This Easter our video team created a next level short film called “The Axeman” (if you haven’t seen it yet, make sure to check it out here). This project had many different moving parts involved as well as a relatively short time line, which is usually how we roll here at FC. We decided this project would be a perfect time to let you all in on some of the behind the scenes things that go on during a major video shoot like “The Axeman”.  Fellowship Creative sat down with one of our video editors and the main brain behind this short film to get a few questions answered about what it takes to create an incredible short film like “The Axeman”.

And, make sure to keep checking back for a behind-the-scenes video on the making of “The Axeman”!

Why did you decide to do a video about a tree to portray the gospel message rather than a more literal crucifixion type video?

We have used footage from the “Passion of the Christ” for at least one element in almost every Easter experience every year since the release of the film.  When you overuse footage like that, it becomes too familiar loses its impact.  This year, we were challenged to portray the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus without using footage from the passion.

How did you land on a vision for this piece? Was it collaborative or was there one person that spearheaded the main idea?

During one of our brainstorms, we were discussing the different ways to convey the story of Easter.  We came up with a concept of using imagery combined with scripture and sound, to re-tell the story of Easter. One of the images that stuck out in my head was showing a tree dying then coming back to life.  I was marinating on the idea and I started thinking what about a guy chopping the tree down.  The swinging of an axe and the swinging of a hammer; there’s an interesting parallel action.   From there I collected and organized my thoughts, and began pitching it to people to see what they thought, and everybody said, “We have to do this.”

After you pitched the idea were there any major changes made to the original vision or did it stay pretty true?

Not really any major changes.  From the style of music to the color grade, it was all in the original pitch.  Of course there were minor tweaks here and there, but I feel like the heart of the project stayed consistent from the initial pitch to the final product.

Once it was decided to do this video how many days did you have to create from start to finish?

From the first pitch of the idea to final delivery due date, it was about three weeks.  We scouted locations, storyboarded, and casted for about two weeks, shot for two days, edited the main sequence in two days, then had about 4 days for visual effects.

How did you distribute responsibility for the shoot (ie camera operators, who was responsible for casting, getting shots, all of the above…)? Was there a main director, producer, etc.?

I was able to lead the charge for the vision of this project as the Writer/Director.  One of the first things I created was an artboard to help people understand the vision/look/feel of the film.

Then I began to storyboard.  All the drawings were actually done on my ipad.  I used an app called Sketchbook, and I could create layers and resize the images as needed.

On set we had a small elite team of people involved with setting up a tent and monitors to be able to preview shots on location, creating and operating our homemade rain machine, assisting the DP with lighting needs, and just trouble shooting any issues we ran into on set.  I can’t thank the crew enough for the great attitudes and willingness to knock it out.

How did you distribute those post production tasks? Did everyone edit or just one person? – if you did distribute tasks how did you keep the vision clear and not jumbled and choppy?

I handled the primary edit in Final Cut Pro and only a couple of the visual effects shots in after effects, but the majority of the VFX and all of the color grade, was done by Matt Timmons on Autodesk’s Smoke.  I was able to work closely with him to answer any questions and give direction as needed.

Did you use any interesting techniques during editing? 

We shot with artificial rain from a homemade rain machine, but we added virtual rain to most of the wider shots.  We also replaced most of the skies with dark ominous clouds, and luckily we were blessed with two overcast days of shooting and no real rain.

Was this an original score or did you find it somewhere? If it was original, how did that collaboration work between the video and audio team?

I actually designed the sound effects and created the first half of the score with some tracks I downloaded from Killer Tracks, our production music library.  Then our worship team created the score for the back half of the film.  We were able to work with some INCREDIBLY talented volunteers who recorded some beautiful vocal tracks that hit the exact vibe I was hoping to get.

Any interesting facts we should know about the shoot?

The tree was actually “transplanted”.  We found a guy who had a recently dead cedar tree on his property that we “installed” in a field by the church.  We dug a 6ft hole in the ground and put the trunk of the tree in hole then filled it with sand.  The tree was finally fully installed about 13 hours before we were scheduled to start shooting!

Wild Part 5:

“This Little Light of Mine / Firework”

“Light It Up”

“Shine Your Light”

Prayer

Welcome/Greet
VIP/Guest Card

VIDEO: Flavour Recap

Announcements

Offertory Setup

“Fly Like An Eagle”

- – ** LIVE TIME** – -

Message

“I Believe I Can Fly”

Close Out

- – LOCAL TIME – -

With so much going on at Fellowship Church and so many ways to get involved, our announcements are a critical part of our weekend experiences. However, we’ve found that live announcements every weekend can get mundane and potentially lose our audience’s attention. So, we started creating “Church News” videos to let everyone know what’s going on here at FC. But, if we’re not careful these videos can turn into the same thing every weekend and we lose the momentum and audience aperture again.

To solve this problem we have challenged ourselves to be as creative as possible in the way we present our live announcements as well as our “Church News” videos. Whether that’s having a red carpet rolled out and a VIP fashion show to explain our VIP lounge or having a talented artist draw all of our announcements that week, we always try to keep the announcements as interesting to hear about as they are to get involved in.

Check out just a few of the creative things we’ve done in our “Church News” videos below! And, let us know some of the ways you keep your announcements interesting at your locations!

Church News – 03-17-12 from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.

Church News 102211 from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.

FC Church News 10-08-11 from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.

Church News – Art Style – 040911 from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.

Wild Part 2:

VIDEO: “Church News”

“Immigrant Song Opener”

“Light It Up”

“You Are God”

“Jesus Be The Center”

Prayer

Welcome / Greet
VIP / Guest Card / Front

“One More Night With The Frogs”

—— ** LIVE TIME ** ——

VIDEO: “Message Intro / Hunt”

Message

Prayer

Offertory Setup

—— LOCAL TIME ——

“Today My Life Begins”

—— ** LIVE TIME ** ——

Closing Comments / Invite For Prayer

Were You There & The Axeman – Easter 2012 from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.

Wild Part 1:

Drum Cadence Intro

Victory Step Team Element

“Rooftops”

“It’s Your Love”

“Jesus Be the Center”

Prayer/Welceome/Greet
VIP/Guest Card

VIDEO: “Church News – Easter”

- – ** LIVE TIME** – -

Cast Vision/ Pray

- – LOCAL TIME – -

“Were You There Part 1″

VIDEO: “The Axeman”

“Were You There Part 2″

Prayer

- – ** LIVE TIME** – -

VIDEO: “Wild, Message Opener”

Message

Prayer

Offertroy Setup

- – LOCAL TIME –

“Higher Love”

Closing Comments

Easter 2012 Teaser Promo from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.

Occupy All Seats Stories – Week 2 from Fellowship Creative on Vimeo.