Photo Courtesy of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, Carrollton, Tex.
Churches often make numerous mistakes when it comes to live streaming. Sometimes, it's settling for mediocre quality. Sometimes it's over or under-buying equipment for their needs. Sometimes, it's failing to train people. Sometimes, it's just failing to understand the live stream audience.
Churches that already do IMAG (image magnification using cameras on the screen) are ripe for a particular kind of mistake when they decide to start a live stream. They often come to the conclusion that they are already doing live video. Why not reuse the feed they already have? Depending on how they're doing it though, the online congregation may be missing out on what's happening in ways that are less obvious to those attending in person.
What is IMAG?
What is the purpose of IMAG? It eliminates bad seats. Ideally, everyone would be able to see everything in the room that's of interest, without shifting or straining. Depending on your sanctuary, you may have more or fewer of these seats. IMAG will often eliminate these sorts of problems by showing people in those seats what they have trouble seeing with the naked eye.
Establishing shots and wide shots of the room aren't really necessary with IMAG. You might throw in one or two on your way to a closer shot, but if the subject of the shot is smaller than in real life, you're not really helping the situation.
Wide shots on IMAG might be helpful to orient people who don't know where the reader standing in the congregation is, or to show the dramatic element that doesn't take place on the platform, but these are exceptions.
The one thing you'd never do with IMAG is show someone on screen that is seated in the congregation, unless the pastor is talking directly to them about their testimony or referencing them directly for some other reason. Even when this is planned in advance and the person shown is coached not to look at themselves on the screen, you'll often catch their eyes dart toward the screen, albeit briefly. For teens or children, the temptation to wave at the camera or make a funny face is too great. Putting the congregation on screen, where they can see themselves is a recipe for distraction. If that's what you're going for, that's fine, but if it's prayer time, a waving teen might break an otherwise serious mood.
Details are what IMAG is all about. Big is good. Close is good. People know the drums are upstage from the worship leader. They can see it with their own eyes, so a quick shot of a drumstick hitting the cymbals doesn't cause them to think, “They have drums there? Huh, I hadn't noticed them before.”
Now, contrast that to what you're trying to do with a live stream.
The limitations of IMAG for an online congregation
People who are watching on a mobile device, television, or computer, aren't currently at your church. They may have never been there and likely don't know the scope and layout of the room.
If all you provide are close ups, the people in the online congregation could easily become disoriented, wondering where the current shot is happening in relation to the last.
Imagine that your pastor wanders toward a large cross that you have on the platform. “This is what Jesus did for you” is all that's said. In your room, a 3/4 shot is as wide as you get because otherwise, the pastor is smaller on the screen than in real life. Unfortunately, your pastor doesn't get close enough to include the cross in the shot. In fact, it would take a wide shot to include both, not just a slightly wider shot.
In the room, the congregation can see that the pastor is looking at the cross. They have eyes which provide the wide shot that gives the context for that shot. Online, the congregation doesn't have such an advantage. They only see through the lens of the camera which never included the cross.
You could have cut to another close up of the cross, wiped it in from the side, done a PIP (picture-in-picture), etc., but with the exception of the cut, all the other possibilities are more distracting. Distractions should be avoided at all costs.
That's the quandary you have when you're directing and you're live streaming an IMAG only feed. How do you include the congregation online without distracting the congregation in person?
Three ways to get a better live stream video feed
First, you can create a totally separate feed, directed by another director. Second, you can create two feeds, one is IMAG and one is for the live stream, but each is directed by the same person. Third, you could also create a hybrid feed that is both IMAG and for live stream, directed by a single director.
In a perfect world, you'd create two video feeds. Each would be directed by a person who's concerned for only one audience. The IMAG director would be thinking only about details for people who are attending in person. The live stream director would be concerned with details, when appropriate, but also context --- the wide shots and shots of the congregation.
We don't live in a perfect world, though, so there are other options to consider. Perhaps you only have one set of cameras and a single switcher or maybe you don't have enough people to have two sets of people running video equipment. Consider adding in the occasional shot that's appropriate for the live stream to the IMAG feed.
If your switcher is capable of sending an aux signal or has two or more MLE busses, you could take the output of the IMAG feed (from one bus) with all its detail and occasionally sprinkle in a wide shot or a reaction shot from people in the congregation (cut in from the second bus), that doesn't show on the screens in the room.
In the earlier example where the pastor was referencing the cross across the platform, just have another camera get a wider shot and cut that into the secondary feed. During the message, add in a shot of someone taking notes or laughing at the pastor's jokes, etc. Maybe you begin and end each song with a wide shot, while the IMAG feed stays on the worship leader. You're not creating two totally distinct feeds. You're creating two similar feeds where one is for IMAG and the other just adds in a few things that help welcome the online congregation and eliminate the distractions that an IMAG only feed would create.
For many churches, this isn't an option though. If you have neither the people nor the equipment to create two feeds, it is possible to create a hybrid feed that incorporates elements of both an IMAG and live stream feed. You might steer clear of reaction shots, for example, but add in other non-IMAG shots. The occasional shot that's too wide to technically be IMAG will help the online congregation without distracting too much from the people who are at church in person.
Who's going to complain about an establishing shot or a wider shot that includes both the pastor and a cross during a key moment? Probably not a lot of people.
It may be less than ideal, but it's a great step to help people who are watching online to feel like they're part of what's happening in the sanctuary. There's an opportunity cost to taking a wider shot or two, but it's a lot lower than the cost of confusing your online congregation.
Sometimes, that's what doing ministry is about. Sometimes you have to balance multiple concerns for the good of many people. Thankfully, doing so in this case has few downsides. That's something that you can't often say.
No matter what, your need to create your live stream feed with the online congregation in mind. Perhaps they're a much smaller group than those who attend in person, but each of their lives matters, so does the work the tech team does to show them you care --- even if they don't understand consciously why they like the live stream video more than the IMAG feed. It's worth the trouble because people matter.
