Sure, Jon Acuff is a popular blogger and a bestselling author, but he’s also one of our Echo 2010 keynote speakers — that’s why I pressured him into talking to me on the phone for a few minutes on Friday afternoon. In our 14-minute convo we discuss Jon’s book (most people like it), his upcoming talk at Echo (it’s a new one), and what the rest of 2010 holds for him (a new book? a new blog?).

Listen to the interview below, register for Echo if you haven’t already, and grab Jon’s book.

Scott McClellan Asks Jon Acuff Hard-Hitting Questions On Behalf Of Echo Conference (.mp3)

BREAKING NEWS: Jon Acuff of Stuff Christians Like fame is officially headed to Echo 2010 as a keynote speaker! The hilarious and insightful Acuff is joining Donald Miller, Dan Merchant, and Todd Wagner, and we couldn’t be more excited.

If you’re not a regular reader of Stuff Christians Like, it’s time to fix that.

And if you haven’t read Jon’s book, it’s time to fix that, too.

Dan Merchant (pictured above, dressed as Bumper Sticker Man) is one of the Echo 2010 keynote speakers, and we couldn’t be more excited about having him. If case you’re not familiar with Dan, I want to point out a few ways you can get to know him:

• • His movie, Lord, Save Us from Your Followers, is returning to theaters next week.
• • The Lord, Save Us DVD comes out in April.
• • A few months ago, I interviewed him in COLLIDE.
• • Video! Check out clips from the movie here and watch Dan interviewed on TBN below:

So, that’s Dan Merchant. Register for Echo 2010 and make your way to Dallas to hear him live.

We hope to see you there!

If you ask me (not that you did), we launched with a pretty nice lineup of keynote speakers and breakout teachers. However, the breakout teachers lineup is incomplete — we’re going to be adding to it non-stop over the next few months. Case in point, we added three people today (Matt Knisely, Nathan Davis, and David Womack). There are already a few more that we’re going to add next week. You get the idea.

All that to say, keep an eye on our Speakers page, this blog, and our Twitter account for the latest on the ever-expanding Echo lineup. Oh, and when you’re ready to add yourself to the (unpublished) list of Echo attendees, you can do that here.

Download the source file HERE.

The After Effects project and screen capture will be available right here on the Echo Blog shortly after the conference.

ECHO: What has it been like to represent an organization like iStockPhoto to church leaders?
TB: Its been such a great experience. I used iStock working in the church long before they asked me to come work for them so I knew what a good product it was and how useful I found it in accomplishing my creative goals for the church each week. So when they asked me to come on bored as an evangelist for them to the faith community I jumped at the chance. I like that I am an evangelist for iStock and not a salesperson. As an evangelist its my job to tell others about iStock and how much I love it and use it and to help them understand how it could help them do their job better.

ECHO: At Echo you’re going to talk about doing different kinds of creative work on a shoestring budget. Do you think a lot of people let a small or nonexistent budget scare them away from trying to create quality media?
TB: Yeah I think sometimes they think that it requires a big budget to do anything really great but today its just not true. Are there some things that are impossible? Sure, but you can do more these days with little or no budget than you think you can. Typically, it simply requires some resourcefulness on your part and often times just a lot of time. There are so many resources out there today that are cheap or free and we are going to spend our time talking about what those resources are and how to use them to create awesomeness.

ECHO: Is there anything (video production, for example) that it’s best to avoid if you’re on a shoestring budget? In other words, should you forgo a certain medium in favor of other media if money is tight?
TB: I don’t think video production needs to be avoided on a small budget but there are issues that come with trying to do video on a tight budget and that’s one of the topics we will discuss. Basically there are techniques that can be used to make videos look great without spending a lot of money and we will cover those in the session.
Having little or no budget does require that you prioritize those things you wish to accomplish because you can’t always do everything you want so you have to try and get done those things you want most. Because of that you may decide that video production either eats too much of the allotted budget and crowds out too many other things or that it’s not as important as other projects. Either way on  shoestring budgets, often video is more rare than in churches that have more to work with.

One of the things we’re most excited about for this year’s Echo experience is our panel discussion featuring Bobby Gruenewald, Carlos Whittaker, Conway Edwards, Cynthia Ware, and Scott Hodge. The panel will be a free-flowing conversation that covers current and future trends in the intersection of media, technology, and the Church. Each of these leaders has a unique and valuable perspective to share, and we’re looking forward to hearing what they have to say. The panel will be moderated by Scott McClellan from COLLIDE Magazine (but he promises to stay out of the way and let the panel do most of the talking).

If you have questions for the panel, come on out to Echo and we’ll try to incorporate some audience questions via Twitter.

ECHO: How did get into video production and learn the ropes?
SW: The first step in my journey was studying for a Radio Television Film degree at the University of Texas. I started taking production classes, getting to check out cameras, shooting documentaries for class projects, learning to edit old school by actually cutting film and editing tape deck to deck. I also volunteered and got involved with a local experimental film group that was shooting Super 8 films at the time. So I was beginning to learn, to experiment, to figure things out by getting my hands dirty. About that time, I started going to a little start up church called Gateway. I was at a church BBQ one day and the Associate Pastor, Ted Beasley, struck up a conversation with me. When he learned I was a film school student, he got really excited about us doing videos for the church. So, over the next few years, I made films for film school, experimental films for the Cinemaker Coop and short videos and multimedias for Gateway Community Church here in Austin. And that’s how I got started.

ECHO: What kinds of things can Echo attendees expect to learn in your breakout session, Church Video Tips and Tricks?
SW: I plan on keeping things really practical at my session. We’re going to talk about basic things you can do with the camera, with the lights, with audio, with editing to get solid results. These will be tips and tricks I’ve picked up from slogging it out in production for the last ten years. What can you do to get better footage for your videos? What can you do to shoot better interviews? What can you do to make your edits have more power and impact? These are the things I’m going to talk about. And I’m going to talk in terms that can be easily understood and easily put into practice.

ECHO: What were some of the challenges you faced while creating church media resources at eleven72? What was the most rewarding part about creating those resources for local churches?
SW: Some of our biggest challenges at eleven72 were creating really good, useful, on point videos on a budget. We had to be really creative in distributing our resources so that we could produce short films and videos that had the production value and quality of story, acting, etc, that people in our culture expect and that we could feel good about.
The most rewarding part about creating video resources for local churches is knowing that your videos get to play a part in that awesome Sunday experience in hundreds of churches; That you were able to help them pull off their service, to help a pastor make his point, or to give a congregation pause to laugh or think about a particular subject. That your videos are a part of the process that God is using to draw people to Himself, that’s the greatest reward (and honestly quite humbling). It’s also really fun when you run into people who saw one of your videos or when you have relatives call and say that their church used one of your videos or when you see that someone in the Philippines or in Uzbekistan or South Korea downloaded one of your videos and to kind of have your mind blown by the fact that your videos are being shown in churches all over the world.

ECHO: From your involvement with the Visual Story Network, it’s obvious that you’re a proponent of visual media. Do you think some in the Church maintain a perception that printed and verbal media are better suited than visual media to communicating spiritual messages?
CT: We advocate the model of preach, print and portray. For 1500 years, preaching was the primary communication platform of the Church.  The body of Christ adjusted well with the advent of the printing press and that accelerated the ability to communicate to a broader audience.  We now live in a visual world where it is critical to be able to portray Christ and kingdom.  Preach, print and portray can and should be complimentary.  The problem is too many people are still limited to preach and print and are missing tremendous opportunities to expand their impact.

ECHO: As Americans, we tend to focus a lot on the English-speaking, North American Church. How did you develop a global perspective for visual storytelling and the communication of the gospel?
CT: I was on a trip to North Africa in 2000 and I witnessed first hand how visual media was helping change the way the students viewed Christ.  That was when God began to orient me into the realm of media.  My heart has always been for those furthest from the Gospel.

ECHO: What kinds of things can people expect to learn in your Echo breakout session, Going Global: A Movement of Visual Story?
CT: We believe in 5-10 years it will be possible that every person encounters Christ and His kingdom every year through relevant visual media.  We’ll describe what it will take for that to become reality.