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July 2009
Why Production Value is NEVER the Benchmark for Success
by Stewart Redwine
There is a way to objectively measure the success of the videos you produce for your church or ministry, and it is NOT production value. This point was driven home for me recently when a friend of mine sent over a video she produced and qualified it as “amateur”. The video is BE STILL by Darla Bishop. After I watched the video this is the email I sent her:
“On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 11:22 AM, stewart h. redwine wrote:
hi darla,
so simple and so true
I think it is great, no need to describe that as amateur because it communicates so well... I am sure you see production value being used as the only measure of what is professional when it seems the best measuring stick is how well did what you make communicate and BE STILL communicates very well
stewart”
As of my writing this article on Thursday, July 16, 2009 BE STILL is currently in the number 5 spot on the Top 10 List at SermonSpice.com. I admit the simple animation in BE STILL could be taken to a much higher level of production value in the hands of a talented animator such as Dan Stevers. However, would the video communicate any better if it had more image layers and kinetic typography? What BE STILL’s simple production value reveals is the true benchmark of whether a video is a success, how well does the video communicate your intended idea and/or evoke an emotional response in the viewer. Regardless of the production value available to you every time you create a video you are allowed the great privilege of communicating ideas and in doing so calling forth powerful emotions in a viewer. Whatever your church or ministry’s level of production value, never be afraid to over communicate. Figure out what you want to say and say it as plainly as possible with the language of moving images. Just imagine the story Steven Spielberg could tell with a flip video.
Now I must interject here some sage advice one of my early film school professors gave me. If you want a Lamborghini in the shot, then get a Lamborghini…not your cousin’s tricked out Honda Civic. What he was getting at was the responsibility inherent in the act of communicating with moving images. At the end of the day all of us who produce moving images are putting together a series of sights and sounds to communicate a given idea and call forth emotions in the viewer. It is our responsibility to get the response we want. My professor’s point was that if you want to wow the audience – then get something that will wow them. If you can’t get the Lamborghini, then think of a different story to tell.
This brings me to some more great advice I have received along the way from my Jedi Master, Mark Ciersdorf, when it comes to production. When I was producing a DVD series for onetimeblind we were actually tossing around the idea of getting an elephant for one of the Mini-Movies. I could hardly believe it when I was on the phone with onetimeblind’s manager; I thought he was pulling my leg. After going over the budget with Mark and pricing out a real elephant and even what it would cost to key in and animate a digital elephant Mark told me, “Shoot the movie you can afford”. That might just be the best production advice I have ever received. We scratched the elephant idea and went forward with the shoot, and one of the Mini-Movies, The Stool, was in the #1 spot at SermonSpice.com for several weeks.
Whether you can get Lamborghinis and elephants or not, the question still remains, what are you trying to communicate? Earlier this summer I started working for Christ in Youth as a video producer. Chad Brown, one of the directors for the MOVE high school event, shared with me his own guiding principle on communicating with video, “Don’t wrap the message around the media, wrap the media around the message”. I couldn’t agree more. Putting production value ahead of how well you are communicating your idea will most likely end with a viewer who is dissatisfied and a disgruntled producer. Whether you wrap your elephants around the message or vice versa the question still remains, what are you trying to communicate? And even more importantly, is it worth communicating at all?
I believe the answer is found in the story of one of the few accounts of an artist in the Bible one inherent value in Christians and churches using video to communicate applies to all the arts and is twofold: a job well done and the edification of the local community. Take a look at and you will find these two values at work.
Exodus 31:1-5
“See I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts – to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship”. (NIV)
The one word in this passage that summarizes these two values, a job well done and the edification of the local community is craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is the process of mastering the ability to communicate precisely what you intend. Unfortunately, the use of this word, and a good understanding of its meaning, was cut off from the under-standing of the creative arts in the later part of the 20th Century.
As art became increasingly self-referencing throughout the 1900s so much of what was thought of as the creative arts was an expression of the artist’s own vision of the world. However, in the passage from Exodus we read that Bezalel was gifted by God to create high quality artwork for the greater good of his local community and ultimately the Glory of God. We DO NOT read the following:
Exodus 31:1-5
“See I have chosen Bezalel… and I have filled Him with his unique spirit, with style, individualism and self knowing in all kinds of crafts – to make artistic designs for his own gratification, subtle and codified, to create and define symbols, to work at his own pace, and to indulge in all kinds of creative expressions” (PMVST - Post-Modern Vernacular of Self-Expression Translation)
While the Church continues to discuss, hold conferences, and read books in order to discover how to embrace the creative arts we all need to remember the lessons learned from Bezalel’s example: get very good at what you do and create work that edifies your local community. In short, become a master craftsman filled with the Spirit of God. Though the actual artwork Bezalel created has been lost for all time, thousands of years later he is still known for his craftsmanship, his ability to communicate his ideas and evoke emotion in the viewer of his work.
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