Well fall is officially upon us and that means my schedule is packed with conferences.  I’m pretty excited to be running visuals in a few weeks at the Catalyst Conference.  I’ll be working a with a lot of great people, with the crew at Big Stuf Events leading the way.  Leading worship will be the Fee boys–great friends and even better worship leaders.  Speaking of the Fee boys, I did hit the small white ball with Steve Wednesday, and we should all be glad he’s a musician  Can’t say I did much better…

Seriously, though, if you’re not attending Catalyst, I’d recommend it–the set and visuals are going to be great and unique (lots of LED, LCD, Mac Minis and more)–but the conference of the content is always stellar.  Lanny and Reggie do a great job hosting the event, and pull out more creative elements than most every other conference I attend combined.  I’ll be sure to send a few live posts from the event.

After that I’ll be making the rounds to Youth Specialties, WfX, CMS and many others.

What conferences are you attending? 

Tags: CREATIVITY, EVENTS, GENERAL, TRAVEL by gregdolezal
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another great motion lyric project by Brandon Horner.

to read more on the art of motion lyrics, read my previous post.

have you created any cool motion lyrics? links?

Tags: CREATIVITY, VJ COMMUNITY, custom content, motion lyrics by proctor
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In the context of a message (whether it be a song, sermon, etc.), visual media can be either directly or indirectly related to that message, as well as can cause a cognitive or emotional response within you. Visual media that is directly related is more or less a literal translation of what is being sung or talked about. Indirectly-related media is more of a “cousin” to the message; there’s no direct correlation but there is a link that can support the message. When a visual causes a cognitive response, it activates something in your head; you see text or an image and it causes you think. Or the visual can cause any type of emotional response…excitement, energy, reverence, adoration, awe…this list goes on an on. Text-based media tends to lean more on the cognitive, while image-based media usually stirs up your emotions; however, it can go both ways.

(A) Direct/Cognitive: A great example here would be lyrics to a worship song. Projected lyrics are directly related to the song itself…I mean, how more literal can you get? And when you see lyrics on a screen, it triggers a cognitive reaction; you see the words and sing along. Another example of this would be keywords from the lyrics that fly across the screen.

(B) Indirect/Cognitive: Have you ever decided not to project lyrics because everyone knows the song by heart? I do this with “Breathe”, “Awesome God”, and “Agnus Dei” all the time. Instead of lyrics, I’ll scroll through various scriptures that support what is being sung about. Or I’ll play a video that has the names of God (“Names of God” from Highway Video’s Vibe Vol. 4).

(C) Direct/Emotional: Try singing “Draw Me Close” and using a silhouette of someone kneeling down and praying. There is a direct and literal translation, and the image can stir something in you. Maybe you aren’t in a position to kneel down yourself in worship, but you can wrap your heart around the image on the screen, letting it express what is in your heart. In concert settings, an example of dir/emo would be singing along with a music video.

(D) Indirect/Emotional (‘indie/emo’ as I like to call it): here is where most of us lie in using visuals, especially as backgrounds for lyrics. These visuals have little or nothing to do with the song itself, but evokes emotions that are appropriate. Using colorful, abstract animations to an upbeat song can support an energetic and celebratory atmosphere. For many, candles can represent a closeness and intimacy with our Creator. The use of creation/nature imagery or a video of a galaxy or nebula that stretches 15 million light years while singing “How Great is Our God” is another great example. You’re obviously not singing “How great is our galaxy, sing with me…”, but being reminded how big God is and how small we are sure does echo the anthem of God’s glory louder than a blue background.

Knowing why and how visual media affects us will help us in selecting visuals that will speak truth to us on multiple levels and help us to engage our people in a purposeful way.

~proctor

Tags: CREATIVITY, VISUAL WORSHIP by proctor
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Rich Kalonick snapped this pic in Billings, MT at Living Proof Live.

( Yes…sometimes I have to stand up when I VJ. )

Thanks, Rich!

Tags: EVENTS, TRAVEL, VJ-ing by proctor
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There’s a documentary out called “SCRATCH” that I saw; it let’s you in on the underground culture of the hip-hop DJ world. And there was a section on “digging” and how DJs dig for good music & loops to spin.

Digging is basically search & discovery. 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 some shiny 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, WorshipHouse Media & the Shoutable Store ; I also recommend subscribing to COLLIDE Magazine …a great new magazine focusing on media & the Church.

What places do you go to dig for media? What’s your process of finding good visual imagery?

- proctor

Tags: VJ-ing, backgrounds, loops by proctor
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Today I thought I’d start a series of postings on the art of VJ-ing and the various components that go along with the territory. Most of these postings will be taken from a few articles that I’ve written back in the day for Worship Leader Magazine and EDIROL’s ENGAGE newsletter, but slightly updated and refreshed. Today’s posting will serve as the intro section. Enjoy!

The term “VJ” stands for “video jockey” or “visual jockey”, and sometimes has been known as “video DJ”.

The idea behind the worship VJ is not so emerging, if you think about it. You’ve seen this in forms of visual artists in the Church. But in the context of digital media & newer technologies, the role of the VJ is relatively new. It has emerged from the position of the “powerpoint guy”; you know, the volunteer running the slides on Sunday mornings.

It’s the guy we all turn around and look at when there’s a misspelled word on the screen, or when the slides are behind, or when the video doesn’t start on time, or when…i’m getting depressed.

Being a worship VJ means taking that role to the next level…intentionally & artistically. It shifts from being a spot on the tech team to someone engaging with the worship band. You aren’t just hitting an arrow button and “doing your job”; you are now carrying the mantle of “visual worship leader”. Because whether you like it or not, anything visual during corporate worship is going to affect the Body. It could be meaningless and wasted space, not to mention boring and misrepresenting the glory of God, or worse…distracting; or it could be inspiring, convicting, and truly engaging…leading and pushing the Body to worship the Living God. It’s given that we are affected by what we see, so why not take great care and responsibility with that knowledge?

Many have started to integrate visuals into our gatherings, usually in the form of lyric backgrounds. Video Staging has become the next logical step in the evolution of visual media. And any and every type of visual image (and format) are at our fingertips b/c of the internet. It seems that life for the VJ is better than ever now! But the battle to keep the focus in the right place is stronger than ever. It’s so easy (at least for me) to lose balance and make the “experience” about the technology/creativity. I heard Louie Giglio confess his own struggle with this at one of the Passion conferences; it was very convicting for me.

So have we reached the summit in our climb to overcome the obstacles of doing media well? Can we as VJs do anything else that might enhance our worship and keep the focus on Jesus? Where do you think the journey is going from here?

All for now…. - proctor

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(the above image is from packaging of Highway Video’s “Elements” - a great resource for the worship VJ.)

Tags: VISUAL WORSHIP, VJ-ing, WORSHIP, video staging by proctor
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This weekend I’ve traveled to Charleston, WV, to fill-in for their VJ and run ProPresenter. Its pretty ironic for me, since I usually spend my time at all-women’s conferences. This had been a good inoculation of testosterone!

I’m here with friends Michael Hocklander (producer) and Darien Koop (LD), and we’ve been having a great time…not to mention hearing great talks on integrity and purpose.

They’ve got an iMac set up with ProPresenter, with everything pre-scripted. So my job had been relatively easy (so far). This morning I brought in my hard drive and juiced it up a bit, adding some stock content (artbeats, stargaze, and iWorship Flexx).
but what’s cool is that PK poured some $$$ into graphics and had original motion lyric content produced for many of the songs.

They’ve got a 3-screen setup…it’s taken everything in me not to break out the tripleHead2Go! I would but they’ve got everything set up a different way, plus things can get tricky when iMAG is involved. But it’s still rockin’!

Here are some pictures taken with my trusty iPhone. (and thanks, Steve Jobs, for the 2.1 FirmWare update…my phone works now!)

- proctor

Tags: Software, TRAVEL, motion lyrics by proctor
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Magnetosphere revisited (audio by Tosca) from flight404 on Vimeo.

our friend and fellow VJ Allan White (aka “Wazungu”) has made what could be a very exciting discovery that has gotten some major media attention in the world of Mac.

he has blogged about & VJ’d some “trippy visuals” from Magnetosphere, and has proclaimed that this could be the new visualizer in iTunes 8, scheduled to release next week at Apple’s Sept 9th event.

MacRumors.com recently had posted a quote from an Apple Exec saying that “the new iTunes 8.0 visualizations are really trippy - there is one with planet like objects wrapping around each other w/stars/light streams”

VJ Wazungu decided to do a little more research…and it resulted in his find being published on MacRumors.com today!

to read more about Allan’s “visual prophecy” check out his blog. He’s a great VJ that I met on the road a few years back when VJ-ing for the Luis Palau Festival in DC, and he is currently working for the Luis Palau organization now. He was one of the first guys to ever comment on this blog and has been a huge encouragement in launching the worship VJ blog. I follow him on Twitter and so can you!

and to be mesmerized by this amazing visualization and soon to be VJ tool of mine, watch this video!

Tags: CREATIVITY, VJ COMMUNITY, VJ-ing, loops by proctor
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for years i’ve been blown away by creative and engaging video staging setups. if you are new to the idea of “video staging”, think of it simply as adding screens (or any type of video display) to a stage/platform, going beyond the typical setup of one/two screens for displaying lyrics and iMAG/backgrounds. you can get extremely creative with video staging; it serves as a great backdrop as well as a great way to bring the visual element more into the experience that the worship team is facilitating.

i recently got to work with the amazing teams at LifeWay & Technical Innovation on Beth Moore’s Living Proof Live conference in San Antonio. usually on an “end stage” setup, we have a large center screen framed by trussing. this time, we decided to take it up a notch and produce a 3-screen setup.

we accomplished this by simply adding two extra projectors & screens, plus a nifty little device by Matrox called the TripleHead2Go. i simply used my MacBook Pro (running ProVideoPlayer)….set my resolution to 3072 x 768 … and outputted to the TripleHead2Go … which split out directly to the 3 projectors. some content i custom created for this resolution…but most of my loops were either set at 800×600 or 1280×720 …so i had to live with a widened image… but honestly it still looked great to a sea of 10,000 women!

for another great blog entry on the TripleHead2Go, click here!

have you ever used a TripleHead2Go or done any kind of video staging?

Tags: CREATIVITY, Hardware, video staging by proctor
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