Willow Production uses a software program called Tracmor for tracking all of our production gear across our entire campus.
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In the past all audio recordings for classrooms and events outside of the Main Auditorium and Lakeside were recorded into ProTools, with a staff member setting up the ProTools sessions and manually patching the different rooms into ProTools. At the end of March of 2012, that staff member retired and so the challenge was, “can we still record the classrooms without needing a staff member?” The solution needed to be automated enough so that the only part that required a human or staff member to be involved, was the final editing. The solution needed to be automated, somehow transfer the files to our network so that the editors could retrieve the file, and cost effective. Also, we needed to get 24-30 signals from around our campus to one central location where the recording solution would be. The first problem seemed easy. A Marantz PMD580 seemed to be the perfect solution. It
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Starting in 2010, the Leadership Summit has been recorded in HD with a full HD Production truck. However, the actual satellite broadcast has still been done in Standard Definition, mainly due to the fact that all of the satellite sites would need to have upgraded hardware & infrastructure to handle an HD satellite signal. We hope to be able to go to a full HD signal path in the next year or two. Regarding, which cameras we've been using for the Leadership Summit. Three years ago, it was all Sony HDC-1500U cameras, but the past two years, we've used mostly Hitachi Z-HD5000 & a couple of Z-HD1000 cameras. These are part of the TNDV Aspiration Production truck that we've brought in to do the show.
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The challenge for many churches is creating a scenic design without ruining the existing prefinished hard wood or carpeted stage floors. Planning a project such as a concert or a special event but your existing floor limits what you can do? A project that requires painting the floor artistically and for it to hold up to abuse from scenery wagons, heavy equipment or used as attachment points for scenic elements. The challenge for many churches is creating a scenic design without ruining the existing pre finished hard wood or carpeted stage floors. Options can be stressful to consider but there are some simple solutions toward solving this challenge by creating a temporary floor. For a floor that does not require much durability, canvass or vinyl could be an option. Light weight and portable it can be rolled out and held in place by gaff tape. Some benefits such as, protecting
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It is an extremely large undertaking and responsibility toward making the right decisions in creating an incredible Christ transformational, life changing moment for anyone who attends weekend services, outreaches and events. This requires an enormous amount of coordination from our production and programing departments with lots of orchestrating behind the scenes toward preparation and planning. Supporting the message the primary focus, there is prayer, research, decisions on music, calendar scheduling, meetings, organizing, lighting design, stage layouts, scenic design, engineering, purchasing materials and construction all have to be discussed and coordinated. This can all be extremely nerve-wracking, feeling trapped in circumstances beyond our control. As with any compelling story that sparks our interest, it is how the individual faces challenges and ultimately succeeds that keeps us coming back for more. The adventure of complexity, simplicity and originality, is overwhelming defeat for some and for others, a self-satisfying adventure that screams “I
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Discuss concept to design. From Design to construction.Willow Creek Church Christmas Scenic 2011 by Glenn Davis
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What specific DMX splitter does Willow use or recommend for splitting DMX in a lighting rig? The link below is for the industry standard of Opto-Splitter. And when I say industry-standard, I mean every rental house in America has them. Well worth the money. http://www.dfd.com/123.html
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We often get questions about our flip charts here at Willow. Check out this video to get a behind the scenes look at how our Scenic Designer, Glenn Davis, crafts these portable teaching tools.
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I've run into a lot of Tech guys from churches who are now live capturing their service video feed directly into Final Cut rather than recording to videotape or DVD. This is exactly how we do it here at Willow Creek. There is one problem though, Final Cut does not support an external LTC time code signal during Live capture mode. It only can receive time code over the 9 pin RS422 cable, typically this would come from a video deck, like when digitizing video from a tape. After searching the internet, I ran across the following article that tackles this FCP problem and reveals a great product solution. We've purchased this product & it works great for getting our house time code into FCP. I highly recommend it. Here's the link to the article & product page. Article link: http://www.adrielec.com/docs/AEC%20and%20Final%20Cut%20Pro%20Server.pdf Product link: http://www.adrielec.com/aec-ubox.htm
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Each year at Christmas we create a memorable out reach that draws approximately 70,000 individuals from our surrounding communities. Needless to say, it’s an extremely large undertaking and responsibility on making decisions toward the scenic support. The month of September is noted for one thing with production and programming staff at Willow, final decisions need to be made toward the Christmas project, so all departments have enough time to develop the Christmas experience. Of course, even after the final decisions the revisions are ongoing. There are changes coming down the line as late as a few days before the event. This year, the go button, was pushed at the end of October, which made the scenic construction four weeks late. There was no room for mistakes; no time in the schedule to redo, all of us have to do our homework, to make the design and construction with precision. An
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Willow's Christmas service for 2010 incorporated 2 different projections surfaces into the set design.
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