MediaShout User News
October 2004
Not Like TV
Insider News: Wide Screen and High Definition
Featured Shoutable Product: BarnaFilms
ShoutTip: Visual Harmony
Out and About: Events Near You
The dominant media delivery vehicle in our world isn't PowerPoint. It’s television. Most of us have watched more media delivered through TV than through all other formats combined. So it’s no surprise that television shapes our view of what makes a good presentation. What's surprising is that people who do use TV as a model for live ministry presentations actually end up with poorer presentations than those who don't. Let me explain.
In television, a black screen is a bad thing. More than a second of black and users switch channels. In a live ministry presentation, a black screen can be a very good thing. When the screen goes black, the audience looks at the presenter. It's a great way to focus attention. Don't feel like you have to have something on the screen at every moment. Chances are, if you go to black occasionally, the audience will pay more attention to the content, on and off screen.
TV news and sports shows are big on animation. Producers hold your attention by flying, flipping, sliding and splashing text and graphics onto the screen every few seconds. In a live ministry presentation, the audience has no channel changers. If the live experience is engaging, you don't need screen stunts to keep people tuned in. Indeed, splashing a "look at me" effect on the screen may actually distract the audience. They'll be thinking, "Ooh, cool effect!" and may miss the message. Save animations for the "must see" moments, when the audience must look at the screen to get the point.
Television's worst influence on our presentations is in scripting. Virtually everything you see on TV is carefully scripted in advance, then delivered according to script. Ministry presentations don't have to be that way. You've got a live audience, live presenter, live music, and a live Holy Spirit. If the teacher, preacher or music leader can't direct the experience according to what's happening in the room because the media can't keep up, then it's the media that's really running the show. MediaShout lets you play any cue in any order at any time, and even allows you to play media that's not in the Script. These features give you the freedom to flex your media presentation to match what's happening in the room. Don't be stuck in a script; don't surrender the message to the media.
Last thing. The word "television" literally means "distant sight." The industry spends billions of dollars a year trying to make that sight seem less distant, with technologies such as HDTV and SurroundSound, and tricks like live studio audiences and laugh tracks. But in the end, it's still just a box emitting distant pictures and sounds. You do better than TV just by walking in a room. You're live and up-close; you can touch your audience. You ask and listen and involve them in the experience. Sure, you can show them some great pictures too, but in ministry, the real presentation isn't what’s on the screen. It's you and your audience and the Holy Spirit together in one room. TV can't touch that.
– Todd Temple, President, MediaComplete Corporation
More and more people have been asking us about MediaShout's wide-screen capabilities. We've always known it could deliver media in this format, but last month we conducted extensive testing to figure out exactly what MediaShout can do on a fat screen. The results surprised even us.
As long as your video card/display adapter and display device (projector, plasma display or whatever) are set up for a wide-screen resolution, MediaShout will display properly formatted media at that resolution – and you don't even have to change any settings in the program to make it do so. For example, 1280 x 768 graphics will fill the wide display screen, and text will appear within whatever margins you set for it, spanning the entire width of the screen if you want.
In v2.5, you'll want to create and modify wide-screen presentations with the display device attached and enabled in Windows. This is because MediaShout uses your Intended Display Resolution (on the Display tab of the General Preferences dialog) for formatting visual cues when no second monitor is found, and the IDR field offers only standard, 4:3 aspect-ratio choices such as 800 x 600. (In v3 you can set the IDR to any resolution you like, so you can work without the 16:9 display device attached.)
Both versions also handle High Definition videos without a hitch. If your computer has the horsepower, WMV HD files will play flawlessly from Video cues and from the background layer of other cue types. HD video even looks great on a 4:3 aspect screen, though of course it will be letterboxed to show the full width. To learn more about Windows Media HD, including system requirements for playing this format as well as how to encode your own WMV HD files, visit www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/HDVideo.aspx.
Featured Shoutable Product: BarnaFilms
BarnaFilms is a new venture recently launched by noted author and researcher George Barna. Barna's research indicates that the church must embrace media in every facet of communication as part of being relevant to people of all ages. BarnaFilms launched in cooperation with MediaShout promises the highest possible quality video for worship backgrounds and devotional features.
To view samples of each of these collections, please click on the CD graphic.
The first of the multi-volume series is "Church Volume 1" and "In His Presence." "Church" is a collection of looping backgrounds, longer playing combinations of the loops and still images suitable for worship lyrics or announcements; designed mostly with traditional church scenes and symbols.
"In His Presence" is a collection of three devotional or prayer videos. "Trains" is a powerful presentation about God's unchanging love. "Kids" will grip the hearts of parents, grandparents and anyone focusing on mentoring and teaching children. "Windows" challenges viewers to consider what pours into their heart and mind through the "windows" of the body, the eyes.
Also keep checking www.mediashout.com/store for October closeout prices!
In looking at the results from our poll in last month's newsletter, we noticed that many of you were not content in getting your basic 'how do I use MediaShout' ShoutTips every month. Therefore, instead of continuing last month's ShoutTip, "Working with Background Layout in Cues", we're going to mix it up a bit this month and give you something you can use in a practical way in your ministries. If you are dying to know more about layout properties, check out the 'Cue Visual Properties' section in the MediaShout User Guide (pp. 56-58).
Since many of you are using MediaShout from the standpoint of a visual worship leader, this month we're going to take a look at the creative process of choosing visuals to harmonize with the themes expressed through our various forms of worship - songs, texts, scriptures, etc. Due to the capability of MediaShout to deliver so many forms of multimedia in a quick and simple way, over the past 2 years there has been a literal explosion of media production houses, creating video and still imagery for express use in a worship context. This month, we're going to take a look at a video entitled 'Blessed' from Vibe Volume 8, produced by the guys at Highway Video.
"Hillsides of dirt, boulevards of promise. God's spirit of mercy moves through the shantytown."
Even from the short glimpse we get from this sample video, the question it raises is clear - "How do we see God's presence in environments and lives that aren't beautiful to the naked eye?" As the title implies, the 'Blessed' vibe speaks through word and image to some of the greatest ideas Jesus ever articulated, found in Matthew 5.
Before we get into the application side of this video and the routine preparation time, let me offer this sidenote: Know thy media. If you haven't spent time poring over your media library, pondering more ways to interpret the media you have and looking for new media to add to the collection, it will not only save you time when the crunch comes, but challenge you to see things from multiple points of view, in essence widening your library.
Back to 'Blessed'. We just used this video last Sunday during our worship gathering for a variety of uses. First of all, we grabbed stills from the titled version of this video (yes, you can legally take still captures from royalty-free videos using Windows Movie Maker or most any other video editing software). The still images we took were portions of the video using text from each of the Beatitudes and were then used during our pastor’s sermon as a segue into a discussion about that particular text.
The first use of the 'Blessed' imagery was in a visual worship context during the first song of our gathering, 'Blessed Be Your Name' by Matt Redman. Although the lyrics of this song can inspire 'pretty thoughts', the overall theme of our visuals that morning were of 'real' life and seeing God in the everyday. The video ended up being one of the most powerful visuals of the morning, because, while it gave harmonizing visual to lyrics such as
'Blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place
When I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name'
it gave a very moving, almost-uncomfortable dissonance to
'Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow, blessed be Your name.'
Of course this is just one example of the many ways visuals can be used to take a familiar message and cause someone to think about it in an entirely new way and there are many visual worship leaders challenging us all to see God in new ways through their creative use of imagery. If you are interested in sharing your experiences or just joining the conversation, check out the forum topic 'Visual Worship Ideas' and post your own ideas.
Out and About: Events Near You
Just a few days ago, the MediaShout team traveled to and from Anaheim, California, where Youth Specialties (YS) hosted the National Youth Workers Convention. YS packed in about 3000+ enthusiastic youth pastors in the Anaheim Convention Center, which is right across the street from Disneyland. Most everyone in our small but fast growing team traveled to Anaheim, so between having the whole "family" together, being across from Disneyland, and having thousands of youth workers in the midst, it’s pretty safe to say we had the time of our lives! We enjoyed getting to spend time with many of our current users and introduce many more to MediaShout for the first time.
Because the YS Exhibit Hall is far larger than most events we attend, our booth set up was quite different than usual. It involved a panoramic display of media projected onto two widescreens, multiple plasmas capable of showing "high definition" media through MediaShout, as well as test drive and training stations. Youth workers could stop by anytime during the exhibit hours to check out the latest media resources that MediaShout has to offer. They found many new Shoutable products and were able to catch a sneak peek at Version 3. In the training area, attendees could also sign up for one-on-one training sessions to learn more about Version 2.5 and how to use it to their greatest advantage.
So if you are reading this and wanting to kick yourself because you didn't go to Anaheim this year, fear not! YS doesn't put on NYWC only once a year, but three times! It may be too late to register for YS in Dallas (which takes place next week), but there is still plenty of time to get in on the action for the Atlanta convention taking place the weekend before Thanksgiving. Go to www.youthspecialties.com to find out more info, and we hope to see you there! And as always, check out www.mediashout.com/events to see where we’re going next.
Upcoming events
| October 5-7 | Purpose Driven Church Planters | Dallas, TX | ||
| October 6-8 | Catalyst | Duluth, GA | ||
| October 7-8 | ACSI – Northern CA Teachers Convention | Sacramento, CA | ||
| October 7-8 | Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention | Dallas, TX | ||
| October 15-16 | Walk on Water Bay Area Christian Leaders Summit | Fremont, CA | ||
| October 25-27 | Timberline Church Conference | Ft. Collins, CO | ||
| November 3-6 | National Outreach Convention | San Diego, CA | ||
| November 12-13 | Christian Musician Summit | Tacoma, WA | ||
| November 15-16 | Alabama Baptist Convention | Montgomery, AL | ||
| November 19-22 | YS National Youth Workers Convention | Atlanta, GA | ||
| November 22-23 | ACSI | Dallas, TX | ||
| November 22-23 | ACSI | Orlando, FL | ||
| November 22-23 | ACSI | Anaheim, CA | ||
| November 23-Dec 3 | Soul Survivor/Tim Hughes Tour | (various cities) |
If MediaShout has greatly affected your ministry, we'd love to hear about it. Send us your story (including your name and your church/organization) to aboutShout@mediashout.com. If we choose your story to put in our newsletter, we'll send you a free MediaShout baseball cap!
MediaShout User News, October 2004.
© Copyright 2004 by MediaComplete Corporation,
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PO Box 24625
Nashville, TN 37202
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