A few weeks ago I made a street advertisement that promoted an evangelistic event that our church was doing here in Altamira. I have been helping with the planning of this event, often feeling both impressed and a little bit cynical about the grandeur of the project. Well, I'm here to report on the outcome. First, an update on my growing position as an advertising agent:
I was told 3 days before the event that we would be given some free airtime on the local TV stations and they wanted me to put together a commercial. I threw something together and the guys seemed impressed. I never saw it on TV (we don't own a TV). I imagine it probably ran at 3:00 am, sandwiched between an ad for a 900 number and the latest exercise equipment that will revolutionize your life.
The day we were to begin setting up at a local gymnasium I realized very little was going to be ready by the advertised 7:00 start time. Literally, at 6:45 I was in my truck driving around the city picking up instruments for the band. As we arrived back at the venue at 7:15, some of our band members were just leaving to go home and take a shower! There was a part of me freaking out. But when I looked around at all the workers, no one was acting like I was feeling. No one had one bit of urgency in what they were doing. Even the crowd, who had just been trickling in up to this point didn't look one bit incensed that we were obviously not going to start on time. I think things finally started at 8:30, an hour and a half later than advertised (in my commercials, mind you). By then I had resigned myself to not caring.
The event itself is not easy for me to explain. It was an evangelistic event, but seemed not too seeker-friendly, in my American evangelical mind. The theme was "miracles", or "Jesus is alive", depending on who you ask. The program included dance performances, a drama, worship music and a talk. Following the talk there was a ministry time where people came forward to receive prayer for healing.
What impressed me the most about this whole undertaking was the way it was planned entirely by the youth group leadership team (comprised mostly of college and young adults). I love working with this group and they truly put many hours into planning the event (although not enough effort went into the details, but that's just my opinion).
My role was kind of like a consultant, they would ask my opinion and sometimes they would do it, other times I think they probably laughed at me when I left. I was also in charge of the video and photography team (I'm telling you, they were serious about this). I have been commissioned to make a DVD of the event, including a "making-of" segment. For some reason unknown to me they seem to be more excited about the "making-of" than they do about the actual video. I can't tell you how many times someone has come up to me and told me "can you film this and put it in the making-of"? And that's how they say it too "making-of", I guess DVD's don't bother translating that description so they have grown to include the English phrase in their language, except it sounds more like "moking oov", so it took me awhile to understand what they were saying.
Anyway, I'm having grave reservations about this DVD. I'm not sure how it's going to live up to the expectations. And is it OK to have a DVD with a "making-of" segment that is longer than the actually video? I'm so confused. But I better get going because I have several hours of video and about 1,000 pictures to weed through. The video and photography team that I was in charge of was not lacking enthusiasm, fortunately they eventually ran out of storage space.
Our cheesy TV commercial:
The day we were to begin setting up at a local gymnasium I realized very little was going to be ready by the advertised 7:00 start time. Literally, at 6:45 I was in my truck driving around the city picking up instruments for the band. As we arrived back at the venue at 7:15, some of our band members were just leaving to go home and take a shower! There was a part of me freaking out. But when I looked around at all the workers, no one was acting like I was feeling. No one had one bit of urgency in what they were doing. Even the crowd, who had just been trickling in up to this point didn't look one bit incensed that we were obviously not going to start on time. I think things finally started at 8:30, an hour and a half later than advertised (in my commercials, mind you). By then I had resigned myself to not caring.
The event itself is not easy for me to explain. It was an evangelistic event, but seemed not too seeker-friendly, in my American evangelical mind. The theme was "miracles", or "Jesus is alive", depending on who you ask. The program included dance performances, a drama, worship music and a talk. Following the talk there was a ministry time where people came forward to receive prayer for healing.
What impressed me the most about this whole undertaking was the way it was planned entirely by the youth group leadership team (comprised mostly of college and young adults). I love working with this group and they truly put many hours into planning the event (although not enough effort went into the details, but that's just my opinion).
My role was kind of like a consultant, they would ask my opinion and sometimes they would do it, other times I think they probably laughed at me when I left. I was also in charge of the video and photography team (I'm telling you, they were serious about this). I have been commissioned to make a DVD of the event, including a "making-of" segment. For some reason unknown to me they seem to be more excited about the "making-of" than they do about the actual video. I can't tell you how many times someone has come up to me and told me "can you film this and put it in the making-of"? And that's how they say it too "making-of", I guess DVD's don't bother translating that description so they have grown to include the English phrase in their language, except it sounds more like "moking oov", so it took me awhile to understand what they were saying.
Anyway, I'm having grave reservations about this DVD. I'm not sure how it's going to live up to the expectations. And is it OK to have a DVD with a "making-of" segment that is longer than the actually video? I'm so confused. But I better get going because I have several hours of video and about 1,000 pictures to weed through. The video and photography team that I was in charge of was not lacking enthusiasm, fortunately they eventually ran out of storage space.
Our cheesy TV commercial:
3 comments:
From what I've seen - it looks better than the Shermans commercials up here! (although the faces kept changing!)
that cool ! better than first time.
I love cheese!
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