The Project Recipe: 3 Key Ingredients

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment
Photo credit: Barnaby Norwood http://www.barnabynorwood.co.uk

I have come to realize, almost every task I do as a Church Technical Leader is a project – from a video shoot to a room remodel to implementing a new initiative. Good project management is like a recipe. If you start with great ingredients and combine them in the proper way, you will get good results.

The basic ingredients of successful projects are three-fold:

  • effective project management
  • well executed individual contributions
  • seamless communication

This post is going to be more about tasks – the doing part of the job. Just knowing you are responsible for the outcome is not where the secret lies. The secret, if there is one, is in the ingredients. And, for all my church techies out there, these principles mirror the way God leads, and that’s how you know you are getting it right.

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Video Directing 101 – Avoid this Common Mistake

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 2 Comments

VideoDirecting101

By fixing this most common camera placement error, your video directing will connect better with your viewers, lay the foundation for great live appeal, and provide improved story-telling.

In other posts, we have talked about proper camera placement and our ultimate goal of telling an effective story. In this post I want to highlight the most common mistake I see in camera placement. That mistake is simply this: placing one camera in the center of the room and additional cameras on the outside edges of the room. I call this the equal distance between cameras theory.

It looks like this:

CommonMistakeCameraPlacement1

Facing the stage, there is a camera that shoots the pastor from the left side of the sanctuary, one in the center, and one from the right side of the sanctuary.

Why is this wrong?

Instead of one simple answer, I would like to lay out some observations that lead to the conclusion that this is not a best practice. Along the way, this discussion will expose some of my presuppositions. As always, although I have strong opinions, and stand behind them, I understand there is more than one way to tell an effective story. However, Hollywood and sporting events have trained people to watch TV and movies in a certain way. By using similar techniques, we minimize barriers to communication.

Think of these techniques as video grammar, if it helps. Grammar is the system and structure of language. Grammar provides the framework for communication. If we all used language in our own way – providing a scrambled word order in each sentence, our unique spelling, not considering subject/verb agreement, substituting our own system of punctuation – communication would evaporate.

The same is true in video story-telling!

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A Breath of Fresh Air

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 4 Comments

I love to talk about new expressions of the church for our changing world, and I realize I am joining a chorus that has been sung for a long time.  In 2004, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York along with the Methodist council founded the Fresh Expressions Organisation. I found some inspiring material and quality thinking over at their website: Fresh Expressions. To me it was incredibly encouraging.

Many existing churches operate with a ‘you come to us’ mindset. ‘Would you like to join us?’ is an invitation to come to ‘our’ church, set out as we like, at a time that fits us, in a style that we have pre-arranged. The flow is from outside-in: from the world into the congregation.

Fresh expressions have a ‘we’ll come to you’ mindset instead. They start not with an invitation (‘Come to us on our terms’), but with an offer (‘We’re willing to come to you, serve you and stay with you. If you want, we’ll also help you to be church in a way that suits you – in your style, not ours’). The aim is not to provide a stepping stone into existing church, but to form new churches in their own right. The flow is from the congregation to people outside – not inward, but outward.

Fresh expressions is a new mindset, not a new model of church to be copied. It is a mindset that starts not with church, but with people who don’t belong to church.

…

Fresh expressions are:

  • missional – serving people outside church;
  • contextual – listening to people and entering their culture;
  • educational – making discipleship a priority;
  • ecclesial – forming church.

from the article: What is a Fresh Expression Church?

What a great summary in those four small bullets! All I can add is wow and yes please.

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2013 Year in Review

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment

I started Technically Thinking on January 1, 2013. I enjoy writing to help me work through my own thoughts and getting feedback from others is a great plus. I am grateful for everyone who has taken the time to read (and even post comments) about these important topics. I am grateful to have you along for the ride in this process of technically thinking. Thank you.

Here’s my year in review.

Top 5 Posts By Views

Video Directing 101: Camera Placement – This post included practical tips and examples for placing a camera on a riser and in a room. Sections include: Using a Camera Riser, Camera Placement for Broadcast, Camera Placement for IMAG.

Why Am I so Angry? – My answer to a lot of the criticism and diatribe I hear leveled against the church. Is the Church flawed? Of course. That’s why we are commanded to love and forgive. (Because we are in fellowship with people who aren’t deserving of love or forgiveness. Just like us.) Christian cynics love to “tell it like it is” although they are not very receptive to a dose of their own medicine. This post received more than twice the views as my follow up: Why Am I so Angry: The Coffee Shop Conversation . Which just goes to show you – say it right the first time!

Video Directing 101: The Establishing Shot – This post launched my Video Directing series. I contend that the purpose of the establishing shot is to provide context for your viewers.
Sections include: What is an Establishing Shot?, Why do I need it?, An Example

A Theology Of Pipe Smoking – My first post on Technically Thinking and something I actually wrote before starting this blog. Not sure if it actually fits into my chosen genre. Apparently, I’m not the only one wanting to link pipe smoking and theology.

Book Review: The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch – I enjoyed this book immensely since it challenged my thinking. Trying to come to terms with the issues it raises and the implications for ministry led me to write the post. These ideas are worth exploring and digging into.

Top 5 Ideas About the Church

Although I work in the Technical Arts, I have a strong passion for seeing the church live up to her scriptural commission. To that end, I often think about the way we do church. That’s what this next group explores.

Why I Kissed Excellence Goodbye – I hear a lot of talk about excellence when it comes to Technical Arts. I’m pushing back. And I think I’ve come up with something that’s better than excellence.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? – A fellow tech asked, “Should I even be here?” This was my answer. Seasons change. I offer some guidelines on helping make the important decision of staying with a church or pursuing something new.

Lab or Factory or Church – A post by Seth Godin started this thinking about the environments that our church leaders are creating. Are they rigid or flexible? Do they allow for failure as we innovate? Are we more synonymous with assembly line workers or lab technicians?

The Anti-Artist – When it comes to art, some people just don’t get it. Then there are others who are actively hostile toward creativity and artists in the church. Let’s just say, I’m not pleased.

Think Free – I examine some trends in education and the implications they could have for the church as we strive to fulfill our number one calling: Go and make disciples. There is a better way to do the work of the church than just feed the organizational monster. One of the keys is to release the power of self-organization.

A Few Personal Favorites

A Tale of Two Sacrifices – I heard an excellent sermon by Dr. Chris Green that I, of course, applied to the way we do church. Comparing Abraham’s decisions in sacrificing Ishmael and Isaac teaches us about following God.
Favorite line: The promise cannot properly develop as long as our strategized substitute is in the way.

Book Review: Untitled by Blaine Hogan – When it comes to our art and creative projects, Blaine exposes what we already know to be true, we can do better, but he also has us believing that we can be better. That is the gift of this manifesto. I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t realize, until Blaine unmasked my compromises, how much I needed to be freshly challenged to recommit my whole self to my projects and not be satisfied with less than my best.

No. No. NO! A Ministry Recruitment Video – Coming up with a recruitment video can be drudgery. Especially if the pastor of that area wants testimonies in front of a black curtain. Ugh! I would like to do better than that. I think we came up with a winner here for the Children’s ministry. After the promo, I added some script suggestions and pointers to aid in the creation of your own promos.
Favorite lines: “She is weeping. She is lonely. She is holding a kitten … it’s beginning to rain. She needs you! Don’t you care? Where are you?”

There’s my lists. Thanks again for helping to make 2013 a great year.

Video Directing 101 – Song Samples

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 11 Comments

VideoDirecting101

Seeing something is so much better than just talking about it. That’s the entire premise of the idea that video plays a crucial role in communicating the Gospel. So, it’s time to practice what I preach and critique some recent video at our Christmas Eve service.

Our Christmas Eve service had some exceptional special music. As a church, we don’t usually have special music, so it gave us a chance to do some extra stuff on the video that we don’t normally do. I took it as a great training opportunity. Instead of just writing this up for our team, I wanted to share it here as well.

A couple of observations to help frame the discussion:

  • We updated our video gear last year, 2013, in conjunction with a launch of our video based satellite campus.
  • This year, 2014, we added Grace Online, a live streaming service.
  • In the upgrade, I could not afford an improved intercom, so we continued to use our legacy RTS system. Although we worked with JVC to resolve an issue, they even sent an engineer to our church from CA, we could not fix it. Suffice it to say, during worship, the camera operators cannot hear the director; therefore, we typically do not aggressively shoot the worship portion of our stream.
  • A few weeks ago, we purchased a used HME DX200 wireless intercom and are very happy with it.
  • Our team has only had a few weeks of more intense directing and these are the first specials we have shot with better communication.
  • The camera ops for the service were Jaquie on 1, Tim on 2, and Brandy on 3. They executed well in both songs, and the entire service, staying active and responsive.

It was time to try some things and see what happened! As you watch the video, think of the next shot you would take and when you would need to communicate that to the camera op. These are slower songs, shot with 3 cameras. A lot more could be done with video, but here’s what we came up with.

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