5.17 Overdrive

From Ben Neumann...

This past Sunday:

• Bob Kauflin led our time of singing.
• Josh Harris led our announcements.
• We welcomed more than 140 new members to the church.
• Braden Greer preached from Ephesians 6:10-17.

Overall, the Sunday went very smoothly, and there is little to follow up on. There are some video notes you may find helpful.

Each New Members Sunday, Josh invites all of the new members to stand on the steps of the stage. He does this so the congregation can welcome them, and so he can personally speak to them, expressing his gratefulness for them and encouraging them to embrace their calls as a members of the body of Christ.

When he does this, he has his back to the congregation, making for a unique set of camera shots. For the first service we tried switching and panning different shots of the new members. However we found that many of the shots became distracting for a couple of reasons:

1. Some people were chewing gum.
2. Some people didn’t look fully engaged.
3. There were only 30 people in the first service, so the shot sequence quickly became old.

Consequently, we made some changes for the second service. During the second service, we kept camera 2 on Josh the whole time, even though the angle wasn’t ideal. Then we periodically dissolved in and out of shots of different members on the steps who looked engaged. This allowed the congregation to see people affected by Josh’s words but without the distractions. Well done camera crew!

That's it for my thoughts. But maybe you have some??

5.10 Overdrive

From Ben Neumann...

Greetings! This past Sunday, Mother's Day, we were edified as the body gathered together again.

Leading the morning was:

• Bob Kauflin led us in our time of singing with Reilly. Reilly is a band from one of sister churches, Covenant Fellowship, in PA.
• Josh Harris gave our announcements, and appropriately honored all the moms present, as it was Mother's Day.
• Eric Simmons preached from Ephesians 6:10-12 in the first of three messages on the topic of spiritual warfare. You can listen here if you missed it on Sunday.
  

Sound

Thank you to everyone who stayed late Saturday night and arrived early Sunday morning. Your help was greatly appreciated!!

Because of the 10:31 meeting this past Saturday, and a late start Sunday morning, the band had very little rehearsal time. Fortunately Bob and the band were familiar and experienced enough with the songs and arrangements that it wasn't a problem. One thing to note is that when a guest band comes in to play, its good to have an idea of what they're used to, mix preferences, stage set up, etc. The mix may need to change in order to accommodate and serve the congregation, but still good to have an idea in mind. Anybody have any thoughts on what to do in a ‘have to prepare a mix really fast’ situation?


Lights

Thank you also to Isaac for staying late and arriving early as well. One thing we realized is that we had some distracting shadow during the baptism times on the face of those being baptized. I think we simply had too much light coming from one angle. Generally its good to hit the baptismal with lights from opposite angles.


Video

The camera crew did an excellent job transitioning in and out of baptisms. Very smooth and understated. One note: Our video producer, Chris, reminded me that in order to use Camera 5, you have to manually go under the desk in the IMAG room and push VID on the Extron converter. Thanks, Chris, for getting us a solid Cam 5 shot.

Give us any of your feedback...

5.3 Reverb

Last Sunday at Covenant Life:

• Ken Boer led us in singing to the Lord.
• We began of another month of hymn memorization, this time A Mighty Fortress.
• Braden Greer exhorted us to trust in the sufficiency of Scripture.
• Joshua Harris shared with us pastoral priorities for the week.
• Greg Somerville recommend adding a new version of Pilgrim's Progress to one's library.
• Mark Mitchell shared an excellent message on Characteristics of Christ-Centered Workers. If you haven't heard it yet, listen and apply.
  

It was a busy morning.


General Comments

First, I want to honor the auditorium sound team for this last week. They arrived at the church at 5:45am on Sunday morning to set up from scratch. The early morning made me most grateful for Saturday evening setup times.

Second, to one team member (who knows who she is): Yes, I do read the checklists and see who checked off what. And, yes, there was a lot of tweeting going on Sunday. If any of you want to jump on the twitter production com on Sundays, you can join twitter and then follow me.

OK, now on to the more specific details, in reverse order from the usual. (I know, that's risky!)


Sermon Media

Thanks, sermon media team, for quickly adapting to the new editing policies. I think they are more logical and should be more effective in the long run. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have questions about what to edit as we go along.

One quick note that will be adjusted on the checklist: We need to make two Archive Audio DVD+R discs each Sunday. One of them goes in the black case of secondary masters. The other should go into the Sunday Archive Audio DVD+R binder in the cabinets. If you have questions as to where to find that binder, check with Ben or me.


Video

The video team did a fine job again this week. I have only one big note, and that is for myself. I need to spend more time familiarizing myself with what the preaching pastor is planning to have on the screen and then communicating the details to the SundayPlus operators clearly. I didn't give it enough time this Sunday, which makes me so grateful for Bethany who joyfully worked extra hard during the singing time to overcome my lack of preparation.

One small note for camera 4 operators: When you are setting up for a ministry mic moment, please make sure to pull out to a head-and-shoulders shot. A 15-foot-tall head-only shot is quite uncomfortable. Pop in to focus, and then pop back out to head-and-shoulders before you go live.

And one followup for the SundayPlus operators: Yes, we still do the countdown clock each Sunday. We now have a 15-minute countdown DVD that you can select on Input 3 on the lyric station switcher.


Lighting

Lighting was simple and perfect this week. No notes whatsoever. Huge thanks to Craig, who ran the board, and to Alex, who stayed very late after the Pilgrim production to focus and program.


Sound

Thanks again to the sound crew for waking up so early to serve the band.

Karen mentioned that there is a problem with the drum headphone output (Aux 3-4 to Stereo 2). I think we tracked this down already, but I can't remember exactly what in the signal chain was failing. Does anyone remember, so that we can get it fixed as soon as possible?

Brian shared a great idea a couple weeks ago that I failed to include in the Reverb post at the time. He has noticed that the color labels on the handheld wireless mics are much easier for the vocalists to remember than the numerical labels on the WIE units. He actually took the time to put color labels on the WIE packs to match the vocalists handheld color. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who wants to do it! Note, though, that they need to be removed at the end of the weekend, since the combinations of mic/WIE can change from week to week.

I think that's all I have. What did you notice this Sunday?