Our Good News according to Jesus series..do we always call these videos? Is it proper to refer to them as movies? Does our organization ever refer to them as movies?

[SUNRAY]

Recently someone told me not to refer to our Jesus videos as movies when letter writing..I kind of like saying they are movies because people in the territory watch movies! 

[ReadYourBible]

A movie is a 2-3 hour long film. 

Whereas a video series is usually comprised of ~1 hour + a few minutes episodes. This video series has 18 episodes, so it's the equivalent of several movies! ❤️ 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 10:03 PM by ReadYourBible

[SUNRAY]

1 hour ago, ReadYourBible said:

A movie is a 2-3 hour long film. 

Whereas a video series is usually comprised of ~1 hour + a few minutes episodes. This video series has 18 episodes, so it's the equivalent of several movies! ❤️ 

 

 

 

Thanks for your input! So we should refer to the episodes as videos, right? And if we encourage people to go to JWorg and watch the episodes we would not say: "The good news according to Jesus movies".

[Brandon]

I call it a video series. I tell them 6 episodes are out now on our website and the free JWB smart tv channel/app, with twelve more coming over the years.

 

Sometimes I liken it to translating the Bible for a specific audience, in this case, people who appreciate learning visually. I tell them all the gospels are there word for word, and eventually the book of Acts too (I hope we do the whole New Testament but Matthew to Acts is what has been confirmed as videos)

Edited yesterday at 12:33 AM by Brandon

[Shawnster]

5 hours ago, ReadYourBible said:

A movie is a 2-3 hour long film.

 

Popular movies under 2 hours 

 

Classic & Drama

• 12 Angry Men (1957) – 96 minutes

• Casablanca (1942) – 102 minutes

• Stand by Me (1986) – 89 minutes

• American History X (1998) – 119 minutes

 

Sci-Fi & Thriller

• Alien (1979) – 116 minutes

• A Quiet Place (2018) – 90 minutes

• Get Out (2017) – 104 minutes

• Ex Machina (2014) – 108 minutes

• WALL·E (2008) – 98 minutes

 

Comedy & Family

• Airplane! (1980) – 87 minutes

• Shrek (2001) – 90 minutes

• The Princess Bride (1987) – 98 minutes

• The Lion King (1994) – 88 minutes

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) – 76 minutes

 

 

[Qapla]

Some interesting thoughts on this:

 

• Short Films: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as an original motion picture with a running time of 40 minutes or less (including credits).
• Feature Films vs. General Movies: While a feature film usually requires a longer runtime (typically 40 to 90+ minutes depending on the organization or festival), the broader term "movie" or "film" applies to motion pictures of any length.
• Historical Context: In the early 1900s, standard commercial movies were only about 15 minutes long (fitting on a single reel of film) before longer feature films became popular.

So, it may come down to semantics ... to some, the terms are interchangable

[LeolaRootStew]

I wouldn't refer to them as movies because "movie" implies a certain level of "creative license" about the source material. Movies edit or change storylines, even about true events, to force them to follow the beats of a traditional storyline, many times at the expense of accuracy. The Jesus episodes, on the other hand, do not have traditional storyline arcs; they are a faithful reenactment of the Gospel accounts. They are episodes in a video series.

 

"Movie" also calls to mind Hollywood, where movies are made, and may give the impression that the Jesus series is as inaccurate as the typical Hollywood versions of bible stories (think Noah which got every detail wrong except his name) because the goal is entertainment instead of education.

 

The other Dramas we have created about biblical times I do refer to as movies, among Witnesses, because they added enough extra details to portray the events in a traditional storyline (Jonah, Daniel, Jerusalem), but I still think Drama is the better term because of the aforementioned association with Hollywood.

[Patience87]

Use whatever wording will appeal to the listener. Personally, if it piques someone's interest I don't think it's wrong. I was at the door during Memorial Campaign talking to a gentleman, gave him the invitation, and then I proceeded to just ask him, "Do you like to watch movies?" He said "yes" and then I was able to show him the website and where he could locate the series. If I had a longer conversation going I would have explained that we have taken care to only portray Jesus as he was in the Bible and have not taken any liberties with language that the Bible did not specifically include. If it gets someone to visit the website, who knows what will come of it. 

[carlos]

Webster's dictionary gives two definitions for "movie":

 

Quote

 

a sequence of consecutive still images recorded in a series to be viewed on a screen in such rapid succession as to give the illusion of natural movement; motion picture.

a story, event, or the like, presented in this form.

 

 

In view of that, Jesus' videos as well as all other videos made by the organization fit perfectly that definition. They are movies.

 

Now if someone prefers a different word choice to mark a distance from commercial movies or for any other reason, that's fine. But it's perfectly correct to call them movies.

[Dages]

I don't have a dogmatic view on all to call these. So I say videos, movies, etc. Depending on the flow of the conversation