the week after i got back from Indonesia, i jumped on a tour bus with Travis Cottrell, Cindy Morgan & Shaun Groves for Compassion’s Gloria Tour!

The last two weeks have been awesome getting to VJ Christmas media for their incredible songs. Brandon Horner did the first leg for me (as there was a good chance i could have missed a flight in between Bali and Atlanta + the fact that jet lag kicked my butt this go around)….but i met up with Travis and the gang in Houston for Living Proof Ministries‘ CONVERGE event. We flew to Amarillo, then drove to Petal, MS, then to Jacksonville, FL. This weekend we hit Camp Hill, PA - Hickory, NC & Kingsport, TN.

Some of the churches had HUGE screens…like movie theatre sized canvases. It was obviously a lot of fun getting to “paint” them with visuals throughout the night. i’ve got to say that the most moving part of the evening was when Cindy Morgan sat at the piano and led us in “Praise the King”. And if that wasn’t enough, Travis followed it with “Jesus Saves” and “In Christ Alone”. Every night ended on a high note and with all fingers pointing to Jesus!

opening of “Ring the Bells” sung by Travis Cottrell

Cross-dissolving Africans during “Ring the Bells”

“Christmastime is Here” sung by Cindy Morgan

“Beautiful Bird” w/ music video, sung by Cindy Morgan

Cross-dissolving manger scenes with framed swirls for “Joy” sung by Cindy Morgan

Shaun Groves

Shaun Groves singing “Kingdom Coming”

“O Holy Night”

“God Is With Us”

“Praise the King”

“Praise the King” ProPresenter screen

“Jesus Saves”

Tags: EVENTS, ProPresenter, ProVideoPlayer, TRAVEL, VJ-ing by proctor
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yes…it’s true.

And with either your iPhone or iPod + this pocket-sized projector, the world can become a more beautiful place!

Check it out!

Tags: Hardware, VJ GEAR, apple by proctor
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This week @ seminars4worship (in Bradenton, FL), we tried out environmental projection for the first time ever. Not only was this my first time to VJ using this creative yet simple technique, but it was also my first time to see it first hand. i’ve seen lots of pictures…i’ve even taught on the concept. But experiencing it live and hearing the feedback from those with me, i’m still blown away.

For those of you wondering, i’ll break down the technology a bit:

- MacBook Pro running ProVideoPlayer (for all image playback)…

- …which outputs into a Matrox TripleHead2Go…

- …which is tied directly into three 5K projectors set up on a ledge in the back of the room.

- MacBook Pro running ProPresenter…

- …tied directly into the house video system, where white on black lyrics were run (hitting the house screens which were splashed with the environmental projection)

- lighting by ProGear Warehouse (Elation LED fixtures), LD was Greg Moore, one of the best worship lighting guys i’ve ever worked with.

In no way do i take full credit….we had an AMAZING production team & volunteers help in the set-up. I also have to give credit where credit is due, as i learned from the master.

If you are thinking about doing this in your church, tread cautiously. B/c if you don’t have the right content & VJ it tastefully, you can create the biggest distraction ever. i’ll blog more about that later.

It’s really exciting to do something that is really so simple and relatively cheap, which can transform a stark-white, boring room into a place of inspiration and creativity that hopefully draws people in and points them to Jesus.

Before.

After.

Colt Sammons, bravig the ledge.

p.s. sorry for the bad quality photos, my iPhone is cool but not that cool. the Canon 50D is being ordered this week!

Tags: CREATIVITY, EVENTS, Hardware, ProPresenter, ProVideoPlayer, Software, VISUAL WORSHIP, VJ COMMUNITY, VJ GEAR, WORSHIP, apple, conferences, environmental projection, integrity live, seminars4worship by proctor
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New friend and fellow VJ, Camron Ware, is the owner of VisualWorshiper.com and has an incredible blog. I check it every day and am inspired by his work. What he’s accomplished with what he has termed “architectural projection” is jaw-dropping. He also just bought his first Mac (one of the new 15″ MacBook Pros)…so let’s throw a party and welcome him to the Mac community!

Camron just posted an article on his blog that was very intriguing…concerning the use of iMAG (image magnification/live video) during worship gatherings. This was something i thought about blogging about at some point, but he did the topic great justice. so go check it out!

Tags: CREATIVITY, Hardware, STYLE, VISUAL WORSHIP, VJ COMMUNITY, apple, iMAG by proctor
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Well, so much for posting from Catalyst. We had 4 great, but very long days. Day 1 was load in and setting up the 26 LCD screens we had going around the stage. Day 2 was teching problems and rehearsal, and days 3 and 4 were the actual event. We had 9 main sessions in those 2 days, so it was a total whirlwind.

The conference itself was great…featuring a short bus, live elephant , worship by the Fee band , Kristian Stanfill , and Eddie Kirkland –excellent hosts Lanny Donoho and Reggie Joiner , and great teaching from Jim Collins , Dave Ramsey , Andy Stanley , Steven Furtick , Seth Godin , and many more.

The set was in the round due to the sell out crowd of 12,400. There was a cylinder LED with MiStrip ‘icicles’ below it. Above and surrounding that were the 4 main IMAG screens. The stage resembled the Chevy logo with thrusts going off into each area of the floor–the stage was framed with 22 50" LED screens, and the drum sub was wrapped with 8 50" LED screens. The cylnder and MiStrips could raise up and go down via motor control,and the opener featured a cool reveal of the drummer who was on the drum riser inside of the cylinder and strips.

Our tech set up was pretty intense–I had 3 PVP machines in front of me at FOH, and did my best of keeping everything straight. I had a machine running to the MiStrips, a main playback for the cylider LED and screens, and a master for the 26 LCDs that surrounded the stage. With me in the pit was Brad Weston running screen control through the Big Stuf Indigo, and Sarah running lyrics on ProPresenter.

I think the thing that amazes me most about that event is the depth of talent at every position. I don’t think we could come close to pulling it off with the talented people in every department. We get to work a lot with the guys from Majestic Productions, and they always do a great job getting everything in the air on time, and keeping it up and running. Kudos to Brian Pirkle at Big Stuf who produced the event and managed to keep us on task and not melt down during some pretty stressful moments. Jeff , Brian, and Brad at Catalyst have an almost impossible task of improving this conference every year, but continue to raise the bar.

Below are some pics…the bad ones are from my cell phone, the good ones are courtesy of Michael Henson from Majestic Productions.

Any of you make it to Catalyst?

Tags: CREATIVITY, EVENTS, GENERAL, ProVideoPlayer, TRAVEL, VJ GEAR, backgrounds, catalyst, conferences, video staging by gregdolezal
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this week i’m on tour VJ-ing for LifeWay’s New England Nights tour…where we’re taking the Living Proof Live events to the small yet historic States of the Northeast. each night features beth moore bringing the message & travis cottrell (and team) leading worship.

last night we were in Vermont…tonight we’re in New Hampshire….tomorrow is a day off in NYC…then Thursday we go to Delware. what’s special about this week is that on friday night, in connecticut, LPL celebrates it’s 100th event & it’s 50th State…spanning 10 years in ministry! it’s unbelievable to me that i’m along for the ride…God is WAY too good to me, it really blows my mind. i can’t put into words the experiences we’ve had and the things i’ve seen God do.

i thought i’d let you all in on my world here. the day before (and of) is typically spent customizing the intro video to cater to the city we are in…as well as preparing a motion text video that plays as a transition between travis & beth, featuring the scripture that beth is teaching on that session. and when the house lights go black and the screens are fired up, i VJ. here are some screenshots taken from PVP of some of the songs travis & the team leads.

"Shackles" - loops from Highway Elements & Vibes + a few random loops from various places.

"You Are Good" - loops from iWorship Flexx , ArtBeats , & scenes from Baraka .

"Made Me Glad" - motion lyrics from iWorship Flexx & loops from Radiate Films .

"Lord, You’re Holy" - video from ArtBeats + motion lyrics for each attribute of God made in LiveType .

"In the First Light" - video from ArtBeats , WorshipFilms , StarGaze & IgniterBacks .

"Jesus Saves" - video from VJ Wazungu , WorshipFilms , ArtBeats , GO Motion , Highway & Red Canvas Media .

————————–

take some screenshots of your software and show us what you’re VJ-ing!

Tags: EVENTS, ProVideoPlayer, Software, TRAVEL, VJ-ing, backgrounds, conferences, living proof live, loops by proctor
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PVP + rat’s nest @ 12:15am = whoa…we actually pulled it off.

Tags: CREATIVITY, Hardware, Software, TRAVEL, VJ-ing, 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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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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