My work week is a little different from the other guys on Media (they are Monday-Friday, I am Sunday-Thursday), so I thought I would give you a look into my world on the first day of the week. Since my biggest responsilbilities include capturing the messages and seeing them through to our website, getting partnership churches the video content that they need (both HD and SD), and authoring DVDs of our series, it only makes sense that it all starts on Sunday mornings for me.
I capture live HD (center screen) and SD (imag screens) from my edit suite, for every service preached on Sunday. To back up the live captures, I also roll tapes for every service. D5’s for HD, DVCProXL for SD, and DVCPro for our isolated cameras (usually camera 3–the “scripture camera”–and the Jib camera). We also have a third backup, which is captured to the servers from the production side of things.
My job is to be very critical of lighting, supers (name slides), lower thirds, and anything that “dates” the speaker (such as mentioning holidays or actual dates). I make notes of these things and after all the services have been preached, I wait to hear which service the speaker wants to use as the “master” (we have 3 services each Sunday and the strongest one is chosen for product). If minor changes need to be made, like a mis-spelling in scripture or a super, I correct those in post and then export that sequence out of FCP for the web. After it’s exported, I compress that file to flash with Sorenson Squeeze. While that file is compressing, I sync up both HD and SD for partnership churches before heading home. By the time I get in on Monday morning, the web compression file is ready and I simply pass it along to the guys in the web department.
While at times it feels like just a day filled with capturing, exporting, and compressing, it’s ultimately an opportunity to make sure our services live on well beyond the date that they occur. The production guys focus on making the service happen on Sunday, and the export department makes sure that the service is recorded so that people far outside of Alpharetta GA can experience what our attendees get to experience on a weekly basis. It’s exciting that technology allows us to do this and I’m grateful to be a part of it here!
July 31st, 2009 at 1:04 pm
and for all you do i will forever be thankful…
July 31st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Ryan,
Thank you so much for your incredible work! As a partner, we are using your work week in and week out to lead people in Auburn, Alabama into a growing relationship with Jesus. You do a great job of keeping the messages from being dated. We couldn’t what we do it without you!
Thanks again!
July 31st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
and the services to do live on, and keep us keepin’ on…THANKYOU!
July 31st, 2009 at 3:42 pm
This is one of my main responsibilities at the church I work at and our workflow is very similar to yours. I do the links on the website as well, so I have taken the liberty of automating parts of the process. After making my edits in final cut I then export a Quicktime movie. This movie is then dropped onto a podcast mp3 and episode flash encoding droplet. The compressor knows to put these files into separate folders and thus the automation begins. I have an apple script set up to scan these folders for new files when the new files have been found in those folders they are then uploaded to the specific folders on the FTP site. I can then from home create the links to those files that reside on the http://FTP. This makes for quick work on Sunday that would be rather tedious and cause me to stay at the church much later into the evening.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:25 pm
What hardware/software combo are you using to capture? Is it captured to a format that is ready for FinalCut or do you have to render it?
August 1st, 2009 at 7:18 am
Ryan!
Thanks so much man! It’s because of your hard work that even us Canadian yahoos get to enjoy the Andys messages. Peoples hearts have been changed because of that! Thanks, you rock!
August 1st, 2009 at 8:23 am
Ryan,
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for what you do. I am the SPD at Anthem Church, the North Point partner in Gainesville, FL. If you really think about it, there about 16 churches, (and more added each year) that depend on you and your team for about 60% (and the most important part) of their services. Thank you very much. Thank you not only for putting the effort to make it happen, but also for making it happen with excellence!! In many ways you are a staff person at each of the partner churches all at the same time and your efforts to do what you do with excellence adds to each of ours to create an irresistible environment for unchurched people.
We recently just finished the “Destinations” series which had a incredible impact at our church. This series in particular had a huge impact on a guy in my small group. When he joined our small group he was a serious atheist. During Destinations he said to me, “I can’t believe I am saying this, but I think God is speaking to me.”
Know that marriages are being restored, healing is happening, hope is being realized, and atheists are turning to God.
Thanks again, and please let the rest of your team know that we appreciate them more than they could ever know.
If are ever passing through Gainesville, FL please stop by. We would love to meet you and show you the fruits of your labor in our small corner of the world.
Derrak
August 1st, 2009 at 8:40 am
My workflow is really similar. We make a special edit of the service for TV. I capture raw footage from an HD camera in the back, a SD camera in the front, etc. Then I make an IMAG-like edit, add supers, cut for time, etc. Then comes taping the anchor segments and any other special segments that bookend the preaching. Good times! The thing that keeps it all running smoothly is multi-tasking during the long capture and render times…
August 1st, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Ryan!
I can honestly say that your job is one that I wouldn’t want.
Most of us get to walk away from a Sunday and know that only a few hundred people we see the mistakes that were made. You get to have the mistakes live on for a while.
No, seriously. Thanks for being so willing to scrutinize and be a bit OCD on the files that you export for partners. It’s great being on this side of the process and able to simply grab the messages we need and know with no doubt that they have been prepared for us with great care.
Thanks for being willing to put in all the hard work to help make Access Church a place in Jacksonville where people come to church feeling comfortable regardless of where they are on there spiritual journey.
We here in Jacksonville love you and the media team and are so very grateful for what you provide us!
August 1st, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Ryan, the left coast appreciates your service! You’re a vital link in the chain of spiritual growth in many people out here. One person in particular came to River Park and heard “God & Country” at the end of June. He’s been a regular since. He is a ‘coming back to church’ guy but here’s the real cool part. He told me his wife is not really into the ‘christian thing’ and that he’s been ‘working on that’ for a while. She’s now been to two of our adult services… and counting!
Thanks for all you do.
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
First of all, hearing your stories of how God is changing lives in your church and in your community is so exciting, and humbling.
Also, it’s really cool to hear about your work flows as well.
To answer an earlier question, we capture HD and SD live on separate machines, using FCP, both of which run through separate Motu V4HDs (I/O). We use to run HD/SD through AJA Kona 3 but we made the switch to Motu V4HD so that we could monitor our audio levels, and timecode, while we capture. We do not have to render the capture scratch when we bring into FCP because we are able to set the codecs for the Motu prior to capturing.
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Ryan,
To echo everything that has been said, thank you SOO much for all that you do for North Point Ministries and the impact it has on us partner churches. You are highly talented and skilled beyond my wildest comprehension and it’s so exciting and refreshing to see you using it to further God’s kingdom in a positive way. I can feel your pain watching frame by frame rendering but know that your work is changing lives in cities across the U.S. and it’s effect is DEFINITELY not going unnoticed. Thanks again and God Bless.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 am
one word: excellence. Thanks for helping us keep it a high priority in Atlanta area and beyond. you guys are knockin’ it out of the park!
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
A huge echo of all the praise and thanks from a new partner in Columbia, SC. Your work is helping us create a church for unchurched people here. Thank you for your commitment to Christ, His church, and excellence.
Thanks again!
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Thanks Ryan,
What it takes to get us the HQ video shown on Sundays is amazing! Thanks for the incredible job you do and for sharing a little of what it takes to make it happen. I appreciate seeing the quality show up on the screen Sunday after Sunday but even more when people are able to see/hear clearly the message that can have so much of an impact on their lives. THANKS! from a new partner in Fort Walton Beach, FL
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Ryan,
It amazes me how fast you turn the messages around and with such high quality. Thanks for helping to make Wiregrass Church a place where people can clearly see and hear truth every Sunday. Thanks for your contribution and for the work you do week in and week out.