More than I could ever ask or imagine

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

I love this verse. I’m living proof that it is true.

I have been working at Seacoast Church for just shy of 5 years and it has been an amazing ride. The opportunity to work at this church could not have come a better time, it truly was God’s provision. There is no way to measure all that I have gained during my time here; amazing people, amazing opportunities, and amazing personal growth.

A paragraph like that can only mean one thing – my time at Seacoast is coming to en end.

Seacoast Creative Team – Animal Style

I am excited to report that late last week I received and accepted an offer to join the broadcast team of Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Missouri. I still can’t wrap my brain around what an incredible opportunity this is… Once again, immeasurably more.

I feel compelled to send out a very special THANK YOU to Shawn Wood and Geoff Surratt; two great friends who were so instrumental in my ‘rescue’ back in 2008. My time working for and with these gentlemen will always be a key component to who I am and am becoming. It’s amazing what one can do when he finds someone who believes in him. Imagine how much more when he finds two.

Thank you so much to Pastor Greg Surratt and the leadership of this great church; it has been my honor to call this place home for a fifth of their 25 years. So much solid bible teaching, so much spirit-filled worship, so many huge-hearted people. I look forward to watching from the mid-west as you continue to help people become fully devoted followers of Christ.

The adventure continues!

New series promo – White Flag

There are times when we get into preparations for a new series at Seacoast Church that the metaphors come very easily; so was the case as we ramped up for our next teaching series, White Flag; based on the premise that to truly find victory in Christ, we must surrender our own will and ways to his.

From the time that we were able to confirm that this series would start just two weeks after Easter, we knew that our leadership wanted to be able to promote the series during the Easter weekend services when we would be likely to have many visitors.

I love it when we have the margin to create a good ‘teaser video’ and when the focal point is so simple… a white flag of surrender.

Here’s a peek at what we came up with and also a look behind the scenes from our shoot day:

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Special thanks to my cinematographer, Adam Erickson and great actor, Shawn Leberkinght.

Technical specs:

Camera: Sony FS100
Lens: Canon 35mm, 1.4
Edit: Final Cut 7
Color Grading: Magic Bullet Looks, Gorilla Grain

Out take therapy

Oh, looky there… a blog!

This poor little slice of the internet has been so neglected. I really need to get back in the habit of regular posts. My apologies to the 2 or 3 of you who noticed that I’ve been so absent here.

So, I’ll kick things back off with a little slice of something from work today; When we roll the video announcements during the weekend services, they’re all polished and nice. Ever wonder what happens to the parts that didn’t go so well?

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Thanks for being a good sport, Lauren!

Stage Change

So, we needed to do a stage change…

What’s the best way to get started?

A Not So Silent Night

For our Christmas project this year we decided to do a modern telling of the Christmas Story; a young, pregnant couple on a road trip, unable to find a room for the night.

Our project was used to set up our pastor‘s message in our Christmas Eve services at Seacoast Church.

• 5 different locations
• 4 days of shooting
• 3 great actors (+ one fussy baby)
• 2 cinematographers
• 1 great short film!

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Technical Specs:

• Camera: Canon EOS 7D (Lenses: Tokina 11-16 2.8, Canon 100 2.8 Macro IS, Canon 24-70 2.8, Canon 50 1.2.)
• Edited on Final Cut 7
• Color graded in Magic Bullet

I’m so thankful for the trust of my church leadership; they allowed me to take some risks and take the necessary time to put this piece together.

And since you were nice enough to read this far down, please enjoy the bloopers:

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Questions or feedback? Drop a comment below!

Video Story – Find a visual focal point

At Seacoast, we’re doing a short sermon series based on the Book of Jonah, so telling a story on video about someone running from God’s call would be great for a sermon illustration. Finding the story wasn’t difficult; it involves the wife of one of our pastors getting involved with helping people in human trafficking… I just didn’t want to do the ol’ standard testimonial video. After some discussion, it was noted that, while she never thought she could see herself doing anything like this, now it was all she could see. This not only became the closing line of the script, it also gave me a great idea for a focal point; I would have my subject walking around downtown Charleston with a camera.

Special thanks to my new partner-in-crime, Jack Hoey III, who put together a great voice-over script, and to Lisa Surratt who allowed us to tell her inspiring story.

Don’t just dive into a story and default to what you’ve always done; look at the details from different angles and listen for the visual elements. Don’t be afraid to explore new ways of telling the story.

Technical Specs:

• Camera: Sony FS100
• Edit: Apple Final Cut Pro
• Color Grading: Magic Bullet
• Music licensed through FirstCom

Quick review: Sony NEX-FS100

As we (Seacoast Church) were just about ready to make the jump to DSLR, we found out about the new Sony NEX-FS-100. While I had only limited experience working with DSLRs, everything that I read and saw about the Sony made beautiful sense; Take all of what makes a DSLR amazing and actually incorporate them into a real video camera. Rather then me blathering on about all of the technical points, this video will do much better:

The sad thing is that we ordered a pair, they arrived, and I assembled one… and it sat on my desk for the better part of two weeks. I had just found out that I was being sent to Uganda and had way-too-much to get done prior to my departure. Oh, and did I mention that I would be taking this new machinery with me? I finally had to block out a couple of hours just days before I left to familiarize myself with the camera.

It was love at first sight.

While it won’t win any beauty contests, there is so much to love about this camera:

• I love the view-finder screen; so much flexibility and beautifully clear.
• The ‘kit’ lens that comes with it is a little slow, but still does really well. I’m curious to see it’s capabilities once we add some good Canon glass (coming soon!).
• 1080/24p – Just GORGEOUS!
• Real XLR inputs – and it sounds really good! (One knock I’ve had on the HVX200 that we have been using for 3 years is that things sound one way while recording, but can end up clipping when you get things in the edit environment. Both the included shot-gun and my wireless lavs sound really clean)
• The image stabilizer is so good! Shooting hand-held stuff at the end of the 80-200 lens looks really nice. This was especially great while in Uganda where I chose not to drag a tripod around.

I shot a lot of footage in Uganda and I will eventually post some of that, but this is a quick (literally, shot and edited in one day) project that I had to knock out upon my return to the states. It was used as a ‘table setter’ for a message by Greg Surratt about hell:

A quick shoot and a little coloring help from Magic Bullet on this video

While I’m still getting familiar with all that this camera offers, I’m really glad that we chose to go this route!

Cool Shoot

From the “constant location scouting” file, here are some stills from a shoot I did this week. In an effort to get healthy, I’ve been walking in the morning, and my favorite area is a section of nearby streets where houses were never built; I’ve been wanting to do a shoot here for more than a year! The vegetation has gotten really over-grown and it just has a great look. Plus, it was a great place to be able to set up a bench right in the middle of the road and shoot without fear of being run over!

The bench was used as a constant in 3 seperate videos; the idea of stopping to rest.

My great actors, Chris Russo and Martha Martin

Yours truly manning the Panasonic HVX-200

Are you keeping your eyes open for unique spots? Take pictures, take notes, and keep a file of things like this. You never know when you might stumble upon a great place for a video project.

Special thanks to my sweet wife for snapping the pictures!

It’s about us – Echo 2011

That title will probably rub some people wrong, but if you go to the conference website, you’ll see that it is “an event for artists, geeks, and storytellers”… so it’s about that ‘us’.

Let me start by saying that I was not asked to post something about Echo, I’m sure that no one there even knows who I am. It just so happens that I recently made my reservation to go and I wanted to let anyone in church media know that this is a great gathering of like-minded people, well worth the time and money that it takes to attend.

This is the notebook that I received at Echo last year. It’s full of notes that I took at various breakout sessions and the keynotes, and I’ll be honest, a lot of ideas that I got while flying home on the final day. You see, an experience like this leaves your head spinning, in a really good way. Being around so many great thinkers and artists will have a great affect on your own personal creativity. You will leave with a few new ideas, which is cool… but I think that, even more-so, it will spark a whole new level of creativity as you head back to your church. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve pulled out this little notebook for inspiration in the past year.

The times of worship are great, as one might expect at a Christian conference. But I love the atmosphere at Echo simply because it’s a time of worship for people who are usually doing something during worship at their own church. There is something really special about a room full of people who are finally released to worship without having to worry about who is running the lyrics or what the next camera shot needs to be. It’s a beautiful thing.

Finally, the opportunity to meet so many great people is priceless. You’ll quickly realize that most everyone you meet is looking for the same things: good ideas and great connections. A bonus: The speakers aren’t shuffled off into private rooms; they’re permitted to roam freely amongst the common-folk. (I was this close to meeting Jon Acuff last year; this year, it WILL happen)

I know that budgets are tight, but if you have any chance to get to a conference that is specifically for us weird, church-creative-types, get thee to Echo (July 27-29, 2011)… and if you go, track me down; I’d love to meet you!

(embedded video HERE)

Taming the Chaos

As much as we might deny it, the first church service of the weekend, whether it’s Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning, often times really is a dress rehearsal.

There really is no end to the possibilities as to why… The bottom line is that this is the first time that we’re doing this service and there can be bumps in the road.

In one recent Saturday night service, it seemed that Murphy’s Law was going to play out in every possible way… everything that could go wrong, just about did. All of what went haywire really isn’t the point of this post, just know that it was a tense evening in the booth.

The point is this: After it was all over and I had some time to process things and talk to people about how we might avoid some of these snares in the future, I sent out a tweet that said,

“It will never cease to amaze me how chaotic things can be behind the scenes.”

A friend of mine, who is a Technical Director at another church, responded back to me with:

“We just love to tame the chaos.”

Thanks, Rick… That about sums it up!

As I thought about that some more, I realized that it’s a choice to tame the chaos. I’ve worked in the production of live television and events for many years, and in that time I’ve been around some leaders who seem to actually thrive on the chaos and it rarely made things any easier for anyone.

Our gear will fail… people will make mistakes… stuff will happen…

Whether you’re a staff leader at a church or a volunteer who runs the Power Point slides, you must choose to be a chaos tamer. Be quick to do what you can to remedy the problems and even quicker to speak peace over those who you are working with. When things seem to be falling apart, choose to be a strong part of the solution.

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

Proverbs 15:1-2