Incredible New Project

We are so proud to announce (to the few of you who read this blog) a project that eleven72 is part of. It's called The Quench Project. It's the first ever of it's kind. The most popular and successful church video producers in the world have collaborated to create an incredible DVD. We talked with many of our friends in this industry and decided to make a "best of" type DVD for churches. It includes some of the post popular videos ever made for churches from 13 different producers. The value is incredible because if the media was all purchased individually, the cost would be over $700. The final price isn't set, but it will most likely be under $100.

And here's the BEST part! All proceeds go to a company called Living Water International. That's 100% of everything made on this project goes to helping the 1 billion people around the world who don't have ACCESS to clean water. I capitalized access because that's such a crucial word. It's not that they don't have inexpensive clean water, or that it's kinda hard to get to...No access at all. People are literally dying everyday. Water is the most essential part of every humans life. This particular company teaches people how to build wells and then they go and build them. Then they teach the villagers to maintain the well and go back often to make repairs...All in the name of Jesus. It's so fantastic.

So be on the lookout on all our websites for the announcement. The big unveiling will be at the Echo conference in Dallas in August. And thanks so much to our wonderful friends at Floodgate for heading this up, spurring us on and creating the art and DVD itself. They are truly fantastic people.

The Catch Fire Blog Has Moved!!!

Hey all, we ported our blog to Wordpress and slightly changed the url. So if you're reading this on a feedreader or just stopping by because you had this address bookmarked, click here to check out the blogs new home. Once there, we hope you'll subscribe to the new feed.

http://www.eleven72.com/blog

We're in a Podcast

That's right. Someone actually wanted to talk to us about what it is exactly we do around here. Just yesterday, via Skype, we sat down and talked with the fine fellows over at ChurchyMedia. ChurchyMedia is a great church tech type resource. They have a great podcast, a regular video series called Short Takes where they do quick reviews of everything from software to social media tools to books, and they're running a really funny cartoon series on their blog right now. Anyway, we enjoyed talking with them and you can check out the interview as well as subscribe the podcast, etc, by visiting their site: churchymedia.com

A Good Reminder for Myself

I was thinking and praying about the whole comments issue (see my previous post) and was gently reminded by the Holy Spirit that I'm not doing this whole videos for churches thing for Gary (or the commenting public in general), I'm doing it for God. And as long as I can keep that perspective then the things that people have to say about our videos don't hurt so bad. Of course, I also have to remember to lean on and trust God in everything so that I don't go from being hurt by the comments to worrying about how they're going to effect our sales and thus our ability to keep the lights on, not just at eleven72 World Headquarters but at our homes as well. So, today at least, say what you will, I'm serving and trusting God :).

Feeling the Need to Comment

Yesterday I noticed a new comment left at Worship House about our new Easter video, "The Cross: A Curse For Us?" The comment comes from Gary Buck, the Worship Pastor at Petra Christian Fellowship in New Holland, PA. Here's what Gary said:

"I like the video, but I really don't care for the narrator's voice."

Doesn't seem that bad, right? But the issue of the purpose these comments serve runs deep. Ask yourself how you would feel if the narrator's voice were yours. And then ask yourself how Gary would feel if I came up to him after a worship service and told him that I really enjoyed the music, but I didn't care for his voice. He would be wounded as I am wounded by his comment. Gary is certainly entitled to his opinion, and I certainly have my own opinions and sometimes I don't "care for" things. But there is a time and place to share your opinions and we need to think seriously before we open our mouths in public places and pass judgement.

There are all kinds of comments left about videos on these sights and Gary's certainly is nowhere near the worst I've seen. I've seen people say downright mean things about others videos like "don't quit your day job," and Gary's comment is not nearly that bad. People might say that I'm being overly sensitive, or that it's to be expected when you put something out there like we do when we make videos. And they would have a point. My point is that we, as Christians, need to heed or at least give pause and think before we speak. "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" may be cliche. It may be trite and overly simple and not always true. But in Ephesians 4:29, Paul says "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Now I'm not sure if what Gary said is unwholesome, but it certainly isn't helpful and I can't see any benefit in his or other negative comments left on sites like Worship House and Sermon Spice.

Come and See Meets Kyte TV

Kyte TV is a new platform (in beta) that allows anyone to have in essence a TV channel that can be embedded anywhere and can carry anything and everything from live broadcasts, to audio files, to slide shows to high end produced videos. You create a channel on Kyte and that channel can go anywhere and when you update it with new content, it updates everywhere simultaneously. It's very very cool.

I talked a little about Come and See TV when I posted a video a few days ago for a band called Rumor of Glory. Intrigued by the Kyte TV platform, I signed up and posted the Rumor of Glory video on a new channel I created called Come and See TV. Now, I'm going to embed that channel here on the blog. Say you became a fan of Come and See TV, but don't want to go to Kyte or to our site or to our Facebook page or whatever but you still want to be able to see Come and See TV. You can take the embed code and Come and See TV can live wherever you want it to. And whenever we update it, it will update on your site. That's what they say anyway. Without further adieu, here it is... Introducing Come and See TV:

Steadicam Merlin in the Wild

Friday I got to break out our shiny new Steadicam Merlin and use it in an actual real life shoot. The video features our good friend Josh Riebock. We'll post the whole video when it's done. In the meantime, Lee did a little (very low res) side by side comparison of the Steadicam shot we pulled off and a handheld shot of us pulling off the Steadicam shot. The Steadicam shot is on the left and that's me operating the Steadicam, backing away from Josh, on the right. Notice how smooth the Steadicam shot is compared to a walking handheld shot. Pretty cool.

Giving Birth to a New Idea

We're in the early stages of a big project here at eleven72. It's called Come and See TV. And it promises to be a place that invites people from all walks of life to Come and See what Jesus is up to in the world, where He's living, how He's moving, and how He's using those willing in His church body to communicate His love. The idea comes from the Gospel of John, Chapter One, verses 35-46. Read it and you'll find two instances where the phrase is used. In the first instance, Jesus invites his first disciples to join Him on his journey, to come and see for themselves where He's living and what He's up to. In the second instance, it's used in response to the question of a skeptic, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" The answer, "Come and see."

A big element of the vision for Come and See is a series of videos about people from all walks of life who are passionately seeking after Christ. We've recently wrapped what we hope will become the first video of thousands in this series. Episode 1 is about a band called Rumor of Glory. It's about how their band and first album, "The Story" came to be. Here's a sneak peak of Come and See TV: