The Film Festival Rocks!



Film Festival Favorites at the end of this post...

Wow. I just stopped by the auditorium to check out the Film Festival because I was tired of working from my office and I'd rather work from the booth, but this is out of control. There are so many of you here and the energy is sooooo good. What a great time!

Soooo.. I see some laptops out there - are you live? How are YOU liking or not liking this? What's on your mind? What are your thoughts about the Film Festival?

(UPDATE: Friends, it's 8:49 and I gotta jet or else I won't get to see that 7 month old before he goes to bed - wish I could stay till the end - kudos to these churches and the many others big and small being brave, creative, and passionate for Christ!

7:55 pm - I got some goosebumps up in here... "Val's Christmas"

7:59 pm - Kids, shoes, bikes, Uganda - Genius! ... the gospel on film, one church makes a difference... "Africa"

8:02 pm - 14 oz baby - tears (we have a 7 month old) - prayer & community - "where would I have gone?"... "My story"

8:07 pm - Hilarious... "Host Team"

8:11 pm - I was at this service and will never forget the image of the "I AM WITH YOU" and the catscan - I needed to know that the night of that service!... "Randy's Story"

8:13 pm - beautiful video - color fade in just right - "Beauty"

8:16 pm - spoken word meets edge - awesome - love that you can't see her face - like Lori said, powerful! - "Note"

8:21 pm - here come those darn goose bumps again - thank you Jesus for rewrapping me... "Presents"

8:26 pm - I always love cardboard signs - dig the song - "Passionate Pursuit"

8:29 pm - Magic Scrabble Dice - the effects rock - "Meant to Live"

8:31 pm - As an "Office" addict... GENIUS!... "Cubicle"

8:33 pm - You had me at the "why women stay single" title - did my wife contribute to the brainstorming for this video?... "Be Self Aware "

8:36 pm - I feel like Debbie Downer but my friend works to free enslaved foreign nationals in Washington D.C.... okay it's just funny... "Indentura"

8:39 pm - Anything Mac always has my vote "Christian - Christ-Follower"

8:40 pm - "Star Wars - who I don't know is my sister yet" also Genius - LOL!!! - love the tackle - "leprosy & plague"... "Reconciosec"

26 comments:

Kris Hatcher said...

This is a great evening. Its really great to see what other churches are doing with video. Its amazing to see what can be done.

Kris Hatcher said...

nice humor there. its a nice way to get people involved in your ministries, specifically the necessary, but often hated, job of parking attendant.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy the videos, but I'd love to see some smaller (under 2,000) churches be represented. I think if you want to talk about encouraging and equipping churches, I'd be much more inspired by seeing "smaller" churches pull off really good videos.

But what I really don't get is why give a $100 prize to a large church? It just seems so against what I normally experience at these conferences.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this idea and I want this to continue every year!

Anonymous said...

who did the vertigo video? I thought she said granger but I can't find it anywhere on their website?

Chris Vacher said...

Will the videos be posted online or available for purchase or download anywhere?

Anonymous said...

I loved the film festival...I wish "My Cubicle" could have gone on and on...HYSTERICAL! And the first video where the dad finds the Bible in the kid's room...I may have to "borrow" that one for our service sometime. ;-) Great work to all the churches...although I agree that giving a $100 gift certificate to a large church is like giving Shaquille O'Neal a Cheeto...

Anonymous said...

I loved the creativity and care put into each video. I wish every sunday was just loaded with stuff like that. thanks for sharing! Hope you got home to your baby and wife in time to tuck them in!

Anonymous said...

hey, to answer my own question, the vertigo video can be found on youtube, but I can't find it on granger's website to purchase, if you search granger community church on youtube you will find it there

Matt McCarter said...

Who made the My Cubicle Video?

Unknown said...

The Film Festival was great! Four suggestions. One - I agree with the other comments regarding a monetary prize - just doesn't seem to make sense. A plaque, certificate, or free resource seems more appropriate. Two - a quick screencap as each video name is read off, or as the icon to the left of the title, would make it easier to remember each video while voting. Three - I didn't think that having an audience member go up to the booth to "read" the sound level during voting was really that effective and mostly just time consuming. Why not just have the sound level show up on the screen so that everyone could see it or have the audio guy say it. Fourth - Everyone knows Willow makes great stuff, but you have an entire conference to show off your own stuff if you want. Why not just let the film festival be for all those other churches out there...

Lori Finnegan said...

Great comments and ideas for next year...thanks so much...we would have loved to make the screen shots, but just ran out of time. Many of you have commented on the $100 gift...I wish I would have explained it better , but here was some of the thinking behind it...we wanted to honor the creativity with something, but realized that every church would have different needs...so we landed on cash...with it, we thought the church could do what would serve them best...honor a key volunteer who contributed to the project, maybe take the whole team who worked on the video out to lunch, buy some props for their next shoot, or the video director could not tell anyone else they won and buy themselves the new shuffle :-)

Lori Finnegan said...

My Cubicle was made by Eagle Brook Community Church....

Pete Pokrandt said...

I really enjoyed all of the videos shown at the film festival, great to see such creativity! Is there any chance we can get a list of all of the videos that were shown along with the churches that produced them? Thanks!

Anonymous said...

LOVED the film festival and the cross section of video styles from various churches. Enjoyed seeing Willow videos blended in - and may have preferred NOT knowing which church produced which videos until the very end.

Next time I'd group them differently. Comedy seemed to overshadow drama/concept simply because it felt GOOD to laugh at the end of an intense day. There were some extremely powerful pieces that almost got lost in the laughter of what preceded or followed - ex: "Note." Stunning.

Could be fun to project the sound level on the screens when voting - the interactive feel would be good.

And about the $100 gift for winners - loved it. I would have used it to take my video team out to celebrate...

Which brings me to my final note - were entries for the video showcase by invitation or could anyone submit a piece? I was sitting next to two of our team members who have some really strong work. Would love to have given them the gift of seeing their video(s) voted on by a room full of their peers.

Great job everyone - so much fun at the end of a very full day.

Anonymous said...

This has been asked but not answered: Is there a list available of which videos were made by which churches?

I'd like to contact the church of particular videos, but I don't know who made them. Please help...

A Ragmerchant's grandaughter said...

Such wonderfully creative and effective pieces! It's exciting to think that there is talent like this working for God!

Add me to the list of those that would like to see a list of which video came from which church - and if it is possible to purchase or download them. Willow staff--can you help us out with that?

A Ragmerchant's grandaughter said...

I'm particularly interested in knowing about "Val's Christmas" - it was very special to me. Does anyone know where to find it?

Anonymous said...

Our team thoroughly enjoyed the Film Festival - way to go WC! Also adding in my request for the list of who did what so we can have the opportunity to buy them and keep the creativity moving forward. Nancy had mentioned on Friday that they'd be listed on the site - not seeing them anywhere. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I am really sad that I couldn't be at the confrence because it sounds like everyone loved it. Also, Melody, I am super stoaked that you liked "Note" (I made it). You should have seen the impact it had on our students.

Anonymous said...

Wow ... still "reeling" (pun intended) from the impact that the film festival had on me. Did I miss it somewhere on the website where the list of contributing churches is?

Thanks.

scanartist said...

I'm looking for a list of what church's did which videos. There are a few i'd like to show to people in our various ministries... have them experience it for themselves.

I do hope they open it up to more open submissions for the Film Festival next year, I know there are a ton of churches that have some awesome stuff too see! Even to go as far as volunteering to help judge, organize or whatever, FF 2.0 '08!!

Anonymous said...

Still waiting to see a list go up of who filmed what video... In the meantime, does anyone remember who produced the "kick me" video?

Anonymous said...

Harold, would love a chance to connect with you about "Note." Obviously the concept/technique was edgy and commanding, but what struck me most was the heart and passion in the camera angles and shot framing. The story was told by much more than the words. I can only imagine the impact it had on your students. Would love to share that same message with ours, and for that matter, with our whole church family. Contact me through our Crosswinds blog...

Lori Finnegan said...

The List???

Thanks for your patience! I needed to take a few days off to recover so I haven't been able to get it together... Please don't give up...the list is now done and I'm just working to get it posted. Should be up by Tuesday at the latest. I also asked all the churches who submitted the "favorites" if we could post those too...some are saying yes and at a minimum we may have a link where you can see them on their sites.

To answer a few questions about some...
"Kick Me" was done by North Point in Alpharetta, GA. "Note" was done by Sugar Creek Baptist in Sugar Land, TX. "Val's Christmas" was from Centre Street Church in Calgary.

Lori Finnegan said...

The Submissions

We did invite about 20 churches, most of which are from the Arts Champions' churches. We were just afraid we couldn't handle a lot more.

Next year, we hope to expand and be able to open it up. Josh, thanks for volunteering to help judge...we may need to take you up on it :-) I really liked the idea of having a category for smaller churches. Thanks Jeremiah!

Thanks for all your comments...really appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Ditto the request for the lists - not just of the "winners" but for all videos shown. Sugar Creek (where I am Worship Pastor) had several entries -
"Connecting With God" (Won for promo video)
"Note" (the one with the stylized student interview reading a letter)
"Reasoning" - where students in a series of stills and animated text were asking questions about life and values, moral issues, lyfstyles, etc.
YOu can view many of our church's video pieces as well as worship clips by searching on youtube for "Sugar creek Baptist" or "Sugar Creek Worship"
Blessings!