Behind The Booth: The Man Behind The Booth

Behind The Booth
I always watched the man behind the video booth, playing with new angles for the cameras and watching the two monitors. As someone who enjoys movies and photography, I believed it would be fun sitting behind the monitors and recording the church service. My church records every 11:00 am church service which can be purchased if a service was missed. It took a bit of training before I was ready to record the video by myself.
My first step when I sit down is make sure everything is turned on and operating properly. When the church is opened in the morning, the equipment is powered up in this sequence: the two

monitors, the two cameras, the camera remotes, and the DVD Videonics Recorder. Once that is done, I check that there is a blank formatted disc in the player. If not, then I remove one from the stack beside the monitor and plant it in the recorder. After swiveling the cameras and switching from monitor to monitor to ensure everything is working, I am ready to record.
On the projector screen above the altar, a five minute countdown ticks to the start of the service. Once the countdown reaches thirty seconds, I press the record button. Because of a time delay, I start at thirty seconds, there is enough time for it to begin before Pastor King starts talking. Throughout the service, I switch cameras back and forth to get different camera angles and incorporate the PowerPoint slides Pastor made as visual aids, into the video. My favorite Settings on the Videonics Video Mixer are Transition 1 which fades one screen to the next (Videonics, 32) and Transition 151 which brings one screen up in the corner of the other (Videonics, 32). Those two screens enable me to accomplish the most common variations of the videos. I use 151 to bring up the slides while keeping Pastor onscreen.
Once the service ends, I switch the main monitor to a blank blue screen and stop the recorder. The tricky part is stopping the recording not the recorder. If the recorder stops or turns off before the proper procedure is enacted, the disc will erase itself and the service will be lost.
Part of the reason I enjoy video recording is because it is fun and it gives me something to do with my hands. I find it easier to focus on the service when I have something occupying my hands. Video recording is relaxing and exciting at the same time, with each service different from the last.