Jump Start – Whose Stuff Is This Anyway?

Ever wonder about all the stuff in the world and where it comes from? This week take a couple minutes to Jump Start your week thinking about where everything does come from.

Friday Night Flood in Review – 12/4/09

Tonight’s Friday Night Flood had a different feel to it. It was a really great night on a lot of different levels. I personally got to have a handful of good conversations (one of which took place as  I dropped a student off at his house. He had a friendship break up over something trivial and needed to talk/vent). We had another student share her testimony. I have seen her go through several major ups and downs since moving into town, some good choices, and some bad. But in the end, she has turned back to God to direct her path, and even though her choices have not always been the greatest, she does realize that she needs to be under His guidance. (I may have video of this on Monday evening. I really hope to, but I told her if she is uncomfortable sharing it on the web that I will not post it).

On the negative side of things, we had a couple of teens who had a little too much sugar and were a bit rambunctious. But the gym being open finally helped out with that. There was a small group of teens who would rather stand outside in the cold than help put a few tables and chairs back up before they left. (This always seems to be a problem). But the gym being open did diminish the cafe atmosphere we have been running the past several weeks. We also had to have a student leave for the hospital with some medical issues. Nothing life-threatening, but serious enough to warrant the trip.

But more positives from the evening. We welcomed a possible new addition to our adult leadership corps. He has a passion for working with teens to young adults, and really seemed to fit in right away. He’s already committed to plugging in next week!

All in all, a good, solid night of ministry. I am looking forward to next week already…

BONUS: Here’s a quick little video of the challenge tonight that I took with my BlackBerry. Oatmeal, Pantyhose, and spoons. What more do you need?

Creating an Effective Announcement Video – Hosting

This is the fifth part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Tons of useful information and experiences that I crammed into one short(?) series. I hope that it has been useful to you and to your ministry. Today I wrap it up by sharing some video hosting options for your videos online, and a couple other ministries that create video announcements.

Video Hosting Sites:

• blip.tv: I use blip primarily for all of our videos with H20 for a couple reasons. First, if I upload in quicktime format i can distribute it to iTunes for free as a podcast. Ever episode is included in our iTunes podcast as soon as it is uploaded. I can also cross post to YouTube with a single mouse click. Individual videos and playlists are embeddable anywhere online. You can also track fairly detailed statistics. People can download a copy of your video directly from the site, either the flash that is posted, or the original video that you uploaded (and you can upload multiple formats). Completely free to you, but you can pay for an account that enables you to have more options. Our Blip Channel. Our iTunes Podcast.
• Vimeo: I use Vimeo exclusively for our video announcements. While not as advanced as blip is, it has a beautiful player and you can create a personalized channel (check ours out). You can cross post from blip to Vimeo if you have paid for a Pro account on Vimeo. Videos are embeddable anywhere, and you can create a widget to stream all of your videos. Free to you, but you can pay for a Pro account. Our Channel.
• YouTube: The biggest, most popular video hosting site on the web. Everyone knows it, and everyone knows where to find it. Nice, embeddable players, but they are STRICT with their copyright regulations. Our Channel.
• Social Networking Sites: Facebook and MySpace (and I am sure others) offer video hosting. They are nice to use, and are embeddable, but I rarely use them myself. I already embed the videos from the other sites on our MySpace page and link to it in our Facebook group.

Who Else makes Video Announcements?

• Tim Schmoyer. Tim creates video announcements and posts them for his group. He uses many of the same distribution sites that I do. He also has some very helpful insights on creating video announcements here and here.
• Josh Griffin/Saddleback. Saddleback uses a lot of video in their ministry, and Josh posts a lot of it for us to see.

These are just a couple. Is there anyone else out there who makes video announcements? Care to share your sites/videos?  Is there anything that I missed in this series that should be gone over?

Creating an Effective Announcement Video – Creativity, Take 2

This is the fourth part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Before I wrap this section of the series up, I have a couple more creative issues to throw at you before moving on to hosting options tomorrow.

• Add Bonus Material: While it is necessary to remain on task about the announcements in your video, don’t be afraid to add in a few bonus features to add value that brings your teens back, something that will make them want to find it online and watch it at home. I currently include a devotional element each week. I use my weekly Jump Start, usually a little bit condensed for time that ties into that week’s lesson topics. Once a month I offer a texting/trivia challenge to our teens, with a small prize involved. Once a month (or with a little less irregularity) I share a fun YouTube video that made me laugh (with proper credit given, of course). Don’t be afraid to add something in.
• Don’t Chain Yourself to a Style: Over the years, the format of my videos has changed drastically. In Indiana, the format changed every week. Here at Corry First, I settled very quickly into a groove of From the Laptop, in which I (or teens, or action figures) sat in front of my laptop’s webcam and did something creative to share the announcements. That evolved into the H20 Action News when I realized that From the Laptop was getting stale. Teenagers (and we adults as well, if we’re honest) tend to lose interest in something that is the same, week in and week out. So we need to keep it fresh, keep it engaging. Recently I have experimented with a new format for the Action News (late-night talk show and clip show).
• Be Fair and Honest: If you use material that someone else created, give proper credit. If you don’t, you will be engaging in what is essentially theft (copyright restrictions say so), and putting forth a poor witness to people. (A lot of my older videos broke this rule, and I need to go in and change this). But also important in this item, if you use audio that is copyrighted, and the owners tell YouTube to shut it down, the entire audio for your video will disappear. Oops! Do this also with other videos that you will post within your video (YouTube video of the week). When I use other YouTube videos, I give the title it is posted as, the author/poster of the video and the url it can be found at. This past week for the first time ever I got a notice that a video of mine includes copyrighted material (my YouTube video of the week).

Next time I’ll wrap this series up with video hosting options, and a couple other Youth Pastors that create video announcements for their groups.

BONUS: My earliest published Video Announcement

Hot Topics Night – December 2

Had another Hot Topic last night. At the end of Hot Topic Nights we invite a representative from each discussion group to share their findings with everyone else, effectively teaching the group. Here’s the finale to last night’s Hot Topic Night.

Wednesday Night Live in Review – 12/2/09

Set List: Days of Elijah (Robin Mark), Shadows (David Crowder*Band) was planned, but I broke a string so couldn’t finish the set.

Prepwork For the Evening: Prepared EasyWorship schedule, PowerPoint slides, created H20 Action News, prayed, chose topics, recorded and posted videos of leftover topics.

Lesson Topic: Hot Topic Evening: Why do people think Christians are perfect and what can we do to change that? Is purple (Physical Affection) bad or is it good?

Scripture Used: 1 Peter 1.13-16; 1 Thessalonians 4.3-7; 2 Timothy 2.22; Philippians 4.8

Positives From the Evening: Conversations really flowed tonight, for both groups. The girls group had a rabbit trail that led them to some really deep conversation about broken homes and the success (or lack of success) in their parents’ marriages. The guys had some interesting conversation, even going off on the tangent of whether or not one can lust after their wife. There were a couple of new faces tonight and one of them was not afraid to share her groups findings at the end of the evening. At least 50% of our teens present tonight come from (what I can determine) are largely un-churched backgrounds.

Negatives From the Evening: The guitar string breaking during Days of Elijah was a problem. We always seem to need more time for discussion. We could use another leader or two present.

Results From the Evening: I really love these discussion nights. It gives our teens a voice and allows them to discover things for themselves. The side tangents, though potentially distracting, are where the real heart came out (especially in the girls’ group), which has led to some discussion between Kelly and I about what we can do to show some of our teens from broken homes some tangible love, and how we can invest into them in solid ways.

Student Involvement: Students participated in discussion, ran EasyWorship, ran the video camera and shared at the end (effectively teaching the group).

Next Week: Something interesting that I am working on for Advent.

Bonus: Check out the four remaining videos from the Hot Topic Box and weigh in with your thoughts on YouTube.

Creating an Effective Announcement Video – The Creative Side

This is the third part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Now that the basics are out of the way, we can get into the fun part of creating fun, engaging Announcement Videos.

• Use Your Students: They will have limitless energy (usually), be willing to try (almost) anything, and should be the face of your videos. They are your group, your flock.
• Use Your Students’ Ideas: Some of the most hilarious and longest-lasting ideas that I have seen in our videos have come from students. To take a person and have them stranded in an alternate-reality trying to find a program that we are hosting? Comic gold in the execution. Taking one student and creating a fake movie trailer around them? Came through beautifully. Use their ideas.
• Beware of Your Students’ Ideas: Your videos need to tread on the side of good taste, be tactful and not expose students to opportunities for ridicule. Sometimes your students will throw out ideas that are too gross, too risqué, or could set them up to be made fun of terribly down the road. You don’t want your Video Announcement to be something that divides the student ministry and the church, or that will divide students.
• Steal Ideas: Kind of an odd bullet point, but feel free to use what is popular. Can you mimic Twilight, maybe make fun of it a little to drive home an announcement? Are movie trailers big in your area? Create you own. Is there a big music group you can spoof? Don’t be afraid to poke fun at something. You might run the risk of offending a few teens, so make sure you don’t go too far, but ultimately it will be memorable to them. Especially to those who might be a little offended.
• Keep Focus: One of the worst mistakes I have made over the years was running with too many of my students’ ideas. Keep the information from your announcement front and center. Don’t bury your lead, so to speak.
• Have an Outline: You don’t have to be ultra-strict and script every word, but having an outline can help you incredibly to keep on track and not lose sight of the important information.

I have a few more items, but figured I’d break it up into two posts, so look for the rest tomorrow.

BONUS: Not an announcement video, but a fun little bump I can’t pass up sharing. Briefly setting it up, this ran before our break time at Friday Night Fire in Indiana, which we called BayTime.

Creating an Effective Announcement Video – The Technical Side

This is the second part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Okay. Get ready for the basics of your video. This is all of the nitty-gritty that you will need to know to succeed at creating great Announcement Videos that will leave a deep impact on your students (or at least help them to remember the announcements better). Here are the technical aspects of crafting a great Announcement Video.

• Start With a Quality Camera: When I first started, I was using an old JVC GR-SXM240 VHS-C camcorder that Kelly had from before we got married. The quality was decent, but the transfer process was long, and it only recorded one channel of audio (thus all of my videos were mono). I since have moved on to a JVC  Everio-G HDD camera. The quality and transfer are both much better, but it captures into a format that I have to render into a different format in order to use it with our editing software. I have also recently gained access to the church’s new Canon XL2 Mini-DV. I can capture the footage directly to my hard drive (or to digital tape and capture later with virtually no quality loss) and edit from there. I have also heard of announcements filmed on a Flip Mino or other smaller device that turned out great. All this to say that your video quality is an investment. The more you can invest, the better your videos will look. But don’t break the bank on it. Video Announcements should be a small portion of your ministry.
• Start With a Quality Video Editing Program: I started on Windows Movie Maker, which is very user-friendly, and the end product is good for most formats and settings (as long as you use Windows). Currently I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio, which is a bit more complex than Windows Movie Maker, but nowhere near as difficult as Adobe After Effects can be. There will be a learning curve on any software you use, but that curve should shrink as you use it more often. You should not have to spend a lot of time on the editing process for an Announcement Video, so find a software quite that you understand and are comfortable with using. It should make your job easier, not more difficult.
• Know Who is Watching: In our area, High-Speed internet is not incredibly common. In fact, a lot of our teens still have dial-up internet access. Keeping that in mind, I try not to have our videos run too long, so that we don’t have teens waiting hours for a video to load. Each of our Announcement Videos shoots to be around 7 minutes in length. It provides us adequate time to communicate our information and still keep it fresh.
• Start With Great Lighting: Don’t keep your audience in the dark. Make sure that you spend a little time reading about 3-point lighting, and if you are filming outside, make sure that the sun is behind you, otherwise you run the risk of having a silhouette giving your announcements.
• Know Your Format: Something I’ll touch more on later when I talk about hosting, but different sites (and different programs) require different video formats. Is it WMV? MPEG? Quicktime? How you display and share your video will determine how you render it.

That’s it for the technical side today. Tomorrow, look for the Creative side of things.

Creating an Effective Announcement Video

I spend a lot of time crafting videos for our Student Ministry. In fact, it is not uncommon for me to film, edit and produce up to 4 or 5 videos a week. Some are recap videos, some are part of the series or lesson we are working through, and others are all about announcements.

Long ago I learned that sharing announcements as a spoken monologue from the front of the room is one of the most ineffective methods of communicating important details that need to be remembered. Looking back at my own experience in High School, we would film our announcements then (even in the days prior to digital video capture), so I tried it as a Youth Pastor.

Early on I used an old VHS-C camcorder that would require me to film, watch the film while capturing it into a digital format, then editing it and rendering it into a usable format for distribution. There were some long days in the early period. (You can find some examples on my YouTube channel, check out the Epicenter Playlist). But they seemed to leave more of an impact upon our teens than speaking the announcements did.

I also learned that allowing teens to be in front of the camera can really give them a sense of ownership. Not just over the announcements, or even the creative process, but of the group itself. It gives them a platform to share their gifts and talents. It offers them an opportunity to express themselves and support the life of their ministry.

Over the next couple of blog posts, I will be sharing my experience and advice about creating announcement videos, and even offer some examples of what I have done so far. It is my hope that you will learn and grow from my experience, and be able to use it to grow your own ministry.

BONUS: One of my favorite classic Announcement Videos

What I Did Over Thanksgiving Break…

This year over the Thanksgiving break, H20 hosted our first (hopefully) annual Turkey Bowl football game. Taking the footage from that, I spliced it in with this week’s announcements and devotional. Take a few minutes and enjoy! (By the way, the other “older” guy in the video is my brother-in-law).