How did this “Save Blue Like Jazz” campaign start?

On September 16th, Don posted a blog about how investors had backed out of the Blue Like Jazz movie and the project was to be put on hold indefinitely. It so happens that both of us follow Don’s blog on a regular basis – and we both share the same ideals when it comes to the business world. We immediately began emailing back and forth about this, and we have to admit that our initial reaction wasn’t “Ah, that sucks.” It was rather: “There’s another way.” The way we saw it, this book sold more than a million copies. It was an anomaly from the get go in our eyes. Another thing that stuck out to us was that this wasn’t your everyday ‘Christian market’ readership either. This book reached so many people of all demographics. So why fund it traditionally? Why not open it up to the people in which the book actually impacted?

After reading the comments on the blog that day, we knew that we weren’t the only ones. So many in the blogosohere were already willing to give to this project. The problem was, there just wasn’t a means to do so. There needed to be organization and we needed to have a collective glimpse of the destination.

We crafted an email about our thoughts, and knew we had a mutual friend who was friends with Don from way back. We took a chance and asked him to send it on. Sure enough, within a few hours, we heard back. Both Don and director Steve Taylor wanted to hear some of our ideas. We were stoked (there were multiple fist pumps…). We effectively did not sleep at all that night. We put together a viral marketing campaign and laid all our thoughts out on the table… Or rather, numerous white boards.

We submitted a proposal to Don and Steve the next day. Soon after that we heard from Steve saying that he was pretty excited to see what we could come up with. We met late on a Sunday night and nailed down all the details of the campaign. With Don conferencing in from Portland, they both gave us the green light to move forward with the campaign.

Since then, it’s been an absolute whirlwind. We had only 5 days to get all the components in place for a launch. A homepage, Facebook, Twitter and most importantly: Kickstarter. Kickstarter is an amazing tool and we would not have been able to create this project without it.

Why do you guys think BLJ the movie is worth saving?

Blue Like Jazz was a huge book for us. One could say that it is our generation’s Mere Christianity. It comes at faith, religion and Christianity in such a unique light…one we weren’t accustomed to seeing it in. We believe this story is important, and we believe that if this film is made – it could change things in way’s unthought of. We want to see this come to fruition, and if $125,000 is all that stands in the way, then we say… “Let’s do this.”

This isn’t going to be just another cheesy Christian movie, is it?

No, it isn’t. Mainstream Christian movies have a tendency to water things down. They all pretty much have the same feel. We feel Blue Like Jazz takes a more honest look at what it looks like to struggle with faith. If this film is made, it could really change Christian movies moving forward.

How can people get involved?

Well first and foremost, we are raising money. So we need donations! But just as important, is your voice. We need people to spread the word. The only way a campaign like this succeeds is when the voice of the people meets the passion of the movement.

What kind of success are you seeing so far?

We’ve seen some great reactions so far. Twitter has lit up with so many commenting in. Local and national media have chimed in. Nashville news station WKRN did a video piece on the campaign, and there’s been many influential bloggers who have started to spread the word. But as far as numbers go, in the first 48 hours we have raised over $20,000.

If I donate, where does my money go?

The beauty of Kickstarter is that no money will exchanges hands unless we meet our goal. If we do meet our goal, all transactions will go through, and (after Kickstarter’s fees) the money goes straight to Director Steve Taylor’s movie budget. No middlemen. Your money goes directly to funding this movie.

What’s the deal – are you guys getting paid for this or something?

The deal is simply this: we were passionate and we acted.

What about Blue Like Jazz the book was so important to you that you want to see this movie made?

The honesty of Blue Like Jazz changed the way we viewed our faith. The rawness of it all isn’t so popular in mainstream Christianity, and we hope to see that changed.

What was Donald Miller’s reaction when you pitched this idea to him? How did that all go down?

It started with the whole, ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know.’ Turns out, us and Don have a mutual friend named Randy who helped make the connection. We first pitched the concept to Randy – and crazily enough he felt just as passionate about it so he sent it along directly to Don. Once he received it, they were really grateful that the people cared enough to stir the waters, but they also weren’t necessarily jumping for joy – regardless, both he and Director Steve Taylor were both open to hearing our thoughts.

So we met with Steve late one Sunday night at one of our houses, pitched our crazy-man looking whiteboards, then after about 3 hours Don called in and he and Steve actually bought into it. After the crazy “So wait – we’re really going to try and pull this off?” settled into the air, it was non-stop motion.

As we closed the initial launch meeting – both Steve and Don spoke some really kind and gracious words. It was at that point we realized we were merely a small piece of a much greater story, and we haven’t looked back since.