Animoto: Still one of my favorites

Posted on 30. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.

Over the years you’ll see me post about various tech solutions for life and ministry. Some of these apps stick, others lose their luster over time. Back in 2008 I discovered Animoto, a slideshow application and fell in love. Of many of the things I find, Animoto has remained one of my absolute favorite tools. I know that there are many who read this blog who didn’t back in 2008, so I thought I’d visit this little app again and talk about what else it does as well.

When Animoto frist came out, it was an intelligent and simple slideshow creator. You simply upload photos and music and it would create a randomly generated slideshow using amazing transitions that seem to just move with the music. Well, over the years they’ve made adjustments and you can also add video. So, you can turn photos and short video clips into an amazing presentation.

I use Animoto for every child dedication, for many of our baptisms, and promos for many of our events as well as for personal family slideshows and video clips. Below are several videos I’ve made so you can see for yourself.

The great part about Animoto is that it’s so inexpensive. For the dedications, I’ll pay an extra $5 to export the high rez video and it’s absolutely brilliant. Now you even have HD options, which I haven’t tried yet.

Bottom line. For a lot of your video stuff, you don’t need to spend hours learning how to use iMovie or other programs. You’ll save a lot of money… and a lot more time using Animoto to do what you need… and it will probably look better than anything you’ll put together yourself (unless you’re really good and have spent a lot of time learning the tools).

To check out and start using Animoto, click here!

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Legal usage of kidmin resources

Posted on 13. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.

Earlier this week I reviewed a new Easter Resource by God’s Kids Worship (in case you forgot, I’m giving one away this week too… check here for details) and it prompted a very interesting thought. As a part of the the resource God’s Kids Worship gives you in most of their products, they provide you with a license to burn up to 30 music CD’s to give out to people for rehearsal purposes. I think think that this is great. It provides great value for this resource, but on the other side, it makes the end user very clear what they are and are not allowed to do.

I’ve found that many of us in ministry and kidmin are not usually aware of what the license on most products grant us permission to do and in many cases, a lot of kidmin leaders are technically breaking the law in the ways they use their resources. This happens in many avenues.

Curriculum: Most curriculum have very specific licenses that go along with the physical product you buy. Many licenses state that you cannot make copies of books, pages or other resources, but in order to use them, you have to buy additional books or guides. Many curriculums technically restrict you from saving them and just using it again next year… the license technically grants the user to utilize the curriculum at a specific time. I’ve also seen the license on curriculums that restrict you from selling or loaning curriculum.

Music: It’s the same for music. We often purchase music either apart for a curriculum or with it and rip it or get it into digital form and simply burn multiple CDs or put on a network to be used by multiple computers. Although some songs may allow this kind of use, others do not. Do to otherwise it a violation of copyright.

Videos: Many of us use video curriculum today and many publishers are providing video to load directly onto the presentation computers. However, just because you bough the DVD doesn’t necessarily mean the license grants you permission to play on every campus at the same time.

I’ll be honest, the copyright and license stuff is very frustrating and I think that it takes two to dance. In our ministries, we should probably pay close attention to what is the legal use of the curriculum, music and videos that we buy and stick to it. However, I also think it’s the responsibility for publishers and creators of content to be very clear of what the end user can or cannot do. Several years ago I was buying video based curriculum and we were going to use it at more than one campus. I asked and they sold me extra DVD’s for a few bucks. They had a plan, I just had to ask. I think I would have been frustrated if I’d had to pay the same price for every resource.

So, I think it’s important for us as the end user to not make assumptions about what we can or can’t do. I’ve seen some take the attitude of saying “that’s ridiculous… they’re charging way too much… so I’m just going to make copies.” If you feel that something is overpriced, then don’t purchase it. However, I think that it’s really important for the producers of this content to be very clear on what we can and cannot do with their content and maybe even give us more options as it makes the customer really happy and a loyal customer for a long time.

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Bethlehem Star

Posted on 23. Dec, 2010 by Kenny.

The other night, my father-in-law introduced me to the most amazing video. It’s called the Star of Bethlehem. WOW! He meant to bring his copy of the DVD, but amazingly we found it on Amazon and watch the entire video there. I intend to purchase a DVD of my own. Since watching this video, I’ve not been able to stop thinking about the amazingness of our God and what he did.

Psalm 19:1-4

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

The Star of Bethlehem is the personal research project of attorney Frederick Larson. He had always been fascinated by the star the kings from the East followed to find the Messiah. Scholars often debated whether the star was an actual star or the object of legend and lore. Is it even possible to stars to move? Is it possible for them to stop as this one did over the place Jesus lived? How did these “wise men” know that a king had been born based on a star they had seen? Frederick’s years of research answers all of these questions. Yes, there was a star of Bethlehem and it did actually do all those things. So, how can we be sure? Larson actually shows you the star of Bethlehem in this amazing video. Since the movement of celestial bodies is like clockwork and completely precise, astronomers can actually illustrate what the starry night would have look like at any time in history from any location on earth. Through the use of software, anyone with a knack for the stars can do the same.

I’ll get you started with the first part of 7 below. You can search for the rest on youtube as I’m sure you will not be able to wait to buy the DVD to see the additional parts. However, I encourage you to support Larson’s work and purchase his DVD. What a great video to watch every Christmas with family, friends or even with your small group. Click here to order the DVD!

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iPhone 4

Posted on 18. Aug, 2010 by Kenny.

I was very please to get home from Colorado last night with a package waiting for me on the kitchen counter… my much awaited iPhone 4. A few weeks ago I upgraded my 3G to iPhone4 software and I’ve been regretting it as it choked my 3G. I knew there were options to go back, but I didn’t want to give up some of the new email options… so I’ve put up with the slow system until the new phone arrived. I’m really excited to play with the video options. A few weeks ago I came across this short film entirely shot and edited on the iPhone 4. Pretty impressive.

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Random video that makes me happy

Posted on 14. Aug, 2010 by Kenny.

I don’t know why I like this video, but I do. It’s just weird… but couldn’t help smiling through the whole thing. Maybe it’s becasue there is a lot of fire and I’m a guy (which means I like fire). Enjoy!

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Review: Kodak PlaySport

Posted on 04. Aug, 2010 by Kenny.

So, I want to tell you about the best electronic purchase I made this summer. A few years ago I bought a little flip mino, before they had the HD version. I was pretty impressed and I used it a lot… that summer. Since then it’s spent most of it’s time in my office or in my backpack. The audio and video was pretty good, but for most of what we were doing, it wasn’t useful enough. Also, if I had my digital camera with me, it was easier just to use it to take pictures and video. Since then the flip has evolved and has become a much better camera, but not enough for me to want to upgrade.

Then this summer a coworker brought a PlaySport to camp, which is Kodak’s version of the Flip. When he told me he got it, I told him he should have gotten the Flip. Then I saw him shooting video with it in the pool. “That thing’s waterproof?” I was warming up to this device by Kodak. For the Flip, you have to buy a special case to go underwater. Then later one night, I saw what sealed the deal. We have a $2000 3CCD camera that we use for ministry. We were shooting a lot of video at camp with the nice camera. We were watching on of the daily videos when all of a sudden the person holding the camera jumped in the pool and went underwater. I freaked. I assumed that our $2000 camera just took a dip. Once reason hit me, I was amazed. The quality of the PlaySport was so good, I didn’t notice when the video switched from the nice 3CCD HD camera to the PlaySport. I was sold.

A few weeks later I picked up a PlaySport and I’ve been very happy with the purchase. It takes great 5MP pictures as well as fantastic video at up to 1080P. I put in a 8Gb SD Card so I have plenty of room for 2 hours of HD video. I love that it has removable memory and battery, so when I travel I can bring back-up just in case.

I bought it on my way down to San Marcos to go tubing down a river. Below is a video I made of our trip down the river. It was liberating to be in the water without worrying about the camera getting wet. The video was put together using Animoto and I didn’t pay for a high-resolution version of the video from Animoto, so don’t let that distract you. The quality really is amazing.

One of the best parts about the PlaySport is that it only costs $130. Seriously, that’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? You can pick up your PlaySport right here. Hurry up, the summer is almost over and you still have some time to capture some great memories on the lake or in the pool.

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Chad Swanzy: Creativity is his middle name.

Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.

I thought I’d introduce someone to you in case you didn’t already know him. Chad Swanzy is the Student Ministry Pastor here at Gateway. He came on staff about six weeks before me last year and I really enjoy working with him. Unfortunately for me I haven’t gotten to work as closely with him this last year as I would have liked (that’s changing this year though). One of the things I admire about Chad is his creative genius.

Perhaps it’s his need to be resourceful that sparks creativity, always maximizing resources on a shoe string budget. However, he connects very well to the students he leads and he connects through every medium possible. He’s constantly building sets, creating environments, designing totally insane games or filming promotion videos. He also connects to kids through every medium possible. He connects to the kids through the ministry blog and through facebook. Every message is published to iTunes and available via podcast and he’s streaming Wednesday night services through Mogulus. Actually one night there was supposed to be bad weather for small groups, so he broadcast the meeting over Mogulus and many from the group participated that way. Absolutely amazing.

The inspiration for this post was a recent video he pushed out to his kids promoting his next series. The video was very cool. Then a few days later how wrote a blog about how he made the video. Wow! I didn’t know he made it, I thought he got it from somewhere else. His blog post will show you how creative and resourceful he really is.

choices series intro from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

Here’s his blog post explaning how he made the video.

Here’s a video he made a few weeks ago to prep kids or baptism. Again, he connected to them through his blog, facebook and every other medium.

What is baptism? from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

Last of all, here are two of his camp promo video. One of them yo0u may have already seen on my blog, but it’s funny enough to be on here again. Enjoy.

Did somebody say Summer Camp?! from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

Uprising Presidential Camp Promo from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

You can follow Chad here:
Website
Twitter

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Star Wars Recap

Posted on 18. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.

Here’s a funny video for any fan of Star Wars (or funny stuff).

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

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Persepctive

Posted on 27. Feb, 2009 by Kenny.

I ran across this video several months ago and someone sent it to me again this week. So funny, but so true. We all lose sight sometimes! Enjoy.

Watch more SpikedHumor videos on AOL Video

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Animoto: My new favorite toy

Posted on 15. Sep, 2008 by Kenny.

I just made this video in minutes. Cool, huh? (Just realized that this video isn’t showing up in Firefox but is in IE and Chrome… so not sure why). Click here if you can’t see the video.

I got this from a blog I read and I was more than intrigued. I decided to give it a shot and WOW, it’s amazing! To be honest, I couldn’t make a better photo collage video in 10 times the time with all the right tools. It’s also the perfect business model in my book. I can make little 30 second movies like crazy, all for free. If I want to export the video in DVD quality, I have to pay for it. If I want to make a longer than 30 second video, I have to pay for it. Sounds fair to me.

Uses? My goodness there are so many fun things to do with this kind of video. The best in my book is use this for the end of the day slide show at camp or VBS. It takes all of 10 minutes and is ready to go in no time. Will using Animoto for all your little slide show videos start looking the same? Maybe, but when it comes to ease of use, you can’t beat this at all. You have to remember the audience too. Kids are more excited about who is “in” the video than what transitions are used over and over (but I do think that Animoto mixes it up well so that no video looks the same.

Dont’ take my word for it… make your own video. Click here to visit Animoto!

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