Producer Spotlight
Eleven72

Recently Worship House Media sat down with the producers behind Eleven 72, Lee Rothenflue and Storme

WHM- Tell us about your background and how you guys got started?

Lee - My experience has been in marketing and sales for the last 10 years.  Then six years ago, God lit my passion in the video editing and post production world.  I did that on the side until we started eleven72.

Storme - I was on a cliff in Ireland trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life when it occurred to me that I should 1. go home and marry the woman I'd been dating for a couple of years and 2. go to film school. That was a rare moment of clarity for me, so I quickly did both. I graduated from the University of Texas with a Radio Television Film degree in 2001 and I have been happily married now for 10 years.

While at the University of Texas, I started attending a cool little church called Gateway that was meeting at the hotel where I worked part time as a bell hop. Gateway has been creatively using film, video and multimedia from the start. When the Associate Pastor found out I was a film student, he quickly put me to work. I ended up a couple of years later as the full time Media Director for the church. Meanwhile, Lee was trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life vocationally and he got it in his head he wanted to learn about editing and post production. He came to a meeting I had to try and lure volunteers into media at Gateway and he was hooked. We were off and running. Together, we have done hundreds of videos for Gateway Church.

A few years later, after a lot of meetings over coffee and a lot more prayer, we felt led to start eleven72. It stands for November, 1972, the month and year we were born. We like to say that's when God started our company, he was just a little ahead of us. We had to grow into it. In October of 2005, we quit our respective jobs and dove into making videos for eleven72 full time. We feel like we're doing what we were made to do and we couldn't be happier.

WHM- What do each of you do in the company?  (Roles?)

 Lee - I'm in charge of all things Post Production.  Anything involving editing and graphics.  This is the stuff that I just dig.  When I'm editing or creating something in post, that's when I'm having a blast.  Sure, I've got other responsibilities, like marketing and being a Producer on our films, but those don't juice me like editing.

Storme - I sit around and nit pick and worry about the minutiae and Lee roles his eyes at me. Not really. We work together to get concepts and ideas for the videos we do and then we Co-Produce them. I head up the Writing/Directing/Shooting aspect of all our shorts.

WHM- If you had to pick out a theme (or two) of Eleven72, that seemed to be a part of each of your products?

What we really strive to be are good story tellers. Aside from our stories being on solid Biblical ground, we're game for pretty much anything thematically. With eleven72, our main objective is to serve pastors and churches by making media that can be used for their purposes. Hopefully, we are able to hit the mark most of the time. In that way we serve the body of Christ with the gifts he's given us.

WHM- What future products are in the works?

We are right in the middle of a project we call Ten Stories. The Ten Stories are themed collections of media dubbed "Programming Packs." We looked around at what were the biggest themes being searched out in the church media world and we picked ten words that fit those themes. Each word is the name of a particular Programming Pack. And each Programming Pack has a Sermon Illustration, a Countdown, Worship Loops and Stills that fit within the theme. So far we've done Prayer, Jesus, Money, Church and Evangelism. And we have five more in the works, so stay tuned!

WHM- If you guys had an unlimited budget, what kind of project would you undertake?

Storme - I've always wanted to break the Guiness record for Most Simultaneous Games of Scrabble. The record sits at 521 games being played simultaneously. So it's going to cost quite a bit to get that number to 522.

Aside from that, we have plans to make feature length films. We're developing a couple of projects right now and hope that they will gather some momentum in the coming year. The budgets don't have to be unlimited, but the stories have to be great. Great stories centered on what God has done or is doing among his people. One story that we have high hopes for right now has to do with Africa in the 1920's. We have high hopes for that one. We'll keep you posted.

WHM- What inspires you guys?

Lee - I get most inspired from stories about people who, against the world's logic and reason, succeed.  It fires me up to hear stories about how someone's journey started out looking like a ridiculous idea and turned into a wild success.   It's all about people taking chances when they feel led by God to do so.  Look at Noah.  That guy must have looked insane to those around him.  "Water from the sky?  Yeah, whatever Noah."   I pray I've got courage to build my "boat" when He asks me to. 

Storme - I find a lot of inspiration in life. In stories about real people- again, I love a good story. In my relationship with God and my family. In a sunrise after working all night. In a Bible verse that I've read a hundred times and then the Holy Spirit lifts it off the page and bam! Inspiration. Artistically, of late, I'm inspired by a lot of films shot in the 1970's. I'm watching Norma Rae (1979) right now and it's fantastic. The way they set it up with the shots in the mill. The whole movie has this great sense of place. The characters. The Acting. It all feels so real. I love it.

WHM- Tell us about your church or community, what has your role been there?

We have a great community here in Austin called Gateway Church (www.gatewaychurch.com). I was blessed to serve as the Media Director at Gateway from about 2002-2005 and Lee was the head volunteer for our media team. That experience taught us both so much. I really am hugely indebted to John Burke, Ted Beasley and JJ Plasencio who are the Lead, Associate and Worship Pastor's respectively. They taught me so much about story telling and about making media for God's Church. 

Random Facts: Storme is a former Marine Air Traffic Controller. Lee has the Texas A&M University seal tattooed on his leg