Media

One of our main goal for title packages is to set up tension for the speaker. Drive was one of the first and only times where that wasn’t our intention.

I wanted to take you through our process with this blog post, but there is a lot here so I broke it up into sections so you can skip around easy if you aren’t interested in reading the whole thing. Some of it can get pretty technical.

::Concept::
Drive presents media with an interesting challenge. The conference itself has a theme. And we want our title packages to reflect that theme, but they immediately precede Andy (our senior pastors) message. Which may more may not have to do with the conference theme, but rarely have a very close tie.

And, on top of that, during the planning stages, what we had limited knowledge of what Andy would be sharing, but we did know the messages would have very different tones. Session 1’s video would follow worship and precede a message about the cross and then communion. Session 2 would be after a half hour of pure fun and games and be followed by a leadership talk about engaging your audience. And Session 3 would be after worship and be followed by a leadership talk.

With this in mind our intention was basically to create a “vibe” piece that set the stage for Andy and “celebrated” the idea of “Going Off Road”. We didn’t want to lean to hard into trying to say something with our title package because we know that would set up unnecessary tension for Andy, but we did want to emphasize that everything we were talking about was in line with “Taking it Off Road.”

Here is a link to the creative brief we created going into the shoot.

::The Shoot::
Our DP for this shoot was Josh McKague at Whisper Productions. We couldn’t have asked for a more thorough and involved DP. On top of his preparedness, he had some family land that had the perfect mudding spots, and a great JEEP for us to use. Location was originally going to be the biggest challenge for this shoot, and it quickly became the easiest part. He also welded several camera mounts to get the shots we needed. (on front of the car, by the wheel well, over the tire in the back, and even a helmet cam). We shot with the RED, and two Canon Mark II 5D. We also used an underwater housing for one of the Canons (the one that got muddy). It was incredibly effective. The only difficulty was it was hard to know exactly what you were capturing with it, since the mud covered the lens and viewfinder constantly.

You might also find it interesting that our “jib” was a scissor lift that was out in the field we were shooting it. It worked perfectly.

Our cast, except for Josh’s crew was all volunteer from our staff or staff friends.

::Editing::
Matt Gibson edited this piece for us. As he approached the videos his first task was to categorize and sift through the footage for the best shots. It was during this process that Matt decided the footage we had of cleaning up was so good that the final title package started to take on that theme instead of the original theme of “getting unstuck.” In the end this was a great change. It really gave the third session a nice conclusion to the conference.

The challenge of making 3 videos fit into three very different sessions was very apparent in the music choice. Its hard to find one piece of music that would work with the vibe of the title packages and the vibe of the session. During the music search (using Firstcom.com) Matt found some great music that all fit well together as a progression and decided to have each video have its own music track.

Technically, Matt color treated everything to have a desaturated look to match the muddy, dirty, gritty feel of the footage, then bumped the contrast levels and used the Magic Bulletin Film Look Suite to finish of the footage look. The footage already had such a great cinematic quality to it (mainly due to the color treatment and the low depth of field the cameras captured), that he cropped the footage even further to intensify the cinematic effect & have ability to adjust composition of the shot. Also, a lot of our footage was pretty shaky because of being mounted to a moving car. Matt tried to use the FCP smooth cam filter. It helped some, but most of that footage was not useable for an extended shot.

::What we learned::
It can be hard to get volunteers. Even on a staff as big as ours. I can be tough. I’m still trying to manage that tension. I’m just glad we had as many as we did. Next time, I hope to have more information up front so that they know exactly what they are getting into and feel more comfortable. Until we got into the mud there was a lot of unavoidable delay because of the amount of shots that had to be set up. Each time we remounted the cameras it took a good 30 minutes to set up.

When shooting something like this, get TONS of footage. Keep the cameras rolling as much as possible. With all the underwater housings and the fast motion, it was very hard to know what we were getting so we just kept the cameras rolling and got what we could. AND filmed EVERYTHING. We had no shots listed for getting cleaned up. It was a last minute add, but we filmed it all and it ended up being a really awesome final title package.

All in all, it had to be the most fun I have ever had working on a shoot. I got paid to go play in the mud all day, and we got some amazing footage doing it. I think we also have a pretty amazing JEEP commercial if anyone knows anyone at Chrysler (give ‘em my name).

Over the years we have witnessed some pretty crazy “scripture notes”, “lower thirds”, and “titles” in the church world. Even North Point, on occasion, has been guilty of going a little off the ranch with some CRAZY looking lower thirds. No really, I’m not kidding. When your lower third is actually a third of your screen and the transition you programmed for it takes longer than 14 seconds - you might be a part of the “My lower thirds are more creative than your lower third” club. It definitely begs the question - are we thinking more about the creativity of some of these assets or their purpose; to communicate information?

Soooo, last summer we made the decision to TEMPLATE all of these assets. By template I mean that the animation, the shapes, and the concept of each series would have the same style of execution. The look inside of the template, however, would have different aesthetics that would be influenced by the look of the series.

We did this for two main reasons:
1 - We would NOT have to reinvent the wheel for every new series or message. We would just follow the same template and focus on implementing the aesthetics of the design.
2 - Predictability for the audience. Every time you animate something different, change a shape, a move, or even a FONT it not only takes some getting used to but it takes people’s focus away from the most critical piece - the information.

Let me say it this way when it comes to your lower thirds: Don’t let your creativity compete with the information, complement it.

One of the biggest changes we made in the development of the scripture slides specifically, was the addition of either the LOGO or ICON of the series. WE found that the more you push for this in your Key art - the easier it is to implement it elsewhere. A question you should ask in your design process: if I take this title/logo, lift it off it’s background, put it somewhere different, will it still be unique.

Below are some examples of of our series both with scripture notes and titles:

EASTER

“I Love my Church”

“White Flag”

“The Thin Line” with John Woodall.

“The Me I Want to Be” with John Ortberg

“Taking Responsibility For your Life” (we went a little different for the titles, which is ok to do, but at least you KNOW you are doing it. It’s ok to go outside your box, just determine what your box is.)

What are you doing with your scripture notes, lower thirds, or title slides?

Typographic motion graphics pieces are all the rage right now– and why not?  If communication is your goal, words are usually helpful.  However, since typography-centric videos have become so common, you need to stretch your creative canvas a bit if you’re going to create a piece that is both powerful and unique.

For the one-part sermon “Focus” at Browns Bridge Community Church, the art direction– led by Mike Davis– gravitated toward the concept of the eye chart.  It’s a simple symbol, it’s easy to understand, and when you play with depth-of-field, it’s visually interesting.

When I set out to create a Title Package (a one-minute video we create and use to introduce each sermon), my initial idea was to continue in this same direction: eye-chart, depth of field, some motion, some relevant words, etc.  And that probably would have made for an adequate Title Package.  But as I worked, I had this nagging feeling that I wasn’t using the medium to its fullest extent.  Motion design has incredible potential for communication– you can use images, movement, sound, anything to present an idea.  Here, I saw a great opportunity to use movement to communicate.

The idea of the sermon, very simply, is that there are many things in our lives– such as work, family, school, money, friends, etc.– that, though they are important, can distract us from God.  But rather than present these words with meaningless motion, I wanted to capture the sense that all of these aspects of our lives are competing for our attention, and in our frenzied attempt to keep up with all of them, we lose focus.

I was inspired by metaphorical images for the internet, or “the information superhighway”– all of these little pieces speedily moving in different directions.  As the camera jumps from piece to piece, I wanted it to be slightly difficult for the viewer to focus on even the one word in the frame, like they’ve been dropped into some sort of race, and, in their struggle to hang on, they’ve become a bit disoriented.  (Nothing too crazy, though… “pain” isn’t typically one of our goals.)

With the reveal at the end, my thinking was: there was this big, important, stationary thing that we were missing the whole time.  All we needed to do was pull out, change our focus, and everything else fades away.  Originally the reveal was going to be “God,” but we make an effort in our Title Packages to not give away the meat of the sermon.  But hopefully, the message still came through clearly.

On May 5th, we posted a video on our blog called “Sunday Morning”. This video was posted in a catalog of other videos from our annual Church leader conference we host called DRIVE. As a standard practice, we post our videos for the larger creative community because some of our best learning comes from those who view and comment on our work. Well, one week later and over 350,000 hits, this 3-minute video has created quite a stir. If context determines meaning, we can understand some of the questions and confusion surrounding this video. We unintentionally provided no context for it (like we did for all of our Drive videos) and some people have attempted to construe their own meaning for the video. While the conversations have been rich, we now feel responsible to provide some context to help people understand our purpose for the video. “Sunday Morning” was used specifically to employ fun into the conference and set up a message by Andy. The video was meant to be satirical and comical and Andy’s message unpacked the why behind our Sunday morning programming philosophy. That’s all there was to it. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your responses on the various blogs.
Brad

I have seen a lot of commercials lately for minivans, which as we all know is very typical. Spaciousness, styling, under seat compartments, dvd players, and most importantly, the mpg’s. You know, the typical pitch.  It seems like most automobile companies that produce minivans have the mindset about advertising those vehicles as functional, as well as being kid and parent friendly. Naturally, it would only seem right to promote these vehicles with attractive legitimate features, such as, “now you can open up every single door from your remote” (that was a little sarcasm, most doors can be operated by the remote).

What if automobile manufacturers did take a new angle on the minivan? What if they tried to promote it as cool, and hip? Would that be thinking way outside of the box, and would it pay off? You decide. Meet “Swagger Wagon”:

http://toyotaswaggerwagon.com/
We’d love to hear where you have you been challenged to think differently in your designs? What were you inspired by? Did it pay off?

Hey everybody. First of all, if you came to Drive 2010 we are so humbled and honored that you would take time out of your busy schedule to come to North Point and let us pour what is in our cup into yours. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. Below is a list of some videos we did at Drive. I can’t say how proud I am of the media guys, our contractors and everyone at North Point that helped play a part in putting these together. For the conference, the team created over 200 different media and design elements. Thank you so much for checking them out.

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO. Let’s start with the last video played.
http://www.vimeo.com/11501487

DRIVE OPENER
For copyright purposes we can’t put the TobyMac song we played (and the singer coming out of the ceiling.) Some things you just have to be there for!
We will try to get the graphics up for the song a bit later.
http://www.vimeo.com/11501516

TITLE PACKAGES for all sessions.
http://www.vimeo.com/11501538
http://www.vimeo.com/11501582
http://www.vimeo.com/11501620

DRIVE-BYEs for all sessions
http://www.vimeo.com/11501503
http://www.vimeo.com/11501556
http://www.vimeo.com/11501594

MINUTE TO WIN IT intro.
We copied the show but had to start from scratch on ALL the graphics.
http://www.vimeo.com/11501660

SUNDAY’S COMING
http://www.vimeo.com/11501569

FUN THEORY
http://www.vimeo.com/11501611

TWITTER TRACKER (intro)
http://www.vimeo.com/11501630

DRIVE LOGO (loop)
http://www.vimeo.com/11502343

It’s extremely humbling to think that in just over a week, people from all over the world are coming to North Point for DRIVE 2010. I just want to be one of the first to say thank you. Here at North Point we certainly do not know everything there is about “doing church”. We do, however, love “being the church” God has called us to be. Over the past 15 years, we have learned a ton, prayed a ton, and yes, believe it or not, even failed a ton. Because of these rich experiences, we are excited to take what’s in our cup and pour it into yours. This year the main sessions with Andy are going to challenge you and encourage you like never before. Eddie Kirkland and I are doing a breakout together on how we utilize media and music during the worship service, plus lots of time for Q&A with the whole Service Programming team (but don’t be surprised if we ask a lot of questions about what YOU are doing). Our team can’t wait to meet everybody and talk media geek with you. See you at DRIVE 2010. (Also, for those of you not coming, the first session of Drive will be LIVE on North Point Online. Stay tuned for details.)

I may be a little late to the game with this video, but if this doesn’t make you smile, not sure what would! Great idea. Thanks Heather for passing it on!

Hey Guys & Gals! Here are a few tricks I used while creating our Easter Opener and turning a stock video into something unique.  Hopefully some of these techniques you can find useful in your own projects.  Check it out, then see the process behind it.

http://www.vimeo.com/10755833
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ORIGINAL CLIP (purchased from iStockVideo)
 
FINAL PRODUCT
 
Different Levels of Animation
 
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AfterFX SCREENS

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CREATING LANDSCAPE 
Original image felt very flat to me.  So i wanted to add some depth/scenery.  Remember your Old Artbeats Nature footage- it’s still useful for compositing & makes things better.

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COLOR TREATMENT
CREATING A QUICK SUNSET.  Place this Color Solid above ALL layers and blend it down.  I chose “Color Burn”, but whatever works best in your situation.


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ADJUSTMENT LAYER - Add Contrast
Place Adjustment Layer above ALL layers, Add LEVELS to it.  Jack the contrast and you’ll be amazing at what was once flat quickly becomes DYNAMIC!
   
Before & After LEVELS
 
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LIGHTING
Add a Light to your 3D Camera.  Helps create a Vignette Effect, and can really do some cool things as foreground objects fly by.
Make sure your layers have 3D turned on, or the light will not show up.
 
Before & After Lighting (Subtle but Nicer)
 
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FOREGROUND OBJECTS
Adding Foreground layers really makes your 3D camera move become dynamic because of the different speed it moves as compared with background.  Also has a nice effect when you have your camera DOF turn on.
 
Use Blending Modes as Needed

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ADDING MORE LAYERS (Realism)
I purchased pre-made birds in iStockVideo.  You can also create your own birds.  Sometimes it’s just worth the $25 to save you the time.
CreativeCow Bird Tutorial

Multiply Layer or key out white. I multiplied layer and slowed down footage for effect.

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LENS FLARE
Creating a realistic sun.  AfterFX Lens Flare can suffice, but I really wanted the sun to feel as realistic as possible.  We purchased an amazing plug-in from Video Copilot called OPTICAL FLARES.  This plug is incredible!  So many options and Flare FX.  This won’t be last time we use this.  You know all those Star Trek lens flares… this can create those as well.

 
I masked out tree trunk and put it above FLARE layer as to not completely blow out tree.

Before & After
   
Keyframe your Brightness to create your sunrise.
 
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WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE TECHNIQUES IN AFTERFX or FCP?

http://www.vimeo.com/10345604
We recently had the opportunity to work with all of our ministries to produce a commercial celebrating our volunteers. We really are fortunate as a church to have amazing people serving week in and week out throughout all three campuses. This video celebrates all who volunteer - they are the backbone of what happens on Sunday. We’d also like to acknowledge Discovery Channel and their agency, 72andSunny, for inspiring this commercial with their original ad.