The Dirty Black Shirt, Part 2

OK, so I've established that I don't want my life to be a dirty black shirt, showing all of my shortcomings and sin for all to see.

But, I DO want my life to be a dirty black shirt.

Huh?

One of the things Jesus was criticized for was the fact that he hung around with tax collectors and sinners. One of the things present-day Christians are criticized for is "being too close to the world."

How do you:

Stay close to God while befriending the world?

Live in and not of the world?

Love the sinner, hate the sin?

I want my heart to be clean, but I also want to be involved in other people's dirt, so that God can use me to help them get rid of their own dirty shirts.

God, let me stay so close to you so that my shirts don't get dirty, but also let me stay so connected with humanity that I'm not afraid to get soiled now and then.

Flip-Flops, Part 4 of 4

OK, so this is our last installment of the Flip-Flops series' video openers. For this one, we decided to do something a little different from the others.

Here's the (rather boring) original:

And here is the final version:

A huge shout-out to Adam, our editor. He did a great job on all the videos. Also, a huge thanks to Mr. Dennis, the father of our graphic artist, for providing the setting. He lives right on the beach, and let us come over and invade his house for a couple of days for the shoot.

Happy Father's Day!

I found this little gem when I was searching for some files the other day. I had totally forgotten about it.

I did all of the gut-string acoustic parts on my 6-string bass, plus we added in a solo section, so I could show that I can play more than just root-fifth!

Anyway, hope you enjoy it. I've lost about 20 or so pounds since then (this was 2005), and we now record with audience mics (trust me...there was uproarious applause when I was done). Also, we now use in-ear monitors (I had forgotten how UGLY floor wedges are!).

I hope all you dads out there have a great Father's Day. Be good to your daughters!

Flip-Flops, Part 2

Here is the second-of-four sermon openers for our "Flip-Flops" series. Not much different from the original. A little color-correction and sound design. Enjoy!

Flip-Flops, Part 1 of 4

Our current series is called "Flip-Flops." We wanted to do a little summertime fun thing, so we decorated the auditorium with palm trees and made little tiki huts and so forth. Everyone on stage wore leis, and we even had a guy playing steel pan drums in the foyer.

So, what do you do for a sermon opener? Glad you asked. My idea was to do a little take-off on the Corona "Miles Away From Ordinary" TV campaign, making a pair of old flip-flops the hero, instead of the aforementioned Mexican beer. Our graphic artist has a relative who lives on Dauphin Island, AL, so we planned a little media dept. trip (I know, suffering for the cause...)

Since the videos would be relatively easy to shoot, we decided to do a custom sermon opener video for each week of the four-week series.

Here's Part 1's video, in its raw form, complete with my directions, bad grammar and all:

Of course, the Corona ads are all set in a tropical paradise, and the Gulf Coast of Alabama is hardly such, so, with a little post-production magic, and a whole lot of talent and patience from our editor, added in with a little bit of audio spotting from yours truly (actually none of the audio is real), we ended up with this:

Anyway, it was great fun to do these pieces. I'll post the rest of them (pre- and post-mojo) once they're done.

Busy Easter Weekend?...

Here's our promo for our 2009 Easter Production.  The series we'll be in is called "Proof," which actually starts the week before Easter.  Once that sermon intro is done, I'll put it up.

By the way, If you're in the area that weekend, I'd love to meet you in person!

Hot Topics

Here's a piece we did for our youth's current series, Hot Topics.

This was created by the very talent Sonny, who works over at Media Savant. They do all of our youth sermon openers. Great job Sonny. You hit the nail right on the head.

It'll be available soon on Crossroads Creative, as well as the resellers.

All's Well That Ends Well

Our March 2009 series is entitled "All's Well That Ends Well." We decided to do something a little different for our sermon intro video. My favorite spot from Super Bowl XLIII was by careerbuilder.com, so we did our own little takeoff on that spot.

First, the original:

And our version:

We had a lot of fun with the piece, and it'll be on our site as well as the resellers soon. Hope you like it!

Just Between You and Me

This weekend, we're wrapping up a message series that our associate pastor is doing. It's called "Just Between You and Me." He has talked about things that come between us and our God, our spouse, our friends, and this weekend, us and our fellow man, which will be a message on racism.

So, what do you do for a sermon intro video? Well, I had the idea of how things we do begin to define us, and we carry them as labels. So, we did this...

And, as always, if you're interested in purchasing it, you can find it here.

Girls' Getaway

Here's a piece Crossroads Creative did to promote our women's ministry's fun trip a few months ago (which had a record attendance). BTW, our women's ministry director is none other than my incredibly talented and adept wife. You can check out her blog here.

Hope you like the piece. It's available for sale here.

New Products at Crossroads Creative

OK, first of all, let me say "thanks" to all of you who contacted me about the videos I've posted here. Your kind words are truly appreciated. So on my 100th post, I thought I'd give a little back...

Several of you have asked when some of these will be on our site. Well...now they are!

Here are a few links to new videos I just uploaded today:

Annual Church Business Meeting - The Board Member (four in all)

Girls' Getaway - Beverly (this one is pretty funny)

Just Between You and Me (hot off the presses)

Betrayal BUNDLE (a great Easter production on a budget!)

Muchas Gracias (a piece on thankfulness)

Planks and Specks (criticism, love, etc.)

There are about 19 new pieces in all, and we have around 135 total on the site. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy them. Please send all your pastor friends my way!

OK, about my 100th post. Any purchase on Crossroads Creative is 50% OFF with the following coupon code: POST100. This offer is good through March 1st, 2009.

Friday Funny

Here is the third installment of our Annual Church Business Meeting spots. This time, it features our editor, Adam. This one is my personal favorite.

Also, for those of you who have inquired about the availability of the pieces for sale:  I'm in the process of encoding an uploading, and I hope to have them on our site, as well as the resellers' sites within the next week or so.

Lurkers Beware!

OK, so I check my blog every day, and I've noticed a lot of hits. As a matter of fact, every time I do a post, my blog shows up in the "Top Lafayette Blogs," usually in the top five (so does my wife's blog, for that matter).

But here's the deal:  not many comments! Hey, in the words of every kid who's been to a Mardi Gras parade, "Throw me something, mister!"

Leave a comment for me. Anything. You hate my work. You think my blog stinks. I don't care.

But just be nice.

Have a great day everyone! I've got some pretty funny videos coming up later this week or early next week. Stay tuned...

Celebration of Marriage Banquet

Obviously, if you've read any of my posts, you know that I'm the Media Director at Crossroads Church and we do lots of videos.  Well, this piece is for our upcoming Celebration of Marriage Banquet, which will be Friday, Feb. 13th at the church.  It's a pretty fun night. Our band plays loves songs, and it's a great meal. We even also have a comedian. Not too bad for $40/couple.

Anyway, here's the promo video we shot. There will a generic version of this on Crossroads Creative, Sermon Spice, and Worship House Media.  If you're looking to buy it, the official name is "Celebration of Marriage - Contemplate, Tolerate, Celebrate." Yeah, I know it's a mouthful. Hope you like it!

Busy Day

Yesterday was a really busy day for the Crossroads Media Dept. I got to work at 8:00 am, and began setting up for a shoot. We did a commercial for our Annual Church Business Meeting. We used a 1K in a light bank, two ARRI 300W Fresnels, and an ARRI 600W open face. We were lighting a conference table for the spot.

We began the shoot around 9:45 am and got done around 11:15. The spot will be around :60 long, but it will have four different endings, and I'll post them as they're done. We're using a different ending each weekend for four weekends. When we're completely done, we'll put three of them on Crossroads Creative, and possibly the other reseller sites (the fourth one won't be understood by anyone other then our own congregation).

After that shoot, my pastor and I drove over to a local park, where we shot a promo for his 5K jogging small group. We're doing a small groups expo the last weekend of the month, but he'll be on vacation, so he'll promote his group via video.

After that shoot, he and I headed back to his office to shoot opens and closes for our TV show, Crossroads. While we were on the 5K promo shoot, my assistant lit his office. We started around 1:00 pm, and we did opens and closes for four shows.

We got done about 1:45 pm or so, and we tore down and got ready for a meeting in his office for our 2009 Easter Production. The series we'll be in is called "Proof," and our production will center around a college professor who once was an atheist, but is now a Christ-follower.

OK, so the meeting was done around 3:30 pm or so, and I began capturing the opens & closes. I did a few file transfers, then called it quits at 4:45 pm.

Oh, yeah, and I didn't even stop to eat lunch. Some days are just that way.

What about you? do you have days that just move and move and move, with absolutely no dead time?

Inaugural Address

This past weekend, we started our new sermon series. Our pastor wanted to do a message series about vision and goal setting (which he does every January), so with the concurrence of a truly historic presidential inauguration, his idea was to do a series titled "Inaugural Address."

So...what do you do with that? Well, this is what we came up with...

All of the audio after the first shot was 100% post-production. None of it is real. Not even the footsteps. I'm the voice of the courier and the announcer at the end, our graphic artist is the voice of the lady, and our editor is the voice of the presidential aide/secret service guy.

I really hope you like it!

New Set at Crossroads

This past week, we put up a new set at Crossroads. New backdrop, new band setup, and new lighting setup. Pics will follow, but just in case you're wondering what our lighting gear is, here's a pretty comprehensive list:

Leprecon LP-X48 console

8 2K Fresnels (6 front, 2 rear)

10 PAR 64s (all front)

8 500W Fresnels (all rear)

5 Elation PowerSpot 575s (4 in front movable truss, 1 spare)

8 Elation PowerSpot 250s (4 on stage floor, 4 in various stages of malrepair)

DMX splitter

Elation UNI-BAR DMX switch/dimmer

Reel EFX DF-50 Hazer

OK, so that's how we achieve the "magic." Here are some pics taken yesterday morning. If they don't look great, blame the iPhone, not the lighting designer (me) or the photographer (me again).

We use a different light scheme/moving background video for each song. I try my best to make the two match, both in color and style. Here's the first worship song:

Second worship song:

Third worship song:

Fourth worship song:

 Special music (offertory, which we tape for the local TV broadcast as well as the website):

Finally, the sermon. We're in a series entitled "Inaugural Address," so I wanted to do a patriotic thing with the background.

I'll try to post the sermon intro for "Inaugural Address" sometime this week. Anyway, hope you like our new lighting. I got lots of great comments on it. A little inside story...I programmed all of these scenes Friday, while I was sick. I thought everything was great until I got a text from a friend, Preston Blair, who was sitting in the balcony during the 10:45 service. He told me that the red intels shining back into the crowd were blinding him and others in his section.

Sorry, Preston, a couple of burned retinas is a small price to pay.

(Actually, I moved the light immediately after that service).

Getting on Board

I'm kind of viewed by my co-workers at Crossroads as the resident computer/infotech know-it-all. I'm not sure why or how I got that distinction, but it's there nonetheless. It's been quite fun (and entertaining) helping others along their respective digital journeys (and I always lead them towards Mac-dome).

Which brings me to my point today. I've watched my pastor (and good friend) go from complete non-computer use (back in the day) to a proud iPod, MacBook Pro, and iPhone user. Now, he's entered a new chapter in his digital life:  blogging.

I'm proud of him, not only as a friend, mentor, boss, pastor, visionary, etc, but how he's embraced technology. He gets it, and as the resident computer/infotech know-it-all, it's good to have him aboard!

His name is Jeff Ables, and you can check out his blog here.

Christmas is Over...

...and I'm back to business-as-usual. This week, we finish up our new sermon intro for our new series "Inaugural Address." I may post it once it's done.

We are also working on a new set design that will incorporate some other textures than the normal white-spandex-over-shapes. We'll have some corrugated semi-transparent plastic and some perforated metal panels. I should be able to light behind the plastic, and create some interesting effects. Maybe I'll put up some pics of that too.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great 2009!

So, What Would You Have Done?

OK, our October series is called "Monsters." The pastor wanted to use the Halloween season to talk about how there are actually monsters in the church.

His series is really quite ingenious. Week One was about Jeckyll & Hyde, or the dual-nature of man. Yesterday was about witchcraft and manipulation. He's got another one on The Mummy, which will deal with new creatures still wrapped up in their grave clothes. The last one will be something about a wolf-man, probably wolves in sheep's clothing.

So, anyway, what do you do for a sermon opener? You can't try to make it scary, because of parents (who should have their kids in children's church anyway) will complain that their kids (the same ones who should have been in children's church - are you getting the feeling it's an issue with me?) won't be able to sleep at night after being scared at church (never mind the fact that they get all the demonic images they can ever want from the TV).

Well, this is what we came up with:

I had to go funny and kitschy. It seemed it was my only option. Of course, we had to put a little shot in there that said we are pros. Gotta have a little eye candy, with the "how'd they do that?" factor.

So, what do you think? What would you have done?