By Stephen Proctor - www.gi-inc.org

Proctor concludes his 3 part series.

DIGGING
The art of digging is basically research. It’s going out and finding your media (images, loops, movie clips, etc.) One time while growing up in Arkansas, my dad took me on one of the coolest trips ever (and we went everywhere, we did it ALL – and we still do!). But on this trip, we went to the southern part of Arkansas to the diamond fields. We dug around in the dirt for most of the day, sifting through sand, mud, rocks and water in the heat of the summer, just to try and find a small glimmering rock. We never found one, but we saw many pictures in the visitor’s center that had lucked out. Searching for media is very much the same, though chances of great discoveries are much more likely and sometimes more rewarding than finding a valuable rock. All of this to say, it may take some sifting through some dirt and not-so-valuable resources, but that’s usually how you can find some great media for your worship gathering. A great place to start is online. If you don’t have the time to sift through a lot of material to find those amazing pieces, there are a few place that have already sifted everything for you. Here are two sites that I frequent: videoforworship.com & worshiphousemedia.com; I also recommend subscribing to COLLIDE Magazine. Recently, I’ve launched the Worship VJ Blog @ worshipvj.com as a place for worship VJs to connect, share ideas & stories, and equip each other with great resources.

MOTION LYRICS
The use of animated “motion lyrics” are just now becoming a popular trend. You might have seen these on the screens at Integrity Live (seminars4worship), Passion Conferences or a Steve Fee concert. This is where motion graphic videos deliver the lyrics to the screens instead of your presentation software overlaying white text on top of a motion background. The flexible video files are simply rendered and broken down into the song’s stanzas, and it definitely brings the aesthetics of your lyrics to life. You just simply drag & drop them into your presentation software (or video playback device), fire away, and follow the worship leader. You can currently purchase pre-made motion lyric volumes for some of today’s most popular worship songs. Ever hard of Integrity’s iWorship? You know, those “worship karaoke” DVDs that look great but are hard to follow along with? They have recently revamped them and now produce “iWorship Flexx: Visual Worship That Follows Your Lead.” Many churches are now creating their own custom motion lyrics using Apple’s MOTION & Adobe AfterEffects.

CREATING YOUR OWN MEDIA
If I was to ask a room full of people, “Who owns a digital camera?” and “Who has a video camera and knows how to use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker?” Chances are there would be more than a few hands up. But everyone in that room would definitely know of 1-2 people in their circles that would also raise their hands to these questions.  Like I said, the stuff on the shelves is a great start; it definitely sets a standard. Some pieces I see move me to tears. But I encourage you to not just settle with what you can buy off the shelf. You can use these resources to help start your collection, to raise the bar and set a standard of quality, and to inspire many in your congregation. But some of the most powerful media comes from your own church family. I just try it. Commission a “digital artist” to go create…just see what they can come up with. And plan to invest in a good editing/media creation studio (a Mac with Final Cut Studio, Adobe CS3 & After Effects is a good start). It may not win an Oscar, but you will reach your congregation on a level that no other media producer can.

MIXING
One of the coolest toys I’ve seen used in the past few years is a little box called a video mixer, specifically the EDIROL V-4 Video Mixer.  Now video mixers are very popular in the worlds of TV producers, broadcast rooms and video editing suites. But think about how a DJ spinning vinyls would use a mixer. The basic concept is taking 2 (or more) sources and blending them together. (This is where the mad scientist starts to take over my personality!) Let me give you a brief glimpse. The standard and most basic VJ setup would involve one MacBook Pro running the software of choice (my choice is ProPresenter). Lyrics with motion backgrounds…different backgrounds for each song. Nothing fancy, but enough to be dangerous. Now imagine adding more video playback devices (both computers & hardware). Using a video mixer, you can take these two separate images (motion or still) and blend them together by using an effect called “cross-fading”. Many times I won’t cross-fade all the way over into the other image; I’ll let both run while blended together. This allows for even more spontaneity and can create some very unique moments. The EDIROL V-4 is a great start, and now EDIROL have created the enhanced V-8 Video Mixer as well as the V-440HD Video Mixer that even handles HD.

A VJs TOOLBOX
And it doesn’t just stop with using two computers and a video mixer. I’ve added everything from iPods, to a Mac running ProVideoPlayer, to the EDIROL CG-8 Visual Synthesizer. I’ve even experimented with a DVD turntable, where you can “scratch” you video! EDIROL has recently come out with new visual playback devices, such as the PR-1000HD & the P-10 Visual Sampler. There also exists hardware devices controlled via USB & MIDI that you can hook up to your computer, as well as some of the EDIROL products. This is where you can get really creative in your VJ rig setup. The sky is finally becoming the limit!

Don’t forget to check out Proctor’s new blog at worshipVJ.com.