Starting a Video Ministry... The Essentials
Many churches using media in ministry will reach a certain level of visual communication and then abruptly stop. Usually, these media ministries don’t get beyond showing a PowerPoint presentation week after week. If churches wish to employ a more effective means of communication, they must consider video production. Unfortunately, this area of the church media realm seems too intimidating for churches struggling with money and manpower; there is a belief that video production is expensive and hard to learn. This is simply not true. In fact, average families are discovering the ease at which they may produce their own home movies, and the church family should be encouraged to do the same. Our society is not primarily driven by static imagery – such as in a PowerPoint presentation – but rather by real-life movement as seen in movies and on television. It is simply a better way to communicate visually.
There are three basic resources needed to start a video ministry: equipment, production skills, and time. The costs of the tools needed to produce video are within the reach of the average church. The production skills can be easily learned. The commodity that most churches will need to consider is time. On average, it takes a minimum of one hour per produced minute. This means a five-minute production will take at least five hours to edit. This doesn’t include any preparation or the actual taping of the production. When looking into this new field of media ministry, money and experience take a back seat to the time factor. A church needs to take into account this element of commitment before entering this area of visual communication.
The Equipment
We live in a digital age. The days of VHS are numbered. Do not consider any equipment that is not digital. The equipment described here all fits together in the digital world. Video footage will be acquired to tape in digital format (or DV, Digital Video) and transferred to a computer’s hard drive where it can be edited in the digital domain.
Someone starting a new video ministry may place great emphasis on the computer. This is not a bad idea, however we all know that garbage in = garbage out, so I recommend making the camcorder selection a first priority. Digital consumer-level camcorders are becoming more and more prevalent, squeezing out older technology such as VHS, 8mm and Hi8. Now that there is a plethora of digital camcorders to choose from, it is important to know what features to look for.
Video cameras come in two basic varieties: single chip and three-chip. The majority of consumer camcorders use a single chip to capture the recorded footage. A three-chip camera can capture more detail and color because it uses each chip to separately process red, blue, and green (the primary colors of video). The difference is tremendous. In years past, three-chip cameras were inaccessible to an average-size church. Now a brand new three-chip camera can be purchased for as little as $700 (all prices in U.S. dollars), such as the Panasonic PVGS70. Although this model is a better choice than a single-chip camera, it does have rather small chips and some limited features.
For a beginner system, I would recommend a camera in the $2,500 range, such as the Canon GL-2, the Sony TRV-950, or for a bit more money, I highly recommend the Panasonic DVX-100. Cameras in the $2,000- $5,000 price range are known as “prosumer-level” (midway between consumer and professional). Cameras on the higher end of this range have been used in professional productions such as documentaries. Used three-chip cameras can readily be found on eBay in the $1,200 =price range, such as the Canon GL-1 and the Sony TRV-900. A three-chip camera is essential to great looking video.
Another feature to look for in a camera is its lens and zooming capabilities. A quality, glass lens is desirable. Many camera manufacturers love to claim zooming power of up to 780 magnification power (X) and more. These numbers are erroneous because they represent the camera’s ability to digitally zoom in on objects. This is one instance where digital is not a benefit. The truth is, camcorders have an actual optical zoom that is much less powerful. It is usually in the 10X-20X range. When pushed beyond its optical zoom, the camera digitally enlarges the image, which often results in grainy and pixilated video. What’s worse, a videographer may not notice the distortion on the camera’s small screen, only to find out later that the footage is useless. Be sure to find out what the optical zoom of a camera is before purchasing and turn off the digital zoom the first time you turn on the camera.
It is a good idea to purchase a camera with as many manual controls as possible. The ability to do your own white balancing, focus, exposure, and audio levels will help tremendously in situations where the camera’s automatic abilities are not smart enough to handle. Manual controls can be found on most prosumer-level three-chip cameras. One last thing to look for in a digital camcorder is a microphone input (XLR is preferable) and headphone jack. Not all cameras feature these.
There are many accessories that can be beneficial to a camcorder, but one that is required is a tripod. The main thing to remember at the entry level is not to purchase a tripod from a department store or electronics chain. These tripods are inadequate and will yield shaky, unprofessional results. A budget of at least $300 should be set aside for a quality tripod, which can be purchased either via mail order or from a local pro camera shop.
With a quality, three-chip camera and tripod in place, the next piece of equipment to consider is the non-linear video editor (NLE). An NLE is a computer-based, digital editing device that can be anything from a dedicated, turnkey system to a standard off-theshelf computer with some additional hardware and software. The latter option is usually less expensive. Many standard computers are already equipped with some of the hardware needed to edit video.
The key to transferring digital video from the camera to and from the computer is a FireWire port (also called iLink and IEEE-1394). This special port uses a FireWire cable connected from the camcorder to the computer. All digital camcorders come equipped with this port. If a computer does not have a FireWire port, one may be added. Unlike analog cables, a FireWire cable sends and receives (bi-directional) the audio and video information along the same cable. So, instead of needing six cables as you would in the analog world, one FireWire cable does it all.
Many modern computers include a FireWire port as a standard feature. Even those that do are limited, however. That is why it is highly recommended to purchase a dedicated video capture card with a FireWire port. The Matrox RT.X10 or RT.X100 are both excellent choices ($400 and $999 respectively). The main benefit to these types of cards is that they will perform edits such as transitions, effects, text and graphic overlays in real-time, whereas a computer with a standard FireWire port will require the editing to be rendered, which can take from minutes to hours. (As noted before, time is a precious commodity in video production.) Another benefit to purchasing a dedicated editing card is that they include the software needed to edit video. Usually this is Adobe Premiere, which by itself costs over $500. Other software such as DVD authoring and some 3-D applications are usually included as well. Considering the time factor and the value of the bundled software, a $500- $1,000 card is well worth the investment.
Besides the capture card, an NLE should have a strong processor (at least 2.2GHz), plenty of RAM (512MB or more), and a second hard drive dedicated for video (the bigger, the better – at least 120GB). A computer with these specifications should cost around $1,000. It is very important to check with the manufacturer of the card you will be using as to which computers and components are compatible.
With a three-chip camera, quality tripod and well-assembled NLE, your video ministry is ready for take-off! Depending on which route you take with the camcorder, all of this equipment should only cost between $2,500-$5,000, which is probably less than what your projection system cost. That’s within reach of most average-sized churches. Now it’s time to roll tape.
Tim Eason is president of ChurchMedia.net, an online resource center dedicated to churches using media in ministry. Tim is author of Media Ministry Made Easy (Abingdon Press) and conducts seminars nationwide. Known as the “media missionary,” Tim has a passion for equipping churches to fulfill the great commission using modern methods of communication.
