November 2008
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Cover Story
PowerPointSermons.com Begins Exciting New Video Service for Pastors!
By Steve Hewitt
Although PowerPointSermons.com is relatively new, they have already seen some fantastic success (over I million downloads from their site!) PowerPointSermons.com has provided superb graphics for pastors to use in their sermon presentations, and now have moved into providing their customers some great background videos, both for use in making announcements as well as looped videos to be used behind worship music. Check out my interview with Jon and Josh Bailey, and be sure...
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Editorial
Thanks for your feedback!
By Steve Hewitt
Last month I asked if you, our readers, could drop me an email and let me know how you are using video in your church or ministry. I heard from dozens, and I really appreciated, and learned from each story. Please feel free to keep those coming! Check out one of the stories from reader Rev. Billy D Strayhorn, who was kind enough to share with all of us his story.
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Article
Iron Man - Change of Heart
By Martin Baggs
Having never read any of the Iron Man comic books, I came to the movie unbiased, a tabula rasa. With no expectations to be met or dashed, Iron Man proved to be blast, a thinking man's superhero movie.
Robert Downey, Jr. plays Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries a weapons manufacturing company selling to the US military and others. Stark is a whiz kid inventor, and a wealthy playboy, enjoying all the pleasures money can buy: wine, women and song. He thinks hard, drinks hard, plays hard, and sleeps little.
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Article
Expelled: Big Science or Bad Science?
By Benjamin Venegas
The Vitamin String Quartet plays a melancholy cover of a Bob Dylan classic as black and white footage of laborers constructing the Berlin Wall ominously opens Ben Stein's comedic documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. This historic division is the first on many vintage clips that portray the film's message: that weighty and villainous evolutionist’s are persecuting those within the scientific community that merely theorize Intelligent Design as an answer to the origin of species. The discrimination the movie seeks to expose, is so heinous it will go as far as discredit “I.D.” subscribers as pseudo-scientists (at best) or (at worst) make them out as insults to scientific practice and achievement. Ben Stein and his fellow school-boy victims are left to lick their wounds from the other side of the wall, by making the 12th highest grossing documentary of all time. Why so many tears shed?
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Article
Following the Rules
By Gregory Fish
From very early on in life we learn that there are rules to be followed. Sure, some people think that rules are only made to be broken. Generally rules are accepted by all. This is why we stop at red lights. This is why homework is usually turned in on time. I won't bore you with any more examples. Rules make the world a better, more organized place. There are certain rules in video, which cause videos to have a more professional appearance to them. There are rules in crafting, editing, and framing your production that keep it appealing and acceptable. Sure, cutting edge filmmakers will push the envelope and break some of the "rules" to achieve newness or a desired effect, but we would do well in following the rules that are commonly applied.
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Article
Prince Caspian: Popcorn Flick or Literary Magic?
By Ben Venegas
I can recall the very first time I read Prince Caspian, or more precisely, when the novel was read to me. I was adequately educated for a seven-year-old, but I opted out of deciphering that maddening mess of symbols and words, and happily listened instead, as my dad dictated and I lounged on my parent's waterbed. On the nights when I didn't fall asleep, I can recall being entranced by the magic of C.S. Lewis' fantasy masterpiece, the second in The Chronicles of Narnia series; his wit, imagination, and craft as a writer uprooting my thoughts just like the hundreds of other fans of his beloved story.
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Article
The Magic Phrase: Battling the Curse of Last Minute Media Requests
By Jay M. Delp
The list of frustrations, obstacles, and challenges facing nearly every church delving into the wild and wonderful world of using video is long and less than prestigious. Minuscule or non-existent tech budgets, few or untrained “helpers”, outdated, broken or simply the wrong technology, leadership with a stunted vision for using video to enhance all aspects of ministry, worship leaders forever making “on-the-fly” changes, tech team dissention, miscommunication between those on the platform and those on the tech team, to simply name a few of the usual suspects.
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Special Feature
Missing a video opportunity because you feared bringing your equipment – Priceless
By Eric Halverson
Hollywood production standards have raised the bar for churches that “Produce” video. This production standard has limited as well as kept many churches from even trying to incorporate video into their evangelism/web strategy. When integrating video with your Church website, a new paradigm is brewing. youtube.com continues to lower the production requirements for video on the web. Lowering your production values can increase the amount of videos that can be created around your church, these videos integrated with your web strategy can amplify your video outreach.
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Special Feature
Gary Molander Explains the Magic of Their Three-Man Team
By Benjamin Venega Interviewing Floodgate Productions
What is the origin of Floodgate Productions?
Dave Wilkins had been working in the art department of a large retail chain. Jason Rowe was working at a church as their graphics guy. And Gary Molander was in the middle of pastoral detox, after serving as a full-time pastor for seventeen years.
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How We Use Video
Video as an Important Part of the Future of the Church
By Rev. Billy D Strayhorn, First United Methodist Church, Joshua, Texas
I've been a longtime subscriber to Christian Computing and now Christian Video Mag. Our journey into video began about eight years ago. From everything I was reading and seeing, I saw video as an important part of the future of the church, both in worship and in teaching. For years I had taught with the overhead projector, using photos and cartoons to illustrate Biblical ideas. I even purchased (at great expense then) a device for connecting my laptop to the overhead. So the transfer to video was fairly intuitive for me.
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Article
Life Lessons from On Set
By Stewart Redwine
More often than not, a movie set closely resembles life under the big top. We set up, rehearse, put on a show, tear down and do it all over again several times a day. Not to mention the fact there are always at least a handful of clowns hanging around. After the Director yelled, “Cut!” the first time my wife visited me on a set, we all went “back to one,” our starting positions, to re-do the shot. She asked, “Why are you doing it again?” I told her we would re-do it as long as the Director wanted to. She was flabbergasted… why would we keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting something else? Isn’t that the definition of insanity?
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