The Harvest

[JABIII]

How 45 Million Hunters
And Anglers Are Aiming To Bypass Hollywood

Forbes
Chris Dorsey
Jul 21, 2020,07:00am EDT

A Crowd-Sourced Film That Celebrates Life In The Heartland Is Coming To A Theater Near You
Fishing photo

Producers of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵 hope the film does for hunting what Robert Redford's 𝘈 River Runs Through It

The ideological fault lines running between the coasts and the American heartland, turning red and blue to code words, are manifesting in everything from politics and religion to television and films. For many middle Americans who are so often portrayed as uneducated rubes by coastal content companies, there’s a move afoot to leave media giants behind and chart their own path forward.

For Jim Liberatore, the CEO of a Denver-based media company that owns cable channels and scores of magazines devoted to American hunters and anglers, it’s time to showcase the true heartland way of life…and for tens of millions of red state residents that includes hunting.

“There are more than 45 million Americans who hunt and fish," says Liberatore, "that's more people than live in the country's 10 largest cities but no one is engaging them...at least not in ways that showcase the truth about their lifestyle. That’s why I’ve brought a team together to create The Harvest, a film that aims to help dispel myths about the way many middle Americans think and live.”

According to the Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation—part of the largest bipartisan caucus of the U.S. Congress—American sportsmen are a $76 billion annual economic force. To put that in perspective, spending by hunters and anglers amounts to more than the revenues of Facebook and Yahoo combined. Hunters and anglers, moreover, outnumber motor sports fans by two to one. In fact, they could fill every NASCAR track 13 times over.

When it comes to funding conservation programs across the country, the National Shooting Sports Foundation says American sportsmen have done the heavy lifting for decades, despite what you might read or hear from coastal media giants. Hunters and anglers have contributed more than $11 billion through self-imposed excise taxes, to say nothing of billions more dollars contributed to non-profit conservation organizations.

The National Wildlife Refuge system, comprised of nearly 600 properties encompassing 150 million acres of habitat, is significantly funded by the sale of Federal Duck Stamps, required to hunt any migratory bird species in the U.S. These refuges are home to more than 2,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and fish—only a small fraction of which are hunted. In the 80 years since the beginning of the stamp program, hunters have paid nearly $1 billion toward the refuge system.

For Liberatore, a film that neither apologizes for the lifestyle nor pokes fun at it is long overdue. “Bringing in accomplished filmmakers to create an entertaining production that people on the coasts and middle America will enjoy and will find both endearing and challenging is the objective. We’ll go straight at stereotypes and preconceived notions and audiences will be surprised as we detonate misconceptions about this way of life and the people who enjoy it. And we have a great story to tell given all the contributions of this community.”

Some of the team signing on to help make and distribute the film include industry heavyweight Michael Flaherty, the founder of his former company Walden Media, the production house behind such box office hits as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Bridge to Terabithia and Charlotte’s Web. Simon Swart, previously executive vice president of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, also is part of the veteran leadership team that will deliver the film.

Another man who recognizes the size, scope and financial attractiveness of the American outdoor market is David Hill, the legendary former Fox Sports chief who told me, “There will be rivers of gold for those who can crack the media code to reach sportsmen and women.”

Moreover, a top executive of a multi-billion dollar coastal content and distribution company shared similar sentiments with me while we hunted feral hogs that have overpopulated the central coast region of California and damaged vineyards and other crops, “There’s no question that the outdoor market is under-served,” he said, “but we don’t have plans to go after it at this point.”

The question is why? For Liberatore, the answer is that too many people—especially urban-dwellers with little to no connection to the land, wildlife or conservation practices—simply don’t understand the role hunters have played in creating the most successful wildlife management model in the world…one that now sees game populations in most cases at all-time highs along with booming populations of many other species that benefit from the same habitat.

“But this isn’t going to be a public service message for hunting,” says Liberatore. “Instead, the film is a compelling story of one family’s struggle to stay true to itself in an ever-changing world where values and tradition are so often sacrificed for acceptance and expediency.”

“The average urbanite simply doesn’t understand this way of life,” he says, “because their only connection to hunting is what they see from Hollywood portrayals and from television networks based in Los Angeles or New York. The pandemic and recent riots have accelerated the massive movement of people abandoning our dysfunctional cities and large percentages of our country are now looking to get back to the land. It’s one reason we think this is the perfect time for such a film.”

Liberatore commissioned True North Marketing, a firm that surveyed 6,500 hunters to see just how viable a crowd-sourced film in the outdoor community might be. “The researchers were astonished by the remarkably high percentages of people who said they’d be willing to contribute to the film. If even a fraction actually do, we’ll hit our $14 million funding goal easily,” says Liberatore.

Finding a handful of investors to pony up to produce a film is another common approach to funding a movie, but Liberatore has held off activating several interested major investors. Instead, he sees the crowd-sourced model as a way to demonstrate the power of the category. “The way we fund the film might be as important as the message in it,” says Liberatore. “And this is just the beginning of a new way forward in telling our story,” he says. “What we’ve seen with the success of Christian films is something that we think we can replicate in the outdoor lifestyle space because there’s plenty of overlap between the two.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisdo.../#20ca76b43590

[Strick9]

Excellent idea indeed.

[YoungBuckTX]

Link to their homepage, and make donations click here

[YoungBuckTX]

BOWHUNTING NEWS
Harvest Home Films to Produce First Ever, Pro Hunting, Faith Based Motion Picture
By Courtney HovenJuly 21, 20201 Comment
Denver, CO –

Harvest Home Films LLC is proud to announce the production of The Harvest, a film that addresses relevant Christian themes through a celebration of the outdoor way of life while promoting a respect for the land, water and the great past time of hunting.

Coming from the same producers of “I Can Only Imagine” and the “Lion Witch and the Wardrobe”, The Harvest promises to be the first ever pro-hunting film celebrating the lifestyle and educating Americans about the beauty and importance of the outdoor way of life.

Set in the small rural community of Marble Falls, Texas, The Harvest follows the personal and professional challenges of the McLean family, as they navigate a move to New York City when the father, Dave, unexpectedly has a once in a lifetime career opportunity fall in his lap.

A professional hunter with a national TV show, Dave actively participates in the hunting lifestyle with his high school aged daughter and son. Judy, the mother, hunts occasionally and fully supports the lifestyle.

Rooted in a strong Christian faith, the family finds their faith and lifestyle powerfully tested by strong anti-hunter views and other stresses brought about by this major move. A move that has brought these issues literally to the Mclean family doorstep.

Harvest Home Films has brought together the most comprehensive team from the outdoor industry, motion picture industry and Christian space who have developed every detail of this project with the experience necessary to produce and distribute a successful film.

The goal of The Harvest is to unite not only the hunting community including individual hunters, but also educate non-hunters on why hunting is about much more than just harvesting animals.
“Be it in a boardroom, at an industry convention or around a campfire, we have been discussing our declining numbers for years and wondered aloud, ‘what can we do’? We feel an answer is in the works: The Harvest film” said Mark Geist, a Producer on the project.

“We have many heroes in our industry fighting to save the hunting tradition, but we have completely left one important front exposed: educating the hunting agnostic as to our way of life. This is a critical aspect of turning our numbers around and The Harvest will take on that battle”.

A survey conducted by the producers of the film received 13,000 completed surveys from the hunting community and found that an astounding 70% of hunters believe that everyone in the industry should come together to make this film.

97% believe that it is important to ensure the future of hunting. The survey also found the 67% of those surveyed would have a more favorable view of those involved in supporting this film.

The film will also forge a new alliance between leading organizations and the individuals in the industry.

The project strives to bring the individual hunter, and leading outdoor manufacturers and organizations together to collectively educate millions of Americans as to the beauty of the hunting heritage, and the need for this way of life in this country now more than ever.

https://www.bowhunting.com/news/2020...otion-picture/