Photo courtesy of Crosspointe Church, Duluth, Georiga.
IMAG (image magnification) is different from video for a live stream. One is in-person and the other online, but that's not where the differences end. They're different not only in location, but in audience. This difference means that you should change your approach to how you direct IMAG versus your live stream or video podcast.
What does the audience need to feel included?
The online congregation has challenges you need to consider as you're directing. They're not in the sanctuary. They can't look around. They can't choose what to focus on. They didn't even get to choose their seat.
As you're choosing shots for your live-stream, consider these things. Also consider the challenges of watching over the internet. Perhaps some will have issues with older hardware or internet speed issues. Consider the screen they're watching on. Is it a 52-inch LED backlit display, a notebook computer, a tablet, or a phone? Likely, the answer is “yes” to all of these. You'll have some people that watch on each of these devices.
In order to address these challenges, you need to know the shortcomings of each situation. If you're stuck, unable to look around in a room, you might feel disconnected. Imagine that you hear something going on, but can't look around to hear where the sound is coming from. It's confusing and distracting.
Now consider what's going on when you're watching a small screen. Despite the fact that smart phones are getting bigger, they're still small compared to a laptop or television. If your only view is a wide shot, large enough to show everything that could possibly happen, it doesn't matter how many pixels you have in your hand, most detail will be lost.
That's less of a problem with a tablet or notebook. Still, the fact remains that short of watching the live-stream on a screen the size of the ones at church, details will be lost. The image is just too small.
Wide shots help establish what's going on, but do not give the detail that close shots do.
When I first started directing for IMAG, I took it quite literally and refused to put up any shots that were not larger than life. I just didn't know exactly how large that was, so I just put up the largest shots I could. If I go back now and pull out the tapes, you can see some of the limitations of doing this. Sure, there was plenty of detail in my shots, but they lacked context. You'd see a guitar, but never the guitarist. You'd see the pastor, but never his feet or where he was going. You'd see a singer, but never the singer and the band.
Balance the needs of the audiences you serve.
That's the opposite extreme. Each shot you take comes at the expense of others, so while a close-up provides detail, a wide shot provides context. If you take too many close ups, you'll lose the context and get plenty of detail. If you take too many wide shots, you'll lose detail, but have plenty of context.
Good directing is all about choosing the right information to share with the audience based on their needs. At a large event, you wouldn't need to show many wide shots at all because the audience can see context with their eyes. You might occasionally put some up to show where things are happening. If the location changes (if someone starts singing off stage in an unexpected location, for example), go ahead.
Remote audiences need context, but that context must be balanced by the limitations of their displays. An occasional establishing shot that shows the location could help them feel like they're a part of a larger whole. Since it comes at the expense of detail, we need to use them sparingly.
The one contextual shot that is full of detail is the reaction shot. You probably shouldn't put shots on the IMAG screens of people who are in the sanctuary, seated, taking notes, up on the screen. Even if they know not to look at themselves, the temptation to look is just too much for most. This isn't the case with reaction shots that are only shown to remote audiences.
Connection speed also plays a part in this equation, too. Recently, my church moved all our Sunday services online for a week. We'd had a historic snowfall in our area and the pastor was concerned that people might try to drive to church when they really shouldn't. As I was preparing to watch a prerecorded message, I found roadblock after roadblock standing in my way. For some reason, the stream was not just slow, but annoyingly slow. I still got a 720p image, but it played at about 10 frames per second. It was really jumpy.
Had the editor tried to use cross-dissolves instead of cuts, the cross dissolve would have been painful to watch. Just as in person, cuts were pretty seamless. You just had to ignore the general jumpiness of the video.
Perhaps this was a result of the fact that I hadn't rebooted that computer in a while. Maybe it was that I hadn't closed out the thousands of other tabs that were open. Either way, you can't depend on the people watching online to realize such things. Some may complain about things like that, but others will just suffer in silence and try to ignore them.
In an attempt to help those who may have connection issues, you can go too far, too. Don't create your stream for the “lowest common denominator,” but do keep people with these problems in mind. Consider how you can stream the best video for the largest number of people balancing their needs --- those on large screens vs. smart phones, fast connections vs. slow, tech savvy vs. not.
Who is that shot for?
When you're planning on taking a shot for the live stream, ask yourself whom the shot is for. The audience should be your primary concern. Check selfish motives at the door. A live stream isn't a place to try out every random transition that your switcher is capable of. It's not a place to show off the most artistic shot you're capable of taking. The message should be the message that God has given your church for that service. It should not be the coolness of the equipment or your prowess as a videographer or director.
Make shots appropriate to the mood. Perhaps a dramatic shot with one person ominously hovering over another works in film. Maybe it could even work in something dramatic that your church is showing to set the mood. You wouldn't want to try that shot out with the pastor framed ominously over the worship leader, though.
During music, artistic shots that enhance the mood may be appropriate. During the message, you probably want your video work to go unnoticed. You want your pastor's important point about Christ's love to be what someone remembers, for example.
You want to ask yourself why you're taking a shot and have a good reason. Is it something that will deliver detail or context? How will it look on a television as well as a smaller phone? What would happen if the person watching doesn't have the latest equipment or is having an internet issue?
When your live-stream video is your IMAG feed…
What happens if your IMAG feed is the feed that you have to use for the live-stream and for digital recordings? In that case, what do you do to balance the needs of two or more groups of people — one of whom is there while the others aren't?
In that case, you could take occasional medium-wide shots that give some context. Since they're only occasional, you could stick with mostly IMAG shots. Don't fall victim to the mistake of only getting the closest possible shots. You want to magnify what people see, but provide variety as well. Perhaps one should be a close-up, the next would be a medium shot, and the third would a quick extreme close up. By changing shots frequently, you could provide visual interest while not sacrificing a close feel.
It's less than ideal to do it this way. Another strategy would be to send an aux to the live stream. Then add some shots to that aux that help the online congregation. Few people would notice if you kept an IMAG shot on screen a little longer than usual. Those watching at a distance may not know that you're taking the IMAG feed and cutting in some other shots. They'll feel more connected nonetheless.
So, balance the needs of the audiences you serve. Don't look to be noticed. Make the best of whatever your situation and always ask, “Who is this shot is for.” If you do these things, you'll have a much better live stream. You'll have one that connects the online congregation to the in-person one.
