by Diceman » Sat Nov 22, 2003 7:38 pm
Video backgrounds - Distracting or Useful?
This is based on my experience of doing video for church and youth events from crowd sizes of 5 to over 10 000 and working alongside worship leaders and bands like yfriday, delerious, the band with no name, steve, and the tribe to name a few.
Words are visually neutral - that is, unlike video or images they do not instill any emotion (unless a fancy font is used - not recommended). This is the mainstay of the video crew's objective: to facilitate worship. I will always lean towards less rather than more. WHY? - Because my idea of 'worshipful' as a director is someone elseÂ?s 'disrespectful' and another person's 'cheesy'. I personally can't stand a video crew, which sticks soft focus pictures of mountains or lakes behind the words. Why? - Because it reminds me of 'oh so well meant' but oh so dated hippy looking posters from the 70's in my local Christian book shop. Now this might be great for all those who can remember the Summer of Love but it alienates everyone else. Kids go "erghh" and grannies can't read the words because someone has stuck a baby deer behind them. Regardless of lyrical accuracy, the video crew is not there to provide a visual lesson. Our job is to facilitate worship - in whatever capacity possible. Pray with your team, study bible with them and have fellowship (we've seen loads of young rookies come to know Jesus personally while on video crew). The various different technical teams are equally important as the worship leader in the church leader's quest to facilitate worship.
If you use an image, it's got to be appropriate, not alienating and not distracting.
So what about video?
Done correctly this can be very effective. We started using video in '93 to allow the people at the back to see the faces of the people at the front (medium close-ups, close-ups and extreme close-ups). This stopped them from being the impersonal speaker at the front, and instead made them an up close, personal down-to-earth face (and if Christ isn't about being down-to-earth then I don't know what is).
A good trick is to use a heavy masking edge on the words, i.e. white sans serif typeface with a black outline around the letters. This makes the words much more legible than just white text on the video and compensates for whatever the background image may be (light or dark). Most often it is preferable to bring down the gamma of the background image/video so that it is less prominent on the screen.
When a speaker is speaking, complex transitions between camera angles can be distracting, so use a 2 second dissolve or a straight cut (you don't need a mixer, a rapid fire audio switcher will do, and the less time spent switching the less noticeable the frame drop will be).
All visuals have a distinctive pace, be it the rhythm of the music, the end of a bar or the motion of the preacher who irritatingly paces up and down forcing you to pan. Get a sense of timing for your subject and tailor it to your target audience. If it's a bunch of old dears, be sensitive and don't let them get sea-sick. If it's a youth event with a live band - you can afford to have a slightly more guerrilla documentary style of live editing.
You are producing narrowcast television here. At youth events more people will be watching the screen(s) than the stage - because that is how the younger generation has been socially conditioned.
Above all, no matter how technically advanced you want to get (and you can with a little lateral thinking and a shoestring budget), focus on the objective - enabling the people to worship - not bamboozling them with 'nice' images. If it's a youth event use live camera - but be sure to know when to loose it. At a youth event you don't have a congregation, and you don't have an audience, you have a crowd. So don't film them or put them on screen during worship. Worship is personal and the camera is invasive - stay on your stage/worship team. It's there job to be seen worshiping (and leading).
Video and image in Zionworx will be great!
Black Matte edging on text will be clear.
Background image/video controlable/fadable gamma will allow creative sensitive control of the screen.
Responsible creative and appropriate direction, will justify these features.
We are emulating our creator God. He did not cut any corners. He did not create anything half-baked. Neither should we - it is our witness.
Diceman
"Let there be light, cameras and action"