Funoodles

While not strictly technology, Funoodles can do great things for you children's ministry program. Well maybe not great things either. We recently held our annual VBS production. This year we did Noah. Our is a four night program where the first hour is spent in class doing crafts, snack, learning etc. The second hour is watching a musical drama. This is where some real creative minds try to make the story real for the kids. I am usually part of the set crew for this. The best way I know of for doing the inside of Noah's ark is to use scaffolding. The problem is how to make scaffolding not look like scaffolding. Enter the funoodle. We used 50 funoodles to achieve a more authentic look. We got the kind with the hole in the middle and, using a razor knife, cut to the core of the funoodle. We then got some brown paint and slathered it on using a rubber glove. We didn't try for any kind of even coating. In the end its the unevenness that really makes this work. All that was left was to open the funoodles and place them around the piping of the scaffolding. They hold themselves on. What we didn't cover with funoodles was covered by brown duct tape. This really completed the look and gave our scaffolding a rustic, non-scaffolding look.

Somehow since I began doing VBS, I have used funoodles every year for something. One year I used them to build a small cartoonish fence. Another year used one split in half, along with a head band to be the 'plank in one's eye'. The best thing about funoodle is they are cheap. I like cheap.

Podcasting

Wikipedia definition of Podcast - A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers

Magazine Correlation
You can go to a newsstand and buy a magazine. This is similar to placing an audio file on your web site. Someone could go there and download it.

You can also subscribe to a magazine subscription. This will get a magazine delivered to your home each month after it is printed. A podcast is similar in that once you subscribe the content is automatically downloaded to your computer as it becomes available.

Does it require an iPod?
No. A podcast is typically an MP3 file that can be downloaded to your computer. It can be played on any MP3 player, burned to a CD for listening in the car or simply played right on your computer.

What is required?
1. A recording device
2. Software to edit and make an MP3
3. A place on the internet to put your file
4. A file describing the feed used for subscriptions

Recording Devices
Typically a recording device means you should get a simple microphone ($5-10) for your computer. You can go as cheap as you want. If you plan on making things more complicated, you can also go as expensive as you want. Some of our minister are doing a podcast using a simple digital voice recorder ($39 at Walmart) and it work just fine. If you are going to use your computer and a cheap mic, you will need software to make your recording. I suggest Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.com). It is free and fairly easy to use. Most podcasting help site will suggest it.

Editing and Encoding
If you need to edit your recording or you want to mix your recording with other recording you will need an audio editor. Again I suggest Audacity (did I mention it is free?). When you are done editing or recording, you can use Audacity to export your file as and MP3. This will reduce the file size by at least 10 times making it easier for users to download. To export as an MP3 file Audacity requires the LAME MP3 encoder be installed. There are instruction on the Audacity site. The LAME encoder is also FREE.

A Place on the Internet
Most Churches these day have a web site where you can host (place) your files. If not there are many site on the internet where you can do it for free.

Subscriptions
You can talk to the webmaster at your Church to see if they can support podcasting. If not you can use Blogger (http://www.blogspot.com) to do most of the subscription part.

A subscription file has many names; Feed, RSS Feed, XML file and others. This is just a text file that describes the content and location of your site. This can be automatically generated by some sites or can be hand coded. Blogger automatically codes it for you.

Once you have your feed, people can add your feed to their feed reader and their subscription will have begun.

As an extra I suggest once you have your feed you get a feedburner account (http://www.feedburner.com). They will make sure you feed is formatted for all of the various readers out there including iTunes (probably the most recognizable reader for most people).

Animation Factory

I am always on the look out for something cheap or free I can use for my videos. Finding stuff to engage children is difficult. Well I ran across Animation Factory. While it’s not free, there price is reasonable. They have various membership levels but I only see one worth the price for my needs. The platinum level is about $100 per year. What this buys you is unlimited access to all of their materials. The first day I signed up I download about 50 items.

What they offer includes:
• Animations (animated gifs)
• Email Stationary
• Media Elements
• Tiled Backgrounds
• Backdrops
• PowerPoint Templates
• Video Backgrounds

They offer various sizes of most items and still variations of some for posters etc. They offer MPEG, QuickTime MOV and Windows Media WMV video files. The WMV can be directly brought into Windows Movie Maker (see previous post) and other video editors.

Give them a look: http://www.animationfactory.com

Steady... Cam

After spending the last two weeks sifting through video, made by others, of kid’s camp, I have come one conclusion. Tripods are extremely important! When I made the camp video last year it was me shooting the footage. Nearly ever shot I made was by using a tripod. I am not the most steady of camera shooters to begin with so for me its a must. I make every effort to not make anyone watching the video feel sick from the motion.

Today I ran across a sight that seems to fit this blog... Cheap! The web site is steadycam.org. This guy came up with a device to keep cameras fro moving erratically. The basic parts are only $14. If your not only cheap but also lazy you can order a kit that this guy makes for $39.95 + S&H (S&H = $14 in the USA). It is pretty basic concept and not original to this guy. Usually these things cost a lot of money. It is basically a weighted device that you mount your camera on to, like a tripod. The weight hanging from the camera helps prevent and jerky moves on your part. Just take a look at his sample videos for what I am talking about.

I'm not above it (guilt)

Each year our Church sets aside money to provide scholarships for kids who want to go to camp but can't afford it. Each year it seems tougher to provide this assistance. Our member's have been generous enough to help out. I created what was intended to be a funny-sad video to bring the point home. I think it ended up being a little more sad then funny. At time it may just be sad enough to be funny again. Take a look and let me know what you think.

http://media.altamesa.org/iwannagotocamp.wmv

Cheap Video for Worship

Below are links to website that offer downloadable videos. The videos are mostly sermon illustrations. There area few that target children. They are low cost (usually under $20) and immediately available for download. I have used SermonSpice quit a bit for our Church. They also offer a free video each month. I almost always get the free video just in case.

If you have another source let me know.

http://www.kidology.org
http://www.sermonspice.com/
http://www.bluefishtv.com/
http://www.imagevine.com/index.htm
http://www.meatloafmedia.com/
http://video4worship.com/
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/

My Laptop

Last year, as our summer camp was approaching, my wife, the CM, informed me that I was going to be doing the video for our camp. I had done videos for her in the past using our home computer. The thought of carrying that thing to camp was not appealing. I figured this was the ideal time for me to get a laptop for home use.

I decided on a Toshiba Satellite. It has a 1.5 GHz processor, 1GB of Ram, 80GB hard drive. Now what I really need was a firewire port to connect a camera and a USB port to connect an external hard drive. The icing on the cake was an S-Video output. My Toshiba has all of this plus an SD card slot for my digital camera memory card.

I'll side step here to explain why I wanted to use an external hard drive. Most laptop hard drives work at approximately 4,500 or 5,400 RPM. From previous video work I've done, I found that having a drive running at 7,200 RPM has fewer, if any, frames dropped. This has to do with how fast the video can be moved to the hard drive. Most video people will suggest a second hard drive for capture of video.

I had no problem using the laptop to fully produce the 40 minute camp video. In fact I even used its DVD burner to make the 100+ DVDs. I don't recommend burning 100 copies of a DVD from your laptop. Find someone or some place with a duplicator and let them do it. I was budget strapped. It took about 20 minutes per copy.

Since making the video, I have used the laptop to make other videos. I also use it to show PowerPoint shows to the kids at Church. Remember I said it had a S-Video output? I actually use it to connect to TVs. I have used the laptop to record and mix audio for our annual VBS production.

I realize that laptops aren't really 'cheap'. A laptop is such a versatile piece of hardware, due to its portability, its worth considering. You can store all of you music there and play it on demand. The same goes for videos. At camp we used one to show PowerPoint of the song lyrics we sang. You really can do most things CM's do on their office computer, on a laptop. If you get the choice of one or the other, pick a laptop.