Following the first installment of Spirit Juice Studios’ Catholic Filmmaking Breakdown featuring creative director Branden Stanley, senior project manager Danielle Conklin revisits a production for the annual National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC), sponsored by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM).

The relationship between Spirit Juice Studios and NCYC is long established, collaborating on numerous projects that have covered the media spectrum, from print and web through short films and event documentation. It has been a fruitful partnership, developing content for the thousands of teen conference attendees and the conference itself, all while maintaining a high level of visually engaging material that aligns with the group’s overall mission and brand aesthetic.

The piece dissected by Danielle focuses on the important of youth ministry, spotlighting Trenton Burke, a high school student from New Orleans who served as a featured conference speaker. In preparation, we road-mapped locations and segments to best convey to the audience Trenton’s interests and personableness.

While the footage capture was prepared ahead of time, Danielle recalls some “happy accidents” along the way that were incorporated into the finished piece, while touching on technical aspects such as the merging of upbeat Glidecam footage with that of subdued scenes within a church. During the interview itself, a point of focus was lighting and framing techniques to create a sense of cohesion with the stained glass window motif of the conference branding.

As with all we are fortunate to consider partners in visual storytelling, NFCYM allows us the opportunity to share experiences and perspectives that positively affect the faith within the lives of a younger demographic. And, that said, we are very much looking forward to the 2021 NCYC, taking place November 18-20, 2021 in Indianapolis!