INDUSTRY Q&A: Rich Peluso, Executive VP of AFFIRM Films

WHAT’S INSIDE: By Jess Chambers

Rich Peluso is an instrumental voice in Q&A with Christian media. Since 2007, he’s served Rich Peluso, Executive as the Executive Vice President of AFFIRM VP of AFFIRM Films Films, a division of Sony Pictures. Under his leadership, AFFIRM just celebrated their News 10th year, a half a billion dollars in theatrical revenue, and two billion dollars in overall Radio Movement revenue - making it the most successful faith- based film studio. Celebrations and Milestones AFFIRM is known for releasing titles like, “War Room,” “All Saints,” “Heaven Is For Real,” “Risen,” “Soul Surfer,” and most recently, Obituaries “The Star.” In 2018 AFFIRM is set to release a biblical drama titled, “Paul, The Apostle Of Appearances in Film/TV Christ,” starring Jim Caviezel, James Faulkner, and Olivier Martinez. This latest offering from Top Artists the studio explores the last days of Paul’s life on Social Media under Emperor Nero in Rome. Rich Peluso with wife Michelle (Continued on page 4)

Movement

NEWS The LeFevre Quartet (New Day Records) nominated release, Hope For All Nations, reached an exclusive scheduling as well as the live DVD, Live at Daywind: agreement with the Dominion Agency. Karen Peck & New River. A new group member has not yet been announced. Redjett Management, led by industry veterans Leigh Holt and Kendra Flack, Integrity Music recently signed Capitol CMG Label welcomed Greg Bays Group recording artist, Cody Carnes, O’DonnellPlachy York as Vice President to their roster of artists. Redjett Management is home to Lauren Daigle, of Commercial Capitol Christian Music Group recently Sadie Robertson, and Chris McClarney. Partnerships and announced the promotion of three top Marketing. Bays will executive’s - Brad O’Donnell to Chief Karen Peck & New River announced the oversee the label’s Creative Officer, Hudson Plachy to Chief departure of Ricky Braddy. Ricky joined Bays U.S.-based sales, Marketing Officer, and Peter York to the group September of 2015 and is streaming, and CCMG Chairman & CEO. featured the GRAMMY® and Dove Award marketing initiatives.

1 | GOSPELMUSIC.ORG FEBRUARY 2018 Movement

RADIO iHeartMedia has launched a new “Meant To Be” (Written by David Garcia) Christian AC in Charlotte, “Up 98.7”. was performed by Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Daywind Records launched a new Rockin’ Eve, The Tonight Show, TODAY online radio station called Daywind Family Life Radio weekend air Show & The Four. Radio. Daywind Radio plays the personality Dennis Hutchinson is leaving the network to become Assistant ultimate in Southern Gospel music, Program Director at WPHN/Gaylord, MI “Only One King” (Written by JungYouth 24/7. You can listen online at (The Promise FM). & Tommee Profitt) was featured in an daywindradio.com or through the episode of The Four. Daywind Radio app. Radio Movement Provided by HisAir.net To see your sync placements featured ALL ACCESS has announced that Matt in our upcoming newsletter, send us Ingle, President of Ingle Promotions, will SEEN & HEARD an email: [email protected]. be their new Contemporary Christian Editor. Ingle will also continue to run Tasha Cobbs Leonard Ingle Promotions in addition to his new kicked off the new OBITUARIES post at ALL ACCESS. year with her debut performance on Good William Ray “Bill” ShareMedia Services President Todd Morning America. Hearn, Chairman Isberner announced he will be stepping The Motown Gospel and CEO of Capitol away from the company at the end of recording artist Christian Music this year. As a result, Jason Parker has performed her new Group, passed away assumed the position of ShareMedia radio single, “I’m Getting Ready.” December 10th, 2017 President. at age 58 after a long Andraé Crouch’s song, “My Tribute” was battle with cancer. WJQK/Grand Rapids (JQ99) has hired used in the feature film, Downsizing. Tommy Dylan for PD/mornings duties. Music producer and FAME Studios founder Rick Hall died at the age of 85 KLOVE debuted a new show to their January 2nd, 2018 at his home in Muscle on-air lineup - “Jeff & Randi” will take Shoals, Alabama. the 1-6pm PT shift. Edwin Hawkins, the four-time Grammy® Former KLOVE Morning Show Co-host Award-winning leader Mike Kankelfritz is joining Family Life TYR Sport announced its most recent of The Edwin Hawkins Radio (FLR). Mike will be FLR Program brand video “How We Got There” for Singers’ 1969 million- Director & Afternoon On-Air Host. the 2018 season. The ad features the seller, “Oh Happy Day,” song, “Let You Down” by NF. This is the died January 15th, 2018 Salem announced that Lorenzo Caldara second video the artists’ music has been at his home in the Bay has been appointed as General Manager featured in for the brand. area, after a bout with for its Philadelphia cluster of radio stations pancreatic cancer. He was 74 years old. including WFIL-AM and WNTP-AM. “Mary, Did You Know” (Written by Buddy Greene & Mark Lowry) and “His Eye Kevin Anderson, General Sales Is On The Sparrow” (Written by Mark CELEBRATIONS Manager of Salem’s Nashville operation, Hall & Bernie Herms) appeared in has been promoted to the role of the Affirm film, The Star. General Manager for the market. His Anthony Langone, Head of Progressive responsibilities will include oversight Tommy Hilfiger PR at Marbaloo Marketing, and his wife for the Nashville Fish stations, the featured the song, Lacey welcomed Sienna Kate Langone Salem Music Networks, and Singing “Go” from Hollyn (feat. to their family on January 8th, 2018. News Magazine. TobyMac) on the runway in a recent Audrey Assad and her husband William WAY-FM/Nashville Operations Director fashion show debuting G. Price, III welcomed their second child, Drew Wilson announced additions to his The Gigi Hadid x Camila St. Clare Price. on Oct. 19th, 2017. staff. Megan Perez joins as Community Tommy Hilfiger Audrey and her husband also have a Impact Director. Kyle Knudtson has collaboration collection. three-year-old son, William G. Price, IV. accepted the Nashville Engineering & Operations Coordinator role.

2 | GOSPELMUSIC.ORG FEBRUARY 2018 Social Media

TOP 20 ARTISTS ON FACEBOOK TOP 20 ARTISTS ON TWITTER TOP 20 ARTISTS ON INSTAGRAM

Tercer Cielo 18,392,484 Ricardo Montaner 8,811,192 Hillsong United 1,589,436

Jesus Adrian Romero 11,061,851 Juan Luis Guerra 7,723,204 Erica Campbell 1,511,038

Thalles Roberto 8,873,106 Kirk Franklin 1,623,678 Tamela Mann 1,219,284

Alex Campos 7,656,771 Lecrae 1,579,112 Lecrae 1,210,939

Juan Luis Guerra 7,538,192 Thalles Roberto 1,302,747 Tercer Cielo 1,169,047

Marcos Witt 6,277,212 Hillsong United 1,172,238 Kari Jobe 1,058,081

Lilly Goodman 6,085,889 Marcos Witt 1,171,863 Jesus Culture 1,012,920

Hillsong United 5,757,446 Jesus Adrian Romero 1,147,253 Lilly Goodman 1,006,243

Ricardo Montaner 5,556,593 Alex Campos 1,109,657 Marcela Gandara 971,996

Don Moen 5,319,244 Chris Tomlin 1,017,691 Christine D’Clario 948,845

Skillet 5,226,520 Tercer Cielo 937,225 Marcos Witt 939,683

Marcela Gandara 4,750,087 Marcela Gandara 739,046 Hillsong Worship 928,985

Casting Crowns 4,658,287 Lilly Goodman 716,866 Bethel Music 892,975

Hillsong Worship 4,423,081 Kari Jobe 701,575 Alex Campos 885,995

Danilo Montero 4,195,559 Marco Barrientos 692,966 Kirk Franklin 852,127

TobyMac 4,048,347 Danilo Montero 665,312 Tasha Cobbs 794,978

Mary Mary 3,775,434 Jesus Culture 618,889 Hillsong Y&F 767,391

Chris Tomlin 3,545,592 TobyMac 615,983 Marco Barrientos 738,870

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3 | GOSPELMUSIC.ORG FEBRUARY 2018 Rich with Jim Caviezel in Malta, on the set for “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” in theaters March 28, 2018.

Prior to his time at AFFIRM, Peluso spent 15 years in the busy reading. I was rummaging around and found Christian Music Industry as the President of EMI Christian a newspaper wrapped over a ceramic Christmas tree, Music Group’s Distribution team where he developed a which my mother-in-law had made. The newspaper passion for filmed entertainment. He was also President of had a three-month-old “help wanted” ad for Christian The Safe Side Company, a children’s entertainment company music reps. I was in Washington, D.C. at the time, but founded by John Walsh (Host of America’s Most Wanted) and I called the phone number and it rang at Star Song in Julie Clark (Founder of The Baby Einstein Company). Nashville. I got ahold of the sales manager, who was leaving that night to fly to D.C. to conduct interviews We were able to spend some time with Peluso discussing his the next morning. I called in sick for my job the next extensive career in Christian media, how he and his team day and showed up at the hotel. I waited all day for a decide what stories to tell, what defines success for a film, slot, but they forgot about me. When they came down and who influenced him professionally and personally. the elevator to leave for dinner, I recognized them only Will you quickly tell about your history in the because they had on Star Song jackets. I approached music industry and how you landed at Sony them and they invited me to dinner because they felt Pictures/AFFIRM Films? so bad. By the end of dinner, they’d hired me.

Rich Peluso: In my life, there were three distinct times That’s how I found myself in the music business. Growing when God showed up the most presently and strongly — up, I wrote and recorded music as an amateur, but I was times when I couldn’t deny it was Him intersecting with smart enough to figure out that I wasn’t going to make it me. One was a miraculous situation where my daughter as an artist. But the idea of helping market, develop, and was minutes away from dying. She was saved through distribute music was really exciting. what some would call an amazingly coincidental situation, but I knew it wasn’t. It was a miracle. The other two times Then after 15 years at EMI, I had developed a passion were both vocational: one was joining the Christian music for filmed entertainment — mainly because I had four industry at Star Song Records, which was later acquired by daughters who were consuming a lot of Disney Channel EMI, and another was coming to Sony Pictures. content. I wanted to be involved in helping create visual media, so I talked to my boss, Bill Hearn. I was under As the story goes, way back in 1990 I was sitting in the car contract, but he let me out of the contract two years early waiting for my wife to get off work and I always have to be because I told him my heart was to chase this dream.

4 | GOSPELMUSIC.ORG FEBRUARY 2018 Rich with the production crew in Malta, on the set for “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” in theaters March 28, 2018.

I helped start a small children’s entertainment film company and we sold that to Sony. Because of this relationship with Sony, they ultimately hired me to launch their faith based film division, AFFIRM. That was in 2007. We had very little resources: only me and two other people. And now, we’re celebrating our ten-year anniversary this year! Since our start, we’ve garnered half a billion dollars in theatrical revenue and billions more in overall revenue. Now we have five people, and we’ve had an incredible run so far — but when I started working for Sony, I didn’t know much about the film business.

Believe it or not, during my first month with Sony Pictures, I looked for the textbooks, curriculum, and materials that film students study at UCLA and other such schools. I bought those, started reading them, and learned about story and character development, scripting, screenwriting, and production. Then with each project we did, I attached Rich with first grandchild, myself to the lead producer so I could observe, ask wife, and four daughters questions, and listen. Over these ten years, I’ve graduated from my own street film school.

How much of your drive to know, learn, and understand is indicative of how you’ve grown in your career? Is that curiosity an innate part of how you’re wired and how has that served you well?

Peluso: It’s about being naturally curious. I drive my family nuts because if we’re having a conversation and run into a dead end because someone doesn’t know some trivial fact, I’ve got to find the answer. I can’t not know!

I was also inspired to focus on increasing my knowledge by working for Bill Hearn at EMI. My 10 years of working for Bill included countless business trips and meetings, and I learned three very simple secrets of success from observing him:

5 | GOSPELMUSIC.ORG FEBRUARY 2018 Return every phone call, because you never know of biblical content and historical fiction, which has to be 1what you’re going to stumble into. harmonious with Scripture. After we develop a story into a screenplay, we bring that screenplay to a small group 2Take notes at every meeting and follow through. of trusted pastors, leaders, rabbis, and priests. We have Always do what you say you’re going to do. them read, critique, and offer their thoughts on what they 3 liked and didn’t like. If they spot something they believe is These may sound average, but if you do those three theologically off the rails or which leans a little too heavily things, you’ll be ahead of 90% of other people. I took those in that direction, then we’ll make an informed decision on principles and brought them to a new industry in the film how to address that. business, and it’s been a great experience.

How do you choose what stories you want to tell?

Peluso: Like any business, we’ve discovered what works for us over time through trial and error. What really connects for AFFIRM Films are true contemporary stories with broad family appeal — well-known stories in the Jesus chose storytelling faith community about real people who are alive to talk about it. Those are the guideposts, so to speak, of what as His device to communicate I’m looking for. When a story meets those criteria, it fits “ in our wheelhouse. If they meet some of those points, but to the world, why wouldn’t we? not all, the story is not necessarily off the table for us, but we have to think very carefully about how to approach it.

This must mean each day looks different for you? What are your hopes in how AFFIRM tells these stories Peluso: This means I’m reading a screenplay every and how they ultimately have an influence on faith? day, five days a week. A development director who Peluso: What has really made an impact is the fact that reports to me reads a screenplay every single day. Jesus is the creator of the universe. And instead of sitting In the last 10 years, I’ve read over 3000 screenplays, people down and preaching at them all day long, He told and I also read a book or two a week and watch human- stories to make a point. In fact, when He was approached interest news programming. We are always looking by a couple of His disciples and asked, “Why do you tell for compelling stories that we believe have an element stories? Why do you use stories?” What He said was, “You’re of theatricality to it. Not every great story is a movie. blessed in that you have discernment from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes a great story is just a YouTube clip, sometimes You understand these things, but a lot of people don’t. a song — other times, a great story is a book. Rarely is These stories make the kingdom accessible to them.” If a great story a movie. Jesus chose storytelling as His device to communicate to How do you balance the creative aspect of writing the world, why wouldn’t we want to model that behavior? and developing a film when the source material is That’s one of the reasons I love the music business and based on Scripture? the artists who are passionate about telling stories in songs. Peluso: Over the years, the inspiration for me has been In my view, the only difference between what I’m doing listening to my pastors. For example, say a pastor is now what I was doing in the music industry, is that I was teaching on Romans 8 or they’re preaching on King David. restricted to three minutes. Now I have 90. The pastor is not going to read Scripture verbatim, then Beyond financial numbers and box office stats, how smile, wave, and walk off stage. That pastor is going to do you define success for a film that you’ve created? draw you into the story. He’s going to paint the picture of the sights and smells — the thoughts that must have been Peluso: First, there’s the financial level, which is very cut going through David’s mind when he was being sought and dry. In one column, there’s what we spend to create the after by Saul in the wilderness, or what he may have film, the physical production of the film, the distribution, said to Bathsheba when he was wooing her. As teachers, and the cost of marketing and promotion. In the other pastors use this kind of creative license to bring the column, we have revenue. story to life. That’s how I view film. When we look at our biblical features like “Risen” from a couple years ago and AFFIRM Films is fortunate to be a major studio. We are “Paul” that we’re working on now, it really is a marriage wholly-owned and part of Sony Pictures, which means we

6 | GOSPELMUSIC.ORG FEBRUARY 2018 have access to Sony Pictures’ global distribution network. We released one of our latest 3 TOP 3 movies, “All Saints,” on December 12th, and that same day I was flying to Dallas and saw “All Saints” as one of the American Airlines movie selections. It’s also on every WITH RICH PELUSO cruise ship in the world and was released digitally in 100 countries. We have this global distribution system through Sony, which gives us an advantage in the marketplace because we’re able to spread that cost over a wide stream of revenue channels. THREE BOOKS YOU’D RECOMMEND: On the missional side, we really look to see unsolicited feedback on the story’s impact. 1. The Spark We release the movie, and if it’s really connecting with people, they will find us and tell 2. The Dark Tower us how it impacted them. When we released “Fireproof,” thousands of people said their by CS Lewis marriage was impacted or saved because of that movie. “All Saints” connected with 3. Devil In Pew people nationally and internationally, as it emphasized the importance of not worrying Number Seven about what people are your neighbors, but that they are your neighbors — and that we should reach out, welcome them, and love them. It’s a very hot topic in our society today. NAME THREE THINGS STILL LEFT ON YOUR Ultimately, I ask from a missional perspective: are lives and hearts and minds BUCKET LIST: impacted by these stories? The only way for us to tell is to see the unsolicited consumer 1. Paragliding feedback or the leader feedback. We always have our antennas up for that. 2. Traveling to China 3. Getting my pilot’s license Professionally and personally, who has had the greatest influence on you?

FINALLY, WHAT ARE Peluso: In addition to Bill Hearn, two people who had a considerable impression on YOUR THREE FAVORITE me were Bill and Julie Clark, the founders of Baby Einstein. They, along with John RECORDS OF ALL TIME? Walsh, were the ones who hired me away from EMI when we started a children’s 1. Maroon – The Webb company together. What I loved about Julie and Bill is their entrepreneurial mind Brothers and their creative thinking in terms of how to combine a business with social impact. 2. Of the Blue Color We gave away ten percent of the revenue that we generated to the National Center Of The Sky – OK Go for Missing and Exploited Children. The way they brought me under their wings and 3. The Legend Of Chin – introduced me to the Missing Center and the reality of what’s going on in the world, Switchfoot made a lasting impact on me. It affected how I parented and viewed my children.

HAVE YOU TAKEN THE On the personal side, the people who have made the biggest impact on me in a non- ENNEAGRAM, AND WHAT spiritual way are the Beatles. I discovered the Beatles because I had a children’s record IS YOUR NUMBER? player, which had a yellow vinyl version of the song, “Yellow Submarine.” It was a Peluso: Wait, what? kid’s version, but I convinced myself I was a Beatles fan. At seven years old, I got my Have I taken what? allowance and asked my parents if I could buy a Beatles record. They said, “Look, this is not what you think it is.” I assumed it was going to be a bunch of kids singing like GMA: The Enneagram my “Yellow Submarine” was. I bought a .99 cent cut-out bin Beatles record at Sears and is an insightful tool that Roebuck and I wore that thing out. It gave me a passion for music and songwriting. helps you understand yourself and others. After We’ve talked a little bit about being a dad … how has having four daughters completing the test, you influenced you in your career? rank somewhere between Peluso: My children have influenced me to push creatively in different directions. When one through nine and I was in the music business, they were listening to music different than we were focused each number depicts on at work. It made an impact on me and I brought that to work and was a big advocate, your personality traits. along with Peter York and Bill Hearn, to chase groups like Jump5 and to acquire Tooth & Peluso: Well, then, Nail. This was when we had typically more adult MOR and worship music. But I saw what I’m a ten. my kids were responding to everyday and I wanted to chase that, not only to be relevant to my own kids, but to stay relevant to the next generation of music consumers. GMA: You’re a ten. You just won the interview. The same has been true on the film side, as they’ve challenged me to find interesting Best answer ever! content. In faith based films, we all know what works with 50-year-old people, but how do you engage a 16-year-old? That’s a challenge. Having kids and observing what they respond to is like having my own four-person focus group. They have made a significant impact.

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