But God...............

This is a blog about my recent trip to Sri Lanka to Produce and Direct a Joyce Meyer event that was broadcast LIVE on GOD TV. I write it for 3 reasons:

- To simply tell you what happened so you can maybe learn what to expect if you are involved in similar endeavours
- To amuse you by the tale I tell and by what we ended up doing and how no one died :-)
- To show you how good God is and that despite the problems how He will come through as you trust Him and don’t rely on your own skill and abilities. And sometimes even surprise you when you don’t expect it.

OK, so where to start? Well let me tell you as a way of introduction that this is certainly not a new experience for me. I have produced LIVE and pre-recorded multi camera productions in many places around the world – and ALL have been challenging in different ways – India, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda to name a few of the more challenging locations. I knew at the start this was likely to be a challenge which was one of the main reasons I went rather than sending one of my lesser experienced producers as this was an important and historic event and I wanted it to have the best chance to succeed possible – not to say it’s all about me BUT God has blessed me with an ability to work calmly in these kind of situations and I believe through that to get the job done and see the production succeed. In fact that is one of the major keys for me in these situations to achieve what at times will seem impossible TRUST GOD AND DON’T LOSE YOUR COOL! It’s amazing how much more you can achieve when you DON’T start shouting at people (however tempting) or resorting to killing them – equally as tempting at times – in fact I have seen personally that when others are in these situations and they resort of anger and frustration that simply rubs off on the people around and they close down and any help you may have got from them leaves – meaning you are in an even worse situation. The other thing that goes hand in glove with this is that TV is about team work and you need all the members of the team working together to accomplish the job – start shouting and you rapidly destroy the team dynamic – so don’t – go home and kick the cat if you need to (in fact do that anyway – I hate cats!!) but keep your cool.

As I stated this was an important production for GOD TV – we had been trying to do a LIVE broadcast with Joyce Meyer from an “exotic” location for a few years and had come close before BUT for various reasons that I won’t detail it never quite came together – but this one did. We were keen, they were keen and we had money available in the country to make it happen – all the ingredients were there – we just had to pull it off – which we knew would not be easy. We had never done a LIVE event from Sri Lanka before and our office who were there and would be helping us with the on the ground logistics also were new to this – so we knew at the start it would be a challenge.

We started on the process in December and I have to say our planning was not helped by the Christmas break. Our first task was to find a company in Sri Lanka who we could work with who had the equipment we needed for the broadcast. We quickly saw there were not many people who had – bringing in people and equipment from outside was not viable as this all had to be paid for locally for it to be viable. We ended up contacting a local company called TV Lanka – who are a broadcaster and had the Uplink capabilities etc. we needed and said they could get the TV gear we needed for the OB – so we let them put a package together – I thought it was their equipment BUT it wasn’t they were only providing the uplink. Now we were working through a 3rd party – never a good thing.

Certainly the uplink end of things we felt they could deliver on BUT we were not sure on the TV gear. Then Christmas came – and communication ceased. We got an initial equipment list BUT it was old gear that didn’t really deliver what we needed – then when for the week after New Year we heard nothing from them despite firing off multiple questions we decided to look elsewhere. We soon came across MTV in Sri Lanka who had BOTH the TV gear and the uplink facilities – they had a full 40 ft TV truck and we felt MUCH happier. So everything was confirmed – these were the people we would use – and we still had not heard anything from TV Lanka. I have to say had we used them I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog as things would have gone much smoother.

But it wasn’t to be – we ran into a problem. The location of the event was right by an army base and so we needed special permission to park trucks etc. on the site – and they would NOT grant one to MTV whose programming and content the Government did not approve of – so this was a no go. We later found out that the person responsible for providing the TV gear for TV Lanka was also the person liaising on security and permits etc with the government – set up maybe?

So we were back to TV Lanka who suddenly started communicating with us again. We went through equipment needs – 6 Cameras, all with CCUs - yes, a separate audio desk with 36 channels of active splits for the stage – yes, 2 jibs – one 40 ft and another 30 ft – yes, full crew etc – yes. OK so we have a solution. The next stage I wanted was to arrange a test on the satellite link – this was arranged for a few days prior to the event so if there was a problem we had time to resolve it THANKFULLY as there was indeed a problem. The space segment was booked by our usual people and passed onto TV Lanka who assured us they could broadcast to that satellite – which they did – apparently they nearly knocked it out the sky with the strength of the signal they put up (I exaggerate of course) BUT it resulted in many enquiries and lots of recriminations and our usual provider refusing to book space for us IF TV Lanka were doing the uplink insisting it was booked by Lanka TV so they had the responsibility if it all went wrong. So TV Lanka booked the space (now on a different satellite) and assured us all would be OK and we booked another test for the day before. However communication was not great and it took MANY attempts to get the full info from them but finally we did and I have to say overall this part of the deal was pretty smooth – we did have some satellite issues the 2nd day of the broadcast which I still don’t know the reason for but overall this ended up being the least problematic bit.

Moving onto the event itself, I got into the country as I always try to do the day prior to the broadcast, had a meeting with the guys supplying the TV gear at the site and went through some final details – including moving the “on site” time back from 10am to 8am (the event started at 6:30pm) to give us maximum time and then went off to bed – wondering what the following day would bring.......

Well, I decided to get to the site at 10am as I thought that would give them plenty of time to get the truck in place and powered up and start running the cables – wrong!! They were not there. LOTS of phone calls chasing up etc. with the usual reply of 10 minutes – that went on for the next 2 hours the OB rolled in at 12noon – I’d lost 4 hours of set up time.

So, let’s get the cables run then eh? Well from what I could tell they had about 8 people dedicated to setting up the jibs (more on that in a moment) and just 2 to do everything else!! And no one else to be seen. I knew by now this was going to be painful. Also, on the jibs – we did get the 40 ft one BUT not the 30, instead a small 10 ft studio jib showed up and we were told (again after lots of chasing) the other 30 ft would only be there tomorrow. Oh and after working for 1 hour 45 minutes they all went off to lunch – that nearly resulted in me losing it completely.

At about 2:30pm the people supplying the audio equipment arrived – they had the desk and a 12 channel splitter NOT the 36 that was promised – so we knew there and then that separate outputs would not be possible – very quickly one of Joyce’s audio techs offered a solution (not perfect) BUT we would have sound – he would give us group outputs of the band and the speech mics as separate feeds and we would run in our ambience as planned – at least it got us going BUT we’d lost more time trying to figure it all out. And for whatever reason the ambience was only run in right at the last minute and I’m not even sure they used it!

By about 4:30pm the cameras started arriving – and oh dear – they were nice cameras Panasonic HD cameras and a couple of Sonys - but all Camcorders NOT studio type cameras – no CCUs' tallies, returns etc. now I started wondering if we would have a show tonight this was NOT good BUT again – trust God Graeme!! There were other issues we had to sort on the cameras as we went along but I’d be writing a book if I went into all of that – oh and of course the cameras didn’t have any remotes, top boxes etc.

So things were not going particularly well – we were by now up on the satellite (I had booked a LOT of line up time thankfully). On the audio side I don’t know why they had wired it this way but the feeds from the front of house desk went into one desk – then it came out of that desk and into another desk and then to the satellite – I never managed to get an answer on why this was so, but for sure it was too late now to change it – however it did give us some major problems with levels and stereo etc. I still don’t know if we broadcast stereo or as I suspect stereo mono – I also had to phone our UK sound supervisor to find out how to generate tone for our line up as the audio engineer on site didn’t know – however even once we got it didn’t seem much use as it was way too high and only on one channel.

BUT we finally had a signal and could broadcast.

The rest of that night was interesting – we ran into the following problems during the broadcast:

- 2 of the cameras suffered intermittent faults on the cables and kept breaking up – not surprising as it was just basic co-ax they were using VERY flimsy
- The comms were suspect and I am not sure if half the time anyone was hearing me or maybe they simply couldn’t understand – but I only occasionally got the shots I was looking for – and without tallies or returns the cameras often moved when they were on etc.
- The audio levels and mix were all over the place – the guy running the desk seemed clueless – but we had sound and it (mostly) wasn’t distorted.
We got through the programme – by all accounts from the people watching - it came across OK – which was good considering the problems and chaos that seemed to be going on behind the scenes.

I went to bed that night exhaustedly frustrated BUT thankful that God still had come through.
The 2nd day was MUCH better – even though the crew and everyone still turned up 2 hours later than the agreed time it actually went pretty smoothly – we even had time to get the Joyce Meyer audio tech to come and do a balance on the feeds we were getting and it sounded SO much better. They also resolved the cable faults on the cameras and we got the other 30 ft jib. Even though it was NON CCU controlled cameras the overall pictures looked pretty good – and I have to say seeing thousands of hands go up in response to the Gospel was really cool – always makes it worth it.

We had great response from viewers throughout the world and so overall I was pleased with what we had achieved – despite the challenges and after all the crew we had been working with (many were Buddhists) were all keen to shake hands and pose for photos with the white guy – well the red faced guy who had stupidly got sunburnt the first day........................... waiting for them to show up.

A couple of things to pass on in terms of tips – that were vital for me – as well as the most important one mentioned above of keep your cool.

- Show respect to people at all times - they are trying to help so let them much better to have them on your side than against you.
- When in doubt and you need help ASK – even if it means calling the other side of the world, or having an experienced guy come and do a mix for you – admitting YOUR limitations is a good thing.
- Always always always have someone on your side and at your side who speaks their language BUT has your interests as their priority – many of the crew didn’t speak English at all and having David (who runs our office in Sri Lanka) and Booshen (who helps him on techie stuff) was invaluable – really not sure this would have happened without them.
- Know that God is in control – do everything to give him as much help as you can but trust Him with the results – and then watch him come through.

This was one of the more challenging shoots I’ve done for sure BUT I am pleased we achieved it and I know lives will have been changed through it – THAT is what makes it worth it and why I will gladly do it again and again and again despite all the frustrations.

Now here’s a side bar that really illustrates the title of this blog of “But God......”

TV Lanka in order to win back the business also agreed to pull the GOD TV signal down and re-broadcast it across Sri Lanka on their terrestrial channels – 2 of them – meaning the Nation of Sri Lanka had access to this event LIVE on their TV’s as well – not just the thousands who turned up to the event (which people said was one of the biggest crowds for an event ever) – BUT we only found out after when talking to the owner that TV Lanka ONLY broadcasts Buddhist content – it’s the premier Buddhist channel in the Nation (which is 70% Buddhist) – so the Gospel was broadcast for 2 nights LIVE across this predominantly Buddhist Nation on TV – and for nothing – now if that’s not God smiling on our endeavours I don’t know what is – I’m still buzzed by that!!!!

The Baghdad Blog - Part 2

In the second part of this three part blog on our recent trip to Baghdad I want to concentrate on the Church we spent most of our time filming and the incredible believers we met while we were in Baghdad.

St. Georges is in the Red Zone in Baghdad – about a 5 minute drive from the Green Zone. I have to say I had no sense of Geography while we were there, I couldn’t tell you where in relation to “downtown” Baghdad the Church is located – in fact I couldn’t even say if Baghdad has a downtown. I do know however that the Church is in an area mainly surrounded by Government buildings which means 2 things, one, it has more protection around it (probably) than it would if it wasn’t and two it also means its more in the firing line than it would be otherwise. A couple of years ago there was a bomb attack just outside the walls of the church compound, blowing out all the windows of the church (including the original stained glass ones) and causing considerable damage both to the church and the clinic next door – in fact it pretty well wrecked the clinic. I don’t know if the bomb was targeted at the church OR the government offices – but either way it was not good for St Georges.

Just to give a little flavour of how difficult things have become for Believers in Iraq, you have to look back a little. Up to the fall of Saddam, being a Christian was relatively easy. Saddam even had a number of Christians in his cabinet (because he could trust them not to stab him in the back) and because Saddam himself came from a “minority” group he made a point to protect the other minorities in the country – including the Christians. However all this changed when he was overthrown. It is now MUCH harder being a Christian in the country and indeed, MANY Christians have fled the country or moved to the north where things are easier for them. Since the fall of Saddam, there have been frequent attacks on Christians and Churches culminating in the attack on the Assyrian Church in Baghdad last October when over 50 Christians were callously gunned down or blown to pieces when they went to their Sunday service. The one good thing to come out of that however was that it did force the religious groups (Muslims and Christians) to get together and issue a joint “Fatwah” declaring that attacks on Christians (and indeed all minorities) were to stop – and generally this has made the situation easier – though still far from easy!!

So, that’s how life is generally for Christians – and yet, life for them goes on. Now for a little background on St Georges and Andrew’s work there. Generally speaking, it operates in a way that would be recognisable in most Anglican churches throughout the world – in fact one of the things Andrew is keen on emphasising is that this is a “normal” church – it has prayer meetings, youth meetings, conducts weddings, baptisms etc. and sits under the auspices of the Bishop of Cyprus – who also (I was pleased to find out) visits on occasions. However there is generally where the similarities with Western churches end. This is NOT Church as we know it. The cost of keeping St Georges running is around $177,000 per MONTH!! (this went up $2,000 in the time we were there – due to demands for more medicine for the clinic). Why so expensive you may ask? Well there are a number of reasons – for instance the cost of security. The Church compound is surrounded by high walls, barbed wire and has armed guards stationed on the gateway into the complex 24/7 – to get in to the church you have to go through their checkpoint and have your vehicles checked for bombs etc. Also, the church operates a free clinic to all comers – included in this service is a dentists, 2 doctors, pharmacy and also a laboratory – where they can do all their own blood tests, develop new treatments etc. and as I said it is all FREE to anyone who needs it – as there is little else for the Baghdad population. In fact it is the largest clinic in Baghdad treating hundreds of people every week – quite an achievement and a major part of their outreach in the community. Also, they have a comprehensive feeding programme, providing food for over 4000 people a week who cannot afford basic necessities – this isn’t just for the Church members and Christians but also many Muslims who are not being taken care of by their own “religious” leaders – again this is a major outreach to the community – and you often see many of the Muslims in the Church during the service. They are also in the process of building a school – which they plan to have opened later in summer – this will be a tremendous addition to the work they are doing in the community as there are MANY kids around. All of this however takes lots and lots of cash – and that is one of Andrew’s biggest frustrations – he has to leave the church frequently to travel to other parts of the world to raise the support he needs to continue the work at St Georges – he would much rather not have to do that PLUS when you think he has Multiple Sclerosis travelling for him is no fun at all – but it is necessary or most of the crucial work would stop due to a lack of finance.

As hopefully you can appreciate from the above being a Believer in Baghdad is NOT easy – and yet the church is usually filled every service with overflow rooms operating, a very busy Sunday school and women’s meetings (the Mothers Union) also well attended. When you consider that in order to GET to church these people have to travel some very dangerous roads, have their vehicles checked and be searched on the way into the church compound – attending services is not an easy process. Even the 18 buses the church use to collect and transport people to church are subject to the same treatment. I often think I’ve done well to arrive at Church before the end of the first song – these people have to aim to be there anything up to 2 hours prior just to ensure they get a seat AFTER going through all the security checks!! There is a real commitment and love for their church.

The other couple of things that become obvious about the Believers here are that everyone has a story to tell of how their lives have been impacted by the trouble in their country. We spoke to many people who had either lost loved ones who had been killed, or who had to move due to threats of violence against them – the troubles in Iraq have not left many people unscathed, one of the most touching was meeting a guy who carries around in his wallet pictures of his 2 children (not unusual for a father you might think) until you see the photos and realise they are pictures of his children lying in pools of blood with a bullet hole in their heads – dead. It is VERY sobering and truly makes you realise just what being a Christian in Iraq can cost. The other thing you notice very quickly is that there are MANY MANY more women and children than men – the simple fact is that most of the men have been killed!! I’ll tell you the stories are simply heartbreaking.

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT and I really cannot stress this ENOUGH – the incredible, amazing, awesome thing is that there is so much JOY and LIFE in the Believers – their eyes physically sparkle and their faces shine as they tell you about their Jesus, who He is to them, the life He gives them, the hope they have in Him – they really are radiant. It is the most wonderful thing – these people LOVE God with all their hearts DESPITE the challenges they have they literally glow when they tell you what being a Christian means to them – it was so incredibly humbling for all of us to see this and realise just how lack lustre our Faith is in comparison. They also have many stories to tell of Jesus talking to them, warning them, guiding them etc. To encourage you, let me just quickly share two of them. One was told us by a guy who works in the clinic. He told us of the time when he was studying at University and this particular morning was on his way into the campus. He heard a voice in his head (which he knew was Jesus) telling him to not go into his usual entrance BUT instead go into the building a different way – one which was a considerable distance out of his way – he tried to ignore it, but the voice persisted until he gave in. JUST as he was entering the building a bomb went off at the entrance he usually used – killing many – he knew Jesus had re-directed him. The other story involves Andrew himself. One of the young people in the church came up to him one evening when he was planning on going out to a meeting and told him not to go. Like all of us would do, Andrew ignored it at first and said he had to go, however the guy was VERY insistent that Andrew MUST not go – that Jesus had told him, so in the end Andrew didn’t go. Good job because there was a bomb attack – and all those who had gone to the meeting were killed. These guys REALLY know how to hear from God – they have to their very LIVES depend on it!!

Our few days there really did have a powerful impact on us, we were treated SO well, really taken care of by Andrew’s staff and it was an amazing time just meeting the Believers – one that I hope impacts me for many years to come – the LIFE these people have is not easy and yet they are SHINING brightly for their Lord and Saviour and truly put us to shame – this is somewhere that Faith matters and where their Faith can be a matter of life and death – one person we met summed this up more than anyone, his name was Toma (not his real name – the reason for which will become clear).

Toma is in line to become a VERY powerful tribal chief once his father dies. The family are staunch Muslims and very powerful people in the hierarchy of Iraq. Toma was working for the US forces as a translator – however for some reason that he still doesn’t know (other than he puts it down to Jesus) he was put in prison for no reason – in fact he was never told why. He spent over a year in prison, during which time as a good Muslim he prayed to his god to help him – however he got no response. Eventually when this wasn’t working, he asked one of the US guards for a Bible – he asked for an English bible as he knew the people he was in prison with couldn’t read English BUT would kill him if he got one in Arabic. He started reading this and eventually started praying to Jesus and that was when things started changing. In a short space of time his circumstances completely changed and he was soon released from prison – he knew it was his prayers to Jesus that had changed things. Once he was released he wanted to find out more about this Jesus and decided he wanted to follow Him – one of the American soldiers put him in contact with Andrew White. He went to see Andrew and told him he wanted to follow Jesus. Now, basically when a Muslim converts to Christianity in Iraq they are signing their death warrant if anyone finds out. Andrew has baptised 13 Muslims who became Christians – 11 of them have been killed very soon after, Toma is one of the remaining 2. Andrew explained all this to him and he still chose to be baptised, so Andrew baptised him there and then. We had the honour to meet Toma and film him as he told his story (from behind so no one could see him) however I did have the pleasure of watching him as he told his story and his whole face was a light with the Glory of God – it was a remarkable site, and I for one was in tears at one point where he said that while he had no desire to die, that if he were to die because of his Faith in Jesus he would consider that the greatest of honours – WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still feel chocked as I am typing this now – never have I met someone like this who so powerfully sums up how important Jesus is and His life changing power.

I really don’t have much more to say or to add – I believe Toma’s story speaks volumes of the Believer’s in Iraq – this is a Nation where their Faith could cause them to die and yet they are so joyful, lovely, peaceful and some of the most life filled bunch I have ever had the honour and privilege to meet. The work that Andrew is doing out there, meeting the practical needs of BOTH Christians and non- Christians is incredible and I thoroughly commend it. BUT it is the Glory and Presence of God in His people that shines forth so brightly that is the most amazing thing – and that experience I found life-changing – there is something so beautiful about Jesus in these people that my words would never do it justice – but trust me when I say this GOD is there in ways we in the west could only hope for – until we fully understand what our Faith means and it becomes as important as breathing to us (as it is for them) – these wonderful Iraqi Believers will always have things to teach us – and I am incredibly blessed to have had the chance to learn from them.

The Baghdad Blog - Part 1

This is the first of 3 Blogs I intend to write on my recent simply amazing visit to Baghdad. This one will focus primarily on my impressions of the place, the people and the overall “environment” we experienced during my time there. The second will be more specific to the people we met at Canon Andrew White’s Church, my impressions of them and the general “spiritual” climate PLUS a little about Andrew’s work and the third (if you can get that far) will be more around filming and producing content in these kind of situations. Whether you choose to read one or all three my hope is you find them entertaining, a good read AND there is something in them you can take away. Please humour me if you think it’s a bit long – because I really want to do the trip justice.

So here we go, let me start off with the framework for our visit and who came with me. GOD TV has for many years been financially supporting the work of Andrew White and the church in Baghdad and we went to tell the story of the incredible ministry that is going on there. PLUS in June, GOD TV is planning on running a series of programmes focusing on the Middle East and raising finance towards GOD TV’s plans for the region – the tithe of which will all go to St. George’s Church in Baghdad – so we want to show our viewers where the money will go. I was joined on this trip by 3 other GOD TV people; Rory Alec, the CEO and Co-founder, Bo Sander, one of the Senior Management Team at GOD TV and Dan Woodrow, who is GOD TV’s senior cameraman – out of these ONLY Bo had been to Baghdad before. For those involved with TV, you’ll notice there is one glaring omission from the list – and that is a soundman, regrettably we were told 4 was the maximum number we could take and whilst I tried VERY hard to persuade them to sacrifice me for the soundman it was to no avail – in hindsight something I am INCREDIBLY grateful for. BUT it did mean as well as producing, I was also responsible for recording the sound – no one has YET screamed at me, so I think it must have been OK.

The planning for this trip dates back to the beginning of March when Rory, Bo and I met with Andrew and his people at a hotel at Heathrow – as usual I was on the way somewhere else so this worked great. They stressed to us at the time two things, firstly our trip was totally dependent on them getting the necessary visas for us and secondly the need for security – no one could know (beyond close friends and family) where we were going and VERY importantly when we were going. The MOST dangerous times in Baghdad are when you are travelling around – and it is vital you don’t give away your plans. In fact so much so that in the time we were there the plans for even short 5 minute trips were changed a number of times so that if there is anyone passing on information to the “bad guys” you keep them guessing as much as you can.

Well, the Visas came through (which was our confirmation) and off we went. We all met up the day prior in Amman in Jordan (there are no direct flights to Baghdad from Heathrow – surprisingly) and had an overnight in a hotel there before catching the morning flight into Baghdad. The first thing to say was we were all VERY apprehensive – this was not a “jolly” and certainly not something we undertook lightly. Baghdad is probably the most dangerous place on the planet at the moment and not somewhere we would choose to go for sure, BUT I think all of us felt we were supposed to go – certainly if I hadn’t had a peace about going I would not have gone. This was confirmed for all of us at breakfast in Amman before we headed off to the airport. Rory prayed for us as a team, basically proclaiming Psalm 91 over us – I know BOTH Dan and my wife’s prayer life over these 4 days consisted of that Psalm a LOT. It is an incredible promise of God’s protection, and as Rory prayed ALL of us felt a real peace AND a profound sense of God’s presence with us – it was simply wonderful, kind of like God’s thumbprint on the trip.

Nonetheless, when we were later landing at Baghdad there was still a major sense of apprehension – I don’t believe we ever felt afraid BUT certainly there were lots of nerves.

The first thing that struck me when we arrived is an incredible lack of people at the airport. I travel a lot and regularly spend time at airports – I don’t think I have ever been to one where the security people outnumbered the passengers – it was very strange. Thankfully Andrew and his guys met us at the airport and showed us into our vehicles – there were 2, Rory and Bo went with Andrew in one and Dan and I were in the other. We then drove out of the airport. Leaving Baghdad airport is strange as it is a secure area with fences, walls etc. all around for quite a distance from the terminal and there is NO ONE on the road other than you – very helpful when you are travelling at the kind of speeds we were. You drive for around 5 minutes before you reach the perimeter of the airport. It was here that we were met by our security detail.

Baghdad is basically divided into 2 areas, the Green Zone – which is where all the embassies, foreign nationals, government buildings etc. are and the Red Zone – which is everywhere else. The Red Zone is dangerous and is where virtually all the suicide bombings etc. happen as even though there is LOTS of security everywhere; people can still get around and travel – both “normal” people and the “bad guys”.

Whenever we were outside the Green Zone (which was most of the time as Andrew’s church is OUT of the Green Zone) we always had a security detail with us. These are private security guards and usually consisted of 2 pickup trucks, one that drove in front of us clearing the way and one behind – the pickup trucks BOTH had an armoured plated turret in the back and there were 5 heavily armed guards in both trucks – so 10 in total. This is obviously designed (and worked, clearly) to keep us safe – BUT I must say it is somewhat intimidating to have that many armed people around you. However whenever we were out and about they were with us and as you’ll see in the photos when we were filming out in the Red Zone formed a protective perimeter around us.

Back to the Journey into Baghdad (and don’t worry this isn’t going to be a blow by blow account of the entire 4 days – this is simply trying to put into words my first impressions). The road we were on (from the airport to the Green Zone) is apparently the most dangerous road in Baghdad. Our driver took great delight in pointing out where 3 car bombs had been detonated the week before – killing many!! So we drove along here VERY quickly. There were virtually no other vehicles (other than army and police) on the road and I have to say I wondered if that was normal in Baghdad – people simply didn’t go out. However I later discovered two things, firstly this is a very dangerous road and ONLY goes from the airport to the Green Zone, so not well travelled by the “locals” and secondly this was Friday – which is the first day of their weekend – so a lot of people were at home or prayers etc. I have to say, the other days when we were out and about in the Red Zone we came across a lot more people and traffic – and even got stuck a few times in traffic jams – so I can tell you people are getting on with their lives despite the day to day challenges they face. Talking of traffic jams – if we ever felt particularly nervous it was when stuck in a traffic jam, you realised there were hundreds of people all around you any of whom COULD want to cause you harm and if anyone of the cars around you had a bomb in it – that could be over and out – it was quite a disconcerting feeling as you were completely at the mercy of any crazies out there – we were very glad when the traffic started moving again.

One of the things that particularly struck me in the time I was there was the incredible level of security people have to live with on a daily basis. Pretty well every street corner had either an armoured car with soldiers and machine guns, or a police vehicle – again with machine guns – it really is like nowhere else I have ever been in my life. And the other thing is even after 3 days there I still didn’t have a clue who was who – you have army, police, private security and I’m sure others as well BUT despite all this people get on with life as best they can. Even in the Green Zone – which can take forever to get into as you have to pass through at least 3 checkpoints – each time having your ID checked and the car checked for bombs etc. and sometimes you even have to get out and get patted down – but after ALL that, even in the Green Zone there is security EVERYWHERE – tanks, cars, police and soldiers with guns still on every street corner – and although you are free to move around you can still be moved on by the army, as we were twice when we tried to stop and film – it is just bizarre and still feels like a war zone.

The other thing is that it is now entirely policed and controlled by the Iraqi army and police. You do still see US forces, but mainly only guarding their embassy OR assisting/observing the locals at checkpoints etc. Now, here’s an interesting aside – make NO mistake the US have absolutely NO intention of leaving the place and you just KNOW they will be involved behind the scenes pulling the strings for many years to come. How do you know? Well their “new embassy” cost $1 BILLION to build – yes, that’s true (unconfirmed reports say up to $6 BILLION) it even goes 16 floors underground!! Now, here’s the thing, the second biggest embassy in Iraq is the British – we have 400 staff there which is a lot for an embassy. Guess how many are in the US embassy (which is the biggest) – the internet says over 5000!! However Andrew told us (and he should know, he oversees the US embassy chaplaincy) it is actually 39,000!!! And that’s just the embassy NOT the US army in Iraq!!

I digress, anyway, the only place we really went to in the Green Zone was Dojo’s diner – which is a strange place, kind of like an American Diner, but run by a German and American and mainly employing Philippinos – but the food was fine (and safe) and the beer was always cold – so what more could you want  As far as I could judge it is the ONLY restaurant in the Green Zone and certainly busy most of the time – if you’re ever in Baghdad, it’s worth checking out – BUT note the locator on Trip Advisor (yes it is on Trip Advisor) isn’t accurate as that way it won’t have rockets and mortars fired at it – a regular occurrence for places in the Green Zone.

In the Green Zone, pretty well everyone is either an ex pat, embassy staff OR local government employee – so (other than the risks of rocket and mortar attacks) it’s pretty safe – outside the Green Zone is a whole other story!! The other thing worth saying at this point is Baghdad feels like one massive building site, there are broken buildings and rubble everywhere – most from the war but there is a LOT of building work being done here and you sense it will go on for quite a while – this is true in both Green and Red Zones.
We only drove around outside the Green Zone twice (other than when we were driving to the Green Zone) or to the airport as put simply it isn’t safe!! In terms of filming, we were able to stop ONLY once to film, and this was at the famous square where they pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein – we had 5 minutes here before our security detail insisted that we left – and trust me, you do what they tell you!! We wanted to film outside the Church where last year gunmen killed 58 (or there abouts) Christians who were gathered for their Sunday service which is not far from that point – but the security guys said no. Getting around and about for us was not easy, I can only imagine what it is like for the average Iraqi with ID checks everywhere and everyone suspicious all the time.

Overall we felt safe, nervous at times – BUT really had a tremendous sense of God’s Presence with us at all times NOT JUST when we were in the Church Compound (more about that on the 2nd blog) but everywhere we went. I can’t say I enjoyed my time there – though there were MANY things about being there I did enjoy (again see the next blog) but I am certainly glad I went and I think we all had a sense of fulfilling destiny by going – PLUS it meant a great deal to our Brothers and Sisters at the Church for us to go and be with them for a few short days. A few of them Dan and I got to know reasonably well, despite the language barrier – they don’t speak good English and my Arabic was nonexistent before going – I now know 3 words (forgive the spellings) Shukran – Thank You; Marko Mushkilah – Of Course, No Problem and Siddiki – My Friend. BUT meeting them and spending time with them was by far and away the highlight of the trip and that will be the main focus of Part 2 of this Blog.

So, what are my closing thoughts for this Blog – well, Baghdad is like nowhere else I have ever been, and I don’t think what I have written above will even do it justice, BUT I was very glad to have had the chance to go – and to come away again. I already had tremendous respect for Andrew before going – NOW, I am in awe, this is his life, he truly loves these people (not just his congregation BUT the people of Iraq) and the place and he knows that he knows that he knows he is 100% where the Lord wants him RIGHT NOW – and so has the Grace to do it and live there despite the challenges – how many of us as Believer’s can say the same?

The other thing that I want to stress is that we in the west HAVE NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT AND NO LEG TO STAND ON WHEN IT COMES TO PERSECUTION (we might think sometimes as Christians we are persecuted but we are NOT!!) – these people do and yet they rise above it and still worship God with all their hearts – they are an example to us all and I was incredibly humbled to share 3 days with them – I can honestly say I would go back (if I know it was of God) in a heartbeat JUST to be with them – GOD IS THERE IN A VERY REAL AND TANGIBLE WAY THAT I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED ANYWHERE ELSE!!

The Broadcaster and Producer Relationship

I was recently reading an article that got me thinking a little more. The article was about the impact of the new rules on product placement on UK TV and how the money generated is to be split. A brief look at the history of the way TV works in the UK soon reveals that producers are paid by broadcasters to produce content they want and then broadcaster use this content to generate ad sales around the programmes to cover their costs. That is VERY simplistic - but generally that’s the way it has been. More recently producers have owned the IP (Intellectual Property) in the programmes they have made and been able to sell/license the content outside of the relationship with the broadcaster and get a much larger slice of any sales than the broadcaster who footed the bill for the original content. However producers up to this point have NEVER had access to any of the funds the broadcasters have generated through ad sales and programme sponsorship as they have been the exclusive domain of the broadcasters – now that is about to change.

With the new rules on product placement, suddenly the producers can get a slice of that action – as they HAVE to be involved from the outset with product placement in the programmes they are airing – the big question being debated is what that slice should be.

The thing though in the article that really caught my attention was a line where the journalist was describing a recent panel that “proclaimed” sitting around the table we have all the people needed to make product placement successful! They had Producers, Ad Sales teams, Marketers, Sales Agents etc. BUT no broadcaster in sight – so yes they could do a deal BUT they had no outlet for any of the content generated – so no one would see the programmes so no one would be reached.

This all got me thinking about the relationship generally between broadcasters and producers and how BOTH need each other to be successful. Let me say at this point I am slightly unusual in that I have a role as BOTH a producer and a broadcaster – so perhaps I am well qualified to speak into this. I have my own TV Production Company (Cloak Productions) and we make TV and video content for anyone who pays us. BUT I also have a consultancy role with GOD TV, heading up their production team and working with the Network on content to broadcast – both produced in house and by 3rd party producers.
In this “mixed” position – I can categorically state BOTH sides need the other and here’s why.

Producers generally have the ideas, and the abilities to turn those ideas into reality – PLUS they will sometimes have the business sense needed to get those ideas paid for – whether by the broadcasters of other funders – they can often make this work. Broadcasters on the other hand are able to deliver the one vital ingredient that producers can’t – an audience to watch the programmes.

Recently I have had increasing discussions with people about where TV viewing is going and what is happening with the advent of the Internet as a new means of distribution. Let me say up front that I am a BIG fan of the internet and I really believe it has a great future in terms of content distribution BUT it also has (currently) major limitations – the biggest one is how do people find your content amongst the Gazillion other programmes that are available? For every massive success with millions of “views” there are many many more that simply never make it – despite the quality of the product.

Broadcasters however have no such problem. While TV audiences maybe not what they were in terms of the actual numbers of people watching each programme – normal TV consumption is actually still increasing – the reduction in number is NOT because people are watching less TV (and more on the internet) – its actually because there is now such a wealth of content out there that people are watching what they WANT not just what is available as it was in the days of only having 2 or 3 channels to choose from.

This to me means it is even more critical that broadcasters and producers work together to deliver content that matches BOTH what the producer’s vision is BUT equally as important what the broadcaster perceives their viewers will watch – no longer will people just watch what you give them – now if they don’t like it they can turn over. It never cease to surprise me when with me “broadcaster” hat on I have discussions with producers who seem to think that my suggestions on how they could “tweak” their ideas so it works on our platform see to think it is an affront to their creativity – this is my fundamental point it has to be a partnership!

I really hope that in the Christian marketplace (my main area of involvement and interest) that this is indeed where we are headed. I am hopeful that increasingly producers and broadcasters are working together on projects to deliver a joint vision that meets the needs of both of them but even more critically the needs of the viewers – I do see – still only in the beginning form but it is there.

Producers – you need broadcasters, they can help you develop projects that will appeal to broader audiences AND when they do – they will get behind these and promote the heck out of them to ensure that the maximum audience is reached – talk to them as early on in the process as possible – they know their audiences MUCH better than you do.

Broadcasters – you need producers, they can supply you with fresh innovative ideas and can deliver them – BUT work with them to ensure you get what you want – also find out what your USP’s as a broadcaster are – don’t just do what everyone else in your market place is doing – find out what your audience is looking for and tailor the content you air accordingly. THEN make sure the producers know who they are producing for.

It is my firm belief that traditional TV broadcasting will be around for a good while yet and that it will continue to deliver the best access to audiences that producers can hope for. BUT I also believe that audiences will become more fragmented – gravitating to content and channels that match their desires and expectations and that unless the broadcasters and producers work more closely than they have been the content will become increasingly uninteresting to the viewers – work together, you will achieve WAY more by doing so.

I hope this is of interest – if you are a producer, I’d love to hear how you think by working with broadcasters you can reach more people with your content – or maybe you are a broadcaster – then tell me how you work with producers to ensure their content matches the needs of your audiences.

Music music music

So this is my second blog in a short (ish) space of time – after quite an absence. The main reason you have not heard much from me is that it has been a busy period recently and finding the time to write has not been easy PLUS when I started into blogging I decided that I’d only “blog” when I had something to say. Anyway, what I’d like to talk about in this blog is to take you behind the scenes of how to cover a music event on TV. I do love music and I love producing and directing events that are geared around it – they always feel great to be involved in.

So far this year (and last) I’ve had the joy of covering a good number of music events – both from a directing and producing viewpoint and have loved each and every one of them.

They have also all been quite different. The Big Church Day Out for example was an open air “festival” style event that didn’t broadcast LIVE and instead will broadcast on GOD TV in the weeks ahead (its currently in the final stages of the edit) for me it encapsulated everything I think good music coverage should be – it had great bands, energetic performances (vital for music to work on TV – there really is nothing worse than when a bad performance lets down what in every other way is great coverage) and a LIVE crowd that lapped it up – plus the weather was pretty good too – always helpful for outdoor gigs. Fuel on the other had did go out LIVE and while the crowds on site were much smaller that BCDO I felt for TV the event was just as strong as the music was great and it also looked really good too.

The other major music event recently (well semi recently as it was around a year ago) was the Angel Mission Benefit Concert – however the aim of this was somewhat different as it wasn’t a “concert” but rather a fund raiser and for me from a TV perspective this was a balance we struggled to hit and I think we became more focused on the fund raising and less on the concert to the detriment of the broadcast. Don’t get me wrong we had some good content and it looked great – including a LIVE drill for water beamed from Kenya plus good interviews and lots of BUZZ on the ground – but I don’t think we had enough of the “concert” element. As a viewer if I was going to watch this, it’s the music that would draw me – hit me occasionally with the message BUT let me experience the music – that’s what made LIVE Aid etc. so successful – you experienced a global music concert – and then gave, I think we were too focused on the giving and not enough on the concert. But all that is very easy to judge in hindsight.

NOW that doesn’t mean to say that what we did concert wise didn’t work – far from it, it looked great. Particularly after the sun went down and the lighting came into its own – and this event for me had the best lighting by far – why? Because it was done specifically for TV – second in this regard was Fuel where the bands didn’t meddle too much in the lighting and then BCDO – unfortunately the lighting for me let that down a bit (it was still fine) but it could have been better – unfortunately the bands got too involved and ended up NOT concentrating on the TV side and worried too much about the on site look.

The other major music event of the last 12 months I have been involved in was the Delirious final concert (broadcast over Christmas on GOD TV) – I won’t comment too much on that as the way it was produced was a bit of a nightmare for us as we had little involvement in the filming of it (something which I think was to the detriment of the programme) and we ended up having to make it work in the edit suite – which is never where you really want to have to make something work – if you can start with something that is WELL directed LIVE then you have a better chance than we had with this. ALL that said – I do think we ended up with a good strong show – but there’s that nagging doubt that says it could have been even better.

One thing that is a constant battle and a frustration of mine is that bands and some organisers etc. seem unnecessarily fixated with the look of the LIVE show and do not pay sufficient attention to the TV end of things – HELLO there will be multiple more people watching the TV broadcast than are actually at the gig – could we perhaps prioritise that or at the very least treat it equally? You do the music and let those who need it to look good on TV do the lighting – I can but hope.

Anyway it has been a good period over the last 12 months or so musically and I’ve enjoyed it all – and of course learnt more again – I do believe you should always be learning and the day you stop learning is the day to give up.

For me though there are a number of elements that you MUST have for music to work on TV – these include:

- A great energetic performance by the artist – there is NOTHING worse than watching a performance that is limp where the performers clearly don’t want to be there or are half baked.
- Great quality sound – sound is 90% of good pictures and should always be a major priority – I have been very fortunate over all these events to work with GREAT sound people who really know how to deliver for TV.
- Good lighting that works for TV – this is a real hard one to get right but when you do it pays off BIG TIME.
- A crew of camera people that LOVE filming music (more on that later) – and are hungry to go further than just the normal coverage that you can get – it pays when people love what they do.
- THEN once you have all that – the crew, director etc, can enjoy themselves and the quality is really captured on screen and the overall energy translates brilliantly and (hopefully) captures the audience at home and makes them feel part of the event.

So, all that said, I’m now going to share with you my personal top 10 hints for directing music for TV – some people may disagree with some of these, that’s their prerogative – but for me these are what I go by.

1. Always ensure you have people that enjoy filming music working on camera – the quality of what they do makes or breaks the show. Also, ensure you put the right people on the right cameras – if you know one of them is fantastic on Hand Held then DON’T put them anywhere other than Hand Held. AND ensure you tell the camera team what you want them to deliver PRIOR to and during the shoot – for instance, if you want one camera to ONLY follow the lead singer so you always have a shot of them – tell them that. But also allow people to be creative in what they do – try and find a balance.
2. This is a controversial one but I think it’s important – cut for the action NOT on the beat. Sometimes they coincide – but make capturing the action the priority NOT cutting on the beat – what I mean by that is for example on shots where you are using a jib or a track and dolly allow the camera to complete its move rather than cutting off it on the next beat – it makes for a better flow to the show.
3. Don’t always think you need to have cameras swinging around wildly in fast tracks – sometimes directing the cameras to focus on one shot with a small amount of movement and then cutting the action fast puts more energy into the coverage that LOTS of camera movement.
4. Know as much about the songs as possible before hand – do your homework, find out the set lists, listen to the tracks, know who starts each one, which instrument has a solo etc. that way you can ensure you have the cameras prepared to cover the action BEFORE it happens rather than playing catch up.
5. Use cuts in fast songs and dissolves in slow ones BUT don’t get locked into that – sometimes the use of cuts in slow songs adds to the impact and effect – though I would say rarely do dissolves in fast songs work – but go with the flow and experiment.
6. If you are unsure of what a cameraman is “giving” you ask them to show you – there is nothing worse than cutting to something and it goes somewhere you regret – particularly if you are using focus pulls, or camera moves etc. you should always try and preview these – so you know when to cut to and from it.
7. Run as MANY isos as possible – having the ability to go into an edit suite and “sweeten” a live mix is a joy – you will always miss something when directing LIVE – BUT do as much live as you can.
8. Remember that even when you are filming a music performance it’s about telling a story – you are trying to draw the viewer into the experience – keep that at the forefront of your thinking.
9. Don’t be afraid to continually tell the cameramen what you want – if they are giving you a shot you know you won’t use, tell them – equally if they give you something really good encourage them – BUT don’t just think of individual shots – as good as one shot is if it doesn’t work in a sequence then it doesn’t work period – it’s about building sequences of shots – focus on shots, sequences and transitions – then you won’t go too far wrong.
10. Enjoy yourself – if you don’t enjoy filming and directing music then let someone else do it who does – it really shows.

If you’ve watched any of the broadcasts I’ve been involved in recently I hope you enjoyed them – I’d love to hear what you do and do not enjoy when it comes to LIVE music being covered on TV and I’ll see you from another gig somewhere soon – I hope.

People or Kit?

For this blog (my first in a long while) I am going to return to a recurring subject that I have mentioned in the past. That is the on-going debate of what is more important, having good creative, talented people involved in a project – OR having the latest whizz bang equipment.
Let me say right at the very start that I believe the ideal answer is of course BOTH. However I am also a realist and understand that it rarely happens that you can have both – so when budgets are limited what should you prioritise?

Well for me the answer is always the same – prioritise the people/human element – as I truly believe that with great people but average equipment you can achieve much better results that with average people but great equipment.

Recently this was again brought home to me as I undertook at VERY short notice a 2 week LIVE production in Israel for GOD TV (it was called the Broadcast Alert – if you have watched GOD TV at all in the last month you’ll have almost certainly seen some of it).

I have shot in Israel many many times and have some great production contacts out there and can pull together productions on pretty well any scale from single camera to multiple cameras – however this time was different. Due to tremendous budget constraints we were not able to go down the route we usually would – it was simply too expensive. Instead we had to come up with a creative solution for a fraction of the cost we would usually spend. And we did!!

We found a great supplier, a Christian guy who we had worked before and who really wanted to help and make things work – however the equipment he had (though it was a good standard and new) was not at all suited to what we needed and indeed had many limitations for what we wanted to achieve. That said it was good, solid and reliable and didn’t give us any extra problems – it just wasn’t what we would have ideally used.

That is however where the importance of good people kick in, I had decided that even though the budget was tight we needed to take the right people along – including the best Sound Supervisor I have ever worked with and a German engineer – who can pretty well get anything to work – and believe me they proved invaluable. AND let me add at this point it wasn’t JUST their immense skill and talent that helped – BUT their incredible attitude as well.

I won’t go into the technical details of what we had to do to make things work – but it included multiple HD to SD conversions (some equipment was HD and some SD and we had to get it all working in an SD environment), using an on-site conference language translation system as an IFB circuit, no tally lights or video returns on any of the cameras, a makeshift gallery (built in a spare office) and having to work across 2 vision mixers as we couldn’t get one to do everything we needed. It also resulted in the video monitors that we were viewing being about a second out of synch with the audio – I have to say it was not easy to watch and listen at the same time – BUT we did what we needed to do to make it work.

I can honestly say that the quality of the people we had working on the production meant that anyone watching it would not have had a clue on the limitations of what we were using to make it all work – on screen it looked and sounded great (for the most part) – with LIVE TV there will always be mistakes and there were with this – however I know that what the team of people I worked with achieved was nothing short of miraculous – they went above and beyond what was expected and truly delivered some memorable TV – well done to all.

There is also one other thing as a passing comment worth mentioning here – and that is the expectations of the Executive Producers – MUST be managed. I was able to very clearly lay out prior to the production what the limitations were – compared to what the expectations might be and whilst we pushed everything pretty well to the limits we were able to avoid friction caused when expectations are not able to be met by simple, clear communication of what we could and could not deliver – this managed to alleviate any challenges around that.

So, I am pleased to say I have once again reinforced my theory that when money is tight ALWAYS prioritise people over equipment (of course by that I mean the RIGHT people – BOTH in skill and attitude) – as if you do they won’t let you down and will usually surprise you with what you can achieve – and of course as a producer or a director – they make YOU (and me) look good.

What do you think – have you been in similar situations? Have you maybe made the wrong choice in the past – what’s your story? I’d love to know.

Oh and by the way, once we had it all up and running, we had to d-rig it all one night and move it to the Mount of Olives for a Sunrise prayer meeting – then move it all back again for a shoot the same evening..............................

The nightmare of San Francisco

I have just got back from a very interesting shoot in San Francisco. It was a LIVE broadcast for GOD TV of 2 nights of an evangelistic crusade from a location in front of City Hall in the middle of town – with Carlos Annadcondia – and boy did we have some challenges.

The organisers of the event were a great bunch of pastors from the city – primarily Hispanic Churches who clearly had never done anything on this scale before.

The BIGGEST problem was they decided to “save money” and NOT employ a Production Manager for the event – BIG mistake. This is an issue I have run into a few times with ministries as often they think it is an unnecessary and un justifiable expense – it NEVER is!!

The argument goes along the lines of “well we can do all the coordination between all the companies ourselves” and as this is a cost that doesn’t “get them” something tangible they often choose to overlook it and save the money. BUT here is the crazy thing – a good production manager can SAVE you money – by dealing with all the suppliers, they can negotiate the best rates, ensure the right equipment is ordered, ensure there’s no doubling up of resources, eliminate the unexpected, schedule the event to avoid issues such as overtime etc. PLUS ensure the smooth running of the event and make sure you look like the good guy – they take all the heat for you – it is a CRITICAL role.

OK, so rant over – BUT please don’t ever think this is a saving that’s worth making.

So, here are some of the challenges we ran into on this event – which a good production manager would have ensured were not issues.

1. Permits – thankfully one of the Pastors in a local church we had worked with before (Sean Scheper – a great guy) pulled this out of the bag for us so we could park our trucks. We have been assured this would be taken care of ahead of time but it was still touch and go – but thankfully it happened.
2. Event times – we had been told all the way down the line by the local pastors that the 2nd day would start at 3pm – so we made sure all our crew were there for 2pm – even though we knew it would mean an hours overtime BUT then no one turned up – they had decided a few days prior NOT to start at 3pm but hadn’t told anyone – again the lack of the central point of contact of a production manager cost us REAL money.
3. Overnight security – we had requested overnight security for the trucks and equipment and were told this was taken care of – however after the first day as we came to leave and there was NO security we were worried – basically it had slipped through the cracks and no one had done it – thankfully the people who had done the event security were still around and agreed (at a cost of $450 from our production lady’s own pocket) to stay till the morning and the pastors agreed to have someone there to take over at 7am – again a Production Manager would have been across this.
4. Lighting – our biggest nightmare………….. So, we get into San Fran and ponder over heading out to San Jose to check out the set up before the rig goes in the following day (they were doing the same event there the 2 days prior) – we nearly didn’t as we were assured everything was fine BUT sense prevailed and we went (3 hour round trip) GOOD JOB. When we got there we realised that the lighting set up we had been promised was a myth – and all they had was some moving lights. Any of you who know TV knows that is totally wrong for filming a “speaking” style event – this really was not good and they had no way of getting any more – at that stage we were VERY close to having no event. Thankfully I was working with a fantastic guy called John Haslam of Skystorm Productions – we do a lot with him and he was able to make a few phone calls (this was 9pm on Thursday and we were live at 6pm Friday) and pull together a crew and lighting sufficient for what we needed – HURRAH!! But again ALL this could have been avoided IF they had a production manager as he/she would have instantly realised that the guy doing the sound and stage was CLUELESS when it came to lighting and they would have got someone in who knew what he was doing.
5. Finally as an example of how crazy this was and where a production manager would have helped, the local pastors had asked for video projectors and screens and the guy doing the PA and stage was actually going to supply them until we vetoed it. WHY did we veto it – OK, its an outside event in daylight (except the last hour) and the wind gets up to 30 mph in San Francisco – they would have blown away and even if they hadn’t you would never have seen them – the ONLY solution outside is a full blown Video wall (but that is a lot of money) – but a Production Manager would have kaiboshed those ages before.

Thankfully despite all this the event went really well from our end – we had an awesome crew (including a Jib operator called Jimmy), a great A1, good camera crew, great video shader etc. I couldn’t have asked for better – and John Haslam was awesome as always – without him we’d have been in BIG trouble.

But the thing is all of it could have been avoided. These kind of events are not easy to pull off successfully even when you know what you’re doing – and these guys didn’t – so lesson no 1 ALWAYS employ a Production Manager – or you will regret it.

There was little doubt on this one we also faced a spiritual battle – a few things happened such as our rental car being broken into and John’s Mac Laptop being stolen (though us parking it in the ghetto and leaving the computer in it didn’t help – how DUMB), the rental car getting a ticket when we were told it was OK to park where we had, some guy in the crowd trying to kill himself, ALL the Cogent fibre network in Washington DC (where we were passing through) dying on the first night – taking us off air for over 30 mins etc.

But you know you’ll have spiritual battles what you want to do is NOT have other problems that you can avoid with simple planning and the right people.

Anyway, I still love doing events like this and seeing 1000’s respond to the Gospel – what an awesome privilege to be in the business of changing lives for eternity – I love it!!!!

It would be great to hear your thoughts, maybe you have a similar nightmare story of an event where the organisers didn’t pay for a production manager and it all went wrong – or maybe you are an event organiser sceptical of the need – whatever I’d love to hear from you.

The man who just kept on going

I was recently in South Africa at the Mighty Men’s event with Angus Buchan. There were 2 things that particularly distinguished this event for me – amongst all the events I do. Firstly the sheer scale of it – 250,000 men in one place at one time ALL praising and worshiping God and secondly the fact that Angus had a heart attack in the middle of the event and no one quite knew what would happen next – very unusual for LIVE TV.

There had been a few Mighty Men events in the past and it was growing year on year – last year (2008) they had expected 20,000 and had got 60,000 – this year they knew it would be big – they planned for 200,000 and it certainly did not disappoint – conservative estimates put the attendance at 250,000 – all coming to hear a potato farmer!!

I was there for GOD TV who had decide to broadcast the 4 meetings LIVE across the network and I was responsible for overseeing the LIVE broadcast. We had a very nice, big OB truck, 7 cameras, 2 jibs and a full crew. Just to make life difficult they decided to hold the meetings in the “round” meaning that Angus was free to wander to all 4 sides of the stage and preach. This was the first time I had shot anything in the round and was certainly an interesting experience. The key thing for me was always having something other than the stage to cut away too – even a VERY wide shot so you could reframe and get a shot of Angus – having the 2 jibs proved invaluable in that.

Technically the shoot was in fact very easy, Angus’ ministry had put on a great event, very well organised and thoroughly professional. In fact as an aside ONE thing that I admired tremendously was that Angus has a policy that IF you are working for him you MUST be paid – he does NOT believe in taking a loan of people but instead insists on paying people what they are worth – how tremendously refreshing in Christian circles (maybe that’s why God continues to bless whatever he does). There were a few technical challenges, such as lighting an entire stage for someone to wander wherever they wanted and we had some minor issues with microphones etc. but generally all went well.

In fact, the biggest challenge technically speaking that we faced was communication with the outside world. When it came to trying to do satellite line up etc. our ability to communicate was a problem. 250,000 people in the middle of nowhere tended to overload the signal on the mobile phone network. Consequently it could take 15 or even more tries to get a phone call established and even when we did it could be cut off at any moment – that’s when you have to have faith in the people the other end – that they are getting on and doing what they need to do. Thankfully GOD TV has great staff when it comes to that and they were ace.

By far and away though all of the circumstances became nearly meaningless – the camping, the open air showers, (pictures above of the tents, OB truck and the showers.......) the fluctuating weather etc. all paled into insignificance when after the 2nd meeting Angus had a heart attack (well to be exact 2 heart attacks). This was certainly NOT in the script!!!

We were faced with a choice – do we continue broadcasting or do we stop and replace the last 2 sessions with something else? Well, firstly the response of the 250,000 men on site was magnificent. They didn’t get in their cars and leave – instead they held an impromptu prayer meeting to pray for Angus as he was airlifted to hospital. I was also in communication with Wendy Alec (GOD TV’s Director of Programming) who immediately instructed that we continue with the broadcast and start running a “scroll” to tell the viewers what was going on and encourage them to pray – which we did.

We continued with the 3rd meeting which ended up being more of a worship time and then went to bed that night with one more meeting to go – not knowing what would happen the following day.

Well, God came through. Angus was HEALED and whilst still not 100% in terms of strength – came back to preach a profound message on the last morning – I don’t think anyone could have stopped him. It was profound in that he had clearly been deeply impacted by his near death experience the day before and REALLY had something to say that I am sure impacted ALL those present and ALL those watching – me included!!

I think it would be fair to say that the fact that just over 24 hours after having 2 heart attacks Angus could get up and preach is a testimony first and foremost to the power of God BUT also to the man himself and his total commitment to the message and the mission that God has given him.

It was an awesome privilege to be there for this event and to be involved in broadcasting it to the world – time and again we heard testimony’s of people’s live transformed through the broadcasts and on site at the meetings and to see God come through with Angus in such a profound way and heal him was incredible.

More power to GOD TV’s elbow for doing this and also for Wendy Alec for being prepared to stick with it and see what God would do. What an amazing testimony to see what God can do when he gets hold of someone (like Angus) who is fully committed to Him and is prepared to lay down his life for the cause.

I truly hope Angus has many many more years preaching his message – South Africa and the world really needs it and to see the power of God work and someone 24 hours after having 2 heart attacks stand up and preach was amazing – GO ANGUS and GO GOD!!!

Managing Expectations

I have found when working with clients – and particularly those new to TV/Video/Visual Media that one of the most important aspects of the client relationship is managing their expectations.

Lets be honest and understand that TV/Video is a very expensive medium to work in – there is simply no way round that. Even “cheap” TV is still expensive when you compare it to things like print, online, and radio media – and clients that maybe used to working in these other forms of media will need a lot of help to make the jump to TV and video and to come to appreciate WHY it costs so much.

We always make it clear when we work with a new client that TV does not come cheap and “good” TV certainly is expensive. That said we also always try and tailor what we are doing to the budgets they have available – in fact we often try and find out if they have a figure in mind prior to even putting costs together for them. We pretty well always have a good idea of what it will cost us to do what the client is requesting (not always but with our experience in most cases this is true) and the reason we try and get information on budgets etc. is so that it can save us and the client time and energy. If for example a client wants something done that we know will cost around say £10,000 and they only have £1,000 to spend then there is little point continuing the conversation or us spending the time to put accurate costs together – rather we are better to advise them to look for some other form of media for their project. IF however we find in our discussions they have say £15,000 in their budget then we can be more confident in moving the discussions forward and putting accurate costs together – it’s worth us spending the time and energy to make that happen. NOW let me say at this point – it is VITAL we work with integrity and if we find a client has £15,000 to spend and the project budget is only £10,000 make sure you do it for this and DO NOT inflate the costs – that does no one any favours and trust me sooner or later the client will find out and that will be that!! Transparency is everything. We as a company have a policy that if we put a budget together for a project and ultimately it costs less then that saving is passed BACK to the client – trust me, its good business and it’s ethical.

The other value in identifying budgets is that if in the above example you find your client only has £8,000 you can quickly identify IF a. this is a project where you can tailor a solution to their budget OR b. you decide for the sake of winning a new client to do the project and make less on it – which sometimes can be a good idea – but that’s always your call. The key is to aim for trust and transparency from BOTH parties – that way you can move forward more effectively and quickly – a quick word to clients as well – PLEASE help us out here – we are trying to make it work for you.

Now, we recently had an interesting experience when it comes to budgeting AND also managing expectations (the real subject of this blog). We were asked by a new client to put together some costs for a project they had coming up where this was their first experience of dipping their toe in the water of TV Land. It was to film and edit a weeks worth of material and turn it into a DVD (it was also 1000’s of miles away from the UK). Well after putting some initial costs together we quickly realised they had no where near the budget available to do this – however they still wanted something done. So what we settled on is that they would use a local company to do the filming and we would do the post. Well – that as all of you will know is not ideal and CAN be a recipe for disaster.
As we suspected when we saw the material it was VERY poor – the audio was all over the place, it was very poorly shot and frankly it was a bit of a nightmare. However we had agreed we would do the post – so we dug into the project and this is where it became CRITICAL that we managed the client’s expectations.

Very soon into the process we informed them of the difficulties with the project and basically told them that with all the editing in the world they were not going to get anything better than an “average” product at best. We also kept them informed throughout of the ongoing problems and challenges we faced and how that would affect the final outcome. We also gave them options – one of which was to spend more time editing BUT we pointed out that ultimately we didn’t feel it was worth the investment for the improvements it would make – and thankfully they took our advice and saved their money.

All the way down the line we continued dialoguing with them and managing their expectations. I think ultimately they were pleasantly surprised with what we were able to do – and this was a far better outcome than having them look at the product and wonder where their £1000’s had gone.

This was not by any means our ideal way of doing things BUT it was necessary for the budgets they had available at the time and we ended up producing a product that ultimately they were content with given the NON ideal circumstances BECAUSE we effectively managed their expectations. We did however agree that we wouldn’t do this again and next time we would ensure we were involved in the whole process – filming and editing – that way we will get a much better product.

For me the key here is not only the managing of the expectations but also working closely with a client, keeping communication throughout the process and ultimately having their best interests at heart – after all they are the ones paying you.

I hope this is helpful for some and would welcome your thoughts, comments, experiences and stories.

The Last TV Evangelist

On my way back from the states last weekend I read Phil Cooke’s new book “The Last TV Evangelist” – he had been kind enough to give me a copy when I saw him in Washington DC a few days earlier. Firstly, I would recommend this book to any of you working in the media and very specifically Christian media.

It’s a book looking at the future of Christian media and specifically the visual broadcast media. It’s a good interesting book that certainly makes you think and I hope will challenge the perceptions of many that think we can bury our heads in the sand and pretend the media will continue the way it has for years – trust me it won’t!

There are a number of things in the book that are specifically a challenge to those of us working in this field – however the most fundamental of all changes (I believe) that is coming (perhaps is here already) that Phil points to and I 100% agree with is that we as media people are no longer the ones in control – gone are the days of the massive networks controlling what we watch and when we watch. Basically NOW the viewers (or maybe they are better called consumers) are the ones who are in control. Things like Tivo, SkyPlus etc. were just the start – in the future what the viewer wants to watch and when they want to watch it will be totally in their hands – so those of us who are working in the media need to wake up and realise the future is here and if we don’t change and adapt to it we really won’t be around much longer.

No longer will we be able to produce boring “samey”, tacky, repetitive programmes with gold thrones, manipulative messages and bad hair that people only watch because we tell them its good for them – suddenly they can search and find exactly what they want – and if what we offer is not it then one thing is for sure - they won’t come back.

The book offers no real solutions – but then in the world we are moving into the only real solution is that there are no solutions – the future is what we will make it. There will be as many different solutions as there are case studies the old “one size fits all” days are well and truly gone. The main thing the book leaves you with is that everyone is now a “player” from the kid with their laptop and camcorder to the massive TV ministry – we can all find and have a place BUT our success will be down to finding a way to deliver creative content to the people who want it – that’s a great challenge BUT also a great opportunity.

Traditional media will be here for a while so this is not going to happen overnight, however the growth areas will be with people embracing the future – that could be a whole new generation OR it could be us – IF we can change and adapt and not just do what we’ve always done.

I’m excited – what about you? I recommend you get the book, it’s a good read and one that hopefully will challenge you to examine your calling and embrace your future – whatever that is – just remember the future really will be what you make it.

The dumb things we say as Christians

I was recently watching a programme on a Christian TV station here in the UK both of which will remain nameless – however I do feel the need as a “communicator” to comment on one of the statements I heard while watching.

It was actually a question posed by a person I have a lot of time and respect for – but in all honesty he should have known better and I was very surprised when I heard it.

Here was the situation, they were discussing the “media” and particularly ITV (which here in the UK is our “2nd” network and is unashamedly commercial. Currently the company is in turmoil, and is about to layoff a LOT of people. The statement went something like – “back in the 1980’s ITV used to make a lot of good TV programmes – including the award winning “Jesus of Nazareth” – now it seems to be making more entertainment programmes, many of which are certainly not “Godly” and they have all but done away with their “religious” content. In the light of its current turmoil, do you think God is judging ITV”.

Well – I screamed at the TV at that point – NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I’m not going to get into a theological debate about God judging anything in this dispensation of Grace that we are in – that’s not my big issue with this statement. What amazed me was that anyone in their right mind could isolate the case of one media-company from the entire world economic downturn and believe the reason they were struggling was because they had stopped making Christian programmes. Have they missed the fact that virtually ALL media companies are struggling right now – including some Christian ones (maybe God’s judging them too).

I’m not going to get into the whole economic situation and why a company like ITV is struggling etc. there are far better placed people than me to do that – rather what I want to take issue with is the dumb statements we come out with and PLEAD with all of us to think before we open our mouths. We never know who is watching – worst case we have a responsibility to our viewers to think about what we are saying and not throw out statements they may latch onto and take as “gospel” due to who is saying it. Best case – hopefully there will be non believers watching who through what we say can get an idea of the love and mercy of God – rather than think we are all totally off our heads.

The responsibility we have been given as communicators is a big one – we MUST NOT take it lightly and we MUST think about what we are saying and what our audience may think about what we are saying – anyone in their right mind can see that this statement simply does not stack up. I don’t want to have a go at this as this as an isolated case – rather use it to heighten our awareness of these things and hopefully introduce a more sober approach to what we say when we get the chance and the privilege to communicate to a TV (or radio) audience.

What do you think – do we take what we do seriously enough? Are we just blowing hot air a lot of the time? How can we be more thoughtful in the things we say? – I’d love to hear from you.

A lesson in trusting God

NOTE – I wrote this blog at 11pm local time in Nairobi, Kenya on March 2nd.

I don’t know how many times I fail to get this right and end up worrying when I shouldn’t – but God is always gracious and still always come through for me even when I’m not sure – I am blessed.

The latest situation I have found myself in regarding learning that God is ALWAYS faithful and can ALWAYS be trusted came on a very recent trip to Kenya (in fact as I write this I am still in Kenya). I went to Kenya to carry out a recce for a possible production that I am involved with in a few weeks time. Prior to going I knew I needed things to come together pretty quickly as we don’t have much time – and yet on the surface despite all my attempts to get things set up it didn’t look promising.

When I arrived, I faced the following challenges:

The person who runs the local office was not there and may not even come.
The person I had lined up to be the local production manager I couldn’t get hold of at all – despite LOTS of attempts – I thought she had dropped off the face of the earth.
I had no local help, contacts or transport and no clue of where I was going, who I could meet with or how it was going to happen.
I needed to try and find at least 1 alternative location for the production – and didn’t have a clue where to start.
My luggage hadn’t arrived – so no chargers, no business cards and no clothes.
My hotel didn’t have a room for me and even when they sorted this they didn’t have a key to the room – so I had to wait and wait and wait.

Not a very promising start………………..

When you have these situations what do you do – panic or trust God? Well I am pleased to say I didn’t panic – however neither was I in a particularly trusting mood – I thought I could probably make it happen BUT certainly didn’t think it would be easy – I even said to my wife I might have to stay an extra couple of days in order to get things sorted.

However as always despite me, God came through. By the end of the following day I had achieved the following:

Found an alternative location for the production – and a far better one (though as I write this the final location decision is still to be made).
Found, contacted and met with my local coordinator on board and got her fully briefed and up and running.
Had a VERY successful series of meetings with lighting, staging, power etc with everything coming together.
Ended up with a very good driver for the day who knew everyone and everywhere and made the whole trip extremely productive – he knew exactly who I needed to meet.
Made arrangements for the person who runs the local office to come and meet us the following day.
Slept in the Presidential Suite of the hotel (why do I ALWAYS stay in nice places when my wife is not with me).
Got all the local crew and resources in place for the production.

All in all a very very productive 24 hours – why oh why can’t I learn that God will ALWAYS come through – in all the years of doing this he has never let me down – not even a little – so why did I sit the night before concerned if it would all come together and thinking that I had to make it all happen……………………

My faith is always tested on these issues – but God is incredible and even when I doubt him – he never ever fails me.

Now how big is my faith – well, one thing left – will British Airways get my bag to me before I leave – that’s real faith………………….

UPDATE – It’s now March 4th at 6am and I’m at Heathrow airport on my way back from Kenya. Two quick updates, about 3 ½ hours after writing the blog BA delivered my bag!!!! Also the following day we had another tremendously successful time, carried out 2 full technical site visits and now have a plan in place for the production – all is looking good. As I said above – we need to learn to trust God in EVERY situation.

The Value of Christian Media to an event

As I write this (my first blog of 2009 – Happy New Year all) I am sitting at Toronto airport on my way back from directing an event called The Cry – a prayer event held in St John’s Newfoundland (boy it was cold). Those of you who know the Call it is similar to that but Canada driven and focused. Anyway, we had an awesome time and it was a great event and the people were wonderful to work with – really wanted us there and went out the way to make our lives easy – Faytene and team thanks.

Anyway the positive attitude of this crazy bunch of Canadians got me thinking why people don’t value more the presence of Christian Media at their event. For us as media people, it’s often a battle between the perceived needs and their importance of the event (which I fully understand) and the needs of us as a broadcaster. We seem to struggle to find middle ground somehow – and when it does work it works for everyone – but it often takes time to get there.

I find it bizarre that when you have potentially multiple thousands of people watching globally that the needs of the TV production are not considered far more important (or at the least equally important) than the needs of the few hundred or thousand people at the event. Now I must say I totally believe there is a balance and the TV/Media should never dictate what happens – that must be down to the event organisers – what I am talking about is more the aesthetics of the event – lighting, set, stage etc. all that doesn’t make massive amounts of difference to the event – but it does to the TV broadcast – why does it have to be so hard getting those needs met?

At the end of the day, the broadcaster can take the event and turn it (in the case of GOD TV) into a Global event – the guys at the Cry got that totally and so I have to say (thankfully) do many more that we work with – but with some it is still a battle – and with many we’ve been working with them over several years. We need to see that change – can I encourage you, if you are an event organiser or involved in production, staging etc. think BIGGER – by working WITH us as broadcaster rather than against us (or grudgingly putting up with us) we can change people’s lives on a GLOBAL basis.

The other thing I would say to media practitioners is it is vital that you SERVE the vision of the event organisers – they have the mandate for what they are doing allow them to do this and work with them to FULLY represent what THEY not YOU want to achieve – I’ll tell you, the broadcast will be far more effective that way – as you carry their anointing to the nations – get out the way and let God do what only God can do!!

One other point as an aside – and it is something I have mentioned before – why is it that it seems only GOD TV is prepared to put their money where their mouth is and cover events such as the Cry? Wendy Alec believes these events as being truly of global significance and time and again she is proved right – why are more broadcasters not bold enough to do this? This was the 5th Cry that had been held – BUT the first one that had ever been broadcast and GOD TV doesn’t even broadcast in Canada – where are the Canadian broadcasters – this is about their nation should they not be involved?

Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts and perspectives on all this – particularly the event organisers and those involved in covering them.