Tonya Damron
Photo courtesy of Faith Promise Church, Knoxville, Tenn.
For Faith Promise Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, it all comes down to a passionate pursuit of people outside the walls of the church. Fueled by that strong emphasis on evangelism, the church has invested significant resources and energy into building a vibrant film ministry designed to tell stories of life change and illustrate the truth of the gospel. To learn more about how the film team at Faith Promise Church has grown and evolved into one of the most influential ministries in the country, CPM connected with Lead Filmmaker and Video Editor Briauna Hankins for a wide-ranging conversation exploring the roles of creativity, collaboration, and calling in media ministry.
Briaunna Hankins (right) got her start as an intern, then a part-time grip. At that point she began focusing on editing and was eventually hired as a full-time filmmaker at Faith Promise Church in Knoxville, Tenn. In 2019 she was named Lead Filmmaker for the church.
CPM: Tell us about your journey into film ministry and the role you serve in today.
“More than anything, I’m dreaming about increasing our access to great stories and finding more freedom to tell these stories.” BRIAUNA HANKINS
Hankins: I started as a worship ministry intern when I was a junior in high school. I loved singing, but I also knew I loved film, so as a part of my summer internship I started going on shoots with our creative director, Adam Chapman, who really took me under his wing and taught me the ropes. From there I got a part-time job on the team as a grip, doing whatever Adam needed help with until I really started focusing on editing. Eventually I finished my film degree, and they offered me a full-time job as an editor.
CPM: So you really had the chance to work your way up. What do you find most rewarding about your role now?
Hankins: The most rewarding part of my job is when we’re on set interviewing someone new. We get to bond with the person and really hear about how God is moving in their lives. I also love being able to work in the edit room, finding the best way to cohesively tell their story, ultimately pointing the viewer back to God’s story in everyone’s lives.
CPM: What kind of production timeframes has the film team at Faith Promise found works best to success with those types of projects?
Hankins: We’re generally working pretty far out, depending on what the project is. We’re already locked in with what we’re creating for our next four months of weekend worship experiences. For instance, we know we need two life stories of generosity in our next series, so we’re already in production on those now.
CPM: That’s impressive. So how has that overall production flow been impacted over the past year with lock downs and social distancing?
Hankins: It’s been crazy. Our previous head filmmaker left two years ago, so with that role missing we had to pivot pretty hard to create a new process. Fortunately, we had some time to develop a system that was already working before COVID hit. Quarantine actually started the week after we wrapped principal production on our Easter videos, but then we ended up having to film everything for the entire Easter service. Which meant our work quadrupled!
Briauna Hankins, Lead Filmmaker and Video Editor at Faith Promise Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
One of our biggest challenges was to figure out how to produce virtual worship experiences, both for our weekend services and kid’s ministry. We also quickly discovered that there were a number of amazing stories happening in our community, and we knew we had to find a way to tell those. At the same time, we couldn’t go out and film them safely. Eventually we just decided that things didn’t have to work the way they did before. Our solution was to have people film content with their cell phone, then we’d take that footage and produce the videos from there. A lot of times that process would start with fixing the audio and color, then adding stylized graphic, lower thirds or themed openers. We just leaned into a lot of what inspired us on social media.
CPM: That’s creative and terrifying all at the same time. What are some of the technical solutions you’ve arrived at to make that distributed filmmaking work better for your team?
Hankins: We work with a lot of contractors to create the films we produce. Our IT team just got us up and running with the creative.space //ROGUE Pro video server, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for us. It’s been amazing having a system that can not only hold all of our media asset library, but also lets me work just as easily from my laptop at home. At the same time, our contractors can get access to any files they need, so that’s been great as well.
CPM: As the film team and Faith Promise Church moves into this next season of ministry, what are you most excited about for the future?
Hankins: More than anything, I’m dreaming about increasing our access to great stories and finding more freedom to tell these stories, even outside the boundaries of our weekend worship services. We want these stories to connect with anyone, anywhere, to show people God’s love, and to help the viewers imagine what life could be like if they put their faith in Him.
Alex Schwindt is a filmmaker and writer with over two decades of ministry experience. He’s also the creative director of Alex Schwindt Media, a boutique agency specializing in commercial, documentary, and concept film and video. ■
