Alicia Cole
Multi-media Producer
My love for video started with my dad. It was his purchase of the 1979 Canon 1014XL-S video camera. At the time this was a major deal because it was one of the first consumer cameras that had sound. My parents were farmers at the time, but we always had the latest technology from DOS run computers to Atari video games. Since I was the first born of three siblings, most of my childhood was on shaky overblown 8 mm film. Unfortunately for my youngest brother Greg, he’s lucky he has half a photo album. I remember having movie nights with our noisy projector clicking through the filmstrips while my dad and mom narrated. Thankfully that only lasted a few years and we got our first VHS video camera, which only resulted in cheesy school programs and plays that I hope got accidentally recorded over.
I grew up in small town Loyal, Wisconsin twenty minutes from the “big city” of Marshfield (population: 20,000). My dad and a group of 20-somethings helped start Believers Church--the church Pastors Peter and Carolyn eventually pastored. I like to say I’m a 2nd generation church planter. While I was in the high school youth group, Pastor Peter and Carolyn became the youth pastors. After graduation from high school, I went through the Ministry Training School at Believers Church, and was then hired as part-time youth director and part-time director of the M.T.S.
During that time, I became involved in video production and led a team of people to produce videos for the annual Halloween outreach, called The Nightmare. This inspired me to join our church video team and helped to create and produce videos for the needs of the church. I had a real love for production and would help facilitate annual youth conferences and along with managing the Orbital Club & Concert Venue.
In the summer of 2004, I moved with Peter & Carolyn Haas to help plant Substance Church. I was involved with Substance for 3 years before they were able to hire me. When I first came on staff, I served as the administrator, book-keeper, service producer and creative arts director. I went to school at the Minnesota School of Business for video production, which I highly recommend (shameless plug - shout out to my favorite teachers Wayne Johnon and Chris Whurr). Since the fall of 2010, I’ve been overseeing the entire media department with the hopes of creating edifying movies through Substance.
I love leading small groups and speaking at women’s conferences. I believe in mentoring and discipleship and am involved in helping ladies in there twenties find their way.
On my off time you’ll find me hanging out with friends, serving, playing Scrabble, organic foods, pilates, ballroom dancing, cooking, wedding planning, video production and of course movies. One of my favorite directors currently is JJ Abrams. Got to love MI3, Star Trek, and Super8.
Some of my past work includes being was a volunteer crew member for a TPT prostitution documentary and support for homeless documentary. At Substance we’ve created mini documentaries and shorts. My ultimate goal in the media department is to create documentary work that tells peoples stories and show testimonies of how God is moving in people's lives.
Thank you Dad for your crazy filming and recording my story--it has inspired me to do the same for others.
Facebook: Alicia Cole
Twitter: @AliciaSue