Saturday, February 1st, 2003 was the educational pre-brief overview with two of my directors to prepare me for what to expect on my 1st training day.  Even though that Tuesday was ‘just’ a Bible Study service, because everything was new to me, there was a lot of action for me to take in- especially during the opening music segment which included CG (Character Generation) operating.  Initially, my on-the-job traning Tuesday was working with the remote controlled cameras, which were kind like old-school joystick controllers.  After/As those were mastered, the next step would be to the manual controlled, tripod cameras.

As I close this post, let me suggest that if you find it tough to take direction from elders or even peers in authority, you may need to take a crash course in Submission- learning to obey what is asked of you without disregarding the directions given.  The two most common roles known in Video Production are those of Producer and Director.  Directors dialogue with camera operators on what shots to take.   In simple terms, Directors direct- they Give Directions.  Those directions are called Commands.  Commands sometimes don’t come in the softest of tones and/or sweetest forms of expression.  So, again, if you find it challenging to accept someone’s commands, check your emotional capacity to handle coarse communication before you consider a career in Video Production.

After making the decision to do Video- which was in September 2002- the first step to doing Video was to learn Video, and that was to be by Training.  After a few efforts to start training in late September- which didn’t take place for a variety of reasons- due to a training structure/schedule change that took place in October 2002, training got officially postponed until January 2003.  Since my training got postponed for 4 months, what should I do?  What would you do or have done??? . . .  Patience is usually part of the path to success.

So after remaining patient for 4 months, my official camera training started!- as a Shadow trainee observing actual camera operators, watching graphics operators, watching technical directors, watching producers, watching entire church service events/productions.  Sometimes observation is initially the best form of education.

In 2002, I chose to become a member of First Baptist Church of Glenarden (FBCG) in Landover, Maryland.  At that time, FBCG was a church of about 3,000 members and growing.  In fact, everything was growing- including the number of ministries offered/available to serve the functions of the facility and to facilitate the needs of the members and community.  After getting adjusted to joining the church, each member was encouraged to get involved in a ministry.  Because of my background and interest in audio, I approached the head of the Media Ministry to find out what was required to work them.  The head of the Media Min. made it plain to know that Commitment was the key to working in that ministry: commitment to Jesus Christ and His call for you to work in that ministry, commitment to the ministry itself being faithful in fulfilling all accepted and expected duties/services/trainings to sustain its support, and commitment to yourself to keep the perspective of church worship as the priority for your attendance and not church work in the ministry.

With those 3 commitments being things with which I had no conflict, there was only one question left to be answered that he asked me: in what part of the Media Ministry do you feel you are called to work?  that was THE PROPOSITION!  From the previous 2 (and, so far, this 1/2) posts, it would seem automatic for me to choose Audio, of course:  it’s what I’ve been doing, unofficially, for 20 years; it’s what I always wanted to officially learn/be taught; it’s my comfort zone.

In most cases, the path to your destiny does not travel through your comfort zone!  So let’s see where the path of Video has taken me…

My knowledge as an audio technician was very elementary- dubbing/mixing tapes, yes, cassette tapes that is.  This training was improved as I went from making music tapes to encourage pre-mature relational interactions, to making music tapes to encourage Christians in college to maintain their relational commitment to Jesus Christ.  As a Christian in college, living away from home on campus, I found it hard to maintain my Christianity without support.  So after having to discontinue my 1st college enrollment, I committed to helping others maintain theirs by providing them support the best way I was able to do so- through audio/music production.

This training of operating my self-appointed ‘audio ministry’ proved to be great preparation for officially operating the audio ministry at a church for almost 3 years.  At the conclusion of facilitating the church audio ministry, 9 months later, I commenced operating my own online music promotion/production company- which was in substitution of an internship, co-op, or work study since I could not find one to fit my interest (and vice versa) of “music marketing”.  So what does all of this have to do with the proposition that determined my destiny?  Next post…

My interest in video actually started with my intrigue in audio- live music events, specifically.  As one of the few and the proud Washington DC-area born natives, I was always fascinated with the homegrown live music phenomenon known as “go-go” music.  My intrigue in this live music experience was all about the band- how anywhere from 5 to 10+ members knew what to do and when to do it with, what seemed to be, minimal direction from the ‘talker’/emcee on the mic.  In conjunction with that, but on a bigger scale, I was intrigued with all that went into the “behind-the-scenes” for putting a show together.

So those two things combined are somewhat equivalent to the video aspects of:
1, any video event requiring a team to work in harmony to have a successful production and
2, the production of a video event starts with pre-production (preparations before the event) and post-production (event follow-up and follow-through afterwards).  We’ll continue this “Beginning” background in the next post.

With this blog starting in December 2008 (this intro being written spontaneously on the morning of December 17th), all entries prior to this time- especially those from January 2003 to January 2008- are written to the best of my recollection.  Once this blog is established, I hope to keep it consistently updated- at least once a week.  By chance, if, right now, you are a camera operator where I was 6 years ago, seeking guidance on how to obtain employment in media, you may want to get information sooner than later so I’ve made available to you Subscriptions to this blog.

Well, I think that’s enough of an Introduction to inform you sufficiently so you can decide if you desire to read more.  If so, let’s get to my story…