Making Great Media With No Money (Part 2)

April 20, 2010

Think long term

Having great media can get expensive if you have to always hire someone to accomplish it. If you could put the money together I'm sure you could hire some tech whiz who could get you exactly what you wanted, but the media field is no different from any other field...the best ones are the most expensive ones. Instead what if you could think long term, and begin training someone in your church right now that could give you great media in 2-4 years. I know for me personally the learning curve is exponentially quicker now than ever before. Once I started learning video editing, learning Adobe Flash seemed easier, and once I started Adobe Flash, learning Adobe Photoshop seemed easier, and once I started learning Adobe Photoshop, learning HTML seemed easier. My point is this, the most cost effective way for you to have the right people making great media for you is to raise them up and train them from within. You may have to take some lumps, and endure some bad media for a little bit, but for most people loyalty is earned by being patient and investing in someone.

 

I'm sure that there is some teenager in your church that is already interested in learning how to create media, why not pay for them to get some training, or by them some equipment to work with (nothing to excessive)? Give them some ideas and let them run with it. I had a few pastors, youth pastors and friends who did this with me, and I would do any project for those people now. There's nothing as valuable as on the job training.

Making Great Media With No Money (Part 1)

April 19, 2010

I'm excited to get a chance this week to teach a session at the Engage Conference in Atlanta GA. My session is called "Making great media with no money." I'm teaching the class with Aaron Beaver from elwoodmedia, and I'm excited for us to get to share some of our secrets that we've learned over the last few years making media in local churches. Over the years Aaron and I have made websites, print pieces, and lots of videos on thin budgets. As a matter of fact I don't know that we have ever had a big budget for any of our projects, but somehow with God's help and a lot of sweat we always seem to produce a quality piece that conveys the message. As I look back over the years a few things stood out to me that I will be sharing on Friday, but I thought I would go ahead and share a few of them here over the next few days...

 

Equipment came later

So many people are waiting on great equipment in order to make great media. It's true that nice equipment can really spruce up a project, but almost every time (unless you've got some serious funding) you are going to learn how to make great media with crappy equipment. Especially if you are the employer and not the employee. Many times the employer doesn't want to invest in the equipment until they see some good work to convince them it's good investment. I can remember many late nights when Aaron and I were in Atlanta on an old Sony Viao with an old Sony Handycam trying to learn how to edit together an "MTV Cribs" knockoff for our youth ministry.  I actually remember one camera that Aaron had that was taped together. Those were good times, and even though looking back now those videos were not that great, for our youth group they got the job done, and we had fun doing them. I'm convinced if you can get good at your craft with bad equipment, when you finally get some great equipment you will be better equipped to use it.

3 Ways I use my iPhone other than as a phone

April 17, 2010

 

It's not a shock to anyone that the iPhone can be used in a variety of different ways. With over 100,000 apps in the app store you can find an app for just about anything that you want. It really is true "There's an app for that!" That being said, outside of some of the normal uses for the iphone, I've started using my iphone in 3 ways that I would have never dreamed of even 2 years ago.

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