Hi, I'm Jeff. This is my personal blog – random thoughts on Media, the church, the arts, popular culture, being a husband and father and about any other thought that comes to mind.
This is a slick video using motion graphics to tell a “story”.
How well does it hold your attention?
How long before you start getting the feel / mood of the “story”
How far into the video before you start to “understand”?
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.
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!
Every opportunity to edit a video presents choices. The outcome of those choices makes the art. Like other art forms, every work is different and requires different treatment. As I have become more aware of these different treatments, I have begun to watch movies paying close attention to the editing, trying to understand how the edit effects the movie’s story, feel, emotional impact and even how involved the audience becomes. I then take these lessons into the edit on my projects, applying them carefully to each project.
Sometimes I have taken criticism on some of these works specifically due to the editing style, so I was pleased to read this article about cutting the Bourne Ultimatum. Christopher Rouse has been praised by many for his editing, especially previous to this latest Bourne film, but there are many who are criticizing his editing on this film. Most of the complaints are about it being too fast or too jumpy or even too edgy. As I read this interview, I felt refreshed by Rouse’s attitude towards the criticism and his desire to edit each project in a way that fits the directors style and what the director is trying to accomplish.
I realize there is more to the overall style than just the editing – the directing, camera work, lighting, sets – they all play an important role in developing the story. And each of these (including the editing) is as much art as it is science or technical ability. Every piece of art has its critics and its admirers. If we try to understand the artist and what the artist is trying to accomplish, often we move from being a critic to appreciating the art if not admiring the work.
Shaping your audience’s experience
POV or Point of View – the way or direction that something is seen. We often refer to POV as a camera shot or the way something is written, but have you ever considered the way you present our services effect the way people see our church, our media, and even the way people see God?
So how do we shape our audience’s experience?
Video (web/dvd): What do we show? What don’t we show? If all we show is a closeup picture of our pastor, what does the viewer know about the atmosphere or setting? How many people are there – is the room empty? Is it all fake and green screen on a soundstage?
Sunday Services: What areas of the room should have light? What areas should be dark? What should be show on the screen so you can see better? When should the media be a distraction? When should there be no media?
Website: How many times have you visited a businesses website and found out their website is nothing like their business? Maybe they look like a huge company on the web, but then when you call to talk to them you find out it is really some 18yo kid in his bedroom running this thing?
As the media team, it is our goal to accurately portray our church, our services and our God as we help distribute His Word to as many people as possible.
In pursuit of home network bliss, I have moved on to step 2.
Step 1: Managed network switch – Netgear GS108Tv2 switch will allow setup of multiple VLANs for managing network traffic.
Step 2: Small PC to setup as a firewall / router – Jetway Quad Lan / Fanless Case (don’t forget to add a small SSD harddrive)
Step 3: Install and Setup PFSense as the firewall software / OS
Now here is where the trouble begins: the Google Fiber Network box can’t be put into bridge mode… so it looked like the only answer was to double NAT, not a good solution…. until this came along:
Spent a good part of my weekend improving our online security. One big part of this improvement was to tighten up some of my online accounts. We have all seen the new stories of the massive data breeches, the stolen credit card data, the big hacks & wide scale identity theft. And while we need to be careful, there is not a lot we can do with our data that other people have. But what we can improve is the security of the small things.
So Google fiber is here, you would think that would be enough. But consider our crowdedhouse. Our network not only serves our family (which admittedly is larger than average, ranging between 9 and 11 people depending on the day, your definition of family and my general attitude), but the network also serves our carriage house apartment, 3 guest rooms being used by long and short term guest and whoever is couch-surfing in the basement at the time. Add up all these users and all their devices plus the odd server or six we tend to run, and we have 25-35 devices on the network at any one time. Supporting this network has become quite the job.
Trash everywhere. That is one thing I am noticing about this urban living. Sure, Main street is nice and clean, but that is because people are paid to keep the trash cleaned up. What about the rest of the streets we live on? Who is responsible to cleaning them up?
In general, we have found that the median life cycle of audio equipment is around 10 years. Some pieces will last longer, others will require maintenance or refreshing to continue to perform to specs and some things will need replaced much sooner. Environment, handling and maintenance, and materials and workmanship directly affect longevity of components. Indirectly, the experiences and expectations of people effectively shorten product efficacy.You could call this the “inside, outside, upside down” theory of life cycle of audio systems.A worship facility is not just another performing arts space. As the spoken Word- the sermon- is at once equal to and yet higher than the “singing of hymns, psalms and spiritual songs” it is therefore neither lecture hall nor concert space, but Worship Facility. Designing the Worship Facility means to design a space that supports speech as well as music.
During our last move we left behind a spotlight that had been used for a college touring choir since 1976. It was a used donation when they got it, and it was still being used for special productions in a technologically geriatric setting [stored under risers and used once a year] at a large Baptist church. In finance circles, there has long been a mantra that leasing is not good stewardship. People want to own homes, not lease, to build equity. Buying a car, not leasing, is said to be less expensive in the long run. So why would I promote leasing equipment? You do want to purchase the durable workhorse whose technology remains steady- predictable and reliable. Things susceptible to needing upgrades and becoming outdated should be leased. Here are four points to consider when deciding to buy or lease equipment.
If technology used in the church is of poor quality (in the eyes of those attending), it will tend to reflect poorly on the message, evening cheapening the message. If the technology is too glitzy and fancy (again, in the eyes of those attending), it will make the message feel more like a story, entertainment, even fantasy. We want to get the right system into the right church to give the right message while recognizing that the real question being asked is, “But, how can we make the most of available resources?”
How can I mic our choir so we can hear them? We are hearing the orchastra / band through the choir mics and if we turn up the choir any more we get feedback. We currently have six AKG CK47 mics suspended above the choirloft. Do we need new mics?
… I wanted to talk through a couple of the issues and my thoughts on the solution of your choir mic problem. Your setup and arrangement is very similar to what we had at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin where I was on staff and we battled with some of the same issues.
