Well we had a ROCKIN worship set this week, our guest worship leader (who will be leading at our multisite) did and AWESOME job. We got to introduce "Rise and Sing" to the congregation, which was a first for the band and they did great. Thus the 55, that is the number of shots the camera guys got together for this less the 4 minute song. Now some of you big time TD's are thinking 55 shots for a 4 minute song is not a big deal. Let me set the table a little, 1 we only have 4 cameras; 1 of them is locked down, 1 is on a tripod, and 2 ninjas. Also we use a presentation switcher not a production switcher... thus WE HAVE to go through preview before going live... no hot punching. Lastly our genlock is not quite as tight as it should be so sometimes we are waiting for signal to catch-up. So at this speed the hardware is the choke point.... which my switcher was none to happy about. So my math says that 1 shot roughly every 3 seconds, that is as fast as we get. Some of you non-technical types are just now thinking how can he cram so much talk into 3 seconds... easy, when I direct I breathe through my ears :-)
Also today is my birthday thus the 31. My email exploded with facebook responses to my wall wishing me a happy birthday. 2 of my volunteers brought doughnuts and cupcakes with them to today. Also I was not subject to one of the "from the on stage" pranks we have pulled on the worship leader and speakers before. It's good to be the video director. So yeah I felt very loved today.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Sub churching
I use the analogy of a submarine to describe our church a lot, if you have ever watched a good submarine movie, and there are a TON, then this will make sense. On a submarine you have a lot of different departments who all work hand in hand with each other with little or no communication or over lap ... and sometimes little or no appreciation for the other departments simply because each is so specialized. Not unlike our church.
Now in every good sub movie at some point the captain will issue general commands which are repeated and interpreted by the department heads and reissued as specific orders to the department. While this communication is relatively small it is VITALLY important. At this point all the departments focus on their task and if they all do their job everything works out fine. Let me use an example; if the captain wants to turn the sub to the left... he says "turn left." One department head repeats to the navigator so he can chart the course so they don't crash, another repeats it to the helm so he can actually turn the boat, another repeats it to the engine room so they can get more power if needed, one might let the torpedo room know it's just a regular turn not an evasive maneuver. What is impressive is in the movies this occurs with speed and precision that is unmatched by few things. Ok so how does that apply to the church, well if in the movies what would happen if the captain went up and asked the helmsman to move and just grabbed the wheel and turned the sub. Answer ... all kinda of bad things would happen. Sometimes THAT is what happens in our church. Someone (and almost everyone is guilty of this at some level) makes a decision that has broader reaching scope then their department, but fails to inform the other departments. Most of the time this is accidental, people just don't realize the scope of something as simple as.... say, moving a chair(this will be important later). However, accidental or not the results are the same. Sometimes is is done on a LARGE scale and sometimes it just little things.
Perfect example this past weekend our Spritual Formations pastor asked ME if he could adjust his seat position on the stage further to the left, so as not to have his back to people. Being the video director I looked at the camera positions and said "sure we can still get you from there." We got to the point in the service he moved his chair .... right into darkness. I had focused on my department so much that I never considered the lighting guys might need to know to move some lights. Now this was relatively harmless, I messed up I apologized and we got it fixed. However, this same mistake can happen on a VERY large scale and that is not harmless.
The cure for this is improved communication. We have a number of people coming on staff now out of corporate America. As a result they have this almost military like precision in their communication. Lucky for us they are coming into some key rolls, executive admin, facilities, and IT. These positions really make up some of the backbone of our church, so we are very fortunate to have them. I think we are already seeing some dividends being paid by having them here, and I for one look forward to us improving our communications across the board.
So to sum up I think the church should take a page out of the submariners handbook, and evaluate communications at all levels. I think you would be amazed how wide the effects of some simple decisions are. I just moved a chair... how bad could it be?
When I use the sub analogy I always compare it to being driven like a corvette. If you drive a sub like a corvette you are destine to crash into the rocks. If you try and drive your church like a corvette you are just as destine to crash it into the rocks.
This has been deep thoughts from a shallow christian :-)
Now in every good sub movie at some point the captain will issue general commands which are repeated and interpreted by the department heads and reissued as specific orders to the department. While this communication is relatively small it is VITALLY important. At this point all the departments focus on their task and if they all do their job everything works out fine. Let me use an example; if the captain wants to turn the sub to the left... he says "turn left." One department head repeats to the navigator so he can chart the course so they don't crash, another repeats it to the helm so he can actually turn the boat, another repeats it to the engine room so they can get more power if needed, one might let the torpedo room know it's just a regular turn not an evasive maneuver. What is impressive is in the movies this occurs with speed and precision that is unmatched by few things. Ok so how does that apply to the church, well if in the movies what would happen if the captain went up and asked the helmsman to move and just grabbed the wheel and turned the sub. Answer ... all kinda of bad things would happen. Sometimes THAT is what happens in our church. Someone (and almost everyone is guilty of this at some level) makes a decision that has broader reaching scope then their department, but fails to inform the other departments. Most of the time this is accidental, people just don't realize the scope of something as simple as.... say, moving a chair(this will be important later). However, accidental or not the results are the same. Sometimes is is done on a LARGE scale and sometimes it just little things.
Perfect example this past weekend our Spritual Formations pastor asked ME if he could adjust his seat position on the stage further to the left, so as not to have his back to people. Being the video director I looked at the camera positions and said "sure we can still get you from there." We got to the point in the service he moved his chair .... right into darkness. I had focused on my department so much that I never considered the lighting guys might need to know to move some lights. Now this was relatively harmless, I messed up I apologized and we got it fixed. However, this same mistake can happen on a VERY large scale and that is not harmless.
The cure for this is improved communication. We have a number of people coming on staff now out of corporate America. As a result they have this almost military like precision in their communication. Lucky for us they are coming into some key rolls, executive admin, facilities, and IT. These positions really make up some of the backbone of our church, so we are very fortunate to have them. I think we are already seeing some dividends being paid by having them here, and I for one look forward to us improving our communications across the board.
So to sum up I think the church should take a page out of the submariners handbook, and evaluate communications at all levels. I think you would be amazed how wide the effects of some simple decisions are. I just moved a chair... how bad could it be?
When I use the sub analogy I always compare it to being driven like a corvette. If you drive a sub like a corvette you are destine to crash into the rocks. If you try and drive your church like a corvette you are just as destine to crash it into the rocks.
This has been deep thoughts from a shallow christian :-)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Displaced Synergy
Well we packed up our office yesterday so they can put cubicles. What used to be 3 guys crammed in to the office will now be 4 guys w/cubes shoehorned into the same space. So we will be adding our IT guy to the happy family of me (the video guy), the web guy, and some guy from kidcity.
Yeah I know it makes no sense to put that group together in the same office, but believe it or not we have a pretty good synergy in there. Before we added the IT guy the rest of us can be counted as creative producers, that is we make stuff. For example, the kid city guy does stuff in power point. Before you scoff some of the stuff he does in powerpoint is cooler the some after effects videos I have seen. Plus he works with elementary kids... so his stuff has got to be interesting, cool, and fun. Our web guy has to keep the website on the cutting edge, and really is there a more hostile audience then the internet at-large? I have to do video content creation, nuf said. All creative and all require technical/creative tools, and in THIS instance with the kidcity guy, power point IS a technical/creative tool. Inevitably all creative types hit that brick wall, we get the creative equivalent of writers block. All of us have had those "I just can't think of what comes next" or "I just can't figure out how to do this" or "how does this look to ya'll?" So the other guys come take a look make suggestions or encourage, and the results are almost ALWAYS great. It's amazing what people will suggest when they don't know what you can't do. Re-read that last sentence and let it sink it cause it's important. Some times it takes people who aren't invested in the process/result to look for solution and not focus on the problem. Plus sometimes creatively we get stuck in a rut. We know we can do more, but we are not only married to the process/result we have, but we have 2.3 kids and a mini van with it. At that point having someone you respect come up and call you on it, even unintentionally, is not always a bad thing.
I know there have been times they have convicted me. Those times when what I have is not great, and continuing with it will not make it any better. Even though I usually know it's bad, I just can't take the thought of starting all over again. These guys have come up and salvaged many a doomed project for me but saying "what about this..."
So here's to synergy .... and hoping that adding a IT guy doesn't throw it off cosmic alignment of it all!
Yeah I know it makes no sense to put that group together in the same office, but believe it or not we have a pretty good synergy in there. Before we added the IT guy the rest of us can be counted as creative producers, that is we make stuff. For example, the kid city guy does stuff in power point. Before you scoff some of the stuff he does in powerpoint is cooler the some after effects videos I have seen. Plus he works with elementary kids... so his stuff has got to be interesting, cool, and fun. Our web guy has to keep the website on the cutting edge, and really is there a more hostile audience then the internet at-large? I have to do video content creation, nuf said. All creative and all require technical/creative tools, and in THIS instance with the kidcity guy, power point IS a technical/creative tool. Inevitably all creative types hit that brick wall, we get the creative equivalent of writers block. All of us have had those "I just can't think of what comes next" or "I just can't figure out how to do this" or "how does this look to ya'll?" So the other guys come take a look make suggestions or encourage, and the results are almost ALWAYS great. It's amazing what people will suggest when they don't know what you can't do. Re-read that last sentence and let it sink it cause it's important. Some times it takes people who aren't invested in the process/result to look for solution and not focus on the problem. Plus sometimes creatively we get stuck in a rut. We know we can do more, but we are not only married to the process/result we have, but we have 2.3 kids and a mini van with it. At that point having someone you respect come up and call you on it, even unintentionally, is not always a bad thing.
I know there have been times they have convicted me. Those times when what I have is not great, and continuing with it will not make it any better. Even though I usually know it's bad, I just can't take the thought of starting all over again. These guys have come up and salvaged many a doomed project for me but saying "what about this..."
So here's to synergy .... and hoping that adding a IT guy doesn't throw it off cosmic alignment of it all!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Random Act of...
On the com during service we have what we call RA_. Typically the last letter is the first initial if whoever is committing the random act. Usually it's our Senior Pastor Mike thus we have RAM, Random Act of Mike, though sometimes out Worship leader Karl pulls a RAK. Before I go to far let me define a random act. When someone says something that cold or should be followed up by "I don't believe I'da told that" we have a random act. Today we had a panel discussion, this introduced us to a whole new type of random act... the RAA. That last A would be All, we had 6 people on the panel and most of them said something that would qualify as a random act. One of our guys has a book on financial issues called "Get Naked: Stripping Down to Money and Marriage". When you have a catalyst like that, and you just know someone is going to"go there" that is what we call a RAP, random act producer. A book title like Get Naked is a perfect example, every service some reached out for that low hanging fruit and slapped us with a Random Act of... To be honest these type of things are what really make my job SOOOO worth it. Of course if my Senior Pastor finds this post and I am prolly going to have an RGE, but that's alphabet soup for another time.
Friday, August 20, 2010
"I Heard You Whisper in the Wind"
I heard you whisper in the wind from Mark Hanna on Vimeo.
This is a song our worship leader wrote, I never remember to tell him enough how incredibly gifted he is and what a pleasure it is working with some who has such a passion for excellence and the chops to pull it off. I think Mike sets the whole thing up pretty well.
This is the IMAG feed which we did in black and white to make it different, and in doing so gave it a more... respect for lack of a better word. Based on the situation we thought it was a good fit.
Church Production article
I got interviewed a while back for church production. I was asked to talk about IMAG, which I could pretty much do for weeks at a time. So it was a great interview, I got to talk about my passion and even got to throw my FOH guy a bone. You can read the article here.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Are you alone? Follow me!
One of my office mates stumbled on to this flow chart about two weeks ago, being a super talented web designer married to an even more talented graphics designer he found it very funny. When he showed it to me, I immediately went looking for comic sans. I was not disappointed. Fast forward to earlier this week it's 8:00 pm I am still at my desk frustrated, tired and I a little bitter that I am even working on a project to begin with, when this little voice says "hey you are alone.... come with me" I changed the font to comic sans and sadly that got me moving enough to get it finished. For the finishing touch I changed the typeface because .... well lets face it, I have live with myself after this project.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
what a differance 6 years makes
2004 FxN Productions LLC is formed. My most important piece of gear is my Canon GL2. I edit in AVID Express Pro. As a freelancer I worked rarely, usually alone, but when I want to. Video was less a career and more a financially self-sustaining hobbie. I was married 3 years.
2010 FxN Productions LLC is still around, but just. My most imporant piece of gear is my com. I don't even own that GL2 or the 2 other Gl2s or the XL2 that came after it. I have and XH-A1 which is getting dusty. The rare days I man-up on a camera it's a Panasonic AG-HPX500. I couldn't find my AVID dongle if I had to... I edit mostly in Motion, FCP if I must. As a director I work sometimes 7 days a week, covering 2 maybe 3 peoples jobs, with a volunteer staff of 40 and I work even when I don't want to. Video could not be a more serious to me. My wife and I have been married almost 10 years and have 2 boys.
It's funny 6 years ago I never saw myself doing what I am doing now. Which is kinda great cause what I do now is WAYYY cooler then anything I had in mind. Over that course of time I have gone from just making it, to a road hardened pro, to.... I dunno what I would be considered now. 6 years ago I couldn't have been convinced this job I currently have really existed. Now not only does it exist it's common place, I am even a respected professional in some areas. I get calls to consult every so often, some people even value my opinion in my field.
So this begs the question what does the next 6 years look like?
Predictions 2016; based on the dramatic change in the past 6 years I think predicting anything about the next 6 would truly be futile.
I hope when I shoot it's on whatever the new biggest baddest toy by RED is. I hope I am still directing and editing. I hope my volunteer staff is bigger, maybe I even have a paid staff. I hope I am happier. I think I have become so over the past 6 years, but today it's hard to tell.
2010 FxN Productions LLC is still around, but just. My most imporant piece of gear is my com. I don't even own that GL2 or the 2 other Gl2s or the XL2 that came after it. I have and XH-A1 which is getting dusty. The rare days I man-up on a camera it's a Panasonic AG-HPX500. I couldn't find my AVID dongle if I had to... I edit mostly in Motion, FCP if I must. As a director I work sometimes 7 days a week, covering 2 maybe 3 peoples jobs, with a volunteer staff of 40 and I work even when I don't want to. Video could not be a more serious to me. My wife and I have been married almost 10 years and have 2 boys.
It's funny 6 years ago I never saw myself doing what I am doing now. Which is kinda great cause what I do now is WAYYY cooler then anything I had in mind. Over that course of time I have gone from just making it, to a road hardened pro, to.... I dunno what I would be considered now. 6 years ago I couldn't have been convinced this job I currently have really existed. Now not only does it exist it's common place, I am even a respected professional in some areas. I get calls to consult every so often, some people even value my opinion in my field.
So this begs the question what does the next 6 years look like?
Predictions 2016; based on the dramatic change in the past 6 years I think predicting anything about the next 6 would truly be futile.
I hope when I shoot it's on whatever the new biggest baddest toy by RED is. I hope I am still directing and editing. I hope my volunteer staff is bigger, maybe I even have a paid staff. I hope I am happier. I think I have become so over the past 6 years, but today it's hard to tell.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Anita witness
Last night we had comedian Anita Renfroe at our church for a "girls night out". First, let me say she is funny, VERY funny. After intermission there was a panel about ...woman things. the panel was our senior pastors wife, Antia a single woman from the church a married woman and one of the female staff. While I am sure there were a number of women that really heard something encouraging and potentially life altering, for me it was really just more info then I needed. What was heard cannot be unheard... and it may haunt me for a while. I am not sure I can ever look my senior pastor (who was not there) or his wife in the eyes ever again.
That said "Girls Night Out" FTW... if you are a woman
That said "Girls Night Out" FTW... if you are a woman
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
TATTOO FTW
A few weeks back the creative team at our church (which is myself and the graphic designer) decided that some tattoo art might be a good look for an up coming sermon series. After a few days of coming up empty handed conceptually we started digging through some of the new motion designer’s tool kit by Digital Juice (MDTK) I recently picked up. Talk about striking gold! It was awesome! But I am getting a little ahead of myself.
Let me set the stage; our church is a little …edgy I guess this the best way to put it. We have between 6-9 thousand in attendance every week. Our worship team is a rock band and our senior pastor usually preaches sitting down, in jeans and t-shirt, wearing flip flops. He also has a few tattoos that are easy to see when he preaches. Last month was his yearly break and we had a guest speaker who was a little more conservative. Each week of a 4 week series he became a little more comfortable preaching to our congregation. First he preached with his shirt un-tucked, then in jeans, all the while commenting that our senior pastor was his hero for allowing him to preach in jeans and t-shirt. Then in week 3 the guest speaker alluded to the fact that he was taking after a senior pastor so much that he was “thinking” about getting a tattoo. Well that was all the inspiration we needed. We ran with the tattoo concept for the series following his, we branded printed edited and turned around a series package in record time so that we could order 10,000 temporary tattoos of the series art to give to our congregation. I don’t know if MDTK was ever intended for that type of application, but it preformed brilliantly. Our graphic designer loved the vector images, and the motion graphics package I came up with utilized the MDTK almost exclusively. In the end the tattoos went over GREAT everyone loved them. Some people even wore them in to work the next day spurring all kinds of conversations.
So temporary tattoos FTW!!!
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