Lyrics over Camera Feeds?

[Karen39]

I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right forum or not, so please move it if I am not.

My question is this. I am wondering what your thoughts are on the lyrics to worship songs over live camera feeds of the choir, band and praise singers? Currently we are using Songshow Plus and we use graphics and sometimes we use moving backgrounds that match the song. Last Sunday, we tried using the lyrics over the live camera feeds. The camera guys and switcher guys were very good about using good shots during the praise and worship time. We had the cameras and equipment hooked up for our Christmas Production. Our sanctuary seats about 700. Currently in each service, we have 380-400 people. We have 2 services on Sunday mornings and one on Sunday night. I would especially like to hear from anybody in large churches.

Thanks!

Karen

Hi Karen,

We do this exact thing all the time. Well, let me clarify - we do this every week in our 608 (college/post-college) service. It is the main way that we present worship lyrics for that service. That service runs about 1000.

For our main services, 1-Sat night, 3-Sunday morning, we will do text over Imag for specials. The rest of the time we have lower or left/right thirds for worship lyrics. Those services run about 2000 each.

Dave

[Karen39]

Thanks for your reply, David.

When you show the worship lyrics in the lower third, does it have any graphics behind it? Is it hard to read or do you have to put fewer words on a slide so that people can read it?

Karen

Originally Posted by Karen39

Thanks for your reply, David.

When you show the worship lyrics in the lower third, does it have any graphics behind it? Is it hard to read or do you have to put fewer words on a slide so that people can read it?

Karen

Karen,
When we do this, it's only text (white with a slight shadow) over the Imag images. There usually is not a problem with readability unless the the shading is way overexposed. Also, we never put up more that 2 lines of text when in this mode, so the graphics operator is changing slides more frequently, but it keeps the image clean and uncluttered.

Dave

[Karen39]

When we did this last weekend, we used the white only over the ImAG, but what do you do when you use the split screen?

Karen

Hey Karen, I'll present a slightly different perspective.

I've seen it done multiple ways in multiple venues, both large and small. I REALLY like the idea of lyrics and live camera being seen at the same time. It looks nice, professional, and when done well is very conducive to live-worship.

Frankly, even though Willow Creek does it, I'm not a huge fan of simple white over full screen live video without any graphic background. Even in the best of times it can make the words difficult to see occasionally. That's my two cents.

My preference is to see some sort of Lower Third background graphic used behind the text (with either a soft or hard edge). If you still want to see more live video, then make the graphic transparent.

Either way, kudos on making this move!!!

Kev

[jorad]

We used to do lower-thirds lyrics, but that meant that all of our archived footage had lyrics on it and limited the usefulness for promo spots and such, plus we found that any mistakes made by the powerpoint operator were that much more visible, and were easier to make. We no longer do IMAG so having the words overlay was not necessary for us.

When we did have words however, we just used simple white text with a solid outline that was generated by the switcher (a Pansonic WJ-MX50 matte set to black, fill set to white, second setting on the edge button), and kept the lyrics to 2 or three lines of text.

On a simple down-stream keyer, it is important to use large non-serif fonts for the cleanest key. Also know that if you are using colour behind the text (from PPT or whatever) that a solid colour will give you the best results.

If you have the ability to use alpha channels, however, your imagination is your only limitation.

[Karen39]

Ok, this is going to sound really stupid . . .

Could somebody please post a photo of what "lower-thirds" looks like? I am sure I have seen it before, but I can't figure it out, etc. Thank you though for all your info.

We are currently using a Videonics mixer to do this with chroma key. There is a switcher they use for the cameras and they run the final feed through the mixer. Yes, I know this terribly degrades the quality, but it is all we can do right now.

Karen

Karen,

http://www.churchmedia.net/MXC/showp...cat=500&page=1

That's a link to an image I uploaded a while ago with a basic lower third.

I agree with Kevin, that white text can sometimes disappear when it's over live imag, so you do have to be careful, and pay close attention to your shots. Doing lower thirds is typically much easier all the way around, especially if you're trying to key with a Videonics. But, I do like it that we mix it up using both options as the need calls for it. Have fun figuring out what works best for you, in your situation!!!

Dave

When we IMAG during worship, we have an outline on our text. The video guys are sending us their footage (3-4 cameria shoot) from the Panasonic AG-MX70 from the production booth. We put that up and lumakey (our ScreenPro does not chromakey) our Mediashout lyrics over the video with a threshold of about 3-5. The font on Mediashout is a bold Arial (not Arial Black) that is white with a dark purple outline (purple so it's not keyed out with the rest of the black and it goes better with our room). The problem with this is when you have MediaShout set to fade. The fade isn't even as the white text fades before the purple outline does leaving a shadow for a fraction of a second. We use this font whether we have a Jumpback (or other motion background) or IMAGing.

[sempei13]

One thing you need is a switcher that can switch between cameras while keying lyrics over the video. I use a videonics and don't key lyrics over IMAG b/c I have to get rid of the key to cut between cams and then re-key.

Paul

[Karen39]

Since you use videonics, how would I do lower thirds with that? Right now, we use a switcher for the cameras and their final camera shot goes into the videonics mixer which I know how to do chromakey with. I can also do Picture in picture, but I am not sure how I would do lower thirds? Do you know?

Karen