The new schedule is up. Just click on "Schedule" on the tabs above, or get it HERE. Remember, this page will always have the current, most recent schedule.
This Sunday, we're talking about war. Here's the bumper I made (with the classic Edwin Starr song, War):
This post is a part of Creative Chaos hosted by Ragamuffin Soul.
These are the baptism videos for 10.12.08,
I just finished the bumper for this Sunday. we are in a series called Tough Stuff. The message for this Sunday is God's Wrath.
Last week the bumper was 15 seconds long, but Randy gave me the idea of making it longer so that our backstage crew could set up for the message during the bumper rather than the announcements.
I found the song God of Wrath by David Crowder and used it as the base. I added some sonic texture with Designer Sound FX from Video Copilot. By the way, if you aren't familiar with Video Copilot, check them out... TONS of free tutorials for Adobe After Effects.
Anyway, I liked the groove of the Crowder song and used some stills along with the Twitch effect (also from Video Copilot). I added some vignetting to the stills and video and also colorized them with a slight blue wash to give an old "film-y" look. Then I finished the sequence with the same video bumper from last week with the updated info.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
tags: New Covenant Community Church | NewCov | Fresno | sermon | bumper
This week at NewCov we start a new sermon series called, Tough Stuff. During the series we'll be looking at:
- Predestination
- God's Wrath
- War
- Money
- Heaven
- Sex
For heaven, I was thinking maybe going old-school with Warrant's "Heaven" or maybe Bryan Adams' "Heaven." Of course, there's always "I Can Only Imagine," but that seems too obvious.
For God's wrath, I might be able to use Crowder's "God's Wrath." I just need to find a good 10-15 second clip that works.
For sex, it's a little tougher. I might try the "Sex in the City" theme or maybe George Michael's "I Want Your Sex."
Anyway, here's the bumper for this week (it looks really great if you click through to YouTube and click to watch it high quality):
We have a LOT of videos this week (one for announcements and nine baptism videos). Kudos to The Weave for a great job of producing these.
Here's a taste:
Last Sunday was Randy's final Sunday at NewCov. He's now the Lighting and Scenic Director at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA (near Atlanta). The tears were flowing.
Here's a little something Josh and the guys put together for him...
The opener for Father's day was "Soul Man!" Pat rewrote the lyrics so they would be more fitting for this father's day song. We didn't get any LIVE video of the service, but here's the video that rolled during the live performance on the screens. I added the original song to this video so you can get idea.
Soul Man - Father's Day 2008
The Closer for Father's day was "You're Dad!" It's was a parody to Michael Jackson's song "Bad." The kids choir and kids worship team came out to sing this one. This video is from Chad Davis' blog. I believe the video was taken from the front row on a Camera video Phone. Chad is the Children's Music Director at NewCov. He came up with this idea and ran with it. He made all the band charts and rewrote the lyrics too.
You're Dad
It's awesome to have two really talented music guys (BANDOS) like Chad & Pat on the Production team at NewCov. These guys rock!
This Video Loop ran inside the Church on the Main(side) Screens during walk-in and walk-out. This was a great way to highlight the Graduating Seniors that attend New Covenant. There is no audio on this video. We just played the walk-in music.
NewCov High School Seniors - 2008
Jason Ray was a popular student at
Read the Oraph story HERE.
Visit the Jason Ray Foundation website HERE.
The Jason Ray Story. (CBS)
Photos from Ray of Hope Sunday at NewCov.
Live Interview at NewCov (part01)
Live Interview at NewCov (part02)
Finished up another great sermon series at NewCov this Sunday. The Leadership Toolbox was a four week series. The highlight was the "funny" bumper video that set-up each message. Make sure to check them out. Here's some pictures.
Week four, of the Leadership series, Pastor Jan was speaking on Commitment. We decided to have a little fun with this sermon series. The idea was to make "FUNNY" bumper videos for each week. Many people have enjoyed them very much. Some have not!
Starting Randy Parker and Pat Callahan! These videos set up the message with a "tool"... except we get the idea wrong. Here's week three. Check it out.
THE LEADERSHIP TOOLBOX #4
If you ever need to slice a watermelon and don't have a knife around...
use a T-Square!
Week three, of the Leadership series, Pastor Jan was speaking on Integrity. We decided to have a little fun with this sermon series. The idea was to make "FUNNY" bumper videos for each week. Many people have enjoyed them very much. Some have not!
Starting Randy Parker and Pat Callahan! These videos set up the message with a "tool"... except we get the idea wrong. Here's week three. Check it out.
THE LEADERSHIP TOOLBOX #3
Here at NewCov, we like to use a "Ministry Highlight" video for the services as much as possible. This communicates to everyone what's going on in a particular ministry. Sometimes it's showing some footage of the Children's Education/VBS program from the week before. Or it could be a simple little slide show of a building project that the Men's Ministry team did while working downtown. Whatever the ministry is, and whatever the ministry is doing, it's just great to highlight what God's doing in the life of the church.
Josh and Randy, put together two videos for this Sundays services. They both were played at the same time for the offertory time. (The videos highlighted the Family Missions team, who went down to Mexico during their Easter Break.) We decided to utilize the center screen for more than a title slide or a jumback grovin' along. The idea was to just simply show more pictures. We made the sides screens the main (could stand alone) video. This one had all the titles and felt like a whole video in its self. The center screen was just more graphic support to the sides video. The timing felt good and it was pretty neat.
*Press Play on both of them at the same time. Hopefully they play at the same time and same speed. You will probably need to mute the center screens audio. The song is "Give it all away," by Aaron Shust.
Center Screen
This post is a part of Creative Chaos, hosted by Ragamuffin Soul.
Here's some of the videos we showed on Mother's day.
"What makes your mom the best mom ever?" (interviews)
"Mom, Your my best friend" (Queen song)
Anita Renfroe "momisms"
Here's some pictures of the Mother's Day Service.
Continuing the Leadership series, Pastor Jan was speaking on Vision this week. Remember!?!? We decided to have a little fun with this sermon series. The idea was to make funny bumper videos for each week. Many people have enjoyed them very much.
Starting Randy Parker and Pat Callahan! These videos set up the message with a "tool"... except we get the idea wrong.
Here's week two. Check it out.
THE LEADERSHIP TOOLBOX #2
Tech Joke #002
Q: How many musicians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Twenty. 1 to do it and the other 19 to stand around and say, "I can do that!"
Last Sunday at New Covenant we decided to take the Communion Worship Time up a notch. And a huge notch is what we got. We take communion on the last Sunday of pretty much very month. We do the "passing of the trays" style of communion, the majority of the time. You know... the silver plates with the little cups and the little wafers in the middle? (But sometimes we do it a "new way." The next time we do it the other way, Randy will post on it.)
Since we have been using a center screen for the last couple of series. Pat had a idea to throw up some images or clips from the Movie, "Passion of the Christ." While at the same time using the outside screens to display words or lyrics. The worship team sang the song, "Jesus paid it all" the North Point Live version.
NewCov WT - Jesus paid it all - During Communion.
Wow! It was a very powerful time of worship. You could see people really responding. Some raised their hands. Some just scared at the screen. Some did close their eyes or look down at the cup and bread. We were a little nervous about some of the images being to graphic for younger children in the service, but Pastor Jän gave us his approval before the service. We have used these clips in a service before and gotten plenty of negative comments. But that didn't stop us to show it again. These images really happened and this was not a service for children. And you know what? We got NO comments this time around. I think it is because of the way we used the clips this time. His body broken and his blood shed for us. It was a prefect fit to use during communion.
This post is a part of Creative Chaos, hosted by Ragamuffin Soul.
The Sticks Team - A team of young children dancing to a choreograph song and dance, while using dowel rods as props in the hands. Sometimes they use even use batons with lights in them!
We try and use the Sticks Team for the "special services" as much as possible. It's just another great way to get children's ministry involved on the stage. Plus, it is a very powerful use of drama. This past Easter we had them preform to a song that fit our theme of AMAZING (Grace). The song was by FFH called "I'm Amazed."
NewCov Stick Team - "I'm Amazed" by FFH. (easter2008)
*This was only a one camera shoot at the front of the house. The camera was sitting on the edge of the lighting booth filming this. Sometimes people walk by it and there heads are in the way. And you can also hear talking too. Plus the camera was not even white balanced. So the colors are a little off. But you get the basic idea. I really liked the walk-in music.
This post is a part of Creative Chaos, hosted by Ragamuffin Soul.
Week one of the new series - Leadership Toolbox
For the next four weeks, Pastor Jan is going to look at four aspects of a great leader in this sermon series. We decided to have a little fun with this series. The idea was to make a funny bumper video for each week. Starting Randy Parker and Pat Callahan! These will set up the message with a "tool"... except we get the idea wrong.
The first one was submission. Check it out.
The Leadership Toolbox #1
We showed this video for the offertory song on youth Sunday. This video highlights NewCov High School ministry going to San Francisco and NewCov College ministry going to Utah during Easter Vacation.
This video was made, with only a little bit of my help, by one of the many "youngsters" on the production team at newcov. (We had more guys under the age 18 than over.) Josh has really been a great help for this team. He is a excellent learner for picking up new material quickly and trains others very well. Great job Josh on this video. It's great to have you on the production team.
This Weekend for NewCov was all about the youth. We had the, Friday, Debate at Fresno State, the Symposium, on Saturday, on our campus, and this Sunday was a youth Sunday. The College band lead us in worship. There was 12 youth baptisms in the services. We showed a video "slide show" of the two student ministry missions during easter break. Plus... we had Dr. Chap Clark speak as well.
Here's the promo video we ran last sunday for the symposium at newcov.
Here's the promo video we ran a few Sundays ago for the debate & symposium.
April 18, 2008, 7:00 pm
California State University, Fresno - South Gym
The God Question: A Debate
between Dinesh D'Souza, author of What's So Great About
Christianity and Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine and moderated by Ray Appleton of KMJ Radio 580's "The Ray Appleton Show."
The load-in started at noon. We had to first put down a trap on the gym floor. Then the stage got into place. Follow by lighting, sound and video. He had a few issues here and there. But overall the load-in went pretty smoothly. We were ready for show in plenty of time. We brought in our own church video equipment to film a two camera shoot of the event. It really need a four camera shoot. But I was pleased with the outcome of the video anyways.
The event was a huge great success. Tons of people showed up. (1400 total inside!) And there was plenty of people outside listening as well. (250!) We plan on doing this event yearly. Looking forward to next year all ready. Look for the Full length video online soon at the debate website.
Wrapped up another great sermon series at NewCov. Amazing Grace was a four week series. The highlight for me was that we got to open the series with AMAZING Easter Sunday.
Pastor Pat Callahan - Please do not disturb. WHY?
Here at newcov we do baby dedications second service. The Pastor preforming the dedication comes out and welcomes the parents and family to the stage. The piano player then starts to play a little baby tune as we roll the video.
Live Baby Dedication at NewCov. (CAMERA TWO)
THE VIDEO: The video is just a cute jumpback with the words baby dedication scrolling though it. Then the picture of the baby and the names fade up shortly after. This just rolls for the duration of the prayer and dedication of the baby. After they are done, we get out of it with a fade to black. If it goes for "f o r e v e r ", the video will loop seamlessly.
NewCov - baby dedication video (sample)
BDV-TEMPLATE: I made a template project in Premiere-Pro that is all done ready to go for each week. I just rename the new baby picture and place it into the project folder. So when I open the project... boom baby. The new picture is already imported and just needs a little resizing. I then enter in the new names on the title and I'm done. It takes longer to open the project, and export the video, then to make the video.
On Easter Sunday's newcov always has an early sunrise baptism service. This year Pat had a great idea to film just the "dunks" and put it together for a Worship Background for the offertory song in the Easter services. So I did just that. I filmed just the dunks and run into the booth before the services started and edited a quick video. I already had the template made, and ready to go. I just captured the footage, added transitions and slowed it down. It turned out pretty good I think. It was a great way to end the service. Great idea patamo! And thanks for the help weave!
NewCov - Easter - Worship Background - Amazing Grace
Remember: This is a worship background for a song in the service. We just place this as the background in Easy Worship for the songs lyrics or words. I placed the music on this video so that it wouldn't be so boring to watch. Plus, you can get a better idea of how it worked for us. Also, I put this together pretty quickly, no comments on bad editing!
TECH GUY: "NO, those are for lazy people." "Waste of money." "Dumb!"
WORSHIP LEADER: "YEAH, We need some of those!" "SWEET!"
I got us a NEW Sound Board for the Chapel at newcov today. We used it tonight for the first time at the mid-week service. What a difference a good sound board can make for the mix. It was like night and day for us. So much more of a cleaner sound. Even with our "portable" amps and speakers on sticks if sounded better. We have been using a Mackie 16 channel portable board. I really like these Allen & Heath boards. We have the ML5000 with a side car in the main sanctuary. So I went with the GL2400 for in the Chapel. It's pretty solid. I like it, I like it a lot!
Here's some Pictures from the Amazing Easter at New Covenant.
This is how we've been doing ours announcements in our Sunday morning services lately. I love how she has everyones attention. This has been a very effective way to communication information to the congregation about key events or just plan info we want them to know about. It also is a great way to throw to a bumper video before the message. No intro needed. Just roll it! And the Pastor walks up right on cue every time.
Announcement Person & Message Bumper Video
Bumper video made by the weaveman.
The last song of the RESCUE series.
(One camera video at Front of House)
Cross Of Love - LIVE at NewCov
Just finished a three week sermon series at NewCov called "RESCUE" this Sunday. All the messages were out of the book of Luke, chapter 15, the three Lost Parables.
The whole 12 hour day in a 3min (long version) video. There's also a 1min (short version) we'll show on Sunday morning this week. The song is "A friend like that," by Hawk Nelson.
Fast Forward (long version) Hawk Nelson Concert
Fast Forward (short version) Hawk Nelson Concert
Hawk Nelson & Run Kid Run - Green T Tour - March 11th LIVE at NEWCOV
WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
What a fun day today was! It was long, but it was good! The production crew for this tour was right on. They came in prepared and ready to go. I really didn't have to say much or do much for them. They knew what they wanted and they got it done. They really spent some time in the prep work to make sure the Load-in and Load-out went easy and smoothly.
The lighting was really good. He used the fixtures effectively and it was cool. They even had CO2 blasts! I loved the use of the three projection screens. They added a lot of movement and excitement to the stage. I also loved that they use catalyst for video playback. The Catalyst system allows you to control video on your lighting board. The sound was mixed great too. The sound DB's were the loudest NewCov has ever heard. The meter read over 110db for the majority of the night with peaks into 120db. YEAH! I thought the acoustic panels were gonna fall out from the ceiling! Rock on!
Hawk Nelson and Run Kid Run - LIVE at NEWCOV.
Just chillin' at FOH (Front of House) with the guys and waiting for the Concert to start at NewCov. They're in a "Meet-n-Green" right now for special guests. We started Load-in at 1000am this morning and it went up quickly. Doesn't Look or seem like a lot to this rig, but they do have their fair share of cool things and gear. The production team did a great job of prep for this tour. The whole thing went up smoothly. More on the concert and tech later on tonight!
For those of you who don't get a "backstage access pass" to newcov production. Here's a few shots of the back stage/tech room/green room at New Covenant. I spent some time cleaning it up this afternoon. It's starting to look nice back here, but I still have plenty of work to do. My Fix It bucket is overflowing!
Kicked off a new sermon series at NewCov called "RESCUE" this Sunday. This Sermon Series is out of the book of Luke, chapter 15, the three Lost Parables. We are really encouraging the congregation of New Covenant to invite their lost friends to church, especially for this Easter Sundays Services.
For this series, we asked them for pictures of their lost family and friends so we could have them up on the center screen during the service. This was pretty powerful to have the photos cycling though on the screen during the whole service. It was a constant reminder to pray for the unsaved. There are also two prayer walls at house left and right (placed on the floor) so they could at any point in the service walk up and write down a prayer to the Lord.
We closed this service with a song by Jared Anderson, called Rescue. The NewCov worship team did a great job with it. I should have been listing to the music the whole week while I was building the set. I didn't know any of the songs prior to rehearsal. Not knowing the songs very well really hurt me on the lighting changes. However, it still was a amazing Sunday! Check out this video from camera 2 in the house.
NewCov Worship Team - RESCUE - LIVE at NewCov
I'm Looking forward to the next two weeks of this series and then Easter is next! Check out the whole order of service HERE at the newcov set list blog. And more on the Set Design in a later post at the newcov production blog or at Randy's blog HERE or at Pat's blog HERE.
Wrapped up the four week series in Matthew at newcov...
YOUR LIFE - keys to living large.
FAST FORWARD - Stage Design
We closed this Sundays service with a worship song that wrapped the whole sermon series up in cute little red bow. "And Now My Lifesong Sings" by Casting Crowns with Pat at the piano, Dee on violin, and Reggie dancing to it. It was really cool. Check it out!
And Now My Life Song Sings - Dancing - LIVE at NewCov
NEXT TIME: I should have stuck with my instinct to go with the all blue wash on the upstage instead of the magenta. The color was good for the cameras I guess. But I think blue would have been a lot better at setting the mood for the dance. Not only would it have been darker on stage, but blue is the color I see for this song. Oh well. It still was pretty cool. I guess having another person in the booth to run the mixer or to run lites could have helped too. Maybe next time I will just set-up the mixer next to the lighting board!
Being "The Sound Guy" for weddings can be fun and easy or it can be extreme ridiculous. This Wedding, on Saturday, had it's fair share of non-communication issues, like not having a order of service, but it was by far one of the easiest ones I have ever done. There was only one Acoustic guitar, two female vocalist, and some walk-in music on a CD. The funny thing was they only wanted tracks 1,2,5,8,9, & 10. We used the CD players program button, so we wouldn't have to stare at the timer all day long. This feature sure does work nicely. We didn't have to fade down the music... and then skip tracks... and then fade up the music.
Burke Rea, one of the NewCov Production guys, came along to help out and learn the ropes so he could jump into the mix to be one of the "The Sound Guys" for weddings at NewCov. It's too bad this was an easy Wedding for him to see. It sure would have been nice for him to see us having three or four CD's to change out. Remembering to only play the first 32 seconds on track 4. Then place the next CD in QUICKLY and then play track 7 for 1 min and 17 secs and start the fade as Pastor Speaks. And then play video slide show on powerpoint computer or DVD player. Don't forget to mute the mics at communion.... and....and....don't forget too!!! If you have done sound enough times for weddings, then you know this is true and it does happen!
It was great having Burke come and hang out today. He was a lot of help. Even though learning sound from me can't be all that good. I really enjoy having him on the team and I look forward to seeing him continue to grow in his Faith with the Lord, and in the tech ministry here at NewCov. He's a hard worker, wants to learn more every Sunday, bright, an excellent leader, and fun to be around. He beings a lot to this team. Thanks Burke. You The Man.
Experiential
Participatory
Image-driven
Connecting
EPIC is a concept from Len Sweet in his book, Postmodern Pilgrims. Sweet believes churches can be effective at reaching and discipling a postmodern culture by becoming E.P.I.C. churches. I [Pat] would add that it's not just for post-moderns. I think the EPIC concept just plan works.
Why?
Experiential: People truly want an experience. Why do you think Disney is so popular? At NewCov, we try to give them an experience - corporate AND personal - of God.
Participatory: Christianity is neither an individual nor a spectator sport. Our faith is experienced best as we engage, individually AND corporately. People want to be a part of the process, not detached from it. Again, check out Disney... and almost every ride, you have your experience together and you are a part of the experience.
Image-driven: We live in an image-driven culture. Images give hooks to thoughts, ideas, and meaning. Image becomes metaphor.
Connected: The pursuit of individualism has led us to this place of hunger for connectedness to communities. This is one of the core beliefs of biblical Christianity. We are in this thing together.
So basically, when we do our EPIC services, we are trying to give people an opportunity to experience God, through sight and sound (hopefully in the future, through smell). It is an experience that can be chosen and the depth of meaning is totally dependent on the individual. The experience is corporate and sends the message, either subtly or loud and clear, that the church does life best - all aspects of it - when it does it together. Togetherness with God and each other gives deep meaning to these events and, as a result, these services are very powerful.
This Sunday we hit the ground running with a awesome opener. I spent a little extra time programming the lights for the opening song, My Savior Lives. I think it was worth the extra time and effort for this song. I also let the sound dudes know to crank it up. It really rocked the house. It's too bad our cameras couldn't keep up and pick up the lighting better. I think it might be time to invest in some better production cameras. Especially if we continue to film services to highlight key moments of the service for the production blog.
This was the opening worship song.
NewCov Worship Team - My Savior Lives
This was the offering song. (One camera in the booth.)
NewCov Worship Team - More To This Life
This was a part of the service when we asked people to write down something on a piece of paper that can be a prayer, act of repentance, or something that will be a commitment made for the Lord. They then were asked to come and nail it to the cross or lay it down at the foot of the cross. The worship team played two great songs during this EPIC moment that really made this time a God moment. The Lord definitely showed up.
We Fall Down & All Who are Thirsty - Cross Moment
Spirit West Coast Road Show - LIVE at New Covenant
Marshall Pulliam, a newcov worship leader, opened for the Christian Music Artist, Paul Wright and for the Christian Comedian Bob Smiley. This was a great event for newcov. The music was good and the jokes were funny. It sure was nice not having a HUGE load-in for this gig. They did have a technical rider, that was a piece of cake, and they just showed up with their guitars and materials ready to rock. The sound, lighting and video was all covered by the newcov production team.
Marshall Pulliam - Freedom..burden and blessing.
Paul Wright - Take This Life
Paul Wright - The Fresno Song
Just got done with round one of the Paul Wright Concert with Comedian Bob Smiley in the Student Ministry Center. The first event was a luncheon for the valleys Youth Pastors put on by Spirit West Coast. We're all looking forward to tonights bigger and better, real deal, event in the new sanctuary. Should be pretty cool.
(I didn't have my camera...So I used my camera phone.)
Well...This Sunday don't go completely all the way I would have wanted it to. However, it still was an awesome Service. All of the things I thought didn't go well wasn't noticed by the audience one bit, just one thing that could not have been avoided happened. It was that during second service when our worship leader's acoustic guitar broke right in the middle of the service. It took him about 2 minutes to get his electric guitar going since it was not hooked up with wireless, and it was all the way upstage. (He played "in the band" for the first number.)
In my opinion this threw everything off, the worship team vocals, timing of the songs, and most importantly the complete sound mix just wasn't right anymore. The first service mix was great...I listened to the CD recorded audio, but I couldn't use it for the recording of this video. I didn't even record first service at all. My bad. All in all, this Sunday still rocked!
We tried something a little bit different for us. We used sign language as an art of worship during a song in the service. The whole experience was very powerful to witness. All the elements, the worship team singing, the sign language to the song, and the prayer time taking place at the down stage edge, really made this a "moment" for God in the service. God definitely showed up. Thanks Natalie for spending the time to learn the moves and motions. It was great! You add a lot to this team.
Second service at NEWCOV' video feature. "all who are thirsty" - sign language
Video Side Note: I really should have had a another down stage camera on another angle. Only having two cameras really made it pretty difficult. The third camera was just sitting on the booth for a cut away. I had to use it a little and was on it way to much I think. Again, I still think we are moving in the right direction for videoing the services for the web and for archives.
"What beautiful music we can make, when we live life God's way and not our own way."
We tried something a little different for us in this week service. A three camera shoot, just for the offertory! We really don't have the right "LIVE" video equipment or personnel at this time to have a really good rock-n-roll video ministry for our services. But I think this turned out pretty good. It's diffidently a step in the right direction.
Wrapped up the four week series in Genesis today at newcov...
CREATION - Beyond the Debate.
