Director (and no, not Spielberg)

This weekend I have the privilege of directing the worship services at Pantano. It’s a “Students Weekend” so there are teenagers everywhere, but I don’t mind! As director, I have to make sure everything is in its place and that everyone knows all of their cues. Not as exciting as directing Indiana Jones 4, but I think I can say tonight was fun. The Sunday services will be interesting because the student worship team has never had to deal with setting up in the very short amount of time available between our traditional and main services.

I have to say, I’m impressed with the professionalism exhibited by the student worship team. They came in knowing their parts, they rehearsed without a hitch, and I didn’t hear any complaining! As an audio engineer, it’s common to hear a lot of complaining… to be fair, it’s common to complain as an audio engineer as well. Hehe. The students’ attitudes and focus on worship was unmistakable.

It’s also fun be creative director because I have at least some final authority on the creative contents of the services. I let the students bring in their own epileptic-shock-inducing background videos to display with the lyrics. Fun times! I heard a little bird say that it was too loud, but I think that’s fairly absurd, considering I was mixing the sound as I mix sound every week, and nearly every instrument was digital/electric (which means I have full control of the volume). Even so, I pulled out the ol’ dB meter just to appease the masses.

It’s nice to mix things up; a lot of pieces to my job are mind-numbingly repetitive. I think that’s why I so eagerly accept web projects (that’s the other half of my job); there’s always something new to learn and some new technology I can utilize (the audio industry has new tech, sure, but most of it will definitely break the bank). Here’s to mixing things up!