T is for Team, & F is for Fascinate

So last night I did my first 3 hour shift (with an hour of training beforehand) of live Video Camera work for the International House of Prayer!! I was in control of Camera #4 between 9PM and Midnight, and a lot of my shots went live for the entire world to see, and I definitely caught several of my good friends dancing their hearts out before the Lord.

Sooo much fun :) .. its awesome being apart of a team, learning experience, having a specific role, working with the other cam-operators and the producer who controls which feed to send live. Its so awesome when you hear "Cam 4, going live.." in your headset and you pan-pull across a group of singers with pressure perfect hand motion on a joystiq, and then when its all done, you fling it to the next shot to find, not even breaking a sweat, working to make the shots varied.

Lemme give you a little breakdown of what i do as Cam-Op @ the Awakening Services;

I use a remote control joystiq device to move my camera (#4) around the audotorium (about 100 yards away from the media trailer). The Joystiq has manual focus options, so theres that to keep track of as well as panning, zooming and composing your shots. Thankfully there are 4 memo buttons on the joystiq as well that you can save predetermined Camera compostions and Focus settings to, so that as you view the overall gallery of shots being fed from the operators to the producer, you can press one button and race the viewfinder back to a position that isnt being filmed in the scene.

Its mega-awesome-fun, especially when the team pulls off sweet shots, transitions and amazing moments live, set to music and on cue with speakers and crowd reactions. Its also a lot of fun when we have a static camera filming to kind of roam around and find fun filler shots of the crowd, or just notice people doing interesting or wierd things, hah. For example we noticed a guy filming on his iPhone a lot and sent security to have a word with him because thats a rule is no video taping (pictures aloud, but no flash).

- On another note I was just in the prayer room reading some homework and got particularily struck by a passage of the book, which i would like to share with you:

"The beauty of the Lord has been ordained as the occupation of god's people... We have earthly promises and mandates to be fufilled in our lifetimes. Some of us will pastor congregations, some will feed and minister to the poor, others will serve as conduits of funds to further God's purposes. While these are God-ordained assignments for the life, none of these assignments will last forever. In those roles there is a God-given measure of satisfaction, but at some point those assignments will be complete. As immortal souls operating in a mortal world, we must look for something eternal to fascinate our hearts that are designed to live forever. And we must cultivate it now."

~The Seven longings of the Human Heart,
-Mike Bickle


We must set our overall gaze on the beauty of the Lord :)