After two years of creating quality content as eight20eight, they decided to change their name. Now known as Soul Refinery, they will continue to create quality media that they hope will ignite the heart and refine the soul.
To celebrate the change and launch of soulrefinery.com, they are giving away two free Christmas motion loops.
While you can find their content wherever quality videos are sold, they hope you’ll consider supporting us directly by visiting soulrefinery.com. There you’ll find their entire collection, including films that feature stars from hit TV shows as The Offce, Community, Reno 911, Saturday Night Life, and others.
They also now offer the entire motion loop and countdown library that they recently purchased from our friends at Eleven72 — revamped and available in HD!
I was never really a Packers fan, but I have always been a Brett Favre fan. I think the Packers did him wrong and should have let him come back after all his years there – but that’s another story.
It has been sweet this year to watch Brett (now playing for the Minnesota Vikings) beat the Green Bay Packers – first in Minnesota and yesterday in Green Bay. And we all know how tough it is to win at Lambeau Field. What a game and what a win.
Something cool that I enjoyed during the game was a website with a Brett Favre cam – a camera that followed Brett’s every move throughout the entire game. Below are some pics from the Brett cam…
My friend, Don Chapman, just shared about his experience of looking for an inexpensive video solution. Here’s his latest article:
Video is the wave of the future – and here’s how your church can inexpensively get in on the action.
Since YouTube and other video sites have exploded over the past few years I’ve wanted to try recording some videos for WorshipIdeas (if you’ve noticed I’ve put several up in the past few weeks.) Even in the past few months I’ve noticed more and more video clips turning up in Google search results and on news websites.
I started my research in late August. It seems there are two extremes in HD video records: $200 and under (inexpensive) and $800 and over (expensive.) Since I just wanted to dabble in video (and didn’t know if I’d even like it) I wanted to go cheap.
The little Flip cameras are popular, but I tend to shy away from the popular as experience has taught me there’s probably something out there not as well known but twice as good.
I learned that a key to great video is to have an external microphone for the best sound quality. Internal mics produce crummy sound with lots of room noise. Unfortunately all the mini, cheap HD video cameras have only internal mics – except one!
The newly released Kodak Zi8 is the only mini HD video camera with an external microphone jack. I overnighted it and started playing with it.
Most of the new WorshipIdeas videos (except for the Kristian Stanfill video) were created on the Zi8. And unbelievably, my latest clip of the Jamestown church was aired yesterday on CBN News!! Let me restate that: a cable news channel just broadcast my clip made from a $180 video camera!! Here’s the clip:
The possibilities are endless for a church – man on the street interviews, skits, website greetings, sermon illustrations… great, clear and crisp Hi-Def video at an affordable price.
The Kodak Zi8 is not hassle free. If you want to shoot videos of your cat dancing and upload them directly from the camera to YouTube, you’ll have no problem. If you want to edit video (on a PC,) you’ll have problems.
I spent an entire day bashing my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get video out of the Kodak into my editing software. Here’s the problem: the video shot is proprietary – it’s in a modified QuickTime MOV format. But even though I installed QuickTime I still couldn’t get the video to work in my Sony Vegas video editing software. The included MediaImpressions software has a lousy editing feature that makes Windows Movie Maker look high-end. So here are the hoops I jump through to make great videos and edit them with the Kodak Zi8:
Buy memory. The Zi8 needs a memory card, purchased separately. I got a 16 gig SDHC card and have nowhere near filled it up yet.
Shoot video in 720p (the camera will shoot in 1080p but will not export in an editable form for Sony Vegas.)
Buy a “steadicam.” This is a contraption pros attach to their cameras to make the image steady so they can walk around and get action shots. Even though the Zi8 has image stabilization built in, you really need a steadicam if you’re going to move with the camera and want smooth and professional footage. I bought an amateur steadicam that works wonderfully – the Manfrotto ModoSteady is $99 and props the camera up against my chest for a very steady shot. Notice how I pan across the church in my video – that’s using the ModoSteady.
Once you have shot your video, plug the Zi8 into your computer’s USB slot and copy files to your hard drive. The first time you plug your camera into your computer it will ask you to install the proprietary software.
Convert to MP4. The camera’s videos are in the QuickTime MOV format. Even though I installed QuickTime the videos would play but without sound in Sony Vegas. Launch the MediaImpressions software you’ve installed from the camera and use it to open your videos (browse videos.) Select the videos you want to edit, then click “Media Converter” at the bottom of the screen. Convert settings: Manufacturer=Sony, Select Device Model= Sony PS3, click the edit button, resolution=1280×720, Audio Bitrate=128bps. The software will convert the MOV files into MP4 files.
Convert to AVI. Now that the videos are MP4, Vegas will play sound but not play video! So I found a weird little program, probably coded by some kid in his dorm room, that will strip something or other out of the file and turn it into an AVI file. Download MP4Cam2AVI Easy Converter here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp4cam2avi/
Now, finally, the video is ready to edit! Sony Vegas works much like Sonar in that you have different tracks to play with – video, audio, music, etc. I create a little bumper graphic, pick the videos I want, fade them in and out, add some compression and EQ to the voice to make it stand out, and throw in a little background music.
If you want to upload your edited video to YouTube, that’s yet another step. A YouTube help page offers rendering suggestions (I render to MP4) and a Google search for “Sony Vegas YouTube” found several settings. I tried a few – one setting rendered fine but when I uploaded the clip to YouTube the sound was out of sync. I tried another and it worked fine.
Whew! If somebody ever figures out how to easily shoot video, edit it and upload it without the hassle of codecs and converting, they’ll be rich.
Bottom Line: The Kodak Zi8 has opened up the world of video to me. Did I mention that within a month of shooting my first video I had a clip on a cable news network? It’s an affordable HD video camera with knockout, broadcast-quality video at a rock-bottom price. It’s the only mini HD recorder with an external microphone jack. PC users will have to jump through hoops to edit videos, Mac users may not have as many issues.
Last week I took my wife on a date to see U2 at the new Cowboys Stadium. Here are some pictures from that show.
The following was a cool spotlight rig that held 3 people up in the air. There were 4 of these.
The following is a look at their speaker arrays. The sound was good where we were on the floor, but I heard it was bad up in the upper decks of Cowboys Stadium.
Last night I took my two oldest kids with me to see the Dallas Cowboys practice in their new stadium. They had a night practice open to the public (around 25,000 people x $10 for parking – you do the math).
It’s hard to describe the video screen that hangs over the field – it’s absolutely amazing. Just like in church (I watch the screens instead of the pastor right in front of me), I found myself watching the giant screens and not the players on the field.
I watched a special on TV about the making of the beast of a stadium. It is truly remarkable and a first of its kind. I hope you all get to experience it sometime. Below is Tony Romo up close. I could see his eyes!
After many recommendations and honestly waiting too long (I’ve just been really busy – see my last post), I finally went this weekend to see Slumdog Millionaire. WOW! – is all I can say. What a work of art. ART. Beauty, love, raw, powerful, intense, cool music, shot very well, gripping – the best movie I’ve seen since Crash.
I haven’t had a feeling like that leaving a theater (and I see a lot of movies) since I saw Crash for the first time in the theater. Crash went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing of 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards. I wouldn’t be surprised if Slumdog Millionaire does very well at the Oscar’s – it won Best Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes.
I felt like the blinders had been removed from my eyes. I love movies that allow you to experience another culture/country. This movie really lets you see life in various parts of India. From povery to homelessness to human trafficking to a love story on many different levels - this movie has it all. Please go see it before I ruin it for you!
If you have seen it, what are your thoughts on it?
EXTRA:
We had to take some pictures during our worship yesterday for a magazine. Below are 2 of the pics we took. One is from the view of a camera man, one is from the back of one service looking out across 3000 people. If you’re coming to Innovation3, find me when I’m showing people around and you can see behind-the-scenes, back stage and the video control room.
At Bent Tree, we’ve got a busy Fall coming up. As part of what all we have going on, we’ve been working on 2 in-house video projects, as well as a few smaller pieces and outsourcing several things that we couldn’t fit in.
The 2 we’re working on now are a baptism highlight video for next Sunday, the 31st and a look back in time video for our Grand Opening on Sept. 7th. I’m sure I’ll post these on here later for you to check out.
I’m curious: What video projects are you up to at your church?
For those of you that haven’t got to spend too much time with me: my facial hair is always changing. I get bored. Lazy. Bored and lazy. I go from clean-shaven (always with the “soul patch“) to beard to full goatee to just the Crowder goatee, etc. It’s always changing. Again, mainly because I rush out in the morning, don’t shave and the next thing I know I have a beard.
I had a semi-beard at the Church 2.0 Local Forum in Santa Cruz (see pics HERE). I let it grow from there and then got tired of it. Before shaving it completely off, I had some fun and took some pics of what I call the crazy stache. It scares the kids. All kids, actually. I think people take a double-take to see if I was that guy on “America’s Most Wanted”. We took some pics, had some laughs and then I shaved it off. Maybe I’ll grow it back next year for Moustache May??? Who knows.
For more silly pics of me with the “crazy stache”, including some of me in my new Igniter Media t-shirt and my favorite hat, go to my Flickr page and check out “Pics of Greg”.
EXTRA:
This Sunday at Bent Tree we were rocking all new SermonVideos.com backgrounds. I love them! I just got Igniter Backs 04 and look forward to working them into the mix, too.
I was proud of my team. This Sunday we had a lot of first-timers. A stage manager, video engineer/shader, graphics operator and camera operator who all had their first Sunday serving. Sunday was a complex week and they handled it well. They are “official” now after going through what we did yesterday.
We had some friends and staff visiting from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY and Brian Davis of Fellowship Dallas. It’s always good to have people from other churches visiting and worshiping with us. Check out Brian’s blog – they’ve done some cool stuff with their stage – using PVC pipe that looks like metal. Check it!
PERSONAL:
I’ll leave you with one more pic of me holding my 2 oldest kids. Katie, the youngest, was too freaked out to be in the picture. Poor girl needs counseling now.
Each week I get phone calls and emails from church members and visiting Church leaders asking where we get our backgrounds that we used during worship. Obviously, I have access to a ton of media and we use a number of products from companies that I’ve blogged about before, but one company we keep using again and again and again is SermonVideos.com.
One note about Bent Tree is that we are in HD, so our background selection is smaller and pickier. With that being said, there are a growing number of resources out there. I absolutely LOVE Igniter Backs and have raved about them before. I’m looking forward to them re-releasing volumes 1 and 2 in HD and am anxiously awaiting Backs 4.
What I don’t like is that you have to wait every one or two years for another volume to come out. I wish they’d release backgrounds as they create them and when they have enough, create a volume. What I LOVE about SermonVideos.com is that they add/upload brand new backgrounds weekly. As soon as they get them or create them, they’re up and ready to download. We have a subscription, so I just log on and in a matter of minutes have them loaded into my EasyWorship resource folder.
In my own church life, from week to week, we’ve worn out Igniter Backs Vol. 3. I have to take a break from them because our people were seeing them so much (they are the only thing they have in HD). I even went back and took a select few from Igniter Backs 1 and 2 and stretched them, which seemed to work okay (thanks Igniter for suggesting that).
I use a few from FortyOneTwenty and a few from BlueFish.tv. I’m truly grateful for the never-ending fresh supply from SermonVideos.com and am thrilled to add new backgrounds in the mix each week. My hats off to my friend Craig Lillard and his team of artists at SV. Thanks for a job well done!
EXTRA:
2 weeks ago we kicked off our service with a Call to Worship video from Restoration Videos: “Worship“. They didn’t have it in HD, but thankfully created it widescreen. This video was a powerful start to our service. Thanks to Restoration Videos!
I’m getting in after a 17 hour day, so I’ll make this brief (yes, I write my blogs the night before): We are looking at purchasing a new HD camera for our video ministry. This is not a studio camera – this will be used for in-house video projects, interviews, etc.
If you were buying a new 3-chip HD cam, what would you purchase? Right now we’re looking at a Sony camera, maybe a Panasonic. Other ideas? What’s on your wish-list? A RED camera? Let me know. I’ll be looking at these comments before buying.
EXTRA:
Several saw my Facebook and Twitter post about being in ARENA training – which Bent Tree is switching over to. I’ll blog more about that in the future.
PERSONAL:
Please forgive me if you emailed me in the past few days and haven’t heard back. I went to bed early last night because I knew I had to be at the church early this morning and am writing this at 1am. I haven’t had time to check my personal email. I will be replying soon!
is the only mini HD video camera with an external microphone jack. I overnighted it and started playing with it.
video editing software. The included MediaImpressions software has a lousy editing feature that makes Windows Movie Maker look high-end. So here are the hoops I jump through to make great videos and edit them with the Kodak Zi8:
is $99 and props the camera up against my chest for a very steady shot. Notice how I pan across the church in my video – that’s using the ModoSteady.
