Worship Services

An often-misunderstood aspect of video production, color correction, should always be part of your post production process. I want to demystify the process and help you plan your shoot to make color correction work for you. Before diving in let's define some terms: Color correction and color grading are somewhat interchangeable terms. However, there are subtle differences.

Yes, I know December seems far away, and you might not be ready to start earnestly thinking about Christmas – but a little thought and planning now could make any upcoming Christmas tech plans go much smoother. You can start benefiting from this preparation right now! Here are seven tips to help you get started readying your worship technology for the upcoming Christmas season:

Building (or even keeping) a media ministry team in the church is a challenge. For 11 years, I wore many hats in my small church in Kentucky. I was the youth minister for seven years and lead pastor for four. I changed light bulbs, and cleaned bathrooms and floors, all while leading, counseling, and planning. Been there? I know I'm not alone. I was in a paid ministry role at the church. Many of you aren’t. You’re full-time teachers, factory workers, doctors, accountants, parents, and grandparents. You're a volunteer doing everything you can to balance work and home life while serving your local church.

The word “copyright” can scare those of us who aren’t attorneys. Copyright law can be downright confusing. Sometimes, it feels easier to bury our heads in the sand than make sure we are 100% legal. But, the truth is it’s not all that confusing.

MediaShout recently released a major update to their worship presentation software giving MediaShout 6 a cleaner and more tightly integrated user-interface. They’ve streamlined the process of editing the slides users create speeding up the process of importing lyrics and working with other slide show elements like Bible passages. They also Liturgies, a new kind of Cue that creates what many churches call a responsive reading, where the leader and congregation read scripture together out loud.

Live streaming is becoming less of a technical novelty and more a requirement for many churches--something that makes a lot of sense. Sure, online live streaming technology allows you to broadcast and distribute your message around the world, but it also allows you to reach local community members that may not be able to make it to church every week (or at all). The question is, can they hear you? You know that audio is the most important part of any live stream, right?

It is often said that half of great video is great audio. It is certainly true that bad audio can kill good video. But it's not always easy to get great audio into your camera every single time. While it can be tricky, the dividends will pay off when the audio is high quality and is synced perfectly to the video. Whether you're producing a delayed livestream, captured video church service for YouTube, or some other video church production, spending time on the quality of the audio is important.

There is perhaps no better parameter for adjusting the quality of your sound than the equalizer. And it doesn’t have to be a complicated affair. Mastering your use of the EQ for live sound will take some practice though. And it is imperative that you train your ears what to listen for. (See the helpful chart and tips at the end of this post.) Why EQ? What’s the big deal about EQ, anyway?