So excited to announce the Fellowship Creative Internship! We are launching this new internship opportunity at Fellowship Church to be a training and proving ground for you to take the next step in your life as a creative, Christ-follower and emerging church leader. During your 1 or 2-year internship, you will accumulate valuable experience, mentors, and knowledge that will prepare you for stepping into the next phase of your God-given calling. It’s an incredible opportunity to jump into Fellowship Church with the Fellowship Creative team in the areas of Music/Worship, Video Production, Audio, Stage Design, Graphic Design and Lighting. More info at FellowshipChurch.com

To get started, check out the Internship Application and FAQ. To submit your application and if you have any questions, please contact . More info at FellowshipChurch.com

We have also hooked up with Regent University and are able to offer full college credit for your internship, through our partnership. You also will have the option to take correspondence courses with Regent University during your internship. See the FAQ for more information. More info at FellowshipChurch.com

(via Geekology)

I think we all know that as technology continues to develop, we will continue to have an increased need for more and more space. Our operating systems, digital photos, videos, music, design files and everything else have all grown in size and require bigger drives. The big hurdle that is on every geeks mind and I believe will be on every average (non-tech savy) consumers mind really soon, is backing up your data.  If you take a quick jump over to Best Buy’s website or newegg.com you can see that an average Joe consumer can pickup a decent computer for around 600 bucks. Most of these come sporting a 640GB to 1.5TB Hard Drive. Well that great… But as mom loads up that bad boy with cherished photos and videos of the kids, financial data from budgeting to taxes and other important docs, you have to start thinking about backups. Hard Drives will fail. I think of it as not a matter of “if” but “when.” Sure you could fork the cash out and use a Solid State Drive, but I promise that your average consumer is not doing that. And, that still means your data is sitting in one location.

Backups

There are lots of options for backing up your precious data and it really depends on your need. There are options now which leverage “the cloud” or an online backup. Apple’s MoblieMe and Dropbox are simple solutions to backup some of your essential data. Basically you pick and choose what to backup. I favor more robust services like Carbonite or Mozy, which are both great online backup solutions and offer unlimited online storage options.

Perhaps you are looking for a local storage option where you need a big pool of storage with some redundancy, so if a hard drive does fail your still safe. For example lets say your photo, video and music collection has topped out above what a single 2TB drive can handle. You probably need to look at a local NAS or RAID solution. You should look at some solutions from NetGear, Buffalo or my favorite Drobo. I have used a Drobo for a few years now and have had great success and great confidence that my data is safely backed up. If you don’t know what a RAID system is, this is a good read.

When it comes to storage backup I am a both and guy. For my home data I want storage redundancy locally and then also a “cloud” or off-site backup. I know that my data is irreplaceable and invaluable to me, so I want a setup that gives me that greatest chance of recovery in a worst case scenario. I’d love to hear what your setup looks like.

Bigger Backups

Now for your church or business it’s a much bigger job. Especially when you are looking at the media side of things. When evaluating your current storage needs it’s really important to get a good snapshot of where you stand right now. Some questions to ask are: What is critical to backup right away? What needs to be accessed regularly? What does our current workflow look like? What would be good to back up but not highly critical?

I won’t go into all of the storage options that exist on the enterprise level because there are way too many to name. And really it depends on the needs of your organization. Some will need higher end storage like DDP, Promise or Dell EqualLogic. Others might be able to use a cheaper solution where speed might not be as big of an issue like a Drobo Elite or Pro.

Workflow

If you work in media than you better have a clear map of your workflow. This will greatly effect your storage and your storage needs. Make sure that you can easily map out what it looks like from when you create to when you archive. Here is a great video from Chase Jarvis’s blog where Chase walks through there workflow. It’s greatness. I love the laptop suitcase setup that his digital asset manager is rocking. Very sweet!

I’d love to hear some of your creative solutions for digital storage. what are you guys doing? What does your digital workflow look like?

Here is a great post I came across over at ChurchCrunch.com – Understanding the Source of Creation, Technology and the Creator. It’s definitely worth the read! Great thoughts for anyone who is a creative type and works with technology. Enjoy!

Job Summary:

Join a dynamic and talented team of video monkeys! No seriously! We are crazy about utilizing the power of motion pictures to tell THE STORY. The greatest story ever told.

Your job will be to work with a team of video editors/producers to create dynamic, mind-shifting, heart tugging content. We are looking for an individual who is self-motivated, organized, and able to produce cutting-edge video content for Fellowship Church and it’s ministries. The ideal candidate will be someone who is passionate about video production, motion graphics, video editing and the local church. You MUST be a good storyteller, able to story board, craft and shape a story and make is resonate with people from all walks of life.

To Apply:

If you meet the requirements below, please send a resume, references, work samples or URL’s, to the attention of Dave Clark

This is a full time position. Qualified applicants only, please.

Job Responsibilities:

• Work with in a team environment with other creative’s
• Be able to take on and manage video projects from inception to completion
• Be flexible and ready to jump when an opportunity arises

Qualifications and Work Experience:

• Must have 4 to 5 years experience in Non-linear editing.
• High-proficiency in Final Cut Studio, After Effects & Photoshop
• Experience in 3D software is a plus (Cinema 4D, Maya, etc…)
• Must know basic lighting principles
• Must know basic camera/shooting principles and techniques
• Must work well alone and in a team environment
• Able to work on multiple high-priority tasks simultaneously
• Able to receive direction and feedback
• Must have a love and belief that the local church is the hope of the world.

Character Traits:

• Christian with a genuine desire to serve
• Trustworthy, dependable and loyal
• Enthusiastic self-starter and problem solver
• High sense of urgency and professionalism
• Strong self-confidence and superior interpersonal skills
• Adjusts easily in a fast paced, changing environment

Also, I am looking for someone who loves the live production environment (live audio, video & lighting) and is gifted with leading teams of volunteers. You must meet all of the character traits above as well. If you feel like you meet either of these roles, feel free to email me and send me your resume/work/etc…

We had a great couple of days together, talking through different topics, ideas, issues and whatever else that was on our minds. We also gave everyone a good taste of some local Texas cuisine. =) We also spent time praying together and praying for one another. It’s awesome to have a group of men who really understand where one another are at as far as work goes, pray for one another. I know I was blessed. Love the brotherhood and comradery that exists. It’s awesome that we can just pick up where things left off from last time we hung out. Great group of guys! I look forward to hanging out in the future and expanding.

I would encourage you to check these guys and their churches out online. Some incredible guys doing amazing work at some churches that are really making a difference.

Greg Bacus – Lifechurch.tv
Adam Callender –  Granger Community Church
Dennis Choy – North Coast Church
Jason Cole – Lakepointe Church
Daryl Cripe –  Grace Community Church
Todd Elliott – Willow Creek Community Church
TJ Friesen – Community Christian Church
Nate Krause – Seacoast Church
Sean Krukenbweg – Discovery Church
Mat Matlock –  Woodcrest Chapel
Ken Robertson –  Mariners Church
Sam Song –  New Song Irvine -
Bill Swaringim – Windsor Crossing Community Church
Sunny Thomas – Lifechurch.tv
Jeff Vandergiessen – Mars Hill Church Seattle WA

I will post some of our other elements this week so stay tuned. =)

No doubt that much of the credit is given to the amazing lens options that you have when shooting with DSLR’s. You can shoot with some great low aperture prime lenses and let in lots of light and get amazing depth of field. Whereas to get a similar look with a pro grade camera your looking at DigiPrime lenses that will run you an easy 15 to 30 thousand dollars. No doubt that the pro grade camera offers features that can’t even be closely matched with a DSLR. But come on you can’t deny the footage.

There are lots of arguments for shooting with DSLR cameras and they really have become a focus of the pro video arena. They are really causing quite a stir. So much so that you are seeing some crazy professional kits being developed to make it better to shoot with them. It’s pretty cool to see the consumer market driving and pushing the professional market a little bit.

The biggest issue I have with DSLR video right now is the format. The Canon 7D for example shoots h.264 video at a bit rate of 5.6 MB/s which is great for consumer use. Where you see most of the AVCHD and H.264 market, but isn’t really solid for pro use. Where you really see it break down is when you start to work with it in post production. If you try color correcting, keying or pushing the footage in post, it quickly breaks down and falls apart. So if you don’t shoot it close to perfection during your shoot, don’t bank on being able to patch it up in post production.

My dream is to see Canon, Sony or Panasonic come out with a prosumer grade camera that shoots in a professional grade format like DVCPRO HD, XDCAM or ProRes that would have mounting options for DSLR lenses. This dream camera would also have professional camera inputs and outputs for audio, timecode, SDI and so on and so forth. Hey, I can dream can’t I? =)

Anyway we shot some pretty killer stuff with our Canon 7D for our Easter Experiences at Fellowship Church. I’ll post some video links next week. Chime in on your DSLR thoughts… I would love to hear what you currently love about them or what you would like to see in the future.

I had a great time a few days back connecting with Andrew Mason over email. He asked me to answer a few questions to try and help other people who are working in church media. His article and my answers were posted today over at Church Create. – Link.

I love what the guys from the 8bit Network are doing to inspire church media people around the world. You should definitely check them out. Enjoy!

This next week we are headed out to San Diego, CA for C3 West Coast. We are going to be at Cornerstone Church in National City, CA. Can’t wait to see what God is going to do. It’s not to late to join us. If you can make it then you should do so! You won’t want to miss this. Register!

(photo copyright LA Times)

I pray that the Church will see the need in Haiti and respond as Christ would.  I know that the Church of Jesus Christ will play such a major part in meeting the great need that exists in Haiti. I would encourage you to join in and do what you can. One way you can help is to give to an organization called Convoy of Hope. Convoy of Hope is a faith based organization that feed millions of people around the world and specializes in disaster relief and is centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were already stationed in Haiti when the earthquake hit and were able to respond immediately. We have partnered with them at Fellowship Church and I would encourage you to do so as well.