How often do you change your backgorunds?

[tyler1012000]

Hi everybody,

I'm a frequent reader, but this is my first post. I've been working in media for a little over three years. By media, I solely mean the projection aspect of it. I don't deal in video or sound. I'll leave those areas alone.

Anyways, our church uses SSP and we use motion backgrounds for scriptues and lyrics and we only change them about once a year. Usually at the New Year's service and will use them for the entire year. We also will use new ones for special events (Easter, Christmas, 4th of July, etc.). So, I was curious how often everybody else changes theirs?

Do you go on a song by song or service by service basis, change every month or two, or do you find one and leave it?

Furthermore, what have been your experiences with how often you change it? Does it draw more attention, become too distracting and so forth? I've just been thinking about it and was curious what others experiences have been and wanted to get some input.

Thanks and have a great day.

[Esoteric]

All my clients change them every week for every song.

It really isn't distracting. Most people are milling about or talking to each other between songs anyway, and it you fade them instead of cutting them no one will even notice.

[[Director] Joseph B]

I change backgrounds week to week. Sometimes if I'm feeling frisky I'll change them for each song.

Matter of preference.

[[Admin] osborn4]

We use a different background for each song every week, but we try to tie them together by a basic theme or hue.

We use the basic fade between songs, so I've not had complaints about it being distracting and I've been doing it for about 10 years now.

[katanna]

We have:

- A "Welcome to Argyle UMC" screen when people come in which has been the same for two and a half years (a cross on a blue sky still).

- A weekly background that stays the same all morning long (all three services) but changes every week (is usually of the abstract colors type and is almost always a slow moving motion).

- During Sermon Series we will have a themed background (usually a still) that is used during the sermon time.

So on most Sundays people will see either 2 or 3 backgrounds (depending on if we are in a sermon series). A few times a year we will show a slideshow during the offertory or something out of the box like that.

But every church is different, we used to only use still backgrounds that were nature photos. It all depends on the culture of your church and how well the transitions are between songs.

Matthew

[Natepelzel]

We switch it every song. We usually try to match the mood of the background with the mood of the song. We use a cross dissolve between backgrounds so its not distracting. I usually have a series theme that is a still that stays up while the pastor preaches, and when he references a verse, I have a still background that goes with the series theme and I use it for all the scriptures.

Nate

[KeckCreative]

We changes background with each song with the background complementing the mood of the song. However, once a background is assigned for a particular song, it usually continues to stay assigned. We also change a background if two songs come up in service rotation that have previously been assigned the same background. Also for special or holiday services we tend to stick with same background or variation of background in the same style family.

For things like scripture text or litergy text that has congregational response, I try to change them up to fit the seasons. Again special or holiday services get tied into same style like songs.

[Josh Scott]

We have a volunteer design team that makes backgrounds or finds them every week. Sometimes they change every song sometimes they don't

[Gene]

Each song is different, and at my past liturgical church, the slides for the liturgy parts of the service changed depending on the season. (see my different series in the MXC). If for a given service I found that I'd already assigned the same background to two different songs, I'd change one or the other.

[tyler1012000]

Thanks everybody! You've been extremely helpful. It seems like the majority of people change theirs on a pretty normal and frequent basis. I'm going to run the idea by the director and see what she thinks. Thanks a lot.

[dpbrucks]

I change ours every week for every song. The worship leaders works with the pastor and matches the songs to his topic/theme/scripture. I then match backgrounds (stills for prayer and slower songs and motion for first and last song).

I try to keep the same font all the way through the service, same color scheme.
Pretty much like most others here.

When I first started doing this full time and became team leader, my pastor and I attended a worship/design workshop put on by Midnight Oil. It was extremely beneficial for our team and myself. Try one out if you get a chance.
Dors

[tyler1012000]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. As I've been looking into using multiple backgrounds I haven't been able to figure out how to transition a fading background between songs while using the "clear display toggle" option in SongShow. It works if you don't clear the words between songs, but if you do it doesn't fade into the new background. Any suggestions on this? Thanks so much.