Making A Connection
CONNECTION – a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something or someone else.
For an event at Christ Community Church with Olympic runner Lopez Lomong. My team and I created this interactive video (above) as the lead up to the interview with Lopez.
The goal for this creative piece was to get people to have fun and to reflect, but also to help them see that they share a connection with those around them. By having them hold up the light on their phones in a pitch black auditorium, not only created an interesting sensory experience (coupled with shouts and laughter at certain points), but also a connective one, as they were able see that others shared the same interests and struggles as them. Before you continue reading, take a few minutes to watch the video above – in the bottom right corner of the video, you can see the audience respond. It was an amazingly powerful moment.
THE CONCEPT
One part of the creative process is the reality that sometimes we come up with one idea for one project only to realize that said idea would work better for a different project. Have you ever had that happen to you? I call this redirecting an idea. For instance, in a pervious brainstorm meeting for one event, one of my co-workers told me about a fun idea he had to get kids involved – we would ask them questions and make them hold up glow sticks to answer. Simple, but fun.
Everything was on track to move that idea into pre-production, until I sat in on another brainstorm meeting the following week for the Lopez Lomong event. After doing some research on his story and taking into consideration that up to this point we didn’t have an element for that event that would create a connection point for people, I started to connect parts of Lopez’s story with both fun and serious realities that exist in many people’s lives.
Therefore, I suggested we take the interactive questions, kid friendly, glow stick idea from one event, and bring it into the Lopez Lomong event (we call them Inspiring Stories Weekends). I proposed we start out light hearted and fun so that people could get the hang of responding with their phones and comfortable with the idea, then transition into more serious questions that concerned the struggles that they were facing. All with the thought in mind that these questions were meant to help people see the connection that they had with Lopez’s story and with those around them. The team agreed that the element would have more of an impact for the Lopez event, so we were full steam ahead.
THE CREATION
The creation started with our creative writer, Nathan Clancy, taking my idea of starting the video fun and lighthearted, then transitioning to more serious and reflective questions. He did a great job on the first draft of question, then it was time for us to sit down and refine, combine, and cut for the sake of clarity and time.
At the same time, our video specialist, Lucas Mroz, was working hard on a few different looks for the video (how the text would look and move on the screen). Once we edited the questions, Lucas worked on laying them in and animating them. When he had everything in, he presented the rough cut. At that point, we made more edits to the content to improve the flow of the questions.
Once we had the questions flowing the way we wanted them, I worked with Lucas on how I envisioned the video starting. Taking into consideration the text treatment that he used and the fact that he rounded the text a bit to make it look like a rounded computer screen, I wanted the video to start with a look that resembled an old computer monitor turning on. After working on the look for about 15 minutes, I had Lucas find an effect that resembled the sound of a monitor turning on. After a few tests, we were well satisfied with the finished product.
Then there’s the track. Nathan did a great job finding the music for the video and Lucas did a great job editing the track to go along with the flow of the video. Team work makes the dream work.
THE CONVEYANCE
Yes, I just started my third point with another C… sometimes it pays to take the cheesy route of alliteration… in other words, conveyance means: This is how we presented or carried it out for the event.
For this particular element, we started by bringing the house lights to full dark in the auditorium in order to get people’s attention. As the room quickly fell silent, we started the video with the effect of the screen turning on, which I believe added an “oh neat” element to the video right from the beginning.
As you can see in the video, people responded well instantly. The room was filled with shouting, laughter, silent reflection, and tears. The congregation’s feedback on the video after posting it to the church’s Facebook page was so positive. Many commenting that it was one of their favorite creative moments at Christ Community Church. It is one of mine as well.
Isn’t it amazing how something simple in concept and execution can have such a profound and lasting impact on those that experience and connect with it. Connection is key. Are you working hard to add connective elements to your services, events, and videos?
