Important Dates and Resources for May

I wanted post an update on what's happening around eleven72. First, we're hard at work getting our April round of free still backgrounds and free worship backgrounds ready to post and send out with our next newsletter. Look for that newsletter early next week. If you're not in the know, we give away free stills, backgrounds and other stuff every month to our email subscribers. To sign up, go to our homepage and you'll find the information in the lower right hand part of the page. If you sign up now, you can still get last months free stuff and then the new stuff when the newsletter goes out next week.

The National Day of Prayer is coming up May 3rd. If you've got plans to do a Prayer focused service the weekend before (April 28th-29th), we've got some resources that would work great for you.

Check out our Prayer Volume 1, a bundle of prayer related media pieces that include two Sermon Illustrations, a Countdown, five Still Backgrounds and two moving Worship Backgrounds. This has been a very popular volume for us, in particular, people have really responded well to the Prayer Illustration, which features thoughtful and inspirational quotes on Prayer, as well as original photography by esteemed photographer Joel Salcido. You can get a great deal by purchasing the entire volume, or you can order ala carte and get whatever you need.

Next up, in May, Mother's Day falls on May 13th. We're currently working on some new Mother's Day resources which I'll post about in the next few days. In the mean time, check out our wildly popular Sermon Illustration, For Mom: A Breakfast Story, which is a really honest, funny and heart warming look at some kids who are trying to make Mom's day extra special. While you're looking, don't miss our even more popular Mother's Day Countdown, which is based on an actual survey we took asking Moms the question, what's the worst Mother's Day gift you have either received or can think of (hint: getting her a scale is a really bad idea). The answers we got are hilarious. These two videos have been the most popular seasonal videos we've ever produced. Check them out.

Finally up in May is Memorial Day on May 28th. For those of you having Memorial Day services on May 27th, we're working on a brand new Sermon Illustration just for you. It's going to be a powerful piece that highlights the history of Memorial Day and ties that rich history into our remembering those who have fallen today. I'll be sure to post about that video when it's finished and available. Another great video we have that would work well on Memorial Day is Let Freedom Ring, a thoughtful collection of quotes and scripture that highlights the God centered values and principles our nation was founded on Let Freedom Ring is available as an Illustration and as a Countdown.

PowerPlugs for PowerPoint

A big thanks to reader danlwil for pointing :) me to PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds for PowerPoint. PowerPlugs from Crystal Graphics is a line of plugins for PowerPoint, and this particular plugin lets you (finally!) use moving backgrounds in PowerPoint. With it, you can take those awesome worship backgrounds you've been wanting to use, put them into PowerPoint and then key or put up the worship lyrics over the motion backgrounds. If you're using PowerPoint for worship, you need to check it out. This would open up a whole new world to you and your congregation. Moving backgrounds are a powerful tool for worship.

Here's danlwil's comment left on a blog post I wrote recently about how, as far as I could tell, you couldn't key text over moving backgrounds in PowerPoint:

We use PPT for our productions. There is a video player plugin by chrystal graphics that allows moving video in PPT... It is a memory hog, and a little clutzy... just this year they updated it to work in presentation mode... That helped alot... transitions are a bit sketchy and it (along with Microsoft is a bit unstable)... however.. I've learned to switch between multiple computers which gives me better flexability and stability.

So... I haven't used the PowerPlugs plugin myself, and danlwil does list a few caveats about the functionality of it, but if it lets you use motion backgrounds, it's definitely worth looking into. It looks like it will run you $149. So, it's not free but it's not as expensive as some of the other solutions and it looks like they offer a satisfaction gauranteed or your money back type policy. Check it all out for yourself here. And if you do end up using it, leave us some comments with your thoughts so we can pass those along to others.

Free Easter Worship Backgrounds and Stills

This is a message for all you last minute shoppers :). We're getting a lot of traffic this week from Google folks who are searching for free Easter resources. For those of you who don't know or haven't been here before, our free Easter resources are available by signing up for our email list on the homepage (Click Here to go to there now). And while you're here, please check out our other great Easter videos here in our Seasonal store.

Sign up for our email list and you will receive a link to download two Easter themed loopable worship backgrounds and two awesome Easter themed still backgrounds that would make great backgrounds for your Easter Power Point slides. The free Easter pack is really well done. I have to give props to my partner Lee for that. He's done a great job designing these. We have these media pieces available on other sites for sale this Easter season and they're selling really well. But you can get them for free here! You can check out the whole package by visiting our Free Media page. Then go back to the homepage and sign up!

Once you sign up, we'll send you links to free stuff like this every month. So we really hope you'll sign up.

Easter Freebies Coming Soon!

Be sure to check your inboxes tomorrow. Our latest newletter is going out complete with a link to the latest free stuff. Among the freebies will be two new worship backgrounds that will work great for Easter. Here's a sneak peak frame grab of one of the motion backgrounds:

If you don't yet subscribe to our list, get thee to the homepage and sign up. If you hurry, you can still get the free stuff from February and then, when the link goes out tomorrow, the free stuff for March. What are you waiting for :).

Free Reminder


If you're just checking out the blog or you don't get over to the homepage much, this is your official free Worship Backgrounds and Stills reminder. We're always giving away something for nothing here at eleven72. Well, almost nothing. If you sign up for our email list on the homepage, you'll get a link to download two absolutely free loopable Worship Backgrounds and four cool urban themed Still Backgrounds (they're the top four photos after the jump). Once you're signed up, you'll get an email from us at least once a month with links to more new free stuff. You can't beat free, right? Click here to jump to the homepage and get your freebies.

Fired Up

Found footage! New freebies coming soon!







We've unearthed and rediscovered some exciting footage that we've shot over the last couple of years and it has inspired us to put together an urban series of stills, loops and who knows what else. I'm getting so excited just looking at the footage that I may just pick up my camera right now, head downtown and start shooting.

We've got all this first-rate footage. And even though we shot it in the past, it's like it's brand new again. Time-lapse footage, protest footage, gritty black and white footage. Some of it was used in a documentary we did, some of it was just because we wanted to capture a past event, and some of it was for this cool little black and white short film we did (shot on 16mm B&W film!). Whatever the reason we shot it, we've got it, and pouring over the footage has given us inspiration to create a whole new set of urban mini-movies, loops and stills.

Right now we're working on a new set of free power point still images and free worship background loops that we'll be serving up to all our email subscribers very soon. If you're not currently on our email list, I encourage you to sign up on our homepage before the new stuff goes up. That way, you'll get the free loops and stills we're offering now and you'll get the new free stuff when we send out our newsletter in the next couple of days.

We're really fired up about giving you resources you can use and we're hoping this new urban themed media will help you fire up the people you serve!

New Worship Backgrounds on the Seasonal Tab:





We've added four new Christmas Backgrounds to the Seasonal Tab. These are great, Christmas themed, loop-able backgrounds that you can use in your upcoming worship services.