Praise and Worship Media Presentations

Submitted by the-irish-wake on September 28, 2007 - 3:08pm.

Ministry Technology Q&A

Ok,

My church uses regular power point for praise and worship. After going to some other churches while out of town, I saw that these other churches used something called loops...where the back of the screen showed motion.. and even with there announcements. They looked really cool, while my church has very basic and cheap looking backgrounds.

I wanted to know, are they really useing video instead of regular power points for praise and worship, is it called looping, and how could I do this? COuld I use windows movie maker? If so, how would I be able to put differnt words for differnt songs while useing this background...

Do I even make sense?

Thanks brothers

Noah

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Mediashout

Submitted by Rob Feature on September 28, 2007 - 6:15pm.

Hey Noah...
Welcome to the forums....

Yes, indeed....those are actual video clips running in the background. You need to be using software that will allow you to import video, set it as a background, and then loop it (play it over and over). One such program (a very popular one these days) is MediaShout. A ton of churches run this software, and it's debatable how good it is, but its 'the standard'.

As far as the video file itself, you'd have to see what types of files the specific program would take. But, yes, you can create your own. I'm not familiar with windows movie maker, but I'm going to guess you could create your own files with it. They key is to get the loop to work exactly right. You have to edit the file in a way where the loop point isn't noticeable. There are a number of different ways to do this but most often it includes doing the following:

1. Choose a clip (usually about 30-60 seconds)
2. Grab the first 3 seconds of that clip, copy that three seconds, and paste it at the end
3. Crossfade the end of the original clip into the copied portion
4. Clip the beginning of the original file at the EXACT place where the duplicated file ends.

That should give you a seamless loop.

Good luck!

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mustardseedmedia.com

thanks for the reply. i

Submitted by the-irish-wake on September 29, 2007 - 2:50pm.

thanks for the reply.

i checked out mediashout, but our church doesn't have allot of funds, thats why I am trying to do things using the equipment that I have on my computer. Maybe one day we will have enough money for a good program.

Right now, I did what you said, I looped the video using windows media player, but now I just need to figure out how to put words on it....

any ideas on how to put the words on it.

Thanks,

Noah

Software

Submitted by Rob Feature on September 29, 2007 - 6:31pm.

Hey Noah...
That's where Mediashout comes in. The software is what combines the video in the background with your words in the foreground. Without a software that can do this, you're pretty much out of luck for worship presentation, I think.

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mustardseedmedia.com

Thanks Rob, Yeah I am

Submitted by the-irish-wake on September 30, 2007 - 1:08am.

Thanks Rob,

Yeah I am basically out of luck man, that software is pretty expensive. Thanks for the help.

Noah

Alternative to MediaShout

Submitted by jsimons on September 30, 2007 - 9:22pm.

Noah -

Why don't you check out Easislides. It is a freeware alternative to programs like MediaShout and EasyWorship. I use it at my church for lyrics. It is supposed to support video loops. However, I only use to show lyrics on a bland, blue background.

My church is too small to afford commercial software for this, so we are using what we can get for free.

John

Another free option....

Submitted by jkosborn4 on October 1, 2007 - 10:44am.

The other free option I've heard much chatter about is Open Song. That and Easislides are the ones I hear the most about.

To put other media on the screen, I've heard MScreenMonkey is very useful. In fact, I've heard that Easislides and ScreenMonkey together make a really good combination for media presentation on a budget.

bling bling

Submitted by Matt Farina on October 1, 2007 - 8:16am.

Noah,

I think you may have hit a second thing to work on at your church besides the tech. What about the giving people give and where it's used.

You said your church doesn't have a lot of money. I see two sides to this.

1) There are places that donate money and stuff to churches. Have you looked at any of them to help kick start your efforts?

2) What about getting people to donate more? Yeah, it may seem like a loosing cause. The average giver is somewhere around 3% and nowhere near tithing. We definitely hold on to our money tightly. But, that doesn't mean it's not worth putting some effort to. Even if it's a one time extra donation to get that piece of tech you need.

What I'm getting at is you don't need to be bound by your church budget. God certainly isn't. There are other ways.

Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mattfarina.com

windows movie maker

Submitted by Angela R (not verified) on November 9, 2007 - 10:13am.

Windows movie maker CAN be used for worship videos. I just started a few weeks ago - changing from powerpoint to worship videos. It is probably not as easy or versatile as MediaShout - I would love to have that too - but our congregation just doesn't have the resources. It is not a matter of faith or tithing, they literally struggle to put food on the table. Anyway - back to topic - it takes a long time to get the timing down, but you CAN add titles on the clips. Finding free clips to download or doing your own is another issue. Still shots can also be used with transitions. I use lots of nature, children, fotos from Central America and free stuff. We purchase a few worship videos in English, but there aren't many in Spanish available for download - even to purchase. We have a bilingual service and I am working on Spanish videos. Just open Windows Movie Maker - and experiement with adding titles.