Where do you serve?
I work at LifeQuest Church. You can also find my personal media blog at www.joshblankenship.me.
What is your position there?
Creative Pastor.
How did you get involved in church media?
About 10 years ago I was attending a church and the pastor asked me if I would help him make a video. I had no experience doing anything like that, but i said yes. From there I taught myself Photoshop, After Effects and ProPresenter using online tutorials.
How big is your media team?
I am the only full-time paid person in the creative department. With that being said I have over twenty awesomely talented people that contribute to various aspects of the creative workflow. I have two other designers that I lean on and invest time in.
What does your setup look like?
We are a multisite site church with two current locations and others “in the works.” The trick for us is that we have two different setups! In one campus we have the standard one screen setup and at the other we have the “triple wide”. This is the biggest reason we have chosen to use Church Motion Graphics, because we get the backgrounds in standard and triple wide formats we are able to remain creative and we are not limited from location to location!
We run everything with ProPresenter. For our one screen campus, we use a 27 inch iMac with 8G of RAM. Everything is running through ProPresenter at 720p with HDMI outputs (this includes our confidence monitors for the worship team). For our “triple wide” setup we use an older Mac Pro with 16G of RAM that runs a Maxtor TripleHead2Go into 3 HDMI projectors!
What is something new your team has implemented that has helped your production?
The latest thing we are doing is using the Planning Center Online integration with ProPresenter. This has cut down the time spent imputing playlists directly into to ProPresenter
What is one piece of advice you would like to share with the CMG community?
CMG is awesome. But don’t stop there. Use the Packs and backgrounds in creative ways. ProPresenter allows you to change things like the speed, hue, and contrast. Use these tools to create the mood you are looking for!
How has the CMG Monthly Pack impacted your ministry?
I used to spend hours every week creating my own backgrounds in After Effects, because I didn’t like spending the money on individual motions. Thanks to CMG I am able to direct that time elsewhere and still get the quality results that I am after!
How can people find you online?
I’m on Twitter @jdb_creative and Instagram @JoshBlankenship.
