Media

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to produce and direct the title package video for Andy’s latest series, White Flag. The series is about Jonah and how he ran from God. We wanted to show a character running endlessly and becoming more and more exhausted. Additionally, the subject was to end up in increasingly desolate environments. The reveal at the end would show a white flag. We wanted the viewer to see the subject running, becoming beat down by the run and eventually surrendering.

The shoot itself took us to Buckhead and then into downtown Atlanta, where we could take advantage of some urban scenery, graffitti walls, deserted underpasses and cool-looking tunnels. It was freezing and a long day, but we got some gorgeous footage on the Canon Mark II 5D. Did I mention we had to make the flag fly in the wind? Fortunately, it was actually very windy that day so we got some excellent shots of the flag rippling. (Which, of course, got cut.) At one point, the entire crew jumped a fence, walked over some deserted train tracks, hiked up a steep under-pass and filmed in between two busy highways. We also had a spectator. A homeless man, who called himself Lighting. He saw us filming with a white flag and immediately told us he knew we were making a video about surrender. The situation gave us a lot of perspective about the meaning of the video we were filming.

In addition to capturing some excellent footage, we had a little bit of an adventure and a great story to tell. Check out the video below.

Camera: Canon Mark II 5D
Producer/Director: Heather Breslin
DP: Josh Peters
Actor: John Saddington
http://www.vimeo.com/10048109

At North Point we are more than aware of the importance of recording our services.  With DVD’s, TV shows, strategic partnerships, online services, message streams, CD’s, podcasts, and more–it is imperative that our services are recorded and archived for future reference.  If your church does any form of multimedia, you probably record your services in some form or another, whether to tape or to DVD or to a DVR or some sort of live capture system.  Archiving your services can sometimes be a nerve-wracking task–if you miss something or forget to press record, it’s as if the service never happened.  For our team, it’s crucial.

We record to tape as our primary archival system–DVCPRO50 format on DVCPRO tapes for SD & HD.  The Production Team also records the messages to an Omneon system as an additional backup.  On top of that, we capture every service live through Log & Capture in Final Cut Pro, straight to DVCPRO50 for SD (side screens - live switcher cut) and DVCPROHD for HD (center screen - locked down wide shot).  We use several of the media team’s computers to simultaneously capture the services, and now with the introduction of a new North Point Online rebroadcast, we also use multiple computers to compress the 11AM live service to FLV format and get it uploaded so that it can be viewable again at 6PM for the rebroadcast.  All this of course happens on a Sunday and involves a bunch of running back and forth, routing, labeling, pressing buttons, paying attention to details, and most importantly, troubleshooting.

Ryan Tabor usually does this every week, and somehow manages to hold it all together.  We got his process visualized (left) so that I could fill in for him last week while he took a vacation day, and it became my roadmap to a formidable world of responsibility.  The process of course goes a LOT deeper than this in terms of routing systems and filenames and labels and edits and settings and service flow, but this is essentially the gist of it.  If we miss any of these steps, archiving and reproducing our message for DVD, TV, partnerships, or the web becomes nearly impossible.

How do you guys record your services?  Have you ever been in a situation where you FORGOT to hit record??

In case you have not heard of the “TED” talks go here. What many people may not know is that TED has an iphone, ipod, app that you can download here. It’s free and it gives you the ability to listen and watch a lot of the talks throughout the years. TED stands for TECHNOLOGY, ENTERTAINMENT and DESIGN. Founded in 1984, the first conference was held in 1990. Each speaker gets 18 minutes to present a “wish to change the world”. Enjoy this little gem!

Found this on the “Kenetic Typography” channel from Vimeo.
Too bad this is Vit Ryznar’s only work on Vimeo. Music draws me in.
Some great ideas combined with great execution.
http://www.vimeo.com/8439038

We want to announce that North Point’s Media department has a “Media Producer” position available. You might ask, “Is this a fit for me?” or “what does a Producer actually do?” because we know it looks different in each organization.
First of all, THIS IS NOT A SUNDAY MORNING PRODUCTION JOB. The media department is responsible for creating print, media, and video content for North Point Ministries. We are also responsible for exporting service content generated from Sunday morning to the web, TV, partnerships and other outlets
Our Producers are responsible for leading and guiding the vision of a video from concept to execution. From a really quick shoot to an elaborate shoot. Small budget to big budget. Internal resources to hiring out all aspects. All of these factors are things you will have the opportunity to experience. The best part is you will be surrounded by a team of individuals who don’t just want the best for you, but the best for this organization because what we get to be a part of impacts peoples lives, forever.

If you are to be considered for this position you must be able to identify, lead, and develop the
CONCEPT, STORY, & EXECUTION of a video. From motion graphics, to on location shooting. That said -

Do apply if:
. . . you have an internal drive for excellence.
. . . you LOVE the details that bring out the best in any TV show, movie, graphics, story, idea . . .
. . . you love to build and lead a team of creatives.
. . . you get excited about a big OR small budget.
. . . you get excited about a two week turn or a two day turn.
. . . you get excited about a small budget, two-day turn PLUS two other projects just got emailed to you.
. . . you love figuring out why one video worked and another did not.
. . . you LOVE macs.
. . . you eat stress for lunch.
. . . you can be successful with a great idea, whether it came from you or not.
. . . you take good ideas and make them great.
. . . you love to oversee a project from conception to completion both in studio and
. . . on location.
. . . you love to work closely with directors, actors, writers, graphic designers, copywriters, pastors, ministries, and interns.
. . . you are incredibly well organized.
. . . you are motivated without a due date.
. . . you happen to know or be an expert in Final Cut Studio, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, or a RED CAMERA.

Do not apply if:
. . . you want a 9-5 job. This is production people.
. . . you do not love the pursuit of making a great story.
. . . you do not like people (specifically actors, artists, directors, or communicators).
. . . crisis scares you.
. . . you are easily satisfied.
. . . you are inflexible.
. . . chaos is a good thing to you.
. . . you are NOT a good listener (ask someone you know)
. . . you have to do EVERYTHING yourself
. . . you trust no one
. . . you can only work on one project at a time.
. . . the Wii scares you.

Please email this application along with your resumé, demo reel (highlighting what your contributions were) to kim.radgoski@northpoint.org. PDF of job posting HERE

We are honored you would consider working with us!

If you have been following us for a while, you know that we love what we do, and we love having fun. It’s been 10 months since our last official Wii Tennis Tournament, so we decided it was due time for another tournament within the Media Department. This time around we have a few more players due to the additions of Andy Waddell (fantastic video editor contractor), JJ Brummett (amazing audio engineer contractor), and Jordan Barron (awesome eager intern). We are still trying to decide the prize for first place. Any Suggestions? We’re thinking about a day off for the winner, but Brad just rolls his eyes when that gets brought up.

For our team, this is a great way to laugh and relax for a few minutes, but more importantly than that, it is one of the ways that we build on our relationships as a team. In our previous Wii post, we asked how you have fun at work, and we received some good responses.  Now we want to know, how do you guys go about building strong relationships on your teams? Competitions? Parties? Retreats?

I’ll let you know how the whole day off think works out, and who might be the one taking it (who knows, may just be bragging rights). Stay Tuned.

Shooting on location can often be a little tricky.  Shooting on location 800 miles away in a town you donʼt know can feel almost impossible.  That is the challenge Matt Gibson and I were facing when we traveled to Pittsburgh earlier this year.  We had the opportunity to share the story of a family that had moved from all the familiarity of their hometown of Atlanta, GA to Pittsburgh, PA.  A big part of their decision to move to Pittsburgh was the presence of a familiar church home–NorthBridge Community Church–which is a local Strategic Partner of North Point Ministries in Pittsburgh, PA.

First of all this shoot would have been impossible without a lot of planning and some serious help from the good folks at NorthBridge, who manage to transform a school into a church every week and are doing an incredible job at reaching their community.  It was encouraging to see their staff & volunteers breathing fresh life into their adult & children environments.  We’re grateful to have spent some time with them!

Before Matt and I left Atlanta we put together a pretty extensive tech sheet and shooting schedule and while formulating our plan we decided that we should travel light and rent our heavier gear on location.  After some searching we decided that View Point Production Services was the video rental company to go with.  The folks at View Point were extremely helpful and they had really good quality gear.  From there it was just about executing the plan and trying to capture the environment & spirit of the story with the limited time that we had.  The finished video is above and our shooting schedule/tech sheet are below.

What are some of the things that YOU guys have learned about shooting on location that you would want to share?

I know there are many links to see the Super Bowl commercials but I thought I would give you the NFL’s link to them. Love to know which one was your favorite and why? Doritos was pretty memorable. Careerbuilder was just wrong, hilarious, but wrong. Google’s was simple and effective. To me, Google’s commercial was made years ago when the developer’s created the search functions the way they did. Which was yours?

Found this gem over at the Illusion 360 blog this morning and have watched it over and over since then.  It’s a promo for The Rethink Scholarship and it’s generating a ton of buzz on Vimeo right now:
http://www.vimeo.com/8766811
Lots of cool food for thought in there.

What’s inspiring YOU lately?