One of the best skills you can develop as a live video director is the ability to clearly and concisely communicate your wishes to the rest of the crew. The pressure of a live performance or a church service – in the moment – or “calling the show,” makes things…

Advice received from tech conferences, magazines, websites, discussion boards and even from fellow technical-artist friends can be wonderful; but have you ever wished you could get your hands on scientific research regarding competencies using video communication technology? I have. Recently a DeGroote School of Business research study regarding the effectiveness of conducting…

“Location, location, location!” the old real estate adage goes. The three most essential factors in determining the desirability of a property is indeed its location. This tricolon does not solely apply to real estate though.  It equally applies to camera positions in a live church-service production environment. One of the…

Don Hewitt  began his career during the dawn of television, starting in 1948 and working at CBS for an incredible sixty-one years. Shortly after World War II while the new medium of television was just in its infancy, Don and his contemporaries literally invented how this new communications technology could be…

Stay static, push, pull, pan, dolly, truck, pedestal, crab, track and dolly-zoom. It seems like the options are endless. Add to this list flying the camera on a jib, crane or wire, canted (dutch) angles, shaky cam, soft focus, rack-focus, whip pans and more, we could go on and on….

A young boy sat on the floor of his living room playing with a cardboard box. But this was not any ordinary cardboard box. On the back of the box facing the boy at eye level was a scene drawn onto an imaginary viewfinder. His mom’s only broom handle (now…

Cross an air traffic controller, someone who is responsible for the efficient implementation of schedules in an altogether unforgiving and dynamic environment; with a story-teller / visual artist, and you’ve just described a live multi-camera video director. No, I am not suggesting video directors are responsible for the safety of…

One of the difficult things we do is train someone to be a competent technician. Training someone to be a video director is really difficult. Training someone to be a competent tasteful video director via a blog post is near impossible!  But then, I love a challenge. Why is training…

Ever wished you could be a fly on the wall, listen in and watch a large scale religious broadcast being shot? Jon Swearingen, the Director of Broadcast Media at Lakewood Church / Joel Osteen Ministries was kind enough to allow a GoPro camera to be put in the control room…

An often discussed topic among church video tech people is the matter of shot composition.  How much headroom is appropriate? Do the Rule of Thirds apply for all shots in all situations? Is shot composition solely a matter of individually and aesthetically pleasing shots strung together sequentially … or should…