00:16:32

And there's like, oh, that's too much or whatever.

George: 00:16:35

Let's go for this little piece.

George: 00:16:37

Fine, go for that little piece.

George: 00:16:38

But no, you got to get that other piece.

George: 00:16:40

If you don't have that other piece, then again, you've got to have the whole thing.

George: 00:16:45

And then, Everybody's looking to third parties, uh, looking to Hollywood.

George: 00:16:50

Is Hollywood going to pick up your film?

George: 00:16:51

And the answer is probably no.

George: 00:16:53

you know, we, with Priceless, luckily we did get Universal to distribute and Roadside Attractions, but that's because we had For King and Country, and they already had half a million fans at that time.

George: 00:17:04

Now they have a million or more fans.

George: 00:17:05

I don't even know how is.

George: 00:17:07

It's, it's, it's huge.

George: 00:17:09

So, we had a differentiator.

George: 00:17:11

For that film, a built in audience that was guaranteed going to see it.

George: 00:17:15

So when you go to Universal that's a compelling thing there.

George: 00:17:18

But for most people who don't have that compelling thing, We got to think more holistically and how we do this.

George: 00:17:25

And Angel Studios, I have to give them kudos again.

George: 00:17:29

Credit where credit's due.

George: 00:17:31

They, and by the grace of God, being a part of their first theatrical release, you know, His Only Son, and being able to be there doing all those contracts and seeing how it worked and being a part of that understanding, this is empowering for the entire world of Christianity.

George: 00:17:48

So, if we now, with 3 Day Studios, can create a similar model, an evangelical, conservative, Christian model, where all of our people who work with us feel safe.

George: 00:18:02

Because it's family and we are in that same understanding and we can go all the way from idea, financing, uh, and again, working with the crowdfunding.

George: 00:18:14

I'm doing the Reg A offering, Regulation A, which is a, bigger offering.

George: 00:18:18

I can raise up to 70 million per year with that, which changes things significantly financially for a three day studios, if we can come in with major capital backing what we're doing, which we can, then it just opens all the doors and we can create that situation where we go directly to theaters on our own.

George: 00:18:42

Here's the most amazing thing that Jared from Angel was able to share with us is that, uh, guess what?

George: 00:18:49

Theaters are in the, they're in the business of making money.

George: 00:18:53

And if you help them make money, they're fine.

George: 00:18:56

It doesn't matter who you are, they're in the business.

George: 00:18:59

So if we can find a way to help them make money, which we can, we know how that works.

George: 00:19:04

We know how to do it.

George: 00:19:05

We know how to get all of the theaters on board for a wide release.

George: 00:19:11

by the grace of God, we have the strategy set up, the capital on its way as we're working on it.

George: 00:19:18

And now it's about excellence.

George: 00:19:20

The last thing I tell my clients, excellence, excellence, excellence.

George: 00:19:24

You must, you must fire on all cylinders.

George: 00:19:28

Great screenplay, great actors, great director, great UPM, great, locations, great, costuming, great props, great, marketing, great distribution.

George: 00:19:38

if you fire on all the cylinders, you can expect to succeed.

George: 00:19:44

It's when we drop the ball on one of those things, that's when it all falls apart.

George: 00:19:49

And if you can't execute on all of those things, you better find a team that can.

Geoff: 00:19:54

that's right,

George: 00:19:55

It's not a top secret piece of information that theater owners want to make money.

George: 00:20:00

Just, just so the audience knows.

Jaclyn: 00:20:03

Yeah.

George: 00:20:03

Of course.

George: 00:20:04

But I, unless you've got another question, I want to add to what,

Jaclyn: 00:20:07

Oh, go for

Geoff: 00:20:08

please do.

George: 00:20:08

Oh,

George: 00:20:09

okay.

George: 00:20:09

So, a big part of this is what we've been, talking about, which is the guild.

George: 00:20:14

And what does that mean exactly?

George: 00:20:16

Because, you know, in the old days, back in the, the Renaissance period, you know, a guild was a bunch of, artisans, you know, they were candle makers, and so they formed a guild or whatever discipline, and then they, they sort of lock everybody out.

George: 00:20:31

They said, okay, we're going to protect ourselves.

George: 00:20:33

It's like the first union.

George: 00:20:35

Our model of the guild is not that.

George: 00:20:37

Rather, it's a very, open, inviting, a way for us to, share resources, but also, provide the kind of prayer network, the kind of, investment opportunity, of course, that, you know, following the Angel Studio model, where they have members of the guild take a look at the trailers that, you know, people have brought into Angel Studio and say, hey, you distribute this for us?

George: 00:21:02

Well, they don't make that decision.

George: 00:21:03

They allow the guild to do that.

George: 00:21:04

We're doing that with respect to our storytelling.

George: 00:21:07

Um, but also more importantly, I think, is to help educate.

George: 00:21:12

so you're not just going to be consuming content.

George: 00:21:14

I mean you could elect to, you could be passive of a passive guild member, but if you want to be active and really lean in and be part of building this community, that's one of the ways that we're doing it.

George: 00:21:25

And, um Where we've decided to create a founders circle amongst the guild, and we'll, we'll have other groupings, but the founders circle is really critical to us because these are our biggest and earliest supporters, and they're going to get special privileges because of that.

George: 00:21:41

Like, for example, what you guys will, you guys are Our founders, actually, in our guild, and so you're going to have access to the script.

George: 00:21:49

Um, we have other surprises that we can't tell you about, just like you've got your big 2025 announcement.

George: 00:21:55

We have some of those, too.

George: 00:21:57

Uh, we're excited to bring those about, but, um,

George: 00:21:59

Dr. Joel: let me jump in,

George: 00:22:00

George.

George: 00:22:01

It's going to be an empowerment guild.

George: 00:22:03

And that's, that's a real different model, where we seek to empower people to maximize their potential for the kingdom.

George: 00:22:10

So if you come in and you want to be a screenwriter, we want to have classes where you can learn how to become an incredible screenwriter.

George: 00:22:17

If you want to become, someone who's, on a crew and you can learn what are the jobs of the crew and you can figure out how to do that.

George: 00:22:22

And you can even, for some people will give them opportunities to work on our features so you come in, And somewhat a training ground, and then building up people who can make the films, write the films, act in the films, and do all of those things, market the films, all of the things.

George: 00:22:40

We don't want to keep it to ourselves and hide, we've got this special secret sauce, we actually want to spread it to everyone.

George: 00:22:46

And then, not only that, we want to move past just, filmmakers.

George: 00:22:50

We want everyone who's a supporter of the filmmaker, people who are supporters of Christian film, people who want to see more of this made.

George: 00:22:58

The beauty of the angel model is, and our reggae offering, uh, again, we're in a period that's, we can talk about it.

George: 00:23:06

We're not selling securities, but we can talk about it.

George: 00:23:08

Testing the water is what it's called.

George: 00:23:10

And so, someone can put in a hundred dollars.

George: 00:23:13

So it's not like we have to rely on a few billionaires to bring in millions of dollars.

George: 00:23:18

We can say, let's open it up to all of the Christian film community and anybody if they want, they can invest whatever they want.

George: 00:23:25

You want to put in a hundred bucks.

George: 00:23:26

We're not taking a dollar, 10 just because there's too much work with it.

George: 00:23:30

So we're saying a minimum of a hundred, but someone puts in a hundred.

George: 00:23:34

see it as this way.

George: 00:23:36

It's a nonprofit, a church, right?

George: 00:23:38

And if you, you know, some people would show up at church and they would move the chairs, put up the chairs, and then take up the chairs when you're starting a new church.

George: 00:23:46

So people can volunteer.

George: 00:23:47

If you put in 100, you know, you're serving the Lord.

George: 00:23:52

By the grace of God, we also say, hey, it's a double edged thing.

George: 00:23:56

One, you're serving God.

George: 00:23:57

And two, as we work together by the grace of God and we're successful financially, you'll also get a return on that investment.

George: 00:24:05

I always tell all my clients, don't take money from anybody who's not as the same plans as you.

George: 00:24:10

If if they're trying to get rich, just say no.

George: 00:24:14

If they have the same mission and ministry as you, then you come alongside them and then it's a win win situation.

George: 00:24:21

And what I found is on the films that have been successful, every investor that I've had, They come back and they say, okay, I got, this money back.

George: 00:24:33

We want to invest in the next one.

George: 00:24:35

So they don't take it out.

George: 00:24:37

they're just re tithing it back into more films and series for the King of Kings.

George: 00:24:43

so that's the model and it's going to take a lot of people.

George: 00:24:47

Because a hundred dollars at a time or a thousand dollars at a time, you need, we need hundreds of thousands of people.

George: 00:24:53

And that's our next challenge and one of the reasons it's a great thing that we can be on here is that we can share.

George: 00:24:59

We're going to need a lot of people.

George: 00:25:01

We don't want to just take, we want to give.

George: 00:25:03

We want to serve you, we want to help you, and we want to make you a part of this.

Jaclyn: 00:25:08

Beautiful.

Jaclyn: 00:25:09

Amen.

George: 00:25:11

you guys are actually the very first ones that we're able to share this with and, and that you had contacted us just at the right time that we can share this and, and this is, uh, opening up.

George: 00:25:22

I always think about, uh, when miracles happen, uh, we're told we should remember it, put a marker on it.

George: 00:25:28

And so I'm putting a marker on the four of us right now that, fact that we're using uh, not just this technology, but, all the energy and time that the Lord has given us for this place at this time to me is miraculous.

George: 00:25:41

And I want to, honor that and thank you, Lord.

George: 00:25:44

I want to, say one more thing about, and the word that, Uh, what's missing for me, with a guilt, is a community.

George: 00:25:52

I really want a community believers, not necessarily just filmmakers, you know, going to be part and parcel of it, but, I want to hear stories like you just shared as far as their child or, mom or dad that watch Prairie Winds and, you know, maybe they build something or to have a project and they're touched by it.

George: 00:26:14

Because they saw an episode, um, because we're gonna, one of the, the ways that I want to make sure that people want to watch is they're going to learn something.

George: 00:26:23

They're going to learn how to do something and practice it at home.

George: 00:26:27

Sometimes it's going to be a meal that they make and sometimes it's going to be a little, project, uh, that, uh, father and son can do together that's going to be useful for the show, but also something that families can do.

George: 00:26:38

I

George: 00:26:38

mean, you know, when I look at the history of, film and series, I'm appalled sometimes that all these kinds of opportunities are not there.

George: 00:26:47

It's like, were they thinking, I guess, because they weren't approaching it from a community and family perspective to begin with.

George: 00:26:53

So when you have that mindset, blessings about that can come about,

Jaclyn: 00:26:56

Yeah, it really depends on whose kingdom you're building as to what it looks like as you're

Jaclyn: 00:27:02

Dr. Joel: Amen.

George: 00:27:03

Yeah.

George: 00:27:04

Yep.

Geoff: 00:27:04

I'm really excited about the potential for Prairie Winds.

Geoff: 00:27:07

Um, I really think you're onto something.

Geoff: 00:27:09

And secondly, we feel honored also that, uh, we get this opportunity today to share this.

Geoff: 00:27:16

and thank you so much for coming.

Geoff: 00:27:17

And I'm not, not necessarily closing us out here, but thank you so much for agreeing to come and, uh, for sharing this with our listeners.

Geoff: 00:27:24

so tell our listeners how they can be involved.

George: 00:27:26

Well, I guess that's it.

George: 00:27:27

Just go to the website.

George: 00:27:28

I've got it running behind me here.

George: 00:27:29

That's the screen for threedaystudios.

George: 00:27:33

com.

George: 00:27:34

So that's three and the number three and then

George: 00:27:37

studios.

George: 00:27:38

three days, D A Y S and then studios.

George: 00:27:42

com.

George: 00:27:43

All one word.

George: 00:27:45

I would love to come back and bring the Morrison brothers with us so they can tell you about the Victory

George: 00:27:50

Dr. Joel: good

Jaclyn: 00:27:50

Yes, that sounds amazing.

Geoff: 00:27:52

Yeah, we actually have had contact with them about being on the podcast.

Geoff: 00:27:56

Uh, we set anything up yet and that was not based on the angle of, victory swing.

Geoff: 00:28:00

So that'll be certainly another thing for us to

Geoff: 00:28:02

talk

Geoff: 00:28:03

about.

Jaclyn: 00:28:03

thank you guys so much for coming and sharing what you're doing with your projects.

Jaclyn: 00:28:08

I'm sure we're going to have to have you back when you've got new things to announce and some praise reports.

Jaclyn: 00:28:15

excited to see what God does with your efforts and the experience that He has brought together between the two of you.

Jaclyn: 00:28:22

It's going to be amazing.

George: 00:28:24

Yeah.

George: 00:28:24

Well, you know, should do a script breakdown.

George: 00:28:27

with the first episode, you know, in a future broadcast.

George: 00:28:30

And then as it, progresses into production, then you can sort of build a, um, a whole series of how a streaming show gets constructed from beginning to end.

George: 00:28:41

Anyway, an

George: 00:28:42

idea.

George: 00:28:43

Dr. Joel: what I like to say, what

George: 00:28:44

I like to say is, I'm grateful that you're willing to be a part.

George: 00:28:49

I'm grateful that you're part of the team already.

George: 00:28:52

So it's not a year, it's a we.

George: 00:28:54

We're all together doing this thing and that God will do mighty things when we take our egos out of it and we say, God, you're on the throne, you're the boss, you're the CEO, you're in charge, and we bathe everything in prayer, and we let Him do the mighty things that He can do.

George: 00:29:14

I see that in your heart and in your spirit and who you are, and I'm just grateful, grateful to have a brother and sister in Christ, a new brother and sister in Christ.

Geoff: 00:29:25

And it's great to meet you as well on a personal level.

Geoff: 00:29:28

So, God bless you.

Geoff: 00:29:29

And thanks once again.