Creating Worship Content for an Online Audience
When the world was shaken by the Coronavirus Pandemic back in early 2020, everyone had to quickly adapt their way of working to the online world that we now lived in and churches were no exception.
As we hurried into completely online church with no physical meetings, every aspect of church looked different to how it did from just the week before.
Arguably one of the most interactive parts of a church service is the time of worship, a time that you can connect with God while surrounded by others of the same mind, all joining together. Having this stripped away was no doubt a shock to the system and we were now faced with somehow replicating this experience online.
The Process
Due to the willingness and determination from an incredible volunteer team we were quickly able to put a process in place for recording worship separately from our homes.
This meant Audio Guide Tracks were created and sent to the band 2 weeks in advance. Recording equipment was delivered to vocalists to enable them to record. Audio recordings were sent by the band to the volunteer mixing the audio. Videos were sent over for the edit. And finally, the video and Audio Mix is combined to create the final worship.
The Journey
When editing online worship, whether you have a band of 6 or a band of just 2, the goal is still the same. We want to create an engaging yet distraction free experience for anyone watching. The question I often ask myself when editing worship is simply “If I was watching this, what do I want (or need) to see in this moment”. This sounds like a simple and obvious question to ask, but if you can ask yourself this question every time you choose which shot to use, you can hopefully avoid creating something overwhelming and distracting.
Over the past months of online church we have found that when watching worship there needs to be a balance between seeing what you need to see and yet seeing the band playing together. Seeing multiple people taking part in the act of worship at the same time creates a sense of unity even when we are not physically together. To achieve this when editing we use a variety of on screen looks, this gives us the opportunity show what needs to be seen and also show everyone together.
One of the most important parts of the edit is making sure that whatever is happening on screen, is complimenting the Audio mix. Having the mix finished first always made editing a lot easier. If you can hear what is happening in the song, then you can portray that on screen. For example, if there is an instrumental playing, we don’t need to see the worship leader on screen. This is why I would ask myself “What do I need to see”.
As I said before, having 6 people in the band was not always going to be the case. That meant when having a smaller band of 2 people we would need to change how we approached putting the content on screen. Often with a band of just 2, the worship didn’t want (or need) to be fast paced and high energy, but instead more reflective, with emphasis on the words being sung. This could then be reflected in the edit, by removing the layout changes and the fast paced nature of before, you can hopefully aid what is happening in the music.
Keeping it Fresh
A challenge when everyone is swamped with video content 24/7 was always going to be keeping things fresh and new. We definitely went on a journey from the start of online church, finding what worked best, but once we found what that was, it was important for us to keep expanding and building on that idea. This was sometimes as simple as changing the background used, the layout of song words, or the layout of the shots. There is definitely a balance to be found between keeping consistency but also keeping things new and fresh.
What’s Next for our Online Worship?
This season of Online Worship from our homes has been a real learning curve for us, if it’s shown us anything it’s just how important and key in person congregation worship is for us as a community. Hopefully soon we will be able to start filming some worship together, rather than apart. I’m sure that will bring a whole new set of challenges and opportunities for learning. But for now we are constantly learning and trying to adapt to how we can best serve the community with Online Worship.
