The tech team at Christ?s Church of the Valley puts a lot of energy into pre-production. Their goal is to limit as many variables in the production process as possible to create a high impact, high intensity service. They approach their production from a ?less is more? standpoint. The simpler the whole process, the better it is.
This means they put the right people in the right positions. They have some fantastic volunteers and they pulled their very best in for this Easter weekend.
There was constant communication happening between the staff team and the volunteers. They?d talk it all out?the whole run-through. They planned everything and communicated it all?positions, logistics, loading in and loading out?
On the weekends, they always have a full rehearsal with everyone in position. Then they gather together in a room and run the whole service from top to bottom. Everyone meets together to talk blocking, every transition, whether or not stage hands need to move things, whether or not music pastors will talk at a certain point in the service? Everything. They include all the volunteers, production staff, and music staff.
Then they do the full tech run-through?start to finish?with the exception of the sermon. They practice every transition.
They do this each Saturday at every campus. But for Easter, it meant they did this on Friday before their first services.
Smooth Transitions
The CCV staff and tech team really value smooth transitions. And to give them more complete control over their transitions, they often underscore their own video content. At the very least, they score the end. This allows them to transition seamlessly between video content and live worship elements.
The music and video for their slam poet was no exception. They built the transition into the video using SMPTE time code. It allowed them to lock in all their digital elements to the exact same timing?including lighting hits and percussive elements. It?s a sure fire way to make sure those things are in sync.
They also use this technology any time they have a lyric video. They add an audio file that runs down one channel of their video that goes straight to their soundboard. That board then sends it to the stage and into the ears of the musicians.
There are a couple big things part of the CCV tech team?s culture that contributed to such smooth Easter services: communication and planning. They?re a production team?s best friend.
