Willow Creek Church's In-House Video Team Tapes Delirious Concert For DVD (Reel Chicago)
Last modified: 20 Jul 2006
Source: Reel Chicago
Author: Ruth L Ratny
Date: 20 Jul 2006
A concert by one of the world's most popular Christian bands was taped for a DVD at one of the country's biggest Christian churches.
British band Delirious, known for its performances at Christian worship services, enthralled an audience of 5,000 during the recent Arts Conference held at Willow Creek Community Church of South Barrington.
The 14-song concert by the five-piece band's concert is titled "Now is the Time: Delirious Live at Willow Creek." It's the first major concert video release produced in Willow Creek's new 36,000-sq. ft., 7,200 seat theatre-style auditorium.
"Delirious had such a good experience last year at Willow Creek, when they performed for a student ministry concert, that they decided to shoot this year's DVD here," said Jim Sippel, video operations manager of the 10-person department.
Sippel said they had only one day in which to set up and shoot, due to the band's late arrival.
"Their bus broke down and they arrived at 7 a.m. the day of the concert giving only two hours for rehearsal," said Sippel, who added the duties of production manager and DP on the shoot.
The Conference was being held in the church's main auditorium, where the delirious concert would be staged later. The crew had to wait for the end of the Conference to reset the 100x150-ft. stage for a full concert rehearsal.
"We only had one hour to make final corrections before the concert started at 7 p.m.," Sippel said.
To capture the concert, Sippel employed 11 Sony standard def cameras, with a 40-ft. jimmy jib, and recorded on DVC Pro 50.
Staffers Darren Niesley directed and Scott Lambert was video producer; Andy Hutch produced for Delirious.
Currently in post, Andrew Schuurmann is the lead editor, using new Final Cut 5 with multi camera features; Tim Giardino, editor, Ryan Trommer, graphics and Jeff Beaumont, DVD authoring. Randy Warren shot and edited the DVD behind the scenes Extra. Pat Yacono of Signal Hill provided Dolby Digital and DTS surround mastering.
Sparrow EMI will distribute the DVD this fall.
The full-time video staff is within Willow Creek's 38-person ministry production department. The church has a staff of 500.
Sippel is a veteran of the now-defunct Ch. 38 WCFC, a Christian cable channel. He joined Willow Creek in 2000 after WCFC was sold to Pax Broadcasting.
The 10-year old Arts Conference attracted representatives from 12,000 affiliated churches from 15 different countries. A ticket to the Delirious concert was included in the conference fee.