THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL Create and project slides for congregational singing and viewing copyright 2001 by Paul E. Kealy PO Box 3890 ~ Del Rosa, CA 92413-3890 www.MediaExcellence.com Making slides for worship is rewarding and easier than you think. Also, it can be inexpensive. THE PURPOSE The purpose is to create words visible by all without detracting from the message presentation. OVERHEADS, VIDEO AND SLIDES One problem with OVERHEADS is the mechanics of operating the system ... too often have we seen people in a pile of transparencies on platform in front of a cluttered table with overhead projector distract from the projected words. A factor affecting poor visibility is the trapezoidally keystoned wall of light against which the words are projected that can blind the viewer. People blink flashes of light for several minutes (And it isn't Shekinah). Smoother screen transition ... with less obtrusive projection ... is preferable. This can be best accomplished from the rear of an auditorium, or by rear-screen. And it is better to see just the words themselves than it is to see a highly reflective bright frame with words on it. VIDEO projection does this well with software as Micosoft PowerPoint(tm) but the process is expensive. More information is available in the book, PRESENTATION POWER, THE POWER OF PRESENTING, from www.MediaExcellence.com Because projected SLIDES also can appear without the operator distraction associated with overhead transparencies, can be as simple or as complex as desired, yet as a far less expensive process than video, we will offer some helps here as a ministry tool. The words can appear simply as "handwriting on the wall" ... no obtrusive screen needed. By projecting clear-white words on the wall, a screen isn't even necessary. A dark wall, a light wall, a brick wall, a wood-paneled wall ... any solid space ... can serve as a screen, without the distraction of screen setup or take down, and without colliding with symmetry of the meeting environment. No fumbling with a screen on a tripod, or waiting for an electrically- controlled screen to buzz and hum as it whooshes in and out of site in order to continue with the program. Do you have a space above the baptistry or the altar with a large rectangular area you can project words onto? If not, are there two wall areas on the sides of the platform that can be used for dual projectors with identical slides? I once used a huge pale yellow wall space over the choir area off to the side of the pulpit area. I have also cross-projected from multiple projectors onto two duplicate wood paneled walls on sides of a platform. Of course, I also have projected onto screens and used more specifically conventional areas. A slide, by nature, is sharper, brighter and has a wider off-axis viewable area than video projection. With white words on a screenless border you are not limited to the familiar rectangular shape normally associated with slide screens. Perhaps you have a long, narrow stripe of projectable space, free from crosses, windows, doves or other icons of the faith. That's just great ... simply project slides with fewer lines of text. PEOPLE SEE THE WORDS, not the frame, so there's no need to feel bound to the shape or size of a screening area. Some foreign language operas are projecting English words across the top of the proscenium a line or two at a time. You can do this, as well, by only writing a few lines of copy per slide. Sort of "captioning" your songs and sermons, eh? Video works well, but is quite expensive. 35mm slide projections fill the need affordably. Custom made slides, however, are expensive. Ordering generic pre-produced slides limits the available wording, and does require time to order and receive. Designing personalized slides from an outsource service is quite expensive and requires considerable ordering and shipping turnaround time. Why not make your own, quickly and inexpensively. THE PROCESS IS TWO-STEP. First, make your slides. Design them on white paper with black ink. Generate them on your computer, printing on laser or inkjet printer, or even a typewriter, or do it by hand. The idea is to prepare black on white. Calligraphy or clipart graphics can be used. You don't need to confine your design to the tiny 35mm size. It is better to design them in a larger frame, and have them photographically reduced for two reasons. One is that most of us don't work well in such a confined space. The other is that photo reduction will sharpen the image ... even a dot-matrix printer will appear with sharper edges when shot at a reduction. The accompanying template is designed at twice the height and twice the width of the finished slide. That is to say, 200%. It is an easier design space to work. When it is shot at 50%, it will become a negative at the proper size to cut and insert into a slide frame. The accompanying template contains six slides per page on regular printer paper. Increase the number of cells if your printer can print 11 x 17-inch paper. Normally, I scotch tape together more contiguous pages, as it takes me a couple dozen slides to accomplish what I want to do. (So I end up with, say, four slides across and six down). The second step is to take this finished sheet of printed squares to a camera shop that makes negatives for offset plates for printing presses. If you can't find such a place, go to your local quickprint shop or newspaper office and ask where they go to have their negatives shot, if they don't do it on premises. Don't let them talk you into making your slide, unless you're too lazy to make your own. You do not want them to make your slides ... you want them to shoot this big sheet of paper with boxes of text and give you a negative at 50% that sort of resembles a sheet of black postage stamps with white text. You will end up with a negative of your original copy, sort of a monochromatic chessboard. Now you cut it along the lines into little squares, (really it isn't fun, exactly ... rather tedious work, but worth the effort). Now mount these little negatives in slide frames, and you're set. It only costs something like 7 bucks for my negative that has a coupla dozen or so slides. I buy the slide frames (manufactured by Gepe and available at most good camera stores ... they cost about $10 for a box of 100 slides). Don't get the fancy slide frames. No glass necessary ... just simple plastic 35mm slide mount frames will do. If you want to colorize your slide images, simply use highlighter pens to make pink or blue or yellow, whatever. You might have men sing blue words, and women sing pink, whenever the slides happen to be colorized. Yeah, Ted Tuner, eat your heart out. Another impressive feature of projecting these clear text slides is their ability to "burn through" any other projected image. This is what I do in my multi-image 15-projector presentations. (Of course, we use expensive Kodalith 35-mm slides and computer-generated ones for most productions, due to critical registration requirements as well as preparation time constraints). Here's the principle of how it works: First, project a beautiful color slide graphic or scene. It could be a slide of your church, or some nature scenes from summer camp or sunsets, or some of those scenes from your trip to the Holy Land that sit in a slide tray in your closet someplace. Then, from a second projector, project your new words-only slides on top of the original scene. The clear, white words "burn through" the scene, looking like a professionally produced graphic slide of words and titles on a beautiful scene. Neat, huh? WHY NOT SIMPLY SHOOT 35mm CAMERA SHOTS ON BLACK AND WHITE FILM? Some folks wonder why we don't simply shoot 35mm slides with a regular 35mm camera with "regular" black and white film instead of color film. Well, you can. But you won't be happy with the results, and here's why: There's a problem with something called a "grey scale." Black and white film will photograph your black and white artwork as various tones of grey, and so you will end up with words, all right, but the words will be projected on a fuzzy grey background frame. You might as well use overheads with that unavoidable screen shape they have. If you want to get clear words on a pitch-black 35-mm film, you will pay premium prices for that pure black film stock, and the processing alone will take about two additional weeks. That's why, by contacting your local printer who makes black and white negatives for offset presses, you can have pure black and clear white with more immediate turnaround. Hopefully, this is helpful. The enclosed file is your template for Microsoft Publisher(tm) IBM compatible software. Remember to use a narrow, sanserif type for most readable text with maximum words per line. 12 point is excellent ... use attribute if your printer prints the words too skimpy. Fancy serif and script typefaces should only be used for titles and headings. It is not a good idea to place excessive words on a single slide. A whole wall of words becomes unreadable. It is best to limit the words to no more than six lines of copy per slide. It does require creating more slides and more clickety-clicks for the person changing slides, but it helps people who read the projected words not become overwhelmed with verbiage. You lose in audience comprehension what you save in expenses crowding more words onto a slide... captions are easier to read then telephone books. When you put too many words on the wall at a time, people tend to read ahead and get lost, anyhow. PERMISSION TO DISPLAY COPYRIGHTED WORKS: CCLI information, complete with title, year, copyright owner, and registration number must be displayed on each and every slide ... But it can be displayed on the exterior slide FRAME, not necessarily projected on the screen. It is not necessary for all the worshippers to wade through our CCLI number, or all of that other information, on each and every slide. (Print the information on little Avery labels and stick them on each little slide frame. Sure, it takes lotsa extra time, but who said worship leaders have it easy preparing?) It is legal, and keeps the viewable screens uncluttered. My purpose is to keep the projected words concise, legible and easy to understand, simply projecting the words-to-be-sung. That's why I don't print song titles. That's why I eliminate punctuation, unless it helps to understand the phrase. The projected words are words to sing. Busy people shouldn't have to figure out which on the screen is information and instruction, and which is the worshipping text to sing to. Please try to be sensitive how words look on the screen. Does the wording lend itself well to understanding song rhythm and meter? If the phrase contains an unsung downbeat or a clap, I place a tilde or hyphen or the phrase <(clap)>, so people know not to blurt out in song. < -- I will celebrate -- Sing unto the Lord > < The trees of the fields will clap their hands (clap) (clap) > < He gave the vic - to - ry > I center most of my text phrase, and make the words easy flowing. If the word, is to be sung slowly in rhythm, spell it out . Oftentimes I hyphenate a word to make it easier to sing in rhythm. Sometimes the meter of new praise songs is awfully hard to figure out. Whenever a phrase won't fit on a single line, make certain you break the line in a logical location. Never place a leftover word by itself on a line (typesetters call these "orphan lines"). "I am happy in the ser-vice of the king" was once split for the second line to read "VICE OF THE KING!" Let's hear it for the King's vice! WHY PROJECT THE WORDS? The arguments of hymnals vs. projected words will probably never be resolved. But those who seek to use projected words can enhance the technique considerably. Many times the argument has tipped in favor of the hymnal advocates simply because the overhead/slide projector has not been employed effectively in ministry. Although projections will never satisfy those who rely on music scoring, for those who read music, there are benefits to singing to projected words. For one, there is a definite uncluttered flow of worship music. The chief singer does not have to stop between songs to announce, "Let's all turn to hymn such-and-such." Physically and acoustically, there is the benefit of singing with uplifted voice, not down into the shoes while looking at a hymnal or singing from a song sheet. Also, there is no need to hold a hymnal in the hands, which is beneficial to those who wish to raise their hands in worship. Those who enter the service late don't have to fumble for a hymnal to participate and play "catch up" with the worship in progress. There is the benefit of singing music the pew hymnal dowes not contain. Also, it is possible to alter the text of particular hymns as appropriate. Sermon notes, announcements, and such messages as "today's sermon is based on John 14" or "children are invited to leave now for Junior Church" can also be included. Our goal is to help folks sing with understanding. Projecting words can help achieve that goal. Perhaps 35mm slides can assist! Paul E. Kealy * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The included file contains: Page 1 - template for printing slides to shoot as reduced negatives, to cut apart and mount in 35mm slide frames. Page 2 - template for printing slides at actual size on transparencies, to cut apart and mount in 35mm slide frames. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * copyright 2001 by Paul E. Kealy PO BOX 3890 Del Rosa, CA 92413-3890 www.MediaExcellence.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *