tips for making videos for online services

jason chao | APRIL 5, 2020 | 4 MIN READ

Editor’s Note: As part of providing resources to churches during COVID-19, we are publishing a guide by SOLA Contributor Jason Chao on how to improve online worship videos, as many churches have moved to online services. We hope this guide is helpful to you.

Because of COVID-19, a lot of churches are experimenting with live streaming. My church asked me instead to help produce pre-recorded weekly service videos that we would upload to the Internet. I believe these are better because:

YouTube and Facebook both have premiere modes that now simulate a live experience and let people chat during the video.
Unless you have A LOT of fancy equipment, your live stream may look bland and SOUND bad.
Most churches already have the gear needed to make a good video.
Unless your congregation is really accustomed to live-streams, it provides more flexibility for people to watch and participate.

What I’ve found is that most people assume is that live-streaming will be easier, and the thought of putting together a full video is daunting.

So I thought I’d do my best to put together some quick tools that will help you.

1. Gearing up. Make sure you have what you need:

Sound

This is the MOST important thing. You’re making something that people are watching and hearing. If they can’t see the praise or preacher, they can deal with it. But if they can’t hear them, then there’s no service.

Most churches already have the gear they need. Your church probably already has a mixer, mics, and a way to amplify the praise team every week. Most of those mixers have a way to record the overall output. Just google your mixer model and “how to record” and see if the manufacturer has instructions or if someone has made a youtube video.

Camera

This is where most people get tempted to think that you need something fancy. While $1000+ cameras have lots of fancy features that are really awesome, you probably don’t need most of them. What’s more important for sermons is a stable tripod. Because if it’s shaky, that’s going to be far more distracting than anything else.

For praise, what’s most important to making it look good is multiple cameras. My head pastor made it clear that we want to FEEL like we’re still at our church service. That tempts people to want to just have one camera stay still the whole time. But remember that most people during praise are standing up, swaying, and looking at different members of the praise team. Mimicking this effect by having multiple shots edited together actually feels more like being there live than just having one locked down angle. So honestly, if you have a few top-line smart phones from the last 4 years, that’ll work.

Lights

Fancy film lights are basically just customizable, consistent tools. But light is light. If you’ve got stage lights, just play around with those. Some dimmable lamps and bulbs will come in handy. You may have more gear at home than you realize. Click here for extra help for DIY Film lighting.

Editing Software

If you’re wanting to do something simple, then iMovie will work. If you have the money, then Adobe Premiere Pro (or a subscription to Adobe Creative Suite) or Final Cut Pro are going to be the most worthwhile things your church can spend $200 on. It doesn’t matter what you record if you can’t put it together.

2. Setting Up: What to Put Where

For the sermon

You have two general options. (1) Camera center, in which the pastor looks into the camera or (2) multiple cameras in different seating positions and the pastor doesn’t look at the camera. This really depends on what your pastor wants. Honestly, most pastors will start thinking that they want option 2. But after they watch themselves for a few weeks, they’ll realize they really want option 1.

For praise

If there is only one videographer, then the setup that works best for me is having at least 3 cameras. One camera is in the center and wide to see the whole praise team/group. One camera is at a 45° angle and focused on the praise leader but wide enough to still see other praise members. Then one camera is in your hands. You’re going to be getting close-ups (chest and face) and mediums (waist/knees to head) and maybe some fancy wides if you want. If you can decide ahead of time some of the angles that you want to get, that will help. Also I’m assuming your worship room is empty. I actually will set up chairs in each of the spots I’ve decided so I can quickly just run from one chair to another.

Lighting for both

For the sermon, you would ideally want to have a 3-point lighting set up. For praise, you want it evenly lit, but the most important thing is that you want all your lights to be the same color.

Most bulbs are either daylight (white) or tungsten (yellow). Just try to pick lights that look the same color. A way to check your lighting is to use your phone or camera with LCD screen and switch it to full automatic. If it is constantly readjusting color, exposure (how bright it is), or having a hard time focusing on faces, then your lighting is too wild.

3. Filming: Get What You Need

Here’s some very important things to remember to make your life easier.

1) Make sure your cameras are all on the same settings. If you’re using all iPhones, just go through the phone and make sure all your camera settings are the same. If you’re using a hodgepodge of devices two things you want to be sure are the same are: white balance and frame rate. A lot of other settings can be overcome, but if those two don’t match, you’ll be miserable.

2) Once you slate (more on that in a minute), DO NOT CUT UNNECESSARILY. I’m assuming you’re all shooting on digital, so if your SD card or phone doesn’t have enough storage, just get a bigger one. But if you stop recording and re-start your shot, it’ll be a head-ache to sync up later. If you’re running around, just let the camera roll (This actually makes it a lot easier later).

3) If you’re running around getting shots, once you set a shot, make sure you HOLD the shot for at least 20 seconds. I actually look at my timecode and count, because in the moment you usually feel like “Wow, I’ve been here so long,” but it’s only like 5 seconds. One trick I do during praise is that I’ll hold the shot for the entirety of the verse/chorus and then one line into the next one, then I’ll run to another spot and do the same. That way in the time I’m running around, I can easily cut to the wide or the 45° camera that’s been set up.

4) If you are running around then make sure you are running back and forth across the room. Don’t just go one spot to the nearest spot. This way when you edit it together, it looks like there’s a bunch of cameras, when really it’s just you running.

5) If any of your devices shoot 4k, then set that one up as your center wide. Most likely you’re eventually going to output a 1080 video which means that your center wide at 4k will now be able to do camera pans, zooms, and medium wide shots.

6) If your cameras have the feature to record sound, make sure they do. Higher-end editing software now has synchronizing features that if the sound is clear in both tracks will line them up. This is useful if you fail to slate correctly.

7) Get audio pads. These are basically audio transitions and fills. If you have a keyboardist, have them just play the pads (sustained chords) of each song they did in each key and also transitioning from one key to the other. If they are able to, have them also play background music for prayers/announcements.

But the #1 thing you need to do is SLATE.

Here’s a video explaining what is a slate and why/how to use it.

If you don’t have a slate, you can use any kind of makeshift device that lets you write down your take number and CLAP something visible. I’ve had pastors just clap their hands before they start.

4. Editing: Put it All Together

Note: Whatever editing software you’re using, take some time to learn it. There’s plenty of free YouTube videos for every software out there. A quick note for Premiere Pro users: Make sure you’re working with proxies. Here’s how to use proxies in Premiere Pro.

So you’ve got the footage. Step one is to line them all up. Here’s what I do:

Sync up. You’ve picked your audio track. Drag it in and then cut it right at the slate. Then for each camera, just go that moment when the slate hits and drag the clip in from that point. Boom, instant sync. If your footage isn’t syncing with the audio then troubleshoot. Common problems are that you shot in the wrong frame-rate or you just dragged in the wrong clip (I’ve done it). If you didn’t slate, then utilize synchronizing features in your editing software or look for natural sync points (for example, if the pastor hits his hand on the podium or if the praise leader hits the first chord).
Set your layers. Since you’ve slated all your cameras with the same slate, you can layer each camera on top of each other. I will usually have the 45° on the bottom layer because that’s the one I use the least. Then the center wide on top of that. Then the close-up running camera on the very top.
Cut around your close-ups. If you held each close-up for 20 seconds, then use them since they’re the most diverse. Then each time you see yourself start to run, use your wides to cover that time. Then when you reset for the next close-up cut back to that. Easy coverage.
If you have multiple segments to worship, then make use of multiple sequences in your editing. I’ll edit each sequence then have a master sequence when I put them together, using pads and graphics to smooth over the transitions. This means that later when I need to make changes, I can easily make them in each sequence without accidently messing up my master assembly.

A note about captions. For some reason, pastors are picky about what the captions and verses look like. There’s lots of different options that all have pros and cons. But ask your leader to be specific about what they want it to look like, and then send them samples because they will probably change their minds. But make sure that the method you use to add them to your footage can be easily changeable, otherwise you’ll have to manually update 100 verses for a slightly different font.

I personally do not use the caption feature in Premiere as it is designed for television closed captioning systems and can be cumbersome to edit. If you’re going to always have the text up like during praise songs and for bible verses, then I use overlay graphics.

Sound mixing. This is the thing that you’ll easily overlook (I did). You trust that since you recorded everything on the same rig, they must all sound the same level. Nope. Also most of us edit using headphones, in which case our brains often make up for the difference in audio levels.

So before you finish, make sure that the audio levels are at least somewhat consistent. I do this by taking my sound-bar from my tv and plugging it into my computer. You can use whatever wide speakers you have available.

If you have fancy speakers, great, but remember that most of your congregation is going to listen to this on a phone or a tv, so they will not be using nice headphones like you will be, and if the sound isn’t mixed right, they’ll constantly be adjusting the volume between the praise and the preaching. I find that doing one mix through on a cheap set of speakers is actually helpful to finding the right balance.

I hope this guide is helpful, but the most important thing I’ve learned so far is that we’re all in this together and that your congregation doesn’t expect you to be making Disney-level videos. They appreciate you and what you’re doing ultimately isn’t becoming a professional videographer, but sharing the Gospel using the tools God has given you.