I’m not going to pretend that I know what “worship” truly means. There seem to be many definitions out there, but I don’t think any of us ever fully “get it”. However, that doesn’t stop me from learning, exploring & wrestling with what worship looks like…for both my daily, personal life as well as the corporate gathering of the Church. At the end of the day, it’s all about amplifying God with our lives.

3D is all the craze right now; thank you, James Cameron! I’m sure one day 3D technology will be as accessible as an iPod, and it’s inevitable that a church somehow somewhere will implement 3D technology for worship. Maybe it will come via 3D glasses, Hologram, or some other technology invented just yesterday that we have yet to learn about. Who knows.

But as this new technology makes itself attractively accessible to us all, let’s make sure that WE are shaping the Church, instead of letting technology shape it. Let’s also remember that worship is for God…and not for us. So slippery a slope it is to lead worship…if we aren’t careful, we can start to “worship the worship” and even the leading of it. I struggle with this on a regular basis.

So if it’s really for God, what does 3-Dimensional worship look like through God’s Eyes? I stumbled across something that might help us better understand this. There are three dimensions to worship. Check this little graph out. (I’ll try not to go all “math” on ya.)

UP

“Up” is the vertical dimension of our worship. It’s a direct dialogue between God & His Church. It’s amplifying Him by declaring Who He is, what He’s done, and what He’s yet to do. There is revelation, and there is response. Corporate moments like this might include songs about God, prayer, & communion. This is the main dimension most of us think of when we talk about “worship.”

ACROSS

“Across” is the horizontal dimension of our worship. Yes, our worship is directed towards God, but there is an element of community & togetherness involved. These are those “one anothers” we hear about in the Scriptures. “Across” moments bring ourselves into the light, whether it’s through times of encouragement, edification, confession, forgiveness, celebration, healing, baptism or simply sharing someone’s story/testimony.

OUT

“Out” is the action part of our worship. This is where we put it all into motion & BE the Church. These are the moments of compassion, mercy, justice & mission. Sometimes it’s as simple as engaging in someone’s story with no agenda other than loving them or doing something for them and expecting nothing in return. It’s being the hands and feet of Christ. As it says in James, it’s going to the widows & the orphans…this is pleasing & acceptable worship to God. This is what makes our worship 3D! Without the “out” dimension, our worship is 2-dimensional and flat. Sure, we declare regularly Who God is and what He’s done, and we may get “community” like nobody’s business…but if we don’t do anything about it and love the world around us like Christ calls us to love, then we become stale, lukewarm & stagnant…and God will spit us out of His mouth eventually. Worship not in motion is a nasty, foul stench to God. We must be salt & light. Faith without deeds is dead.

Sometimes I wonder if our “out” is actually “in”. To be missional means to step out of your own context and into someone else’s, meeting them at their point of need. I’m not against inviting people to our churches & events, but if that’s the all-end of our efforts to “reach them”, I think we are missing it.

The great tension that I live with is trying to get all this with my own life, when I spend most of my days designing worship events & using new, cutting-edge technology. I see so much need out there…so many injustices…people who have never heard the name of Jesus… and yet I come home to help those of us (who have already heard) use motion backgrounds, triplewide screens & do worship “better”.

But I cannot discount the power of sacred times set aside for the Church to worship together…and I love to create environments where we can gather and meet with God. I see these times as exclamation points to our week of worship…and a launching pad for the next week. So I believe our content should be as 3D as possible! I’m all about leveraging technology & imagery to express in new, creative ways the things that are close to the heart of God.

The content of our gatherings usually falls into one of these dimensions. Even if there’s a moment that contains an aspect of each, there’s still a dimension that’s dominating the moment.  I look at the context I’m leading in, and I do all I can do make sure the visual content I’m choosing aligns with the focus/dimension of the moment.

Think about your worship services…the songs, the visuals, everything. What moments could you categorize as “up”, “across” & “out”?

More to come.

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Here is the continuation.

Recently, I finished the book “Flickering Pixels” by Shane Hipps. This is not a feat to take lightly as I am not much of a book reader. It’s a weakness I struggle with constantly. I really wish I loved to read books…I really do. But it’s just not a natural means of entertainment or enjoyment for me. People are constantly saying “Oh, you HAVE to read _______.” Sometimes I take their word for it and jot it down, but very rarely (like every Haley’s Comet orbit) do I actually read it. Mark Zurowski (who I met in Thailand) was one of those guys recommending a book, except he gave me his own copy…and the title was “Flickering Pixels”. Man, am I glad I read it!

The basic message of the book is that the medium is just as important as the message, so much that the medium becomes the message itself. The two can’t be separated. The medium Hipps chooses to focus in on is technology. The whole book is a journey of unveiling the stealth-like influence and power that technology has in our lives & faith. I felt as if I was led to the backstage of the Technology Revolution and was shown what was going on behind-the-scenes. Everyone’s all hyped up on media & technology these days, but very few go exploring through the back hallways & secret passages of this thing. Another good analogy might be “The Wizard of Oz” and the moment when the man behind the curtain was revealed.

There’s so much to process after reading this book. There’s no way this one little blog post can contain all my thoughts (good, bad & cautious). But I can tell you this, it has profoundly impacted my view on technology and it’s proper relationship to both my daily life, leading others in worship, & training others to lead worship. I’m not saying that I completely 100% agree with every word in the book…like I said, I’m still processing. But the overall message & many of the stories told definitely back up a lot of what I’ve been thinking and wrestling with lately.

Here’s an excerpt from the book, which has been the single most memorable section of the book for me:

“Information alone is strength without coordination. We become a danger mostly to ourselves when we have it. Understanding is the ability to coordinate that raw information in meaningful ways. Understanding creates a certain enthusiasm. We can direct our knowledge toward potentially useful ends — but we may also be a danger to others. Wisdom, however, is knowing how, when, and why we use our understanding; wisdom is settling into our understanding without being too enamored by it.”

I think this can be applied to so many areas. The Internet, social media, visual media, art, etc. Think about the area of technology you lead in your church, and read that excerpt again keeping that area in mind.

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Here’s something to think about: with access to all these new motion backgrounds, software capabilities, magic box devices, projection techniques, intelligent lighting, etc… that alone is like having “information”. But I think a majority of our creative church subculture is in the “understanding” phase right now. We are learning how to wield our knowledge/information/gear/creativity & apply it in meaningful, worshipful ways. There is a sense of enthusiasm & excitement when this happens. And we’re very enchanted by it all. However, we haven’t really obtained “wisdom”.

Hipps goes on to write that “unfortunately, [this] Age does little to encourage the development of wisdom. This requires time, experience, contemplation, patience, suffering, and even stillness to obtain.” And with the current fast-paced climate of our culture (and sadly, even some churches), things “never settle long enough to allow for the emergence of wisdom. We are left instead with ‘the conceit of wisdom rather than real wisdom.’”

I want this message to be an encouragement to the Church. It’s so easy to become critical and point fingers, but the reality is, we all need to slow down. I need to slow down. This means turning things off once in a while. Or choosing times to lead without all the bells & whistles. It’s in those times of silence when our souls are quieted, our creativity gets some breathing space, & wisdom is nurtured.  And I really REALLY desire this for all of us.

Well, there’s a few other dog-eared pages in this book that I might have to write about later. We’ll see. But for now, I highly recommend that you go and pick up a copy for yourself. Connect with others in your community that have read it. If you can’t find anyone, then buy your worship leader or pastor or volunteer a copy and initiate some conversations with them about it. It might just revolutionize the way you approach media. Just maybe.

Thanks Mark! You were right. :)

Some time ago, I wrote a post called “Which Format Is Best?”, which walked you through my process of converting video files for more “VJ-friendly” playback. I should say right off the bat that this conversation only applies for Mac users. The short version is, when you download content (mini-movies, motions, etc), you are receiving a QuickTime movie that has been encoded with the H.264 codec (the industry’s standard right now). However, when pulling more advanced playback stunts like on-the-fly speed control & quick sporatic dissolves, this codec seems to struggle, resulting in choppy playback at the time of adjustment. And since I like my playback to be as smooth & seamless as possible, I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. So in that post, I highlight another codec that I’ve been using called “PhotoJPEG”; when exported at 50-75% quality (don’t ask), it results in a balanced combination of smooth playback, file size, & quality. #VICTORY

Last week, all of that changed.

When we were in the final stages of producing the Playback Drive, I asked the team the question, “Are we going to give people H.264 like everybody else, or are we going to go the extra mile and convert them all to PhotoJPEG?” The beauty of working together on a team is that there are other people more knowledgeable than you could ever imagine being yourself. Some liked the idea, and some didn’t. Why? Because they were never satisfied with PhotoJPEG to begin with. You see, PhotoJPEG compromises a fraction of quality when compared to H.264. The difference is marginal (even I cannot tell sometimes.) But to the professionally trained eye, you can tell.

So which is more important when VJ-ing? Pristine quality? Or seamless playback?

We thought about offering both codecs with a “read me” file explaining which format was for which situation. We didn’t want to compromise the quality of our loops, not even a fraction. But one of the guys on the team (Jason Norris, who’s been working w/ Nick Rivero on all sorts of crazy cool ideas) did a little research and experimentation.

What he discovered is this: if you export a video to QuickTime using H.264 but choose the option to KEY ALL FRAMES, it will result in seamless playback, just like PhotoJPEG…except that you’ve not compromised any quality! Here’s a snapshot of the advanced settings when exporting via QuickTime 7 (this should apply to other programs as well):

So…I have officially abandoned PhotoJPEG as my VJ codec of choice. From now on, it’s H.264 all the way (keying every frame along the way, of course.)

So what? What does this mean for you?

- if you’ve gone through all the work of converting all your loops to PhotoJPEG, then welcome to my camp. But I’m not that worried or frustrated honestly, b/c remember, the difference in marginal. Just select this compression type & setting for new loops that you’ve created or downloaded. Don’t re-export your PhotoJPEG videos back to H.264…it won’t help you regain that little bit quality. If it bugs you that you have lost that extra margin of quality…sorry…again, welcome to my camp. If you downloaded content from WorshipHouse Media, you can always re-download it in it’s original format via their new “My Media” feature.

- if you are new to all this, just know that this is for more advanced VJ playback & getting rid of the little things that most people won’t really notice. But if you still want to follow my lead, then whenever you download a loop/motion from a website, simply convert it to H.264 with the settings I described above.  (FYI: it’s already in H.264, but not with the “key all frames” option.) Also, this practice does not apply to “mini-movies” or any kind of video that you aren’t scratching/jogging/speeding up/slowing down/etc. To learn more about batch conversion, read my previous post and watch the video. Compressor works great, but for those without Final Cut Studio, I recommend Stomp.

A note of warning: when keying all frames using “Best” on compression quality, it will result in a much larger file size, about 4-5 times the size of a file using the default settings of H.264. For example, a 90MB video will now be around 400MB. The day after I posted this, Joel Smith of Thr_ve tested this compression method himself and found that if you use “High” instead of “Best”, you will find a much more conservative file size without compromising the quality. But in any case, you are going to be dealing with a larger file size, which is totally worth it to me. So if you’re thinking of getting a Playback Drive, you might want to consider the 2TB model! ;)   — And yes, the Playback Drive already has everything converted with these new settings. (the amount of content equals 33GB.)

It’s all about excellence. Even in the details. Thanks, Jason, Nick & Joel for working hard to find a better way for all of us!

You’ve heard me focus heavily on the “why”. This is an effort to help all of us re-prioritize the questions we have when leading worship…whether through technology, music, creativity, speaking, etc. Well, there’s one question that I believe is as important (if not more) than “why”…and that’s “who”.

The person(s) leading has a much greater impact on the direction of your organization/church than any gear you may own, your worship style, or any well-thought-out strategies your leadership can dream up. Yet so many churches struggle with finding the right person to lead. And sadly, there are many out there who have the talent & passion but don’t have a place to lead.

Slingshot Group exists to help churches find the right staff to lead their worship ministries, and throughout the process, speak into their strategy and structure. I’m excited to announce today that in addition to my current job, I have joined the Slingshot Group and will be developing their visual media/tech area. Simply put, I will be spending a significant chunk of time helping churches find & hire media directors/visual worship leaders!

Here’s how it works: a church is in need of a worship leader (or in this case, a media director). They then hire Slingshot for a moderate fee to go out and find the right leader. This involves visiting the church & getting schooled in who they are. Through Slingshot’s vast network, we present candidates for the job and help walk both church & selected candidate through the hiring process.There is no cost involved for the candidates.

What does this mean for you?

- you might be a church in need of hiring a media director/VJ/visual worship leader/etc. I can help you find the right person. There’s a journey involved though…it’s not just a simple hand out of my Rolodex.

- you might be a candidate…. a visual media/tech guru in need of a job at a church that can be a good home for you…a place where you can thrive in community & explore the gifts & talents you have in the context of ministry.

- neither of those? well, if you are a worship leader in search of a position, or a church in need of a new worship leader, then I can still help you out. The Slingshot Group’s main focus is on worship leading…so I can get you in contact with the right people there to hook you up.

If you’re interest is peaked, then here’s the 1st step: check out Slingshot Group’s website & read up…especially “How It Works”.

Want to go a little deeper down the rabbit hole? Email me – proctor@slingshotgroup.net – and let’s talk!

Aside from staffing, I will also be offering my consulting services through Slingshot Group. Kind of like a management/booking agency! Those services range from VJ-ing worship services, training teams on visual worship leading (everything from heart/philosophy, to software, to application), speaking into strategy & structure, & casting vision for leadership. If you are interested in bringing me to your local church, then please email Lesli Goetze – lesli@slingshotgroup.net.

I never could have come up with this kind of job description! I’m pretty stoked as I love focusing on relationships and the people-aspect of visual worship. Talk to me about projector models & firmware updates, and I just get lost. There are people out there way better at that stuff than me. ;)

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Follow us on Twitter – @slingshotgroup

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Every time I VJ, I get the golden question. “Where do you get all your backgrounds?” If you’ve been around me long enough, you’ll know there are many answers to that question. Much of what I use I download from sites like WorshipHouse Media, and some have even come from 20-year-old DVDs that I’ve discovered across the years. But more and more, the content I VJ is being created by friends of mine or even myself. Time and time again, I point to a shiny silver box sitting next to my MacBook Pro and explain, “This is my external hard drive. It contains all the videos & images I could ever need.” I get varied responses, from “Is that for sale?” to “You better not walk away b/c I might steal that!” (jokingly, of course…I think.)

Well, what if you COULD walk away with a hard drive loaded with content?

Now you can!

For a long time, a few buddies of mine and I have sat around dreaming. This usually takes place over a burning fire-pit, a stack of pancakes, or chips & salsa after loading out an event. We dream about everything from high-end technology that doesn’t exist (or isn’t affordable and user-friendly) to our philosophies on visual worship to the direction the Church is headed and what we love/hate about it.

One of those dreams was to start creating more content…a fresh wind of creativity that would sweep the Church and cause a shift in thinking in how we approach visual media for worship. And another dream of ours was to see all of this packaged onto a hard drive…a “one stop” solution that we could share with the Church at large. And not just a heaping pile of random clips…but media we could actually see ourselves using! A carefully curated collection of our prized gems.

This is way more than a product. It’s our expression of community & relationships. This project is a collaboration between Orange Thread Media, Visual Worshiper & worshipVJ. Those are our business names & brands…but most of you know us by our real names…Luke McElroy, Camron Ware, Nicholas Rivero, Nate Griffin, Jason Norris & Stephen Proctor. And many of you in our community have spoken into our lives and helped shape the way we think.

We hope that the Playback Drive will be a simple & effective solution that will empower you as you journey on this road of “visual worship”. Because no matter what software you are using, how big your HD screens are, or how simple or complex your approach may be, at the end of the day, you’ve got to have good content. The type of content loaded ranges from artistic & abstract to film-based images & realistic. There’s also a good selection of fast & vibrant loops for more energetic contexts, as well as slow & reflective imagery for more contemplative times. We wanted to make sure that there is a wide variety that suits every situation!

More importantly, we hope that this will be a tool that creates community and edifies the Church at large. To read more about why we are doing this & the community behind it all, read what Luke McElroy has to say.

And for those of you on Twitter wondering what the heck “#pbhd” means (that is, if you haven’t already figured it out), it stands for “Playback Hard Drive”. :)

Pre-orders begins TODAY! We will begin shipping on April 30th, 2010. If you pre-order before April 28th, we guarantee to have you drive shipped on April 30th.

Oh, and there is just one more thing…

…all Playback Drive Users will receive a new clip every month for FREE!

An original and powerful spoken word piece from Mike Perez of City Community Church in Indianapolis.

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There are no words I can add to this.

Lord, teach us what true worship really looks like.

- There is something powerful when people come together to create.

- Both of those guys (Camron & Nate) rank at the top of my list of creative people I know. … But as we focused on communication and our friendship, we all learned to die to our preferences and serve a greater cause.

- What happened in Thailand was probably one of the most creative worship experiences I have ever had.

- They wanted each of these nights to be set apart…very unique and special. So Saturday & Tuesday nights were our two main opportunities to bring all we had.

- Both nights incorporated Nate painting live during a segment of the worship while Camron and I took turns VJ-ing & running lyrics. As we dreamed together, we stumbled onto a few simple and innovative things that none of us had tried before. But what sent this experience over the edge was the participation of everyone else in the room…all contributing and leading through their own acts of visual worship. It was “co-creation” like I had never seen before.

- It’s all about relationships.

The Setup:

Saturday Night: Entering into Sabbath rest.

We wanted the worship space to be a sanctuary when people walked in. Lights dimmed, quiet & reflective music playing, and images/text on the screens that focused their hearts on God. People entered quietly and reverently.

The worship songs that night were played in a softer manner, and during a few of the songs, we didn’t even project lyrics. Instead, we projected various scriptures that focused on the Cross. The songs were well-known, so the need for lyrics wasn’t even there to begin with.

During this time of projecting scriptures, I felt the need (in the moment) to VJ scenes from “The Passion of the Christ”…slowed down to half-speed, saturation very low, and barely blended in with the scriptures. Then two people from the congregation got up and started reading scriptures while the worship leader lightly played his guitar. (For us, the scripture reading was a last minute add-on and someone else’s idea… a “curve ball” for us production guys…but we went with it.) It was POWERFUL. And the “Passion” scenes mysteriously lined up with what they were reading aloud. I love it when that happens.

Nate stepped on stage and started painting. No one could really tell what he was painting though…but we all sensed it was something profound. We continued to sing and hear scriptures. After a while, Nate turns the painting upside down and walks away. We were stunned as we made out the image…and overwhelmed given the powerful, scripture-filled worship moment we were in the midst of having.

Nate had also written out a beautiful treatment that I took and made into a video (all this was written and edited on the afternoon of). We also wanted to bring the experience back home for ELIC, and so Camron took his “Names of God” template and created a video of all the city names that ELIC is currently working in.

As you saw in the “setup” video, Camron had figured out in PVP (ProVideoPlayer) how to pixel-map the double-wide projection to fit exactly where the painting was hanging. This is an advanced setting in PVP and fairly easy to setup if you know what you’re doing.

And all at once, the elements came together. We captured this experience so that we could bring it back home and remember it, and we wanted to share it with you. (on the left, you’ll see the painting and what happened live, and on the right you’ll see what we projected on the side screens.)

And then we partook in communion.

Tuesday Night: The Sending Out.

This night was similar to Saturday night in that we had people enter quietly and reverently. However, this night was focused on the “sending out” of ELIC back to their cities.  This time, I VJ’d scenes of creation and people groups from all over the world. The music was less contemplative and more “other worldly” and “epic”…lots of movie soundtracks with a haunting yet inspirational rhythm.

Nate had painted a map of Asia earlier in the week and hung it on display in the back of the room. On Saturday night, people were invited to take sharpies and write prayers for their cities and friends over the regions where they were teaching. Some of the things that were written would break your heart.

We rearranged the chairs into a “U” shape, creating more of an “in the round” effect. I love doing this because it reinforces the community aspect of worship. (Nothing screams “community” like seeing the backs of people’s heads…just sayin’.) The band and speaker never stepped foot on the stage, but led from the floor down front. Many people could not see the worship leader, but this was kind of the whole point.

At the end of the night, after communion, Nate stepped back on stage and completed the painting of Asia. The first painting (from “Agnus Dei”) was hanging next to it. Nate finished painting, and what we were left seeing was the Hand of God holding Asia…prayers and all.

Then the worship leader led us in “God of This City”. In between the two paintings we projected faces of Asian people and then brought back the “Names of Asian Cities” that Camron had created for Saturday night.

Next came the last song of the night: “Mighty to Save”. Earlier in the day, Camron had taken his Canon 5D Mark II and took pictures of all the prayers that had been written throughout the week. After a little Photoshop magic, he opened up his editing program and created a double-wide video of all the actual handwritten prayers.

The people’s visual worship became our motion background! And it was the most powerful visual I could ever imagine while singing “Savior, He can move the mountains!” Spiritual mountains, one right after another, filled the wall. It was too much to handle. People were crying, raising their hands, and yelling “Yes, Lord! Do it!”

The last prayer came across the screen as we ended the song. In one person’s own handwriting, it read…

The president of ELIC got up, spoke a blessing over us, and prayed a benediction. The room continued to be a sanctuary. Most people just sat there in silence. Filled to the brim and ready to get back to the Work.

We had dreamed of merging live art and media all at the same time, but this was the first time we all worked together to make it happen. Even though the content was unique & creative, what made this experience so special was the context we were working with… 500 amazing individuals that make up ELIC. There’s no way we could replicate what happened that night…nor should we try…it was special for that time and for those amazing people. Again, it was co-creation like I had never seen before. What’s even better is that it took zero dollars to pull this off. Just a little time, creativity, a few of our own resources, unity and love for each other is all that we needed. I will never forget it.

It wasn’t the cool experience or our creativity that made the “worship” happen…it was the offering and surrender of people’s hearts…all of our hearts. That is what was pleasing and acceptable to God. It’s amazing when He chooses to use our talents in the midst of worship. He can do great things through us when we get out of the way, die to our preferences, and make ourselves available to Him.

There is something powerful when people come together to create. You see, when it comes to playing videos, I’m pretty much by myself, choosing the videos I want and doing it my way. Sure, there’s community with the band, leader and production guys, and a hope for some sense of “community” with the people in the pews…but let’s face it, when I sit down at my laptop, it’s pretty much whatever I decide. And very quickly, it can become all about me and my own artistic preferences.

In Thailand, I ran smack dab into a wall of frustration, tension and confusion over what needed to happen visually. Nate & I experience this tension frequently in our projects, and we’ve learned over the years to embrace and wield this tension to our benefit. Add the fact that Camron and I teach together a lot but rarely VJ together. Now put all three of us in a room together; it was the making of something very interesting.

Both of those guys rank at the top of my list of creative people I know. But working together in a close environment brought out some crazy things. I realized very quickly that we have different creative/artistic preferences. We each gravitate to different types of images & styles of VJ-ing; there were even moments when I thought, “I would never use that picture!” But as we focused on communication and our friendship, we all learned to die to our preferences and serve a greater cause.

You see, it’s all about relationships! This applies to all of us. I don’t care how big or little your budget is, how cool that video effect is, how many projectors and screens you have, or what version of ProPresenter you’re running…if you don’t have love, game over. It’s probably the single most important & foundational element for an effective ministry. I cannot stress this enough!

What happened in Thailand was probably one of the most creative worship experiences I have ever had. It involved all of us working together…as a team…loving each other and encouraging each other along the way. I failed many times at this during the process, but God trumped all that in the end and decided to accept our offering and do something great with it.

The conference went from a Wednesday thru Tuesday. For ELIC, Sabbath rest was ushered in Saturday night and ended Tuesday night with a sending out. They wanted each of these nights to be set apart…very unique and special. So Saturday & Tuesday nights were our two main opportunities to bring all we had. We still VJ’d the rest of the time, but it was much more simplified & stripped down.

Both nights incorporated Nate painting live during a segment of the worship while Camron and I took turns VJ-ing & running lyrics. As we dreamed together, we stumbled onto a few simple and innovative things that none of us had tried before. But what sent this experience over the edge was the participation of everyone else in the room…all contributing and leading the rest of us through their own acts of visual worship. It was “co-creation” like I had never seen before.

To be continued…

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:35 (NIV)

This year, i want to make more intentional efforts in my exploration of the VJ world. A lot of the technology that would seem futuristic to us has actually been around for a while…hidden away in clubs, VJ festivals & other underground areas that might seem foreign to some of us. But i wonder if some of these cool new toys & techniques will ever go mainstream enough for the rest of us to get our hands on it. Here are just a few examples of what i’m talking about. Be prepared to be blown away. Enjoy.

*wiki-wiki*

warning: be sure & tighten the wrist strap. the last thing you need is for your sound guy to get a black-eye! (even though he may deserve it!  j/k )

More Wiimote awesomeness. This time using Modul8 VJ software.

Quartz has a significant role in the future of VJ-ing. VJ Shakinda is the leading authority on Quartz VJ-ing.

I wonder if my nephew would let me borrow his Nintendo DS…like, permanently.

i’ve wanted one of these for years.

uhhh….i don’t think this will fit as a carry-on.

Use your iPhone to VJ and map projection.

Community-driven projection mapping. Yes, please. (via CreateDigitalMotion)

Wii, before it’s time. I’m still waiting on Nick Rivero to figure this one out.

It’s so bad.

here’s another link worth checking out. Would be cool to get multiple people to connect and VJ with their iPhones during worship.

So there you have it… a glimpse into the crazy world of true VJ-ing.  i watch this stuff & realize i have barely begun to scratch the surface.  i hope some of these ideas continue to develop, as i’d love to start VJ-ing outside of a mouse, keyboard & trackpad. The KORG Nano has been a good start. But there’s so much more to explore. And i’m counting on guys like Zac Dixon, Allan White, Graham Robinson & Nick Rivero to help make this more mainstream & to produce some content that takes us deeper into worship.

Have you found any links/videos of new or non-traditional tools for VJ-ing? Don’t keep it to yourself! Spread the love and share with the rest of us!

MPEG-1, WMV, MOV, M4V, AVI…the list goes on. Remember the good ole days when everything thing was on VHS? (And then LaserDisc came out…man, that was exciting.) There’s so many file formats to choose from. And while they all technically/supposedly/are-rumored-to playback in most presentation softwares, which is the best format for VJ-ing?

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UPDATE!

Since this was posted, I have discovered a better codec for the best VJ playback experience. Instead of going with PhotoJPEG, use H.264 …except you want to KEY ALL FRAMES! Read more about this here.

For those of you using Stomp to batch export, here is a screen-shot of the new settings.

All photos taken by Camron Ware of VisualWorshiper.com. Check out some more photos from the night.

Kids, don’t try this at home! :) ok, just kidding…but there are some interesting articles coming out about “visual attacks” & guerrilla projection mapping. We had total permission by the fine folks at DIRT though, but if Camron & I disappear one day, look in the nearest jail… (based off the location of our last tweets, of course!) Thanks to Brad Weston @ Renewed Vision for helping & for making kick-butt VJ software!

(FYI, total gear included 1 MacBook Pro running PVP, External Hard Drive for content, one TripleHead2Go, three projectors – Hitachi 3000 lumens each, and a few strands of VGA.)

As I’ve been on the road having conversations with pastors, worship leaders & techies who are all trying to figure out how creativity works in worship, I have had a growing burden to gain a clearer understanding of what true, biblical worship is. i have much to learn and more scripture to dig into than i can comprehend. Here are some of the main things that have stuck with me, and here are some questions I’m asking myself in hopes of finding the answer to “What is Visual Worship?”.

• Worship is our response to a revelation from God…specifically, Who He is, what He’s done, and what He’s yet to do. // So how can visual media/art facilitate a revelation from God (just as text on paper can), and how can we use visual media as a way of leading our response to God?

• “We breathe in the wonders of God, and we breathe out our response.” – paraphrasing Matt Redman // Can we “breathe” in/out using our eyes and what we see?

• Worship, by nature, is 3-dimentional (picture an X, Y, Z axis): UP (Godward/Intimacy), ACROSS (Communal/Relationships), and OUT (missional/Kingdom)…all three working in motion & together..never independently. God is everywhere. // How can our visual media support each dimension? Can our screens and walls be windows into the world around us, bringing everything from the wonders of God’s creation to the hurting and oppressed into the church building, where we tend to confine our worship?

• ” ‘Missions’ exists because worship doesn’t.” – John Piper //  How does “missions” play a role in the visual content we are choosing?

• Worship stems from the heart…it’s not what we do, but how we live. // How are we using visual media/art to connect the dots… that worship is not the songs we sing nor the experience we have during an event, but a lifestyle of authentic relationships, loving others, and adoring God in everything?

• “Religion (worship) that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” – James 1:27 (ESV) // Again, how does this relate to “visual worship”? What priorities do we have when it comes to worshiping ourselves and leading others to worship?

• “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” – Romans 12:1 (ESV) // If we are using this phrase “visual worship”, how does it apply to this passage of scripture?

• I once heard a friend in Hong Kong say that we can glorify/worship God by what we see, that if we weren’t able to do that, God wouldn’t have created us with eyes. // How can I see Jesus in everyday life? How can I use images and art to help others see Jesus in the midst of singing worship songs and hearing a sermon?

So, with all of this said, what would you say is the definition of “visual worship”, and how does it relate to leading your congregation?

Share your voice.

no matter what media i have in my playlist… no matter what software & technique i’m using… no matter what the message is…

…the most influential layer in VJ-ing is the music. It’s the one element that completely dictates the emotion of the moment.

i’ve curated and sequenced an iMix via iTunes…a playlist of music that inspires me way beyond the melodies of today’s worship songs. i hear these songs, and my mind explodes with imagery.

the worshipVJ iMix

it’s just a fact… sometimes i hear the music of a church, band or artist, and i simply struggle with what i would VJ for them. a friend pointed out to me the other day that i’m not very analytical in my VJ-ing b/c i mostly “feel” the music as i VJ. it’s very true. if i can’t “feel” the music, it’s very hard to VJ. (that doesn’t mean i have to necessarily ENJOY the music…. “feeling” and enjoyment are different.)

i might hear a popular song like “How Great Is Our God” led differently depending on the band’s style, and so i would VJ that song completely different for each band. VJ-ing is not just reflecting the content of the song but the musical context in which it’s carried.

This is why i always teach people to treat your software & media like a musical instrument instead of a “tech tool”. Let the movement of the visuals groove with the beat of the music, and when the bass & drums drop out, let the visuals back off (slow down, go to black, etc).

When i’m editing a video, the first thing i start with is picking the music… once i find a soundtrack for my vision, i let it orchestrate the entire video. here is an example of a video i created for Beth Moore a few weeks ago. (turn up your speakers or put on some headphones)

Does this make any sense? Let me know. And if you struggle with “feeling the music”, just go watch “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

One playlist i use at every event is called “Test Patterns”. It’s simply a collection of various grids, patterns & color bars that i use when setting up my VJ rig. It’s very helpful when setting up for any scenario…whether it be Environmental Projection, multi-screen video staging, or simply plugging in to a venue’s house projection system. Here are a few things to keep in mind when testing your projection:

• fill the screen…use a grid or focus pattern to align the sides to the edges of the screen.

• calibrate the colors… if you’re on a Mac, go into the Display settings in System Preferences…start with projecting color bars (via Pro or PVP), but run through various images (photos w/ faces, motion backgrounds, slides, etc)…choose the calibration setting that looks best overall. With PVP, you can adjust the colors of each image (individually or globally)…if the projector lamps are old, i’ll boost everything a notch to make the images pop. ProPresenter4 will have this feature in the Clip Preferences on videos!

• make it seamless… when setting up multi-screen or Environmental Projection that’s “seamless” but you don’t have Edge Blending capabilities, set a grid pattern to stretch across all 3 screens (or 2, or 5, or 27…) and line up the grid lines as closely as possible. You can see a time-lapse video of this here.

• focus! … i know it seems obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded… focus those projectors people! :) i just had to VJ an event where the middle projector lens was broken and we couldn’t focus it properly… it about killed me.

• black desktop … set your 2nd display desktop image to a black jpeg. Not matter what software you use, it WILL crash on you. In those moments, let’s lead our congregations in some “visual silence” instead of a picture of your family vacation to Sandals. I’m just sayin’….

For those of you who don’t have any proper test patterns, i’ve posted mine for you to download . Not only does it contain the patterns, but it also has solid colors, which are a killer backdrop when the screen(s) are directly behind the band. (one time at Passion, the huge video wall went completely red…all lights off… Crowder* Band was silhouetted … EPIC WIN.)

Test away.