12/10/2023 0 Comments Im a believer movie![]() He made sure the groups had that edge and polish that took it out of being a joke, and he made sure it was aspirational, but wasn’t too much that it would take you out of the story. “Money” should feel like a bank robbery, but we’re just talking about blessings.Īlso, Sean Bankhead’s choreography. While the content of what they’re singing might not be explicit, the attitude is still the same as the original. We didn’t want to come off as the sweeter version of the song in any way. So since “Money” is hard, then the production and the lyrics and the vocals are also going to be hard. definitely pushed and supported my belief that we should meet right at the intersection of church and the club, and the way to do that is to match the original song in tone. ![]() How did you make sure that didn’t happen? In lesser hands, these gospel flips of hits by Amerie, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B could have been flops. It was something about that “Savage” remix with Meg and Beyoncé that I thought, “Let’s see if the songwriters can come up with something.” It came back so strong that, after that, we were off and running with all the flips. The initial test was with the Promise Ringtones, who are all sweet, sassy, unattainable girl power, like Destiny’s Child and those girl groups that are just perfect. My music supervisor, Derryck Thornton, and I then just pored through tons of songs, and asked teams of songwriters to flip them into gospel arrangements for each team. So I splintered that off into the Promise Ringtones and the Prodigal Bros, and kept going from there. It’s funny, reading the script, I was thinking about when the Jonas Brothers first started, when these gorgeous guys had those promise rings and all these young people - hormones coursing through their veins - were going crazy for them. So every praise team has a different personality. The story takes place in Atlanta, where there’s a megachurch beside a contemporary church beside a white church beside a Black church. How did you decide what each praise team would sing? In addition to original music, “Praise This” features gospel flips of hit songs. They might not have the biggest congregations in the world and might not be the most funded, but they have these vibrant communities, and these praise teams who take contemporary songs and flip them to gospel so that their younger congregants can relate to it. These young preachers know how to connect with young people of the social media generation and speak to the challenges they face. Just from listening to their sermons and being a congregant, I wanted to translate their nonjudgment and inclusivity to the movie. They dress hip, they wear sneakers, they’re tatted and they’re more transparent, honestly, about their lives. To me, nothing symbolizes this generation of contemporary Christians better than these young pastors. I knew that if I was gonna make a gospel movie, it had to be for this generation. It’s not incongruent with more traditional churches, it’s just that every generation has their way of worship. It’s a different kind of church than what we’ve seen in movies before, but they’re all over the country - Florida, South Carolina, Texas - and they meet in basements or old garages or whatever places they can afford. ![]() It’s a very nontraditional, welcoming, creative environment: The congregation is very eclectic, the at the La Brea Theatre, and Pastor Touré Roberts is hip, his wife and co-pastor is fly. ![]() I did that because, at the time, I was living in Los Angeles and attending One Church. ![]()
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