Excellence in the Arts, Media - by Jeff - April 7, 2008 - 17:27 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
Media Ministry Participation in Baptisms
The last baptism we did caught us a little off guard and a little rusty remembering all that we were suppose to do. As we see Christ working and changing lives here at High Pointe, we need to prepare to do our part and even look for ways to improve how we support more baptisms as a media ministry.
The Testimony. We have found that video-taping the testimony of those who are to be baptized, editing it and showing right before the baptism is a great way to share what the Lord is doing, encourage the congregation with the testimony of changed lives and witness to the unsaved, all within an individual’s public profession thru baptism. The time spent taping these interviews is a sweet time of fellowship, and a huge encouragement, and I would encourage you to try and help whenever possible. We need to work on efficiency in editing these videos, and our setup to clean up the green-screen artifacts.
The Baptism. For the baptism service the media team plays a couple key roles – playback on the testimony video, turning on the lights so people can see the baptism, magnifying the image of the baptism thru IMAG and turning up the sound so the congregation can hear the testimony and baptism. We also provide the live web-stream of the service, which allows the baptism candidates to invite their family and friends who can’t make it to the service to attend remotely via the web. The smoother we can provide these services, the more attention is focused on the testimony and baptism, less on the technology. Cue to Cue timing and synchronization of lights, video and sound all need to be planned and rehearsed to provide the best support possible. One area we have had problems with, especially the last baptism, was getting good camera angles for IMAG and webcast / recording of the baptism. We need to look at what POV shots or alternate camera positions are available to use, and work on the timing of the IMAG transitions.
The Support. The third area of participation is in the post-baptism support the media team can provide. We provide a DVD of the service to those who were baptized and we provide the video of the baptism and testimony on the website so that those who were baptized can share that proclamation of faith with their friends and loved ones. One area of improvement here might be to make a separate index and media links to the baptism videos available on our website.
This video from Mars Hill Church of their Easter Sunday baptism service is an example of some different shots / transitions that could be used for baptism.
http://tinyurl.com/6kmat9 (mp4 download, 6 min long)
Or the full versions of all their baptism services here:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/special/easter_baptisms/
Media, missional lifestyle - by Jeff - March 31, 2008 - 19:37 Etc/GMT+5 - 2 Comments
Effectively sharing the Gospel
I was listening to some teachings recently about being effective in evangelism and the need for todays church to renew their vision for evangelism when I started to think about the connection between evangelism and the media ministry.
One of the primary reasons we have a ministry based on using media is simple to be more effective in how we share the gospel. That can be as simple as sound reinforcement so that the masses can hear the word of God preached on Sunday morning, projecting sermon notes on the screen so that those who are more visual learners register the main points of the sermon clearer or even as simplistic as with out light it is extremely hard to read the scriptures. On the other hand, the desire to share the Gospel and spread the word of God runs hand in hand with our push for new technology implementation, more types of media, in the reach of more people. This includes webcasting in multiple formats, both on demand and live streams, print media, CDs, DVDs, radio broadcast and any other media we can find a way to use to spread the Word. This reaching out to people using their preferred form of media is one type of contextualizing the gospel (a physical contextualization) – that is putting the gospel message into a physical format (context) that works better for today’s culture.
Contextualization is often seen as a bad thing, especially as some people feel it waters down the gospel (more speaking of cultural context of scripture than the physical medium). I heard Mark Dever (Capital Hill Baptist Church) make a statement recently on contextualization of scripture that should apply to our media ministry as to any other ministry. Paraphrased here, he states any contextualization of the gospel must make the offense of the gospel clearer, not obscure the offensiveness of the gospel. The gospel needs to be provocative.
I am still chewing on this and what it all means to our ministry, so expect more thoughts on this in upcoming weeks.
Media - by Jeff - March 17, 2008 - 21:10 Etc/GMT+5 - 1 Comment
Making the Most of Change
When designing or laying out a project it is often necessary to incorporate elements to meet a wide variety of requirements – from ergonomic, functionality, aesthetic concerns to cost, longevity and environmental concerns. In fact, a good design is often the one that does the best job of incorporating and balancing all the different requirements and yet still remain practical. These principles apply to all areas of design and should be thought through in our creative process and other design type work.
Example 1: Media Room layout.
Design criteria might include: Work areas – balance between maximum and minimum number of people who can operate the system. Paint Color – Creativity and matching the rest of the building verses technical requirements (neutral) and brightness of room. Furnishings: Comfort, style, atmosphere balanced with job functions, financial concerns and space available.
Example 2: Video Editing
Some of the design criteria: Length – a balance between content and story with attention span, service planning and financial considerations. Style – a balance between audience, attention span and other service elements. Details – balance of time available to edit and what can be seen on on the screen.
Often when working on a project it is helpful to note what needs balancing – even as part of the brainstorming process for the project. These can be listed in two columns, or along a continuum or if 3 or more items work together, maybe a triangle or other method of graphically representing these elements. Keeping the balance of the elements in the forefront of our designs will help guide and direct us, keep us on track and ensure the final product will work for that given situation.
missional lifestyle, the City, thinking green - by Jeff - March 8, 2008 - 03:30 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
This is an extension of the “Going Green with your green” post
The federal government is getting ready to dump billions of dollars into the economy to help stimulate the economy and help American families. The idea is that each of us tax payers, and those working families who don’t make enough to pay taxes, each will get a tax rebate (not sure how you can call it a rebate if you don’t pay anything in, but that argument is for another time), the amount based upon the number of people in the household. The checks are suppose to start mailing in May, then we will each turn around, spend that money on things we need and get some cash flowing in the economy.
A lot of folks will spend as if it were lottery winnings or an inheritance from a long lost uncle, purchasing things one would not otherwise buy for oneself when inflation is as high as 18% (look at your receipts… groceries alone have gone up 18-22% in the last 18 months). Some have already spent the money buying things they want and will use the check to pay off (or down) credit card debt. While this is spending the money and getting it into the economy, it is very short-sighted.
First, we are turning around and giving our cash into the big corporations that are already reporting record profits and don’t need help with an economic stimulus. Exxon Mobil (see here (and here)), Walmart (see here), etc (here, here, here). The impact on the economy will be short-lived if the rebates are poured right into the overflowing hands of Big Oil and Big Box Retailers. They are not hurting, despite the increases in prices (inflation) and the freeze on hiring and pay raises, and in some cases lay-offs (automaker with profit let go 8100 people), they do have profits, and even record profits.
Second- environmental impact. The environmental impact of the consumerist, materialistic lifestyle will cost even more down the road. Any economic upturn will be followed by an equal or deeper downturn. Dependence on oil is rooted in the dependence on modern luxury goods such as tv, radio, prepackaged food, eating out. Look at the “carbon footprint” left behind — miles goods travel, the amount of packaging required, and the landfill holding all the trashed stuff. [carbon footprint calculator]
Third – social impact. World magazine [Vol. 23, No.4, p 10] puts it this way:
“Not all taxpayers are created equal in the eyes of Congress. The economic stimulus effort signed into law Feb. 13 will mean different things to different Americans… but [the money] is only for taxpayers who made up to $75,000 last year and married taxpaying couples who made up to $150,000. Individuals who made between $75,000 and $87,000, and married couples who made between $150,000 and $174,000, will receive only partial rebates.” The implication is that the very hardworking middle class is being, once again, left out. When exactly did that income level become middle class? I’ve always thought I was middle class, and once again (the Federal School Lunch program gave me my first blow) I’m knocked over with a fiscal feather. I thought people who made that much money were well off and already spending a fair amount of disposable income. The average income of a single person in Austin is $42,689. The per capita income in Austin is about $24,000. Then I found this graph.
The number of Austin families making less than $50,000 a year decreased, and the numbers making over $50,000 increased in the last decade of the 20th century. And the percentage of single taxpayers or families earning between $75,000 and $100,000 was about 12.5%. The number of families earning between $150,000 and $200,000 is less than 4%. Now it’s been a long time since I sat in an economics class, but including the families making $200,000+, that is fewer than 9% of Austin families. That’s not middle class. That’s the wealthiest 10% of our society. The folks that may worry me are those who make so little money that they don’t always file taxes at all. We need to make sure folks know to file their taxes– and low income folks can file for free with Turbo Tax online. It’s accessible from any public library for free.
So what are we to do?
1. See Amy’s post on Going green with your green – we could make a huge difference if we all used our economic and tax rebates in a social and ecologically sound way, such as green initiatives. Use your rebate to purchase a Hybrid vehicle, solar panels, or a more efficient furnace, water heater or other appliance that you depend on daily. Make your money an investment that will give you a return. Double the money with the government’s incentives and rebates for “going green.” There’s a place to check off on your tax forms next year that could give you $3000 back on the purchase of a Hybrid. Your city utility may give rebates on the purchase of front loading washers, solar panels, or new toilets. Check it out.
2. Spend your check locally. Think Globally, Act Locally. Keep that money in your own community. Spend your check directly with small businesses or individuals. This will in-turn allow them to spend the money again, truly getting the cash flowing and stimulating the economy instead of increasing the coffers and profits of the big business while they lay off more workers to keep their profits growing by the right percentage year after year. Go by the Whip-In, Austin Baby and share this green love around. Let’s don’t give the money straight to Walmart. Make them work for it.
jeff & amy jones
Media - by Jeff - March 5, 2008 - 23:23 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
A few updates for our media team –
This week our main focus is moving “stuff”, especially the servers and related equipment from the file room upstairs to the new server room downstairs. We also will focus on preparations to move around some audio equipment as we upgrade the youth system and put together a system for the JC building. This shuffle needs to start this week and finish next week, so if you are available, please come help out.
There is an all church workday this Saturday, and besides all the building upkeep and maintenance that will be happening, we have a few media projects to wrap up also.
Don’t forget to set your clocks forward Saturday night when you head to bed, otherwise you will be late for church Sunday.
Easter is just around the corner – and while our major “musical” is going to be a little later this year, we still have plenty to do to get ready for Easter. We will have some special music and other program items that will require extra media participation and attention, so make some time to help us prepare and plan on being scheduled the weekend of Easter. Don’t forget our Good Friday evening service too. If you are going to be unavailable, please let Jeff or Melissa know ASAP so we can help work out the schedule.
Don’t forget about our Sunday Evening Media Workshops. We have been very informally meeting to discuss media related topics and even accomplishing some of the to-do list lately, but we will be moving back into more of a training, learning and discovering mode here over the next few weeks. We have some cool videos to watch and discuss and some opportunities for new training. This is also the time to let others hear your thoughts and ideas on ministering thru media.
And a final reminder – after services each week, don’t forget to take a moment and clean up around yourself, shut down equipment as appropriate, lock down your camera and make sure you leave your position ready for the next person. We have recycle bins and trash cans, let’s use them.
Media, missional lifestyle, thinking green - by Jeff - February 25, 2008 - 21:28 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
Media Ministry and the Environment
I have been thinking a lot lately about “Going Green” and what I, my family and even our team can do to reduce our negative impact on the 
environment. I believe that we are to take care of what our God gives us, using it wisely, managing and maintaining it for His glory, and that includes this planet we are living on. While higher gas and electricity prices make it easier and practical to think green, I have been more and more convicted to personally be more responsible.
On the home front we are making strides in a variety of ways (you can read more about them on my blog and my wife’s blog) but now I turn towards the church building, and especially the realm the media team can impact. We have already made some good improvements such as the paper recycling, switching to LCD and other lower power devices and turning off the lights during the service (see, there is a good reason!), but how could we easily do more?
Recycling. Always and easy and good way to start. We already make sure all of our paper “trash” goes in the recycle bin, but there is still a lot that gets thrown away that can be easily recycled. Cardboard: if we start breaking down the cardboard boxes, Amy will help us get them to the recycler. Plastic: we have started collecting plastic water bottles and other recyclable plastic, we just need to start a box in the media room for easy collection. Batteries: There is a box behind the monitor console to collect used batteries in.
Reduce. Reducing the amount of materials we use saves energy and raw resources and is a good next step. In the media ministry, this might include being careful not to print “extra” copies of notes / websites / etc or even consider if you need to print that page at all?
Energy Efficiency. In the media ministry we use a lot of electricity, no question about it. We can watch our energy usage, being careful to turn off equipment that is not being used or when we leave, turning up the thermostat when we lock up and being careful about leaving doors open unnecessarily (especially since our area is air-conditioned heavily because of the equipment). Obviously we can’t turn on and off the servers all the time, but we can think thru what equipment will be needed and what will just be sitting there till next week. The A4V audio mixer comes to mind – we have left this turned on 24/7 in the past for several reasons, but we need to evaluate if it would be better to go ahead and turn it off during the week.
Just a few thoughts to ponder, I am sure there is so much more we could do if we put our minds to the task. I would love to hear your thoughts, so comment away.
Media - by Jeff - February 18, 2008 - 21:54 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
Old and New Ideas
The media ministry has plenty of short term and on-going projects already, but I think it is time to resurrect a couple of good projects that have fallen thru the cracks of busyness. A few new ideas have also been brought up that are working their way into our schedule.
Production Chat. At one time we were set up to use an in-house IM / Chat setup to communicate between different areas during the service, but our license for the software expired and we never replaced it. Now there are several options for free chat, including some that we could still host from in-house servers. This is useful to communicate cue changes and other information during the service without talking on an intercom, especially when in the sanctuary. We may even be able to use this for the “electronic tech-sheets” project also to easily communicate the order of service live.
Computer Audio Playback. We were set up to playback tracks and pre-service music from the computer once-upon a time, and we need to get back to that point. This will allow us to edit / trim / conform audio tracks before playing them in the service and set up playlist of pre-service music. This would allow us to eliminate the “split-trac” problems and help us rehearse with the same track we use for the performance.
Media Systems in the Training Rooms. This is a project we have been talking about for a while, but the time is here to start doing something about it. The goal is to have each classroom or training room setup with a small, easy to operate system, including a couple wireless microphones (handheld and lapel / headset), CD/DVD player, VHS (also used to tune in the service for overflow), laptop / computer input (Audio and Video), a simple switcher / scalar, a small mixer / amplifier, speakers and a projector / screen or other display. The Choir room is already setup this way, we are ready to get the Livingston room set up next, then the CC room and the East training rooms. Later in the year we will get the JC building and the prayer room set up also.
Voiceover Booth Improvements. The VO booth (okay, hallway) has been very useful for several projects lately, but we are finding a few shortcomings that need to be fixed. The VO booth needs better acoustical treatment to make the recordings more consistent, less dependent on setup. The booth also needs better isolation from the outside world, including sweeps and weatherstrips and possible a door modification.
Cool Products - by Jeff - February 12, 2008 - 22:01 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
First Days with Apple TV
Okay, I got a new toy. An Apple TV (www.apple.com/appletv). This little device connects to your HDTV (or any widescreen tv) and your home wireless network. After a few very simple setup steps you can start watch. Now here is where it gets cool – I can access anything on my iTunes on any of the computers in the house. What’s more, the AppleTV has a built in hard-drive, so you can sync media to it from you computer and watch it later, even when you computer is not turned on. You can also watch stuff online, from YouTube or iTunes movie rentals. So why is this so cool you might ask? Let’s look at a couple examples.
Video Podcast (VodCast) – I subscribe to several vodcast, including the sermon feed from High Pointe (www.hpbcglobal.org) and from Mars Hill (www.marshillchurch.org). iTunes downloads these sermon videos when they are published each week automatically in the background. Then they are automatically sync’ed with my AppleTV and available to sit down and watch anytime. I use to sync them to my iPod, then plug my iPod into the TV to watch, now it is ready at the touch of a button.
Movies – No more letting the children touch the dvds! I am working to convert my dvds into mp4 video files, which will reside on the harddisk in the AppleTV. Now when the little children want to watch a movie it is a simple matter of browsing to the right movie from the menu and clicking play. And speaking of movies, I can keep my movies on my computer, yet easily watch them in the living-room without hooking up the TV and computer or using some other intermediary device.
Music – yes, you can play your iTunes music library also, so if your TV (or AppleTV) is hooked up to your home stereo system, you can easily listen to your tunes in the living-room, on you iPod and with your computer, keeping them all sync’ed and up to date!
So am I recommending everyone go buy one of these? Not really, but if you are looking for a way to integrate your computer based and living-room digital entertainment, these boxes are a cool solution. And what about the ministry opportunities?
Media - by Jeff - February 4, 2008 - 20:16 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
Why would we want that? Why do we do it this way? Questions others ask me, and honestly, questions I ask myself when we look at how media is made and our motivation behind what we are doing. It is good to step back on a regular basis and question the motivations and methods of what we are doing and look at the possibilities of what we could or should be doing.
Being a media ministry, we need to check our motivation against God’s word. In general, our motivation is to get the Word out to the whole world. Check, I think that passes the test. But more specifically, our motivation is to support other ministries in their outreach, to support the preaching of the Word and to work as a body to carry the Word to the ends of the earth. So how does that trickle down to each thing we do? That is something for each of us to sit back and think about for a few minutes.
We also need to be on guard – we can easily talk ourselves into believing that what ever we are doing fits into this motivation. But when we start looking at each and every little project, we might find that some are just pet projects, not true ministry.
Now for the fun part – the methods. Are our processes and the daily and weekly task of our ministry the most effective and efficient means to meet our goals? What changes would help us be more effective? What processes are good and should not change. Are we too conditioned to think of efficiency in terms of money and budgets and not what time and other resources we have available? For example, is it better to save a couple thousand dollars and build our own server, or purchase a ready made, proven and warranty supported server? If you have plenty of computer technicians with time on their hands, maybe building your own server is the way to go. But if building and supporting a server is going to take resources away from distributing media and improving communication to the body, is it worth saving that $2000?
In our ministry I think we have become very efficient in the basic service support and distributing those services. However, I see a need for improvement in our production and post production processes for service media (video testimonies, bumpers, announcements). There is also a need to establish and better support media usage outside of the services.
What are your thoughts?
Excellence in the Arts, Media - by Jeff - January 28, 2008 - 21:18 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!
Learning from others
As I have been reading this book all about Walter Murch’s experiences doing the editing and audio mixing on the movie “Cold Mountain”, I have tried to pick up some hints and ideas that would help us improve our quality and craft on our media projects. There is not room here, nor can I verbalize all that I have picked up, but here are a few lessons I would like to share.
Take time planning and getting familiar with the project. Instead of just jumping in and shooting or editing, take time to study each element, listen to the audio, watch all the clips, re-read the script, make check list or drawings and lay out exactly what you want to accomplish.
Even when you think you have it together, spend a little time exploring other angles. What happens if you lengthen or shorten a shot? What difference does changing the music make? What about changing the order of the elements? What does it look like if we set the camera over there? It is fairly easy to “UNDO” changes with all the digital audio and video methods we use, so take a minute to explore, you might find something that works better.
You will never have enough time. I don’t care if you have a year to edit that video, there will still be work to be done to it when the deadline rolls around. So make the best use of the time you have and don’t assume you can get it done in the last hour. Also, you will never have enough channels / tracks!
