This past Christmas we opened the service off with a production-heavy eye-catching event. We performed a melody rendition adopted from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra mixed with “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” We synced-up everything from the additional band tracks, to the video screens, to the versatube-driven lighting. The sync was all time-code driven from an HDCAM deck. It started with a mood-setting drone that burst with energy over and over again all the way to the climax at the ending. Below is a clip from the service clean-cut.
Post Production Process:
One of the main energy-driving elements was the video created as the song’s foundation. The design was inspired by the much seen Mary J. Blige iPod spot from Apple. For those involved in video and post production, this post will be enjoyed!
The project started with shooting HD green screen elements on a Sony F-900 of just two actors. The actors played all of the different instruments to our edit and click of the track. Once on tape, we laid out the edit in the timeline and segmented 33 or so scenes to be composited. During the edit stage we determined how many layers of our characters were going to be present in each scene. This simplified the compositing process by presenting a rough-visual picture along with a text animatic track with animation notes.
The fun begins! With the help of Video Copilot, our motion graphics team put together many matte (white on black ) elements from scratch using Adobe Illustrator and After Effects. We have an in-house library of many pre-made mattes, textures and animations that helped speed up the process. We are always adding to our library to assist us with projects each week. In After Effects the animations were parented with the waveform of the music track to be emphasized through the musical beats.
Using the new release of Autodesk Smoke 2009, the compositing began. Smoke 2009 offers a batch schematic workflow that significantly sped up the process. We used the particle system of Autodesk Flame to work in a true 3d environment. The characters were then keyed, color-corrected, duplicated and placed in 3d space.
Each scene was created to increase in complexity as the song climaxed. By the end, the camera moves are drastic, the elements are numerous and the characters appear like a large symphony.
Some ‘gap effects’ and 'axis'-transitions in the Smoke timeline provided the flashing and blurring that created additional harmony between the video elements and music.
This project was one of our team’s favorites. Surprisingly, we were able to complete it in about 4 days time...Wow. Thank the Lord for the ability to lean on Him to provide creativity and productivity in such a tight time-span.
Update: You can view the Element by itself here.
Wow that was an amazing performance! It's crazy how advance we are able to be with our church services these days. My church video screens have been an essential part of our services. I like how you incorporated your with video and live entertainment. Seriously, your team did a great job on this production.
Posted by: Stoellergirl | August 16, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Pathetic, "all about me" show.
Posted by: matters not | September 30, 2008 at 07:33 PM
What church was this performed at? Awesome
Posted by: Pete Polis | May 12, 2008 at 03:53 PM
wow... dude that is amazing. I'm suddenly regretting missing this years C3 more than ever. I wish I could've seen that live. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: trey taylor | May 05, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Hey man,
i work on media team with Bretz at North Point, just wondered over to your site and watched this. freakin incredible! You guys do amazing work. We're gearing up for our Drive Conference, starts tomorrow. Pretty video intense on our end. We're doing alot of timecode sync videos with band as well.
matt G
Posted by: matt g | May 04, 2008 at 12:08 PM
I would live to buy this video and use it in our Christmas service this year. Is it available for purchase?
Posted by: Isaiah | May 03, 2008 at 02:11 AM
That was incredible! Thanks for sharing! I'm sure it was sweet live.
Posted by: Seth | May 02, 2008 at 09:29 AM
Impressive!
Posted by: Jenni Catron | May 02, 2008 at 07:37 AM
Freaking ridonkulous! I would have loved to have experienced that live. It's kicking my butt just watching the cut here. You guys rock!
Posted by: Matthew | May 01, 2008 at 03:37 PM
Thank you for posting this. My family and I did attend a Christmas service at Grapevine, and it was outstanding! It's so cool to see the steps and the tools involved in producing such amazing content like this. Thanks for giving us a glimps of the post production world.
Posted by: Stuart C. | May 01, 2008 at 01:58 PM
Oh my flippin' sweetness!
Brook
www.two10eleven.com
Posted by: Brook | April 30, 2008 at 04:14 PM
Dude - that was some sick stuff... thank you so much for sharing! Say hi to Ed!
Posted by: alex mclean | April 30, 2008 at 03:24 PM
Have you guys thought about selling this video with the string tracks included, so that other congregations can benefit from such a creative idea for next year's Christmas services?? Great work!
Posted by: Allison | April 30, 2008 at 10:55 AM
Awesome . . . you guys rock! I'd love to have been in that service.
Posted by: Dean Cooper | April 30, 2008 at 10:42 AM
Pace...I enjoy reading your blog. This is incredible. My husband and I are members but were in Colorado for this service so we missed it. This is what attracted me to FC in 1998 when I started attending. What a creative church and place to worship! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Kelly Beck | April 29, 2008 at 09:35 AM
How is the actual audio, in the 'element' played?
Was the full audio played live or recorded previously?
Chris- the band had a reference track in their ears in the live. We also had some of the strings tracked for the live. All the guitar parts and regular band stuff was live.
We decided to track strings and shoot the video this way in order to save money on having to pay for string charts and bring in a bunch of strings. Hope that helps!- pace
Posted by: Chris Reardon | April 28, 2008 at 03:40 PM
My loving and thoughtful wife, sent me the link to your blog, at the time, specifically referencing the April 18 Creative Team Concept. As a road-warrior, medical device sales rep, that was of great interest. But as I reviewed your blog, I came across the "production" of the '07 Christmas program intro...it reverbrates my heart. Thank you.
Posted by: Dick Patterson | April 27, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! My family was planning to go to the FC Christmas service on Christmas Eve. Right before we walked out the door, one of twin one-year-old sons got sick. The other son soon followed. Then, we all came down with the FLU for Christmas. Anyway, my oldest son managed to make it to the service and told us the Praise Team did TSO. We were so disappointed that we missed it! Now, we get to see it and keep it forever and ever. Thanks again, Pace!
Posted by: Kay Streetman | April 26, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Dude - you blew my mind. In a good way! Thanks for sharing that.
Posted by: Greg Atkinson | April 26, 2008 at 01:46 PM
This is so sick! I saw it done at C3 and was blown away. To create this in only 4 days is simply amazing. You guys have such a talented team, I am consistently amazed. Thanks for sharing these behind the scenes creative process elements, it's fun to see it broken down like this.
Posted by: Ryan_B | April 26, 2008 at 01:04 PM
Amazing, Stunning. Great job to the whole team!
Posted by: kelli | April 26, 2008 at 12:08 PM