May 10th Video and update

I've missed a few uploads, but I was asked to get this weeks video up quickly by numerous folks so here it is:

Lot's of workflow progress was made this week, the video shoot normally scheduled for Sunday's was cancelled due to Mother's day, a gorgeous day outside, couple people had to work and others were doing homework.  Trevor and Joel ended up going to Steve's house to do editing.

Joel was stunned to see the raw footage and the number of pieces that went into the edit, even to clean up a single scene took much more than he believed.  I guess that is the price to pay for using a high end tool.  I hope the payoff comes in the fall when we all learn to use the tool easily and also add in the use of the other tools like Special Effects, SoundBooth and Photoshop.  We will really start making some cool video's then.

We are starting to shut down our season and gear up for the summer months.  Our tentative plan is to take a few weeks off to refresh, then get together to storyboard, discuss what went good and bad, improve our skills technically (shooting/audio/editing etc) and hopefully by the end of summer have 4-6 video's ready to go.  4-6 good quality 8 minute video's with 10-15 people involved over the course of 10 weeks is still very very agressive, but if God is willing, we will run and not get tired.  

I'll post the 2 missing video's asap!

Have a great week everyone!

April 19th Video Announcements

Next round of video announcements for the teen video ministry is up. Met for an hour and a half on Sunday to discuss and shoot a few of next weeks clips, then had 4 teens attempting to edit and finalize the clip shown last night. All in all a productive afternoon! A few of the guys tried to edit a clip to 'Get your calendar today' but realized that things aren't always as easy as it seems! We started reviewing online technical training materials and the group will start to meet one or two evenings per week for an hour or two to start learning the technical side of the video ministry.

With the extra help editing, the work will truly become the work of the teens in a quick amount of time. This will start a rotation where the experienced teens will teach the folks that are doing video editing and production for the first time. I'm excited that even though the number of folks attending has dipped, with the switch of focus of some of the teens to the technical and behind the scenes sides, this is a much more sustainable ministry in the long run.

The next steps in the ministry are starting to branch out into areas, a group will be learning editing, another group will be focusing on storyboarding and clip writing, we have made great progress in our lighting and are now starting to learn about audio. Everyone is involved with the acting as well. Soon we may be Hollywood quality! Paramount Pictures has nothing on us! ;)

For a preview of things to come next week, we have here is a little teaser. This shoot was hilarious, the folks behind the camera were rolling on the floor laughing and I was laughing all night after editing the clip together. Check out this image to be shown in its entirety next week:

The video that ran tonight was definitely a treat. We had a guest show up 3 weeks ago and had her star in our own version of 'The Video Team Walk - Kung Foo Fightin'.
We added an interesting clip on some of the websites that the crossroads teen ministry as a whole is involved in. The teen ministry as a whole has gotten so involved with technology recently, we lost control of which websites to check for info! We'll have a much more complete list for next weeks shoot. We even had our first controversial clip, one of the teens was 'hugging' himself as a demonstration of NO PDA. The entire group thought it was a great shoot at the time, but we started to have cold feet prior to the showing! After the showing, everyone that viewed the clip thought it was great but the teen ministry agreed afterwards that it should be removed ASAP! I wish I was that mature at their age...! I'm proud of them, ALL of them!

And at long last, here is the video shown Sunday, April 19, 2009 at Crossroads Christian Church evening teen service:

6:01 Experience on April 5th!

Awesome feedback tonight from the video shown at the 6:01 experience! Everyone, the team, Matt, Brooke and other ministry leaders all gave great feedback after seeing the finished project.

The team met in the afternoon and reviewed what we may be doing for our next showing. Much of the project will be repeated with some scenes replaced with others. The last scene shown in the feature presentation segment as well as the girl who mysteriously appeared in the video ministry scene demonstrate a bit of theatrical foreshadowing for the next video already in the works. Hmmm... stay tuned to see!

We've learned a lot about the making of video', the team has improved drastically in their story telling ability as well as their ability to set up lights to remove shadows from our green screen. We've been able to get the Sony VX2000 working properly so do expect some improvement in resolution in the near future. We will be doing some experiments with audio in the near future to improve the quality of our audio.

We are all spending a ton of time on this project but it definitely is something we are glad we are doing. We all feel as though we are bringing a little bit of joy and happiness to those that are involved or watch our productions.

And to watch our presentation from Sunday, April 4, 09, watch the video below, follow us on YouTube at CrossroadsStudio1 or at our blog, CrossRoadsStudio1.Blogspot.com.

First Showing was a Success!

The video ministry team was a hit as their first showing was made to the 6:01 youth group on Sunday night.  Cheers went up from the crowd multiple times and at the end an ovation ensued!

Feedback afterwards gives us the idea that the team is going to have a large influx of new members in the coming weeks.  We'll be looking forward to working more with news, evangelism and announcements as the team looks to add to their slapstick comedy.

Congratulations to all for their hard work, it was Awesome!

Getting the process started!

Bunch of us got together again this past Saturday to start prototyping the direction we are heading in.  Videoing the goodness and having fun at the same time!

We are starting to look for ways to use these skills to help other ministries get the word out and are prototyping our process.  It is much harder than it looks!  I am guessing as we all learn we will be able to knock these out, maybe add a theme song or catchy entry into the video.  If you have any great ideas, post them here!

2 weeks ago we took footage at Christa's birthday party, this past Sunday we took footage of Big Nate doing pilates for the first time!  Big Nate learned the hard way that pilates is much more than a bit of stretching and ab work!  Check back here for the video, it is going to be hilarious!

We will then be working with Pastor Matt and possibly Pastor Craig to build a use for our video madness... Here is a prototype of the stuff we may be doing, let us know what you think!

First Videos

Pretty awesome for first videos!



Just Playing... (Awesome Drawing Effect!, Yes, this is a VIDEO!)



Ideas we are working on for videos currently include:

• Crista's surprise party.


• Mock News Feeds ...


• Entry into Crossroads / Worship time / the 6:01 experience


• What good can we capture today!


• Street Videos... (At the mall / group outings / coffee time!)


• World of Warcraft characters doing announcements etc...


• And of course... BLOOPERS!

Many of the videos will have a theme, some with the goal of assisting the children's ministry or KidZone, some to introduce or announce in 6:01 or during worship. Some of the videos will just be to have fun and praise God for the gifts we've been given!

First Meeting!!!

Our first video ministry meeting went really well this morning! We reviewed some of the tools that we have, the cameras that we have and came up with some high level ideas of what we want to do in the future.

For those of you that couldn't make it. No Worries!!! As a first meeting it probably worked out for the best. We now know what to expect and have a good starting point on what we want to do. So if you'd like to join, we would love to have you!!

We'll have more info available soon here or contact Pastor Matt or one of the folks involved at Crossroads to see how you can participate!

Folks currently involved:

• Pastor Matthew Couch


• Steve Porter


• Brandon


• Brittany


• Joel


• Nick


• ... AND Expecting more to Attend as we Grow!