Friday, January 26, 2007

more mug shots.




Meng Yuen looking happy and content.

Meng has been on the crew for a long time, and one of his claims to fame is that he's been on more teams than any other person on the crew. In fact i think he's nearly served on all of them at some point in time...hehe. He's been a great swingman over the years but he currently serves in team 2 with Carol and also does tech at the north campus.








Brian Veale with a lovely big smile.

I'm sure if you got out the dictionary and looked up the word "champion veteran" you would simply find the definition "Brian Veale"

This fine gentlemen has been around the film crew a very long time and is one of the most committed and passionate guys i know. He's a faithful guy and he's really been a solid rock in the team over the time I've been around. He was previously a team leader for a number of years before he took an extended holiday overseas in which afterwards he came back to serve under Paul Smith in team 5. a champion!





Michael Dryga. (AKA - Micky D)

Micky D is another long time faithful veteran that just continues to come in each week and do his thing..

Good camera op, good tech assistant and he's passionate about seeing people get saved.

He looks quite content holding that little nifty piece of equipment too!











Clear A Path!
















A short little Pol.... standing on a box.










2 fine looking gentlemen. We've got young Benny Schneider from Paul Smith's team, and we've got Darryl Chan the leader of team 3.

Both great guys.

And ladies..... the gentlemen on the left is single!!









The Dene'STA from my team.

He's not single...... I'm sure you can see why....











Nat Brown our soon-to-be Tech Chief!

Thats right, your heard it here first... This man will soon be heading up the film crews Technical operations.

Our current Tech leader is Andrew Bekker but over the course of this year he'll be transitioning alot more into front of house production based stuff as he's very skilled in that area also. So as that happens, Nat will become the head of the tech side of things for the film crew. Nat is well known for his echoed "NICCEEEE" and "YEESSS" cries coming through the airwaves when he's in the control room. Gotta love it.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Orientation Night


Just had a brilliant Orientation night with 8 new guys coming along to check things out. All of them really enjoyed it asked a lot of questions. It seems like they'll all step forward and join, which of course is great news.. an answer to prayer as a matter of fact!

Sadly we've just parted ways with Michelle and Michael from Team 1.. which is not long after Terje & Sam left team 2, so the new guys are very much needed at the moment. God has a way of bringing along the right people at the right time.

Its actually really exhilirating running over the crew history and vision with a team of new guys. I get to see a whole new wave of volunteers catch the flame and get passionate about reaching people through media, which in turn adds to my own level of passion!

So look out for some new faces in your teams very soon!!

Monday, January 22, 2007

The 'Flick-Flick'

Hello there everybody, Nat the junior tech-boy-in-training here, bringing advice about a funny little trick that will make your lives a little easier...

Have you ever gone out to camera - the lights lowered, the five-minute call DVD playing, the congregation gathering - and put your cans on your head and thought, 'I can't hear the director!'


Well, my friends, there are three possible reasons for that:

1) the camera is broken, in which case you should be very afraid of what Andrew will do to you when he catches you! (just kidding)

2) the talkback is turned down - which should always be the case, every time you leave the camera, turn the talkback volume down... and so it follows that every time you go on to camera, you will have to turn the volume up. For those who don't know, the volume control is the TOP dial in the photo, labelled 'intercom'. This is on the side of the camera. or...

3) you need to do the 'Flick-Flick'. The flick-flick is simply a way of re-setting the talkback so that the whoever is speaking can be heard by you.

Look at the photo. The top switch, labelled 'talk', is your talkback switch. It should always be in the 'off' position. If it's 'on', then of course everyone can hear you breathing and snorting and the drums banging away in the background. (often someone - usually a handheld - will knock their switch into the on position, causing every camera-op, tech and director to jump and the director to start yelling 'SOMEONE HAS THEIR MIKE ON!'). Otherwise, leave it in the 'off' position.

When you come out onto camera, if you need to do the flick-flick, simply flick the switch into 'on', then flick it back to 'off'. Then you should be able to hear the director. Also, as Tech-Boy has pointed out, sometimes if that doesn't work, flicking the 'CH' switch from '1' to '2' and back again can also solve the problem.

Easy!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Vision from Adam for 2007!



(this is long but well worth the read..)

SPEED IT’S COMING

MATTHEW 13:24-30, 36-43

The Parable of the Weeds
Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'

" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.””


I’m sure that you have noticed that scripture like this is not read on a regular basis at our weekend services at Riverview. There is a good reason for this, as for a time churches were in a habit of using fear tactics to bring people to a point of decision concerning salvation and leading people to Christ. At Riverview we do believe in leading people to Christ, respecting peoples journey and allowing the grace of God to draw people to himself, seeing the love of God, seeing him as a loving father. In Romans 2:4 “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?” Its His kindness that leads people to himself, His love, His patience. Christ came to serve not to be serve or judge or condemn people. So on weekends our soul purpose is to lead people to Christ, within the construct of Grace.


So when do we need to hear about the end times? Now is a good time.

As we sit in this room, as believers, we need to remind ourselves about the reality of the end of the age.

Why do we serve?
Primarily we serve because we serve a master in heaven, because that master in heaven God first loved us, so with love in action we live a life of obedience, and serve with the gifts that he has given us, is the context of the local church, the bride of Christ. But there is another reason. I believe why we serve comes out of 2 Peter 3:

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.


its interesting when Peter is writing this, he is not talking to baby believers, he is talking to people who have been on the journey for some time, so he safe to talk on these matters. He is not talking to the unsaved.

We serve a God who has given us an eternal promise, an eternal destiny, we don’t serve in the video crew because it’s a nice little club to be in with my special shirt, and I feel at home, (even though that is true) – we have an external perspective. I know one thing is for sure, I want to be on right side of the fence when the day comes!

Really the mission statement of the video crew is to “SPEED ITS COMING”, what am I saying, being involved in the video crew should not be taken lightly, but rather a realization that I am taking part in the bringing about the return of Christ.

Now I’m not wanting to create a militant army of extreme vigilante video crew who come across as an absolute bunch of waco’s. But I am wanting us to see the big picture and take seriously the part you play.

It may not look like it, but we are in a war, and I’m not sure if you have noticed, but God is using Riverview to take ground off the enemy. Satan does not want us going around broadcasting the love of God, in a way that people can digest, he wants to stop it, and he will do anything to stop it. Look at the last five years?

- on TV 55+ countries
- Locally on GWN
- TV adverts on locally
- Running church together
- Recent expansion into Canada
- Two campuses – north and south
- USA campus this year
- Pod casting from website
- cd’s going around the planet and now dvd’s
- church has gone from 2000 to over 4000 over this time
- media team now has gone from 2 staff members 6
- media is given so much freedom at riverview to run with anything to inspire
- the OC campus means the development of message download at any one location, but multiple location simultaneously at one time, which means what we currently record on a Saturday night could reach thousands.


This is all taking ground. The problem is, what we do does not look like a war? Where are my green fatigues, where are the weapons, where are casualties, where is the sound of fighting in the distance? To the average observer there is none of it. It looks more like a country club, than a war, especially when you live in Perth!! So there is a need for us to decide to stir ourselves up. We are growing in influence, impact, the momentum is increasing, the pace is not going to slow down, its time to take up arms. This year I want to see us as a crew step up a level, I’m not talking about camera skills, or the way we output this stuff, I am talking about who we are on the inside, are we vigilant, are we strong, are we ready for anything, are we spiritually aware of what is really going on around us. The culture of the teams needs to build this in more and more. Well Done Good Faithful Servant – Faithful : are we full of faith, when we come to a shoot, are we going through the motions, can be bothered to show up, thinking about what else I could be doing, or are we stirred up on the inside, that here is another opportunity to fire a few bullets against the enemy. The bible says Ephesians 6:10-20 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

This year we will be doing a few practical things to help this in our teams:
prayer during the alter call, we used to do it, but need to continue, it is the directors responsibility to do it;
on the last wed of every month, we will be putting out a call for prayer and fasting for the coming month ahead (there will be a list of stuff each month that will be sent out – sometimes specific sometimes general – eg that the word would have free course in peoples hearts, that all the broadcasts would be powerful and effective)
April – expansion into the mid week teachings
RVTV prayer team …. (Cheryl and Graham)


After giving it to you about end times, essentially the Christian life is about balance, being in the world but not of it, having your eyes set on eternity, but not forgetting to love people, even the unlovable. It’s about doing great things for God, which comes out of our relationship with God.

Filmcrew Vision Night!

Well tonight we had an excellent vision night for the filmcrew.

28 people attended representing all of the 6 different teams and we all got inspired big time by Adam and Francis and received the charge up we all need for the 2007 ahead of us.

I really got alot out of it, and it's challenged me to step up. And i found it really nice to mix and mingle with everyone there at once. It may sound cliche, but i really felt a powerful sense of unity there.. As i looked around the room, it felt really cool to see everyone there with one vision.

Tommorow i'm going to post Adam's message of vision here on the blog as i think its something that all 85 of us on the crew need to hear.. However for now please just enjoy these snapshots i took on the night.

Luv HB :)


Friday, January 12, 2007

Grateful.


Sometimes we get so familiar with our jobs, roles, positions and placements that we forget to thank God for the amazing things He's done for us.

We've been praying for more volunteers on the crew recently, and i've had 8 new people apply to join in the last month. Also we've made some unreal upgrades to our gear. Tech Boy has put in MASSIVE new 16:9 screens with HD projectors. We've bought a high definition DVD recorder for the control room, and a multi disk burner so we can sell dvd's through the bookstore. We've also upgraded to a sony HDCam to shoot churchnews on, which gives a significant quality improvement over our previous camcorder.

We have the privillege of serving in a dynamic team focussed on being professional, but also creative; and get to pray each week for people to connect with God, which may seem understated, but probably has more impact on peoples lives than any of our video shoots!

Through being on the crew many of us have made lifelong new friends, (i found myself a fiancee'!) and formed a genuine community of people hungry to help build the church and impact people through video ministry.

Most importantly, each week we get to send the gospel out to the world through ChurchLive, and have the fulfillment of knowing that people all over the world have the opportunity to connect with our creator.

I don't acknowledge my gratitude often enough, so this post is just to say thanks, & to remind myself that its only because of God that i'm alive and having the time of my life!! Thankyou LORD!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Sleep Please #2


Who can spot our resident sleeper this week??

Being a team leader can be hard work!! hehe

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Superstar Highlight #3






This week i'm highlighting a team member who recently departed the crew.

In December '06 we said goodbye to a key member of team 2, Sam Bothasitse. Sam was a legend on Team 2 and left to re-join his wife and 2 children in his home nation, Botswana.

Sam grew tremendously in his confidence and ability whilst serving on the crew.. When he first tried camera i remember asking him to tilt down a little as his head room was too high, he couldn't make the camera tilt so i sent Joelle out to undo his tilt lock.. she came back in and told me the tilt lock was already off.. but he was so nervous he had gripped the handles so tightly that he couldn't move them!!

Despite his nerves he came and served each week and slowly but surely honed in on his skills, overcame his fears, and developed a TV record quality mid-shot. Most significantly he pushed through his fear of public speaking and became a prayer warrior for Team 2, which added a huge edge to the spiritual maturity of the team.

We'll miss him heaps, but feel encouraged that he's taking his new found camera skills back to his church in Botswana.. Perhaps he'll pioneer a TV ministry over there and we'll watch his show on TV one day!!

Thanks for everything SAM.. you're a superstar!!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

SideTracked Concert






Joelle and I recently had the opportunity to be part of the SideTracked gig at the Perth Cup on new years day.

The bands were 'The Living End" 'Something For Kate' & 'Evermore' and a whole bunch of smaller local bands.

We had a great time and fortunately i was able to direct the Living End set, with Joelle on the center camera.. i'm quite a Living end fan so i knew most of the songs, and Joelle was in Whip Pan fire mode!! The bands manager was raving about the visuals after the shoot which we were really happy about.

Due to the huge amount of hands on practical experience we get filming our worship team each week, we're actually a very highly developed crew when it comes to filming live music, which is amazing given that 95% of us are volunteers!

The time will come when we branch out and start shooting outside events on a weekly basis, there are a lot of multi-camera events which happen in this city, and who knows whats in store??

Bring on 2007!!

Sunday, January 07, 2007

What crazy filmcrew boys do when they're bored...hehe

I filled in for my former team tonight being Francis highly energetic and youthful team 4.

It was a good fun night on filmcrew and we came back to our place afterwards, ate some delicious pizzas and watched back the shoot on the DVD to see how we went...

After that, we recorded this little wacky and highly meaningless video of ourselves for your viewing pleasure!

HB

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year to all!

Well today is the first day of 2007, which to me is quite exciting.

It's been an awesome year on crew and we've been able to film some cool things... United Live and Delirious are the 2 major ones that spring to mind but theres been so much other cool stuff we've done too. Please feel free to share any highlights you've had this year...

I already can't wait to get back into it again with my team.. it's exciting to be part of something where you can see people grow and develop both their skills and their character as a person. And i've certainly already been seeing that within my team in the short time i've been leading it and i've no doubt it will continue to happen right throughout the crew this year. We've got a great crew. God has definitely blessed us big time.

Anyway, i'm sure Francis or Joelle will be doing an official post about this soon but just so you know now, on the 16th of January there's going to be a big RVTV-only get together which will be a good chance for the entire film crew and all of our fresh new faces to meet-up and have a good night and interact with each other.. I'm not sure the activities planned yet.. but i have no doubt it will be a winner.. I believe it's being held at riverview in the auditorium.. So stay tuned!

It'd be really special if we could get every filmcrew member to attend.... so make sure you mark that date down... 16th Jan

Anyway... see everyone soon.

HB.