A few years ago we came to terms with a painful truth. Students don’t listen to us when we talk to them from the stage. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure they nominally pay attention to the teachings but they never listen to announcements. Every time we take the stage and invite students to sign up for a retreat or to tell them about an event that will drastically change their lives they stare at us blankly and remember nothing. Meanwhile, the energy in the room plummets. By the time we start our worship set the girls are texting and the guys are asleep.
One thing we noticed about our culture is that people always pay attention to screens. Call it being addicted to technology or visually stimulated or whatever you want but a compelling image or a well done commercial captures us. If you don’t know what I’m talking about schedule your next team meeting at Buffalo Wild Wings and see how much you accomplish.
So, based on our observations about the power of screens we started shooting video announcements. In the beginning it was just me sitting in a chair talking and it has evolved into rap videos and other ridiculousness. I know we aren’t breaking new ground here and plenty of other ministries use video announcements but ours are way better than theirs.
OK, not really but we have been amazed at how video announcements have contributed to our student ministry community and culture. Adding some ridiculous characters and YouTube spoofs has amped up the fun level.
If you’re interested in getting in the video announcement game, here are a few suggestions.
1. Invest in Good Gear
Filming can be as inexpensive and simple as pulling out your iPhone and hitting record but we all know that isn’t going to yield a visually pleasing end product (not to mention the audio). Here’s the thing. Your students and volunteers all watch TV in HD and probably movies on Blu-Ray. A good set of gear and trained people will help get you comparable quality. People appreciate well made videos.
In the film world, you get what you pay for. A video shot on a two thousand dollar camera and a fifteen hundred dollar lens will look better than a seven hundred dollar camera on a standard kit lens. And the same goes for audio and microphones. It can be daunting at first with all the choices, but that’s where people with experience come in. Chat it up with someone you know who does film, tell them what you plan to do and ask what lens will be best for you, what tri-pod they’d recommend, which lens best fits your needs, etc.
2. Find and Film Expressive People
There is a reason that not everyone is an actor. This doesn’t mean that your videos require professional actors but it does mean you need expressive people. Maybe this is you, maybe it isn’t. This could also be a great opportunity to pull in students and volunteers. Trust me when I say that the wrong people on video are worse than the wrong people on stage.
3. Act like a Clown
Sometimes the announcement needs to come from you—even if you’re not expressive. We’ve discovered that acting normally while filming will make you appear like you just woke up from a nap. You have to amp up your energy. Focus on making your face more expressive. Talk with your hands and act like you’re overly excited. I know this sounds ridiculous but trust me.
4. Keep it Short
Our biggest mistake in creating announcement videos has been length. Anything over 5 minutes is WAY too long. We aim for 4 minutes or shorter if there is some sort of storyline or 2 or 3 minutes if it is a simple announcement. Never overestimate the attention span of your students. Squirrel!
5. Delegate the Filming and Editing
If you’re like me, editing software might as well be in Chinese. I’m helpless. No problem. There are a bazillion people out there who love to film, edit and produce videos. They’ll probably also complete projects 40x faster than you could. Take advantage of people who want to serve.
6. Grant Creative Freedom
Over the last 4 years, video characters and ongoing storylines have dramatically increased the fun in our student ministry. Especially in middle school, a few reoccurring characters can be brilliant. My advice, find some funny people and turn them loose to create ideas and videos. If you have someone who can do voices, plug them in! You can score costumes for basically nothing by spending an afternoon perusing local thrift shops. Amp up the fun in your student ministry by getting ridiculous with announcement videos.
7. Steal Ideas
We’re all on the same team right? Our early video ideas were all stolen—usually from Saddleback. Sorry! Sometimes we still steal great ideas because, well they are great ideas. Here’s our Vimeo page. Feel free to steal our ideas or at least laugh at how bad our early videos were.
photo credited to SPDP
