1Christian Video® Magazine

2Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

Sep/Oct 2011VOL. 4, NO. 8

6 Greg’s ToolkitGary Morlander Interview

by GREGORY FISH

9 ArticleA Composer’s Notes

by JURGEN BECK

12 ArticleThe Tree of Life - A Way of Nature, A Way of Grace

by MARTIN BAGGS

15 ArticleLike Knight and Day

by RYAN GEESAMAN

Editorial 3

Cover Story 5All The Spice for One Low Priceby RHONDA TEMPLE

Sep/Oct 2011 3Christian Video® Magazine

Christian Video Magazine is published monthly by Christian Video Magazine, Inc.

Editor-in-ChiefSteve Hewitt – steve@ccmag.com

Contributing EditorsGeorge TempleGregory FishStewart H. RedwineMark CarrollJay M. DelpMartin BaggsRobert KramerRyan Geesaman

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

Corporate Home OfficeMailing Address:PO Box 319Belton, MO 64012

Phone: (816) 331-5252Fax: 800-456-1868

Copyright 2011 by Christian Video Magazine, Inc.All Rights Reserved

Written materials submitted to Christian Video Magazine become the property of Christian Video Maga-zine, Inc., upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Video Magazine reserves the right to make any changes to materi-als submitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publica-tion is the sole property of Christian Video Magazine. Copy or distribution of articles or content can be done so on an individual basis. Multiple copies or distribution may not be done without the express permission of Christian Video Magazine. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or em-ployees of Christian Video Magazine, or Christian Video Magazine, Inc.

from the desk of the editorby STEVE HEWITT

We Are Looking For Writers!

Christian Video Magazine is looking for articles from our readers. This is because most of our readers are the leading individuals in producing and distributing videos for the church and ministry market. Where else can we obtain great articles about “how to” than from our readership! Learned something new? Have you found a cool tool? Picked up a new tech-nique? Write it up and share it with the rest of our readership. Most of our readers are NOT video producers in the sense that they ever plan to create a video and market it on sites like SermonSpice or Worship House Media. However, many of our read-ers are trying to produce their own videos for use in their church to promote specific events, new ministries, etc. The information YOU know might help hundreds or even thousands of churches and ministries create better videos for their ministry. Please drop me a note (steve@ccmag.com) and let me know if you’re interested. Articles need to be around 1,200 words and can be sent via email. Unfortunately this will need to be completely ministry motivated since we don’t have any way to finan-cially compensate for articles, but I know if you help others, you will be blessed in return.

Special Note

We have decided to move Christian Video Magazine from a 12-times a year pub-lication schedule to 6-times a year. You will note that this is the Sept/Oct issue.

Together We Serve Him

Steve HewittEditor-in-Chief

4Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

All the spice for one low price?

Cover Storyby RHONDA TEMPLE

The newest and most exciting announcement is that Sermonspice is now offering subscriptions. George Temple, C.E.O. of Sermonspice believes that this is the most cost effective way for any church to have all the media they need including countdowns, backgrounds and the newest sermon illustrations. From the beginning of Sermonspice the question has been asked many times, are you going to offer subscriptions? The difficulty in of-fering subscriptions is coming up with the correct business model that rewards the filmmakers as well as the customer. George goes on to say that it was his son, Daniel, who has been a part of Sermonspice from the beginning that actually came up with the idea of the subscription library. The idea is to have an all you want “media buffet”. This special collec-tion of hundreds of videos is available for unlimited download in the subscription library. They include backgrounds, countdowns, sermon illustrations and bundles. The subscription library is one of the

most exciting aspects of becoming a Sermonspice subscriber. This library will constantly be changing with exciting new media, holiday appropriate prod-ucts and current offerings. Subscribing also allows customers to earn extra reward points. There are four subscription levels to choose from. The subscription plans begin at $19.95 and range up to $79.95 per month. The least expensive level, the “Value” level comes with 1 video credit per month for any video on the site and 2X reward points up to the “MAX” level that provides 5 video credits per month and 4X rewards points. That means that with each additional pur-chase beyond your monthly subscription you ac-cumulate reward benefits at double, triple or even quadruple rates, depending on the subscription level you choose. The reward points are redeemable for any product on Sermonspice. With the subscription library,the multiple reward point system and the video credits the customer receives when they sign

A little over seven years ago when Sermonspice first appeared online with its library of 45 videos, it was hard to imagine a time when their media library would have over 26,000 media products going out to over 200,000 church leaders around the globe. In 2004 video projectors were rare and the Internet was brand new. There were less than ten filmmakers creating media for the church, now at Sermonspice the work of over 2,000 filmmakers is represented. Things have certainly changed and there’s no slowing it all down.

What’s Up in Spice World? Sermonspice world that is...

Sep/Oct 2011 5Christian Video® Magazine

By STEVE HEWITTCover Story

up, George feels this combination encourages increased purchases and media usage which is a win/win for the filmmaker and the customer. In other words, subscriptions ARE all the spice for one low price! Customers can still purchase any product on Sermonspice without being a subscriber, however it is Sermonspice’s goal to make subscriptions so desirable and valuable that it just makes sense for any church to have a subscription. As we head into the holidays it would be very feasible to meet your entire church media needs with one subscription. From the time that Sermonspice first start-ed operating there has been a lot of effort to provide the largest, most searchable, valuable, church media collection available. The goal is to consistently increase the value of subscrip-tions. Sermonspice is always looking for new talented producers and filmmakers to raise the bar and help pastors with the next great church video. Any discounts the customers get through subscriptions are absorbed by the company, the filmmakers always receive their full royalty on every video credit or rewards purchase. George reminds us that the mission from the very beginning remains the same, “Impact the Kingdom of God through media”. “Many features or products on Sermonspice may change but the mission never will”.

If you would like more information on Sermon-spice Subscriptions or to become a filmmaker email library@sermonspice.com.

6Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

by GREGORY FISH

Gary Molander Interview

Greg’s Toolkit

I recently had my first experience at the wonderful Echo Conference, and while there I caught up with Gary Molander. For your benefit here’s a transcription of our conversation:.

GF: I’m here with Gary Molander, Garymo.com, Floodgate Productions, and author of a new book “Pursuing Christ, Creating Art”. And Gary, instead of telling you what a great job you did. I want to say thank you for writing such a needed book in the Christian artist world. I could relate to it throughout. It ministered to me and I know it’s going to help a lot of people so thank you for writing that.

GM: You’re welcome. I will say that whoever in-vented blogging is my best friend cause that’s where it all started. It gave me a chance.

GF: Awesome. You say that God doesn’t need our art. We should create art in response to God because the world needs it. My question is do you really think I or any other guy could really change the world? I mean, that’s kind of a lofty goal.

GM: Yeah, the answer is yes, but I think we change the world one person at a time. And so it’s not my job alone to change the world. It’s our collective job as the church, capital C, to change the world. I think what really changes the world are stories told beautifully and art done wonderfully. That’s what I think.

GF: I agree. You also say we are children of God who happen to be artists. And never get that turned

around. Why is that important?

GM: It’s because we are children of God first. There will come a day when we are not artists any-more. When we can’t pick up and type or blog or whatever we do. But we will always be children of God. And I think that’s really important to realize so that we don’t have a complete identity meltdown when that day comes, when we aren’t artists any-more.

GF: That’s great. You say your most impacting art is a bi-product of time spent with a creative source, Jesus. And the title of the book is, “Pursuing Christ, Creating Art”, in that order. Do you feel that many people and artists tend to reverse that order?

GMo: Yeah, I do. I can’t speak for all artists. I can certainly speak for myself. And the tendency is not to pursue Christ and create art. The tendency is the create Christ and pursue art. And that’s a little bit scary. I wrote the book because I wanted to make sure it’s Christ we’re pursuing and out of that rela-tionship we respond with art.

GF: I love that Christ is literally the backbone of your book. It’s a bold approach. In it you say “Be-ware of the artist whose skill level surpasses their character. You spend considerable time on creative

Sep/Oct 2011 7Christian Video® Magazine

by GREGORY FISHGreg’s Toolkit

blocks and you even give resistance a name in Satan. To combat this you say God needs to crucify in the art of the artist both fear and pride. Can you elaborate on that?

GM: Absolutely! What I would say is God is busy crucifying one or the other. It’s either fear or pride. It’s fear of what people will think. And that’s the block. That’s where so many artists get stuck. What will people think of me if I push publish? What will people think of me if I create that media piece and then stand in the back of the church and watch? What will they be thinking? And if he’s not busy crucifying fear in our lives, that’s my biggie by the way, He’s busy crucifying pride.

GF: Two sides of the same coin.

GM: It really is. You know, when you really think about it, it’s not the same thing, but it is two sides of the same coin. You’re exactly right. So, what I say in my book, and I really mean this too, ‘cause I’ve met a lot of prideful artists; oh man! Where you can’t touch their work. Where pastors can’t come in and try to massage it at all or change it. “No you can’t change that!” I would just say that, if you tend to overestimate your abilities then I promise, God disagrees.

GF: That’s good. And at times we can cross the line into idolatry. Jump from God worship to art wor-ship. Well, related to that, you say that the best art is born in the joy of heaven or the pain of hell. To cre-ate from Hades will result in safer art, less impact-ing and boring. What did you mean by that?

GM: I just mean that God works in our lives through pain and through beauty. So if I was to ask you what the most painful part of you life is, I would promise that your heart was changed during that time. And if I was to ask you what was the most beautiful thing you’ve ever experienced is, maybe the birth

of your children, you would say, “Uh, yeah, I was changed in that moment.” That’s how God changes our hearts. So, my point is: Can we create from those places too? Can we create from the beauty? Can we create from the pain? If we choose to dis-card the beauty, discard the pain so we are creating from some middle ground, and I think that’s boring. Frankly, if I was an artist who had to create from middle ground all the time I’d feel castrated. I mean, you know, I really would. I would much rather learn to embrace the beauty and embrace the pain and cre-ate as much as I can out of those places.

GF: I must say, your book is not a safe book. It’ll change you from the inside out.

GM: I hope so. And you’re making a really good point. I hope it’s not a safe book, but I don’t want it to be an accusatory book either. Does that make sense?

GF: It’s not.

GM: So, the whole time I’m writing it I’m thinking, “I want this to be dangerous, but I don’t want this to be finger wagging, judgmental, legalistic.

GF: I don’t think it is because the whole time you are looking in a mirror and you’re being frank and honest, so I appreciate it. OK, well, just one last question. Kind of the end all question. What does the book mean to you and why did you write it?

GM: I wrote the book because I was deeply im-pacted by my father who was a writer. And I always wanted to write. I felt like I had something in me to write, but like many people and probably like your-self too you say, “I wanna write, but what would I write on?” And then the more I began to get into the creative arts world and I got my Master of Arts, the more I began to do that, I just realized that artists are really pursuing art. And Christian artists...I’m

8Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

really pursuing my art and creativity and kind of bring-ing Jesus on as a passenger. I don’t think that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Greg Fish: And that’s why you make it a goal with your art, and now with people who read your book will be introduced into that, where your best art will be when you make the invisible vis-ible.

Gray Mo: God. Absolutely and that’s really what it is because that is what we have, like it or not, a God who is not seen. And so we have to make him visible and I think through our love one to another certainly a community would look on. But there’s another way too and that’s through our art. Through art that redeems.

GF: Amen. Well, there you have it. GaryMo.com. Go buy and read this book. It’s worth every penny and you will not be disappointed. Thanks a lot.

Gregory is a preacher in South Texas with a passion for combining the timeless message of God’s grace with the technology of our day. On the side he produces videos for “FishXpressions” at various Christian video websites. He has set out on a journey to learn how to create better and higher quality films. Apart from this column, he also main-tains a production blog with tips, helpful links, and

other musings at www.fishxpressions.com.

Sep/Oct 2011 9Christian Video® Magazine

By Jurgen BeckArticle

A Composer’s Notes -

Having a composer create an original score for your film can be one of the most gratifying and exhilarating experiences you will have, especially if you have never worked with a composer before. It can also be one of the most stressful as-pects of working through your film, as the music can make or break your film in so many ways. Handing over your master works to someone who can potentially take it into a completely different direction can feel like you are giving up control.

Composing for film is a very specialized musical art form and unless you are a filmmaker and a com-poser, you will have to rely on the expertise of another person and have a limited ability to shape it the way you have it in your head. However, therein lays the beauty of working with a skilled composer. He or she will be able to contrib-ute to your film in ways that you may not have envi-sioned. Rely on that fact and use it to your advantage. Allow the composer to do what he does best: Adding a compelling musical score and complement the film. This series is designed to help you, the filmmaker, understand how to work with a composer and what to communicate to him/her in order to get the best musi-cal score for your film. Even though the question is asking for the top three things to prepare, I would like to split the answer up into a pre-engagement and an engagement section. There are a number of things you can do to prepare when bringing in a composer and then working with him through the score. I find it paramount that your thoughts about the music are not the typical after-thought composers often encounter. Engaging your composer early in the process may yield creative ideas even before you start shooting. Make the composer

part of your consulting team before you go into actual production. The end product will be that much better for it. Pre-Engagement

1) Have a clear understanding of what you want the music to sound like emotionally, what feel you want to give your film. It is not important for you to communicate to your composer in musical terms. In fact, most composers would rather you communicate in emotional terms. How is the viewing audience supposed to feel when watching the film? What should the response be for specific scenes? This will help the composer craft a score that closely matches and surpass your expecta-tions. Remember that musicians feel the music more than they hear it. Skilled composers are able to shape the music in ways that allow it to reach our innermost being seldom reached by other means. So, when you communicate in emotional terms to your composer, it allows him or her to tap into their creative abilities and draw from a deep well. Emotions can be ex-pressed in a number of different musical styles. Give

What are the top three things you want your clients to have prepared?

10Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

your composer the freedom to be selective in their emotional music choices.

2) Determine the budget. Composers are like master craftsmen, possessing specialized skills that have taken years to refine and in many cases have taken a significant amount of finan-cial resources to get there. In today’s digital age, most composers will also use computers to create the mu-sic. A digitally produced score can often be so close to the real orchestra sound that most people have a hard time determining whether the music was produced digitally or with a live orchestra. However, all that takes a lot of money and the bet-ter the quality and realism of the film score, the higher that cost, especially when deciding to have a real orchestra record the score. This is why you must consider the budget for the score very carefully and early in the funding process. Music takes a crucial role in the filmmaking process. Your music budget should reflect that fact, which means that you should not treat the music as an after-thought. When choosing your composer, determine what you can afford and seek out a composer in that price range. Also have realistic expectations. Rates for com-posers can range from free to several thousand dollars per minute of film music. That cost does not neces-sarily include the cost for producing the score. So, choose carefully, especially if you intend to engage a composer that may be financially out of reach for your budget.

3) Have a realistic schedule for scoring your film. Good filmmaking takes lots of people, lots of time, and lots of financial resources. The time aspect of scoring your film is crucial. A composer can work fast, but if you want the best possible results, give your composer sufficient time to develop the themes and motives of your film. A bland drab of monotone music devoid of interesting and engaging melodies may be the result if you don’t.

The Hollywood standard of composing (not neces-sarily producing) the music is 2 minutes of music per day. Add to that the time for producing the music (ei-ther digitally or with an orchestra), including record-ing and mixing, and you have a schedule for the music that needs ample time to do well. So, have realistic expectations and allow the time to create the music. Major film productions often work for months on a film score with a large number of people involved.

Engagement Once you have engaged your composer, the com-poser agreement is signed and you are ready to hand over your film to the composer, keep the following in mind:

1) Have a locked cut of your film ready and don’t touch it afterwards. This is one of the most crucial aspects of your film’s post-production work. If you don’t turn over a locked cut of your film that is not touched again in terms of timing, your composer will not be able to match the events on the screen with corresponding music. Continuing edits on the film after your composer starts scoring is a recipe for disaster. You will find yourself in a situation where you have to throw out cues, or cut them up in ways that are less musical, no matter how mad your music editor’s skills are. It just won’t work for most part. In many cases, your composer will agree to a packaged fee, which means that if you ask your com-poser to re-score certain sections of your film, because you continued to edit it, your composer may be reluc-tant to do so. At best he/she may accommodate you, but it may have been the last time your composer was willing to work with you. So, save yourself some headaches and call a locked cut a locked cut when turning it over to your composer.

By Jurgen BeckArticle

Sep/Oct 201111Christian Video® Magazine

2) Deliver everything to the composer that is need-ed for the scoring process. This includes a number of things, among which are taking the time to do a proper spotting session of your complete film. This needs to take place at the be-ginning of scoring the film and is the time where you communicate to the composer with film in hand what you want where. It is also the time where you and the composer discuss emotional aspects of the film, the in and out points of the music cues, plus so-called sync points you want to highlight, actions in the film that need a special treatment musically. If you are blessed to have a gifted music editor working with you, the spotting session can also be handled by the music editor. The benefit here is that music editors or supervisors often can convey the emotional goals of the film in musical language terms. Other items also include the delivery of the locked cut with the timecode burned into the picture. While some composers have the ability to create their own render with the timecode burned into the picture, you allow room for errors if you don’t deliver the film with the time code from your source. The timecode is important so that you and the composer can communi-cate timed events.

3) Time to respond to cue submissions and reviews. This is crucial. Every composer works a bit differ-ently, but in many cases the composer will hand you either sketches in audio form, mockups (if the score is

By Jurgen BeckArticle

to be recorded with an orchestra), or completed cues. It is paramount that you are available to discuss the music when this happens. A composer needs the feedback, unless you trust him/her completely and don’t want to be involved in this process. If no timely feedback is given, your composer may be reluctant to continue until the music can be discussed. If you end up not liking certain aspects of the music cues, or they are going into a wrong direc-tion, it needs to be communicated early to avoid time consuming and frustrating rewrites.

So, take the time to respond and give feedback. This can often be a very short comment such as, “Love it! Keep going!”, or “We may need to briefly chat about the latest version of the cue.” Be on the look out next month for another ques-tion and answer about working with a composer for your film or video.

Jurgen Beck is a creative composer for films, docu-mentaries, commercials, and all forms of digital media. His website is www.jurgenbeck.com

12Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

by MARTIN BAGGSArticle

The Tree of Life –

Films today are often formulaic and superficial, entertaining perhaps but light-weight and forgettable. Few aspire to become works of art. Rare is the movie that can actually be called art. Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life is such a film. Like an impressionist painting, it needs to be savored and studied. Critics have used grandi-ose terms to describe it, such as epic, awe-inspiring, a masterpiece, Malick’s mag-num opus; yet others have called it ponderous, pretentious, and boring. Clearly, it is not a middle of the road film. Rather, it is a slow almost philosophical-theological meditation on human life and mankind’s place in the universe.

Remember, before showing clips from movies, be sure you have a license to do so. Check out Church Video License to be sure you are legal. www.cvli.com

Way of Nature, Way of Grace

With such monumental themes, the film needs a grand scale. And Malick delivers this. Although he tells the story of a mid-20th century Texas family, he bookends the plot, (what there is of it) between an almost wordless segment, showing the origins of the universe up to the dinosaurs and a similar segment showing the end of the universe. One critic sees the film as a symphony, with these segments as movements, illustrating the progressive structure and nature of life. Certainly, the expansive sweep-ing montage of the construction and deconstruction of the heavens is humbling. In a way, it brings to mind the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. Unlike most American directors, Malick is non-prolific. Since his first feature in 1973 (Badlands), he has directed only four other films (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, and The Tree of Life) in the intervening 38 years. That’s one film every 7.5 years! Yet each has the

distinctive Malick approach, characterized by long shots of nature, views of trees (including a gargantuan 65,000 pound live-oak featured as the titular tree here), upward glances to-

wards the heavens, vivid images rather than extensive dialog, and elliptical editing. All of these are present here. Indeed, the dialog is virtually non-existent, depending more on short softly whispered voice-over sentences to add meaning to the images on

screen. The main story is centered on the O’Brien family. Father (Brad Pitt) and Mother (Jessica Chastain) have three boys, with Jack as the oldest. The film moves in a fragmentary, al-most narrative-free fashion between this family in the 1950s and Jack as a grown man (Sean Penn) today, focusing on his journey through life. The innocence of his youth is impacted by two major factors: the loss of one brother and the difficult relationship with his father. The younger Jack, played fabulously by Hunter Mc-Cracken, is caught between two opposing views on life. His

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by MARTIN BAGGSArticle

mother comments, “There are two ways through life: the way of nature, and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow.” Mother represents grace and father repre-sents nature, and this is played out in front of Jack in his daily routine, from how they rouse him from bed (one playfully with ice cubes, the other by swiftly pulling the sheets back) to how they expect him to react at dinner.The way of grace is the way of God. Mother whispers, “Grace doesn’t try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.” How remi-niscent this is of the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13:4-6)

Despite veering towards caricature, Mother characterizes mothers everywhere, whose love is evident in their familial relationships. The way of grace is the way of self-giving, of loving as Christ loves (Eph.5:25). The way of nature, on the other hand, is the way of man, epitomized in Father. As Mother points out, “Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way.” Again, this reminds us of a biblical parallel, something Jesus told his disciples: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.” (Matt. 20:25) Man lives competitively, wanting to be top dog, fighting fiercely for a bigger piece of the pie. This is even the advice Father gives the young Jack. When his brother dies, Jack feels the pain of grief which is compounded by the struggles he experiences in his rela-tionship with his father. Cutting between the young and the grown Jack, Malick shows us how these have deeply impact-ed the adult. Penn has almost no dialog, yet his morose facial expression tells the whole story. His ponderous gazing over the glass and steel structures that man has created (and he is an architect so has had a hand in some) leaves him cut off from the present, still reflecting on a past that was unforgiv-ing.

The older Jack philosophizes, “Father, Mother. Always you wrestle inside me. Always you will.” Neither has won. Both seek full reign. And in the midst of this conflict, there is no peace for Jack. The truth is, “The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by.” And his life, like his father’s has flashed by, leaving him in a mid-life crisis of his own. The beauty of the film lies in its emotive power. By fo-cusing on characters and not story Malick draws us in, with-out setting a plot goal. The film takes its time bringing out meaning, much like life. We need to live with the O’Brien’s, experiencing something of the life of their children before we can empathize with the older Jack. By using cameras posi-tioned at a child’s eye level, we see as if we were children, too. And the lack of speech forces us to be in the picture, seeing not listening, imagining what it was like, feeling their pain. It is not entertaining, it is hard work. But it is worth it, as it causes us to reflect on our own relationships. Malick, though, is an Episcopalian, and brings the bigger question of man’s relationship to God and his place in the world to the center of this film. He opens the movie with a quote from the book of Job: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job. 38:4) The middle movement, focused on Jack, is linked to the opening and closing scenes of the universe. Though not narratively connected directly, they are thematically complementary pieces. They allow Malick to show us man’s place in the universe. We were not there when God formed the heavens. We may not be there when he brings it to an end. (Though we hope to be with him in heaven enjoying eternity in his presence, through the work of Jesus Christ.) We live brief lives in between these two epic events, humble yet glorious. As David said to God in one of his psalms, “what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psa. 8:4) Yet there is a glory that God wants us to see and enjoy even as we live out our seemingly empty lives. The imagery of the film depicts this glory in everything around us. Toward the end, when Father realizes the error of the way of nature, he comments ruefully, “I dishonored it all. Didn’t notice the glory.” He has spent his life fighting to win and he failed to enjoy the glory around him. We can be like this, if we are not careful. The old maxim, stop and smell the roses, points

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by MARTIN BAGGSArticle

to this element of the film. There is glory to be seen, if we lift our heads and open our eyes to see it. This pleases God. This gives meaning to life, as we see and give glory to our Maker (Rom. 1:19-21). Faith and forgiveness are ad-ditional themes. It takes faith to see the glory. Jack struggled with faith in God. He struggles with forgiveness, too. Unlike Mother, who is quick to forgive, Jack resembles his Father. Yet one key scene has him reconcil-ing with his brother whom he has shot with a BB gun. “I’m sorry,” he says succinctly but in their eyes comes a moment of shared forgive-ness. And this leads to an awakening of faith, as he prays to God, “What was it you were showing me? Al-ways you were calling me.” God is always calling us. He calls us back to him and then he stands waiting for us to come (Rev. 3:20). We can experience his for-giveness as we come to know him (1 Jn. 1:6-9). But it requires faith, a faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16), a faith that he exists (Heb. 11:6). Most of us struggle with these aspects of life, whether we admit it or not. Yet, when we look around, as Malick would have us do, we cannot escape the evidence of a Creator. And in seeing this evidence, we see the glory of God, and the reflected glory and humility of ourselves. If you have never seen a Malick film, it is worth the experience, if you are willing to work at it. It is deep, some-times disturbing, but always thought-provoking. He exempli-fies the truth that it is quality not quantity that counts!

Copyright ©2011, Martin BaggsMartin works as a manager in the high tech industry. He leads a monthly film review group at Mosaic Church in Portland, Oregon. He writes film responses from a biblical perspective on his blog: www.mosaicmovieconnectgroup.blogspot.com. Contact: martinbaggs@gmail.com

Sep/Oct 201115Christian Video® Magazine

By RYAN GEESAMANArticle

Like Knight and Day

A couple years ago, our men’s ministry was requesting a new promotional video for their upcoming year of Men’s Fraternity. We decided that we would em-brace the terminology of knighthood in the curriculum and use that imagery in the video. They acquired a full suit of armor, complete with chain mail, and we found a member of the student ministry staff naïve enough to volunteer to wear a heavy suit of armor for a video shoot.

For a location, I scouted out an old iron furnace that is now a museum. Electricity was hard to come by, and the location I chose within the complex was dark, illuminated only by a couple windows and some small wall sconces. I arranged to borrow a Westcott Spider-lite daylight fluorescent lighting kit to supplement the natural light. I knew a daylight fluorescent kit would give me the most light using the least electricity and would be balanced with the daylight coming through the windows. At the time, we had just started to hear about digital SLR still cameras being used for video. I had researched the depth of field adapters and had the Letus adapter picked out for the JVC HD110 camcorder that we were using for production. The DSLR movement promised the same look in a much smaller package. I was skeptical but only had Internet videos to rely on for evidence. This promo video really begged for that “film look.” We found out that one of the church’s photogra-phy volunteers was shooting with a Canon 5D Mark II. If you know much about the DSLR video movement, you know that this is the camera that really started the ball rolling. We invited him and his gear on the shoot, but we took all of our camera and lighting gear as well. As we started setting up for the shoot, the volun-teer made quick work of his camera and tripod. I was

still putting the first Spiderlite together when he said, “I don’t think you’ll need any additional light.” Yeah right. Obviously this guy doesn’t know what he’s talk-ing about. You can’t shoot in a dark room with just the light coming from… “Oh my goodness that looks amazing,” was my response. I was sold on DSLR pro-duction at that moment. Granted, the images from these cameras have their problems, which I will mention later, but compared to the typical ministry’s video camera, the image is aston-ishing. With these amazing images, however, comes a shift in workflow and thought process. The most obvious deficiency is in the area of audio. Audio recording is basically an afterthought in these cameras. It is best to record audio separately on another device with more control. We use a Marantz PMD661. There are less expensive recorders out there, but this unit allows us to continue using one little production trick. We can record a single microphone on two chan-nels at two different levels. This allows us to set a good recording level on one channel and a slightly lower level on the other. Then if the talent ends up being a little louder during the recording than during the sound check, we do not have to worry about both channels be-ing over-modulated. To synchronize the separate audio and video record-ings, there are a couple of options. We use a simple

16Sep/Oct 2011Christian Video® Magazine

clap to sync the clips in our editing software. Normally we use a dry-erase production clapboard. When we forget that, a single clap of the hands from the talent will suffice. Another option is to use a software-based synchronization solution. The most popular software out there is PluralEyes. This software analyzes the au-dio from each clip and matches them up. The nice thing about the software is that if you have a long clip from one source and several short clips from another, it will create a timeline in your editing software with all of the short clips synced to the appropriate parts of the long clip. That is something that is fairly difficult with the clap method. Why would you have several small clips instead of one long clip? That’s another deficiency to work around. I cannot speak for all of the DSLR cameras, but the Canon cameras have about a 12-minute clip limit. This is not an issue when shooting b-roll or a film-style dramatic scene. It becomes a problem when shooting events and interviews. There is no magic solu-tion to this one. We simply wait for a good moment to stop recording and start a new clip. These cameras also suffer from a few image distor-tion issues. The first affects all CMOS chip cameras, whether DSLR or video camera. It is called “rolling shutter,” and it can make vertical lines look diagonal during quick camera movements. It can also make im-ages from a shaky camera look like gelatin. It is caused by the way the camera exposes the image on the sensor: from top to bottom rather than all at once. There are software filters that try to fix this problem, but I have not had any amazing results with these. It is better to try to avoid shooting styles that will expose the prob-lem. The other image issues are based on the fact that the sensor is built for photography and needs to down-convert the multi-megapixel image for video record-ing. This causes moiré on tight patterns, such as carpet, shingles, and brick. It also causes aliasing on thin diagonal lines. There are software filters for this as well, but again, the results are not fantastic. Something exciting that recently came to my attention is an optical

by RYAN GEESAMANArticle

filter that can be placed between the lens and the sensor. The VAF-5D2 from Mosaic Engineering is currently only available for the Canon 5D, but they are working on a model for the 7D as well. I have seen spectacular results. Another thing to get used to is the new, well actu-ally, old terminology. Since these are primarily still cameras, they use terminology from film cameras. What we as video people call “gain” these cameras refer to as “ISO.” Shutter speed and aperture are the same as on a video camera, but it becomes even more important to understand the interaction between these values. One aspect of aperture is a bit different than video cameras. Unless you have a “declicked” lens, the aper-ture will change in noticeable steps, not smoothly like a video lens. In controlled situations like an interview or dramatic scene, this is not a problem. You can set it and forget it. In a less predictable situation like shooting outside, this can be very distracting. We have an adjust-able neutral density filter that we can put on a lens to smoothly change the exposure without this unwanted by-product. A filter is much less expensive than a “de-clicked” lens. So with all of these problems and work-arounds, why would anyone want to make the switch to DSLR production? It is all in the image. The images are beyond anything that can be captured on the typical 1/3 inch chip camcorder. Don’t just take my word for it, check out the very first video we shot on the Canon 5D at http://vimeo.com/28075890. There is a steep learning curve inherent in the switch to DSLR production. But the payoff is increased production value and a new tool to capture and direct an audience’s attention and emotion. That’s priceless.