Silent, but Loud and Clear

When our church added a second service to Sunday morning schedule, announcement time had to be shortened, and we found ourselves showing fewer video promos. Instead, video monitors went up in the foyer to run text announcements. This was done by the staff, with occasional special promos whipped up by the video department. However, the task of filling the silent screens now falls entirely upon the video department, and as we add more video content to our website, the process is becoming a creatively engaging process. I used to make promo slide for a couple of independent movie theaters, and it's nice to apply the workflow to ministry rather than popcorn sales. So without claiming that this is a revolutionary new form of marketing, I'd like to present my approach to silent promos.

For the foyer monitors, I created a series of ten- to fifteen-second motion slides for the most active ministries of the church, such as children's church, Bible studies, and youth. When possible, these include video clips. As detailed in a previous blog entry, the temptation to go crazy with motion graphics must be resisted. But plenty of fun can be had with animations applied to bring the text and graphics on screen within the first few seconds. Everything then holds fairly steady with perhaps a gentle zoom or glisten, and then the elements are whisked away to make way for the next announcement. For major events, like our Singing Christmas Tree presentation, longer promos are made that accommodate additional information and more video clips.

To create these mini promos in a flexible process, I maintain a timeline in Final Cut Pro with all the elements for each promo. The timeline has the elements neatly and consistently stacked with tracks dedicated to backgrounds, text, and effects wipes. This way I can find elements quickly to make changes and rearrange the promos as needed. A nice feature of these video suites like Final Cut Studio is automatic updates to elements when the file reference is changed. For example, when I create a title in LiveType or Motion and add it to the timeline, only to find that I need to make a change on it, I can save the change over the old file and Final Cut immediately references in the updated file. Sure, I could make the entire motion slide in Motion or After Effects, but I find it faster to have as much as possible on the timeline for quick and easy access.

The sequence is exported and burned to a DVD with the title set to loop. With the foyer monitors patched into our video switcher, I have a DVD player hooked up to an input on the switcher, which we run live before, between, and after services. Once the director starts the DVD, he or she doesn't need to be concerned about stopping and starting the loop. The promos are simply waiting to go live again.

The whole process is designed to quickly accommodate requests for new promos, take the task off the shoulders of the staff, and keep things simple for the weekly video crew. It seems to be working.

Comments:  I know many other churches run promos in the foyer.  Let us know about your workflow below.

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