MATTHEW McNUTT

I happen to be one of those guys who love to incorporate video illustrations in sermons and youth talks and over the last few years I’ve built up a list of places I go to for ideas.  I used to just come up with them on my own, but that takes a lot of time and why reinvent the wheel?  There are several great options out there that have clip ideas that are searchable by title, scripture reference, topic, and more.  Great stuff!  Here are my favorites:

Videos that Teach book series – Eddie James & Doug Fields have put together a great series of books with video clip ideas from popular movies.  Each book has 75 different clip ideas.  The books are indexed by scripture tie-ins, topics, and movie titles.  Not only do they include a clip idea, they also have suggested scriptures and discussion questions.  I have all the books and ended up scanning through them for ideas just about every week; here are what they’ve come up with so far:  Videos that Teach; Videos that Teach 2; Videos that Teach 3; Videos that Teach 4.

Blockbuster Movie Illustrations – Bryan Belknap has created three video clip ideas books similar to the Videos that Teach series.  His books have 150 clip ideas in each one and are also indexed by movie title, scripture references and topics.  There are scripture suggestions and discussion questions for each clip idea which makes it a great resource as well!  Here are the books he has come up with so far: Blockbuster Movie Illustrations; Blockbuster Movie Illustrations – the Sequel; Blockbuster Movie Illustrations- the Return.

Wingclips – Wingclips is a website with free low-res clips from movies currently in theaters or recently released on DVD.  You can pay to get the higher quality versions, but the low-res are still good enough for a presentation in my opinion.  While they don’t have a massive list of movies, I love that they have clips from movies currently in megaplexes, making it VERY relevant.

Bluefish TV – Bluefish produces their own clips, so they are specifically aimed at a church or youth audience and are intended to be illustrations to a Bible based message (as opposed to clips taken from popular movies).  What’s cool is their price: $1.99 per download.  While they’re not my favorite download site, there isn’t a site out there selling downloadable clips for less!

Worship House Media – This is my favorite site.  While the cost is higher (anywhere from $6-$20 per download), the quality is absolutely the best.  They have a massive selection of videos specifically created to be ministry related illustrations.  They are easily searchable, and there is stuff for every audience.  This is where I usually end up getting clips.  Usually they have something for free as well, so that’s another plus for checking in every once and a while.

So, what’s your favorite video clip resource?  I’d love to have some more ideas!