Pete Bishop

Gerry

This is Gerry. For the last year he has been interning for me, learning the art of audio production and how to work in a recording studio. 2nd semester he recorded a demo project for these guys. It came out well.  Gerry has natural skills in audio and could do well pursuing a career if he chooses to. He has been a blast to hang out with because everything is exciting to him, he's not afraid to try anything and he is brutally honest. If it sucks he tells you and if its great he says so to. Thanks G, for a great year.

Sweetwater Gear Fest

Last Saturday I took a bunch of our Audio Guys to Sweetwaters Gear Fest. It was really cool time. Back in the day the studio I used to be a partner in was  one of Chuck Surracks first clients, so I got the opportunity to know him and some of his staff really well. This was back when Sweetwater was in Chucks living room. It was sweet to see what they have built.

Got to see and say hi to Chet Chambers, Sweetwaters in house production guru. I got to work on a couple projects with him back in the 90's. Chet is the man if your looking for a producer.

Ran into church consultant and good buddy Anthony Coppedge. (that was a treat!).

My Salesman Dave Hess is always the gracious host!  

Free 2 Play

What a whirl wind-world tour week for the video crew. Yesterday was Free 2 Play. An initiave to change the way kids look at themselves, their athleticism and the way they give back to others. 1200 plus local school kids gathered at Adrian College's football field to to demonstrate what they have learned about their bodies and physical function and to learn how to give back. It was really cool. Our video crew  was asked to come and be one of the crew's to capture the day. There was 3 local crews their. All kinds of crazy stuff happened.

• Kyle took his first plane ride
• Jay got to fly the plane
• We all got to shoot in HD (1080i) on JVC cameras
• We shot 5 hours of footage and well over 500 stills

The footage will be used for local and national marketing of Free 2 Play.

The best part of the day was at the end when a man who runs an organization that frees kids in Thailand from sexual slavery came in and told the kids how the money they had raised had freed a little girl yesterday from slavery and because of that she was free 2 play like they were.
ABC news just picked up the Free 2 Play story.

Chi Town

So The Final Cut Tour was cool. The best part. It was FREE! ( outside of  time, gas and parking). We learned a lot. I feel like Jay and I are pretty knowledgeable when it comes to FCP,( and Scott and Zach are no slouches) and we spent 5 hours looking at work flows that the pros (in the film studio world) use going... " We need to be doing that"...." I didn't know you could do that." If you get a chance go. Now I need to figure out how and when we can incorporate the new Final Cut Server. It looks very interesting in terms of what it does with asset management and work flow. Especially with so many off site editors and producers.

Final Cut World Tour

Off to the windy city today with Jay, Scott Champion and Zach G to attend the Final Cut World Tour. Should be fun for all.

The Waiting Line

This is Jay.  I met him a couple years ago when he got involved on the production team here at Crossroads.(If it's video and at Crossroads, Jay probably did it or had something to do with it).... He has since become one of my closest friends.This past year Jay decided to follow the dreams God put in him and left his full time job and went back to school to learn the art of film and video production. Last month he released his first short film The Waiting Line. Its good..... Really Good......Not good for a church guy good..... REALLY GOOD! Jay won an award for it and got a big chunk of change to spend all summer producing another short. Jay Rocks. The Waiting Line is  also being used as an opener for a big time movie release this summer. Jay has already worked on a NOOMA film and has been to both Vancouver and LA to hang out at various movie type places (he won't brag on himself so I will)  As soon as Jay lets me, I'll post it or point to his short. Oh yea, I got to do part of the soundtrack, which was both an honor and very cool experience.

Standing On Your Leaders

This is Annette. She leads our stage design team. Her Husband Matt is our head lighting designer. They Rock. It's been really sweet watching their artistry grow  and their team gel over the last few years as they navigate the realities of portable church production.They always do a great job but since Christmas of this past year , Annette's team, along with Matt have been knocking it out of the park. We have a couple interesting limitations at Crossroads in the time we are in right now that make stage design interesting.

• Due to the economy right now our budget dollars are limited ( as our everyones) which translates to if you can do it for free do it.
• We have very little time to setup. (Saturday nights we get anywhere from 3-6 hours)
• Everything has to be portable.
• We have no real storage to speak of.

The cool thing is no one ever complains. They just figure out how to create an atmosphere and they go for it. It takes Annette's team apx 30 hours on design and build/production weeks to pull off a stage and about half that on maintenance week.

For this series they used a combination of gobo breakups/projections and small trees with hand drawn generational signs.

Next time you se Annette, someone on her team or Matt say thanks. 

Dream it, do it, Don't Ever Give Up

Praise and Worship hype guy Will Love graduated last night. It was very cool to watch him celebrate the completion of a great goal he had set for his life.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7 (NIV)

White Board

So the White Board Sessions were cool. There were a couple things I'd change (there always is) but I think they hit it out of the park, in terms of speakers and content. I pretty much got a whoopin by God. In a good way but I got to get some things in terms of priority straightened around in my life.  Got to meet and put hands to hands with a lot of people. Ben Arment ( the man behind the curtain)  was very cool, (what a great heart and humbleness he has!). Got to meet the Ragamuffin Soul, Carlos and got to have a very cool time talking life and church at lunch with Transition Pete, and about 50 other bloggers. And it was at Uno's, my fave! It was a really great experience.

Session 8_Ed Stetzer

• If things are certain we don't need doubt
• go through doubt to faith
• ministry pornography is an unrealistic expectation of something that will never happen
• Dont be afraid to say I don't get it
• Dont' be afraid to doubt
• God is not a celestial bubble gum machine
• Its ok to ask questions. to say I don't understand
• God is not in heaven hoping you'll have your best life. He does want you to have peace
• Jesus is enough in the midst of doubt