These photos don’t compare to actually being there, but I hope they at least give you an idea that God is moving and active in the hearts of young people today and while we may be a generation that many believe isn’t worth looking at, God is raising us up for His glory.  You can find out more about Passion on the 268Generation website and by following passion268 on Twitter.

Scroll down to the bottom of the post for a bonus video.

[Show as slideshow]

As a bonus, I filmed the intro to the Passion 2012 conference with my iPhone 4S in 1080p HD and uploaded the video to YouTube for you to watch if you weren’t able to attend.

I had the chance to attend Metro Live at First Baptist Church, Houston this Summer.  There, Afshin Ziafat spoke to several hundred young adults about the life of David.  He made me think about my plans for my life and where I see God using me.  The talk all came down to one question that God asks us, “If you don’t have the life you envision, am I enough?”

That got me thinking – we are not guaranteed wealth, prosperity, a roof over our heads.  If I did not make films or do anything like that, would God still be enough?  It’s awesome to think about how God, the creator of the Universe, wants a personal relationship with us.

Think about what God has for you.  What have you been planning out in your life?  Are you going to be alright if God sends you in a different direction?  If you do not have the life you envision for yourself, is God enough?

Film Strong Productions was born out of the need to separate my personal and professional content that I create.  Midway through last year, I realized that directing potential clients to Who is Matt offered a broad look at my talents, too broad in fact.  Having spent many hours forging this new website, I now stand with the capability of maintaining an uncluttered professional front, and still being able to have fun here.  I hope you check out Film Strong, and if you have any questions or notice any oddities, I’m only an email or tweet away.

If you are an Instagram, Picplz, or Twitter user, you owe it to yourself to check out these photo apps for iOS.

The Apps

(In order of my amount of use/preference, mostly)

Pro HDR ($1.99)

Pretty much my favorite photography app.  This is the app that made me realize that the iPhone is capable of taking awesome pictures.  I don’t even have an iPhone 4 with its new camera but you wouldn’t know it with this app.

Instagram (Free)

You mean to tell me that there is a niche social network devoted to people sharing awesome retro-styled photos with one another?  I’m not sure what exactly generated this current fascination with retro/analog/polaroid/lomo/hipstamatic/whatever you want to call it.  Maybe it has always been present and I just haven’t been aware of it until now.  All I know is that I love it and apparently a lot of other people do too.  Instagram gives me an excuse to share photography with others and offers some pretty cool filters while its at it.  Toss in integration with the major social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and Foursquare and you have a way to share photos with way more than just other Instagram users (or IGers as the hipsters refer to them)  Get it now if you have an iPhone, it’s free.  (I’ve heard rumors that there is an Android version on the way)

AutoStitch Panorama (1.99)

Wishing your iPhone had a wider lens?  Having run into this issue multiple times, I found myself researching the various panorama iPhone apps.  This led to me discovering AutoStitch; an awesome way to make massive images relatively quickly all from your phone.  The main benefit of this app is the auto-crop feature.  It may not seem like that big of a deal, but when merging a lot of handheld photos together you’ll inevitably end up with jagged edges.  The auto-crop feature of AutoStitch takes care of this and gives you a perfectly edged image.  Here’s a tip: Combine Pro HDR photos and Autostitch for massive resolution HDR images.

Timelapse ($1.99)

I bought this app after my roommate showed it to me.  To be honest, I haven’t had a chance to use it yet but the concept is rather cool and I have seen decent videos created by others from it.  I’ll update this more after I get a chance to use the app.

Best Camera ($2.99)

One of the first photo editing apps I ever came across, Best Camera comes from the famous photographer Chase Jarvis’ statement, “the best camera is the one that’s with you.”  Best Camera takes this phrase to heart by offering a smattering of filters, photo cropping, and borders.  While not offering as many fine grained photo editing options as other photo editing apps, Best Camera still holds a spot on my phone due to its ease of use.   It also offers a cool recently created/popular photos page showcasing pictures taken with the app à la Instagram’s popular page.

SynthCam ($.99)

I love app concepts and this one delivers.  Synthcam claims to allow you to take photos with the same depth of field as a DSLR camera, but with your iPhone.  While originally not much more than a technology demo, Synthcam has grown into a decent photography app that lets you take photos in a way you never have before.  Using roughly 5 seconds video and tracking points, Synthcam combines all the frames into one image.  This coupled with slight movements during the video results in a really interesting effect.  I can’t wait to see how else the developer improves this app.

Pocket Light Meter (Free)

This app is not for iPhone photography but more for anyone using a standard digital camera, DSLR, or video camera.  For a low price it uses the iPhone’s camera to mimic the same light metering capabilities of many expensive standalone light meters.  If you’re unsure what to set your shutter speed, F-stop, or ISO to, this app will help quickly.  As always, trust your gut though, not the app.  It probably works better on later generation iPhones as well, due to better quality optics.

SlowShutter ($.99)

I was both surprised that no one came out with an app like this sooner, and mildly disappointed that it seems more like a technology demo than a quality app.  Slowshutter bills itself as letting you leave the iPhone shutter open to take in more light and therefore better pictures.  Unfortunately, I feel that it doesn’t do much more than increase the ISO for many of the photos that it takes.  Maybe I just need to play with it more, or maybe I’m asking too much if I want DSLR quality star photos from my iPhone.  The only other drawback is that to really use this app effectively you must have either a tripod or the steadiest hands on the planet.

Time-lapse Calculator ($4.99)

Yet another app that is useless on its own but extremely helpful if you are ever in need of calculating just how long you should be standing out in the freezing cold to take a time-lapse.  It’s a simple matter of plugging in the variables that you know, and then letting the app handle the number crunching.  Simply set the video frame rate that you are wanting when the video is done (usually 24fps), the frames per interval (I’ve never set it to anything other than 1), and the event duration, or frame interval.  The app will then spit out a “clip length” which will tell you how long your video will end up being if you use those settings.  This is extremely helpful if you know you need an extra ten second clip to put in your (epic I’m sure) timelapse reel.

Halftone (.99)

Halftone makes your photos look like comic books.  Faded or new paper backgrounds, coupled with grainy ink styling and custom word bubbles makes this app a great deal of fun.  If you feel like a photo needs a caption, consider trying this to add some humor and comic styling.

Photosynth (Free)

Hailed as Microsoft’s really cool, yet rather late, addition to iPhone Panorama photography, Photosynth still makes for a really cool interface and app.

Plastic Bullet ($1.99)

I love the concept of this app because it is more realistic than many of the other photography/retro/toy camera apps out there.  Simple take a picture or choose one from your camera roll and it will apply a variety of retro effects to it at random.  No photo will look the same.  Sure, you lose the ability to fine tune your effects, but if you’re wanting something unique you can’t go wrong with Plastic Bullet.  I managed to pick it up for free on a sales day.  Follow Red Giant Software on Twitter to find out when they will put it on sale next.

Dynamic Light ($.99)

This is one of the coolest apps that I have found for tweaking iPhone photos.  Whether you have an old photo that needs a spark of light, or an HDR photo that you want to really make over the top, Dynamic light offers an effects toolkit that is sure to make your photos look great.  I often use it when posting photos to Instagram.  I wouldn’t recommend using it at its maximum intensity, but including it at around 30% strength adds a perfect amount of light to shadows.  Toss in color filters and vignettes (I swear, everyone is including vignettes these days), and you have an app that is easily worth the cost of admission.

QuadCamera-Multishot ($1.99)

File this directly in the fun but very niche app bin.  Quadcamera takes anywhere from four (notice the app title) to eight photos and arranges them in a 2×2, 4×1, 4×2, or 8×1 image.   It also has a built-in timer and can make animated GIFs from the images.  Fun, but like I said, niche.

Diptic ($1.99)

This is one of those apps I found out about on Instagram after seeing many other people using it and begging them to tell me.  Diptic lets you lay out and combine up to four photos in an extremely customizable way.  The end result is a compilation of photos that ends up looking pretty cool.

Color (Free)

I’m sure you’ve seen this effect before.  One item or section of the photo is in color and everything else is black and white.  There are several apps that offer this effect but this one has an interface that I found to be more intuitive.

iQuikDoF (Free)

This app labels itself as free depth of field emulator.  Much like the Color app, this one requires you to “paint” with your finger the area that needs to be blurred.  Don’t expect huge realism here but it is great if you need to censor something like a license plate or emulate a rack focus of some sort.

Xiamen Meitu Photo App (Free) (I don’t know the name due to not understanding japanese/chinese letters.  If someone could help translate that would rock!)

I found this app after seeing some interesting effects being used on photos by other Instagram users. To find it like I did you will have to go to the App store’s photography category and begin scrolling through the free apps.  You should make it past around 200 apps before you see the familiar red app icon.  Or, you could just search for “Xiamen Meitu”.

Tiny Planet Photos (Free)

I originally read about the technique of turning pictures into what looked like tiny planets on a Photoshop tutorial website.  The tutorial was rather complex and I didn’t have the time to dedicate for making a photo like it offered.  Thankfully, I managed to find this iPhone app that does the same thing as Photoshop, in around 30 seconds.  Simply pick the photo you want and select either Tiny Planet or Tiny Tube.  The app will take care of the rest and results in either a photo that looks really awesome, or really deformed.   Experiment with it, it’s free.

Having just finished reading the Road To Reality, by K.P. Yohannan as well as Radical by David Platt, I have become convinced of one thing:  God has called everyone to a life of missions, and that includes me.  At this point in my life, I am a mere nine months from graduation from graduate school.  Spit out into the world after spending (what some would consider far too long) six and a half years in the upper level education system generates the emotions that one friend of mine used for describing the future as nervousness, excitement, and fear.  Thankfully, I am not alone in this, and considering the amount of college graduates that have gone on to live successful lives since the most important college in the world was ever founded (in 1876 mind you), I should have nothing to fear.  I am young, healthy, and having survived the crucible of the education system, hopefully intelligent.  By all means the future is bright and the American dream of managing peons in a fortune 500 company, marrying a smokin’ hot wife, and having no less than three children is beckoning.

But what if that is not what I am made for?  What if every single thing that I will ever acquire will in the end be burned up? (Matthew 6:19)  A good friend once described it best as saying that we as humans are just glory coated dust (curtvernon.com).  This solemn and heart wrenching fact as held by me and more importantly, the Bible, must generate a different means of thinking in my heart.  (Philippians 3:7-8)

The desires that the world and I once held are now dead.  Everything else is loss now compared to knowing Christ.  K.P. says it best when he says, “If the men and women of this world can die for such petty causes as political independence, material wealth, and territorial gain – isn’t true servanthood the minimal response we can offer to the love of our creator?  He is, after all, the living God with whom we will spend all eternity.  And He has made it clear that servanthood is what He expects from us.”

This is all bluster and flourish if I do not back it up.  As I said before, in nine months I will emerge from my cocoon of relative safety that is the American higher education system.  What awaits me?  What is my plan?  What is God’s plan for my life specifically?

Here is what I do know. In general, God has a habit in my life of not revealing exactly what He is going to show me until generally the last-minute (feel free to contact me for examples).   By doing this I believe that He generates more trust in Him by making me wait and seek Him.  This is not a cop-out and saying that I am just going to sit around and wait till November before I start asking Him what He wants me to do next year.  Prayer for future direction has already begun, seeking the will of Christ has already started.  I have a general direction of: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) (I have more callings than just the great commission – prayer, seeking a relationship with Christ daily etc. but for the sake of shortness and focus I’ve chosen to keep my post centered on missions) I do know that I have a talent in film that the Lord has blessed me with.  I do know that I have a desire to serve the Lord and travel.  I will make plans as the Lord reveals them, but whatever plans I make I will make with an open hand, so if God wants to replace them with something better He is free to do so.

At Breakaway Ministries (breakawayministries.org) Go! Missions Conference two years ago, Greg Matte spoke on the topic of Missions from 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3 and said (paraphrasing from memory), that predominantly people think that missions is for someone else.  That is about as true as the belief that heavenly creatures are small and childlike with tiny wings and harps (Ezekiel 1).

Consider this my public statement that I am called to missions.  We all are.  Whether it is overseas filming exotic locales for a missions organization or right here, I have a direction that I am moving in.  All for God’s glory.

You can find Big T on Facebook and Twitter!

Download The Full Mixtape Here:

TIC - The Mixtape - Zip (144)

You can download the individual songs here:

Reppin’ Christ

01 Reppin' Christ (159)

Temptation

02 Temptation (171)

Game

03 Game (131)

Redeemer

04 Redeemer (127)

Praise All Over The World

05 Praise All Over The World (157)

I Die

06 I Die (118)

Spit Dat

07 Spit Dat (115)

Ashes To Ashes

08 Ashes To Ashes (136)

Christ on My Mind

09 Christ On My Mind (140)

No Hook

10 No Hook (112)

Freestyle

11 Freestyle (134)

Not For The Fame

12 Not For The Fame (114)

Spoken Word

13 Spoken Word (132)

If you like this music you should also check out the other free music I have for download on my site by Curt Vernon.

It’s 12:33am and I’ve been thinking about the future.  What are you looking forward to?  Where does the future lead?  This video is a summation of my thoughts on that.

Download in High Definition:

-Looking To The Future 1080p (133)

Technical Details

- Filmed with a Canon 7D.  You can get one at Adorama.  That’s where I bought mine.  You can also get one at B&H or Amazon.

I recently returned from Impact 2010 and it was one of the greatest serving experiences of my life. In this video blog I discuss some cool moments during the retreat as well as my general feelings after.

Download in High Definition:

-Serving Like Iron Man 1080p (75)

Technical Details

- Filmed with a Canon 7D.  You can get one at Adorama.  That’s where I bought mine.  You can also get one at B&H or Amazon.

- Audio Recorded with a Zoom h4n and Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone.

I recently had the epiphany that I don’t look enough like a young canadian pop star.  To rectify this situation I immediately made an appointment with my hairstylist, and upon arriving for my haircut, I promptly asked for “The Bieber”.  She proceeded to say, “What?”.  To Which I replied, “The Bieber, Ma’am…you know…the hairstyle that all the kids want these days?”  She still had no idea, but after saying words like “Canadian, hasn’t hit puberty yet, tween heartthrob” etc, she understood.

What you see in the video before you is the aftermath of my haircut.  What do you think?

Download This Video In High Definition:

-The Bieber 1080p (96)

Technical Details

- Filmed with a Canon 7D.  You can get one at Adorama.  That’s where I bought mine.  You can also get one at B&H or Amazon.

- Audio Recorded with a Zoom h4n and Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone.

Mittens is back!  I really should include him in more videos.  In this video I discuss marketing, buffets, and Acts 3:1-10.

If you like this video, feel free to download it in HD (links below) or add me as a friend on Facebook.  Also, check out my previous video blogs, “A Brief Message, From Matt Johnson” and “You’re Eclipsing My New Moon In The Twilight“.

Download This Video In HD:

-Action 1080p (0)

Technical Details

- Filmed with a Canon 7D.  You can get one at Adorama.  That’s where I bought mine.  You can also get one at B&H or Amazon.

- Audio Recorded with a Zoom h4n.

Sure to be the favorite movie of giggling schoolgirls everywhere, Twilight Eclipse was unleashed into theaters last month.  In this video blog, I take a possibly sarcastic look at the world of twilight and give you an idea of what a giggling schoolgirl fan looks like.

If you like this video, feel free to download it in HD (links below) or add me as a friend on Facebook.  Also, check out my previous video blog, “A Brief Message, From Matt Johnson“.

Download This Video In HD:

-Eclipse Vlog 1080p (85)

Technical Details

- Filmed with a Canon 7D.  You can get one at Adorama.  That’s where I bought mine.  You can also get one at B&H or Amazon.

- Audio Recorded with a Zoom h4n and Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone.

I’ve recently realized my need to include more updates to my YouTube channel as well as implement a consistent upload schedule for videos.  Now, every Friday you will be able to watch a video blog created by yours truly on YouTube.  No longer will you have to wait for only one or two videos per month; you will get more videos more often.

This does not mean that I will cease to create artistic videos that are more than just me speaking to the camera, those will also be uploaded as well.  These video blogs are here to keep you updated about my current projects, keep me motivated about making videos, and keep us both entertained.   Because you love watching my videos and I love creating them.  Think of them as a supplement to my usual video creations.

In this video, I discuss an exciting project that I am working on involving timelapses.  You can expect a tutorial video in the future documenting how to create this effect.

I hope you enjoy this video blog, there are more to come in the future!

Download This Video in High Definition:

-A Brief Message 1080p (94)

Technical Details

- Filmed with a Canon 7D.  You can get one at Adorama.  That’s where I bought mine.  You can also get one at B&H or Amazon.

- Audio Recorded with a Zoom h4n.

First Thessalonians 5:16-18 states, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

This is meaning to have a constant conversation with God!  When speaking about First Thessalonians 5:16-18, Charles Spurgeon stated, “Clear, then, is it from the text, that the voice, the posture, the place, the time – none of them enter into the essence of prayer, or else, in this case, we should be commanded to perform an impossibility, which we are quite certain is not after the manner of the Lord our God.” Clearly we are to pray constantly and it does not matter if we are on our knees.  Curt Vernon explained in his Revival Song video, how one of His friends said, “You really think when you get to heaven you’ll find out you prayed too much?”  There’s no such thing as too much prayer!

Why should we talk to Him? Doesn’t He already know what we are going to say, how we are going to say it, and exactly when we are going to say it? This illustrates to me how God is a person – He already knows our every thought but he still wants us to talk to him. He says to seek his face (2 Chronicles 7:14). We are to seek what makes God happy. We are to seek what makes God smile. Because the only reason we are here is because we make him smile and for His glory.

How do we go about turning ourselves into a mobile prayer room for God?  Here’s the insight I had shared with me by my friend Curt.  How cool would it be that if instead of us desiring to merely pray without ceasing, it was more of a desire to forget how to stop praying? That sounds like an awesome habit!  Charles Spurgeon in his great sermon titled “Pray Without Ceasing” states, “As we breathe without ceasing, so must we pray without ceasing.  As there is no attainment in life, of health, or of strength, or of muscular vigor which can place a man beyond the necessity of breathing, so no condition of spiritual growth or advance in grace will allow a man to dispense with prayer.” Constant prayer is as important to our lives as breathing!

Think about your daily thoughts for a moment.  Remember the last time you totally zoned out and weren’t thinking of anything productive.  I find myself constantly thinking of the future, or worrying, or thinking about myself.  Instead, imagine if every one of those moments of selfish thinking were instead devoted to God and prayer to Him.  It really would be an unceasing prayer.  Now I’m not saying that thinking is a sin, but I am saying from personal experience that I fully believe that time in prayer is much better spent than time in thinking selfish thoughts.

Think of it this way – instead of talking to yourself like everyone does, talk to God instead. Make God that target of all of your thoughts. Pray to Him in discipline of this. Ask him to make his word rise up in you like a fire (Jeremiah 20:9 I am weary with holding it in, – “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name”, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”)  Spurgeon States,  “Wherever we seek the Lord with true hearts He is found of us; whenever we cry unto Him He heareth us.  Every place is hallowed ground to a hallowed heart, and every day is a holy day to a holy man.”

“The Lord always deserves to be worshipped. Prayer is a method of worship; continue, therefore, always to render to your Creator, your Preserver, your Redeemer, your Father, the homage of your prayers.”

UPDATED with NEW LINKS :: 1/27/12

One of the most important (and most difficult to obtain) parts of any good film is music.  Not just in an artistic sense that it must match up perfectly with the video, but in a legal sense as well.  Music legal uses, especially in YouTube videos are an especially confusing subject.  Not helping the matter is the fact that any time that you attempt to search for “free music” or even “royalty free music” online you end up with either illegal alternatives or music that is “royalty free” but that you still have to pay money to license.

Over the years, I’ve managed to cobble together a great list of quality websites that offer free and legal royalty free music for use in videos.

Most of these sites have a lot of offer in terms of Royalty Free and Creative Commons licensed music files.  Please note though, that some creative commons licenses do not permit you to use songs in a commercial aspect, so if you plan on making money off a video that you use the music with, make sure it is legal.

This is a list that I have amassed over several years of creating videos.  Most of these sites have a lot to offer in terms of royalty free and creative commons licensed music files.

FREE CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSED MUSIC

:: Free music that can usually always be used for non-commercial works and occasionally commercial works as well depending on the license offered with each song.  Expect to usually have to credit the musician by name or a link to their website.::

Purple Planet – Composers Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn let users use all music in their collection free of charge for web-based productions in exchange for a link to their site.

Vimeo Music Store – Vimeo now offers music both free and purchased that is royalty free for use in videos!

ccmixter – This is a community music remixing site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

The Free Sound Project – The Freesound Project is just that, free sounds.  They are licensed under the Creative Commons and uploaded collaboratively.  Unlike CCMIXTER, The Freesound Project only concentrates on sounds, not songs.

Audio Farm – Audiofarm is another Creative Commons licensed music website.  There are a lot of options here.

Josh Woodward - Josh Woodward offers a ton of music for free licensed under the Creative Commons.  Just give him credit and you can use his stuff.  It’s a little more rock and country oriented, but he has some chill stuff too.  A great mix of songs that I have used multiple times.

Incompetech :: Kevin Macleod -  If you’ve watched a YouTube video, you have probably heard Kevin’s music. Kevin Macleod offers all of his musical creations under the Creative Commons license.  He has some really great stuff, I’ve used his music in numerous videos.  You can even use his music in your YouTube Partner program videos, just make sure that you link back to his site and give him credit.

Soundclick – Soundclick offers a lot of great Creative Commons licensed music, all you have to do is dig for it a bit.  Create an account and change the license type under your searching to Creative Commons and you’ll find some good audio.

Derek Audette - Derek Audette has plenty of good songs under the Creative Commons license.  Just give him credit!

OPSound – More Creative Commons licensed music from a variety of artists and genres.  Use the menu on the left under the “Music” heading.

Beatpick – Beatpick offers a wide variety of licensed music for download.  If you are making a student or non-profit/non-commercial film then you are free to use any song on their site under the creative commons license.   Just create an account and select that option when downloading the music.

Bush of Ghosts – Offers creative commons licensed music from their cds.

Podington Bear – Podington Bear offers all of their music under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license so use all their music in Non-commercial works.  All of the music is also free to be used in student films and festivals.

Jamendo – Jamendo offers a lot of free Creative Commons licensed music.

Moby Gratis – Moby has set aside music for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short.

Audionautix – All the music at Audionautix was created by Jason Shaw and released under the Creative Commons license.  You can even use the music for commercial purposes, just credit Jason Shaw.

PAID CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSED MUSIC

:: Creative Commons licensed music that you will have to buy from the artists or a music website such as Amazon MP3.  Some big-name bands have offered their music for use in videos as long as you give them credit.  Usually, the music is only allowed for non-commercial works. ::

Nine Inch Nails :: Ghosts – Nine Inch Nails has made their Ghosts CD collection available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, meaning you can use it in non-commercial works as long as you give them credit.

Sigur Ros – The melodic rock band from Iceland, Sigur Ros, offers all of their music for use in any video as long as it isn’t for commercial purposes.  If the film using the music is to be entered in a festival, a release form from their website must be filled out.  Some of their songs are available for download for free on the band’s Media Page.

TOTALLY FREE/PUBLIC DOMAIN MUSIC

:: Free music that is in the public domain and can be used for any works commercial or non-commercial.  Some artists may still ask you to credit them by name or website. ::

PacDV – Pacdv offers a few free instrumentals for you to use royalty free. They just ask that you mention “Music by pacdv.com/sounds/” in your credits.

Peter John Ross - Peter John Ross has a few free songs here that you can use Royalty Free in your videos, just make sure you give him credit for them.

Taylor Hayward – Taylor Hayward offers a few piano songs that are completely copyright free so you are free to use them in any way, commercial or non-commercial.  No crediting or any other references required.  Just download and go.

Public Domain 4 U - This site contains recordings of songs that were published prior to 1922 and are now in the public domain which means the public is free to copy and use the works in any way.  They may be old, but they’re classics.

The Open Music Archive – This site is a little tricky if you’re in the USA.  It offers public domain musical works that have expired copyrights in the UK.  So, if you live in the UK download away, but if you live in the USA you should read the FAQ on the site before using the music in your video.

Archive.org – You can get a ton of live recordings of bands here.  Most of the audio can only be used for non-commercial works though.  Check their Music FAQ for more information.

Troops in Combat Christian Rap – My friend Big T’s Christian Rap group offers their music for free download from my website.  Use it in whatever you would like, the beats are awesome and heavy.

Audio Jungle – You may notice this linked to below in the Paid Royal Free Music section also.  The reason being is that every month Audio Jungle offers one track (usually a $14 value, regular license) for free use with your YouTube or other online videos.

Royalty Free Music – Most of their stuff costs money but they have a few shorter clips that are totally free for personal/non-commercial use.

Internet Audio Guy - Internet Audio Guy usually sells a lot of audio, but they have a few nice tracks for download.

MusOpen – Another site that offers music that has had the copyright expired.  You can get a lot of the classics on here and can search by composer.

Curt Vernon – My friend Curt Vernon has a complete CD that he has recorded for God’s glory.  All of his music is free to use in any way you wish.

Matt Mcfarland Beats – McFarland Beats offers music composed by Matt McFarland for free use in any project.  Just credit the songwriter.

PAID ROYALTY FREE MUSIC

:: Paid for music that you can use in video productions without attribution to the composer.  Suitable when you have a commercial project or a lot of money to spend on music.  I will note when I have used these companies before and can vouch for them.  ::

Audio Jungle – Audio Jungle is a virtual flea market of musical offerings for your video production.  Hundreds of artists run virtual storefronts and sell their music tracks for various prices depending on how the track will be used.  The site claims that audio prices start at $1 but good luck finding more than a random sound effect for that price.  Expect to pay an average of $14 for a track that you can use with your YouTube or Vimeo video.  Audio Jungle also offers music project files, sound effect packs, and loops.

Premium Beat - Premium Beat offers thousands of tracks royalty free.  This sounds like many online production music websites, but what separates Premium Beat from the others is the price.  Most tracks for online video use are only $30.  Premium Beat also offers watermarked mp3 downloads so you can test the music before buying.  I have used Premium Beat before for YouTube and corporate commercial videos and they have been great.

Please leave me a comment letting me know if I missed any music sites, I will gladly add more to this list!

Last year, a crowdsourcing video company called Elastic Lab contacted me about doing some freelance video work.  Having never took part in any projects that used buzzwords such as crowdsourcing I didn’t entirely know what to expect, but loving to create videos, I signed up.

My first assignment was simple, to record myself talking about why I used video as a social tool on websites such as Youtube and Vimeo.  Many months after sending off the video, I was notified by Elastic Lab that my video (as well as many others) was available for viewing on their website under the heading “The Culture of Content Creation“.

At Elastic Lab’s request, I have abstained from embedding the video here on my own site and will simply link to their Culture of Content Creation video site.

You can view all of the Culture of Content Creation videos, as well as leave comments, and view the credits on their site. Hopefully at some point in the future I will be able to embed the video on my own site.

Curt Vernon describes himself as a 6’9″ ridiculously happy man that lives in a ’92 Celica.  He is definitely one of the coolest (and tallest) guys that I met in Florida on a mission trip called Beach Reach.  After getting back to Texas, I saw that he had posted a link to his music on his Facebook.  After hearing his songs, I realized that more people needed to hear them.

The Thoroughbred Community Church website leaves this disclaimer above their links to the music,

“WARNING! The lyrics in these songs may cause conviction leading to repentance.”

I honestly believe this is an accurate description of the songs that Curt has created.

All of Curt’s songs from the album, “Songs for The Brood & Me”, are free to stream and download off The Thoroughbred Community Church Website as well as my website here.

Every one of them tells a different story.

You can download the full CD here!

Curt Vernon - Songs For The Brood And Me Full CD - MP3 (963)

Curt’s full CD is awesome, I highly recommend you listen to all of it!

UPDATE: Curt’s 3 new songs are now available to download here:

You can download Matthew 11:28-30 for free here:

-Matthew 11:28-30 MP3 (836) (Right Click, Save As)

-Matthew 11:28-30 (With Intro) MP3 (462) (Right Click, Save As)

You can download How Could I for free here:

-How Could I (With Story) MP3 (531) (Right Click, Save As)

-How Could I MP3 (893) (Right Click, Save As)

You can download Revival song for free here:

-Revival Song (With Story) MP3 (520) (Right Click, Save As)

-Revival Song MP3 (960) (Right Click, Save As)

These three songs were recorded at Beach Reach 2010.  Around 4am we held a worship jam session and recorded three videos and songs.  Before each song Curt would tell a story about how God gave him the song.  You can watch the videos at the three links below…

- Matthew 11:28-30

- How Could I

- Revival Song

You can stream all of the songs on Curt’s CD individually below.  Download links are included beneath each song.

Luke 6 Beatitudes

Download Luke 6 Beatitudes: Luke 6 Beatitudes - Curt Vernon MP3 (567)

There’s nothing quite like hearing scripture sang directly.  It’s very powerful.

Mason Jar Jesus

Mason Jar Jesus is an awesome reminder to not put Jesus on the shelf.

Download Mason Jar Jesus: Mason Jar Jesus - Curt Vernon MP3 (466)

Furious Love

Download Furious Love: Furious Love - Curt Vernon - MP3 (532)

Grace

Grace by Curt Vernon, is an attempt at describing the awesome power of God to forgive anyone’s sin, no matter how great.

Download Grace: Grace - Curt Vernon MP3 (542)

If The Sun

Download If The Sun: If The Sun - Curt Vernon MP3 (514)

Fatherless and The Widows

Download Fatherless and The Widows: Fatherless And Widows - Curt Vernon MP3 (434)

Amsterdam

Download Amsterdam: Amsterdam - Curt Vernon MP3 (437)

None of Self and All of Thee

None Of Self And All Of Thee by Curt Vernon is an amazing story of God’s reaching out and pulling us in to him.  First we are entirely self focused; and then gradually, we become entirely focused on Him.

Download None of Self and All of Thee: None of Self and All Of Thee (505)

Pornography Will Murder You

Pornography Will Murder You by Curt Vernon is the perfect example of humanity’s willingness to lust, as well as God’s forgiveness and saving grace from that lust.  It gets really good about 1:55 into the song!

Download Pornography Will Murder You: Pornography Will Murder You - Curt Vernon MP3 (520)

You Are My Rest

Download You Are My Rest: You Are My Rest - Curt Vernon MP3 (479)

Preferences

Preferences by Curt Vernon is a look at God’s saving power from a slightly snarky viewpoint. Definitely a way of looking at the Christian faith that not many people have tried before.

Download Preferences: Preferences - Curt Vernon MP3 (432)

Great and Terrible Day of The LORD

Great and Terrible Day of The LORD by Curt Vernon is an awesome song that pushes the limits of how a worship song is made. Curt begins and ends it with the powerful verse, “If you remember nothing else, I have said to you this night, remember this, God is Love…” and the middle of the song holds the lines, “God I know that your first name is love, but your middle name is wrath, I even love the way you discipline and I love the way you laugh…”

Download Great and Terrible Day of The LORD: Great And Terrible Day of The Lord (501)

Name of The One I Love

Download Name of The One I Love: Name Of The One I Love - Curt Vernon MP3 (524)

Rebel Bride

If you like this song you should really watch the Rebel Bride music video I created.

Download Rebel Bride: Rebel Bride - Curt Vernon MP3 (622)

You can find out more about Curt Vernon at his Myspace and Facebook.

Leave me a comment and let me know which songs inspired you, and how they made you feel.

It has been over a year since I originally created this site and I figured it was about time for an update.  I originally didn’t anticipate an entire site overhaul but after careful consideration I ended up changing the entire site from the Joomla CMS to the WordPress blogging software.

There were multiple reasons for this change, but mainly for the ease of use and automation of wordpress as well as the aging nature of my Joomla installation (My Joomla theme was configured for Joomla 1.0 which is over a year old.).  Things that took tedious amounts of time for me with Joomla are now quickly  automated with WordPress.  Also, WordPress is more focused on being good at blogging; whereas with Joomla it is more for general website use.  It is simply easier to utilize WordPress for my needs.  Joomla still holds a special place in my heart though and I have created websites for friends and clients using the CMS.

I would like to put out a big thank you to Jason Schuller at Press75.com.  He supplied the theme and will be updating it soon meaning even more functionality here.

Everything is currently available on the site except for video downloads right now.  This is mainly due to me needing to ftp 9gigs of video to my server.  Once that is done and everything is synced you will be able to download things much more easily than ever before.

Feel free to leave me a comment or contact me about the site!

Thanks for reading and watching.

Curt

The Adoration Poster Board

The last station I was to visit was confession. Curt reminded us that when God tells us to confess, we aren’t supposed to just tell Him; we are to confess to one another as well. With this in mind, we paired off into groups and talked. After confessing to one another, it came time to confess to God as well. To aid in the symbolic imagery of our sin leaving us and being placed on Jesus, there was a giant two-by-four wooden beam cross laying on the floor. We could write our confessions on a piece of paper and nail them to the cross. By the final day, it was nearly impossible to hammer anything because of all the nails. It was a remarkable image of how sinful we are and how much we need the Lord. The coolest part of the confession station was that it was open to the rest of the room. No matter what station you were at; in the background you could always hear hammers driving nails into the cross. It was poignant image and reminder of Jesus taking away my sin.

As our time in the prayer room drew to an end, Curt drew us together and we sang a few more songs. During this time I was in a bit of shock at the awesomeness of prayer and just how much God is capable of doing. I had never looked at prayer that way before, and it started a fire in me to want to pray again and again unceasingly.

When Curt prayed over us, two things he said really hit me:

1. He explained that the Holy Spirit and Son are interceding for us to the father constantly. (Romans 8:26, Romans 8:34) Curt’s prayer for us is that our prayers will echo the son’s prayers. That our prayers might catch up to Jesus’ prayers.

2. Curt said, “I pray that tonight is the farthest that we ever are from you Lord.” When he said that I kinda freaked out a little because I wasn’t sure how to take that statement. Curt’s next statement explained all of it when he said, “I pray that every day after this we are closer to you than we were the day before.” This means he wants us to be closer to God next week when we aren’t on some Spiritual high brought on by Beach Reach. It’s a cool thought.

After he finished praying, Curt reminded us to not feel like we were awesome because we prayed for two hours. He told us of a time when he prayed for 6 hours and felt very accomplished about it. Then he said when we was driving home after praying God spoke to him and said, “You just prayed to me for 6 hours; what about the other 18 in the day?” At that point Curt explained that we are to follow 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and pray unceasingly. Every thought and thing that we say should be filtered through prayer first. I want to do that and am striving to do that.

The effects of the prayer room extended far beyond anything I ever expected and I really saw God’s hand at work both in my own life, and when I was out on the streets of Panama City.

I should have more written soon about the experiences I had on the streets and in the Beach Reach vans. Until then, thanks for reading!

The only thing that is keeping me solidly rooted right now in my thoughts is the knowledge that time isn’t going to stop. And this isn’t the end. My life will still go on, and one day I will see my grandfather again just as I saw him a few days ago. And when I do he will be perfectly fine. But until that time, I am left just wishing for more. This is definitely a conundrum.