What have you been doing during the summer?

Ok, so yes I haven’t been blogging regularly and have been really trying to take the summer easy.
At work however, we have been quite busy working with so many different things. One of these things that gets SUPER busy during the summer is preparing for the new season of the TENBEFORE. (yes I said season). Kim, my new assistant, has made these gorgeous boards that help us make sense of THREE campuses and what happens Ten Minutes before the service starts. The guys have been working hard on updating the brand, making promo’s for upcoming series, writing commercials that lead people to specific ministries, and highlighting some of our worship leaders. After it runs on Sundays it then goes to the web in case people missed it.

We REALLY wanted to take announcements OUT of the service and keep that time to more of a welcome. It is still evolving and changing and by no means perfect. For us though, we want people to lean in and get engaged when it starts.

Click HERE and here for a sample of what we did in the spring.
Below is what is coming up with the information we have. Don’t think for a second it doesn’t change.

Where do you put your announcements?

Letters to the Next President

We are beginning a new series on June 29th at North Point and it promises to be one that generates a lot of questions. We wanted to get people involved no matter what political view point they had so, we created a website where people can write a letter to the next president no matter WHO it will be. You are not writing to a candidate but to the next president.

Don’t forget to check out the promo. It’s always fun to have Andy involved and we had a great time recreating the White House press room – IN ONE DAY!!!. North American Mission Board is right next door to North Point so we were able to get the flags. We rented the blue drape. Then Matt from the media team sketched out a fun version of the white house but with a little spin. Make sure you see it! Podium is courtesy of Alpharetta Baptist Church.

This series promises to be a good one and we are really excited about it. Stay tuned…

New Blog from Pace Hartfield at Fellowship

I say new because it looks like it got started in March of this year.
Pace Hartfield is the Worship pastor at Fellowship where he leads the Worship/Media.
He posted an incredible video they did at Christmas using a freakin’ Autodesk’s Smoke and Flame for compositing and 3-D work plus a Sony F900. Oh – My – WORD!
Anyways – I am sure he will have lots to offer on his blog and I look forward to hearing from him.

Camp Out with Troika (again)

Okay folks…
Grab that cup of coffee again and spend some time with Troika.tv

These guys to me do some of the coolest, cleanest, sharpest and well thought out packages out there. Plus it looks like a fun place to work. (Read their Bios). They think COMMERCIALLY. They know their audience and they respect their clients! The’re smart. And you see their stuff EVERYWHERE. It is also VERY interesting how their staff is made up. A list of producers and a list of animators and designers.
Think about that.

I love what they write on their “about” page…

“In today’s MEDIA DRENCHED WORLD, design is a powerful tool to connect with audiences and consumers.”

Just hearing those words “Media Drenched World” pushes me because they are so right. In your and my church worlds, where all of our attenders, listeners, seekers, returners come in being “DRENCHED” with content, DRENCHED with information, DRENCHED with culture – how will our designs, our videos, our series look, etc.. – going to leave a lasting impression. Do not underestimate the power of a BAD design and the impression a GOOD DESIGN leaves. Troika didn’t.

Make it your goal.

Make sure you read this, this and this.

After Effects wonderland

Just came across this place.
Have fun. Lots of links to all sorts of After Effects love.

TenBefore 3-2-08 for North Point, Buckhead and Browns Bridge

Ok – this post is a doozey so grab a cup of coffee if your interested and get a feel for what three campuses experience right before the services start on a Sunday morning.

Let me start off by giving some credits:

Producer: well… that would be me.
Written & Directed (Kelly segments for all three campuses): Sunny Williams
Shooter for Green Screen: Dave Blakeslee
Green Screen Edit: Dave Blakeslee
Keyed: the guys let me do this.
Composited, Motion Graphics and Final Edit: Matt Gibson (our maximizer)

Click here to see NPCC’s TenBefore
Click here to see Buckhead’s TenBefore
Click here to see Browns Bridge TenBefore

Before you see the TenBefore’s, read below for a little bit of insight.

Each week the media team needs to export three different versions of the TenBefore. Much of the content is the same but there are specific elements that are different. three Churches – three Kelly intro’s – three logo’s.

For this particular week, all three churches are letting people know about “NEXT” an environment for those wishing to take the next step in getting connected. Whether it’s volunteering, finding out where to get plugged in, whatever you are interested in, we want them to not take up a seat but to get INVOLVED and find out what is NEXT.

So we needed to promote “I Want to be Great” a new four-part series that Clay Scroggins AND Andy were going to preach together. Clay is young, fun and is the High School pastor. Andy is, well, the senior pastor! So we convinced Andy to help us with the promo and I am so glad he did. He has a great sense of humor and pulled it off great. The concept obviously came from a certain Super Bowl ad but it worked perfect because of the series that was coming up. (This promo is in the Buckhead and Browns Bridge TenBefore and not in North Point’s. North Point had already ran it twice and instead did a Kelly VO with graphics.) Tripp and Tyler did great and continue to be a staple of laughs for our pre-service ideas! Tripp (guy on left), Adam, Matt, Ryan, Dave B. did a great job of getting this baby in the can on a tight turnaround with some TOUGH weather conditions and some serious illnesses. While one crew was shooting the golf scene, Dave was setting up in Andy’s office. We had 45 minutes to get Andy’s stuff.
A lot of details on this shoot. The picture in picture on the computer. The wall that needed to fall (thanks matt borbi). Finding a golf course in the dead of winter. Asking IT to give us a computer and CAMERA we could total. Good times.
I got to put the graphic together at the end and added the “falling” logo for a little fun. Mike (our graphic designer) worked really hard with Brian Manley to come up with this look. HUGE TEAM EFFORT. These are my favorite successes.

We started a new segment called “unplugged” and really it’s a way for our attenders to get to know our worship leaders in a fun and relate-able way. The cool thing about this is that all three campuses got involved. North Point (Dave and Tripp) shot and edited Kristian Stanfill’s video. Kaye at Buckhead shot and edited Chrystina Fincher’s video and Ryan Shove and Shae got to shoot Casey Darnell’s video. We know that there are a TON of ways to do this kind of video. Kaye originally came up with the Cribs type feel so we modeled after it however kept it a little bit “lower toned”. Our goal was to not make it CRIBS “look at me” but more of a get to know me segment as if you were invited over to the house. Browns Bridge went with a completely different route and came up with a powerful piece on Casey. I love Ryan’s set design. Matt from media worked his magic on the branding side of things.

Buckhead added a little segment called the “Just Tell Booth”. In early January we did a series called “Just Ask”. Buckhead decided to make a “confessional booth” for people who were invited to church by a friend, co-worker, family member, etc.. and to talk into a camera and tell their story of how someone “asked” them to church. I love this idea and I love that we were able to put it into the TenBefore that is specific to Buckhead.

Lastly – all three campuses took the opportunity to make people aware of one of our partnerships. This time we highlighted Southside Church in Peachtree City. I believe Joe Wiggleston took a ton of B-Roll for our guys to put together. Kelly did great with walking us through this campus. I can’t say enough about Kelly and the way she makes this look easy. Sunny Williams does an amazing job of writing these scripts and walking and directing Kelly during the shoots. Again, I am spoiled to work with incredible people.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all or just make a general comment. Believe it or not, I hate to write, but love to read.
Brad

Drive Conference. Have any Questions? Ask Andy!

Go to Drive Website. Click on flying plane banner. Check out the questions.
Good times!

“Impossible is Nothing” Part 2

Early in January I posted a video that adidas did for the olympians in China (and to promote 2008 Beijing.
It was, to say the least, mind blowing. Here is a follow up that takes a different spin on things but still has an amazing movement about it.

Text Part 1 Title Package

Click Here to see title package.
Click Here to see full message.

So this series just leant itself to doing some crazy stuff with letters, words, etc..
Mike started it off strong with the promo for text and then I did this title package which could change for week 2 (probably just intro text). Matt finished it off with some sound effects and last minute changes. Team is always better then one.
I got more comments on the music I chose than anything else.
FYI – I am not sure I mentioned it but we used ADAM’s sister Anna Dukes for the design. She is in college and we are letting her run the gamet (?) for her portfolio. Resources, bulletin, etc.. She ran with the concept given to her and did great.

***Just a tip for those that design for video – think smaller fonts than you are used to. So often I see videos where the TEXT IS HUGE!!! Lower thirds are huge. Logo’s are HUGE. Find the font that works, and think about 6-10 points smaller than normal.

TenBefore January #2 – Video Confessional

This is the second Ten Before for the year and I really think we are off to a great start. We ran this last week as well and before that we had the week off (ice- that didn’t happen) and it was a HUGE blessing to get caught up on so much.
To see the latest version – Click HERE.
Here is the rundown:


WAUMBA LAND – Kelly is doing a great job as always and Sunny Williams is rockin and rollin as the producer of Kelly’s segments. She deserves a medal for keeping up with three campuses schedules. We decided at the beginning of the year that we were not going to wait for promo requests to highlight a certain ministry, especially those that are going on during Sunday morning. In the beginning of January we talked about “Next”, now we are talking about “Waumba Land”. For us it gives the first time person or 5 time attender information about what is available. In the coming months, we will continue this as we go up in age.

GLOBAL X – Since August, I have made it my mission to focus on ONE concept to promote throughout the year for each ministry. We can change the story and execution each time but let’s get a concept and run with it. (concept – story – execution). For missions, our concept was to interview both sides of the benefits of going on a short terms trip. The person that went, and the person from the country who received the help. We would ask them the same 5 questions and cut between them. For this first stab, we ended up showing just the person that went. We got footage from our friends in the Philippines however we couldn’t get it to work in the short time we had. Dave did some great editing and Matt handled graphics. I really want to see if the two person concept will work. We’ll see.

MARRIEDLIFE – I LOVE this concept. I think this campaign is going to grow for MarriedLife. I really want to now if you all get it.
There is always this tension between promoting an event and showing footage from it (which is like taking a picture of Rome and telling everybody how great it is – it’s just not the same) or creating a buzz about the event or even the ministry. So for MarriedLife, we decided to promote the ministry and then tag it at the end with the EVENT info. The concept of the ministry promo being “Every marriage deserves more.”

This is the promo for “Text” we first promoted this last week. Mike bailed me out on this. I told Mike on a Thursday I needed help with the promo and what I envisioned for it. He killed it and read my mind. ESPECIALLY for getting it done on a Friday in 5 hours.

One of the great things about the TenBefore is that we can use Kelly to highlight any ministry and like Waumba land we are really trying to be intentional about Starting Point twice a month. We really think this is a great place for people to take that next step to a relationship with Christ.

Love to know your thoughts…

Technorati Tags: Kelly Lintz, North Point, Ten Before, videos

Adobe After Effects update (Leopard supported)

If you are using After Effects and Leopard, then this should warm your tummy.
Click here or here for the latest update.

If you aren’t using After Effects – you need too. There are a TON of tutorials to help you.
After Effects won’t make great designs FOR you but you will come a little bit closer to making things move around like you see in your head.
Learn it. It’s photoshop on steriods.

Technorati Tags: Adobe After Effects

“Transparente”

Sometimes you just want to quit. Or marvel at what can be done.
Imagination, talent, time, experience, execution. Click Here
(Dave from Media threw this my way).
Any other words you would add?

The production process form La Huella’s Jerome Debeve:

“Camera angles / velocity and focal length were worked out in 3D, so we had all the needed information for the shooting.

Actors were shot from below using a specially constructed structure of several hi-density glass panels. These panels were mounted on a metallic armature 3 meters tall and 10 meters wide, forming a bridge so the motorized travelling rig could move freely and repeat the moves as needed.

A green screen was suspended above the set. The wide shots are all CG, and the close ones a mix between greenscreen elements and CGI.

The team at La Huella spent 6 weeks in total on this production, that won quite a few awards in Spain and outside.”

(special thanks to Justin Cone at motionographer).

Technorati Tags: Design, Motion Graphics

Camp Out at the “Picture Mill”

If you have ever wondered who did some of the studio logo’s that most movies start off with – or who made the INCREDIBLE opening titles for iRobot or Mission Impossible, then your answer will be found at The Picture Mill.
This place has a very concrete vision: specializing in movie titles and branding.
Bring your chair and camp out here for a while. Pretty amazing stuff. Love to know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Motion Graphics, Picture Mill

Just Ask Part 1 Title Package (video Confessional)

For those of you who care, I’ll keep doing these so let me know if these help/assist/spark ideas or make you flat out laugh at me because you know of an easier way to do this.

After the missions message for the first of the year, we started a “quick” two part series called “Just Ask”. Andy talked about how so many times we want people to come to church with us and we hint around it but we never actually ask. It’s like saying “Hey we should do lunch sometime” and you mean it, but you don’t actually set up the time and date.

For this series we went REALLY generic and a little bit more artsy. there could be more subtle meaning into the title package but honestly, there’s not. It’s just a visual piece that I created from a design that Mike lead the charge with. We used Benji Peck out of Nashville and originally he was hired to take some stress off of us during the holidays and this look was going to be used for missions as well with some slight tweaking.(see previous post for details on that little fiasco). Benji just does great work.

Here is the Title Package:

this piece for me was a little bit therapeutic because the flower was a still graphic and I spent about 4 hours just separating it out. Here is the original graphic…

Luckily all the little dandelions were separated out but I had to recreate the the flower in After Effects. I took three of the pedals that were flying (from the still) and then masked each of the little stems that came off of each little pedal (about 8 little lines each) so that they could move independently from each other (using a wiggle expression in After Effects). Then I took the three pedals, duplicated them a couple of times and surrounded the main stem so it looked like the original. I was worried about the wind blowing and trying to make the flying pedals as real as possible. It could have been better and overall I really like the feel. Props to Mike for making the look of this happen.

This week we are using this same title package but taking it a step further.

Technorati Tags: after effects, Andy Stanley, dandelion, Just Ask, Motion Graphics, North Point, North Point Community Church

Global X Sunday Title Package (Confessional)

For the first of the year we focused on Global X (our missions ministry).
A lot of different things happened during the service including incorporating other countries worship services (via taped video) into our worship experience while singing. It was a great Sunday. The print design of this came from missions so we took it into illustrator and cut out all the elements. The globe I used on this was from iStock and let me tell you, its the best looking globe I have seen. Great detail and texture on it. This was somewhat rushed but I think the execution came out well.
I still don’t know designed the original concept (Key Art) but I liked it. Funny story though, we were running in our own direction with a look and then in one of our meetings at the end of December Tomas said “Hey we have a T-shirt that has a pretty cool look on it.” I saw it and was like DUUUUHHHHHH. Then I shrunk in my seat and thought… “always ask the ministry your partnering with if they have a current look they would like to use.” We were running and gunning and didn’t stop to ask “hey maybe missions has something they are already working on”.

I am so glad they told us because it was a great look.

Technorati Tags: Global X, Media Team, videos

“Impossible is Nothing”

wow.
Would love to know your thoughts on this one.

Technorati Tags: Motion Graphics, Olympics, psyop

Camp Out with HP. Making of Hands.

There are so many aspects of this video that we can learn from.
One thing for sure… it took a team of people from beginning to end.
What makes this concept and execution stick out to you?

Technorati Tags: HP Video, Mark Cuban, Motion Graphics, Design

Camp Out – Digital Kitchen

For the new year I want to encourage everyone to go CAMP OUT at some of these incredible websites of those who do motion graphics. You will get inspired, frustrated, and encouraged all at the same time.
First up – Digital Kitchen. Go visit their website – check out their ’07 REEL. Amazing stuff.

Technorati Tags: demo reel, Digital Kitchen, Motion Graphics

Christmas Title Package

We had a great Sunday before Christmas.
Thought I would throw up the title package I did before Andy went up.
The kerning and spacing is off a touch but I do like the simplicity of it.

Video confessional in a nutshell:
Created it in After Effects –
Took the tree that MIke cut out from iStock. Threw it into the same base design from the whole look of “Be Rich”. Pulled the frame out a little and added a big drop shadow for depth. Put everything in 3-d and added light. Did slow camera pull out. Snow was made in Particular and if you look very carefully, you will see the lights glimmering on the tree. The white lights on the tree was made with Particular preset but made sure nothing moved, then added Starglow. To create the glimmer, Tripp and I brainstormed and used Fractal Noise with high contrast and then used it as a track matte. Worked like a charm. Added text.

Technorati Tags: Andy Stanley, Be Rich, Christmas Video

“Be Rich” Campaign

Based off of an earlier series we did this fall called “How to be Rich”, North Point, Browns Bridge, and Buckhead launched a huge initiative this Christmas season called “Be Rich”. We wanted to push our attenders, members, basically anybody that was listening to GIVE. Not to any of the three campuses but to give locally to specific charities and also to some needs around the world. This video that will show Dec. 23rd tells the story and gives the results. The numbers are not pledges. They are real dollars that people gave.


Video Confessional:
Music, music, music. If you are thinking about doing a mission’s piece go get copyrights for Tim Hughes’ song “God of Justice”. It is absolutely perfect and speaks truth to what we want people to hear and do. Tyler from Browns Bridge lead the way with this song and EMI is so easy to get rights from to play it synced with video. (I also recommend Fee’s “Burn for You” ) Audio is 3/4’s of the viewers experience and this song took this video to a whole new level. We were originally going to open with a live children’s choir singing “Some children see Him” and this video playing behind it but it didn’t feel right. We separated the two and used “God of Justice” from our original promo and it worked so much better.

The original look for the Be Rich campaign started with Groups and they were using a guy by the name of Jeff Gribble from Design Industry. We went through a couple of renditions and finally landed on something that everybody was happy with for print. Mike did a great job implementing the design into different quips and even continuing the brand into Christmas where we added the tree.

(back to the video) – Matt (from Media) had a vision for this baby from the beginning and ran with it. He pretty much owned this edit from the start using After Effects and Final Cut. (Heck two years ago I taught Matt After Effects and now he is doing circles around me.) I LOVE the addition of the heart exploding that we grabbed from the original promo. Matt put it in just the right spot. Dave (from Media) scheduled all the shoots (around 15 or so) throughout the 4 weeks so we had footage GALORE to work with. Dave, Matt, Tripp, and our old intern Mark shot at different times throughout the 4 weeks. We also included what Ryan and Josh shot at Browns Bridge and Buckhead. Global X and Groups provided additional content and stats to complete the video.

Technorati Tags: Atlanta Union Mission, Be Rich, Good News Shelter, Motion Graphics, NFCC, North Point Community Church

“It’s Personal” Part 1 Title Package (Video Confessional)

OK, so here is the scoop on how “It’s Personal” came about…
These videos are unique in a couple of ways. First, everything is photographs. In the early creative meetings we wanted to tell three stories of different individual’s lives and the barrier’s that kept them from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Let me tell ya, these stories are powerful. We fell in love with a couple of black and white photo’s from JPEG magazine and as we worked through some design comps, decided to add blue splash to it. The bulletin looks great (See previous post) and overall the series is coming together well. One additional unique flavor about this series is that we are incorporating ALL SCREENS for the title package. Meaning, the videos will be showing on the 16×9 image mag as well as the High Def screen in the middle. The trick here (and we are still learning) is to not have the person in the audience try to figure out which one to look at but to instead, have a visual experience.
Here are the steps that we took to create the series so far…

– Creative meetings about look and feel and settled on B&W look with heavy text texture.

– Mike (graphic design) worked with Regime Design and we settled on heavy black look for bulletin with splash of blue throughout. Mike also took the photo’s for Scott’s story and Meghan’s story. He’s a stud. Dave B. shot video for backup (also a stud) and am really thinking about the possibility of using his shots for the DVD menu to change things up a bit.

– Decided on the three stories to tell. People agreed. Asked them to write their stories

– Asked Jon Acuff to edit stories and asked him to create a theme of the three stories that worked with our title. He edited them great and came up with these three statements –
“My story about my Heart starts with my Head” – Chris’s story
“My story about life starts with Death” – Meghan’s story.
“My story about being a son starts with being a dad” Scott’s Story

– we needed to decide on locations for these three shoots and use the locations as a center theme throughout based on their stories.

– Set-up photo shoots for all three people. Scott was first, then Chris, then Meghan. (This was over three weeks time). Just finished Meghan’s on friday.

– Set-up voice overs for these very REAL people to read their edited stories.

– For the initial soundtrack I choose a “Human Emotion” piece from Bluefuse music. For the stories we recorded the music from one of our worship services, remixed it and took out the vocals. (“Lead me to the Cross” was the song).
– I designed the series Promo and the title package for both screens in After Effects and it really started the series off great.

I will continue with more information on each part later… but this leads us to Part 1.

Love to hear your thoughts or any questions.

It’s Personal (new Series)

Last week we started a new series called “It’s Personal” and this week the title package is a four minute, unique story told from the perspective of Chris Ames (see below), a guy who became an atheist after believing God didn’t exist. This whole series is about the barriers people believe are in their way and choose to not take that next step. Andy is going to invite people to take that step of faith and invite Christ into their lives. Through the 4 part series we will be telling 3 stories of individuals who wrestled with God.
Hope to see ya there.
Brad

Chris Ames. Story #1.

“Something in the Water”

Very cool stop-motion. The color at the end ends it perfectly.

Guitar Hero III – Will it Blend

Project Runway Opening Sequence

I think this is the fourth season of Project Runway (I started watching last year with my wife) and I ran across the shows new opening. It stays consistent with what they have done before with using green/blue screen compositing for the whole intro. I think last years was better but it is always nice to see different examples.

Technorati Tags: Project Greenlight, videos

Incredible Graphics, flash programming, and football trivia – ALL IN ONE!

Sprint has gone overboard with this little gem of a site. I found the link on http://www.nfl.com and was quite surprised.
This is such a great concept!! Not only great programming – but just flat-out well thought through. Love the players – the scoreboard, and the futuristic approach.

Make sure you see the halftime show.

How many points can you get in a game?

Can you beat my score.

Technorati Tags: football trivia, manning

VFX Website

Stumbled across this cool resource. Lots of info on who’s doing what in the industry.

Worship Video

Terry Storch from LifeChurch posted this video that he found on YouTube and it challenged me tremendously.

What about you?

11/4/07 TenBefore for North Point (Video Confessional – Sorta)

So I figured I would post North Point’s version of the TenBefore. (Ragamuffin has Buckhead’s version) and go through a little bit of the why and the outline. Someday Browns Bridge Peeps might play in our reindeer games. 🙂

The TenBefore concept was two-fold. One, to take “announcements” out of the service and present them in a unique and engaging way and two, break down some walls for the first time church attender. We have learned a ton in the past year and half that we have been doing it and now that all three campuses are involved, it will only get better with collaboration.

For the first year it only showed on North Point’s campus, now it is showing on all three and yes, scheduling can be a nightmare especially when three campuses are doing three different message series. That’s when you see the media guys curl up into little balls with our thumbs in our mouths.

Each campus (Buckhead, North Point, Browns Bridge) gets their own each week. All the host segments are very similar with the exception of a couple places. Kelly does three different intro’s for each campus and the rest of the pieces are the same although graphics have to change for the “information pieces”.

Here is a look at the structure:
– Kelly Welcome & Mission Statement.
– Kelly kicks to what’s coming up (go to promo’s)
– PROMO’s (Having these in the middle allows us to add or change things on the fly. We learned that the hard way.)
– Back to Kelly to promote series or upcoming event.
– Kelly ends
– Service Begins.

Normally each TenBefore runs for two weeks with slightly different info added or subtracted.
Also, each campus can throw in a video in the promo section if they want too. (See Buckhead’s version and their promo for Jeff’s new series “Illusion”.

We are taking the month of December off for the TenBefore and instead doing pre-service Christmas music as people walk-in. It is always a nice rest.

Again, we are learning each time we do these and still have a ways to go but we keep pushing to try to get better.
This is a big part of my world so I thought I would talk about it a little.

Love to know your thoughts.

Brad

(also, I am no web programmer and would love to know how to embed these into my template from wordpress).

Technorati Tags: Kelly Lintz, Ten Before