If you are to be considered for this position you must be able to identify, lead, and develop the
CONCEPT, STORY, & EXECUTION of a video. From motion graphics, to on location shooting. That said -

Do apply if:
. . . you have an internal drive for excellence.
. . . you LOVE the details that bring out the best in any TV show, movie, graphics, story, idea . . .
. . . you love to build and lead a team of creatives.
. . . you get excited about a big OR small budget.
. . . you get excited about a two week turn or a two day turn.
. . . you get excited about a small budget, two-day turn PLUS two other projects just got emailed to you.
. . . you love figuring out why one video worked and another did not.
. . . you LOVE macs.
. . . you eat stress for lunch.
. . . you can be successful with a great idea, whether it came from you or not.
. . . you take good ideas and make them great.
. . . you love to oversee a project from conception to completion both in studio and
. . . on location.
. . . you love to work closely with directors, actors, writers, graphic designers, copywriters, pastors, ministries, and interns.
. . . you are incredibly well organized.
. . . you are motivated without a due date.
. . . you happen to know or be an expert in Final Cut Studio, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, or a RED CAMERA.

Do not apply if:
. . . you want a 9-5 job. This is production people.
. . . you do not love the pursuit of making a great story.
. . . you do not like people (specifically actors, artists, directors, or communicators).
. . . crisis scares you.
. . . you are easily satisfied.
. . . you are inflexible.
. . . chaos is a good thing to you.
. . . you are NOT a good listener (ask someone you know)
. . . you have to do EVERYTHING yourself
. . . you trust no one
. . . you can only work on one project at a time.
. . . the Wii scares you.

Please email this application along with your resumé, demo reel (highlighting what your contributions were) to kim.radgoski@northpoint.org. PDF of job posting HERE

We are honored you would consider working with us!

Enough about us… What have you guys been up to?  Please share some of your video/print/photo pieces and what you thought was most successful about it.  What did you learn in the process?

We look forward to seeing your work.

The visual direction for the series came from a vague idea we got from a magazine cover. Many times during the creative process, we’ll just grab a ton of magazines and start tearing out whatever images seem to fit the topic of the series. Everyone in the meeting identified with this image. The thought was that a person would be holding a box containing all the religious symbols in his life. As if he was getting rid of all the religion in his life.

From here we thought it would have more impact if we saw more people getting rid of their religion, and the final key-art would be more impactful if there were a variety of symbols in the box showing all sorts of religions. So, we went away from a single person and decided to have the title package show lots of people.

There were a few big hurdles in finding the exact direction for the final look. These discussions included… “Should the symbols be in a trash can? If they are in the trash, does that say we are throwing away religion? Should people be in a line? Should it be filmed in a studio? Should it be on a street corner? Should it be in a box? Should the box be cardboard? Are any religious symbols off limits?” It was really awesome watching everyone get involved in this conversation, and I think it led to an amazing place.

Promotion (written by Brad)
As we were trying to settle on the best creative direction Mike mentions above, there was the promo that was needed ASAP (ever been in that situation??) There were a lot of directions we could go, but until we figured that out, we needed tension without alienating other religions. So, we decided to draw attention to a specific religious, everyday symbol used by Christians. The emotion that is felt when somebody has a FISH sticker on a car rubs people all sorts of ways. For us, we wanted the character to have a little self-evaluation moment with his decision of having a fish sticker and, ultimately, for whatever reason, choosing to forgo it. The font (which was initially chosen as a placeholder) and music continued through to the final look. Click here to view the embedded video.

Overall Look

For the overall look we decided to go with a grungy city alleyway. The box would be cardboard. This was to give an overall feel of being discarded, but not thrown away (thus not being overly disrespectful of the new attendee’s current religion).

Also, we wanted to give everything a feel that I referred to as “vintage-feeling,” heavily processed photography. Kind of like Holga camera, or cross-processed photography. Some great examples of this can be found in Brian Manley’s portfolio, an amazing Atlanta designer and photographer. To achieve these effects that are often done in camera, we used some “Totally Rad” Photoshop filters available at TotallyRAD!

These filters will change your life if you’re a photographer.

One of the things that drew us to this look was what I call “intentional unintentionality.” Meaning, the picture is composed well, but appears to be a haphazard, quick, nearly unintentional shot. So we decided on a bit of unusual cropping and slightly rotating everything.

Title Package

Lastly, the title package was done in-house by Josh Peters (Buckhead Media), Dave Blakeslee (North Point Media), Brian Korosec (Browns Bridge production), myself (North Point Media), and a host of extras. Josh did a great job shooting this with a Canon Mark II 5D–a still SLR digital camera that has HD video ability. We chose this camera because it gives us a great depth-of-field range on the shoot. We wanted to have a very shallow focus depth for lots of control over the audience’s attention during the piece. We wanted to make sure they saw exactly what we wanted them to see. It also allowed for more tension, beauty, and personality. Click here to view the embedded video.

We would love to know, what is your strategy?

Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.

****************EDIT 8/25/09: Here is Part 3 (FINALLY) for those of you who asked–I totally blanked and forgot to post it as a follow up to this post last month. Since we are SO late in the game posting for this series, I am editing this old post directly with the new video addition.  Sorry for leaving you guys in “the waiting room” for this video!  Hope you enjoy this little hidden blog nugget ****************

Click here to view the embedded video.

Creative Director:  Josh Peters
Producer:  David Blakeslee
Writer:  Adam Dukes
Director:  Adam Dukes & Josh Peters
Editor:  Josh Peters
Sound Design:  Lane Johnson
Casting:  Heather Breslin
Camera (DP):  Josh McKague
Key Grip/Audio:  Brian Little
Video Assistant/ Grip:  Nathan Boyd

We are beginning a new series on June 29th at North Point and it promises to be one that generates a lot of questions. We wanted to get people involved no matter what political view point they had so, we created a website where people can write a letter to the next president no matter WHO it will be. You are not writing to a candidate but to the next president.

Don’t forget to check out the promo. It’s always fun to have Andy involved and we had a great time recreating the White House press room - IN ONE DAY!!!. North American Mission Board is right next door to North Point so we were able to get the flags. We rented the blue drape. Then Matt from the media team sketched out a fun version of the white house but with a little spin. Make sure you see it! Podium is courtesy of Alpharetta Baptist Church.

This series promises to be a good one and we are really excited about it. Stay tuned…