What I Do

One of the creative jobs I have is designing the slides for supporting our senior pastor during his message. Lately, I've felt like I'm in a bit of a rut. My graphics have been nice, but not as creative and eye catching as I might want. The first thing I do is look what the message series is going to be about. I then work with Julie Fike, Pastor Tim's administrative assistant. She helps design the look of the program and the CD covers so we work together on the look of his slides to be sure we are consistent.

Today we finished up a series called ReKindle. This is the original design I came up with and we used for the Saturday service...


After the first Saturday service, our Magnification Team met with Tim to discuss the service and one of the things we decided to do was to tweak the look of the slide. The message series is called ReKindle so the look we were going for was the embers of a fire that had burned down. This first slide, while it had the general look, just was not quite what I wanted. So I stayed late on Saturday and came up with this...

This was much better so I changed all the slides for Sunday and felt it was much more creative.

But, the following week, we still weren't happy with the creativity of the message, so I spent a few hours working on some other ideas. We wanted to have the slides animate on and off instead of just being static. Here an example of what I came up with...


As you can see, it animates on but still keeps the general look of the previous week. I added an extra layer of coals as well as a layer of glow. Look carefully and you can see that it looks like the coals are just slightly glowing. I used several different animations depending on whether I was bringing in a fill in answer, quote/definition or scriputure.
I use Photoshop CS2 on my mac and Photoshop 7 on my PC. It will vary as to which one I use depending on what all I'm working on. For the final version of ReKindle, I created the background layer using Photoshop CS2. I used LiveType to create the graphics with the animations. I dragged these files onto a timeline in Final Cut Pro and exported them out as avi files to use on the INCA machine.

All in all, a nice creative look, but a lot more work than plain graphics.

What I Do

Last night was the 2nd of several classes I have begun teaching. Last week I taught "Introduction to the Technical Arts." This class is open to anyone attending Crossroads. I talk about why we do tech in church and how we help to lead worship without becoming a distraction to it. Last night I taught "Exposure and Composure" which is an introduction to camera training. This is also open to anyone who attends Crossroads. I had several new people attend this class as well as several current members of the tech team who wanted a refresher course. One of the cool elements in the class was when the veterans began talking to the new people, explaining some of the things that might occur while running a camera during a service. It seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves and some community building started to happen.

I find myself teaching every time I'm with a volunteer. Every weekend, I find someone who learns just a little bit more. And when I can help build fellowship within the church community, I think I begin to realize that what I do really can matter.

What I Do

What equipment do I use on a regular basis? I have 3 computers...a PC, a PC laptop and a Mac. The Mac is my computer of choice, but I have several programs that are only available to me on PC so...

I do about 70 percent of my work on one of these 3 computers. I also use a PC and a character generator in our video control room. All of our graphics, lyrics, and videos come from one of these machines. Our video switcher is a Sony DVS-7000. I also have a Mac in the control room that is used to capture our services live, then used to edit and upload to our website. In addition, we record our entire service on DVD and the message only on CD (which is then available for purchase immediately after the service is over.)

Our sound board is a Yamaha M7CL. Our lighting board is a Leprecon LPX48.

Next up...applications and programs...

What I Do

I've had so many people ask me, "exactly what is it you do at Crossroads?" Or when I tell them I work at a church and I'm the "tech guy" they give me a strange look as though they can't believe a church would need a full time technical person. So, I'm going to begin putting down in writing what I do.

This will be a work in progress as I begin to really think through how to explain what I do without boring the average person. A tech guy who works in TV, video production, or another church will be able to relate, but the average person will probably still give me that strange look. If you want more information about anything I discuss here, please comment and I'll get back to you.

I will start with a general description of what I do...Everything.

Well, not everything...I don't do children's ministry, but I do oversee the projectors, audio systems, DVD players and any other tech stuff in these areas. I don't teach Crossroads University classes on our theology, but I do make sure the people that teach these classes have a projector, or PowerPoint, or any other tech stuff they might need.

But the basic job description for what I do is that I get lights, video, sound, graphics and stage set up done for all services and events at Crossroads. I don't have to actually do all the work, but I have to make sure it happens. I have over 50 volunteers who help out in one way or another. I'll get into this a little more later on also.

As I continue to write over the coming weeks, I'll explain things like what applications I use, what equipment I use, what kinds of training I make available and anything else that comes to mind. Have a question about something technical at Crossroads? Let me know and I'll do my best to answer it.

Precious and Few

A few weeks ago, my wife, daughter and I took a weekend and went to Mt. Vernon, Ohio for the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival. Dan Emmett is from Mt. Vernon and is best known as the author of Dixie. My wife and I love Mt. Vernon. It has a small town feel with beautiful homes and is only 40 minutes from our home in Mansfield. If you just want to enjoy a beautiful walk I suggest you park downtown and walk around for about an hour.

My wife has been involved with the local community theater crowd In Mt. Vernon for years and I've been doing some free-lance work with a local video production company. This is the second year we have been at the festival. It is just a fun time to hang out and walk around downtown. The square is closed off for the weekend. Friday night there is an American Idol type of competition and on Saturday night a concert. Last year, Mickey Dolenz, the former Monkee, was here. This year the entertainment was Sonny Geraci and the Outsiders. Sonny is best known for his hit "Precious and Few" when he was with Climax back in the 70's.

One of the many way I-CONN gives back to the community is to help sponsor the festival and broadcast IMAG of the events on Friday and Saturday evening. I had the opportunity to run a hand held camera for the show. Wow! What a great time. First, it was great to just be able to run a camera and be creative. I'm usually training others to run a camera or doing commercial video production. I don't get the chance to go out and have fun with it. Plus, it was just a great show! Sonny is a great performer and the audience loved it.

If you want to catch one of his shows, he'll be back in Ohio on October 25 and December 12.

THEN:


NOW:

Worship vs. Excellence

TheWorshipCommunity.com is a great resource if you are involved in ministry, especially in the area of worship. Here is an article that goes along with my post from this weekend...
http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/obsessed-with-perfection/#more-1418