Our Story

The History of ChristianFilmmaker.com

These past 10 years of Christian Filmmaking Web Ministry has been amazing!!!  We’ve gone from Glory to Glory not just on our web ministry but also on our personal level and in our Film Production company as well.   God has been faithful every step of the way, so much so that our testimony of how ChristianFilmmaker.com was born is worth telling, at least for the Glory of God.  So here it goes…

It is important to note that Christian Filmmaker.com was not born out of our own original idea or vision, it was all God’s idea and His Vision.  I (Norton Rodriguez) was making secular films and working with secular clients, producing TV commercials, TV shows, Documentaries and secular feature films under the name Norton Films, Inc.     And our production company in South Florida had been very successful for over 15 years, until in the early nighties, it felt as if time had stood still.   1992  Hurricane Andrew had made landfall in South Florida where I lived.    Work was slow, and in my case, I didn’t have enough to even pay our bills.  Depression set in for a couple of weeks, it was one of the lowest times in my life.    Our bills were pilling up, day after day.  It was then, that I started seeking the Lord like never before.   I didn’t understand how we had gone from making over 100k per year to under 7k.   Today, I thank God for slowing down my work in the 90′s, to the point of making me seek after Him, because that was my turning point.    I became a born-again Christian in 1994 and by 1998 the Lord spoke to me very clearly, he basically motivated me to write things that He was about to tell me  about the Christian Film Industry.

It was then that God directed me to write how in the near future (the year 1998 and beyond) the Christian film industry would grow, and how Christian films will eventually surpass the greatness of Hollywood films.  And that Hollywood as we knew it would eventually crumble and fall, and Hollywood would eventually hire anointed Christian Filmmakers to fill the void.   Most of these things have come to pass or is happening as we speak.   But one of the things that have not is the fact that the Lord also said;  ”that Christian films will eventually surpass the Box-Office success of the film ” Titanic”.   Today the film Avatar has taken lead, but we are waiting on the the Lord’s film that will surpass even films like Avatar.   But back then this stuff the Lord was telling me to write didn’t make sense to me at all, but yet, I believe it because I knew the Lord was speaking to me without a shadow of doubt.  The thing was that  I personally didn’t know anything about Christian films in those days or that there was a Christian industry.  All this i had heard from the Lord for the very first time.

Later as I researched and found out that there was some kind of market for Christian films out there, I soon discovered that in the 70′s and 80′s Christian films were produced very independently and very underground; with very little marketing or distribution.   Most Christian films back then would be produced and distributed on 16mm film and later for VHS distribution.    And Hollywood was doing well and still had a very strong-hold on the movie Industry since it’s conception.   So the idea, that even a Christian film could go Theatrical was out of the question when the Lord spoke these things to me.     I later turned the prophecy into an article that was later published on christianfilmmaker.com, the prophecy spoke about how the production of Christian films was going to increase and spread world wide… and to God be the Glory, today that prophecy has come to pass! but there are others yet to come to pass.   But God is faithful.

So, in 1998, the Lord placed in our hearts to start a website when only a hand full of Christians were starting to discover the Web.   The Web was very new and only a few people where beginning to understand it, and only a few believe on it.    I remember buying a book based on the future of the Internet, which said.  That the Internet would never work.     In those days, the Internet was expensive;  it was an extra phone charge not everyone was willing to pay for, but we did because we knew the potential of the Internet early on to spread God’s Word through multimedia on the Web.  We had also bought the first computer years before “The Commodore 64 (1982)” when it first came out.    The Lord has always motivated us to be on-top of the latest news, technology, gear and information about computers, the Internet and the Video Digital world.

And ChristianFilmmaker.com was born out of that prophecy and desire the Lord planted early on in our hearts.   The site was to be a “Light in the Film Industry” motivating and uniting Christian filmmakers from around the world, and God has been faithful.     That’s how we met Alex Kendrick over the phone years before Facing the Giants and Fireproof.  Alex had found our website ChristianFilmmaker.com after producing his first film “Flywheel”, we presented his film in a film festival we had created in South Florida for three years.   But Alex was more interested in looking for creative ways of distributing his films.  I remember we talked about the Christian film industry, but one thing I remember very clearly is that Alex had a huge passion for producing Christian films with a clear Godly message, and today we’ve seen how the Lord has blessed his hard work, talents and passion for Christian movie making at Sherwood Pictures.

Today, our passion aside from making Christian Films is to help encourage the “New Upcoming” wave of Christian Film makers by guiding them on how to get started.   To make Christian films back to back, year after year,  they need to have a PASSION for it.  Without passion, they can’t succeed at the Level God wants them to succeed!    ”Passion” is what drives Top Hollywood film makers like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and top innovators like Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Apple founder Steve Jobs to succeed, not each day, but each hour and minute of the day.    And we all know, that it is “God” who plants the seed of passion in us.  Without passion, we are nothing.  We are just vessels without a compass or a moving arrows without a target or vision.   So if you don’t have a clear-vision or passion for making films 4God yet.   I encourage you to first go seek the Lord 110%.    Seek the Lord Day and Night until God reveals your vision.   That’s what we did, and God gave us both the vision and the passion, and that’s why we are here.     And remember, it’s never our vision, but His.

To really succeed with God’s Vision, you need these five keys:

Key number 1.  Seek the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul.

Key number 2.  Find your God-Given Talent and Vision already planted in you.

Key number 3. Have a Passion for your God-Given Vision

Key number 4. Work Day and Night and Do whatever it  takes (through Faith) to make God’s vision a reality!

Key number 5.  Don’t listen to negative people; specially those who have no vision or passion themselves.

Without Faith We can’t please the Lord, we know it, but we don’t practice it at times.   We need to get to the place where we have TOTAL Faith that God is with us and in total control of our lives.    God’s Vision is worth fighting for.

Make Movies 4Him.

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Norton O. Rodriguez