I sit here in my nice office. Typing. Drinking coffee. Thinking of how to be clever for this blog. Comfy. I love my life and I’m joyful about where God has me at this moment.
But something has been stirring deep inside of me for the last couple of years and it’s not going away. It’s called the Gospel. Yes. The Good News. You probably say “whoa. big shocker. some Christian is talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ again. There’s news.” Yes. It is true. It may be cliche. But I have never experienced it this intensely in my life. For the last few years as I’ve really pressed into God, He has been moving me towards His global mission. A mission that has little to do with me and much to do with Him. He calls me to share the good news of Jesus (Matthew 28:18). He says all nations. He says its because of the Authority given to Him. He says GO. So I’m going.
Where exactly? In prayer is where I go. Then I let Him direct me as to what next. So right now, I’m “going” to a high school to volunteer so that the kids can get a better education from the over worked, underpaid teaching staff. The Texas Education Agency is trying to shut down this high school forever and I find this highly unacceptable. The test scores aren’t good enough they say and so these lower income kids are going to be scattered (most of whom will not finish high school) through out the city. vimeo.com/3148622
Right now, I’m going to a recovery group and leading men who suffer from addiction to anything you can think of. Drugs. Alcohol. Porn. Pride. Anger. Fear. Hate. I’m walking them through the 12 Steps to lead them to an incredible walk with Christ. I’ve been addicted to it all, so I’m “qualified” to walk with them.
Right now, I’m raising money to dig a well in El Salvador for a community that doesn’t have water. WATER. They DON’T HAVE WATER. Ridiculous. Absolutely unacceptable. I’ve got to raise all the money to go, but I’m going somehow.
Am I awesome for doing this? No. Only God is awesome (it never calls a human “awesome” in the Bible. Only God). Am I to be praised for these small actions? No. Only God is to be praised. What SHOULD happen is a reflective bounce of glory. You see me (or my actions) then you are immediately pointed to Christ. I truly hope that is happening.
People need help. People need water. People need love. People need Jesus. I’m going to take it to them…one action at a time.
We recently completed a short film about love. And if you know anything about me and the films on our site, you know it’s not going to be sappy. Hopefully you’ll find it quite amusing and even more than that, you find it helpful to open up a topic on love, relationships, God’s love, marriage, Valentine’s Day……
Below are some pics from production day. We had such a blast with this project. Things really got going when the Mariachi band showed up (Mariachi Relampago) Those guys were hilarious! Our incredible actors, Ryan Wickerham and Sara Flowers did a phenomenal job. They really made this script come alive. We had an incredibly aggressive schedule and they were solid all day long. And a special thanks to Jim Flores who was the all around everything man for this production. Lights, audio, continuity, you name it and he was doing it. You can see his fingerprints all over this film because every shot is carefully light and perfectly recorded (audio). Sara’s sister graciously came too and did hair and make up. Such a blessing because I couldn’t afford one this time. And last, but certainly not least was our script supervisor, caterer, craft service, photographer, production coordinator and more…my wife Virginia. What an amazing woman! She really does it all and with a smile on her face.
Katie Ornelas was kind enough to let us invade her classroom for the day (on a Satuday of course) and I hope we did a descent job in putting it all back together.
Well, it’s been a long time coming. Yes. eleven72 now offers videos in HD. I know you’ve just been waiting day after day for this to happen. (please note sarcasm)
We’ve been shooting our films in HD for 2 1/2 years now, but the churches are getting more used to the idea of HD content. Some have been using HD for years, but the general church has not. I understand its a special kind of church that is ready for HD and if you happen to be one of those, we’ve got the media.
Now with that said, not all our products are available in HD. Only a few of them are right now, but everything moving foward will have an HD option. Look in the right hand corner of the thumbnail on the preview page and you’ll see the logo “Available in HD”. The longer videos (4-5 minutes) are pretty large files…about 300-500 megs big. It will take several minutes for an HD video to download on a fast connection, but if you’re in the high def world already, you know what you’re getting into.
So take a look around at the sermon illustrations that are available in HD. I will soon post an new background for the February freebie and it will be available in HD if you want to test one out.
Recently I had the great opportunity to create a music video. The band is called Eternity Focus and they’re based in Kansas. My friend Gary Molander from Floodgate Productions connected the band and I and we immediately started the idea phase. They really wanted a video that could powerfully connect their live audiences to their music as they played on stage. They had lots of ideas for their music and ended up choosing the song “God Are You There?” It’s a very emotional song about a young woman who struggles with God’s existence after she finds out she’s pregnant and doesn’t know what to do.
I shot everything in 2 days just after the new year. I hired a young and talented actress by the name of Jessica Roque. She was a true joy to work with and her great talent allowed us to keep moving fast because we didn’t need a bunch of extra takes. My wife, Virginia was an enormous part of creating this video as she held about 15 different jobs from 1st AD to PA to dolly grip & Art Director. She was an amazing chameleon during the whole pre-pro and production phase of this project! Couldn’t have done this at all without her. My sister in law, Sarah also helped tremendously. She did hair, makeup & wardrobe. We moved so fast and after you watch the video you’ll see why she had such a tough job. We went from bathroom/day time clothes to hysterical crying in a bedroom wardrobe etc. Runny mascara, messy hair, then back to fully made up for an appointment at church. We truly ran the gamut on this and Sarah was fantastic every step of the way.
I hope this will help the band & I really hope that it will help young women out there who might struggle with this same decision. It was truly a blessing to create this video. Hope you enjoy. (click in the middle of the video to go to Youtube and watch in HD!)
We’ve posted our newest New Year’s video so check it out here when you have a moment. It’s called “Imagine” and it’s a quick video that poses the question, “Imagine what it would look like if we all…” It’s pointed towards us all thinking about how our world would look if we all acted just a little bit more like Christ this coming year. Hopefully you’ll love it and can use it in your ministry.
We’ve also put up our Freebie for the month. Check it out here! A simple nativity scene that’s perfect for the Christmas season. And don’t forget to shop around this month for all your media needs because everything is still 50% off!
We’re also really excited to be offering our entire library for 50% off for the rest of the year! Come by and get videos for all your holiday needs for 50% their normal price. We’ll be running this sale through December 31st. Click here to check it out.
Lee and I arrived in Oregon Tuesday where we’ll be spending the next few weeks crewing on a feature film. Lee is working as the Production Coordinator and I have the privledge of working in the camera department as the Second Camera Assistant or AC.
It’s a low budget movie called “The Presence,” which is being Produced by Tom Rice of Eight20Eight Productions. We’ve got a great cast in it and we’re shooting with a Sony Cine Alta F23 from Panavision. So I’m pretty fired up.
I just started a Flickr Set with photos from our trip so far. I’ll add more pics as often as I can. So if you want to keep up with what we’re up to, you can see those photos here:
