Last October, my wife and I started to record the The Oprah Winfrey Show because we knew that in an upcoming episode Oprah was going to show a video called “99 Balloons.” This short film depicts the life of Eliot Mooney, a baby born with Trisomy 18 (also known as Edward’s Syndrome) that lived for 99 days. After the video played, the camera cut back to Oprah, who had difficulty speaking because of the flood of emotion that overcame her. The life of Eliot as shown in “99 Balloons” impacted her and her viewers, and it showed.
That was a proud moment for me and my team at Igniter Media because we created “99 Balloons” with the help of Matt and Ginny Mooney, Eliot’s parents. While we never expected one of our videos to get played on Oprah, we were thrilled by the opportunity to impact people’s lives. That’s what I love to do. I want to make videos that connect, videos that transform, videos that stick.
What is a sticky video and how do you make them? That is a subjective question—what connects with one person may not affect the person sitting next to them. With that in mind, here’s my disclaimer for the tips you’re about to get: These are what matter to me. These are concepts that I think through as I make videos for Igniter Media. Hopefully, these ideas will be beneficial to you as you use the art of the short film to change lives.
1. Grow in your own spiritual walk—It may seem odd to say that your own spiritual journey matters, but if you plan to make short films that impact lives, I believe it’s mandatory. What I learn on my own journey shapes the videos that I make more than anything else. What I’m dealing with, struggling with, or impacted by is important. In fact, one of our most recent videos, “It Wouldn’t Have Mattered,” is directly tied to me wrestling with the person of Jesus. I realized that, ultimately, the resurrection of Jesus validated his death, his life, and his birth. Even the messianic prophecies wouldn’t have mattered if Jesus hadn’t fulfilled his foretelling of his resurrection.
2. Have a connection with your pastor/minister—My pastor’s teaching is essential to what we do at Igniter. Todd Wagner, Senior Pastor at Watermark Community Church, is instrumental in our videos because I learn from his teaching and communication. When he says something that resonates with me, I consciously and unconsciously see his words or ideas transformed into video form. A long time ago, he read about 15 different passages from the Gospels in which people were “amazed” by Jesus. People who followed Jesus and people who despised him were both amazed by him. This idea became the first Igniter video we ever completed, “Are You Amazed?”
3. Remember that content is king—We often struggle with this at Igniter. It’s not enough to have a well-edited, well-shot, or well-animated video. If the video has a boring story, if it’s too abstract, or if its message is just too “on the nose,” the video won’t make an impact. We’ve made a couple videos that look and sound great but leave the viewer feeling, well, nothing. View yourself as a storyteller. When you’re a minute into a video, the viewer should be hooked and wondering how it’s going to turn out. A short video that we made a few years ago, “MeChurch,” utilizes comedy and irony to address the growing trend of self-consumed churchgoers. The video doesn’t come across as offensive because of the disarming nature of the humor, but the message (content) is loud and clear.
4. Communicate beyond words—If your three-minute video could be communicated by a pastor in about three minutes with the same impact, your video won’t be used. We try to create short films that do what pastors can’t. In other words, we embrace the “a picture is worth a thousand words” mentality. If used correctly, a short video can communicate something that an hour lecture couldn’t. One example from Igniter is called “Teamwork.” This is another humorous video in which we demonstrate the power of working together. When you hear the characters in the video singing six parts to Pachebel’s Canon in D major, you realize the value of teamwork—people working together for a common goal or purpose.
5. Know your audience—In a sense, I’m saying, “Be relevant.” Know what is happening in the world, what people are struggling with, and where a need isn’t being met. We created a video called “Chaos” that asks, “Why would God claim to be sovereign but allow so much poverty, pain, and hunger?” That question has been important through the ages, but it seems incredibly vital today.
Final Thoughts
I always try to illicit some kind of emotional response in the short films I create. If it’s a humorous video, I want the audience to laugh hard. If it’s a contemplative video, I hope the room is strangely quiet after a viewing. If it’s an inspirational video, I hope people feel the urge to clap. I want to create videos that connect deeply and leave the audience changed in some small way. In a sense, that’s what I want for my life as well. Wow, that gives me a great idea for a video!
Rob Thomas is the President and Founder of Igniter Media and is the Publisher of COLLIDE Magazine.