Final Paper: “Communication Insights”

CMAT495 Spring 2020 Internship

Bay Shore Community Church

Creative Intern

Andrew Howard
 Have you ever thought of how people can bring heaven down to earth using creative

outlets like video, audio, and photo in the church? Lots of churches are becoming more

modernized and high-tech with live streams, lights, cameras, etc. Those churches need staff or

volunteers to fill in those positions, and I was able to fill one of those spots as a Creative Intern

at Bay Shore Community Church. Through videography and photography, I helped enhance and

create an atmosphere that makes people come back to church, whether that’s online or in-person.

Church is all about communication from the start. It’s about people communicating with

one another and the church communicating with its congregation. I have been around church my

entire life, but being behind the scenes I was able to see that every piece of a Sunday service

takes a week, if not more, to plan out. Pastors usually take most of the week to prepare a message

for the church, trying hit key points in a main topic using scripture and stories that people can

relate to. The media director usually plans out order of service with the associate pastor. The

service plan helps create time in between worship, speakers, and the pastors message. The time

between each of those is usually taken by a video on screen so that things can be moved on stage

and the next piece in the service can take place. This helps give the congregation the concept of a

flow in the church service so things aren’t abrupt. Every little piece of the production provides to

the experience a person has at church. We try to draw them in, and get them closer to God.

On a Sunday we usually average 15-20 people for production which includes the worship

team and production team. I group these together because both create the atmosphere at the

church. I have seen the teams before but never realized how many people go into a church

production, some bigger churches have upwards of 30-40. I was just one piece of the puzzle. The

church is a multi-location and for the first half of the internship I served at a smaller location,
where the production was smaller, there was only one camera that recorded the sermon. But we

still had a small production team. What I really loved about the smaller team was how easy it

was to communicate with one another. With our church, I also reported to the media director

who served at the main campus. The smaller location did not have someone recording video or

taking photos as often, that’s where I fit in at. A lot of what I recorded and shot was used in

social media and pre-sermon. I really liked what I was doing! The hardest part about the position

was there is not much room in the sanctuary, so capturing without being seen was tough. I was

worried about breaking someones focus on the service. It put a hinderance on my creativity at

first because I wanted to make sure that I was not a distraction. I had a few people walk up to me

about doing some photos at the church and tell me that they have seen the work I have done on

the church’s social media and they love it! That really help put those feelings to the side of being

a distraction, from then on it was easier to create!

When the coronavirus came around the middle of the internship, the church went fully

online and switched to the main campus because they had better equipment for recording

services. The only people in the building were the production team, worship team, and speakers.

At first it was odd not having a live congregation to lead worship for or speak to. Documenting

was another challenge because there was nobody interacting so I transitioned to more of a video

operator during the service for worship. This was another creative step that I enjoyed! One thing

that I got out of switching to more of a video camera operator during the worship set was that I

really enjoy being up close and personal. We use a 5 camera setup for worship. Two stage

cameras, two side cameras just off the stage, and then one main camera in the back. The stage

cam is the most creative camera, then the side camera, then the main camera. Stage cam I really

enjoyed because you get a lot of close ups of instruments, use foreground in the shots of
equipment, while having focus on instruments really adds focus to the instrument. One big thing

about these shots is highlighting the instrument being played, these little thoughts all help

communicate the message of a song through the image displayed. It is tough watching a live set

through screen at home, you don’t get the same feeling you would being in the room. Our goal

was to try to make the stream feel like you are actually there. When I was tasked with creating

the video for our Easter service, I put the same thought into it. The video was about these 6 life

stories from people who were lost and now found in God. We recorded each of these stories over

a couple of weeks, but each story was all one theme, “God Is For You”. My goal in creating it

was to communicate that to the viewer as if they had no idea of a title on the video. We used

slow motion movements of each of the 6 people who told their stories. They told their stories as

a voice over that was played underneath of their slow motion movements. Choosing a song that

helped bring emotion to the video and provoke emotion out of the viewer was tough, as we had 6

stories and the song had to be long enough. Using audio software I was able to extend a song a

minute longer. A couple of the stories from these people were powerful stories, so I wanted to

have a build in emotion in the video up to this one really powerful story. I left that story for the

climax of the song, which helped build up to this story. I was really proud of this because we had

multiple people accept Christ into their life on Easter. The part that really surprised me was that

this video hit emotions of viewers through their own homes. I had to really use all of my skills in

video and audio production to create this video. Having been in church I know what can help

provoke these emotions that we wanted people to feel through hearing these stories. The

coronavirus really hindered our ability to communicate personally with people at the church, so

these stories were our way of connecting people together with stories from fellow church goers.
As a part of the production team we have to coordinate the message in the videos we create with

what message or topic the series of messages they are teaching on.

The behind the scenes action you don’t see normally in church which is what the

production team is all about. Since Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all of social media came

about, it was another outlet for the church to reach people to get connected with the church and

others in the church. Part of being the intern and creative, while the Rehoboth campus was open,

was to document the Sunday experience. We wanted to use this documentation as an archive for

the church, and so that people who are looking for a church, or looking to visit can see what a

Sunday looks like at Bay Shore. One week I created a video that shows each piece of a service.

As a church we want to communicate how we are different than a church you are used to. I

showed how people interact, between volunteers, staff, and the congregation. Interactions with

the congregation make them feel at home, and we want to convey that so people will attend our

church. This is not to come off as a competition with other churches, but the goal is for them to

be a christ follower.

One thing as we transitioned into fully online services that I noticed was the reach the

church had was quadrupled. Usually we get around 400 people on average across the three

campuses who attend, and online we get about 20-30. Since the coronavirus, our attendance,

though it is online only, has reached upwards of 1500 people, which is a lot more than we are

used to even in our regular physical attendance. One thing that has really changed is the pre-

service routine. Rather than having everyone on staff in the building at once we record all the

pre-service separately. The pre-service welcome, good news segment, are all recorded at the

homes of the staff member who is the speaker for that segment. The message is usually recorded

in the middle of the week so the pastor has time to study for the topic that week. Worship we
record 3 songs for that week, and have had multiple takes. This makes me wonder how it will

come off when we are actually live again in church because we only get one go at the song or

segment live. One thing I’ve noticed when doing live production versus recording is that a lot of

practice is needed prior to the live production. The production team and worship team usually

meet one or two times in the week to communicate things with the production team and how

songs will end, and how pre-service videos will run with worship. It was very helpful being able

to practice shots and transitions for songs rather than get there really early on a Sunday and run

through the pre-service routine. We did however do a brief overview of the service on Sunday

mornings just as a double check.

One thing that I wish I could go back and change is learning some of the things in the

production booth. At Salisbury University we learned about the switcher and how to use it. I

would have loved to get better at using the switcher, especially for live switching for worship.

It’s a different element from live speaking because you are trying to transition from shots to

others on beat, on good movements, etc. Already knowing how to use their live cameras was a

big plus. They use the same Panasonic cameras Salisbury University has for their video classes.

The church did invest into a Black Magic URSA Mini 4K that I was able to use during the live

productions. One thing I learned about production and creating in general that I have heard

before is that gear, and camera equipment quality does not necessarily matter. Having quality

equipment helps with your quality of image, what really matters is if you can create a quality

story.

With each photo or video we post to social media we make sure it has meaning and a

caption behind it, whether it be a piece of scripture or a story. We want the church and its’

message to be consistent so creating consistency was key from our personal interactions and also
our interactions on the internet. What excites me being a part of production is creating a

consistent theme or color in a video or photo grid. On Instagram we try to follow a theme of

posting one illustration or graphic for two photos, and those photos use the same color or theme

so we create a consistent theme. I do this personally, but the hardest part for me was trying to

match their theme. I do things one way, and they do another, so adapting took me a week or two

adjusting to be able to create their colors versus mine. The church let me have a lot of creative

freedom in how I created their videos. The recap video I made one week surprised them and

from then they gave me just a few constraints. Those constraints helped me create powerful

videos that sparked a growth between myself as a creative for the church and the talent in the

video.

While interning at the church I was able to create relationships with the team around me

and other church members. I was taking photos for the second or third week and I was

approached by one of the people who attend the church. He happened to be a marketing director

at a real estate agency, and asked me about my experience creating video with the church and

outside of the church. It sparked a great conversation and a great relationship, which I have

noticed that having a camera in your hands makes you easier to talk to. As an introvert, I find it

hard to talk to people I do not know. Talking with the team at Bay Shore made things easier

because everyone was really easy to talk to. One family that attends, their father works as a part

of the staff as the associate pastor, and he has a son around my age. That son and I developed a

friendship because we had thing in common. He went for a ministry at a church Vancouver,

B.C., and told me about the church. On my trip out to Vancouver I visited the church he did

ministry out. It sparked a deeper friendship that I made at the church. There are 6 people in that

family, each one has helped each week with the production during the time we were online only.
Getting to know that family has really opened me up in the church personally and creative. I

have been able to give some of my creative thoughts to some of the family that operates a camera

during the service.

Creating these interpersonal relationships helped my internship experience. Before

beginning the internship I knew of a few people on staff at the church and maybe a handful of

the members of the church. Now knowing more people at the church I think it has enhanced their

feeling of going to church, as it has to mine. Seeing a friendly face in a group of unknown people

is settling. In church we have volunteers on different teams, greeting, security, worship, and

more. These teams all interact and communicate with the congregation in different ways. We are

one church, not just as a physical church, but a church under Christ, also known as the body of

Christ. We as his children were born to spread his word. My internship was to document an

experience of being in one of the places that teaches us about God. Communication in a church

comes to people in different ways, verbally and non-verbally. Through video and photo I was

able to verbally give people information that the speaker in the video or song the worship leader

was singing. Non-verbally using colors of images and video, postures of the people in the video,

and the tone of the video.

One thing that I got out of this internship that may not come to a financial benefit, but

more of a fulfillment benefit is to lead a creative team. As I was talking with our media director

at the church, we talked about things we enjoyed about being at the church and doing what we

are doing. But one thing that came up was the lack of volunteers on our production team/

creative team. He and I agreed that we will be asking for volunteers for this creative team, which

will help do things that I was doing as an intern. I felt a calling from God to be a part of this

team, even after interning at the church. Knowing that the coronavirus impacted our ability to
have a congregation in the building, I stepped up as a part of the team to be able to continue

helping as I can to keep the church production team afloat.

As a creative for the church I was able to bring an atmosphere our church had in the

building to our people’s homes using creative outlets and personal relationships. Learning how

the church production equipment uses and the reason behind it helped me succeed being in the

creative intern position. My biggest takeaway from the internship experience was to develop

relationships with the team you are working with, it will enhance your experience as an intern. I

was able to experience what it was like being a part of the church team and brought the skills I

have learned in video, audio, and photo to create heaven on earth.