Lachie Outhred, media director at AFES, has written a great series of posts for Christian university student groups on campus, all about how to make great (or better!) videos. They are so relevant to creating videos in your church that it would be a shame if no one else reads them!
His points are simple and clear, with advice on planning a video and getting clear sound – relevant to every church wanting to communicate well, and particularly those on tight (or zero) budget so to speak.
Planning your video is absolutely critical to making sure you aren’t wasting time and resources, and that your video communicates exactly what you want, and nothing you don’t. Broadly speaking, he suggests the following questions:
What do we want to communicate? It could be an event promotion, a testimony, campus report, gospel message, or maybe it’s just entertainment!
How do we want viewers to respond / how do we want them to feel? e.g. sign up for an event, rethink who Jesus is, feel convicted
What vibe are we going for? Formal, funny, semi-serious, inspirational, informational…
On the blog, there’s also an example of a plan for a video so that you know what you want to film before it happens – making everything more efficient, and more likely to achieve the purpose of the video.
You can see some of these principles in practice in AFES’ own video
The post about sound is very helpful, and if you are filming on a DSLR or maybe on an iPhone, there are some great tips for getting the most out of your sound for less than $20! Combine that with a tripod mount like this and you’re on your way to stable, clear sounding video on the iPhone you already have. The third post will be part 3 – cameras! (Link to come)
What does a good church video look like? I’ve seen a lot of them in my research, and partly the answer is, “It depends”. It depends on the context of the church, the audience of the video and its purpose.
Barneys Church Sydney recently published their new “Welcome” video – and it works (you can see how it fits on their website here). I think it is a really good example of a church welcome video that will still be current in a month, a year – even a few years – because it has these features:
Simple, but well executed. People are in focus and clear, backgrounds are in the distance but relevant (at church, in the vicinity). Voices are clearly heard, lighting is even and consistent.
The people on screen are church members speaking naturally about something that important to them, and you can see it in the way they speak – including the um’s and ah’s. They are a range of nationalities and ages, and this reflects the makeup of the church.
As a welcome video, it gives people a reason to visit – “Here at Barneys, people are challenging what they’ve been told and considering Jesus for the first time” and shows newcomers what to expect when they come
The music and style is secondary to the message.
This video won’t date as quickly because it isn’t aiming to be trendy in the music it uses, the visual treatment or camera angles and lots of B-Roll. It’s aimed at a broad audience and I think it will speak to a lot of people, well – and mostly, I think that’s because of the authenticity. When watching people being filmed for a video, they are most relaxed and natural when speaking about the topic that they love. Ironically – they are also trying to reach people at an age when authenticity is valued, so I think their video strategy works well with their audience.
The other part of the answer doesn’t change. It should be best quality you can afford to film (ie. if you have a smartphone, that’s it. If you can get an SLR with video capacity, use that instead) and edit – quickly. Video needs to be current, and its value will be decreased if it include content that dates quickly or can’t be updated.
Spending a sum of money to obtain a professionally scripted, filmed and edited video is one way a church could approach the challenge. The risk of course, is that the process involved means the content needs to be triple checked to make sure you aren’t promoting things that will be cancelled, welcoming from a minister who leaves later in the year, or comes 6 months before a major church redesign or strategy shift.
However, if you have the skills ‘in house’, I think you should make the best video that you can plan, script, film and edit within a month. All this because if you are making something that needs to be updated every 3-6 months – like a welcome video for the service, an event promo or a video for your website or youth group – this is a reasonable turnaround within the planning timeframes I’ve seen. You need to allow time to meet, plan and decide the content, in addition to organising all the filming and the follow on edits and updates. If the best skills and equipment you have in-house are an iPhone and iMovie, then work on getting this workflow running smoothly, before you invest in expensive gear and software (which may end up underused anyway).
If it’s “not good enough” – either because you, the video maker, weren’t very dissatisfied with the outcome despite doing your best, or because it doesn’t suit the church service style or strategy, then give it a break and consider other innovative ways of doing communication within and outside of your church. Maybe you could make a better investment in training up welcomers, or building your church’s kids program, or partnering with local groups to serve your community. There are lots of ways to reach out to the community and reach in to build up the church, without needing to use video. It may be that making your own videos is simply beyond the capacity, gifting or needs of your people.
Recently at our church, we’ve started a weekly “Church News” video, which is by no means perfect! But we’re working on how to have a dynamic video that welcomes newcomers and helps them get connected, streamlines announcements, and encourages church members. Doing all of this and pulling the technical side off is something James Kirsop has been blogging about here:
A couple of weeks ago there was (I think) a Sydney first – a church communications meetup. I went along, with a few others I know and have met along the way – the whole thing was organised/hosted by Steve Kryger of Communicate Jesus.
The meetup ‘structure’
I’ve been to a meetup or two recently for work related things and user groups – and never really found them interesting, probably because of my obligation to be there. They also seem to be awkward – people want to talk but don’t quite know how to get down to a question of “So, what do you actually do with [insert software here]?”
The church communications meetup was thankfully different. Once we got past the initial get-through-the-door, put-on-a-nametag, take-a-deep-breath steps, it was pretty easy. Recognised someone. Introduced self. Helpfully hosted with tips on how to mingle, when the pizza would be there and what was happening next. Get ready to hear about what others are doing and be thankful.
the inspiration and the ongoing thoughts
Planning.
I was stunned at the example of Church By The Bridge’s (admittedly recent) planning schedule for what exactly they wanted to do at church every week – even down to notices, promoting events and giving enough ‘air time’ to exactly the things they want to prioritise.
One of the most frustrating things about designing in and for church is the lack of planning or even lead time given to a designer who (usually/often) is not a full timer but actually more of a night-owl-freelancer who wants to do their best for the kingdom but struggles when the turnaround is so short. Planning things ahead of time is one way to communicate that your message is important, and the people you ask to help are valued too.
Intent and Boundaries.
Fighting the ‘stop trying to please everyone’ syndrome and know who your audience is. If it’s a poster designed for outreach and some people inside the church don’t like it, remember you are designing it for the outside.
Encouraged to have clear boundaries and expectations around what the communication/design isand isn’t.
The church website is not necessarily your newsletter.
The newsletter is not necessarily your welcome card.
Your welcome card is not necessarily your feedback form.
Your slides are not an essay.
Your agreement to work on the church website doesn’t always have to be a binding commitment to be the webmaster.
Define what it is that you are doing and why, and what it is that you are not doing, and why. It’s about Scope, people.
Buy in.
One of the topics that came up in the afterward was “But how do we get people to buy in to the stuff that we want to do? How can we persuade people to {insert change here}?”
It was quite helpful to hear how people had initiated change in their church in small or big ways, and very encouraging to see a whole bunch of church leaders there despite it being not their day-to-day role, or even people agreeing that they don’t do this well and they want to do it better.
Been thinking about the article I saw last night – don’t ask people if they think its a good idea – humbly and intentionally ask for their participation and their energy.
The verdict
Lots to think about. I hope the conversations continue and the thoughts are ticking over in people’s heads, as they get excited about better communicating about the good news – Jesus.
Should you have a brand for your youth group? How important is a logo to the identity of a group? How does it contribute or influence the sense of community that you want to build or create?
I’ve previously worked on some print material for Soulies Youth Community, at St Faiths Narrabeen on the northern beaches. They wanted some awesome flyers for the launch of a new camp, which involved a shift in thinking for their culture and promotions.
I designed a postcard with some kickin retro pics (complements of my own retro grandfather), rocking some all-caps, sans serif type.
Then we went on to design a logo and build out the branding for Soulies. They’re rocking the new logo on stickers, t-shirts and some plans for video intro/outro idents in the works. It had to be quick, adaptable and distinctive. Their youth paster wanted something a bit fresh but fairly ‘timeless’, because he didn’t have the time to keep up with the latest in typefaces.
Dave Miers did the design for this one, taking the cues from the original and making good use of the logo and typefaces handed over.
In my experience, this is actually a big problem for churches that invest in design which is more about trends than communication. There seem to be a lot of website designs around that have beautiful javascript-driven slideshows for the latest events and sermon series graphics – which are almost disappointingly filled with mis-sized images and low quality design work.
No one seems to have planned for the future of design in the church. How can we do better at handing over design resources to people in ways they can manage? Are we over designing and leaving noticeable gaps where there didn’t need to be designed work in the first place?
I was at at 13:3 youth event last week. It was excellent. I’m so glad we took our youth group, even if the turnout wasn’t excellent (the starting time was a little prohibitive – we had to leave at 6:15 and we usually start at 7:30pm).
I’m super impressed by how Voice of the Martyrs has launched this initiative. It is engaging, well designed, has a solid presence on social media on Facebook (not so much Twitter – but how many 15-year-olds do you know who care about Twitter?) – well, ok, fine. I love the design. It gives me so much joy to see a group that knows that design will make a difference to communicating the message to their demographic. Which in this case, is about the persecuted church, and telling it to teenagers.
The event we went to was SO enthusiastically hosted by MBM youth and the band was great (if loud – yes, I’m old). The video spots were well produced, the speaker was inspiring and understandable.
And there was a countdown video just as it started.
It worked, ok? It got everyone involved in counting down the seconds till the event started, and they all yelled and applauded and it created atmosphere and unity and a sense of being part of something big. And I couldn’t help but think, if I was a visitor, or a year 7 kid, would I be worried at all of the people yelling around me, or excited? Would this be helpful, or just weird?
One of my concerns was we watched a video, sang two songs, and then the youth pastor got up to say welcome, and prayed “to kick us off”. But, what had we been doing up to that point?
Almost every youth event you go to will make use of a countdown video. There are whole categories and stacks of resources – some of them free – available. WorshipHouse Media suggests the purpose of a countdown video is:
“Countdowns are a great way to get your congregation to their seats on time, as well as build excitement as the service nears. Countdowns are a great service starter for “Big Church” as well as your Children’s and Youth services…”
Countdowns are about excitement, expectation and atmosphere. But countdowns are also about entertainment, performance and efficiency. Does this make church more like a concert or an experience than about God’s people meeting together?
Interestingly, it seems no one is talking about this critically. It doesn’t seem like people consider whether or not a countdown video is achieving what they should want it to. (On further research, the people talking about it are the ones selling ‘Church Media’).
Does it get the youth (or congregation) excited? Yes. Does it mean we start on time? Yes. Then do it. Really?
I enjoy a good countdown video. I’ve even made them myself (for other youth groups). But do they encourage community? Do they get people to talk to each other? Do they encourage reflection on why we come to church, what we are there to do, focus us more on God?
[I’m not a gigantic fan of hillsong, but at least their video and intro sequences are all about the experience and are not messageless voids of ever decreasing numbers. I realise this is a conference intro, not a countdown video. And I think people are not concerned enough about how both work together.]
Or perhaps more critically, does it build on the idea that we must be constantly entertained? Does it contribute to the endless screen media we see, for no purpose than to fill the space? Does it remove space for awkwardness and humanness and transparency in our services? Does it create endless work in coming up with something new and engaging and fresh? Worse, is it becoming a church cliche (does your work meeting have a countdown video? What about your uni lecture? Ok, so fair enough – U2 have one…)
Have we appropriated this trend without due consideration?
I’ll be honest. I’ve been wondering lately if it might be true that:
“Those who can’t do… research?”
I’ve heard this before, mostly to denigrate tutors who were disliked at university, to cast doubt on their alleged ‘industry experience’ and to claim that of course, if they ended up back here, they must not be much good at all!
I can’t deny, however, that researching how churches should use design has helped me put off actually designing for my church. It could be because there’s no particular financial motivation. Or because it’s a large project. Or because it doesn’t stare me in the face like other items on my to-do list.
But then there comes that awkward moment when you’re asked – “So… what’s happening with the church website?” And I have to admit it hasn’t been my highest priority.
Just churn it out! You might suggest. But I don’t want to – I want to consider it, and design carefully and consider our community. Without finance, though, comes the temptation to do the easiest and most acceptable – rather than the thoughtful and most creative.
Having commented a lot on the resources available, I’m going to attempt a roadtest of sorts. I intend to work through, and hopefully blog through, the handy Church Websites 101 series over at the Church Marketing Sucks blog. This should provide a framework for limiting this (I have other work to do for uni as well…) and help me to know how good the walkthrough actually is and who it should be recommended to. Can my minister read it and use it? Or is it really ‘designer only’ territory?
Time to find out! Hopefully it’s a constructive enterprise. Stay tuned, folks.
I still need to upload the finished project, but being happy with the design equated to a good mark as well, so double the satisfaction.
next task up: pitching a direction for our major project for next semester (honours-type project). What will I be doing for almost all of the next 22 weeks? Is there enough in this ‘church and design’ project to sustain a major project? to be employable at the end of the year?
more reflection to come.
more reflection on reflection to come.
(our assessment next wednesday includes reflecting on the process of the subject to date. and i will reflect on that reflection afterwards).
so, the very ambitious brief I set myself was not only to condense and write out a comprehensive (if draft…) guide to church and design, but also to design it (obviously).
The frustrating part is writing and designing simultaneously. I’m quite proud that I only have one page of placeholder text in there. The rest is actual, written and thoughtful content.
This part hopefully comes to a close tomorrow, when I print and present the booklet I’ve been working on. In the meantime, here are 2 spreads from the first section. I’ll try and upload the rest later in the week, once assessment is complete.
(There’s also lots of stained glass in it, mainly because I love it. My church similarly features heavily in the photographic parts.)
currently I’m working on the ‘design’ part of the project, after conveniently forgetting that uni work was necessary over our mid semester break.
the design outcome I’ve set for this part of the project:
“an educative and informative resource to educate churches about how and why visual communication should and can be used in the church, and to thereby persuade them to use it”
for this next week and 2 days, its focus is the Presbyterian church, for sake of scale, and scope.
but the question i face now, is: is there enough in this for major project? could I work on it for a whole nother semester? is this what i want to present as my final major work for 4 (or 5…) years of study? is this what i want to do for a job as an outcome of this course?
thankfully, the assessment that asks me that question isn’t for another 4 and a half weeks. at the moment, the most pressing thing is self assessing the brief i developed, and extruding a design outcome from my research.
Despite being frustrated at the chunk of time our weekly workshops took out of my Fridays, I can conclude they did actually add something. Mike O’Halloran’s workshop about Insight and the Research Process was actually quite revealing.
We spent some time analysing and discussing the process of ‘coming to insight’. When we have those lightbulb moments, and how they are usually the process of letting things coagulate for a while. People talked about having good ideas in talking to people, in doing mundane things not related, in the shower, while sleeping…
While I’d like to believe that my last week of being sick and unable to work, and the ‘holiday’ I took for a week before that actually help the research project, I’m still unclear as to whether they did contribute in that way or not. Talking to people has actually helped me figure out what the focus and outcome of my research is, while going for a walk has not.
But last night, just as I was trying to convince myself to sleep, and break the midnight to noon sleep cycle… I had an idea. A well formed one! There was a design outcome, and a style, and four different points/focus I needed to remember. I repeated them to myself, then thought, ‘I need to write this down’. That’s the last thing I remember. The only problem is…
NOW I CAN’T REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS.
Along with that weird dream about… making tea. or something.
clipart church 