alexschwindt.com

video and digital storytelling

It's exciting and encouraging to see ministry leaders and church planters begin to grasp how crucial video will be moving into the future.  Missional churches are churches that speak the language of the culture they are in, and in the US culture that 'language' is video.  Now that we're beginning to accept this new reality, I think we need to challenge ourselves to become far more fluent in 'media.' 

Imagine for a moment if you felt called to share the gospel in El Salvador.  Would you take a one-week crash course in Spanish and then hop on the next plane out?  Would you buy a coffee table book about the country from your local Barnes and Noble and assume that would teach you everything you needed to know about the culture?  Of course not.  Yet so many Christian leaders today assume that a video camera and firewire is all you need to create compelling video. 

Speaking 'video' fluently really isn't any easier to master than any other language, and Christian leaders need to stop assuming it is.  If you participate in Christian worship experiences with any kind of frequency you've probably experienced a time when no video would have been better than the embarrassing video that was used.  The intentions were good, but the results were cringe-tastic. 

So how can take our media to the next level?  

avatar movie special screening report

Hey all.  I had a chance to check out the special 15 minutes screening of selected scenes from the Avatar movie in IMAX 3D tonight.  The AMC in Olathe was one of only about 100 theaters across the country that had this special screening, and it was awesome to get to see it this way. 

First things first, this movie is going to be beautiful.  There are some scenes which don't occur in the trailer that quite literally took my breath away.  The world of AVATAR seems incredibly well-realized, and James Cameron and his team are not afraid of bold color strokes.  The subtlety of the character design and the settings is something to behold.  I'm still not sure if I'm completely buying the facial animations yet - we'll see more of how that holds up in the larger context of the picture.  Aliens aren't supposed to look human, but they aren't supposed to be claymation either.

(disclaimer - I saw District 9 immediately following the Avatar screening, and Cameron's crew has some heavy lifting to do if they want to live up to the visual effects bar WETA just set)

unChristian concept video

Here's a concept video I've been working on for the past few weeks.  (click the image above to check it out)  We're starting a series based on the book unChristian by David Kinnaman in January, and this is the trailer for it.  It's not too often that a piece turns out this close to what I had it my head, but when it does it's pretty sweet.

Special thanks to the band Starfield for letting us use their song. 

oscar thoughts

Hey Everyone!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  My bad.  So I'm going to follow your advice and post up my thoughts regarding Sunday's Oscars.  First off, let me say that I'm not nearly as big a fan of the Oscars as I used to be.  It really just feels like they become more and more disconnected from the real world every year.  I wasn't even planning on watching them this year (but somehow I ended up seeing the entire 4 hour telethon, er, telecast - go figure). 

So here goes . . .

1.  How many of you saw all five nominees for Best Picture?  Didn't think so.  If you saw 2 or 3 of them consider yourself a cinema sophisticate.  That's one of the main problems with the Oscars, no one's rooting because no one saw any of them.

2.  The technical awards rock.  I almost always agree with how they comes out.  Visual Effects, Cinematography, Art Direction, Editing.  Sound Editing and Mixing (should be one category).  Good stuff across the board.

3.  As metro as it sounds for a guy to say this, I totally disagree with the decision for Costume Design.  Patricia Field (The Devil Wears Prada) got ripped off.

4.  Also on the ripped off front, "Happy Feet" beating "Cars" for Best Feature Length Animated was an absolute joke.  Any cartoon that has to bring in the UN (in live action no less) to solve it's problems needs to rethink why it's doing what it's doing.  And it sure as heck shouldn't be considered in the same category as anything Pixar has ever even considered doing. 

5. Ironically, bringing in the UN is actually why "Happy Feet" won.  I am so sick of all of the politics this awards season.  Great art is supposed to transcend politics.  It's supposed to be just as poignant no matter who's in the White House.  Anyone who really believes that Melissa Ethridge's song was superior to Randy Newman's should be . . . well, they should have their iPods taken away.

6.  Totally agree with Martin Scorsese finally winning.  Should have won for "Gangs of New York."  Glad "The Departed" won Best Picture as well.  I always think it's weird when those awards are split.  The man has skills, and he really loves telling stories.  Good stuff.  George Lucas better win a Lifetime Achievement at some point . . .

7.  Big Fan of Forrest Whitaker.  Glad he won.  Ryan Gosling's day is coming.  Great category, great nominees.  Good stuff.

8.  Also a big fan of Jennifer Hudson.  She's using her moment to glorify God.  More power to her.  But her winning over Cate Blanchett . . ?

9.  Most underrated and under-appreciated category:  Animated Short Film.  Love this category.  Glad the academy gives in the recognition it deserves. 

10.  Best Moment of the Oscars:  Will Farrell, Jack Black, and John C Reilly singing about the annual dis the Oscars dish out to comedies.  "A man with no arms and no legs who teaches inner-city Hamlet . . ."  Nice.  You can watch it here.

Next year's best picture:  The Transformers Movie.  Remember, you heard it here first.   

The Next "Da Vinci"?

Hollywood has a long and rich tradition of releasing films that attack the Christian faith.  (of course, it also has a long a rich tradition of releasing films that promote the Christian faith, but talk like that does not sell books) 

Last summer Sony Pictures released the theatrical version of "The Da Vinci Code", a movie which called into question the deity of Jesus and the historical accuracy of the bible.  The next "shot-across-the-bow" will be released next Christmas in the form of a new movie entitled "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass."  The movie is based on Philip Pullman's popular children's trilogy and will star an A-List cast and feature world-class production values.  New Line Cinema is hoping to capitalize on the success of popular fantasy movies like "The Lord of The Rings" and "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe," with a similar movie franchise. 

What will set this film apart from those blockbusters is the story's view of the Christian Church and God Himself.  In the books, the Church is a villainous organization guilty of the mass murder children in order to understand the nature of sin.  In later books God is portrayed as an old man kept alive against His will by an evil arc angel.  Sin is the source of wisdom and good in the universe. Christianity itself is dismissed as a "very powerful and convincing mistake." 

That New Line is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a story like this shouldn't be very surprising.  New Line is responsible for some of the worst of what Hollywood has to offer.  Having said that, I think this is a crucial time for Christians to take a deep breath and . . . do nothing.

I'm serious about this.  It is very likely "The Da Vinci Code" would not have been nearly as successful had not Christians flocked to see it in order to know how what they were supposed to be countering.  New Line is WAY out on a limb with this upcoming movie.  They are hoping, they are praying, that this movie will generate enough controversy to drive ticket sales. 

Consider last month's release of the $120-million movie version of "Eragon."  This book, the first in the Inheritance trilogy, is much, much more popular than "The Golden Compass."  Nonetheless, the movie has proven to be a financial disaster for Fox because it failed to find a foothold in the national consciousness.  "The Golden Compass" will likely suffer the same fate UNLESS Christians step in and help out.

So I would ask all of you reading this to take a deep breath and prayerfully consider sitting this particular cultural skirmish out.  The movie is almost finished shooting.  New Line is completely committed - this movie will be released.  The very best thing that could happen now is for New Line to lose tens of millions of dollars in the endeavor.  Hollywood would learn that anti-Christian movies are bad for business and avoid future scripts in that same vein.   

This scenario, however, is much less likely if Christians protest, boycott, and publish endless books, tracts and sermon resources trying to "counter" this particular threat.  Remember, discretion is the better part of valor.  Let's give the "wise as serpents" part a shot . . .

The Agony

Ok - so I woke up this morning planning to buy a Sony Z1u.  The Z1 is a great, great camera that shoots natively in both Standard Def and High Definition and is loaded with a ton a professional features.  Everyone from NBC to MTV to Lucasarts is using this camera now, and I was thrilled with the opportunity to acquire one for ministry. 

The project doesn't sound all that difficult, right?  There are, like, 30 companies selling this camera.  All I have to do is find the best price, call the company, and be on my way.  No so fast there naif . . .

I called one company and they were happy to sell me the camera, but 20 minuets into the call I was told that, oh yeah, the camera I was ordering was the Japanese version of the camera.  The english version of the camera would be $1,000 more.  Another company told me they could sell me the camera at a decent price . . . but I'd need to pay $300 for the power cord.  The power cord!!!  It literally went on and on . . .  I felt like Mario - "I'm sorry, but your princess is in another castle."  Arrgg!

It took me five hours - FIVE HOURS - to order this camera.  Ever had any experiences like this?   

Step Back From The High-Def Ledge

Today Sony announced that they will only be shipping a quarter of their promised Playstation 3 consoles for this Christmas season (only 500,000 vs the 2 millions earlier promised). You heard it here first - screaming parents, crying kids and gouging vendors are on the horizon!  Although this definitely gives Microsoft's Xbox 360 a leg up on the competition in the console market, analysts are predicting that the consequences will be more acutely felt in the looming High-Def format wars between the two rival standards Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

     In simple terms, what that means is that right now would be an excellent time to sit back and wait on the whole HD thing.  Over the past eight months I’ve gotten to spend a fair amount of time checking out various high-def content including footage from Blu-Ray, high-def cameras, broadband cable and feed from the Xbox 360, and I’ve learned a couple of things in the process.

     HD is amazing, and someday most people are going to get to experience how amazing it can be.  The bad news is that the average consumer probably won’t have that experience for a least a couple of years.  The problem isn’t the TVs or the players or the disk format – the problem is in what called the ‘compression.’

      Compression is the process of reducing the amount of space video takes to the point it can be distributed and viewed by the average person, affordably.  And the problem with HD right now is that the compression looks so bad that I actually prefer watching the older ‘standard definition’ DVDs.  There are newer compression formats available, but it will probably be a few years before these become standard.  In the meantime, Blu-ray and broadband cable will continue to look cheap and ‘grainy’ on medium to large TVs.

      Try this – the next time you are in Best Buy walk up to an HD TV playing a Blu-ray disc and look for the darker parts of the image.  Look at the high-contrast lines and you’ll begin to see lots of noise and artifacts in the picture.  After a minute it will begin to drive you nuts!

High-Def is GOING to be great. (I’ve seen the raw, uncompressed footage and it really is breath-taking)  Having said that, if you’re thinking about dropping a couple grand this Christmas on an HD set-up this may be a good time to take a couple of steps back from the ledge and wait.  I absolutely guarantee, the whole HD landscape is going to look completely different in 18 months from now.  Trust me. 

      (Disclaimer – in the past year I have seen ONE great consumer example of HD fulfilling it promise.  If you have a chance to check out “Burnout:Revenge” on the Xbox 360 you will understand why I’m advising everyone to wait)