Fun with 1080 X 4748 pixels

On December 5th we opened our new auditorium at PVC.  We went from a dual screen setup to one triple wide screen.  The screen physically measures out to 11ft x 50ft.  

Our setup gives us flexibility to project different sources to the canvas.  This could be anything from full graphic or video, and even picture in picture. This gives us the ability to go from a center video over a graphic to a full screen lyrics over motion video to speaking IMAG over graphics with side notes.  Though I've only work with these dimensions for a couple of weeks I can't help but think of the possibilities with working with such a unique space.   

This image with the strings was live IMAG with a transparent PNG file on a top layer, to give the illusion the live video was blending into the sky.  

Below are a few examples of the graphics built out for the screen and some photos of them projected in service.  

I'm blessed to work with a talented team who is passionate about what they do.  It takes alot more then graphics to pull a service off, everything from lighting, staging, song selection, video production, and live IMAG goes into planning each service.  Which makes for some intense discussions through out the week. We have one goal and that's to create a distraction free environment where believers and non believers can come in worship and receive life through God's word.  

Be sure to check Mankin Media, they are the company that helped create and deploy the system we are using.  

Group Launch Video Promos

A few weeks back we launched our fall groups.  These groups included everything from financial classes to flag football.  Instead of trying to promo each group independently we worked on pushing the idea of "life is better in groups."

We wanted these videos to be fun and playful.  Huge props to the creative team and David, the actor, for making these videos a huge hit.  

Related Posts:

Announcements PVC Style

5-Till Face Lift

Axis' Guardrail Set Design

A couple of months back I met with our high school ministry team. regarding their new series that was coming up, "Guardrails."  Artwork wise the concept was pretty simple.  In order to take it up a level we decided to carry the look across the stage wall.  We wanted students to feel they were looking across a canyon as they entered the room. 

Once the right image was chosen, I sized it up to the proportions of the walls.  I cut out the projector screen and used that as a presentation graphic.  We printed out wallpaper like strips of the image, using our 41in plotter. 

The high school staff did a great job putting up the wall graphic and constructing the guardrails, which was constructed using pvc pipe which was spray painted metallic silver. 

I love being able to see ideas being executed.

Related Posts:

• Dialogue + Time = Success
• When Lowering Expectations Isn't So Bad
• Misteaks They Happen

40 Cover Design Under 1 Minute

This has been a crazy week so far.  I had about three days to layout a 64 page devotional booklet and get it to press.  It was three days of copy-paste-format over and over again.  The bright spot in this project was designing the cover.  I have been wanting to try out, what I call, a word art style (not to be confused with word art in Microsoft word) for a while. 

This devotional booklet is going along with the Lent series starting Ash Wednesday. The teaching pastor hook me up with forty key words he was using during this series.  I had the idea in my head and really like how it played out.  The time lapse below took three hours in real time.  

Related Posts:

XLR8 Graphic Timelapse

One Minute Through My Eyes

World's Smallest Worship Guide

Even though this was a misprint this sure would be a great way to cut down on printing costs. 

5-Til Facelift

I first have to give some props to my office-mates Marc, Cierra, & Oz.  Wether it's video or print, here at PVC, chances are thier finger prints are on there somewhere.   I'm really blessed to work with talented individuals that are always raising the bar.

This fall the video squad launched a new look for our 5-til video announcements.  They've been working hard to continue the excellence and keeping it fresh.  Here's video that was used a couple of weeks back.  

My First Rap Video

I love it when I get the chance to colab with my brother OZ, our one man video team.  Being that I was the closest thing to a rapper in our building they got me to lay down the rhymes for the track.  Oz and Andrew came in in with the hook.  Turn up your speaker and kick up the bass! 

Related Posts: 

Splish Splash Summer Camp Fun!

Video a la "In plain english"

Live By The Widget, Die By The Widget

I'm sitting here at home chill-axing after a couple challenging weeks at PVC. This is a busy season for our print production. We had three departments needing well over 1,500 sq. ft. of large format printing for their series set designs. Unfortunately, in the middle of the first set our printer went down. I had never really had any significant problems with the plotter before. To make things worse the technician needed a week before he could even take a look at it.

I had to break the news to the departments, that their sets might not be done in time. Props to them for understanding and quickly moving forward with setting up some "Plan B" solutions. Fortunately, toward the end of this week a church volunteer offered to let us borrow his plotter until ours finished being repaired. MIKE ROCKS!!!

In the middle of dealing with this situation I posted a tweet "Live by the plotter, die by the plotter." This has now became a sobering thought for me. How much have I become dependent on one widget. The more dependent one becomes on a specific resource the larger the void if that resource is not there.

Here are a few practical lessons I learned from this experience:

• Frustration won't fix the problem, exercise calmness.
• Don't be overly optimistic the widget will be up and running quickly.
• Have some "Plan B"solutions ready to go at all times.
• Keep a current list of who can service all widgets used in production.
• Have art deadlines due weeks before production deadlines.
• Set clear expectations to those affected when widgets go down.

Widgets more often then not will break down. While those times can be full of stress in frustration it can also be a opportunity for creative solutions to flourish.

Video a la "In plain english"

I thought this was a creative promo spot for PVC groups that our team did.  Props to Oz on the editting and Cierra's voice over.

Announcements PVC Style

One of the difficulties we've face here was how to handle service announcements. For the most part we didn't announce much from the pulpit.  But when we switched to 3 services we new we had to tighten up the time spent on every element within the service.  In most cases we only have one hour to impact a person's life and want to make the most of it.  So the production team at PVC implemented the 5-Till a few months back.  It plays right before service and averages in length from 2-5 minutes.  Planning starting points in service have always been awkward, this has help there to be a constant beginning to the service.  

We drew inspiration from North Point Church in how they handle their video announcements.  But much props too team members Oz & Cierra have really worked hard on improving and keeping it fresh every week.    Here's is last weekends video: