The Vessel, Terrence Malick, and Raising a Million Dollars: Julio Quintana

This podcast features an interview with Director Julio Quintana. Julio just released his first feature film- which is always a big deal. But he also raised 1 million to do it, got Martin Sheen to act and had the master Terrence Malick as executive producer. Their influence in the film is visible, giving it a spiritual, cinematic gravitas that is really undeniable.

(Here is the trailer)

So in this not only do we we talk about the film, we get into all sorts of other good stuff like beauty and perseverance and the hard work of making it as an artist.

Blu Ray

Itunes

Hulu 

Empathy & Defining Your Audience: Elise Crawford

Today we are taking a break from the break from the podcast hiatus to bring you an interview with Elise Crawford. As we announced in the group, we've been taking a break from our podcasts in order to plan for the Catholic Creatives Summit in March. But since Elise is going to be speaking at the Summit, we thought it might be a good way for those of you who are coming to get to know her before you see her there. 

So Elise is awesome. She started Ringlet Studio, a creative agency that specifically focuses on working with female entrepreneurs. Why is that cool? Because it's super niche. She picked a very defined audience. Which is painful because it is exclusive; and I don't care who you are, a business owner or some one who works in ministry — we all struggle so so hard with picking a niche and sticking to it. 

It is so easy to fall prey to generalism and over inclusivity, and these issues are rampant in our ministries and businesses. So in this podcast Marcellino asks Elise a lot about how to be more targeted and clear with our audiences. They also talk about her acting role playing Helen Keller, and how it taught her empathy. This empathy has characterized her life and ministry since. 

Resources: 
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Beloved-Spiritual-Living-Secular/dp/0824519868

https://emyth.com/ 

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Leap-Conquer-Hidden-Level/dp/0061735361

Data Driven Ministry & Catholic Aesthetic: Brandon Vogt

This podcast is Marcellino’s conversation with Brandon Vogt, Bishop Barron’s right hand media man at Word On Fire. Their talk ranges from Brandon’s conversion to the Catholic Aesthetic and its influence on Brandon’s understanding of creativity and story. Interesting stuff for sure. 

Brandon's work has been featured by some little networks like NPR, FoxNews, CBS, Vatican Radio, Our Sunday Visitor, National Review, and Christianity Today. He is a convert to Catholicism, and also a convert from the engineer life to the life of a media guru and author. He has written SIX books. You can learn more about his work here: http://brandonvogt.com/ 

Pirates of the Caribbean & Gender In the Creative Industry: Leah Murphy

Leah Murphy currently serves as a video editor at Life Teen International. She has six years of experience in leadership positions including campus ministry, TV station management. She has also successfully avoided ever seeing a Star Wars movie, which is as we all know… a huge shame.

In this interview with Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Leah talks about her creative genesis as an artist, and her transition from youth group teen to professional artist. Also, as a woman who has studied Theology of the Body and who has worked for years in the creative industry that is largely populated by men, Leah has a perspective on gender that is particularly thought provoking. They get into her background and the origins of her creativity, but when they begin to talk about power and gender later in the podcast the conversation goes to a different level.

See her work here: http://lifeteen.com/cym/resources/videos/
 

Catholic Mindfulness, Meditation, and Inner Healing: Dr. Gregory Bottaro

Dr. Greggory Bottaro is the founder of the CatholicPsych Institute, and is an expert on self improvement He is also a successful entrepreneur, marketer, and gifted communicator.  In this episode, Anthony interviews him over his work to integrate the popular meditative “mindfulness” trend that has taken off in Silicon Valley and in the creative industry with Catholic spirituality. His course, Catholic Mindfulness, employs the cutting edge research in the field of mindfulness and the spirituality of Abandonment to the Divine Providence to help attendees gain control of their mood, find inner healing, develop concentration, and enhance their creative faculties. 

Resources:

Catholic Mindfulness

Abandonment to Divine Providence

Headspace

From Apologetics to Better Communication: Michael "Gomer" Gormley

In this show Anthony interviews a New Evangelization Expert.

His name is…
GOMER.

Michael Gormley, AKA Gomer, is one of the founders of the Catching Foxes podcast, and is all about human connection in ministry. His theology and approach to communicating about the gospel is touching, vulnerable, and convicting. 

The first sentence of his bio on his website reads: “Everyone is talking about the New Evangelization, but talk is not enough.”

In this podcast we talk about his transition from Apologetics to this new and compelling approach to evangelization, and we talk about how we as members of the church can improve in our ability to communicate about the gospel. 

Resources

Poetry
As King Fishers Catch Fire:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44389

 That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44397

 Comedy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UahqgK60vuk

Lay Evangelist:
http://www.layevangelist.com/

Hand Lettering, Alcohol, & Love: Erica Tighe

This conversation super awesome with the talented Erica Tighe. A lot of the people in the group are well known for their art in Catholic circles, but Erica really embodies that spirit of CC that seeks to be excellent in the secular world as well and operate in both spheres. 

She’s been featured in Goop, the Los Angeles party planning guide, the Fashion Magazine Elle, and Verily, the Christian women’s magazine. Erica is an awesome woman that you guys should all get to know because she’s also demonstrated how to make money doing what she loves. So this conversation we get into Erica’s story. How she went from being a missionary in Brazil to making a career in hand lettering, her recovery from alcoholism, how her time with Debtors Anonymous changed the way she dealt with money, and advice to other creators on pursing their craft in faith. This is one of those podcasts that’ll get you in the feels, so I hope you’re as moved and excited by this one as I’ve been.

Announcements:

The David Initiative, our collaboration with 4pm Media, Papercastle Records, Dave Moore, Robert Feduccia, and Gretsch instruments has launched. We will be giving away a ton of Gretsch equipment a single recorded by Paper Castle, a video from 4pm and now announcing our newest partnership with AbbyFest in Philly, the band that wins will lead worship for the mass at AbbyFest, travel and accommodations paid for in full. If you want to learn more about that go to www.davidinitiative.com, or if you want to get involved in the project, give us a shout through the website.

Resources:

Debtors Anonymous:
http://debtorsanonymous.org/

Jenna's Podcast
http://www.catholiccreatives.org/podcast/2016/4/25/04-jenna

Erica’s Site:
http://beaheart.com/

Skillshare:
http://skl.sh/29fArUK

Be A Heart Etsy Shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/beaheart

Forget Politics. Support Art, Impact the World: Gregory Wolfe

In this episode, Anthony D’Ambrosio interviews Gregory Wolfe, founder and editor of the the Image Journal. It is a true honor to have him on the podcast. He has been called “one of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation” (Ron Hansen). Through the journal and through his work in the academic world, he has sparked a resurgence of interest in the relationship between art and religion, which has had widespread impact both on religious communities and the public square. He was the founding director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at SPU, and author of many formational books, such as Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age.

In this podcast, we talk about Gregory’s story- about his transformation from a young voice of conservatism in the “culture wars” into a champion of cultural change through art. This lead to his mission to found the Image Journal, which he began with the intention of discovering this generation's T.S. Elliots and Flannery O'Connor's. In other words, he wanted to support artists who were redeeming the culture.
 

Image Journal.

Check out Read their mission and try not to get excited: 

“We believe that the great art that has emerged from these faith traditions is dramatic, not didactic—incarnational, not abstract. And so our focus has been on works of imagination that embody a spiritual struggle, like Jacob wrestling with the angel. In our pages the larger questions of existence intersect with what the poet Albert Goldbarth calls the “greasy doorknobs and salty tearducts” of our everyday lives.””

Is Youth Ministry Trivializing the Church?: Fr. Casey Jones

Fr Casey Jones is a super bad (i.e. awesome) priest, who is a friend of outcasts and a strategist in the Youth Ministry game. He has a degree in the school of Hard Knocks, as demonstrated by his copious amounts of tattoos (usually hidden from view under his clerics) . He is currently working on his Licentiate in the New Evangelization, and is knee deep in youth ministry. He is a chaplain at a school in Florida, he preaches Camp Hidden lake (Lifeteen’s middle school camp),  and he has a lot to say on the topic of evangelization that I think is incredibly relevant to us as innovators/creators.

Notes from Marcellino:

Father Casey and I go way back. He was actually my RD at Ave Maria. Fr Casey celebrated my sister's wedding this summer and he killed it.  

Part of the reason I’m bringing Fr. Casey on is because we both were also friends of Fr. McTeigue whilst at Ave Maria. Fr McTeigue wrote an article on Aleithea called “Beware the Juvenilization of American Christianity (HERE). We wrote a response to that article (HERE) but I felt like the issues he brought up started a conversation that deserved deeper thought.

 The Story:
Before we get into that though, some of you know that Fr McTeigue preached against one of my marketing efforts whilst at Ave, I promised I would tell the story

I ran unopposed as SAB president my sophomore year, believed that good events could dramatically affect the trajectory of the school’s culture, and started going for it. My team put on concerts, dances, lip syncing competitions, it was a blast. One weekend we invited the Afters & Between the Trees to Ave Maria, but unbeknownst to us the history department had assigned term papers that were due the following day. In an effort to rally the student body, I got up on a table in the middle of the cafeteria and announced that this was totally worth pulling an all nighter for.

The next morning I received reports that at the 7am mass, Fr. Mactigue had delivered a sweltering homily on how we are not at school to have fun but to study and not to be led astray by other students who are attempting to co opt our educations and lead us down the path to culture of mediocrity. As you can imagine, he used the word vocation many times. That was the 4th homily I had preached on something I did. 

There you go. 

UXing the Church: Brian Sullivan:

 Anthony interviews Brian Sullivan, a renowned UX designer and expert on the creative process. He is invited to give presentations almost annually at South By South West, and is also the founder of the Big Design Conference- one of the largest UX conferences in the nation. Brian is a recent convert to Catholicism, and was instrumental in helping us found Catholic Creatives. Here we talk about how UX and creative brainstorming principles can be applied to help creatives be better thinkers, solve teamwork problems, and assist the church in evangelization.  

Edward DeBono - Lateral Thinking

Alex Osborne - Applied Imagination  

Bridging Gaps, Tattoos & Entrepreneurial Ministry: Tony Vasinda

Marcellino interviews Tony Vasinda, co founder of Project YM, Parish Designer, Catholic Balm Co, and the Rebuild Youth Ministry Online Conference. Tony was literally the 6th person on the facebook group (despite not have any specific artistic skill set... other than making delicious smelling beard oil). He is a beast when it comes to thinking critically and is always starting new things. Tony is an expert on big picture entrepreneurial thinking, especially when applied to ministry or Catholic community. In this we get into how he developed his critical thinking skill set, the power of authenticity, and his biggest ministry mess ups. 

Should Artists Do Free Work for the Church?: Sid O'Niell

This episode is a special, topic based podcast for members of the Catholic Creatives group who have been involved in the recent conversations in the community about whether or not artists should do free work for the church. Because these conversations have happened with a level of intensity online (members can find the thread here), Anthony invited Sid O'Neill, a designer and developer who works mainly with Catholic clients, to come and talk about it. Sid is the owner of Highland Creative Co, and you can also find him lurking in the slack channel. If you want to ask him any questions, hit him up there. He may not do work for you for free, but he will bend over backwards to give you free development advice and to give you free jokes. 

Book Recommendation

Pretty Much Everything: https://www.amazon.com/Draplin-Design-Co-Pretty-Everything/dp/1419720171

Review about the book: http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2016/06/27/pretty/

Ragamuffin Ministry and Burnout: Ennie Hickman

Ennie’s talk at Steubenville

Adore Ministries

The Ragamuffin Gospel

Encounter Young Adult Conference

Why Beauty?: Fr. Don Fischer

Fr. Don Fischer spent over a decade consulting on all new church building projects in Dallas, and his singular mission during that time was to convince the leadership of these projects to invest in good design and art. We spoke about why beauty is so important to us as human beings, and why the church should make the investment to hire true artists to cultivate that beauty. He studied art and architecture before he entered seminary, and his work with the Landrys on the Chapel of the Incarnation won the AIA 25 year award, a prestigious architecture award in Dallas. To read about that project, go here: https://www.aiadallas.org/v/blog-detail/In-Search-of-the-Numinous/lj/

To see more about what Fr. Don is doing now, or to listen to his podcast, you can find him here: http://www.pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com/

Being a Bad Catholic and Making Good Art: John Paul Summers

John Paul Summers of Infinite Focus joined Anthony D'Ambrosio on the podcast today to talk about making amazing art, and about the difficulties of being a bad Catholic. We spoke about John Paul's movement from missionary and youth ministry out of the bounds of the church, and into a quickly accelerating creative career. John Paul is a cinematographer and DP, he is on track to be doing national commercials- he also has a dream to make an actually kick ass Catholic film at some point- in the school of The Mission or Calvary. 
Warning: contains some cursing, and even some content that many Catholics would not agree with. We do not believe that we should silence or censor these words or ideas, but encourage you to listen and understand.

You can see more of John Paul's work here: https://vimeo.com/138922456

Being an Effective Contrarian: Brian Holdsworth

Holdsworth Design

“Why You Shouldn’t Name Your Child Siri”

http://www.commitlife.com/

Fishers Net Awards 
 

Trusting in God, Building a Legacy Agency: Ryan Dellacrosse

Ryan Dellacrosse (middle) owner of Fuzati, is an incredibly inspiring man of faith. He has been a powerful advocate for better Catholic media for many years, and it is an honor to have him on the show. He also happens to be one of the best basketball players that any of you know. See video below for confirmation. 
In this conversation, Ryan tells Anthony about his transformation from pro athlete, to seminarian, to SMS marketing entrepreneur, to owner the largest marketing agency in the Catholic US scene. Ryan is the quintessential big vision thinker. This conversation is inspiring and will be deeply valuable to anyone who has big dreams, or wants to solve big problems. 

From Break Dancing to Spirit Juice Studios: Rob Kaczmark

Rob Kaczmark and Catholic Creatives Host, Anthony D'Ambrosio, talk about Rob's rise to power from his humble beginnings in Catholic radio. Rob, the founder of Spirit Juice Studios, has helped to establish a new level of excellence in Catholic media with his cinematic film work. He and his team recently won an emmy for their short, Salve Regina.  In this hilarious and human conversation, Rob and Anthony talk about the risk and rewards of embracing a creative career, about the challenges and mistakes that Rob experienced during his journey, and about how Rob became a "pretty ok" breakdancer. Rob also gives advice to people who are just getting started, and he gets deep about his own motivations for getting involved in church media.

Topics for the next interview with him will include how he got his show kicked off Catholic radio, and advice on how to look super creative. 
To learn more about Spirit Juice Studios, check out http://www.spiritjuicestudios.com/ 

Also here are two seconds of Rob doing the worm: