This is not a political blog, nor do I intend to make it one. That being said, I do want to mention some news from last week that I feel will go unnoticed by most conservative, creative folks out there. The company Hobby Lobby, based in Oklahoma City, OK has come under fire for their stance against the White House’s HHS mandate (Health & Human Services). Hobby Lobby’s CEO and founder David Green is a Christian. Last week he said in a statement, "We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate”, and “With great reluctance” followed with a federal lawsuit challenging the mandate. So what is the big deal about this healthcare mandate? Part of the White House’s recent heath care law requires employers to provide coverage for the morning-after pill and similar drugs that may cause the end of a life. Green also states, “It goes against the biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million per day in government fines.” This will begin January 2013 when the insurance year starts.
As you can probably imagine, this has stirred debate about Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, with some mentioning boycotts of Hobby Lobby. I have read some articles and comments concerning boycotts and am quite surprised at some of the viewpoints. Here is one example. I also find it disconcerting, that in the quest for Pro-Choice laws and regulations, many of these commenters don’t seem to realize that this healthcare mandate is being forced upon some U.S. citizens who do not wish to participate. Can you really justify a boycott because Hobby Lobby doesn’t want to participate in buying some of these drugs that go against their values? On a much less important note, it seems that several of the boycott comments are rather partisan, and simply showing irritation toward “selfish” conservatives. I would submit to those individuals David Green’s statement. He mentions that Hobby Lobby has been adding jobs during this weak economy, starts full-time employees 80% above minimum wage, and is closed on Sundays so workers can spend time with family. With all of these things considered, I think that Hobby Lobby would be one of the last places that U.S. citizens would wish to boycott.
The 40 year history of Hobby Lobby is a pretty amazing story, and David Green is quick to praise the Lord for the store’s success. I hope you will take the time to read his statement concerning Hobby Lobby’s actions. It’s only a few paragraphs. The links for this and other articles I have referenced are at the bottom of this post.
I never knew that Hobby Lobby was owned by a Christian until a few years back. When strolling through the aisles, I recognized the music coming from the speakers. It was classical guitarist Christopher Parkening who is a Christian. I was able to hear Parkening play in concert as well as hear his testimony when I was In college. Truly amazing music! (Parkening is a world renowned guitarist, and actually just retired this summer. Check out his website here.) Anyway, hearing a Christian artist in the store surprised me, and since then I have been a huge fan of Hobby Lobby.
So to those that are Christian creatives, I would ask that you make it a point to add Hobby Lobby to your next shopping list. Not only is it a really cool place to find art stuff, it is also a company that is run on biblical principals. To be honest, Hobby Lobby’s stance on the White House’s Health and Human Services mandate is ancillary. I will conclude with one more quote from David Green’s statement which will summarize why I am “Lobbying for Hobby Lobby”.
“We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I've always said that the first two goals of our business are 1) to run our business in harmony with God's laws, and 2) to focus on people more than money.” - David Green
As many of you know I love commercials. If you haven’t seen the recent Old Spice commercials, you are missing out. (See some of them here) They are 30 second mix of ridiculous, masculine scenes with tough guys in crazy scenarios. When watching them, I find myself in an awkward state of confusion and uncontrollable laughter.
The other day I stumbled upon another Old Spice advertisement, but this one was a little bit different. This one was on STEROIDS!!! It is musical, interactive and hilarious! Somehow they Old Spice folks have harnessed the power of Vimeo and created an interactive beatbox setup on a video they created. You can click the link or the picture above to check it out. When it get’s to the end Terry Crews will give you some instructions on how to play the musical sounds. HaHa! My favorite is the “Flame Sax” using letters Z, X, and C. Or “Gimme a Hat” using the left bracket key “[“
I recently finished another business card / prayer card project for my good friend Dallas Brown. Dallas is going to be heading to Africa in September for a six month adventure. He is going to be assisting one of our missionary friends from Victory Baptist Church, Keith Shumaker in Burkina Faso, West Africa. It has been a great joy to get to know Dallas over the past several years, and to see him develop into a great leader. He is truly a special individual and a nonpareil servant. He has a special heart for missions, and has been working like crazy to save up for this trip to Africa. Also, his work at Victory is invaluable, and he will be missed. I hope you will subscribe to his blog (Here) as well as consider helping him both prayerfully and financially.
OK, OK, enough of the sentimental thoughts. In this Adios post, i really wanted to reflect on my personal experiences with Dallas, and show everyone how vital he has been to many of our projects at Victory Baptist Church. You see, Dallas Brown is probably the funniest, most talented, and craziest person I have ever met. Whenever we have an idea for a new skit or video, most of the time it involves Dallas doing some silly stunt or making a fool of himself. (Which he is always happy to do) It has been said that Dallas would be a perfect act with a circus or fair. He is adroit, adept, and able to learn about anything. I have seen him do a rubik’s cube in under a minute, ride a unicycle along a cliff, and juggle knives in a church service, just to list a few things on his resume. And I wouldn’t doubt if he could do all these at the same time, haha!
So I had this idea. What better way to send Dallas off than with a Dallas Brown Top 5 moments list. Here are my 5 favorite pictures or screenshots from projects working with Dallas. I hope you enjoy them. I will post some links to the videos at the end as well as a special SURPRISE!!!
Top 5 Dallas Brown Moments
5 - Thanksgiving Bus Ministry Flyer
4 - Dallas as Drill Instructor (from The War commercial “The Basement”)
3 - Dallas climbing Stone Mountain
2 - Dallas on Fire (from 2011 Youth Explosion Video)
These are a few of the reasons why Dallas Brown is so …….. special. hahah! Several of these images were captured as part of video projects we were working on. If you would like to see some of these videos, I have a surprise for you! In my last blog post (see here) I showed a few of our Missions Conference commercials and behind the scenes videos and mentioned a new project that I may try to work on. We have created many videos at Victory Baptist Church over the years and many people often ask me, “Hey, do you still have ___ video somewhere?” Well as of today, Vics Video Vault is under construction! And i figured what better way to celebrate Dallas than uploading several Dallas Brown videos for you to enjoy. Click the link or pic below to check it out, and stay tuned for more videos from the Victory archives!
This weekend we will be having our annual Missions Conference at Victory Baptist Church in Loganville, GA. Like many of the events at Victory, we had a request for a “funny video” to use for the conference. The video below is what we came up with. We tried to make it like the DirecTV commercials where the announcer guy strings together a list of cause and effects. My favorite is the “Don’t have a grandson with a dog collar” one. (See Here)
We had some other things in the works, but they did not end up getting used. I wanted to try to make a commercial similar to the “Confidence” Cars.com commercials. (See Here) I have been playing around with my video production capabilities, and was wanting to try some chromakey or “green screen” projects. This was a good excuse to see what we could do. The basic idea for the commercial was to have a missionary on deputation, deciding whether or not to buy a car. Unfortunately, we were not able to finish putting it all together, but I thought you may enjoy seeing the rough draft. Much thanks to my pals Jason King, Chris Waye, and his son Lawson Waye. Lawson is the one who inspired this idea, because the Cars.com commercial is his favorite. Here it is below.
Also, I was working on my first motion graphic project using Apple’s Motion 5. In our print and web promotions for the 2012 Missions Conference we had a world map with arrows coming out of Georgia going to locations in the world. I made a motion graphic of this as well, to be part of an intro to the conference. After a lot of trial and error, I was pleased with the final result, check it out below.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I have had several requests to watch the different church videos we have made over the years. From teen allnighter promos to church skits - these are hilarious. Some are on my Facebook video page, but they often won’t load or are low quality. So, I have been pondering gathering them all and putting them in a single location. If you would like to happen let me know. There are several videos, each in different locations, different formats, etc. so it would take some time to gather. But if folks want to watch them, it would be worth it to compile these. Let me know!
I recently wrote a blog about an interesting graphic I saw in an article about iPad sales. (See Here) They took a bunch of information from a survey about iPads and created a visual chart of sorts to show the results. Apparently, these guys were just jumping on the bandwagon.
Over the course of the last week or so, I have had multiple exposures to the latest design trend……. The Infographic. Yes, thats right, it’s the latest art form. haha! Text creatively mixed with visuals is nothing new to advertising, we see it everyday. However, The Infographic, blends fact nuggets with related icons or images to create something very interesting. Say you have an advertisement showing numbers and stats. This is usually considered very boring and dull, but with a little bit of creative design, viewers are captivated by what they see. Instead of dismissing this information, they are actually entertained and mesmerized. Amazing!
Since I am a sports ‘o holic, when I hear the word “Stat” or “Statistics” my mind immediately goes to sports, especially Major League Baseball. Since baseball has been around forever and the rules largely unchanged, both old and current stats are comparable. That being the case, baseball statistics are very popular and often talked about. In fact, you probably can’t watch one episode of SportsCenter without hearing some ridiculous baseball stat that only the aforementioned Stat Monkey could come up with. Heard of the the recent film Moneyball starring Brad Pitt? It was based on a true story all about statistics and how they effected the game. Also, I recently read an article during the NBA playoffs, that shared how some tech savvy coaches were using statistical heat maps to help prepare their teams defensively. (image above & Link) Images were created (similar to a Doppler Radar) to show where the apposing teams were shooting higher percentages. The coaches then could help their players defend the oppositions “Hot Spots”. Stats do lend themselves to sports, but are expanding into other interesting advertising avenues.
So, text and letters be aware! Numbers are trending in the advertising world. If you want to see some of this in action, I recently found the infographic jackpot. www.InfoGraphicWorld.com While admittedly, it was sports articles from ESPN.com that led me here, I was surprised at the variety of corporations that are using them. After looking at several of them, I realized how effective info graphics can actually be. When you get done reading a good one, you feel like you have learned something. I found myself reading an info graphic that was comparing 5 other info graphics to see which was the best - and I was enjoying it! hahah!
So what does all of this have to do with you? Im just warning you. If you are a commercial/advertising nerd (like myself) be prepared to see a lot of stats, but be prepared to like them.
Should you find yourself in the need of a good info graphic, Let me know. I kind of want to work on one now. Below are a few links to some cool ones I found.
R.A. Dickey Info Graphic - He’s the New York Mets pitcher who should have started the 2012 All-Star game tonight. Truly an amazing story. And he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for goodness sake.
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