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Walk WM from ProlifikFilms on Vimeo.

Well friends, today is a big day. It’s day two of The Global Leadership Summit here in Chicago, and for the second straight day we are unveiling a lot of the cool new things we’ve been working on here at Prolifik. I wanted to take some time today and dive a bit deeper on a piece you may have seen today at the Summit, or you may be seeing in the future at a church near you…

“Walk” came about as a collaboration between Dave and our good friend Greg Ferguson (you may know him as the writer of Free Fall). They developed a really cool concept about finding yourself in the time of waiting, the time in between, waiting for God to move, not really knowing what the outcome will be. Dave really liked the idea of these people wandering through life, passing all these signs that represent the situations in their life that are causing anxiety, stress, impatience. So if Dave was the driving force behind this project taking off, why then am I the one writing this blog?

Good question, and the answer is, this a project that I had to pull together in relatively short order with a ton of creative elements and no real parameters. This scenario sounds awesome at first read, but in reality is one of the most dangerous places a professional creative can be. No parameters often cause more problems than too many constraints. You probably know by now that Dave specializes in a lot of the production aspects of Prolifik, and I specialize in most of the design aspects of our work. These aren’t hard and fast roles, but for most projects, that’s just where we are most effective. This piece fell pretty heavily on the design side, and even though I was working with my partner in Dave, and a good friend in Greg, it was easy to be overwhelmed by the task of taking the thousands of shots our Prolifik team in Chicago had compiled, and pulling them into a cohesive piece that supported the concept that was there in the beginning. So let me tell you how I deal with situations like that.

Walk 4 Up from ProlifikFilms on Vimeo.

Check out the 4 up video I posted above. This is a look at my first cut (top left) Daily Revision 1 (top right) Daily Revision 2 (bottom left) and the final cut (bottom right). It’s going to be pretty hard to see what’s going on if you just watch through it in real time, so I encourage you to blow it up full screen, slow it down, look at some sequences shot by shot and see the things that are drastically changed from the first version, and then things that were locked in from the beginning. I’ll point out a few important things about the process that I think can help you when you find yourself in the position I found myself in, wading in a creative sea with no real direction or boundaries.

1. FIND THE TENT POLES

The first thing I do when I start a piece like this is try and identify the clips that hold the whole thing together. These are your “tent poles” and if they aren’t there you’ve got nothing to build around. For me I started with the water tower shot. As soon as I saw this shot I knew it would be critical in the construction of the piece. I loved the strong horizontal composition. It felt like a natural bridge shot. I was pretty confident that I could tie two sections of the piece together fairly well with just that one shot. I also found a pretty strong metaphor in the shot. Knowing we would be doing some sign doctoring I immediately was drawn to the idea of a “beacon of hope”. How great would it be if this “beacon of hope” could be the bridge that the whole piece rested on?

So I started there. I started building this sequence right in the middle. Working from the inside out is often my favorite way to construct a creative piece. I mean how do you really know how to set the table for what is to come without knowing what you’ve got as the heart of the video? Years ago when I first started cutting everything was linear, tape to tape. Those days are over. Throw off the old linear handcuffs and start with whatever part of the piece is the easiest for you to visualize. Beyond the “Beacon of Hope” I knew the sun breaking through the clouds was key, the footsteps through the alley that we see as narration starts was key, and the masses walking at the end was key. And at that point I had a construct. I had found some bearings in the creative ocean and I was ready to get building.

2. PLAY IT LOOSE

You’ll see that my first cut is pretty random. There are some really weird dips and fades. There are some poor shot choices. There are some really odd statements that could have been on the signs. That’s how I edit. I try to fly as fast as possible through the first cut. I just need to see something on screen. I need to catch the vibe of the piece as a whole, and I’ll never get that meticulously editing one shot after another hoping to get it right on my first try. Too many people try to get the sequences right and the verbiage right and the grading right etc etc all on the first pass. That’s a prescription for stale, cookie cutter videos. You’ve got to give yourself the opportunity to be surprised by your own work. There should be moments when you step back and say wow. If that’s not happening, the chances are you’ve fallen into an editing rut. You’re not going with your gut enough. You’re not allowing creative instinct to take over, you are reverting to an existing paradigm. That is not what the life of a creative should look like. Especially one that is in touch with THE CREATOR.

I learned this lesson at a very young age from my dad, Dennis Jones. Growing up with a well known illustrator can be pretty intimidating creatively. His artwork is amazing, and so when I would draw with him I would do everything I could to make it look perfect on the first try. He quickly taught me the lesson that starting out loose and gradually refining your work is the way to create something you’re truly proud of. So don’t be afraid if you’re first cut is embarrassing, that’s a much better sign that you’re on the right track than a perfectly planned out starter.

3. FIND YOUR RHYTHM

So what’s with all the trippy jump cuts and overcranked footage that show up in the middle two cuts and go away on the final? Well that’s a look at my internal struggle with pacing. I think the rhythm of the piece is one of the most important aspects of creating a compelling work, and sadly it is one that many people don’t understand. Rhythm is what can manipulate emotion, create tension, build excitement, relieve drama, etc. Until you master pacing you are a creative gambler, continually rolling the dice, praying for a good result. You need to analyze your work and ask the pacing questions. “What happens if this section slows down?” “What happens if I make this section an assault on the senses that is so fast the elements slip only to the subconscious?”

I went back and forth on how “Walk” should start. I originally thought the slow drawn out start was the best way to gently ease the boat off shore and get us going in the direction I wanted. But after viewing the first cut I felt it lacked some of the intensity that this piece needed. I threw in the faster pacing hoping to build a bit more chaos and tension, but ultimately felt that it made the piece a bit too chaotic off the jump. The solution was to go back to my original gut instinct. The slower lead was in fact better, it just needed something to add a bit more drama. That leads us to the last point…

4. PLAN YOUR POST

This is the grading chart I used to construct the look I wanted to complete “Walk”. Nothing too complex, just a reference to use when I rolled up the sleeves and jumped into the grading process. I needed to create a palette that would be unsettling at the onset, but easily resolve itself later. It astounds me how many people out there have no plan when it comes to what they want their post to look like. I set my color grade before I ever jump into the grading program. You’ve got to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish in post or you run the risk of creating a showreel for your favorite plugin package. If you don’t look at your work and think, man this really needs “starglow” to make it pop, don’t try throwing it on there in post. What you will inevitably do is throw 6 weird effects on top of a pretty solidly constructed piece and ruin the whole thing. Realize that your post work is what is most apparent about the piece. As soon as “Walk” begins you realize the color grade. That’s just the way we perceive things. You absorb that color and it immediately effects how you will view the rest of the work. So learn color theory, learn what the palette you are using is doing to your viewer.

So there you go. That’s how I approach a difficult creative piece and find my bearings in the creative sea. I hope you like “Walk”, I think it turned out pretty cool, and I hope jumping inside my head for a few moments has given you some new thoughts on how to approach your next project. What kinds of things do you do that help you to form cohesive creative work?

You can purchase “Walk” here.

I’ve been reflecting on the changes that we’re seeing with increased expectations along with shrinking budgets, team sizes, and turnaround times.  And not in a critical way—typically for us, the smaller we can keep the team & the faster we can shoot and edit, the better.

It’s why we love training and working side-by-side with production teams from small churches and non-profit organizations.

But as I thought about the big organizations and mega-church teams that we work with, and the fear and resistance sometimes associated with this new reality, I re-surfaced one of my oldest production theories:  Too often we mistake the difference between excellence and perfection.

To some people, this looks about right—you pass THROUGH excellence on the way to perfection.  As it applies to film & video, we’d be saying that an “excellent” video is the step below a “perfect” video.  (And if you’re in an organization that’s okay “not doing the final 10%” then this means that you’re still making “excellent” content.)

That’s where we can get into trouble.  And it’s not just semantics.  In some cases, it’s a total mis-interpretation of what’s really important.  The pursuit of a “perfect” film or video typically leads to the need for the best equipment the budget will allow, and as many people involved as possible (each with their own specialty).  And a lot of times that’s why the bigger the organization, the more watered-down & boring their media is.  The script, lighting, and makeup might be technically perfect.  It could have textbook photography, animation and editing.  And if you’re trying to downsize from that, what does that mean?  One less person on the crew?  Blue gel on tungsten lights instead of HMI fixtures?  Keeping the director and DP, but doing without an assistant camera operator?

It doesn’t matter how you trim back in that scenario.  If it lacks authenticity—if the content can’t MOVE an audience—then that pursuit of perfection is wasted.

Bono says that he loves Blues and Soul music.  Why?  Because it’s raw, gritty, emotional, and often improvised.  Just like life.  Dramatic.  Tense.  Challenging.  Making-it-up-as-we-go. 

Our SOULS connect to that in an instant.

I submit that excellence might be something altogether different than perfect—in some cases, it might be a completely different direction.

If we can pretty much agree that content is king, then why spend any time being consumed with process?  Crew size?  Lines of resolution or having the latest, fastest workstation?  Of course, these aren’t necessarily bad things.  Just be clear about the difference between perfection and excellence and where their respective pursuits can take us.

We’re honored that so many people trust us to make their content.  And a big part of that is that we deliver excellence.  We’re not consumed with perfection . . . we can’t afford to be.  We need to have our eye on what’s REALLY important.

How many excellent videos have you seen in the last month?  And how many of those were perfect . . . I mean really, technically perfect?  And how many were made by more than one or two people?  If it’s a viral video, there’s a chance they did it with SIGNIFICANTLY less than whatever you have in your equipment closet right now.

The most impactful video I’ve ever seen was made by a young father named Eric Jacobs. He had a stirring in his soul one night that he wouldn’t be with his wife and five kids much longer, so with a desk lamp & a webcam he recorded the things he wanted them to remember for the rest of their lives. 

He died in a plane crash a few months later & his wife discovered the DVD in their safe after his death.

In the context of a brilliant weekend message, that video changed my life.  And I wasn’t alone.  Everyone in the room was deeply affected by it.

My hope is that the media that I create can have that kind of impact.  That our work can be that excellent.

We’re honored and flattered that so many people are curious about our production methods and creative decisions.  So here’s the behind-the-scenes look at what went into filming the Bill Hybels/Jack Welch interview that’ll air at Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit in August.

Jack Welch wasn’t available to be at the Leadership Summit in person, so the interview had to be filmed in advance.  The planning team agreed early on that a one-on-one interview just wouldn’t have the same dynamics as an audience.  So that provided a little bit of a conundrum—the pre-taped interview needed to be “exclusive content” for the Leadership Summit, but it had to be done with a live studio audience.

We believed that with lighting and a shallow field, we could create an intimate event that would still feel exclusive when it was played back later in the summer at the Leadership Summit.  But there were all kinds of considerations.  For example, shooting with traditional 2/3” videocameras would necessitate 15 or 20 feet of space between Jack and the audience, which was’t realistic at all.  The audience needed to be as close as possible—and we needed to see them (or our viewing audience would be terribly disconnected) but not be distracted by them.

So the whole thing was a delicate balance of audience positioning, lighting, aperture/focus field, microphone and speaker placement where a slight change in one impacted everything else.

We also had to shoot the interview near Jack’s home, so we settled on the multi-purpose room of his church—First Presbyterian Church in North Palm Beach, Florida.  The fact that it was a big, open white room with direct sunlight and no rigging points were easy challenges to solve compared to the complicated audience equation.

Cameras

Despite the audio challenges, twelve-minute file size limit, no remote monitoring, and lack of timecode and studio controls, we settled on Canon 5DmkII cameras.  We knew that despite all of the challenges, the cameras would give us the right look.  A wired Clear-Com helped us keep each other posted on stops & re-starts.  And we spent a lot of time with stand-ins rehearsing angles & watching each other’s footage so that we could get by without someone in the traditional director’s role.

In addition to producing, I ran Jack’s camera (70-200mm), Ty covered Bill (70-200mm) and Corbyn hit a two-shot and moved in on Jack when he addressed the audience (24-105mm).  Chris ran camera four—a slow-moving dolly (24-105mm), and Nick picked up wide shots of the room & creative angles with camera five.  Nick had his pick of lenses, including the 300mm prime you see here:

A big thanks to Randy Coleman, our set photographer, who captured these & many more amazing shots.

Audio

Two wired Sanken COS-11s lavalier microphones would have been simple enough on their own, but the audience necessitated a small PA system, PLUS the 20-minute Q&A session after the interview.  So two wireless handheld microphones and the two lavs were routed into our Yamaha DM-1000 digital console which provided a mix to the overhead PA system, as well as a matrix to the hard disc recorder.  The handhelds were mixed down to one channel, plus an AKG 414 overhead ambient mic were all recorded onto four discreet channels of a Sound Devices 744T.

The omnidirectional characteristics of the COS-11s microphone make them a great choice for a studio lav, but quite a challenge when there’s a 360-degree sound field (four Meyer UPM speakers, hung from the pipe grid).  But Chris balanced all of the requirements & made it sound great.

Simple XLR-to-mini plug adapters allowed us to connect reference audio to all of the cameras except for Nick’s (which is why he’s using the Rode VideoMic).  And the Final Cut Pro adjunct program PluralEyes synchronized the audio perfectly.

Lighting

I knew from my initial site survey that we’d need to create a ground-supported pipe grid, and that we’d have to rely on the small handful of 20 amp circuits available to us.  Even if we had more power available, I don’t know that we would have wanted to use it—the air conditioning needed to stay at it’s lowest fan speed throughout the shoot.  KinoFlo 4’ fixtures with half 3200 and half 5600 lamps were used on the audience.  A 1K Chimera pancake was hung between Jack and Bill, while a combination of 4’ and 2’ KinoFlo fixtures at 3200 degrees provided their 4-point studio lighting.

Prior to our arrival, the staff at First Presbyterian installed blinds in all the windows, which gave us the perfect amount of blue glow from the white walls in the background.

Most importantly, the content that we captured is amazing.  Bill and Jack were both at the top of their game & it’s always a pleasure to play a role in helping over a hundred thousand church and community leaders around the world.  A big part of the success was having a wonderful studio audience—they were patient for a full hour as we re-positioned them with an eye on backgrounds & angles, they kept up the energy throughout, and they asked great questions in the Q&A.  (That’ll be available at the Summit as a “bonus feature” option.)

Thanks to Jimmy, Steve and Corinne at the Willow Creek Association for trusting us with such an important role in helping to produce their content.  This year’s Leadership Summit is shaping up to be the best one yet.  If you haven’t registered yet, here’s the link:  http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/

I had the idea for this two-part blog entry because we often end up working with footage that other people shot.  A project that we’re working on right now has us sifting through hours of footage shot on various international missions trips & tours. 

You know the drill . . . a member of the church production staff goes along to document the trip.  Of course, there’s no “standard” for doing this, and a big part of the challenge is that most people end up doing it so infrequently (and with no real goal in mind) that we end up with a lot of footage we don’t need—and a lot of missed opportunities.

With all of the tapes and drives that we’re going through, we’re seeing a number of common challenges that I’m hoping we can collectively improve upon in the future.  So, here are my first five (of ten) tips for shooting missions tours:

1. Shoot clean. Even as production professionals, all too often our footage ends up looking like a vacation shot on the family camcorder.  Yeah, there’s a lot of walking.  And a lot of standing.  And it’s hot.  And it’s just us.  But that’s no excuse to shoot clean, intentional shots.  I’d take static, well-framed shots over an hour of pushing, pulling, panning and bobbling.  Who wouldn’t?

2. Move around.  If if you’re part of a group, do your best to not be IN the group.  Walking down a trail?  Get out in front & shoot a clean shot of people coming towards you.  Hearing from a local pastor?  Get out of the gaggle and get the angles that help illustrate how your church delegates spent their time.  Getting yourself out of the crowd gives you a lot more framing options (including cropping your people OUT of certain shots).

3. Shoot the environment.  I’m scrubbing through hours of footage right now looking for a single shot of a dusty road.  Of a goat tied to a tree.  Any exterior of the shanty town.  Seems simple enough, but sometimes it can be hard to think “outside” of the situation we’re in.  You won’t need a high percentage of shots with your own people in them.  In fact, when you get home, the fanny packs and floppy hats will look comical.  Shoot the tour, but once you’ve got it, spend as much time as possible getting clean shots of the environment and it’s people.  If you’re with a SERVING team, that’s a different story, but don’t forget to capture what that place is like when you’re NOT there.

4. Get illustrative shots.  A cross on the side of the road.  A student at a computer.  A mother making a meal.  Workers fixing a bridge.  Someone getting water from a well.  It might not be exactly what you’re there to see, but there are things happening all around you that’ll be a lot more useful than what amounts to a group of tourists standing in a semi-circle looking at something.

5. Don’t be distracted by “the show” A missions tour can have a lot of planned events.  Local song & dance numbers by schoolchildren wearing traditional outfits, etc.  And it’s awesome to see a community put together a program to entertain guests—and we honor them by enjoying it.  But from a shooting perspective, a little bit of that footage will go a long way in the future.  

Under most circumstances, I set up my pocket audio recorder to capture good options for background & transitional music.  I roll a few minutes of video (from several angles) of the singing, dancing & the audience, then I take the opportunity to shoot the environment outside the school or church or hall.  

I’ve been in post-production situations where I’d trade 99% of the “show” footage for a single shot of barbed wire or a farmer in a nearby field.

Bună dimineaţa (Good Morning) from Braila, Romania! As many of you know, Dave and I are passionate about teaming up with individuals or organizations that are making a difference and creating change around the world. I have been involved with International World Changers for years now, and always jump at the chance to head out and document the tremendous work they are doing around the globe. So when I was asked to come to Romania and shoot the work here I boarded the first plane I could find and came over. I wanted to show a few quick images of what’s going on over here, and I’ll recap the work when I get back home some time next week.

This is the small group of believers that have assembled from around the world this week in Braila.

A look at some of the wonderful children the group is working with.

Standard transportation in the villages here.

Sheep led to still waters… I think I’ve read about this somewhere before…

If you would like to see some more shots I am compiling some images of the week here.