Posts by Bridget Richardson
Episode 3 – Twitch
It's incredible what God can do on this platform.
Jonathan Blevins is a Catholic husband and father of three. He began live streaming his favorite video game, Fortnite, in 2018. He is the founder of the Bearded Blevins Stream Team to take his Twitch channel full time with the mission to build a positive community. He is also the founder and CEO of Little Flower Media Company. He is the first partnered streamer to be sponsored by a university (University of St. Thomas-Houston) and he is in the top 1 percent of streamers with 44,000 followers on Twitch.
JONATHAN'S EPISODE TRAILER
The New Evangelization and New Media series is on to episode 3 and we've got a good one for you! In this episode, we get a breakdown of Twitch from someone who knows it well - Jonathan Blevins, better known as Bearded Blevins.
Jonathan Blevins is a Catholic husband and father of three. He began live streaming his favorite video game, Fortnite, in 2018.
SERIES TRAILER
We’ve met the influencers, we’ve heard their stories and we are so pumped to share them with you! In our upcoming project, The New Evangelization and New Media, in collaboration with Word on Fire Institute, we’ll share first-hand, practical experience on how to better use Social Media to evangelize, be your authentic self and share the love of Jesus with others.
Behind the Scenes
VIDEO GAMES AND LOVING YOUR MOM
In this clip, you'll see Haley, Jonathan and the crew having a conversation about video games. Haley shares about her experience with her 13-year-old son loving video games and how she tries to relate. Our sound engineer, Kyle, shares about how his son's play video games and have multiple devices going at once. Jonathan then talks about how mom's and their attention to their child's interests make them a gift.
"YOU CAN SUB ON TWITCH FOR FREE"
In this clip, we're about to begin filming for the "Finding His Voice" segment in Jonathan's episode. While our Production Assistant, Henry, is slating to begin the take, Jonathan makes a joke about him subscribing to his Twitch Channel. When the airplane stops the scene again, Henry is ready with another joke too.
DELETED SCENE: SMOKING MEAT STREAM
In this deleted scene, Jonathan shares about a moment when his community was highly engaged in his stream ... it just happened to be when he set his smoker on fire. This scene was deleted from the "Finding His Voice" segment for time.
JONATHAN TRYING A KOLACHE
For breakfast on the final day of filming, Darnell picked up kolaches from a local spot in Midtown in Houston. Jonathan had never tried a kolache before, so we had to get it on film. You'll hear our lead videographer, Stephen, starting the scene, and Darnell and Bridget talking in the background.
MAKING A SCENE W/ JONATHAN
In this scene, Darnell and Bridget talk with Jonathan on how to present the "Your Assignment" segment of his episode on Twitch. See how all three have the conversation to get to the final cut in the episode.
In the background, you’ll see Stephen, our videographer and lead editor for this series; Jon, operating another camera, Kyle on the boom mic, and VP of UST Marketing and Advancement Jeff watching it all come together.
MAKING A SCENE W/ JONATHAN: PART TWO
Similar to the "Making a Scene" clip from the "Your Assignment" segment of Jonathan's episode, in this clip, Jonathan is picking the moments he wants to share for "The Breakdown" segment. He selects a portion of his Twitch stream where he is having a conversation with his two business partners, Matt McClure and Matt Marcolini.
JONATHAN RUNS INTO ESPORTS COMPETITORS
In this clip, you'll see Jonathan running into some of our University of St. Thomas-Houston esports players. Jonathan and his brother, Ninja, are well known to the competitive gaming world and Jonathan plays with UST competitors often. You'll hear Stephen referencing the gamer tag for Daniel Ibrahim, the primary young man talking to Jonathan.
University of St. Thomas-Houston is a sponsor of the Bearded Blevins Stream Team.
WHAT TO DO WITH MY HANDS
This is a funny clip of Jonathan showing his personality.
JONATHAN, DR. LUDWICK DISCUSS LENT, INNOVATION
In this clip, you'll see Jonathan and Dr. Richard Ludwick, president of University of St. Thomas-Houston, at Cidercade, an arcade in Houston that serves hard cider. In this clip, they sit down just to have a conversation. They first talk about Lent (this was filmed in early March) and its importance in the Catholic Church. They then discuss innovation and how it relates to our gifts and talents.
ARCADE GAMES W/ DR. LUDWICK AND JONATHAN
After filming for The New Evangelization and New Media video series, Jonathan challenged Dr. Ludwick to a game of Pop-a-Shot, the entertaining arcade basketball shooting game. The crew tagged along to capture them playing games at Cidercade, a popular venue in Houston with arcade games and hard cider.
MIC PLACEMENT
A reality of filming is the time it takes to set up. In this scene, you'll see something as simple as boom mic placement taking a bit to get it right. Even still, everyone still has fun on the set and Jonathan plays a joke on our sound engineer, Kyle.
JONATHAN TEACHES LEAH TWITCH
While having a conversation about Twitch and how it works, Jonathan Blevins went ahead and signed Leah Darrow up for an account right then and there! We hope you enjoy this moment as much as we did.
Check out Bearded Blevins on Twitch. And follow Leah Darrow's BRAND NEW Twitch account as well. Twitch is a platform where millions of people come together live every day to chat, interact, and make their own entertainment together.
FR. ROB MEETS BEARDED BLEVINS
While filming with Fr. Rob in Chicago, the MAX Studios team caught up with Jonathan "Bearded Blevins" (he lives in Chicago!). Fr. Rob and Jonathan were able to meet and share stories about their work in pre-evangelization on their platforms. They discuss when they first heard about each other, how Fr. Rob is really an introvert at heart, the value of being Catholic and always being open to others' questions about the faith.
HALEY, JONATHAN AND DR. LUDWICK TALK
In this behind the scenes segment, Haley, Jonathan and Dr. Ludwick discuss digital evangelization and the role of the Church. They discuss the importance of taking virtual relationships into real life and the opportunities parishes have in bridging the gap for people.
They discuss various platforms (even just playing video games) and how pointing people back to relationships and the value of the human person is timeless.
Episode 2 – YouTube
At the end of the day, people want to connect with a human being. They don’t want to connect with a film star. They don’t want to connect with a celebrity. They want to connect with the human being behind the person at the front.
Fr. Rob Galea is an ordained Catholic Priest and is currently serving in Sandhurst Diocese, Victoria after moving to Australia from Malta, his home country. He is a singer and songwriter with an international fan base, has written songs for World Youth Day 2016 and 2019, and has performed for Pope Francis. Apart from a series of recordings and CD releases, Fr. Rob has 73,000 subscribers on YouTube where he features many of his songs and homilies. He was a contestant in Australia's 2015 The X Factor and is the the founder and serving director of FRG Ministry.
EPISODE TRAILER
The New Evangelization and New Media series continues with a great conversation with the most human priest we know - Fr. Rob Galea. Check out the trailer for episode 2 here.
Fr. Rob Galea is an ordained Catholic Priest and is currently serving in Sandhurst Diocese, Victoria after moving to Australia from Malta, his home country. He is a singer and songwriter with an international fan base.
Behind the Scenes
BRIDGET PICKS UP FR. ROB
In this clip, Bridget picks up Fr. Rob to begin a full day of filming in Chicago. Fr. Rob was staying at St. Clement Catholic Church in the rectory with his dear friend Fr. Peter Wojcik. Bridget and Fr. Rob begin their conversation talking about Fr. Rob's performance the night before at St. Clement and the celebration after the show. They also discuss Fr. Rob's traveling, his team, his love of whiskey and more about how Catholics are called to be excellent in what they do.
B-ROLL FROM FR. ROB AT ST. CLEMENT
Fr. Rob performed a concert at St. Clement Catholic Church in Chicago the night before we began filming in March. We filmed these video sequences for b-roll (extra visuals only), which is why our audio isn't hooked up directly to his mic.
We wanted to share just a few of these moments from Fr. Rob's concert so that you could get a sense of his personality and music style just in case you've never seen him live.
FR. ROB MEETS BEARDED BLEVINS
While filming with Fr. Rob in Chicago, the MAX Studios team caught up with Jonathan "Bearded Blevins" (he lives in Chicago!). Fr. Rob and Jonathan were able to meet and share stories about their work in pre-evangelization on their platforms. They discuss when they first heard about each other, how Fr. Rob is really an introvert at heart, the value of being Catholic and always being open to others' questions about the faith.
FR. ROB PLAYS HIS GUITAR
In this clip, you'll see Fr. Rob playing his guitar for b-roll for his trailer. Since we were on set, we hooked him up to audio and got some great shots of him strumming a tune. At the end, you'll hear the crew and everyone behind the scenes clap for this cool, reflective, peaceful moment.
DELETED SCENE: FR. ROB TALKING INSTAGRAM
Fr. Rob is a huge fan of Instagram. He has more than 76,000 followers and his engagement on the platform is next level.
In this deleted scene, you'll see Bridget and Fr. Rob talk about his Instagram audience and how he shows his life on that platform. Fr. Rob makes some great connections about being human and a priest. This part was deleted from the "Finding His Voice" segment of the main episode for time and since it was focused on talking about the platform we highlighted for him - YouTube.
FUNNY CLAP MOMENT W/ FR. ROB
To sync audio and video, it's customary to ask people to clap. Here you see Bridget and Fr. Rob do a perfectly in sync clap - and Fr. Rob likes it.
RUBBISH AND OTHER SAYINGS
In this clip, we're riding in the car to go to lunch. Fr. Rob describes some differences in the way things are said in Australia versus the United States.
AT THE BEAN
In this clip, Darnell, Bridget and Fr. Rob are filming b-roll at The Bean in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago. Bridget and Fr. Rob are mic'ed up after filming the "Finding His Voice" segment, so you'll hear them the loudest, along with Jon and Stephen who are operating two cameras. You'll hear Stephen directing people to do what he needs them to for b-roll. We were in a time crunch, so Stephen is moving people in and out of frame as quickly as possible. You'll see some familiar shots in this clip from Fr. Rob's trailer.
DR. LUDWICK TALKS W/ FR. ROB
While filming in Chicago, Dr. Richard Ludwick, president of University of St. Thomas-Houston, joined us so he could meet Fr. Rob Galea. Dr. Ludwick is a big fan of Fr. Rob, so he was able to sit down and have a conversation with him.
They talked about social media and its impact on the Church and the world, Fr. Rob's story, the excellence and mediocrity that exists in the Catholic Church, and our call to proclaim Jesus in the digital space.
Episode 4: Instagram
“The Church needs all of us and the church needs you. So when you’re sharing things about who you are on social media, that’s significant and it’s going to reach someone.”
Episode 4 - Haley Stewart Explores Instagram
Haley Stewart is Catholic convert, a mom of four and a distiller’s wife. She’s an author, podcaster, speaker and managing editor of Word on Fire Spark, their new publishing line for children and young readers. A former homeschool mom and homesteader, Haley has shared her story widely and accumulated 17,000 followers on Instagram who enjoy her wit, humor and discussion on the Catholic faith.
SERIES TRAILER
We’ve met the influencers, we’ve heard their stories and we are so pumped to share them with you! In our upcoming project, The New Evangelization and New Media, in collaboration with Word on Fire Institute, we’ll share first-hand, practical experience on how to better use Social Media to evangelize, be your authentic self and share the love of Jesus with others.
HALEY'S TRAILER
In part one of The New Evangelization and New Media series, we finish up with episode 4 about Instagram. In this episode, Haley Stewart leads this masterclass in how she evangelizes on this popular social platform.
Haley Stewart is Catholic convert, a mom of four and a distiller’s wife. She’s an author, podcaster, speaker and managing editor of Word on Fire Spark, their new publishing line for children and young readers.
Behind the Scenes
Speed Walk & Talk
In this clip, we're trying to figure out the best way to film Haley's "Finding Her Voice" segment. Although Haley's episode was the last one to publish, her segments were the first ones filmed. Kudos to Haley for sticking with us while we worked out the kinks – and laughing with us about it along the way.
American Girl Dolls
Haley is a fan of American Girl Dolls. In this clip, Bridget and Haley talk about how Bridget's oldest daughter's name is Samantha and her saint name is Felicity. Haley immediately asks if Bridget is an American Girl Doll fan and, while she is not, Kyle, our sound engineer, is! At the end, Haley shares about scoring a Kirsten American Girl Doll.
Deleted Scene: British Miniseries
In this deleted scene, Haley shares about her love of British miniseries and how she has a community of others who follow her who love them too. This scene was deleted from the "Your Assignment" segment for time.
Different Platforms
In this clip, the crew is setting up their cameras and sound, so they need Bridget and Haley to interact. Haley shares about the different content she posts of Twitter and Instagram and how she engages on each of them. This clip was right before the "Your Assignment" segment.
Getting Ready for "The Breakdown"
In this clip, you see a short walk between different sets and some set-up. Haley, Bridget and Jeff leave Link-Lee Mansion (MAX Studios is on the third floor) and go to the Carriage House (another office space being used for filming). You'll also see Darnell, Jonathan "Bearded Blevins," and the crew setting up for filming "The Breakdown" segment.
Pre-convo Chat
In this clip, you'll see Haley, Jonathan and Dr. Ludwick chatting before their filmed conversation. They discuss the Super Bowl while the crew and producers are getting set up. Then, Darnell shows some Houston hospitality. Dr. Ludwick makes the driving joke at the end because he is actually going blind.
In this behind the scenes segment, Haley, Jonathan and Dr. Ludwick discuss digital evangelization and the role of the Church. They discuss the importance of taking virtual relationships into real life and the opportunities parishes have in bridging the gap for people.
They discuss various platforms (even just playing video games) and how pointing people back to relationships and the value of the human person is timeless.
Post-conversation: "It was terrible"
After the conversation that Haley, Dr. Ludwick and Jonathan had about evangelization and social media, they finished up with this funny moment. The background you hear is Jeff Olsen. This is just a funny moment that ended the segment.
Again, the audio is a bit inconsistent here.
Haley Meets Dr. Ludwick
In this clip, you see when Haley first meets Dr. Ludwick. Also in the scene is Jeff Olsen. In the quiet moment when Dr. Ludwick is speaking, he is saying that his daughter is a big fan of Haley's and shared in their family text group that Haley had arrived on campus when Haley had posted it to her story on Instagram.
Mural Wall Convo
In this clip, we needed b-roll for the trailer and UST has an incredible graffiti mural of St. Thomas Aquinas, done by local graffiti artist GONZO247. Jonathan, Haley, Darnell and Bridget are just having a conversation about music as the crew captures the b-roll (turns out they all have very similar music tastes).
A Search for Truth
In this episode of BOLD, Isabel Garcia sits down with Hanna Shanar, an author, musician, medical student and UST alumnus, to talk about his book "A Search for Truth." They discuss the compatibility of faith and science and how UST set him up for success.
Pro-Life Series: 4US
This is our third and final episode of our pro-life series. You can check out previous episodes linked below. In the first episode talked about Catholic Mobilizing Network and in the second episode, we highlighted Obria Medical Clinics.
In this final episode, we talked with the founders of 4US – which stands for For Ultra Sound. Kim and Diego Wendt are trying to equip pregnancy centers with the tools, technology and talent to save more lives. Their vision is make abortions rare by choice and their mission is to Illuminate hope for pregnant women in crisis through the power of ultrasound. Learn more about them and this initiative.
Helpful Links:
Pro-Life Series: Restorative Justice
Pro-Life Series: Obria Medical Clinics
We’re finally on to our second episode of our pro-life series. You can check out episode one where we highlighted Catholic Mobilizing Network who works for restorative justice practices.
In this episode, we caught up with Obria Medical Clinics. They provide women and families with compassionate, comprehensive health care from professional medical consultations on tons of things like: well woman care, pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STD testing and treatment, pre-abortion screenings, abortion education, abortion pill reversal, prenatal care, health education and sexual health.
Dawn Hughes, Chief Executive Officer of Obria Medical Clinics, and Keyasha Kuykindall, V.P. of Mission Advancement, Brand Marketing & Technologies at Obria, talk about how Obria seeks to give wholistic care to women and families, and why it's important to care for people mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Helpful Links:
Life Lessons From Trappists Monks
Today we are talking about the religious, brothers and sisters who have devoted their life to the service of God, and how our relationships with them - understanding their unique, intimate relationship with Christ - can help us lay people better invite Christ into our own lives.
First, Darnell shares a story about Sr. Maura, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist, who's super power lies in a wink. He tells us how she fundamentally changed his relationship with God.
Then August Turak, author of "Business Secrets of the Trappists Monks," tells us about his own experience as a frequent monastic guest at Mepkin Abbey. He explains how the lessons he learned through their simple lifestyle have helped him become a successful entrepreneur and leader.
God Always Has a Plan
This is Pat Gunning, Campus Minister at UST. In this episode of BOLD, we talk to Pat about his first semester serving as the campus minister at UST and how his personality plays a huge role in the work that he does. We also talk about the rollercoaster that is our faith journey and how God always has a plan for us.
Helpful Links:
Campus Ministry at UST
A Legacy of Public Service
Service is a muscle that needs to be exercised often. Judson W. Robinson III, President and CEO of the Houston Area Urban League knows this well. He comes from a family of public servants and understands the importance and impact service can have on the community.
In this episode of For Such a Time as This, Larry and Judson discuss the role of the Urban League in Houston. They talk about Judson's family legacy of service and they also talk about the importance of finding new strategies to help draw awareness within their communities.
Episode 10: Challenging Friendships
Question three in this edition of Agape & Eros live. The first one was warning signs, the second on boundaries with parents, and now it's on the question 3.
In this episode, the experts discuss challenging friendships and how you support someone who you know is making bad choices - that may affect you.
Thanks to our experts: Larry Freeney with Rejoice Counseling Apostolate, Avanti Bande with the UST Office of Counseling and Wellness Services, and David Hao with UST Student Affairs.
Links:
