Red Rocks Church Film Team
For Red Rocks Church in Denver, reaching people who are far from God is not an optional aspect of their mission. It’s central to who they are and how they’ve grown from the days of meeting in an amusement park back in 2005 to almost 14,000 people in weekly attendance.
As a multisite church with seven separate locations, Red Rocks' ministry includes a God Behind Bars prison ministry campus and a campus in Brussels, Belgium. Today video and film are becoming an increasingly central part of how Red Rock Church communicates its vision and values. Film is also how the church shares stories of the way lives are being changed with the Gospel. But creating a creative and cutting-edge Film Team ministry didn’t happen overnight.
As a multisite church with seven separate locations, Red Rocks' ministry includes a God Behind Bars prison ministry campus and a campus in Brussels, Belgium.
Structured for Success
“It started early on with our creative director, Carson Bankord,” says Josiah Jones, film team lead at Red Rocks Church. “He was the original video guy eight years ago. For five years it was just him, and at that time he was doing both video and live production.”
Eventually Adam Rowe was hired to assist in the areas of video and web, followed by Jones, who joined the team early in his career. With the addition of staff filmmaker Luke Rutan, the film team today is made up of six staff, including an intern and resident.
At Red Rocks, directional executive leadership is an important part of creating effective film content. “(Carson) heads up the vision and direction of the video team,” says Jones. “He does a great job of making sure everyone has the chance to succeed. He also lets us know what will work creatively and what won’t.”
Carson Bankord, Creative Director
On the other end of the spectrum, the team is deeply committed to resourcing emerging talent. Volunteer interns are a valued part of the ministry’s production process. Successful internships can also lead to paid part-time residency positions. “We’re getting ready for our new class of interns coming this August, so that’s always exciting,” Jones shares.
Finding the Focus
As the film team at Red Rocks Church matures, staying focused on its central mission defines the styles of films they create. “Our church wants to be that ‘front porch’ kind of church,” Jones explains. “We want to welcome people home, and help them know that the Father’s going to welcome them in too. That’s the goal for every department at Red Rocks.”
“Our films are successful when they accomplish the mission and introduce someone to Jesus. A success for us is when we’re wholly dependent on the Holy Spirit.”
“Our films are successful when they accomplish the mission and introduce someone to Jesus. A success for us is when we’re wholly dependent on the Holy Spirit.” - Josiah Jones, Film Team Lead, Red Rocks Church, Denver, CO
One of the most important types of film projects for the film team has proven to be telling personal narratives. “We’re really trying to focus in on stories of people in our church, and our greatest priority is honoring that person, edifying our church, and helping to support our pastor’s message,” says Jones.
“We do a lot of videos for our worship team, which just got signed to the Sony label. We recently did a night of shoots for music videos to support the new album. We create more acoustic, chill kind of music videos for that ministry as well.”
Moving into the future, the biggest growth opportunity for the Red Rocks Film Team is proving to be in the area of scripted concept and narrative work. “We create concept videos for conferences and retreats, which are designed to present a concept or ask a question,” shares Jones. “Right now I’m working on a short film based on the prodigal son. I wrote a 25-page screenplay and now we’re doing some revisions. So we’re continuing to move more towards some narrative stuff.”
Locking a Plan
As churches and ministries continue to empower and resource film teams, one of the most difficult areas to navigate is in balancing the right amount of creative lead-time with the flexibility needed to be responsive. For the Red Rocks crew, this means having multiple approaches to the pre-production phase of a project.
As churches and ministries continue to empower and resource film teams, one of the most difficult areas to navigate is in balancing the right amount of creative lead-time with the flexibility needed to be responsive.
“We run on the 11th hour a lot,” says Jones. “We’d like to be more prepared, but sometimes we’re throwing things together to support a request that comes in on Thursday afternoon. Sometimes we’ll just have time for a one-page treatment, or even just some bullet points for filming shoots.”
He continues, “When we procrastinate on a project it typically doesn’t turn out as good because you haven’t prepared. So we’re trying to move more towards an emphasis on writing, depending on the project and the time scale.”
Another important aspect of the Red Rocks Film Team growth has been a willingness to expand the understanding of the filmmaking craft. “I think we’ve really tried to be more open to learning,” states Jones. “It sounds ambiguous, but for me personally one of the biggest changes is trying to take advantage of every resource available to grow. It’s also helped us to hire some Type-A personalities as project managers, which helps us to stay organized and on-task.”
Josiah Jones, Film Team Lead
Tools of the Trade
While education and experience can take a growing film team a long way down the creative path, having the right tools for the job is also crucial to creating film content that’s relevant and compelling. For the Red Rocks Film Team good stewardship means finding the right mix of long-term gear investment and short-term rentals to achieve their goals.
While education and experience can take a growing film team a long way down the creative path, having the right tools for the job is also crucial to creating film content that’s relevant and compelling.
“We run pretty stripped down usually. For about two years the Canon C300 Mark II cameras have been our go-to workhorses. We also use a lot of Canon L lenses for most of our projects, but we do end up renting the Cine-E Cinema lenses as well,” shares Jones.
Incorporating motion and scope into their projects has also influenced the impact of their work. “I really enjoy handheld, so we use a shoulder rig or an EasyRig most of the time. We recently got a Movi gimbal system, which we really like, as well. As far as drones go we love the DJI Inspire 2, which has usually been more of a rental for us.”
Moving Forward
When asked about the future of the Red Rocks Film Team ministry, Jones and his team are focused on where God is leading, even as they wrestle with exactly what that looks like. “Unless God does it, it’s not going to happen,” says Jones. “I’m a filmmaker who works at a church, and cynicism is something I wrestle with. I wrestle with the ‘why’ of what we make.”
He continues, “God’s put on my heart a picture of the next wave that’s cresting over the horizon. That swelling up is the aspect of storytelling, and I think the church is breaking into this new form of worship. We haven’t quite got our hands around it yet, but I believe that Red Rocks can be a part of that future. Not because we’re great, but because God’s given us that vision.”
Red Rocks Church: http://www.redrockschurch.com
Red Rocks Film Team Channel: http://www.vimeo.com/redrockscreative
