This information is not meant to overwhelm you but simply provide answers to questions that may arise as we prepare for the technical aspects of the satellite reaping meetings. As speaker your only real concern is communicating God’s word. Your Host Conference Coordinator and his team of local area pastors can assist with all other aspects.
Todd Gessele, the NPUC’s director of New Outreach Media, will serve as executive producer of your upcoming series for the North Pacific Union Conference and the Hope Channel. He’s eager to begin working with you on planning this event. Below are some suggestions he offers–
We’ll be shooting your 8 night evangelistic event in HD (high definition) with 6 to 7 cameras. This is a new format and there are very few evangelist in our church at this point in time who have graphic presentations prepared in HD, the 1920 pixel X 1080 pixel format. If you’d like to preach with graphics, we need to begin story boarding, them as soon as possible.
We will not be broadcasting live, but we will shoot the event as though we were. Our edited product will be 58 minutes and 30 seconds and will be aired on the Hope Channel and distributed free to all NPUC churches on DVD. Remember all content must be original or we must have written permission to sing, perform dramas, replicate and broadcast everything we do within the 58 minutes and 30 second for TV time.
The local church and conference may plan and produce a pre and post show program for the local site. It is often a challenge to maximize the experience of both those who are present during the reaping event and those who will later view the event by satellite or DVD. Fortunately I don’t mind takling this challenge as executive director. I’m very creative and flexible. Eager to meet and work with you.
We also usually create an opener for the show, which rolls at the beginning of the program and ranges 8 seconds to 1 minute in length-depending on the theme and mood and music we select to set the stage for your program. What is your theme, list of topics, and who is determining the look for advertising?
Picking a Marketable Theme:
The sooner we have information on theme, the more creativity we can invest in your event. At some point, they will need to begin marketing and advertising it. I’ll need to create an opener.
Have you ever noticed that most movie titles are just two words? Many other denominations are using just one or at the most two words for their outreach events. RECONNECT. PDX BURN. ALIVE. EXCITE 98. GOD CONTACT. REJUVENATE, etc.. So far we’ve done, “Snapshots of the Savior,” “God so Loved,” “Revelation Now” and Spokane will be “God Said… So What?”
Once you have your themes picked out, and determine the format of your presentation, music selection by you or the local conference may begin.
Picking a program format:
Jesus told stories and loved interesting people who dramatically altered their lifestyles after connecting with him. If you can find a format to showcase that, we’ll have some great religious programing.
The heart of what you do is sharing Jesus and God’s message from the Bible. The Host Conference Coordinator will work with you on any other aspects of the program you might want. You might want to simply preach or you might want to suggest a specific program flow, muscians, etc.
If you ever watch religious programming on TV you might see stuff makes you bored or that causes you to reach for the remote (let’s avoid those things) or stuff you really enjoy and would want to have included. If we need to start shooting media clips or interviews to insert as segments in your presentation, let’s identify those.
If you have anything specific you want on stage, or a specific look, let us know. Are you going to wear a Bible character costume, do you need a set that looks like an old city? Would you like a place to rest your Bible and a glass of water up front. Do you need a large pulpit or do you prefer to walk about on an empty stage? Do you pace like a lion, or stay standing in one place? What’s your style? Describe it when you get a moment, so we know how much of an area to light for you to work inside of.
Again, I’m not asking you to do or be someone your are not, but rather, think creatively about how you could bring the same messages to life in a new way.
So much of religious TV is boring, and we have the opportunity and resources to change that. I’m eager to support your vision and am always available to brainstorm…
Effective Use of Graphics:
If you want to use graphics, I’ll need at least an outline or list of texts to get started. It takes me 4-6 days per program to illustrate depending on the topic. Last minute changes to graphics are difficult so it is nice when I can have the outline or lists of texts as early as possible so the graphics can be completed weeks in advance.
Because we use HD format and have other TV and copyright constraints about what we broadcast I would like to find out from you as soon as possible if you will be using graphics and how we can best serve you.
Our production team is Mac based, and we can convert Powerpoint presentations to KeynoteTM if need be for our production.
Teleprompter available:
If you are a scripted speaker, we have a professional tele-prompter system we’d like you to consider using. It can be word for word, or just an outline with trigger points for our graphics operator.
What to wear:
When picking out clothes, avoid solid blacks and whites, and very small patterns, like herringbone jackets and tight plaids. The pure 100% whites can cause our camera exposures to dramatically change, so pastel or neutral colors are best.
Is a Makeup artist needed?
Some speakers want make-up, or at least powder to reduce forehead shine, and others want to go with the face God gave them! Let us know what your preference is. We can provide a make-up artist, just make-up for you or your wife to apply, or not worry about it.
Music/Graphics
Music must be original, or pre-cleared by the performer for (broadcast, performance, and replication) rights if it is not in the public domain. Music selection and the cost of securing rights, is not a production crew function, but requires our review and approval.
Securing document and agreements for copyrighted material can take an immense amount of time, and should be started a.s.a.p. by the local conference program committee.
At audition time or at the time each performer, musician, speaker, and artist are scheduled and placed on the nightly program lineup, they should work with the host conference to provide the executive director, Todd Gessele, documentation of individual usage agreements for all music or graphic images that are not clearly in the public domain, and that constitute copyrighted or intellectual material. Failure to clear copyrighted material for performance, replication mechanical rights, and broadcast rights, will cause the series not to be broadcast because of liability and ethics.
Picking a location (Considerations for the Planning Team):
General Venue Considerations: Seating, Parking, Venue benefits, Cost, Union or non-union workplace, lighting and sound evaluation issues, a place for kids programming and overflow crowds is important. Mothers rooms are very nice too, and insure better audio for the TV audience. Venues smaller than 300 are very tight fits for crew and equipment and an audience, but we’ve done it.
Lighting Consideration: The NPUC has a basic lighting package which is mobile and can be used to transform venues. Our technical team includes a director of lighting who has a laptop and a control board. We usually have two or three different lighting zones for musicians, speakers, and the program hosts, if necessary.
Power: Our lighting system requires wiring in an electrical lead into a panel that’s supports an 80 Amp 3 phase. The production room needs five separate 20 amp circuits and a ventilated or air-conditioned closet or room that’s within 15 feet of the production room with two 20 amp circuits, and sound proof-able for our computers which sound like a hoover vacuum.
Deep Stage Preferred: Stage design is a joint effort between the local church, conference and Union. The deeper the stage the better. More than 20 feet deep is marginal, 40 to 60 feet is excellent. Stage extensions can be built that bring the speaker forward. As director of New Outreach Media, I (Todd Gessele) usually direct the set design and lighting of it.
Sound Issues: There will be house sound and production sound… The signal will be split at the house sound board and sent by 150 foot snake to the production room. House sound and production sound will be in constant communication during the event. Often we appoint a professional house sound operator who works along side the normal local audio crew.
Security for Equipment: Locks and doors and window bars have been installed in the past for our events by our host sites. If shooting in a church, we need to know if it is rented out on Sunday, so security plans can be made.
Production requirement: Two rooms…outside the sanctuary or venue. Our crew needs to talk and even shout at times during the shoot.
Pre-event Rally:
Pre-event rally or convocations to bring area church members together in advance of the event are planned by the local conference and the union and usually feature the speaker for the upcoming event.
