Young Life Live
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was approached by a non-for profit in the Orlando area to help create a solution to their annual fundraising needs. Usually the organization hosts an in person banquet to share the story of the organization and to rally support for future operations. They pursued me when they decided to turn this event into a recorded live event that could be watched from a number of host parties across the city. I worked closely with the organization to create a video that was both entertaining to a live audience but also told the story of the ministry and its impact on the local community. I took what suggestions the organization had about producing such an event and added my own ideas that I thought would produce the most engaging video.
But more importantly than creating an entertaining video, I wanted to create a story that best captured the work of the organization and the amazing impact it has in the community. The video featured the stories of 6 staff members, 25 students, parents, board members, and a pair of fun skit characters to add some fun. Because of our efforts the video directly raised over $100,000 which was $40,000 more than the previous year, to help the organization with their yearly expenses.
Core Values Rebrand
During the winter of 2019 the church went through an inward looking process to identify the values that have always been true and the strategic priorities for the next season. It was a church wide rebranding of visual identity but also missional direction. The series of 6 values videos highlight each of the church’s values as it looks into the testimony of one of its members living out that value. As a creative team we paired the videos directly with the interactive art installations in the main hallway of the church. The videos also are connected to each verse associated with the value as you will see at the end of the videos. This was also the time we released the new visual identity (logo and color) to the congregation. This was a department wide project that lasted over 6 months to re-brand the church. I had direct control and sole ownership of the video production and also assisted in the decisions on visual identity and installations. The videos were played 6 consecutive Sundays during service to our live and at home audience.
Truth
We believe in the authority of the Bible, and align our lives to what God says. We filter culture, experience and decisions through a biblical lens. We acknowledge we live in the tension between grace and truth, mercy and justice, hope for the present and eternal life.
For our first value, Truth, I wanted to highlight someone within the church that best exemplified their commitment to the authority of the bible and dedication to teaching it to others. Kim is a teacher through and through which made the interview feel a little rehearsed. But with some coaching and direction she did a great job telling her story.
The City
Our identity is deeply rooted in Orlando. Our Christlike leadership in the city matters. We stay and we serve without expectation or condition, because we are part of the social fabric of the city.
This was by far my favorite video we did for the values series. Susu Gorday was a common name thrown out when we asked the congregation about members who invest their time into bettering our city. I had the privilege to tag along with Susu and The Hope Team as they traveled around the city and met with the homeless community. This project was particularly challenging as we had to protect the identity of the displaced people so as to not negatively affect their futures. I had to work within the constraints of the hope team to make sure that we captured the story but didn't have a negative impact on their work. In the end we created a compelling story that truly highlighted
Church Family
We are the people you call in a crisis. Our covenant relationship matters to us, and we joyfully surround our brokenhearted.
For Church family, we highlighted the McNichol Family as Dona and Nick were in the midst of their fight against cancer. This video was tricky as we had a tight window around their schedules to shoot and we wanted to be sensitive to the developing situation. We had planned to shoot some sequences at the hospital but were denied permission at the last minute. This forced us to be flexible and work with the opportunities we did have. Since the premiere, Donna has made a full recovery and Nick has progressed in a positive direction.
Relentless Generosity
We give extravagantly, beyond what is expected. We give because God was generous to us first. We give responsibly, cheerfully, and without guilt, championing the future forward.
With Relentless Generosity, we wanted to capture an act of generosity outside of the most obvious choice. There are a good amount of people within the church that give abundantly with their money and resources, but I thought it would be more impactful to focus on a story of generosity that was very approachable by the average joe. Our four stars of this video all give generosity with what they have, even if it may seem like not a lot. The girls often open up their home to anyone who needs it. I did phone interviews with all four and then decided which could best articulate the heart of the house for the onscreen content.
Generational Faithfulness
God has been faithful to this church for many generations, and we are stewards of this inheritance, building on what He began. We value and embrace all ages, and through them celebrate the past, present and future church.
Generational faithfulness was one of our most dynamic videos we shot during this series. We wanted to capture the testimony of 3 generations of the Rossi family as they experienced the church. This provided a lot of logistical challenges as well as a lot of work in the editing phase. This was also our opportunity to feature the history of the church so I reached out to the heritage committee to find any useful footage or photos from long ago.I felt like I was on a treasure hunt going through 140 years of stories I spent hours sifting through old documents and came upon an old reel of video footage. With a little help from the committee we were able to digitize the footage and add it to the video. It really helped pull the story together and the footage had not been seen by the congregation in a very long time. It was fulfilling for me to hear about this multi-generational story as well as release this footage back to the people who deserved to see it.
Our Best
We acknowledge our broken humanity, and still bring our wholehearted best to every endeavor, no matter how small. We get excited about making things even better (always being Reformed!). Our best is not perfect; but it is an authentic expression of our flawed, human gifts intended to delight a holy God.
This was another fun one to film and edit. Bob is the type of person that walks in the room and immediately makes you feel seen and cared for. I wanted to do my best to “stay out of his way” during the interview and let him tell his story his way. He had a great on camera personality and I think that really tied in well with the visuals and music. It was not the most visually exciting piece we did but like the generosity video, it highlighted a very approachable story that your avenger person could connect with and be inspired to act on their own.
Visual Identity Rebrand Explainer Video
This video was the formal release of our new Visual Identity. I recruited some help for the voice recording but I captured all the b-roll needed and did the simple animations to truly convey the purpose behind our new mark. This is a video the church routinely plays for our congregation to remind them of the meaning behind the logo of the church.
Art Installations
These are the physical art installations that were installed alongside the premieres of the value videos. They were conceptualized by the whole creative team and then later installed by a contractor in the city. Each sunday for the release of a new value, I was tasked with capturing the moment in photos so that we could use them to tell the story of this 6 week journey we had just taken the congregation on.
A School Called Hope Documentary
In 2018 I was recruited to be a part of a documentary team that was tasked with going to Uganda to tell the stories of the South Sudanese Refugees. For 1 month, we lived in Rhino Refugee Camp outside of Arua, Uganda. We lived within an UN sanctioned refugee camp and had exclusive filming rights to the camp. It was our goal to find a compelling story and create a film that would help garner support for the South Sudanese.
We decided to focus our efforts on the story of a local primary school that was started and supported fully by local refugees. They saw a problem and decided to act themselves. I created a good relationship with one of the leading students so I progressed as the on screen journalist that helped drive the action in the story. It was a hard month and living in the refugee camp while trying to film a documentary proved challenging. But in the end we created a documentary that told an amazing story and raised support for Obadiah and the people at Hope Primary School.
Trailer
The Weekday School
This is one of my most recent projects in Orlando. I was contacted by The Weekday School, a local pre-k, to do a 70th anniversary film for them. They wanted a story that captured the history of the school while also giving hope to the future. I worked with Beth, the director of the school, to select a couple of teachers that could articulate the story well. After a couple phone interviews it was clear that Monica had some of the best stories to share and had a long relationship with the school. It was a blast to shadow a couple of the class rooms and get footage of the kids throughout the day.
This is the type of work I enjoy most, being able to capture people in their element while also putting a smile on the kids faces. Because some of the dialogue in this story reflects on the past 70 years, I knew I needed some visuals to support it. So I rallied all the teachers to bring in any old photos or year books to help bring the story together. In the end, we created a short highlight film that the WDS continues to use when sharing about their rich history to potential new families.
Orlando Heart of the City Fellows
The fellows program is a practical, 9-10 month spiritual and vocational leadership program that prepares a recent graduate to live a seamless life of faith in Christ. And The Heart of the City Fellows of Orlando is just one of the numerous fellows programs nationwide. The Orlando Fellows were going through an overhaul of their website and social media accounts so they wanted a video they could use for recruiting purposes and to educate viewers on what makes their specific program stand out amongst the other fellows programs. Because of the uniqueness of the program and the broad audience the videos would be catered to, I decided it would be best to create two different videos that could accomplish separate goals..
Introduction to Orlando Fellows
The first video is a 1 minute, high level description about what makes the Orlando Heart of The City Fellows program stand out. The aim was under 1 minute to make it more accessible on instagram and facebook but it is also the first thing viewers see when navigating to their website. It features the director of the program, Bret Allen, as he gives a short pitch for the program
Orlando Heart of The City Fellows
If the viewers watch the first video and are interested in learning more, they would then be directed to this second video. This is a longer form testimonial type video that focuses on the experience of two Heart of the City Fellows Alumni. Here the viewer gets a more personal look at the program and how it develops its participants. As well as sharing their own reasons for choosing this program, the two alumni also give their reasons why this program stands out among the rest nationwide. Since the production of this video 2 years ago, Bret, the program director, has already been contacted multiple times by potential new fellows that found out about the program because of the video and its compelling storytelling.
#WeStandWith
During the past year, and following the events of George Floyd, the church felt it was necessary to give the black community in Orlando an outlet to share their story. These were different projects that not only told the story of the movement in Orlando, but also gave a platform for minority leaders to share their own story of how these events affected them and how our congregation could support them in this fight.
Sean’s Story
Sean Murphy is a long standing member within the church and he approached our team with a desire to share his story. Not only did he have a valuable perspective as a black man in America but also as a longtime Floridian that added a unique perspective on the diverse landscape of our state. I felt that the best medium for his story was via our podcast which needed a boost from good content. So we wrote a brief outline with Sean and our pastor and hit record. We gave them a lot of freedom to take the conversation where they wanted and it led to a rich conversation on race, faith, and the call we have as Christians.
We knew this was a story people needed to hear so I shot a short teaser video that featured Sean’s reasons to share his story that we premiered to the congregation during service. This was the first time we used a video to drive interest towards our podcast. Because of the story and our strategy, this was our most listened to podcast with close to a 1000 plays.
We Stand Together With Tim Johnson
This interview with Tim was the first of a 4 part series we did to give local black leaders a direct channel to our church body to share their story. The guests on the series all had a close relationship with our head pastor and it was their friendship and honest conversation that created a starting point for our congregation to learn about the black community in Orlando. We wanted the conversations to be unique and diverse so we made sure that the guest we picked came from different professions. We had a pastor, a healthcare Administrator, and local non-for profit leaders.
It was my job to create a scene and style for these interviews that didn't distract from the content but also look professional. I was also tasked with directing the conversation when needed. I utilized pretty much all the equipment our department had in order to accomplish the look I was going for. In the end, these videos were the foundation for rich conversation and change within our church and I was proud to be a part of it.
A Walk of Mourning and Restoration
The walk or Mourning and Restoration was a city wide event that called all churches and faith organizations to walk and pray for minority lives lost in Orlando and around the country. Our pastor was asked to speak at the event so we had much of our congregation participate. It was clear that this event would be great to capture and highlight for the rest of the congregation to see. It was sobering to be there and film for such a large and unifying event.
First Presbyterian Church of Orlando
For the past 3 years I have been the sole videographer on the creative team at FirstPres. I have produced, filmed, and edited original video projects ranging from internal to external promotional content including Sunday worship highlights, testimonial and documentary style storytelling. Operating as the solo videographer on staff, all of the projects were made beginning to end by me which allowed for a lot of creative freedom in the production. We served a congregation of 2000 regular attendees and it was an honor to be able to curate all of the videos they see and hopefully have a formative impact on their lives.
GROW Series
The GROW series is a 6 part, 37 episode, information and formational small group curriculum that new members would be introduced to. It was the goal to have these videos be evergreen and usable for years to come so I created a set and style that could be reused for all 37 recordings to create a cohesive curriculum video package. This is the first episode of that series and so far we have had 50 people complete this course of material.
Online Worship Service
During a re-model of our Sanctuary, the creative team decided that a per-recorded service would be the best way to continue engagement with our online audience while the renovations were being done. This project was given to me to complete beginning to end. I coordinated with our sound engineer to help with audio recording but the filming, editing, and audio mixing was all done by me. It was fun to produce an “un-plugged” set and it was a huge success with our at home audience bringing in 1064 views.
4 Rivers Fundraiser
During the quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic, FirstPres partnered with a local restaurant to host a fundraising event to raise support for a good will fund. Families placed their order and picked them up at the church as they got to interact with our pastoral team. It was my job to capture the event and produce a short highlight film featuring the impact of the donations raised. Because of the event and the film, we were able to raise $10,000 dollars for relief in central florida.
To-Gather Together
In the wake of the COVID-19 quarantine, the church began to create a strategy to allow in person attendance during Sunday worship. There was a lot of information that we needed to communicate so we decided to create an informative and fun video featuring our head pastor as he gives the viewer a tour of the campus and shares with the congregation the new rules in place. Having the list of announcements the church needed to get across, I was tasked with developing a shot list and locations for the information to be shared. I decided to make it as dynamic as possible by using a steadicam and creating a lot of movement for the viewer.
Easter 2021 - Flashback
For Easter 2021, we had reached a milestone of 1 year of no in person attendance during church. To reflect on the year of challenges and blessings, I created a flashback film of the past year covering some of the most notable visual engagement the congregation has seen from the comfort of their homes. It was a reflection on the difficulty of the last year but it also ends in a hope that we soon get to gather again in full capacity in the sanctuary soon..
My Video Journey
These two videos are a good reflection of my video journey and where I got my start. When I embarked for The World Race in 2016, I bought a nikon d3000 and decided I would do my best to capture the most compelling stories around me. Having no formal education or experience, the beginning was rocky. But with a little coaching from some friends and loads of practice I began to discover a natural talent and passion that I had. The first video I ever produced was “That’s The God I Serve” which told the story of a teammate as we were about to embark on a year-long mission trip around the world. I then went on to makee 11 short form documentary style films during that trip with the most successful one being “More Than a Vision Trip”. I hope these aren’t the first videos you watch in my portfolio but I think it's still valuable to see where you come from and to have appreciation for the journey.