Inside Look at 'Another Chance' with Paulo Simoes

We are excited to announce that Paulo Simoes, owner of Brios Media Group and Executive Producer on Secrets in the Fall, recently directed a faith-based feature film with Living Word Films out of Raleigh, NC. The project, entitled Another Chance, is a story of a sleazy small town politician who has his world turned upside down when two teenagers struggling to overcome their own mistakes bring him face to face with his sordid past.

Simoes is a veteran in the film industry having work for the Brazil division of Sony Entertainment for over twenty years. During that time, he dealt primarily with distribution and marketing of big-budget films the likes of which have made Sony one of the most renowned brands in the world. After becoming more involved with Secrets in the Fall, his first independent faith-based film, Simoes was approached by his pastor and Living Word Films to pursue the ambitious goal of developing a dramatic Christmas film with a very small budget of $5,000 and the holidays creeping up fast. He says, “I saw this as a great opportunity to do something for God,” which had been lacking for so long in his previous role at Sony. Now he would be able to take the reigns and turn his attention more to the development of the story and carry out his creative ideas. “I was able to put myself to the test,” said Simoes.

Minimal budgets, narrow time frames and lack of personnel all posed interesting challenges for Simoes and his crew. “When you have these kind of constraints, everyone has to wear many hats to get the job done,” said Simoes. He even joked that while coming back from Orlando, he purchased a copy of Directing for Dummies and had an unfamiliar women from the plane wish him luck on the film. Luck is hard to come by in the film industry but you take all you can get!One of the things that we appreciate about the film is that, like the Secrets films, it puts a strong emphasis on empowering youth. Their courageous actions inspire change in characters that are struggling with their walk in faith. Self-esteem is something that is lacking in today’s youth, and it is very important to be able to deliver a message that connects with them and makes them realize that they have the power to influence this world in a positive way.

Another thing that drove us to work with Paulo initially was his willingness not to make another “preachy, message-heavy Christian film”. Don’t get me wrong, we have tremendous respect for Christian film companies that create said projects, but we, like Simoes, want our films to be accepted by a secular audience as well to empower common perceptions about the Christian media industry. The films still have strong morals and ideals but we focus more on the true-to-life scenarios and positive interactions rather than highlighting specific Bible verses to make the film “faith-based”. Simoes also stated, “I do not like it when I feel manipulated as a viewer, so we worked to leave it very open to interpretation.” Ultimately, very person who sees your film has different thought processes about scenes, interactions and dialogue, so if you can leave it up to their interpretation then many times they will become more emotionally invested in the characters and their stories.

Another Chance is now available for purchase on DVD and online streaming through the film’s official website (http://anotherchancethemovie.com/) and Simoes hopes to have it available on Amazon soon.  

Check out the promotional video on LWF's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o391pmq13Yg#t=38

Leave a review online and follow them on social media to see what they are up to next.

New Home in Tennessee

For those that follow our social media posts since the holidays, you may have noticed that lately Brittany and I have been spending a lot more time in Tennessee. We are pleased to announce that, as of last week, the Goodwins are now official Tennessee residents!  We are living in Murfreesboro, a college town situated about 20 minutes southeast of Nashville and the home of the MTSU Blue Raiders.   Very similar geography to North Raleigh in that you can drive about 15 minutes north from a metro area and find beatiful rolling pastures where livestock normally outnumber people.  

For the major part of 2013, we planned on moving to the Middle Tennessee area because it is a great area to find talented film professionals and musicians that embody similar Christian ideals that we hold near and dear to our hearts. We are very excited about what the future holds for our company and look forward to planning our next project that will likely start pre-production in early 2015.

Our apologies go out to those that we did not have a chance to say goodbye to before we left. The move happened very fast and we were fortunate enough to sell our home quickly, which gave us the kick in the pants to take a leap of faith on the move.  

Thank you to everyone for all of your continued support. We appreciate your enthusiasm for our projects and willingness to spread the word about our films and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Also, in case you did not hear, the Spaceship Days 'December' video that we shot back in November just surpassed our goal of 100,000 views on YouTube!  If you have not seen it then please check it out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_upFU-XGJE).  The track 'December' is featured on the 'Secrets in the Fall' soundtrack.  They are an awesome band with great tunes and they are big fans of our company and films.   Hate we can't hang out with them anymore!  

Talk to y'all soon.

(don't be mad at me for throwing in some southern twang now that we're in Nashville!)

"December" approaches 100,000 views!

After the official launch of the Spaceship Days "December" music video on December 3, 2013, the video has already been seen by over 75,000 viewers!  We are very excited about the response we are getting and are proud to be able to put this Raleigh-based indie rock band's music in front of so many people.  Brittany and I had a great time working with them on set and appreciate their diligent promotions of the video and our Christian film Secrets in the Fall. We also wanted to thank Mark Lamdanski on WWIR Radio - All Indie, All the Time for releasing the video to the world on their website back in December.  If you haven't had a chance to meet either the band or Mark, they are both pretty impressive in person and in the Twitter-sphere!  You can follow both of them at @SpaceshipDays or @allindie.  

SPREAD THE WORD AND HELP US GET TO 100,000 VIEWS! JOIN THE REVOLUTION.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1417267698510219/?ref=23

Spaceship Days has a new album that is expected to be released in the spring of 2014 and we look forward to working with them in the future.

"December" is one of the featured tracks on the soundtrack for our latest film, Secrets in the Fall.  You can purchase your copy from our website today or check it out on Amazon.com. 

Interview with the Goodwins on Faith Flix

We want to give a big shout-out to Sharon Wilharm of Faith Flix who recently published interviews with Brittany and I where we had a chance to talk about our backgrounds in film, experiences on filming and producing Secrets in the Snow and Secrets in the Fall, and our plan for future projects. 

Faith Flix is a relatively new website that focuses on giving readers an inside look at independent Christian films and the people who make them possible.  They recently awarded many influential films in their first annual Faith Flix Favorites selection.  Great list of categories and we hope to be a part of the list next year!

Also mentioned on Faith Flix's website blog are interviews with Ryan Patrick Williams and Andrew Wilson Williams, brothers from Alabama who play supporting roles in Secrets in the Fall.  

We are very proud to be recognized by Sharon and we hope that this partnership will continue to spread the word about the Secrets films so that they can continue to influence people's lives and give our youth a positive media outlet.  

To see Brittany's responses to questions about Secrets in the Snow, click here: http://faithflixfilms.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/secrets-in-the-snow-with-writerdirectorproducer-brittany-goodwin/

For John's responses to questions about Secrets in the Fall, click here: http://faithflixfilms.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/secrets-in-the-fall-with-marketing-director-photographer-videographer-john-goodwin/

Spaceship Days 'December' Official Music Video Launches

END Pictures and Spaceship Days blew up the Twitter-sphere last night during the world premiere of the indie rock band's new music video on WWIR Radio - All Indie, All the Time.  The 'December' video was unveiled at 7pm on WWIR's website and the views started pouring in!  We received a lot of great responses from viewers all over the nation, including a gentlemen from Canada who chimed in for the program.

Mark Lamdanski (co-owner/founder) of WWIR also had John & Brittany Goodwin from END Pictures on the air to talk about the shoot, making family-friendly films and the plan for any other seasons of 'Secrets' films.  You can check out the entire interview at the here (you can skip to 11 minute mark): http://www.wwirradio.com/home/?powerpress_pinw=774-podcast.

You can get your copy of the soundtrack and 'Secrets in the Fall' DVD at our SHOP page or Amazon (DVD: http://amzn.to/1bhtsTS -- Soundtrack: http://amzn.to/1ePGE6S).

If you do get a chance to check out the music video, soundtrack and/or film, let us know what you thought by reviewing us online, Like-ing us, or commenting on our media.  We would love to hear from you!