Gurus of Tech 2012 (Live Directing: An Inside Look)

[tdangelo]

Some people have expressed interest in hearing the source interviews from a break-out session I hosted at Gurus of Tech 2012 Chicago called "Live Directing: An Inside Look." They are now posted on Willow's Creek's Production website at http://www.willowproduction.org/

Like Gurus, this material is free.

Interviewed are Gregg Gelfand (live TV Director for American Idol); Jon Small (Director and Producer for Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts and more); Ron de Moreas (live TV director for the opening and closing Olympic Ceremonies, Celebrity Apprentice Finale, Miss USA Pageant, Disney Parade and more) and Jon Swearnigen (Director and producer for Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen Ministries). Enjoy!

[waynehoskins]

Great interviews, well worth the few hours to listen to them all. Interesting to see where they all agreed with each other and where they differed. I don't know if it's going to be available or not, but I'd be fascinated to hear or see the breakout.

I may have to point my pastor to the interviews, particularly your intro. Maybe that will change his mind on the arts, production, and the like and actually let us get somewhere. We need the value and then some planning, at this point any amount of planning will do. We have some excellent analog gear, early-'90s vintage, that will let us make excellent video, but for the past year or two I've been limited to a handheld on a wide lockdown shot, and they're perfectly happy, don't see that it's terrible video, and think it's good enough. I'd all but given up on progress, but perhaps in a few months I'll have good news to report.

[tdangelo]

Hi Wayne (my friend),

Thank you for the kind words.

I recorded almost four hours of material with the directors with the intention of cutting it all down into short sound bites and forcing it all to fit into a single one hour break-out. As such, the break-out presentation was extremely truncated, add into the fact I suffer from anxiety, I am a poor public speaker and just before the break-out began I received a call that my father-in-law (who lives with us) was being taken to the hospital (they found cancer on his lung and brain), add in a few PowerPoint hick-ups (yes, I should have been running ProPresenter) and I can tell you that it was not my shining moment. You probably don’t want to hear the original. Beside, I offered to give Willow Creek a $200 dollar donation if they burned the tape. They’re holding out for more … I think I’ll cough it up.

As a result, some attendees asked if they could get the unedited interviews which I was happy to say “yes” to.

Over the course of the last four weeks I have been re-recording all my dialogue from the interviews (which I had edited out and deleted previously as I thought all I would need were the one hour of sound bites of the directors). That is why my reverberance and EQ changes from time to time as my voice has been re-recorded in four different hotel rooms, my office in Manhattan, a store room in my office basement and my bedroom at home, whenever I thought I had a minute available and some privacy. I thought of using my car but Manhattan is not the best place for quite streets. We have sound-booths at my day-job but I was trying not to use those resources for personal work.

I very much want to re-record the “Intro and Don Hewitt” episode all in one shot to get rid of my mic inconsistencies. Who knows, I may do that if time allows.

I too find it very interesting how much the directors agreed on, as none were aware of what another said. In fact, I didn’t tell them even who the other directors were. It really goes to show that their comments really are “best practices.” And where they disagreed, I found that interesting as well.

My heart was very much exposed in the recording of the Intro. A day does not go by that I do not think about that church and the comments made to me by leadership. I love the Church and those that seek to use technology in the Church to advance the Kingdom. I hope that those people who listen to these interviews are encouraged. If you think it helps with your pastor or anyone else regarding their perspective on the place of arts (or tech arts) in the church feel free to share it with them. If it helps them may it be to the glory of God.

[tdangelo]

Gurus 2012‬ Live TV Director audio interviews now revised, re-edited, re-posted & iOS compatible at http://bit.ly/MckFrK