After doing this on and off for as long as I have, I recently decided to make a more dedicated effort to work on posting to my blog. As a result I will be moving my blog to www.Fxnproductions.com
I have some really cool things going on in the coming weeks including a trip to Haiti to shoot a documentary, product reviews for some the the gear I am taking on the trip, and much more.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Product Review: Go Pro Hero, take one
I purchased this with some very specific projects in mind. I will be going to Haiti in a few weeks and spending lots of time in vehicle while there. So first project was off roading in Haiti. Also while there I was hoping to get some time lapse of some of the things we will see. So for these applications the Go Pro is the go to.
Out of the box you really can't appreciate how small this thing is. I think the sensor in my XH-A1 is bigger, which really left me wondering how it would do in the HD video trials. The underwater housing feels VERY sturdy between that and the locking mechanism I had a lot of warm fuzzies about getting this thing in the water. I ordered the Motorsports Hero, because the mounting options seemed like they would be the most bang for the buck.
It arrived today, and in 5 minutes I had it set up for the car trip home. I set it to take 1 picture every :30. I ended up with almost 150 pictures. What do you do with 150 pictures, well you import them in to Quick Time Pro as a image sequence, and make it a time lapse video, of course.
I want to stress I have had this thing out of the box all of 10 minutes prior to this test. The first thing I noticed is the suction cup mounting is no joke, it's the real deal. I put it in my car on my windshield like a GPS. I didn't like that I couldn't see what I was shooting so I think the LCD monitor may be a necessity.
As you can see once every :30 is way to long between pictures, so tomorrow on my way to work I will do the same test but set it to take every :05. Effectively giving 6 times more pictures but hopefully as better result. I also hope to test the submersion sometime this week as well. I will hopefully post those results in the second and possibly third take of this review. I am also looking forward to seeing how it functions like a video camera without alot of the no needed nonsense a photo camera has.
Out of the box you really can't appreciate how small this thing is. I think the sensor in my XH-A1 is bigger, which really left me wondering how it would do in the HD video trials. The underwater housing feels VERY sturdy between that and the locking mechanism I had a lot of warm fuzzies about getting this thing in the water. I ordered the Motorsports Hero, because the mounting options seemed like they would be the most bang for the buck.
It arrived today, and in 5 minutes I had it set up for the car trip home. I set it to take 1 picture every :30. I ended up with almost 150 pictures. What do you do with 150 pictures, well you import them in to Quick Time Pro as a image sequence, and make it a time lapse video, of course.
I want to stress I have had this thing out of the box all of 10 minutes prior to this test. The first thing I noticed is the suction cup mounting is no joke, it's the real deal. I put it in my car on my windshield like a GPS. I didn't like that I couldn't see what I was shooting so I think the LCD monitor may be a necessity.
As you can see once every :30 is way to long between pictures, so tomorrow on my way to work I will do the same test but set it to take every :05. Effectively giving 6 times more pictures but hopefully as better result. I also hope to test the submersion sometime this week as well. I will hopefully post those results in the second and possibly third take of this review. I am also looking forward to seeing how it functions like a video camera without alot of the no needed nonsense a photo camera has.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Facebook Win
I always hear a lot about churches and social media. About how some do it and some do it badly. I also hear lots of people that are of the opinion that you can't build a community on-line. For example, our senior pastor who thinks "if you're on facebook and over 30, you're a perv."
I think that might be a bit drastic. I would temper that with: you can't build an "effective" community "only" on-line.
Perfect example, I am not a huge facebook fan. I'm just not. That said I do check it about once a month, I post on it may once every 2 months. So I'm not super active, but I have friend-ed of most of my family coworkers and some random friends from other places. Just your below average connections.
I found out today my grandfather passed away last night. My grandfather was very close to me, and played a very special role in my life. I called my immediate family and then I posted it on facebook, if for no other reason than it seemed a safe way to kinda give my coworkers a "heads up I am going to have some baggage when I come into the office tomorrow, consider yourself warned." I went upstairs and put my kids to bed, when I came down I literally had 30 emails from friends, family, and coworkers, all saying they were sorry for my loss.
It made me realize a few things;
1st Wow I am really well loved.
2nd facebook responses are perfect in this scenario.
Why?
Because, right now I am not really in the mood to talk to anyone. Flat out, I just don't want everyone calling me right this minute. I am still kinda raw. However, seeing all these short messages are great because doesn't seem trite to me, it seem like people acknowledging that I have some stuff going on and are giving me some space to work though it. Tomorrow, I am sure some of the same people will come up to me in the hall and give me a hug and a quick encouragement, but right now the short facebook messages are keeping me going.
So consider that when you think about how your church should handle social networking.
Until now I never looked at social media as the "right tool" for any job. I always saw it as a tool, but on the whole not worth the effort. However, right now I do see the value.
I think that might be a bit drastic. I would temper that with: you can't build an "effective" community "only" on-line.
Perfect example, I am not a huge facebook fan. I'm just not. That said I do check it about once a month, I post on it may once every 2 months. So I'm not super active, but I have friend-ed of most of my family coworkers and some random friends from other places. Just your below average connections.
I found out today my grandfather passed away last night. My grandfather was very close to me, and played a very special role in my life. I called my immediate family and then I posted it on facebook, if for no other reason than it seemed a safe way to kinda give my coworkers a "heads up I am going to have some baggage when I come into the office tomorrow, consider yourself warned." I went upstairs and put my kids to bed, when I came down I literally had 30 emails from friends, family, and coworkers, all saying they were sorry for my loss.
It made me realize a few things;
1st Wow I am really well loved.
2nd facebook responses are perfect in this scenario.
Why?
Because, right now I am not really in the mood to talk to anyone. Flat out, I just don't want everyone calling me right this minute. I am still kinda raw. However, seeing all these short messages are great because doesn't seem trite to me, it seem like people acknowledging that I have some stuff going on and are giving me some space to work though it. Tomorrow, I am sure some of the same people will come up to me in the hall and give me a hug and a quick encouragement, but right now the short facebook messages are keeping me going.
So consider that when you think about how your church should handle social networking.
Until now I never looked at social media as the "right tool" for any job. I always saw it as a tool, but on the whole not worth the effort. However, right now I do see the value.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
coworkers
I
have the privilege of working with some of the greatest people. I love my
line of work, but the people I work with really make it WORTH it.
Typically during staff meetings we read "you go cards" if some one is
doing a great job you fill one of these out for them and it gets read to the
staff. I wanted to take an opportunity to really give props to a couple
of my coworkers in a way that would never fit on one these little cards. The names have been left to
protect that innocent.
Our
first Impressions coordinator is one of the most awesome people I know. I
laugh because she is so small but man her presence is the biggest in almost any
room. SHE BRINGS IT!! As a result our first impressions is awesome, and I
mean awesome! It is one of the areas I think we could do a conference on that
people from other churches would get a lot out of. Her team really has almost
no overlap with my team and I whatsoever, but you would never know it
overhearing our conversations before/after service. I have literally joined
some leaders from her team to share cake right off the plastic box because we
ran out of plates, talking about the evening services like war veterans, proud
of a hard days fighting. There is literally nothing that team can't do,
don't believe me, just them. She has brought together a team that is able
to BRING IT as well. It amazes me that her and the few people who work with her
are able to manage so many volunteers. but beyond that they really care about
their people, they are involved in their lives and as a result their people
really care about everyone else.
The
other person is our worship leader. First thing I want you to notice
there is I said worship leader not leader(s). He is by far the most
talented person I have ever met, and if you don't believe me just ask him,
Kidding.
I
am not sure how many other churches our size, have only 1 paid musician on
staff for the weekend services, but if I had to guess it would be none.
Most churches smaller than us pay some of their musicians, or have multiple
bands and/or worship leaders. Our singers/bands are all volunteers, but
you would never know that listening to them. All of this would make it
real easy for him to have a chip on his shoulder, and I would even argue a
justified chip, but he couldn't be further from that. He would give you the shirt
off his back if you asked for it. From the get go I wasn't sure we would ever
get along, but after working together for literally years now ... well it still
amazes me that we get a long. That said he has a passion for excellence that is
undeniable, he gets results that are unarguable, and if I put another u word in
their and this blog becomes indescribable.
Some
of you will get that later.
The
short story is he is and awesome guy and I love working with him.
Ok
back to our regularly scheduled bitterness next time :-)
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Volunteer woes
Volunteers are the life blood of any technical ministry. The staff guys are great but the volunteers really make or break the team. Tech volunteers are a little different then other volunteers, I want to prefeace this with every ministry has it's own unique volunteer challenges and I have no idea what those are. However, I am intimately familiar with tech volunteers, and this is my ego-cast so I get to talk about them.
Tech volunteers have to be scheduled on a fine line between overworked, and out of practice. Take camera ops for example, most of my volunteers have nothing to do with cameras outside of serving on tech. If they take 2 weekends off they will not have touched a camera in 5 weeks. So I keep my team lean to make sure no one is out of practice (yes I understand that sounds like a rationalization, but it also happens to be true). The down side of this is that I don't have a lot of people sitting in the bullpen just waiting for me to go "give me the lefty."
Two years ago we launched our first multi-site, when that happened I lost some critical volunteers. Anyone serving in a volunteer oriented ministry knows what I am talking about. These were some of my go-to guys, the people I relied on most, and they were leave to go to our multi-site. Good news was the multi-site got some people who were trained, and knew exactly what they needed to do. Down side, I did not have people to back fill those positions at the main campus.
Fast forward two years and I have built my team back up to a great number of people, a great rotation, and now we are launching another multi-site. In the last 2 weeks I have been told by between 1/3-1/2 of my volunteers will be leaving. Most to the multi-site but some because families are moving, graduations, general life change.
So here I am faced with the challenge of rebuilding this team for the 3rd time in 4 years, and to be honest I am just not sure I am up to it.
Every tech ministry knows how hard it is to recruit people, but I honestly think it is tougher for us than other ministries. I am biased about that, most likely, but I still believe it. Anyone can park a car, though it take a special person to tolerate getting the finger every weekend and continue to happily serve. Anyone can hold a crying baby, though it takes a special person to really feel like they came out ahead in that deal. I know our first impressions people and our kid city people would rather have the volunteers who love it and are great at it. However, they can make do with those that will just do it.
That is never enough for tech. Techies are, not always, but almost always; geeks, nerds, egg heads people who speak in a language of numbers and alphabet soup. Most have a background in computers or technology, most will be predisposed to enjoy being around the warm ambient glow of TV panels and console controls. Techies are a breed apart, not above, but apart and not just anyone can do it.
However, the most important thing is techies get it done! When the power flaking out, when there gremlins in the machines, when all the tie line and gaff tape in the world just isn't enough they still get it done. They produce the improbable in no time, the miraculous on a moments notice, the impossible served weekly. The best recognition they can ever hope receive is NONE, and now I need to find more of them... awesome!
Tech volunteers have to be scheduled on a fine line between overworked, and out of practice. Take camera ops for example, most of my volunteers have nothing to do with cameras outside of serving on tech. If they take 2 weekends off they will not have touched a camera in 5 weeks. So I keep my team lean to make sure no one is out of practice (yes I understand that sounds like a rationalization, but it also happens to be true). The down side of this is that I don't have a lot of people sitting in the bullpen just waiting for me to go "give me the lefty."
Two years ago we launched our first multi-site, when that happened I lost some critical volunteers. Anyone serving in a volunteer oriented ministry knows what I am talking about. These were some of my go-to guys, the people I relied on most, and they were leave to go to our multi-site. Good news was the multi-site got some people who were trained, and knew exactly what they needed to do. Down side, I did not have people to back fill those positions at the main campus.
Fast forward two years and I have built my team back up to a great number of people, a great rotation, and now we are launching another multi-site. In the last 2 weeks I have been told by between 1/3-1/2 of my volunteers will be leaving. Most to the multi-site but some because families are moving, graduations, general life change.
So here I am faced with the challenge of rebuilding this team for the 3rd time in 4 years, and to be honest I am just not sure I am up to it.
Every tech ministry knows how hard it is to recruit people, but I honestly think it is tougher for us than other ministries. I am biased about that, most likely, but I still believe it. Anyone can park a car, though it take a special person to tolerate getting the finger every weekend and continue to happily serve. Anyone can hold a crying baby, though it takes a special person to really feel like they came out ahead in that deal. I know our first impressions people and our kid city people would rather have the volunteers who love it and are great at it. However, they can make do with those that will just do it.
That is never enough for tech. Techies are, not always, but almost always; geeks, nerds, egg heads people who speak in a language of numbers and alphabet soup. Most have a background in computers or technology, most will be predisposed to enjoy being around the warm ambient glow of TV panels and console controls. Techies are a breed apart, not above, but apart and not just anyone can do it.
However, the most important thing is techies get it done! When the power flaking out, when there gremlins in the machines, when all the tie line and gaff tape in the world just isn't enough they still get it done. They produce the improbable in no time, the miraculous on a moments notice, the impossible served weekly. The best recognition they can ever hope receive is NONE, and now I need to find more of them... awesome!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
IMAG Style Part 3
Once we got our shot count up I wanted to focus on
transitions. We have always used dissolves, mainly because I believe
cuts are jarring, I still believe this.
Please note that is my opinion not a rule, lots of churches use cuts all the time and it works for them and that is great, for us it's not what I wanted. Also on our switcher cuts are actually harder to do then dissolves, more on that in gear.
We use almost exclusively dissolves,with the dissolve time varying based on the speed of the song. This is, I think, a little dangerous because you can't just dissolve between any 2 subjects. (also an opinion not a rule) Making good cross dissolves requires intentionality to look good, if not the resulting transition is VERY distracting. To combat this we embraced push-through or push-past transitions. I strive to keep our cameras always in motion, and when we get it right the transitions are almost not really there because as one shot ends another is coming on.
Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up (I get points somewhere for that right?)
The first shot ends when the camera op has zoomed or moved past the subject. For example, if a camera op has a close up of a guitar he may move the camera up the neck of the guitar, once he reaches the end he will continue the move opening up a large negative space. If we are doing things right, that space will be occupied by the subject of the following shot. This gives our IMAG a very fluid and more artistic feel, making it overall less jarring and as a result less distracting (which should be the entire motivation for any tech guy) It's also a little dangerous because it is really easy to mess up the timing. However, I was of the opinion that if our camera ops were not going to take safe shots the least I could do is not make safe transitions.
One the functional side I strove to keep the shots bigger on screen than they are on stage. Compromises had to be made because of the last influence, gear.
Our gear had more influence on our style then I would have liked, that said I think many churches have made a point of making sacrifices in gear, due to budget, that have dictated lots of their decisions. We are no different, and the more TD's I meet the more I discover it's really status quo. It probably should be, tech isn't cheep and at 30,000 ft it's an easy thing to make a big cut in favor of LOTS of other things in the budget.
I digress
Our switcher also makes dissolves vs. cuts a little problematic. It's actually tougher to make a cut on our switcher, so it influenced our use of dissolves. Also we take wide shots, not because I want to, but because to keep the fluid continuing movement, it works in my favor if the camera is zooming from tight to wide, thus continuing the movement, over holding a static shot. We only currently have 5 cameras (yes I am aware I said ONLY 5 when most churches have NONE) Of those 3 are manned 1 is static of the worship leader, and one is strictly for multi-site/overflow unmanned and locked down, not used for IMAG at all. With this style everyone moving and only 3 manned cameras, needing shots every 3-5 seconds, leaves me as the director waiting often times. We do have a static bail, it kinda breaks the flow but if the transitions continue on the right pace it's not terrible. Our on stage cameras are prosumer and don't have CCU, so we have color and iris issues most of the time, I am hoping to correct that in the next budget year or 2
Please note that is my opinion not a rule, lots of churches use cuts all the time and it works for them and that is great, for us it's not what I wanted. Also on our switcher cuts are actually harder to do then dissolves, more on that in gear.
We use almost exclusively dissolves,with the dissolve time varying based on the speed of the song. This is, I think, a little dangerous because you can't just dissolve between any 2 subjects. (also an opinion not a rule) Making good cross dissolves requires intentionality to look good, if not the resulting transition is VERY distracting. To combat this we embraced push-through or push-past transitions. I strive to keep our cameras always in motion, and when we get it right the transitions are almost not really there because as one shot ends another is coming on.
Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up (I get points somewhere for that right?)
The first shot ends when the camera op has zoomed or moved past the subject. For example, if a camera op has a close up of a guitar he may move the camera up the neck of the guitar, once he reaches the end he will continue the move opening up a large negative space. If we are doing things right, that space will be occupied by the subject of the following shot. This gives our IMAG a very fluid and more artistic feel, making it overall less jarring and as a result less distracting (which should be the entire motivation for any tech guy) It's also a little dangerous because it is really easy to mess up the timing. However, I was of the opinion that if our camera ops were not going to take safe shots the least I could do is not make safe transitions.
One the functional side I strove to keep the shots bigger on screen than they are on stage. Compromises had to be made because of the last influence, gear.
Our gear had more influence on our style then I would have liked, that said I think many churches have made a point of making sacrifices in gear, due to budget, that have dictated lots of their decisions. We are no different, and the more TD's I meet the more I discover it's really status quo. It probably should be, tech isn't cheep and at 30,000 ft it's an easy thing to make a big cut in favor of LOTS of other things in the budget.
I digress
Our switcher also makes dissolves vs. cuts a little problematic. It's actually tougher to make a cut on our switcher, so it influenced our use of dissolves. Also we take wide shots, not because I want to, but because to keep the fluid continuing movement, it works in my favor if the camera is zooming from tight to wide, thus continuing the movement, over holding a static shot. We only currently have 5 cameras (yes I am aware I said ONLY 5 when most churches have NONE) Of those 3 are manned 1 is static of the worship leader, and one is strictly for multi-site/overflow unmanned and locked down, not used for IMAG at all. With this style everyone moving and only 3 manned cameras, needing shots every 3-5 seconds, leaves me as the director waiting often times. We do have a static bail, it kinda breaks the flow but if the transitions continue on the right pace it's not terrible. Our on stage cameras are prosumer and don't have CCU, so we have color and iris issues most of the time, I am hoping to correct that in the next budget year or 2
Monday, July 11, 2011
IMAG Style Part 2
Our style, well it's different. I would like to say we developed it in an prefect environment and that we thought long and hard and made many difficult choices. In reality that was about as far from the truth as it could be. There are 3 things that have really influenced or dictated how our style works: Feel, Function, (looking for a another F) and Gear (heavy sigh: alteration fail)
We currently do more then just functional IMAG, the feel and pace of the worship really dictate how the IMAG will feel and look. I strive to push my camera ops to look for the "not safe shots" and they produce things are truly sometimes nothing short of magic.
I would like to note here none of the current camera ops at my church have any previous experience whatsoever. One of our guys is a professional photographer by trade, but is a close as it gets. All of them have been trained in house, and as a result our style is what they know.
When I started we used functional IMAG, and it was good, but in my opinion it didn't really fit. To me it just felt wrong. When I was hired one of the first things I did is I strove to get out SPS (shots-per-song) up. At the time we were averaging maybe 15-20 shots over a 3 minute song. That works out to about 1 shot every 15 seconds or so. Which is great for a hymn, ballad or very introspective song. Unfortunately no one remembers the last time we did a hymn. I thought it was too slow for our fast style of worship. So my first week I threw safe and slow out the window and I said we are shooting for 40 shots a song, easily doubling our speed. Shot composition went from safe to desperate. I was calling for cameras that were still looking for a subject, so the guys were making stuff up just to get me to the next shot. It didn't happen week one, or even month one, but after 6-8 weeks we finally got up to 40. In the mean time my camera ops were having ALOT of fun. (which is also important to me, I love my job, I want them to enjoy what they do)
Wow still more to go, gunna have to be a 3 parter
We currently do more then just functional IMAG, the feel and pace of the worship really dictate how the IMAG will feel and look. I strive to push my camera ops to look for the "not safe shots" and they produce things are truly sometimes nothing short of magic.
I would like to note here none of the current camera ops at my church have any previous experience whatsoever. One of our guys is a professional photographer by trade, but is a close as it gets. All of them have been trained in house, and as a result our style is what they know.
When I started we used functional IMAG, and it was good, but in my opinion it didn't really fit. To me it just felt wrong. When I was hired one of the first things I did is I strove to get out SPS (shots-per-song) up. At the time we were averaging maybe 15-20 shots over a 3 minute song. That works out to about 1 shot every 15 seconds or so. Which is great for a hymn, ballad or very introspective song. Unfortunately no one remembers the last time we did a hymn. I thought it was too slow for our fast style of worship. So my first week I threw safe and slow out the window and I said we are shooting for 40 shots a song, easily doubling our speed. Shot composition went from safe to desperate. I was calling for cameras that were still looking for a subject, so the guys were making stuff up just to get me to the next shot. It didn't happen week one, or even month one, but after 6-8 weeks we finally got up to 40. In the mean time my camera ops were having ALOT of fun. (which is also important to me, I love my job, I want them to enjoy what they do)
Wow still more to go, gunna have to be a 3 parter
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