Production Musings

Tim Nyden

// February 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Video

Since I’m on the topic of videos about life change, here’s one dear to me.  I wish everyone could know Tim or at least talk with him for a couple hours.  I sat with him several months ago and just talked about his journey with God.  Somehow the message sometimes gets communicated that all a person must do is pray a little prayer and what follows is pie in the sky.  Truth is, following Jesus requires humility, obedience.

Tim Nyden from Andrew Hunt on Vimeo.

We got news at our church that Ruby Aliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon. Ruby Aliason. Over 80, single all her life. A nurse. Poured her life out for one thing–to make Jesus Christ known among the sick and the poor in the hardest and most unreached places. Laura Edwards. A medical doctor in the twin cities, partnering up with Ruby, also pushing 80, and going from village to village in Cameroon, and the brakes give way, over a cliff they go, and they’re dead instantly. And I asked my people: is this a tragedy? Two women, in their 80’s almost, their whole lives devoted to one idea, Jesus Christ magnified among the poor and the sick in the hardest places. And 20 years after most of their American counterparts have begun to throw their lives away on trivialities in Florida and New Mexico, they fly into eternity with a death in a moment: is this a tragedy I asked? It is not a tragedy. I’ll read you what a tragedy is.
I’ve got a little article here from Reader’s Digest. This is a tragedy. The title of the article, “Start Now, Retire Early.” February 1998. (reading from the article): “Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball, and collect…shells.”

That’s a tragedy. That’s a tragedy, and there are people in this country who are spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it…Don’t buy it. Don’t buy that dream. The American Dream. A nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells…as the last chapter before you stand before the Creator of the universe to give an account with what you did. ‘Here it is, Lord, my shell collection! Look, Lord, my shell collection. And I’ve got a good swing. And look at my boat…God, look at my boat!’     – John Piper

Intro Videos Part 2

// February 27th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Video

Here are all of the video shorts, one after another…

Untitled from Andrew Hunt on Vimeo.

Intro Videos

// February 25th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Video

As mentioned in an earlier post, we recently had a baptism service. These services at Blue Ridge are a big deal and always have been in the 8 or 9 years I’ve been a part of this church body. If you’re reading this and have questions about what baptism is all about it’s basically this in a nutshell: it’s what a person does as a symbolic public display of their decision to follow Jesus, it signifies a changed and changing life from the inside out. Often, these events include several stories from individuals followed by all of the baptisms.
For this service I tossed an idea to the rest of the creative programming team: short video snippets of every person. We typically only have time for about 2 extended stories per service and I really thought it’d be great if we could capture just a snippet of everyone’s story. The team liked the concept. The video shorts would be roughly 10-20 seconds per person. I sat down with them, tried my best to help each person feel comfortable in front of the camera and then asked a question. In some form or another it went like this, “What would you want people to see in you now, what difference do you want your life to display?” In every case, they came up with their own answer. Sometimes it took a while to get there but I loved it. What they didn’t say says as much about where they came from and the life they’ve now found in Christ. I liked that this was documentary style video – the aim was to capture something that already happened/is happening and communicate it.
Each video played as they were entering the stage and as their family and friends gathered around. So far we’ve gotten immensely positive feedback about these little shorts. Looks like we’ll be doing them next time too. Tech stuff: they shot with a Panasonic DVX100B at 24p using a very home made 3 point lighting kit over a 2 week period. 37 videos total. Here’s a screen shot of them all followed by how it was used within the service:

Larry Beasley from Andrew Hunt on Vimeo.

2009 Father Daughter Dance

// February 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Audio, Stage Design, Thoughts

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
- John Mayer

This is becoming a tradition around here at Blue Ridge.  Once a year we get all the dads and their girls (about 250-300 or so), both young and old, and have a fun night of food and dancing.  We typically sell tickets to this event for a nominal fee ($5 or so) to cover the cost of some of the food.  For this event, we used the Dynacord XA-2 system for audio.  The system itself boasts H-Class amplification at 4,000w per amp.  It’s designed to consume small amounts of power but really pack a punch.  It can easily sustain over 135dB and throw long distances, but of course that would be very dangerous to the health of our hearing.  Absurd really.   I love the sound of the system, it’s weight, ease of use (really, an impaired monkey could set it up without damage), and it’s mobility.  Check it out if you need a nice portable system.

The event was DJ’d by Mark Lamb.  He provided his own equipment and patched into the system.  Lighting and truss was provided by Lester Hamrick of Just Right AV.  This combination created a great environment full of energy.  Each father or daughter could submit requests to Mark or his wife Kara and they’d read them aloud.  This element added a great deal of meaning because many of the messages were so meaningful and impacting.  One daughter said, “Dad I love you.  You have always been there and have always protected me.  You’re a solid rock.”  I bet that guy is gonna go home filled up!  Or the dads who gave shout outs to their daughters to tell them how special they are and how much they care for and love them.  I think it’ll be cool to have a daughter one day, or a son will be great too.

We had a little photobooth set up as well so the girls could go get their photos taken.  We assigned each father/daughter a number so we could manage the flow to the photo line.

Now playing:  LIonel Richie – “You’re an Angel”

Next up:  Will Smith – “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit’ It”