Advances in most worship presentation software packages have made it easy for us to use multiple backgrounds (video and/or still-image) within the same song. But how much is to much? What is tasteful and what is distracting?The answers aren't the same for everyone, but here are a couple general guidelines to consider (some of these are basic common sense, but I could tell you stories...):
1. Keep your motivation right. Our motivation should never be to show off the cool things we can do. It should be to help bring the congregation into worship by providing visual reinforcement of the lyrics being sung or music being played.
2. Keep to similiar styles. Within the same song, it makes sense to stay within the same style of video or image. For instance, if you are using a peaceful ocean scene behind verse one of the song, you will probably want to follow that with either another ocean scene or another peaceful scene for the chorus (if you are changing at all). Switching to, say, a graphic animation at that time would be visually jarring.
3. Keep to similiar tempos. Assuming the tempo of the song is fairly even throughout, the speed of movement in our backgrounds should also be fairly consistent, and should be in keeping with the tempo of the song.
4. Consider using transitions. Unless the song is really up-tempo, it almost always makes sense to use a crossfade transition between backgrounds. Doing so softens the visual shock that would otherwise be caused by a hard cut between backgrounds.
5. Know your congregation. For some congregations, changing backgrounds frequently is a plus - it helps them stay focused and engaged. For others, changes cause distraction, which works against our goal of true worship. You probably already have a pretty good idea of the preferred style for your church, but if you are not sure where most people in your congregation fall on the spectrum, ask them.
Is your church doing something innovative with video backgrounds? Email us your story - we would love to hear it!
