The First Methodist Church of Fort Worth Foundation provides for the long-term operation and maintenance of First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth’s facilities and programs through gifts and assets that are invested, managed, and administered with careful stewardship.

When the First Methodist Church of Fort Worth Foundation approached me, we had several meetings as a group before filming. We discussed the major points they wanted to get across, as well as the previous year’s videos.

We chose the sanctuary at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Fort Worth for the shoot. I used two soft boxes for lighting and had a simple two-camera setup for the interview. I always recommend shooting with two cameras because it gives you so much more flexibility and options when editing. By switching cameras, you can quickly eliminate simple ‘ummms’ or ‘ughs’.

For the interview, knowing what information they wanted to get across, I came up with a series of questions that would prompt the answers they were looking for. I also always start recording and then ask them a few non-work related questions to give people time to get used to being in front of the camera. While I’ve done work where people either memorize what they want to say or use a teleprompter, this method is the best way to get people feeling comfortable and the most natural.

Once filming was completed, then the editing process began. First, I put together a general layout of the best clips and then started refining and cutting out what was unnecessary. After that, I figured out if places in the video needed more explanation and where a voiceover might be helpful. In this video, a few places seemed appropriate, so I went to Voices.com and posted a job. I have always had great luck with this service because you can find fantastic voiceover talent to fit your budget. I ended up having thirteen apply for the job and chose Destiny Lavigne for the project.

After I lay down the voiceover tracks, it’s time to add the b-roll. I already had some footage of the church and started looking online to see what was out there. I got lucky for the older historical shots of the church and found some great clips at texashistory.unt.edu. The rest of my stock footage came from elements.envato.com, an excellent resource for creative professionals.

This Year End Review video was a fun project to work on, and the First Methodist Church of Fort Worth Foundation was delighted with the final result.