Collide Magazine

Producer Spotlight: Eight20Eight

COLLIDE Staff - Originally posted Monday, May 18, 2009 -

Unfortunately, Hollywood and Christian media don’t usually go hand in hand; however, that’s not the case for Tom Rice and his church media production company, Eight20Eight. Eight20Eight takes its name from Romans 8:28 and represents an effort to create quality media for the Church. Rice’s personal experience includes more than 12 years in Hollywood directing films and writing for television, enabling him to bring a fresh look to Christian media.

COLLIDE: Why do you feel using media in church, especially video, is important in our culture?

TOM RICE: Media is everywhere. Companies use media to entertain, to advertise, to send greeting cards—it’s what is relevant in our culture. Visual storytelling is a very current and effective tool. A well-produced video with the right message can quickly penetrate a person’s imagination and hopefully cause both believers and non-believers to reflect and grow stronger in Christ.

COLLIDE: Your most recent film, “Gossip,” features many familiar Hollywood faces. What is your relationship with Hollywood and how does that come in to play with your videos?

RICE: I’ve produced and directed feature films with Oscar-winning actors and written for some of the number-one shows on TV. That gives me connections to talented people, many of whom are recognizable from other work they’ve done. It has also given me the experience, technically and creatively, to be able to create media for Christians that is of a level of quality that matches the standards of the secular media we all consume.

COLLIDE: “Gossip” seems to be your biggest undertaking to date. Tell us about that project.

RICE: Well, gossiping, in general, is something [I struggle with], so the subject matter was near and dear. Beth Grant was in a feature film I directed, and we’ve wanted to work together again—she’s a fantastic actress and was amazing in No Country for Old Men. From there, I asked Kate Flannery, who plays Meredith on "The Office," to come onboard, and Victoria Jackson, who used to be on "Saturday Night Live" was the last one to join the cast. We shot the film on location, and it took about an hour of rehearsal and four hours of shooting. It’s the first project I shot for churches using 35mm lenses, which gave it a nice feature film feel.

COLLIDE: Where do the ideas and inspiration for your videos come from? Do you write all the scripts for your films?

RICE: Most of my films are comedies that try to hold up a mirror in a fun way to convict the viewer of ways in which we need to grow as Christians, hitting on topics such as gossip, judgment, attitudes, sacrifice, serving, giving, etc. Sadly, most of those ideas come from my own brokenness. As for the writing of the scripts, I write most of the stuff we do. My friend Barak, who stars in many of our videos, also has a heavy hand in the writing, and a lot of what we shoot is improvised. Victoria Jackson contributed to the writing of her diatribe in “Gossip” and both Beth Grant and Kate Flannery improvised. In “A Servant’s Heart,” Wendi McClendon-Covey, a brilliant improvisational actor from the Comedy Central show "Reno 911," just went off book and gave us so much golden material that very little of the scripted lines actually made it into the final version. I consider myself an “actor’s director,” so I love the process of collaboration.

COLLIDE: What has been your favorite project thus far?

RICE: I love “Gossip” because we just had so much fun making it. Those three women in the same room are a riot. My good friend Matt Mangham from FortyOneTwenty drove up from San Diego for the day to hang out, and we just laughed all day. “Forgiveness” is another one I really love. It’s short and sweet and the message is universally powerful.

COLLIDE: Can you tell us about any new projects you have coming up?

RICE: We are working on making more comedies with great talent. We have a great Mother’s Day piece we are shooting with the recognizable stars of a series of Hallmark commercials that aired last year. We also have a series of “Worship Starters” that we have shot—a montage of people reciting things such as the Lord’s Prayer, the Doxology, the Apostles’ Creed, etc. They’re great tools for helping lead a congregation in the recitation portions of worship.

COLLIDE: Tell us about your new store, Evangelize.com. Why did you start it?

RICE: Evangelize.com was initially going to just be a way for me to sell my own videos directly, the same way other producers do on their own websites. Then in April of last year, 22 of the top Christian media producers flew to Los Angeles for a weekend “summit” where we started discussing the issues that affect us all. After that meeting, I decided to scrap my original plans and redesigned the site to be able to offer content from a select group of quality producers. This helps weed out the clutter so that pastors can find what they are looking for quickly. Also, Evangelize.com gives each producer the highest percentage from each video, which in turn gives the producers more resources by which they can continue to make great videos.

With the help of programmers and designers who have worked for top websites such as Apple.com and iTunes, we have built a user-friendly site with a great search engine, Hi-Def content, and more. We also offer iPod versions of many of our films at a reduced price so that the individual user or small group leader can afford to buy our films and use them to, as the name says, evangelize.

COLLIDE: How can churches do a better job of using media in their services?

RICE: I’m not sure how each church is using it now, so it’s tough to make a blanket statement on how they could do it better, but I’ll say this: Today, we are constantly bombarded with stories and visual imagery that compete for our imagination and aim to influence the way we view our world, whether it’s through books, television, or movies.

Our imaginations are often led to value what is contrary to God’s teaching. I believe that parables and imagery are just as influential today as they were when Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount. Anytime a church or small group leader, or an individual, for that matter, uses a well-crafted visual tool to help recapture the imagination of the viewer, they’re going to make a positive and lasting impression.

For more information about Tom Rice and Eight20Eight and to watch “Gossip,” visit www.eight20eight.com.