Christmas Concert 2020

Church: Flood Church
Submitted by: Timothy Eagerton
Church Size: 1-500
Location: San Diego, CA
Category:  Best Concept
Gear:  RED, DaVinci Resolve After Effects

One of the highlights for our church every year is getting to host our annual Christmas Collective, a large Christmas Concert and socially-conscientious Christmas Market. It has become a tradition for our community, with a reach well beyond our church walls.

With restrictions on live events in 2020 due to COVID, we sought to find a way to bring a unique and meaningful virtual Christmas experience to our people, even though we couldn’t be together live. Most Californians spent the bulk of the year stuck in their homes; we wanted to take the opportunity to invite people into our “home” for the holidays.

We endeavored to present the entire one-hour program as a “oner” or “one-shot” to help sell the feeling of being a guest in somebody’s home, as opposed to a multi-camera presentation, which can feel a bit more like the viewer is simply a spectator, less immersed in the action. The program progresses as a tour through the home, with a change of room replacing what would be a stage turnover in a live production.

Coordinating crew schedules, COVID occupancy and testing protocols, all while not losing sight of our commitment to the concept of the piece was the biggest challenge. Needing to film portions in the day, other portions at night, but sell it as a single pass necessitated creative solutions from art department, lighting, blocking, and post-production.

We filmed in raw on RED, using a steadicam. From there, I handled ingesting and color in DaVinci Resolve, comping, masking, and effects in After Effects.

One of the biggest contributing factors to the piece as a whole was developing a color palette and strategy for props and wardrobe in sync with our DP. This helped each setup feel unique and bring the spirit of Christmas into each shot, while also giving us practical ways to negotiate scene transitions with minimal interruption to the one-shot feel. Spending our time here, instead of leaning solely on post to bring a “Christmas feel” wrapped the piece up nicely for us… no pun intended.