A Family Story Film Project
Dream Big!
Partner with A Family Story Films and we’ll make magic together!
A Family Story pairs classically trained actors with best-selling children’s books. Children’s imaginations will soar to new heights as they watch their favorite characters come to life.
From Mary Poppins to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the interaction of live actors with animated characters and environments has captured the imagination of audiences young and old.
Our animation team expertly brings to life the characters from the most beloved children’s stories of all time. Characters that are playful and fun, that interact with the reader, the story, and the viewer.
SERIES Trailer & Opportunity
Each Family Story Videobook is a full-scale film production complete with set design, an original script, score, sound design, props, prosthetics, and animation.
This is far more than a simple reading. Each Videobook takes the best-selling and most endearing stories of our time and delivers them in a new medium to an even broader audience.
Pilot EPISODE
Each Family Story Videobook contains a purely magical segment where the actor puts the book down and interacts with the animated characters. In this original song and dance sequence, our actor leaves the real world and enters a purely magical one.
Each original song is written to capture the theme of the book and is infinitely singable. These scenes bring our actors and animated characters together to sing, dance, flip, fly, romp, and roar.
A Family Story Series Breakdown
The Emmy-nominated, children’s literacy program Storyline Online gets an astonishing 10 million views a month. Their online and mobile app offering consists of 50 titles and is available worldwide at no cost. This comprehensive experience is endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers and is a trusted source of TV entertainment for parents of young readers. A Family Story will easily appeal to the Storyline Online audience- while taking the concept to an infinitely higher level.
Invest Into A Family Story Films
Interested in partnering with us?
We are looking for partners at every level. Whether you are interested in investing in season one of the A Family Story series or a broader partnership with A Family Story Films at the company level, we’d love to hear from you! You can contact us at invest@afamilystoryfilms.com
Unreal Engine 5
The technology used to create the sci-fi planetary landscapes in The Mandalorian, and the motion capture used to bring Thanos and The Hulk to life in the Avengers is accessible to projects like ours through Unreal Engine 5 virtual production.
Unreal Engine is a real-time rendering engine that offers a host of tools to enhance and speed up video production. We plan to use it primarily to generate environments on set that would track and respond to camera movement and provide realistic lighting to our actors.
We will use this technology to seamlessly blend practical set-pieces with animated fantastical backgrounds in-camera, creating a more realistic reaction from our actors and a shorter post-production workflow. We can also capture actors in motion capture suits, speeding up animation workflows: even if Giraffes Can’t Dance, we certainly will be able to as we use professional dancers to teach them!
Meet The Team
PRODUCER / DIRECTOR / WRITER
Joel N Clark is the director of A Family Story Films. Joel has written and directed multiple award-winning films, short films, sitcoms, commercials, adventure series, and feature documentaries.
Joel has also written fiction and nonfiction books that have been published widely. The quality of Joel’s work can be seen in the stories he’s chosen to tell. He lives with his wife of fifteen years, Megan, their daughter Juno, and their son Elah, in Washington DC.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Mark Yucha is a seasoned finance and accounting professional who began his career with KPMG and then moved on to management roles at various organizations ranging in size from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining A Family Story he most recently served as the CFO of a national online publisher based in Washington DC.
Mark is currently enjoying a stint in Cape Town, South Africa with his wife and two children.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / DISTRIBUTION
Esther Fedorkevich is the founder of The Fedd Agency, a literary and entertainment agency. Among her clients are Mark Batterson, Tim Tebow, George Barna, Erwin McManus, Jentezen Franklin, and Eva Shockey. After representing fifty-six New York Times bestselling authors and having represented more than a thousand books, Esther knows that publishing is changing. That’s why she has established The Fedd Agency’s unique, 360-degree model, which comprehensively manages the needs of her clients—from traditional publishing to in-house book production, to building personal platforms, to negotiating for film, television, and other derivative products.
Esther lives in Austin, TX with her husband, Jimmy, and their two kids, Alexi and Paul.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / WRITER
Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. One church with multiple locations. NCC is focused on reaching emerging generations and meets in theaters throughout the DC metro area. NCC also owns and operates the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. Mark holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of 19 books…
PRODUCER / WRITER
Jason Clark is a writer, producer, and lead communicator of A Family Story nonprofit. He has written 6 books including, Prone to Love, and Untamed. Jason has written and produced films that span from commercials and documentaries to TV and feature films.
Jason and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children Madeleine True, Ethan Wilde, and Eva Blaze.
Educational Value
A Family Story is offering a product that is highly educational and interactive. Often the idea of starting a new book can be daunting to children. But the more they experience reading through our format, the more they will be drawn into reading on their own.
We have purposefully picked five public domain stories and five best-selling children’s books for season one. We are still finalizing our list but as of now, here are several that make the list.
To give you an example of where this series is headed, think about the Three Little Pigs. Not the world’s best story to say the least. Yet what child doesn’t know it off by heart? When we say we are going to create a Videobook of the Three Little Pigs, we don’t mean we will create the story you know.
What we create will be SO MUCH FUN! To see an example of where this series will take the most beloved stories of all time, check out the screenplay for “Pigs,” HERE!
Invest Into A Family Story Films
Interested in partnering with us?
We are looking for partners at every level. Whether you are interested in investing in season one of the A Family Story series or a broader partnership with A Family Story Films at the company level, we’d love to hear from you! You can contact us at invest@afamilystoryfilms.com
SO MUCH MORE!
Each public domain story we tell will allow us to also create an original book to be published along with the series. Along with the book, we will also have the option to create interactive games and other merchandise.
We also plan to create booklets for teachers and parents to use to help teach kids to follow along and learn to read.
A Family Story is an interactive reading series that helps kids learn from stories, get along with others, and develop kindness and values.
Our Little Corner
Wilde Assembly
Vibey, hopeful, and stirring, Our Little Corner EP is six cover songs recorded by Ethan Wilde Clark…
and produced and performed by Ethan and Madeleine True Clark under the name Wilde Assembly.
These are two of my favorite artists and people. Yes, I am biased, they are my kids.
At my house, songs, artists, and albums are discussed at any hour of the day, often passionately. We are a musical family. If you happen to visit in the evening you may hear Madeleine playing her piano in her room, her voice faintly mesmerizing us with its beautiful rich tone through the walls.
Amazon boxes show up regularly at our house as Ethan has ordered some new piece of gear for his bedroom studio from which between the hours of 2 pm and 5 am you will hear bass, drums, guitars, synthesizers, and every other instrument imaginable from his ever-growing library sounds. And then he finally started to add his voice, and it’s smooth and perfect.
This album is hours, days, and months of Ethan and Madi reimagining and finding fresh expression and interpretation of six really good songs by artists like, Regina Spektor, Tom Odell, Billie Eilish, and K.S. Rhodes
I love the creative and developing style as Ethan in particular grows in his craft of song production and as both grow as songwriters. This album is a melodic mixture of organic and digital instrumentation and its brilliant!
Enjoy, share, and follow, this is just the beginning.
JOHN MARK MCMILLAN / A WORSHIP RECORD FOR ATHEISTS
A Worship Album for Atheists
S.01 EPISODE 9
John Mark talks enneagram, songwriting, his latest record, Peopled with Dreams, and shares about a vulnerable joy he has discovered as he enters his 40’s. “Gratitude is the practice of seeing the world correctly” and John Mark shares how He rediscovered Jesus in the last several years and in so doing rediscovered his faith. He referred to this new record as a “walk back into faith” and it applies to himself but also is an invitation, for all who listen, to rediscover faith.
Regarding the new record, John Mark said, “I am building bridges between my friends who are atheists, my friends who are fundamentalists, my friends who consider themselves progressive or any end of the spectrum. Because gratitude is the one place we all come together.”
“You can’t be in gratitude and have a long term poor disposition towards the people who bear the image of the thing you are having this gratitude for.”
A Few references made on the podcast
Songwriter, Worship Leader, Producer (Peopled With Dreams) / Jacob Early
Producer / Elijah Mosely
The Enneagram, A Christian Perspective by Richard Rhor
For more on John Mark McMillan
www.johnmarkmcmillan.com
Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
www.johnmarkmcmillan.com
In light of the reality so many of us are facing with the measures to address coronavirus, A Family Story is giving my Sovereign Love teaching series–through May–to you for $10. That’s 90% off.
In uncertain times, I want to encourage you to live sure in peace and joy. You are His beloved son or daughter and it’s my heart that you experience lower anxiety and increased confidence, security, and connection in every area of your life.
SOVEREIGN LOVE is a six-session teaching series based on my book, God Is (Not) In Control.
God’s sovereign love is available to you right now. His love is the tangible peace and hope that will empower you to live secure in every area of life. It’s my desire to guide you into a refreshing encounter with our Father’s love and goodness.
The first episode is free, PREVIEW HERE
Jess Ray – Did Not Our Hearts Burn
Did Not Our Hearts Burn | Jess Ray
Zach Williams – No Longer Slaves (Live from Harding Prison)
No Longer Slaves (Live from Harding Prison) | Zach Williams
Northern Lights / Pre-production
And the journey begins… my friend Jacob Early and I spent a few hours working on a demo of a song I wrote several years ago.
It’s my first attempt at pre-production – the process by which I will demo several songs and determine whether they will make the final cut.
That’s right, after nearly six years of a musical wilderness I have been set free! I am working on a new full-length album to accompany my new book.
That said, this song needs some re-working lyrically and some serious further production. But for now, I think we captured its spirit. Enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think.
(I recently changed some lyrics, which is what happens in the production process. I put them in brackets below)
Northern Lights
Went to see the Northern Lights, so bright, reflected in Your eyes
And Your glory cloud descends, hey friends, it’s time we got going
Come on in out of the cold, come home, let’s go find this kingdom come, well done
I’ve been dreaming for a time, if its a crime, (Let me find my joy complete, let me see, oh) Love be my sweet witness
Come on in out of the cold, come home, let’s go find this kingdom come, well done
When the sun sets on my shoulder, and the Northern Lights shine bold
When my troubles, they’re all over (when Your love is all I know), well done
Come on in out of the cold, come home, let’s go find this kingdom come, well done