Church Video Announcements; An on-going conversation

I struggled with calling this post ‘an on-going conversation’, it’s probably more of an obsession. While I would never classify myself as a communications expert, I’m passionate about communicating well within the church. I’ve posted about this passion before (See 8 Simple Rules for Video Announcements), and I’d really like to hear from other video producers who are tasked with making video announcements at other churches. If that’s you, drop me a line in the comments… I’d love to hear the philosophy behind the how and why from others.

I’ve been doing my current version of announcements at Seacoast Church for about 6 weeks now. I call it “The Dispatch” and thankfully, I was given a lot of artistic liberty on how to execute each week.

Some of the parameters that I work within:

• Keep the final piece at about 2 minutes long. We roll the announcements right before the message roll-in and the idea is to keep it short but informative.
• Cover no more than 3 calendar items. I believe that any more than 3 items will be quickly forgotten.

Here is one of my favorites:

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Some of my philosophy:

• Video announcements allow me to tell a better story. I don’t ever want to just move a “talking head” from the stage to the screen; with the bit about the Harbor Cruise, I was able to to get onto the boat that they were using for the event. The boat, the water, the bridge… these are strong visuals and they tell as much of the story as the spoken word. A third layer in this was the music; “Come Sail Away” by Styx was a great way to help people remember that event as well. Never underestimate the value of getting a song stuck in people’s heads!
• Pictures and a little bit of information get the point across. In the bit about Serve Saturday, with just a little bit of footage from a previous event, I was able to show that anyone can get involved, from someone with car skills to people who can throw a little paint around. An interesting side note is that the event organizer came to me after that piece ran with a concern that it needed more information, I assured her that it would be okay; all that people needed to know was already in the piece. They had only been averaging about 20 people in the past few months for Serve Saturday… we ran that bit for two weeks prior to the July event and they had 70 people show up! You don’t have to over-sell… keep it short, give people the what/why/when, and they will respond.
• Quick reminders work! At the end of the piece, I had the talent simply ask folks to silence their cell phones and I was amazed at how many people were reaching into pockets and purses to do just that! Beyond that, finishing with a way for people to get more information is another key to communicating well; Our website will always have more information than we will ever try to fit into 2 minutes, I like to finish each week with the church’s website address.

If video announcements are something you’re already doing, or looking to start doing, jump into the conversation! Let’s help each other out by swapping ideas. Feel free to include links to stuff you’ve done so we can all see what you’re doing.

8 Simple rules for church video announcements

I’ve posted before about bad church video announcements… I get on these kicks when I look around youtube and see stuff that I just can’t imagine playing in churches… ANY churches! Bottom line: Video is a GREAT way to inform your congregation about the events and other things going on at your church… when done with thought and intent. At the risk of offending the churches represented in the following not-so-good-examples, here are a few things to be mindful of:

1. Don’t shoot the video in your worship center; It’s where your people already are! If you’re going to have some one stand and simply READ the announcements from the pulpit on video, it’s no different than having that same person come up and do it live and you’re wasting valuable time shooting and editing…

2. Don’t let your high-schoolers do your main service announcements. If you have a group of teens that enjoy doing it, let them go crazy with their own age group. My intent for this rule is not to squash their zeal or energy, but to always be mindful of the first time visitor; Your announcements don’t have to look like the evening news, but they should look a little better than what most teens are capable of.

3. KISS Principle: Keep it simple, stupid! Stopping your service flow for announcements can be a huge momentum killer! If your church feels the need to spend any amount of time in a service for announcements, get to the main things and be done. Assess your announcements, choose the top 3-4 items and give them the time and attention necessary. You can’t give EVERY single item from the bulletin the prime-time spot. Keep the announcements short and to the point, and leave them wanting more. Give just enough information to make people want to seek out the rest on their own in the bulletin or on the church’s website. People don’t come to church to find out about your next bake sale, they come to encounter God… make sure that your announcements aren’t eating into that time.

IDEA – If you have 5+ minutes worth of content on a consistent basis, do your announcements in a 5 minute countdown prior to your service. This alleviates the need to give up any real time IN the service for announcements and, as an added bonus, encourages your people to get into their seats early, or at least ON TIME!

4. Green screens are for the Weather Channel! This is a technology that still just fascinates some people… and I just don’t get it. The thing about green screen is that doing it WELL is a skill that few have mastered so it usually comes off looking weird. If you’re committed to doing your announcements on video, you can shoot ANYWHERE! Are you doing a beach baptism? Shoot the video at the beach! Doing a service project with Habitat for Humanity? Shoot the video on at a job site! These visual reminders along with the critical dates/times will help people remember and want to get involved.

5. Skip the cheesy dialog! I don’t care of your church is in Wisconsin, no one needs that much cheese! Keep your points short and to the point. Communications can be entertaining, but when the “entertainment” isn’t entertaining, no one will remember your message.

(embedded video: http://vimeo.com/7130655)

6. Sound Matters! Many of the most common cameras have an audio input these days. Buy (or borrow) a mic so that it doesn’t sound like you shot your announcements in the bathroom.

7. Don’t try to knock-off pop culture. Do you know why the Sonic commercials are good? Because they spend a ga-zillion dollars on them, they have great actors, and they only last 30 seconds! I’m sorry, but this is an area where you will just look silly. Be creative! Blaze your own trail! Make your own stuff!

8. Count the cost! Communicating well is the whole reason that any church does any kind of announcements at all! Video announcements are costing some one a great deal of time, whether they are a volunteer or on staff… it takes time to plan, it takes time to shoot, it takes time to edit… When you communicate poorly, you waste everyone’s time and likely doom the event you’re promoting.

If your video was used here, I mean you no harm… I just have a passion for improving communications in the church! I’d love for this post to be a forum; please feel free to leave a comment with your ideas about video announcements… let’s have a dialog about making them better and hopefully help video producers and churches communicate better. Is there another rule you would add to this list?

New series promo – “Why Aren’t You Dead Yet?”

I love doing sermon series promos that can get into people’s heads!

I can attest that this footage was shot and edited by me… and I’d love to know what people thought if they saw me shooting video in that cemetery! This is going to be a 4 week series based on a blog post of the same name by Thomas Nelson Publishers’ CEO, Michael Hyatt. My pastor is going to encourage people to find their worth in God and give tips on how we can discover our purpose in life spiritually, relationally, financially, and  physically.

My encouragement to church video producers is this: Don’t just default to what seems like the “churchy” way of promoting things. If your pastor is OK with it, think of new ways to get people’s attention! Your promos and any associated artwork (Click here for our bulletin cover) can be a part of the message itself, even if that means catching people off-guard or making them think a little deeper about what might be coming next.

Production and Purpose 12/9/09

Start by just watching this piece from my friend Neil Greathhouse at New Life Church in Little Rock, Arkansas:

There is so much about this relatively simple piece that I find quite brilliant!

- I can relate: This is the season when EVERYONE is out shopping. I love that Pastor Rick gave the examples of how he hated it and his wife and daughters were excited! When most of (if not all of) your audience can relate to what’s happening in the video piece, you almost can’t go wrong.

- I’m not distracted: While we as video producers have so much technology at our disposal, that doesn’t mean that we have to use ALL of it every time we tackle a project. They shot this piece using a Sony HDR-FX1 on a Fig-Rig for stabilization (to borrow a line from Ferris Beuller, “If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up!“)… they didn’t do any monster treatments to the video… nothing crashing or splashing on-screen to take my attention away from what’s being said… just good shooting and effective editing.

- I am drawn in and will remember: A simple, well-told narrative in a setting that I’m very familiar with, combined with a great, unexpected twist that intertwines “my story” with the story of Christ’s birth that reminds me how uncomfortable that I am with being quiet, even when I’m overwhelmed by the noise. This will stick with me and make me think about the premise again.

Other thoughts:

• Location – location – location! It’s not always easy to get permission to shoot at a Target Store, but so worth the effort! If they had shot this piece anywhere that wasn’t a retail location it would have missed the mark.
• This is not a recipe for every church or situation; you really have to have a pastor/teacher who can be comfortable with somthing like this or it can all go horribly wrong. This isn’t a knock on a pastor who can’t pull this off, you just have to know him and his strengths and weaknesses.

Did I miss anything?

Moving Pictures – Clips

Don’t get stuck in a rut.

I remember the first time I heard about a church using a clip from a movie as a sermon illustration… I thought it was a brilliant idea! There are a lot of very good moments in countless movies that will preach, so why not? In the years since then, I’ve seen movie clips used very well… and I’ve also seen them miss the mark horribly. I worked at one church where, as we would look at the week’s sermon topic, inevitably the pastor’s assistant would turn to me and ask, “What movie clip do you think we should use?”

Umm… didn’t we just use a clip last week… and the week before that too??? (I didn’t work there long)

There’s a problem; when something is perceived as “cool in church”, it can just as quickly become an over-done pattern of irrelevance. I’m not saying that churches should stop using movie clips, I understand that in some places that those clips might be all the media that is available. In those instances, pick and choose your clips wisely… just don’t default to it because you’ve done it in the past.

Using movie clips is a great way to get started at thinking “visually” …now how can you start to do your own illustrations, sermon bumpers, and stories?