Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Thanks to all the veterans (present and past) who have given much to secure our liberty and freedom in this country.
We did not show “Freedom is Not Free” at our church, because they had already seen it. Last year for the 4th of July it was #2 on sermonspice. So naturally I thought it had pretty much ran its course. But much to my surprise and delight, it did very well for this memorial day weekend. I think it was shown in almost 150 different churches today. That’s incredible. I was astonished yesterday to see it on the second page, I counted 15th. Then this morning I opened it up and saw that it was on the first page, and sure enough, top 10 again, 4th to be exact. (Picture below shows it at 7th.)
Praise God! I’m glad it is touching pastors and leaders enough that they would want to project it in front of their congregations. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the link.
Here’s my video for father’s day. It was fun to make. I had the basic idea a long time ago, but just now made the time for it. For a two minute video, it sure took a lot of different shots, but was mostly filmed on one day. Again, when working with kids, it’s kind of hard. They were excited at first, and by the end ready to get the shooting done and over with. I’m pleased at how it came out. I hope the message will touch some men. What do you think?
Sometime you need more actors than you have. So you can do this crop effect. Well, in this case I wanted to show that if everyone invites one person to church, we’d have DOUBLE attendance. This is a really easy effect. Shoot twice, same lighting, crop right or left, overlap, and presto!
Pay no attention to the poor audio on this (it’s bad!!).
A while back I had a song selected for an indie sampler CD. Since this was a Christian project I said yes to it. The CDs finally came in today. The other artists on there sound pretty good. I’m selling these for $5 plus $1 for shipping. If interested send an email to gregory@gregoryfish.org. Gotta keep rocking!
This simple animation is to fulfill a request made to Borden (the Spanish-speaking guy at sermonspice- also an MK) and to kick off our own Spanish service on June 1st where our Spanish group will start having services on our large auditorium. This is exciting!
The concept was kind of a new one for me. The bulk of the art was actual fonts (or dingbats) made big in photoshop and a shadow added for depth. The tower of text at the can be downloaded for After Effects from www.revostock.com.
If don’t understand Spanish, it won’t make much sense, but it basically is saying welcome to the house of God (not our house, but His); let’s worship Him together.
Here’s my newest countdown. Igniter Media has done one with this concept already. I had the idea, and went to see if it was done already. It was. However, I don’t think any of the sayings overlap, so it’s all good.
This video includes my favorite church marquee sayings. My wife, Emily, is in charge of our church sign. She’s got the tact to be able to pull off that job. I know the reputation church signs get is being too “witty” or too confrontational and such. Well, I chose ones that I thought were actually good and applicable to our lives, aiming to make us better.
There even a church sign generator out there in cyberspace, where you can make a church sign say anything you want. (This is not how I did this.) This is actually our church sign. The blurred background I did for effect, but also because there was this ugly post and power lines above the sign. I had to do away with that. I like the look, though, I draws attention to the subject at hand.
Enjoy these good, not too tacky or canned, church sign sayings. BTY- I’ve never seen one that said, “Come in for a heaven of a time.” That’s pretty original, but I don’t expect to be seeing that one around any time soon.
Warning: This video is horrible. I made this way back in highschool. It’s bad scripting, bad acting, bad directing, etc. etc. etc. Some years back I remastered it, adding all the bell and whistles that I could. It was WORSE before! Edited on a VCR. So enjoy the video, or don’t. It’s just for fun.
Super Mom had a very successful run! It exceeded all of my expectations for it. Both the English and Spanish versions did extremely well- it was shown in many a church today. It even went international- many in Canada, one in Greece, Japan, a couple in Australia. I was elated.
But the best thing was when I showed it in our church service. Of course, all of our people know Emily, so that was an extra fun tidbit. But the out loud reaction to it was wonderful. Every time there was a new scene, laughter. It was hard not to smile, so contagious. Some behind me said, “And where was the dad?” to which I turned and said “behind the camera!” Swinging with the kids provoked a nice “Ahhhh”. The part where she throws the diaper in the trash behind her head got a great response. They were asking Emily to come to their house to clean and cook, etc. If only in reality all that moms do could get done in two minutes, they just might have time to relax!
Emily took a survey online at www.mom.salary.com and found that she should be making at least $135,000 for what she does as a mom. That’s a lot of overtime!!! Well, happy mothers day to all, especially my mom and the mother of my children, Emily. Speaking of rest, we’re going to try and get all the kidos down for a nap. Cya at Father’s Day! (If not before).
The ever so poplular letters to God from children, you’ve probably seen in emails, and sermon illustrations, etc. is now made into video form. This will eventually be made in Spanish as well as countdown versions of both. It was easy to do, only it took a while and was very tedious. (i.e. having to use a new font for every “letter”) It became routine pretty quickly and editing could be done in cruise mode. Fonts were taken from dafont. All in all, I’m pleased with the overall simplicity of this precious message.
