Christmas program Video ideas

[tekjojo]

Hey friends. I've not posted in a while... I still find myself "lurking" quite a bit, for a couple of reasons-- (1) not a lot of time to contribute; (2) not a lot of content to actually contribute to ongoing discussions. I really enjoy this community though and think it is a fantastic way to share ideas or to be inspired in new and different ways about how we can reach people for Christ through media.

I need some help--Christmas season is coming up fast! Our church does a yearly Christmas program, we call "Jingle Jazz". It's a night (well actually, three consecutive nights) of mostly jazz music and performances among a common theme. Last year, our theme was "music through the ages" where we did all sorts of different styles from 50s all the way through modern day (hip/hop, rock, etc.)--actually, if you want to see something fun--I came on stage last year and did a rap song as "MC Joe", kind of fun--

CMN Player - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAXywdh0bQ

Anyway, our theme this year is "Christmas through a child's eyes". I'm wanting to go ahead and try to come up with some interesting videobacks, bumps, and overall themes and ideas from a media perspective to add to the program. Anyone have any interesting ideas pop in their head or things they have done in the past? One thing we are going to try to do is decorate the inside perimeter of our worship center to look like the inside of a ginger-bread house, which I will be hooking up to the house lighting system to dim and control.

Please share thoughts or ideas... thanks! Appreciate you guys!

Joe

[kbob]

a couple of them...which I'm trying to get video of from an old but no longer member of our church.

tap dancing reindeer singing (or just dancing to a recording of) a Christmas melody-but be sure to include Jingle Bells at the close, and have the deers wear bells...it went over GREAT

The Tale of the Three Wise Guys-

A mish mash of the Tale of the Three Kings (yes, I know about the number....just work with me here!) and a kung foo movie

We called it "The Three Wise Guys".

Talking like Mob Bosses, but with kung fu fighting included, and all the pre-recorded dialog spoken out of sync with the very overly dramatic acting of the live actors. In our version of the story, the 3 kings have to fight their way out of the corrupt king's palace in order to visit the King of all Kings at his stable...

we interrupt it right at the end as they admire the Baby...with a true telling of the real reason for the season.

everyone had fun, and a great altar call was had by all...

[Sysmom]

Some thoughts...

Everything looks a whole bunch bigger than it does to us adults, because it is through a child's eyes - who could be half our size. (Picture an Edith Ann set)

Or go miniature, where everything is child-sized.

What about a video montage of scenes through THE child's eyes? Mary leaning over his manger, Joseph's hand, the sounds of the stable, the sights of angels, the star, the choruses of angels; the visitors, etc.

The simple faith of a child is evident in the art that they draw to explain the Christmas Story. Make some of that awe and wonder happen. Get some help from your Sunday School Teachers and interview the kids for their concepts. Or get them to draw it. In color.

We used one of the Nativity drawings of one of our 4th graders for our sermon backdrop for a Christmas message a few years ago. She was not a talented or gifted child in art, it was a child's drawing, period. You wouldn't have mistaken it for anything else. And it was perfect!

If I'd had the time that year, I would have done something for every Christmas message based on the drawings I rec'd from them.

deb

[Sysmom]

Don't forget to "Gingerbread" your bulletin for those Sundays, too.

[tekjojo]

Good suggestions so far! The idea about the childrens' drawing is great--I'm already planning on making some animations in After Effects to that aspect--animated reindeer, etc. that looks as if a child drew them...

BTW our program isn't a "Sunday morning" deal--we'll have it Dec. 13-15 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) and it's sort of a mingle time, small snacks served, people fellowshipping at tables, and we sell tickets. So it's really performance-based.

Any other ideas?

Joe

[Sysmom]

We started a tradition last year on the Sunday before Christmas, which we'll be doing again this year...only a little bigger; this time we're going to invite the entire neighboring zip code!

Santa comes to teach. (He's a professional Santa, he happens to be a member of our congregation, so we get Pastor AND Santa on the same stage that day, but your Pastor could dress up like Santa, just remember to reserve that costume WELL in advance.)

Santa and Mrs. Claus enter with a grand entrance, completely dressed up. (all the kids and youth are together with the adults for this service).

Pastor and Santa share a few words. Last year, Santa had presents for the Pastor, and presents for the church.

Santa then teaches about the meaning of the things we think of as "Christmassy" and their roots in the symbolism of Christ. It's a variation of the Teach The Children message which has been floating around for some time.

I have a complete set of visuals made to go with his message, each of the symbols of Christmas are represented within a round glass ornament bulb. As he finishes the explanation of it, the ornament moves from the foreground, and is hung on the tre to the side and back a bit.

It all ends with a kneeling Santa at the manger.

I think Santa did the altar call himself last year.

Then afterwards, we enjoy refreshments in the courtyard (or corridors if it's crummy weather) and everyone has a chance to get their picture taken with Santa in front of the HUGE Christmas tree in the Sanctuary. They're printed on the spot (I believe they just bought an extra 2 photo printers for this year, the printing was a huge bottleneck). I've no idea if the photos were uploaded anywhere so that people could order reprints or what. Hmmm, not a bad idea to check into. Sanctuary is wi-fi already.

So, yeah, we put Santa smack dab in the middle of the holy meaning of Christmas, and we celebrate it! The kids were in awe of it. Lots of the adults were, too.

I think that set of graphics took me 18 hours to make. But I just knew I had to do them. Knowing what I know now, I think they'd be much better in video. Probably would have been easier. Hmmm, maybe I'll do that this year. What's another 18 hours for a good cause?!

Anyway ... there ya go. My next idea is Santa. It doesn't get much more kid-like at Christmas time than Santa, and Pastor feels we redeemed Santa's secular-ness, enough to do it over again.

deb

[tekjojo]

Originally Posted by Sysmom

just remember to reserve that costume WELL in advance.)

Well I DO already have a Santa outfit... I wore it to our church staff Christmas outing last year and convinced half the staff I got the outfit because I used to be a "mall Santa". I actually just found it super-cheap at a costume store.

Cool stuff so far! I like the idea about Santa coming and sharing a message. We won't be doing anything like that--but I still like the idea.

Any other cool interesting video ideas? Things that could be playing on the screen that are kind of abstract but "christmas-ish" from a child's point of view? I don't think the goal is to cater to children--but rather to remind adults of their youth and what it was like for them as children--so lots of nostalgic stuff.

Joe

[Lucas]

I've been playing in AfterFX so I'll have a fiddle and see what pops up for you if you want

[tekjojo]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I've been playing in AfterFX so I'll have a fiddle and see what pops up for you if you want

Great!

Joe

[tekjojo]

Well just an update on this post--our Christmas program was this past weekend and everything went great. We had three nights of the production and sold out every seat (about 1500 people total). I made a lot of original animations and Christmas videobacks for it, and we also filmed some short video spots for transitions, etc. It was a great time, I got to try out a lot of creative ideas. I think we are going to try to produce an official CD and DVD set (we recorded the entire jazz performance on our ADAT and recorded all the camera images to tape). Just finding the time to work on it is the key... thanks to everyone for helping share ideas.

Joe

[Gene]

Originally Posted by tekjojo

Well just an update on this post--our Christmas program was this past weekend and everything went great. We had three nights of the production and sold out every seat (about 1500 people total). I made a lot of original animations and Christmas videobacks for it, and we also filmed some short video spots for transitions, etc. It was a great time, I got to try out a lot of creative ideas.

Glad to hear it went well. If you can share any of those animations and videobacks, be sure to upload them to the MXC for others to use

[tekjojo]

I am hoping to--not sure if I will be able to get anything posted before this Christmas though. I can share almost all of them since they contain content that I created myself--but there is one or two that I used purchased footage from.

Probably the "coolest" among our congregation that I made--I bought that "Christmas Memories" DVD (http://www.christmasmemories-themovie.com/) and picked out clips I thought were the best, edited them all together, removed the sound, and added my own text tags/animation over the top to make a looping videoback to play during a song. Most of the people liked this one the best of all the videobacks because it reminded them of their childhood Christmas experiences... and fit perfectly along the theme of reminding peopel of the magic of Christmas they experienced as a child... so I probably can't share this one since I used footage from a DVD that is currently for-sale but the rest are all mine...