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.
