Check out a short interview below with Jason Brown of Called Higher – a Christian fan-owned Movie Studio!
How did you come up with the idea of creating a Christian, Fan Owned Movie Studio?
I’m not sure I actually came up with it. I believe God allowed me to learn bits and pieces of certain things along my journey and then put it on my heart. I just happened to be really drawn to business, movies, crowdfunding and community building, so I guess God instilled inside of me the ingredients to have a desire and a passion to do this.
What is the Mission of the Company? What is the ‘Why’?
100% our mission is to spread the gospel of Jesus through film and television. I believe that movies and television shows are the most influential ways of storytelling that we have. Jesus taught in parables, stories and I believe as Christian’s we are supposed to tell our stories of how Christ has affected our lives.
You already had a past offering that took place correct – what can you tell me about it?
Absolutely, and you are correct we did have a past offering that closed on April 1, 2020. It was an amazing experience for me and Ash (co-founder Greyson) both. We really didn’t know what to expect, would people want to partner and own part of a faith based production company? Luckily for us, the answer was yes and we raised over $1,000,000 from everyday Christians and fan investors to go and start making movies to spread the gospel. We had over 3700 investments in that offering and we were oversubscribed, which means we actually hit the limit that we were allowed to raise at that time and people were put on a wait list. It’s very cool to see a community come together and grow like that for a common mission.
How many investors do you have in your company now? Are these people wealthy investors or just ordinary people like you and I?
We have around 3500 investors right now and I believe they are people just like you and I. In my opinion, they’re everyday people who are passionate about Jesus and also love movies, just like Ash and I do…that’s why I believe we all attract each other. What’s great is with every person that gets involved, either by investing or just by joining our community on social media, we as a company get stronger! As a collective voice, we all get louder and more powerful in the industry…that’s the amazing thing, every single person matters in our company.
Where do you see the movie industry going? How did Covid affect it?
Covid shut down all of the theaters, productions, and hurt a lot of people. I believe that a direct to audience model is getting stronger and when you begin sourcing material directly from your audience that can be a powerful thing. I think the movie industry will come back strong, people want to see good stories…it may look a little different with how and when they get to experience them, but people love great stories and ultimately that is what we’re going to strive to deliver.
What projects do you guys have in the works?
We’re so excited about our current slate. We just hired Brian Baugh, director of I’m Not Ashamed, to write our film The Grace of Christ. It’s a phenomenal story that deals with the thief on the cross. We also have a kid’s camp movie about unconditional love currently called Camp Hideout that we are really excited about. It’s going to have some great physical comedy to it, think Mighty Ducks meets Ernest Goes to Camp meets Home Alone – but PG, kid friendly, and with a faith element to it! And we have some other exciting projects planned, but we’re even more excited to start taking our community’s stories and looking for some community generated content to produce! We’re going to build some technology to help us to do that, so we’re excited about that.
Where can people go to learn more about your studio and to get involved?
Go to www.calledhigherstudios.com and you can link to all of our social media, learn about our company, get involved and more. Definitely sign up for our email list to get some insider information and exclusive opportunities for our community, we call them ‘The Called!’