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

[jdcarlson]

When I was young, a "movie" was something you went to see in a theater, with seats in rows, and if you came in after the feature had started, an attendant would walk you down the aisle with a flashlight pointing at the floor, and show you to the row where you were to sit.

 

You watched images projected on a screen from a photographic film running through a film projector.  The image you watched was VERY large, up to 20 feet high by 50 (or more) feet wide.

 

In addition to the large screens, a movie theater typically had a group of rather large speakers behind the screen capable of producing a wide range of sounds (i.e., 20hz to 20,000hz - the theoretical limit of human hearing) at soft or very loud volumes. The most well known of these speaker systems was the Altec-Lansing A7-500 (a 15 inch woofer in a ported enclosure with a horn speaker mounted on top with the crossover from the 15 inch speaker to the horn at 500hz). Some theaters would have six or ten of these behind the screen.

 

The photographic film was typically 35mm film, almost the same as used in 35mm "still" cameras, only very long lengths of photographic film. It used a projector built to handle the 35mm film and project it onto a screen by putting a light behind the film, and a lens in front of the film, that was focused to give a sharp image on the screen in front of the audience.

 

Today "film" is called "analog media" to differentiate it from "digital media," which does not depend on a whole picture to be projected, but relies on digital media holding digital information that is "translated" to a screen with pixel bulbs lighted by the digital signal in the digital media (obviously this is an over simplification of the digital process to create an image appearing to the eye like an analog picture). 

 

You could also buy "8mm movie cameras" that used narrower (about 1/4 the size of 35mm film) photographic film to take pictures in sequence, which we called "movies" since they were using the same process (photographic film). There were smaller film projectors made to project these films on screens at home. Typically these home screens were about four feet high, although six foot high screens could be bought. These were typically called "movies" or "home movies."

 

The term "video" did not come into use until "video recorders" were available commercially as cameras to make personal.

 

Then, anything recorded on the "video recorders" we would watch on our TV screen (max size at the time was 21"). You watched something recorded on magnetic tape, using your television. At first the video recorders were using VHS tapes, played on a VHS player through your TV. Later versions of video recorders came out using smaller tape "cartridges" and finally dispensed with the VHS tapes (and tape cartridges), and recorded digitally to a hard drive, or large capacity solid state drive (SSD). You still watched it on you TV at home.

 

A "video" was not something recorded on photographic film. It was recorded digitally on magnetic media (tape, hard drive, SSD, etc). Some could even record "to the cloud" to a remote server via internet connection. These internet connections could be hard wired (aka ethernet) or by "WiFi" using wireless connections via some method similar to a radio. The media storing the recording was digital, not film.

 

These classic definitions, if followed, would mean the material produced by Jehovah's Organization would be videos (since we do not go to a theatre, pay admission, and sit in a venue with many rows of seats in a darkened space). And they are recorded by digital media, not photographic film.

 

Having said all of that, I now have a 77" TV (instead of 21") which is about 64 inches wide. When seated 10 to 12 feet away, it is almost the same visual effect as sittng in a theater watching film projected on a large screen. It is flanked by two high end electrostatic speakers (six feet high, two feet wide - older classic design  "KLH Model Nine" rebuilt to new specs) which handle most sound above 40hz with amazing definition and clarity. The sounds below 40hz (where the electrostatic speakers volume drops off significantly) are handled by two Velodyne subwoofers. The sound from the audio system is equal to the sound produced by the A7-500 systems in theaters.

 

On that big TV I watch a lot of older things that initially were "movies" but have been re-recorded from the film media to digital media that the cable TV company sends out. The cable company offers 200+ channels (requiring their special "set top box" to decipher for the TV). The "box" from the cable company also has the ability to record a program from one channel, while I am watching another channel, or not watching at all. Sometimes what one wants to watch is broadcast at 3:00 A.M.  At age 82 I am not a fan of getting up at that time.

 

Even though what I watch might have initially been on photographic film, it is now on digital media.

 

So, applying the critera of "what type of media" one is watching, the old "movies" are not on photographic film. They are digital media. So, perhaps they are videos based on type of media from which they are played.

 

But I still think of them as "movies" because that is what I though they were when they were first produced.

 

Advances in technology have blurred the lines between what is a "movie" and what is a "video" to the point that the two terms could now be considered interchangeable.

 

I believe some "movies" shown in darkened venues with many rows of seats are now on digital media rather than film. This further blurrs the lines between the two words.

 

Personally, I like to call the shorter ones "videos."

 

But, I cannot say someone is wrong if they call them "movies." 

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

[Qapla]

My FIL refers to TV programs, especially the ones that are 1 hour or more long as movies. He sometimes even uses that term for 30-minute TV programs.

 

He also will usually say a 'show' if referring to an individual episode of a regular TV program.