Highlands Creative

A blog following the creative team of Church of the Highlands.

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Featured
John David Wright
Color, Video, Post Production
DaVinci Resolve 12 Tutorial
John David Wright
Color, Video, Post Production
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John David Wright
Color, Video, Post Production
Katie Parker
Beginner, Gear, Production, Pre Production, Shooting
Tips for Friendly, Teleprompter-Reading Talent
Katie Parker
Beginner, Gear, Production, Pre Production, Shooting
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Katie Parker
Beginner, Gear, Production, Pre Production, Shooting
John David Wright
Audio, Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Video
Music for Highlands News
John David Wright
Audio, Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Video
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John David Wright
Audio, Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Video
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Audio, Shooting, Video
Friday Freebie - Free projector Broll
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Audio, Shooting, Video
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Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Audio, Shooting, Video
Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Web Design
HEADLINES
Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Web Design
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Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Web Design
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Shooting, Video
Simple Compositing
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Shooting, Video
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Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Shooting, Video
Katie Parker
Beginner, Creative, Inspiration, Social
The Church and Social Media
Katie Parker
Beginner, Creative, Inspiration, Social
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Katie Parker
Beginner, Creative, Inspiration, Social
Creative Team
Creative, Beginner, Video, Production, Pre Production
Are you ready for Grow?
Creative Team
Creative, Beginner, Video, Production, Pre Production
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Creative Team
Creative, Beginner, Video, Production, Pre Production
Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Web Design
Typography: Do you copy?
Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Web Design
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Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Web Design
Creative Team
Creative, Video
Video Recap - Catalyst 2015
Creative Team
Creative, Video
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Creative Team
Creative, Video
Katie Parker
Creative, Graphic Design
EASTER 2015 SOCIAL MEDIA APPROACH
Katie Parker
Creative, Graphic Design

As we were searching for inspiration for how to promote our Easter services via social media, I came across Saddleback's 2014 Easter package. Learn how we used our own shareable images to let our followers promote Easter across social media. 

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Katie Parker
Creative, Graphic Design
Creative Team
Creative
Video Recap - Easter
Creative Team
Creative

Watch all the video elements for Easter 2015 here at Highlands.

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Creative Team
Creative
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Shooting, Video
Friday Freebie - Free Emotive Broll
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Shooting, Video

This months friday freebie involves a hipster, rain, and an all around bad day. If you need some emotive slow motion broll for your next project then this post is for you. 

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Jake Taylor
Beginner, Shooting, Video
Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Web Design
Typography
Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Web Design

Have you ever felt overdressed for a party or even perhaps a date? Or what about feeling underdressed for a job interview or meeting that you thought was going to be casual but was actually strictly business? The horror. Most of us have, and it can be a little awkward at times. Of course, you'll get through it, but you're still left feeling a little out of place. That same principle applies to typography. Understanding how to properly use typefaces can make the difference between your designs looking good and your designs looking great.

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Landon Benson
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Web Design
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video
UPDATED: How to Write and shoot NEWS
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video

At Highlands, we believe giving service attendees a break from the traditional on-stage announcement of upcoming events is a welcome change to the Sunday routine! We have found that an upbeat and energetic announcement video will keep people engaged and from playing on their phones after praise and worship. Over the years we have found that there are a few key elements to making the most of an audience’s attention span through effective script writing and shooting

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video
John David Wright
Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Video
How to Export Video from Premiere Pro CC // Beginner
John David Wright
Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Video

Sometimes the most complicated part about learning to edit video is knowing what settings to use while exporting. What codec should I use? What container? Bitrate? Frame rate? In this post, I'm going to cover how we export video to play in our church services on Sunday mornings.

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John David Wright
Beginner, Creative, Post Production, Video
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics
Friday Freebie - 3 Text Presets for After Effects
Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics

For this first freebie I thought we would give away something that will make animating text in AE a little quicker and easier. I've created three text presets that I use on a regular basis and masked them within some animated paths. 

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Jake Taylor
Beginner, Creative, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics
Creative Team
Creative, Video
Video Recap - Dream Team Party // Ignite
Creative Team
Creative, Video

We are on the last leg of a crazy busy season here at highlands. We went from At The Movies, straight into Christmas services, 21 Days of Prayer, and Financial Freedom conference, then into two new series, the Dream Team party and then Ignite. We've got Catalyst and Easter coming up but we have a few weeks to catch our breath and collect our ideas before we crack down and start the grind again. While this season is busy we love it! We get to make some of our best content during these fast paced and high pressure times.

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Creative Team
Creative, Video
Creative Team
Creative, Post Production, Pre Production, Production, Shooting
We Are Hiring a Video Producer
Creative Team
Creative, Post Production, Pre Production, Production, Shooting

The Creative Team at Highlands is in search of a video producer! This position is for the person who loves video. 

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Creative Team
Creative, Post Production, Pre Production, Production, Shooting
Jake Taylor
Post Production, Shooting, Video, Gear, Creative
At The Movies - Special Effects with Construction Paper
Jake Taylor
Post Production, Shooting, Video, Gear, Creative

Sometimes after we’ve filmed a video we realize we’ve missed something or we need one more shot to really tell the story. And sometimes that’s after a huge shoot with lots of moving pieces and scheduling, like horses, armor and a crazy location. So you cant really just pack everything up and head back out to shoot. Sometimes you have to fake a shot and sometimes all you have to use is construction paper.

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Jake Taylor
Post Production, Shooting, Video, Gear, Creative
Jake Taylor
Gear, Color, Post Production, Pre Production, Motion Graphics, Web Design, Video, Shooting, Production, Live Production, Graphic Design, Creative
New Year, New Blog
Jake Taylor
Gear, Color, Post Production, Pre Production, Motion Graphics, Web Design, Video, Shooting, Production, Live Production, Graphic Design, Creative

We got a facelift! Thanks to squarespace. But don't worry all of our old content is still available here! 

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Jake Taylor
Gear, Color, Post Production, Pre Production, Motion Graphics, Web Design, Video, Shooting, Production, Live Production, Graphic Design, Creative
Featured
Shooting BRoll
Greg McKinney
Creative, Archive
Shooting BRoll
Greg McKinney
Creative, Archive

This was an original post from a couple years ago. This is something we teach our Highlands College students still to this day. I decided to repost and add some more to it. Feel free to leave a comment and tell us some of your tips! If you don’t know, b-roll is video footage of something that is shown while the talent is speaking.

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Archive
We Want to Hear From You!
Greg McKinney
Creative, Archive
We Want to Hear From You!
Greg McKinney
Creative, Archive

GROW is a resource partnership, training process and support system with Church of the Highlands. We hold an intensive each year where we invite churches to come and learn principles that have helped us reach people. 

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Archive
Feel is Important
John David Wright
Creative, Archive
Feel is Important
John David Wright
Creative, Archive

There are a couple of really key elements when it comes to editing video. One of those is feel. As a video editor, my job is to take whatever broll, interviews, pictures etc., and turn it into the best thing someone has ever seen ;) Ok... not really, but my job is to make the best product I can with what I have. 

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John David Wright
Creative, Archive
Stabilizing Shaky Footage
Jake Taylor
Creative, Archive
Stabilizing Shaky Footage
Jake Taylor
Creative, Archive

So you shot something awesome and dropped it in your timeline only to find out it is a tad bit shaky, ok maybe a lot bit shaky. Don't panic! We all do it from time to time and if you've got After Effects CC you're covered. In this post I'm going to quickly show you how to stabilize those shots that have a case of the shakes. 

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Jake Taylor
Creative, Archive
Conducting Testimony Interviews
Greg McKinney
Creative, Production, Shooting, Video, Archive
Conducting Testimony Interviews
Greg McKinney
Creative, Production, Shooting, Video, Archive

Interviewing people is an art form, and it's a continual learning process. Everyone is different, and when you interview one person, they may react to a set of questions differently than another person would. All this to say that the "rules of interviewing people" is a constantly changing list and i'm sure amendments could be added every time you interview someone new. That being said, here are a few rules that we follow that has helped us out throughout the process of capturing and telling someone's story.

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Production, Shooting, Video, Archive
Quick Tip: Digital Recorders
John David Wright
Creative, Video, Archive
Quick Tip: Digital Recorders
John David Wright
Creative, Video, Archive

As we've written about many times here, audio recording is just as important, if not MORE important than the video you're capturing for your productions. A bad sounding interview is very disconnecting to the viewer, while audio that's recorded well will make your video productions much more professional. 

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John David Wright
Creative, Video, Archive
Don't be afraid of the sequel
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Don't be afraid of the sequel
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Some of our favorite video projects are the ones we get to create for our big events. Often we'll create a handful of videos that will play during each session of a conference. It can be a real challenge to continue to come up with fresh ideas for events that repeat each year -- so occasionally, we'll take the Hollywood approach and create the sequel!

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Rules of Storytelling.. from the best.
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Rules of Storytelling.. from the best.
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Storytelling is the heart of what we do on the video team. Storytelling is used in testimonies, highlight videos and creative promos. Here are a few tips on storytelling from Pixar's own, Emma Coats.

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Green Screen Basics
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Green Screen Basics
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Every once in a while, we get to pull out the green screen and put it to use. It's an effective way to put your talent in a place you don't have access to, or to give you a generic look for a church news shoot. 

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Quick Tip: Exporting Video
John David Wright
Creative, Video, Archive
Quick Tip: Exporting Video
John David Wright
Creative, Video, Archive

There are a few things that you can do to ensure that what you've been editing plays back looking great in a manageable file size for your playback computer. We're going to show you how we do it in Final Cut Pro, but the settings and principals should be similar in most editing programs.

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John David Wright
Creative, Video, Archive
Music For Video
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Music For Video
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Music is a critically important part in producing videos. It completely sets the tone and mood for the video. Music brings energy and makes you feel something. Sound must be taken seriously when being selected in videos.

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Quick Tip: Banner Design
Todd Helzer
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive
Quick Tip: Banner Design
Todd Helzer
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive

Highlands uses banners for event and program promotion. Designing for banners take a slightly different approach due to their size. Here are a couple of parameters that you will want to use when designing banners

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Todd Helzer
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive
2 Camera Interview Setup
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
2 Camera Interview Setup
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

For interview and testimony videos, we like to use a two camera setup with a traditional 3-point lighting rig. In this post I will go over how and where we place our cameras, lights and microphone. Wherever we shoot, we use this system, and it works for just about every condition.

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Is that slow motion?
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Is that slow motion?
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Stuff looks awesome in slow motion right? Most people have seen shows like Time Warp that really slow things down, almost to a stop, that make something ordinary, look amazing! But did you know that many times, you are watching slow motion and you don't even know it? 

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Traveling Light
Matt Minor
Creative, Video, Archive
Traveling Light
Matt Minor
Creative, Video, Archive

At Highlands, we try to have at least two to three people, if not more, on a shoot. We've learned that more eyes and ears you have on set the less likely you are to make a mistake, however there are still situations that arise when everyone on the team finds themselves shooting solo.

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Matt Minor
Creative, Video, Archive
How to Coordinate Video Shoot Participants
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
How to Coordinate Video Shoot Participants
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

There is a saying that goes something like this: “People are sheep.” In other words, people tend to go in the direction a good leader, or Shepherd, takes them and I think this same principle applies to coordinating talent for a video shoot. When each person on camera understands clearly what is expected of him or her and their time, then they are much more willing to agree to put themselves in what is, for many, an uncomfortable position: appearing on camera. Over the past few years I have picked up on a few tips that have worked for us. I hope these prove to be beneficial for your shoots as well!

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Video Tutorial: Motion Tracking
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Video Tutorial: Motion Tracking
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

For our most recent series opener, "Remind Me", we had the idea to film people in their everyday lives and have little spiritual reminders show up in their environment to remind them of a Biblical truth. To pull off this idea, we decided to use motion tracking to make it look like the reminders were really there with them. We put together a short tutorial that will give you an idea of how we created this series opener.

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Don't Lose Sight of the Message
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Don't Lose Sight of the Message
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Something that we are very careful about here is making sure that we don't put the "creative" that's in us as a team over the message of the content we're delivering. It's easy to forget about the end goal of what you're producing when your primary focus is on making something "cool". 

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Sound and Video
Matt Minor
Creative, Video, Archive
Sound and Video
Matt Minor
Creative, Video, Archive

Sometime ago, I heard that Walt Disney had a revelation. The philosophy for their parks, rides, and video environments would be...

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Matt Minor
Creative, Video, Archive
Multi-Page Design
Jake Taylor
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive
Multi-Page Design
Jake Taylor
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive

If you are using Illustrator or Photoshop to lay out text intensive print pieces then this is for you

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Jake Taylor
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive
Tips on Stage Lighting
Brian Worster
Creative, Live Production, Archive
Tips on Stage Lighting
Brian Worster
Creative, Live Production, Archive

No matter what your priorities for lighting your stage, you should always make sure that you are doing a few key things.

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Brian Worster
Creative, Live Production, Archive
Easy Ease Integration in Motion Graphics
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
Easy Ease Integration in Motion Graphics
Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive

Disney's Animation Department developed certain principles that they would incorporate to make their characters look not only natural, but larger-than-life. Today these principles are not only the foundation of Disney and Pixar's films, but of motion graphics as well. 

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Greg McKinney
Creative, Video, Archive
T-Shirt Design and Screen Printing
Todd Helzer
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive
T-Shirt Design and Screen Printing
Todd Helzer
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive

The most common way to get your designs on t-shirts is through the process of screen printing. Knowledge of the fundamentals of screen printing is helpful when designing for them. There are several areas to consider that will affect your design and cost.

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Todd Helzer
Creative, Graphic Design, Archive
Adapting You Craft and Getting Better
Jake Taylor
Live Production, Production, Archive
Adapting You Craft and Getting Better
Jake Taylor
Live Production, Production, Archive

One of the things I first noticed when joining the team at Highlands was the constant desire to get better. It’s almost incessant. Every person, in every department, constantly looks for ways to get better, and takes action to improve. The creative department is no exception...

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Jake Taylor
Live Production, Production, Archive
How To Get Killer B-Roll
Greg McKinney
Production, Shooting, Video, Beginner, Archive
How To Get Killer B-Roll
Greg McKinney
Production, Shooting, Video, Beginner, Archive

If there’s one thing I hate as a video editor, it’s having to edit videos with bad b-roll. If you don’t know, b-roll is video footage of something that is shown while the talent is speaking. For example, if your pastor is promoting small groups via video, it helps to have footage of some small group gatherings over him talking about it.

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Greg McKinney
Production, Shooting, Video, Beginner, Archive
 

Email us at Video@ChurchoftheHighlands.com

© 2015 Church of the Highlands