1. What Do We Mean When We Say “To Change the World of Motion Pictures”?

Film is a seriously powerful and penetrating media form. It is held by many to be the pinnacle of the communications and entertainment industries. Feature films have a dramatic impact for good and for ill on societal norms, the filtering of ‘common knowledge’, societal expectations, and the general moral compass.

Seventy percent of American moviegoers say that Hollywood is out of touch with their values and therefore delivers product that is inconsistent with or offensive to their standards. This gulf between the major producers and mainstream audiences is repeated, more or less, across the world.

Audience Alliance is not against Hollywood or any group of producers, whose creative product appears to serve a segment of society. Although much of it — not all but a lot — appears to be self-serving, targeted at a narrow and somewhat inward looking audience, namely the filmmakers’ peer group rather than the general fee-paying audience.

Changing the world of motion pictures for good means providing the highest levels of production standards but with alternative content to that which is produced under the declining MPAA rating standards.

It means contributing to the quantum of quality feature films desirable to traditional audiences, through film acquisition, film production and film distribution. It means engaging in programs intended to help and/or influence others in the delivery of similar content.

It includes activism aimed at increasing the optimism quotient and values and virtues quotient in film content.

It requires investment to increase the availability of content of choice for traditionally motivated audiences via multiple easy access channels.

Family friendly content doesn’t mean weak or insipid stories. Nor does it necessarily mean G-rated childrens animations. It means feature films with robust stories that include high production values with conflict, drama, heroes and heroines, adventure, romance and comedy.

“For good” has both a qualitative meaning and a time value meaning: ie towards a higher plane; and for the long term.

Stories and characters will exhibit hope and optimism. Good will triumph over evil in the face of daunting opposition. Endings will imbue viewers with “feel-good-again” memories. The fact that we are there, producing and releasing films, even if only a few films, and encouraging others to do the same, will mean that the motion picture world is being changed for good in some way. Being just one small fry among many other like-minded organizations is okay too, perhaps.

However our goals are not so limited. Over time, we expect to deliver on the large to very large scale. All this to be pursued of course within the prudent limits and opportunities of our available means. Yet, we are “making no small plans for in them there is no imagination to stir the soul” and effect the change that is needed.

2. What Kind of Movies Will Audience Alliance Produce?

Audience Alliance is engaged in producing the kind of movies that our members as representatives of the general audience prefer to see. The criterion for selection and approval is “story” not “genre”. The appropriateness of the story is based on our trademarked Values and Virtues Matrix™. There are few genre limitations, though horror films have been removed from the genre list:

• Action/Adventure
• Animation
• Biography
• Comedy
• Crime/Murder/Mystery
• Drama
• Docudrama/Documentary
• Fantasy
• Family
• Musical
• Non-Fiction/History
• Romance
• Romantic Comedy
• Science Fiction
• Suspense/Thriller
• Western

Different audience sectors will favor certain genres over others depending on the story, characters, theme and values. The program is not to make lightweight or “cheesy” message films, but “feel-good-again-movies”™ that entertain, enlighten and inspire.

3. Is Audience Alliance the Best Way to Make a Difference?

Who knows the answer to that question? Surely there are other ways, but this is our way, and our goals might be compatible with your aims too. Certainly, complaining, boycotting, lamenting, or generally assailing Hollywood do not appear to be productive methods. We hope that you will be proactive and positive, perhaps through Audience Alliance, to support every source of “feel-good-again-movies”™.

4. Is it Possible to Change Hollywood?

We have no illusions about changing Hollywood. “When Hollywood gets it right nobody does it better”, says our Chief Creative Officer, Academy winner Kieth Merrill. We all love the best of what Hollywood can do in terms of production capability. Audience Alliance is simply an alternative source of movies not governed by either the Hollywood funding system or its values.

5. Is Audience Alliance a Cause or a Company?

Do we have to be one or the other? We do not see the dichotomy. Audience Alliance is a motion picture company that makes movies with high production values for commercial purposes. Those movies will always be consistent with the preferences of the majority of the movie going audience who subscribe to traditional values. Our movies are not about messages; they are pure entertainment. However we have also created a foundation that has a clear mandate to identify the harmful aspects of media and to help families filter and manage their media experiences to be more consistent with their values.

6. Is Audience Alliance Affiliated with Any Religious or Political Group?

Audience Alliance is not affiliated with any kind of movement. We are an international company based in Geneva, Switzerland, with no affiliation or commitment, explicit or implied, to any political, religious, geographic or cultural bias other than to the values described in our Virtues and Values Matrix™.

7. What Are the ‘Virtues and Values’ of Audience Alliance?

The virtues and values of Audience Alliance are described in a trademarked matrix built around common notions of human decency, not religious dogma or political platforms. They are the fundamental values of the human family. Movies from Audience Alliance are about uplifting entertainment, not niche market messages.

8. How Do I Participate in the Movies Audience Alliance Makes?

Members of Audience Alliance are welcome to view our online story department, and to become acquainted with the concepts that are in current consideration. These will be added and updated progressively. When you register as a member that gives us permission to contact you with email updates.

At each critical stage in the film selection and production process we will invite your views to help inform the commercial and creative decisions that need to be made. The years have taught us new and better ways to invite and assimilate audience feedback. There will also be practical opportunities to visit sets, influence cast selections, and a number of other engagements in our commitment to trust the audience, serve the audience and reach the audience.

9. How Will Audience Alliance Maintain its Commitment to Virtues and Values in the Face of “Commercial Realities”?

This question begs for a zealous debate. One of the industry’s great filmmakers of a bygone era, Frank Capra (who was a mentor to our Academy Award® Winning Chief Creative Officer, Kieth Merrill) had this to say:

“To those that belong, or aspire to belong, to that privileged group [of] filmmakers, I dare to say: don’t compromise. For only the valiant can create, only the daring should make films, only the morally courageous are worthy of speaking to their fellow men for two hours in the dark, and only the artistically incorrupt will earn and keep the people’s trust.”We do not believe the threat of compromise is a major issue for us. The ‘commercial reality’ is that seventy percent of today’s movie going audience wants the kinds of movies that fill our production slate.

We confess that we do not understand the compromise to which ‘Hollywood’ submits, where the majority of income is derived from G/PG and PG13 movies but the majority of films released are rated ‘R’. Now that constitutes a compromise; it represents the sacrifice of economic gain for the sake of an alternative set of values that are out of sync with the majority.

10. Where Do the Profits From the Successful Movies Go?

Income from successful films will be used to produce additional films that have successfully negotiated their way through the green light process. Some of the funds will be donated to the Audience Alliance Foundation.

11. Will Audience Alliance Movies Be Made for Theaters or Straight to DVD?

Our primary intention is that feature films produced by Audience Alliance will be distributed in commercial theaters worldwide.

However, the nature of the film, the ‘star power’, cost of distribution, access to theaters, budgets and a myriad of other factors determine the ultimate marketing strategy for any film. Most films are destined for the big screen. Some, for reasons described above, end up going directly to DVD. Some of our films will be produced for television. Some may be produced for special venue theaters.

Above all, we will make sure that our films can be accessed by those for whom they are made, the audience. Our audience!