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…

Back in the Saddle (Day 2)

7:30 – Arrived at work. Cleaned office. Tried not to cough on anything or anyone. Caught up with Dave B. Watched video that is to run this Sunday. Very well done and good emotion.

8:30 – 10:00am Dept Directors Meeting. Went over “Juicing the Orange” (must read), talked about staffing, admin stuff, updates on spanish service, etc..

10:00-12:00 caught up with Media guys. Tripp was back from being sick for a week. We tried not to cough on each other. Mike came back from vacation (D.C. with his wife). Really glad Mike is back. Really glad Adam is Back (sore throat). Really glad Tripp is back. Really, really glad Dave, Matt and Ryan have held down the fort. Answered emails.

12:00-2:00pm – Drive Music Meeting. Drive is our conference coming up in May (you must come, it’s gonna be great). Talked about session 1. walked through with worship leaders a storyboard of the opening song and the visuals to go with it (I am pretty excited, but it could still be changed). Not going to give away anything but I am excited about what is in my head. Now our team has to figure out the rest of the conference.

2:00-4:00 – Help Matt re-key the new 10B4 for the week. Footage is not cooperating.  One more piece to go for tomorrow. (try to answer emails during renders)

4:00pm – Jiyoung drops kids at work with me to go visit with Jenn and Michael Colwell at hospital. Michael is having brain surgery TODAY to remove 1 of 4 tumors. Michael works in groups at North Point and is responsible for so many of the group curriculum content on North Point’s web and DVD’s. He does much more than that though. More than I think most of us know. Two years ago, Michael was diagnosed with melanoma and had beaten it. Recently, it came back throughout his body. Jenn and Michael are taking one day at a time and all of the staff of North Point, Browns Bridge, and Buckhead are praying for this incredible man, Jenn, and his two young boys. I love that my wife is there right now. 

4:30 – Took the kids to McDonalds.  

5:30 – broke up 3 little arguments about not sure what.

6:00 – Gave kids showers. Jake on computer playing a game. Jillian watching a show.

7:00 – read to kids. Layed down with Jillian. Layed down with Jake. Told Jake that he can’t be afraid of anything tonight because everything that he is afraid of is afraid of me. He said why? I said because I am bigger than they are! He laughed. 

Tomorrow morning, Jake will probably be found in Jillian’s room – on the floor – with his pillows and blanket. I love him! 

Praying for Michael. 

 

NORTH POINT and YOUTUBE!!!!!

Ok People – I am sooooo stoked.
If you have never heard Andy Stanley talk and only have about 10-20 minutes – now’s your chance.
North Point Ministries now has a channel on youTube.

The reason why North Point is putting specific content on YouTube is for everybody and anybody to have access to some powerful truths on specific topics that EVERYONE will identify with. Most of the content is 10-20 minutes long. If you are a Christian and you have a friend that is struggling with marriage, finances, doubt and disbelief, going down the wrong path or life is just doing a once over – please, please, please look through these messages and find one that you think will help that individual. If you are someone who just enjoys listening and watching YouTube content, then please check out North Point’s page. Life is full of too many lies that are soooo easily concealed.

This content is not meant to “show off” North Point or to get people in our doors. It is meant as a tool and a resource for people to link too or link others too that might spark some great conversations about the topic or issues that are being shared. This library will only grow and it is intentional. (“It’s Personal” content is the full messages for the time being). Please listen for yourselves and then pass them along.
Link to a message – put it on your blog – subscribe to the channel – use it however you want.

On the media/techy side of things..
My guys worked really hard on getting the content up and designing the look of the page. (yes it’s YouTube’s template limitations so we were limited.)

The shorter clips of Andy are actually the same clips from our “Group Curriculum” DVD’s. Each of our DVD’s have the full messages on them as well as shorter clips (we cut in and out of original message) for group discussion. Then questions come up on your TV and wallah… “discuss”!!
I really want to know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Andy Stanley, Buckhead Church, North Point Community Church, North Point Ministries, Browns Bridge , YouTube

New Admin Position for Media

Call me excited!!!
For this next year’s budget I have been approved to hire a part-time media team admin. I can not tell you how excited I am about this position. Last year I would come home with so many non-media things I have to do and Jiyoung would tell me “you need an assistant”. Yes. Yes I do.

Brenda Albright (head of HR) at North Point has been AMAZING to work with. Hiring somebody is not easy but when you have people like Brenda to take on the weeding out process to get you to some final candidates, it’s a huge deal. HUGE. HUGE!!!

That said – next week I hope to interview what i pray will be the person to join an amazing and talented group of guys. I am so lucky.

Ten Things I learned from Matchbox 20, Alanis, and Mutemath

10. Good singers are good singers. Rob Tomas and Alanis are freaking good singers.

9. Anything can happen live anywhere!! (Video screens not working, people rushing the stage). Things Happen!

8. Even at the best concerts, people start milling or walking out when there is a lull. Think of the people that start to walk out of your church as the closing song begins. (For North Point and campuses – people like to get to their cars early) It happened to all three of the bands.

7. If you use video screens for your backdrop of your service….

– USE SOLID COLORS and change them up. Very powerful with lights.

6. If you use video screens for your backdrop of your service….

– Incorporate Black. so the screens don’t get diluted with something ALWAYS showing. Black (nothing on the screens) is a very POWERFUL tool so you can make a punch when you want EVERYTHING in – (say on a Chorus).

5. People do not like to stand behind me in a concert.

4. Bison Burger is GOOD.

3. Image Mag is a GOOD THING.

2. White spandex does not work on ANYBODY! Even from 100 yards out!

1. No matter how great your musicians are – if they are going through the funnel of a BAD AUDIO MIX then they sound mediocre, bland and boring. Mutemath and Alanis’s band were short changed because of HORRIBLE mixes. Brutal. It’s good Alanis had some hits that we could hold onto. She was amazing. Matchbox 20 sounded incredible!

Three campus SPD Directors (Service Programming Department)
Carlos SPD Buckhead – Julie (my boss) SPD North Point – Tyler SPD Browns Bridge.

Buckhead crew chillin’

Stage with screens that never opened up and revealed the screen behind it.

Technorati Tags: Matchbox 20, MuteMath

Camp Out on this question?

What was the last place you have been too that made you say – “I want to come back!”
(It could be anywhere or any place).

What was the last place you have been too that made you say – “I never want to come back!”

Why?

TONIGHT!! Matchbox 20 – Mutemath

Yeah I am stoked..

Going with Los, Bigtelicious, Julie – NP service programming directors and others.
Good times.
.

Technorati Tags: Matchbox 20, Mutemath

Renewed Vision (Propresenter) gets nods at Macworld

Macrumors did an article on my buddy Brad Weston (on left) and his company Renewed Vision. They were out at MacWorld in San Francisco (I wonder if my dad saw them). I worked for Brad at a company called Halo where he basically taught me everything I know about technology, authoring and creating video deliverables. He is a volunteer at North Point and our other partnership churches. I can’t say enough about the impact Brad has had at North Point and a ton of other churches around the country. The direction of my life changed after working with Brad and the guys.
Give a shout if you have used propresenter or any other of renewed Vision’s products.

***Update*** Greg (right in picture) just sent me these links from Apple. I am stoked these guys are getting some great scenery on Apple’s web. If you haven’t used their stuff download the demo right from Apple’s site at the links below.
Check this out or this out. Congratulations guys.

Technorati Tags: multiscreen displays, propresenter

Media Team Changes

So Carlos made his first employee steal 😉 of his time here at NPM. Dustin from my team will now be serving at Buckhead Church as the audio director for SPD (service programming department). Dustin was our studio director with media which meant he was responsible for anything audio when it came to videos, podcasts, voice overs, audio recordings, Sunday morning live capturing and remixing… you name it and he’s done it. Now he will be in charge of anything audio for Buckhead Church and their worship servies. To be fair, Dustin is actually going back to the position in which WE at North Point stole him from.

Dustin will be missed tremendously. He has the ability to lead up and has influenced me in so many ways. Buckhead has some great leaders over there and their reach is long. I am excited for Dustin to get back into live mixing on a full time basis and he will be tremendously missed.

Technorati Tags: North Point Audio, Buckhead Audio

“It’s Personal” Part 3 (Meghan Coffee)

Oh my word this series has been more powerful than we could have ever imagined.
Andy has done an amazing job walking those who are “thinking” about taking that next step towards a relationship with Christ and pushing them to KNOW God before they UNDERSTAND God.

This particular title package is the story of Meghan Coffee. I don’t want to ruin anything but this girl has got a story. I loved meeting her and was so impressed by her attitude and flexibility with what we were asking her to do.

Here is a little bit of the VIDEO Confessional:

Jon Acuff again took and edited all three stories and continued the theme for “It’s Personal”. Meghan turned in her story and it was amazing. Her writing style was so unique and I thought Jon did a great job of keeping her authenticity.

We brought Meghan in to do her voice over the same day we did the photo shoot at the graveyard. Before she left we had her write her WHOLE story down on white paper with the paper turned landscape to better represent the 16×9 screen it was going to play on. Everything you see on this video is her handwriting and her voice.

Meghan’s story got pushed up a week because of the timing of both – when we wanted to play a Sarah Groves song and her availability to play it. That put us in a little bit of a bind. Mike (from Media) took this one and OWNED it. Mike shot all the pictures at the graveyard and Dave B. (from Media) shot live footage for backup. Mike then continued to do all the motion graphics.

Mike surprised all of us when he took all the photo’s – put them in iPhoto and printed out a contact sheet. He then cut all the pictures up and made a storyboard before he ever got into After Effects. We were able to go over all the pictures together, move things around, dialogue and then make final decisions. (Storyboards are great on white paper after you draw them, but to put them on a nice black canvas, cut the images/sketches out and move things around, it allows for a whole lot of decision making to happen before you even start shooting or editing. I am sure most everybody does this, but I think churches (not all) tend to skip over a lot of this process for multiple reasons and it usually has to do with time. Funny thing is, in our experience, time is saved when this process is applied.)

One of the best decisions we made was to actually add color to a couple of the pictures. It was just the right touch that separated this piece from the first, while still keeping the overall look. You’ll see why we did it.
I thought originally we were going to use a different song for this piece than Chris’s but the music is so good we decided to keep it for all three stories (Lead me to the Cross – Hillsong). Again, we played this song live one Sunday morning and Dustin (from media)remixed it and took the lead vocals out.

I am sure I forgot something so please feel free to ask any questions. Media guys, if I forgot something, feel free to comment.

Here is the final that we showed. CLICK HERE

Technorati Tags: it’s personal, meghan coffee

When was the last time you sat in the 5th row of your church service?

Normally I sit middle back in either the East or the West auditorium at North Point. This last Sunday I sat in the front section, 5th row from the front. What a completely different experience.

Loved it.

When was the last time you experienced church that close? Better yet, when was the last time you experienced church through the eyes of a friend that had never been? 

North Point was INCREDIBLE this morning!!

Ok so Part 3 of “It’s Personal” was amazing. The whole service, top to bottom was great. We did little drummer boy opening (thanks Lifechurch and Trent Austin) after a couple of preservice Christmas tunes. Instead of having two drummers on stage we had a drummer in the East Auditorium and the drummer on the west. It was crazy and fun!
The title package with Meghan was AMAZING!! I will try to post that tomorrow. Then to everyone’s surprise, meghan came out and sang at the end and oh my lord that girl can sing. Sitting behind the keyboard she killed it.

Today is inmy top two favorite services. #1 Canvas part 4. #2 TODAY.
Andy invited people to take a step out in faith to follow Christ.
Next week’s is Scott’s story. Incredible.

“It’s Personal” Part 2 Title Package

Here is the 1st story of three that showed last week at North Point and will show this week at Browns Bridge and Buckhead. There were more details in this than you might think and the whole team did incredible. Chris was great and it was a powerful story. Andy killed it. If you want to see the message then go to northpoint.org.

I also wanted to pass on what Chris shared with me on this past Monday after his story played at North Point…

Chris wrote:
“On Monday morning I arrived at work and this guy I didn’t know walks up to my cube and says, “My wife and I went to North Point on Sunday. She was raised Southern Baptist, I was not. She is a Christian, I am not. Your story is our story, but we are still in the middle of it.”

I cannot begin to describe the conversation we had over lunch. Our Father was all over it. We were talking about believing in Jesus and the guy kept saying, “I want to ‘get there’, but I just don’t know how.” I told him I don’t know how /he/ is going to get there, either! Not having all the answers is kinda freeing, actually. We discussed grievances we both have with how this whole deal works. The conversation kept coming back around to taking a step in God’s direction even with a clenched fist full of doubt.”

Please pray for Chris and the opportunities that lie in front of him, especially his co-workers.

“It’s Personal” Part 3 this Sunday

I hope to post Part 2 of “It’s Personal” soon. The title package is an incredible story of Chris Ames and his journey towards believing that God exists.

I do, however, want to say COME THIS SUNDAY to North Point and hear Meghan’s story. It’s a powerful phrase… “My story of life, starts with death.” Meghan narrates the video of images about her journey through her mother’s death at 13. The pictures are incredible and at the end… Meghan herself will sing an incredible song by Sarah Groves. This series has been amazing and it’s still got two parts left.

Technorati Tags: it’s personal, North Point, videos

“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.

11/11/07 TenBefore for North Point

There were a couple of new things in this weeks TenBefore. Including some fall elements.
Enjoy the Turkey. Also, new series coming from Andy.

Technorati Tags: Ten Before

Worship Video

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

What about you?

Tripp from Media Nominated!!!

Tripp (see media team page) made a music video last year and it has been nominated for a Gospel Music Video Award. He directed and shot “Who Am I?” by Da T.R.U.T.H under the Hip Hop category.

Go to http://gospelmusicchannelapp.com/gmcva/# and cast a vote for him.

 You can vote once a day for each category.

 

 

 

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

Thanksgiving Shoot

The media guys are doing a shoot today with this handsome fella in it.
It is going in the TenBefore and it should be hilarious.

Christmas Service Project

From November to December, the campuses of North Point, Browns Bridge, and Buckhead are challenging attenders to get involved with specific charities in their community.

This is the promo.

This is sick..

Concept – Story – Execution.
All three are incredible.

Media Team Offsite

Wednesday we might have started a tradition for Halloween in media world – an offsite at my house!
It was a great time of prayer, looking back at this past year, looking forward at what lies ahead and living our mission statement in our day to day work.

Our mission statement as a department is to create media that makes a lasting impression.

Internally, we want to maintain such an excellence factor that throughout the campuses, the different ministries will WANT to look to us first and not as a last resort. This requires not only a great end product but an incredible heart of “customer service”. I know too many talented people that do not want to serve. Listen and then listen some more to those that honor you with a request for your gift set.

We’ve learned a lot this year. One Example,

the TenBefore went from this…

to this.

Collaboration works.

Welcome Ragamuffin bloggers!!!

Love to know where you’re from and how you know Carlos?

I am from San Jose, California – been in Atlanta almost 10 years. I know Carlos because I get to see his mug on Mondays and Tuesdays every week at work. Good times.

WFX Conference

Yesterday I went to the WFX conference (Worship and Facilities Expo) here in Atlanta where Andy (Stanley) from North Point and Craig Groeschel from LifeChurch.tv were the keynote speakers. Craig went first and was absolutely phenomenal. He said “when we hit a wall – it often times causes a revelation that we wouldn’t see otherwise.” The other thing that impacted me was this equation… limited resources + increasing passion = exponential innovation. Think about that.
After Craig, Andy challenged those attending that in order to move forward we have to take risks and a lot of times that means spending money. A round of applause erupted in the place. I wonder why that was. Thoughts? I love my job.

North Point Media Team Page finished

I trust these guys. I love their creativity. They make work FUN.
I could go on…

Kelly Lintz and the 10B4

For those that don’t know, Buckhead Church, North Point Community Church and Browns Bridge Community Church do something called the Ten Before. We basically take the announcements and upcoming stuff for the churches and creatively package it into a little segment that runs right before the service starts. It is hosted by Kelly Lintz who not only does a great job each an every week but is an actress that attends North Point. Well, she landed a part in a Stephen King movie and I wanted to share the trailer with you all and a couple of pictures of what she does for the Ten Before.

Pause DVD + 10 subtitled languages = WOW

Right now we are working on a 10 language DVD for the past series of “Pause”. This is the biggest DVD we have ever done and is brutal to test. A developer in Slovakia named Tomas has helped with organizing the languages. Poor guy. There are over 300 menu’s (group curriculum portion) and 800 buttons. Yes it’s brutal. I hope to get a screen shot of the outline to show what is going on. It’s an organized mess.

Hillsong Opener

Dave (from media team) forwarded this to me. Amazing. I love the first song. I might be a little late on seeing this but great stuff.

Gibby’s trip to Slovakia and his visit to Aushwitz

Pretty soon I hope to have a page dedicated to the guys on the media team since they also are a huge part of my life and work would not be nearly as great without them. Matt Gibson, one of our stud media producers and motion graphics guy, went to Slovakia on a missions trip. He passed along these pictures of the trip. I pass these along because they provoke thought and allow us to remember.

Go get this book if…

 

you are leading and need to make decisions in the world of graphic design and motion graphics. Many people have a “good eye” but if you don’t know how to communicate to your designers, editors, motion graphic artists, etc… then your not leading them or helping them. Why don’t you like the font they have chosen? Why does the page feel unbalanced? Why does nothing stand out? So much of this book is obvious, however it will help you communicate a whole lot better and will also allow you to look at designs with new insight.

Experience Drive ’08!! Website UP!!!!!!

Hey Guys – We have launched the Drive Conference website for Drive ’08. I am totally stoked about the look for Drive itself and this website ROCKS. You must experience it. The guys at Regime Design have been working really hard and took an idea that we had in our head and blew it out of the water.  I am really proud of this site. 

Problem Solving

If you are a problem solver – you are valuable. You think differently. You process things differently. You are creative in a unique way. Instead of always just asking for answers, you ask questions to get you closer to the answer. It takes time, dedication, and risk to dive in to something you have no idea what you’re in for. People who only want answers will never understand the art of discovery.

Six Feet Under – The Making of the Title Sequence

For those that are in the film and video world – Digital Kitchen and the producers go though the thought process of the title sequence of the show. This thing is a legend in the motion graphics world.

 

“The Company” opener

There are a couple of sites that I go to and check out different motion graphics. Some of the stuff is super inspiring and some stuff is just sick cause I have no clue on how to make things work. Digital Kitchen is a motion graphics house that do incredible work. Love this title sequence for the company.

Juicing the orange

   tThe media guys are going through this book right now. It basically is the story of a major marketing company and it’s quest to come up with creative ads/solutions for all sorts of different clients. It focuses on using “creative leverage” to separate themselves from the pack. It has inspired me to ask the single most important question on any video/commercial my team is asked to do…. “Demand a ruthlessly simple definition of the business problem.”  If someone that needs a video/promo/print piece done and can not answer that question, then the likely result will be ambiguous.  Also – this website is sick!! Click the book and go to it.