Peculiar Premieres on Christian Cinema Feb 21

All 10 episodes of Peculiar will be available via TVOD on Christian Cinema starting Feb. 21, 2018. Episodes are available for $0.99 each, or get all 10 for $7.99.

I’ve written about the changing landscape of SVOD and indie film, and gone through some of my reasons for moving Peculiar away from Amazon and Youtube.

The day after Youtube cancels my partnership, just a few days before Amazon lowers their royalty rate, my show will be on TVOD for the first time… and available to a Christian audience. I’m curious how making it available through a portal that caters to a Christian customer will go. Might be good, might be average.

In the past month episodes of Peculiar were started 165 times on Amazon. But the show was only viewed for 932 minutes. Meaning the episodes were watched, on average, under 6 minutes. That makes sense, considering Amazon isn’t a religious platform.

There aren’t a lot of comedies on Christian Cinema. Virtually no TV sitcoms. My show is both low budget and different in content. So it may not fit. or it may be well received. Time will tell.

I won’t be missing the money that Youtube or Amazon paid.

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My First Short Doc Film

I found what I think is my first real doc short. I’ve done interview/b roll projects for work and stuff for years. But this was a project I just wanted to do to educate about the importance of reading young. It’s from 2014 and stars my family.

Also, it was a pretty dry creative time for me. I was working corporate AV… too many hours for not enough pay. We were looking for a decent job, planning to move. We had sold our house and were living in my in-law’s home. I just needed to make something.

I had a 1st gen Canon EOS-M, a microphone and Zoom H4n recorder. I didn’t say, “Hey, let’s make a documentary film.” I just interviewed the family, shot some B roll and put it together. It’s too long, pacing is slow, the coloring is heavy handed, and I hate the music. But otherwise, not bad for throwing something together. Things have changed a lot in 4 years.

Creatively, it helped sustain me through a weird period.

Peculiar – Digital Access Soon to be Available on Christian Cinema

The changes in SVOD platforms have made me take a long look at where the series has been available, and where the people who would most want to see it are consuming content.

I believe that even though the series is aging, the best outlet is Christian Cinema.

Assuming all goes as planned, all 10 episodes of Peculiar will be available on ChristianCinema.com through the Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) platform. You’ll be able to purchase episodes or the entire series, and view it on your computer, TV or digital device.

At the end of February, Peculiar will no longer be available on Amazon Prime Video. And it’s already been removed from Youtube.

Check out the newly-cut-for-2018 series trailer for Peculiar:

It’s my hope that making this content (which was made for a Christian audiences) available to people who are looking for Christian content, more people will see it. Instead of just throwing it out into the world through any outlet possible, this more targeted release will put the show in front of more people who might actually want to watch it.

Peculiar Behind a Paywall?

I’ve been writing about changes to Youtube and Amazon Video Direct. Two major outlet for indie filmmakers have changed… for the worse. I still have no idea how this will all shake out for these outlets or indie filmmakers.

Amazon’s announcement of royalty cuts really frustrated me. You see, my series, Peculiar, was on both Youtube and Amazon Video. It’s an odd thing to have Christian content on secular outlets. On Amazon, every Christian who reviewed my show gave it 5 stars. Every non Christian reviewer gave it 1 star. It’s written for Christian audiences.

Right after the first 6 episodes were completed I landed a traditional distribution deal. I created a DVD, complete with a a set of Bible studies. For a brief time the DVD was available in actual brick and mortar stores. And through Christian Book Distributors and Amazon.com, and a few others. Then my distributor lost his access to the brick and mortars. And he was not interested moving the series to digital. I wrote about the success and lack of success before. I still have a few DVDs… contact me if you’re interested.

We agreed to part ways, and I looked for ways to get the show in front of people. Initially, that was through Youtube. This wasn’t the first time full episodes had been available online. I knew I could get the series up, and make it available.

So the show went from traditional DVD distribution to digital availability via ad-based delivery, and then Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) through Amazon Prime. It’s never been offered through a Transactional VOD service.

And it’s never been offered to specifically Christian audiences digitally.

So, I essentially skipped an entire distribution window. That’s understandable, self distribution was relatively new through TVOD and SVOD, and I just wanted the show out there.

Here I am with an aging, micro-budget series. The show has always been generally well received by its target audience. But the retail offerings have been very limited.

I’m seriously considering moving Peculiar to TVOD through Christian Cinema. It’s obviously the right outlet for the audience. But that means every episode goes behind a paywall. No more free viewing. (Except on the broadcast outlets STILL showing it…)

I do like seeing the series available on Amazon Prime. But I don’t think a lot of people are seeing it. Less than 1000 minutes streamed over the past 12 weeks. There was even less time viewed when it was on Youtube.

An outlet like Christian Cinema offer a niche market, for the right products. Amazon Prime has over 20,000 titles available while Christian Cinema has about 4,000. Sure, Christian Cinema has just 250,000 monthly users, but they are 250,000 users that are looking for Christian content and I’m trying to get noticed in a much smaller pool of content.

Specifically, there are currently only a few hundred comedies available through Christian Cinema. Many of them are stand up shows. The only comedy TV series available is The Statler Brothers TV Show, and that’s a DVD- not a digital offering.

Let’s do a reality check. Peculiar is micro-budget, and has all the issues that you find with that level of production. It’s old, with no new episodes since 2013. And it’s had a chance at Christian retail and failed.

My desire for the show has always been for more people to see it. If offering it through TVOD on a Christian outlet will help that to happen, maybe that’s what I should do. Not a lot of people are seeing it through Amazon.