This Christmas season, Victory Family Church decided to revamp their Christmas program. In addition to spectacular musical performances, we decided to add a ton of humor, drama, video content, and an amazing set design.
In this post, I will break down 3 of the video elements that made up the program. Hopefully this will help give some of you inspiration for your future programs, and if you see anything you like please feel free to download it, or use it.
Elf Opener
Our new worship Pastor, Peter Penrose, arrived sometime around September, and we quickly found out the Elf was one of his favorite movies. After the painstaking process of convincing him that he needed to be Elf for the Christmas program, we developed the story of Elf trying to make his way to our church after being invited to the Christmas program. He also showed up live and sang some songs as elf.
We shot the opener over 2 days, in several locations, with a crew of 3 (myself, and 2 others), and a mixture of equipment we own (Canon 7d, Tokina 16-50mm 2.8 Lens, Canon 50mm Lens) and some that we rented from borrowlenses.com (RedRock Shoulder Mount/Follow Focus, Merlin Steadicam, Matthews Suction Cup, Canon 50mm 1.4 Lens, Vari ND Filter, Marshall Monitor, Zoom H4 Recorder).
One of the more difficult shots was when we used the Matthews suction cup to mount the 7D to a car to shoot the smart car sequence. I sat in the passenger seat with the 7 inch Marshall monitor on my lap.
Needless to say, Elf was a rockstar everywhere we went. Everyone wanted a picture with him (including me).
Brad Malone’s Story
In order to include the children in the program, one hurdle we had to overcome was getting them into the sanctuary. In one of our meetings, a story my friend Brad told me popped into my head. Brad agreed to share his story on film and it was a powerful moment when the program transitioned from his story to hundred’s of children singing Here I am to Worship.
The production design was inspired by Adam Kring’s Christmas opener from NewSpring’s program last year. We used four panels of black backdrop, a Lowel lighting kit, one par can for extreme back lighting, and a bunch of christmas lights to achieve the look. Cameras we used were: Canon 7D (50mm 1.8), Canon 60D (16-50 2.8), and the Panasonic HVX.
One Solitary Life
This piece was an adaptation of the poem “One Solitary Life” We originally wanted this to be a live element, it would have really added another texture to the whole show. However, when it came down to crunch time, between rehearsals and final edits, we realized it would be easier to shoot and edit than to perform during every service coordinated with music. We sprinkled in some scripture from Isaiah 53 and it turned out to be a very powerful piece.
This was shot in downtown Sewickley, PA in one evening, with a Canon 7d (Canon 55mm 1.8), Cavision shoulder mount, Lectrosonic lapel mic, and a Beachtec Adapter (I usually don’t prefer to run the audio straight into the DSLR but we needed something quick and dirty). The christmas lights made for a great backdrop. Huge thank you to JC Andrews, who is from Arizona, for braving the cold and acting in this video.
Also, quick shout out to Carlos Whittaker on this one, we have been talking about redeeming the past in his coaching network, and this poem was our attempt to reuse a timeless piece in a new way.
Ultimately, this years program was the product of a great team, and great collaboration. We couldn’t have done this without each team member. Everyone played a vital role. I will post something about Kelly Selick’s stage design sometime soon, so be on the look out.
Hopefully this this helped some people. Let me know if you have any questions. What have some of you come up with for your Christmas programs?
