I have recently had the pleasure of working with Collin on the ground-braking video installation, “To Believe,” at the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel in Austin, Texas. Collin was unquestionably the right fit for this project. His creative eye and willingness to be flexible were essential to the success of this project. Our group interviewed several videographers who we sought out for their potential to contribute to this unique idea. As we explained, the project was to focus on East Austin churches, without being overtly religious. We wanted to document the services of African American congregations, but this wasn’t to be a documentary. Through creative collaboration and careful listening, Collin quickly embraced the concept. He used his extensive background in video presentation to transform the interior of the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel. It became an immersive experience for visitors to engage with the diverse worship services that take place in close proximity to the Chapel. The essential elements representing each of four churches were distilled, as Collin noted, to the equivalence of going to all four churches in the span of 20 minutes! I have no doubt Collin will bring the same energy and creativity to any project he engages. I’ll be keeping up with Collin and look forward to seeing his next creations.

I had the privilege of working with Mr. Hardeman on our recent “To Believe” project, I am grateful we were able to secure him as our videographer. Through a collaboration with Ben Heimsath, of Heimsath Architects, and Jennifer Chenowith, site coordinator for the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel, “To Believe” was a unique video experience that allowed visitors to the Oakwood Chapel to experience worship inside the walls of four East Austin churches. Through this project Collin demonstrated his professionalism and creative genius as he took our verbal idea and transformed it into an immersive and stimulating visual reality. From our initial meeting I appreciated Mr. Hardeman’s intuitive questions and his ability to actually visualize the project right in front of us. Once selected for our project he immediately assembled his team, connected with our sites, recorded the footage and in amazing time began editing and creating our project. Collin did a wonderful job of communicating with our team throughout the project, ensuring he had not lost sight of our vision. Collin did an outstanding job completing our project on time and exceeding our expectations. It was truly remarkable to see how he listened to our thoughts and was able to create a work of art in such a short span of time. I am excited about his vision for archiving and telling the history of faith in East Austin. I trust Collin to approach this project with the same professionalism, sensitivity and creativity he demonstrated with our earlier project. I am convinced the work Collin is doing will become a jewel within the treasure of East Austin history.