People have joked about not knowing what day it is, as one lockdown day merges pretty much into every other. The pattern of Church life, at least in terms of Holy Week and Easter, has meant this has not been much of a problem. However, looking back over the last few weeks they have blurred into one. Previously unthinkable 'social distancing' is now the norm for outdoor interactions. The pile of papers on my study floor which, up until a matter of a weeks ago, were all either urgent or overdue, have remained untouched and may well hit the recycling bin before any great purpose comes of them.
I needed to make a note in my journal this morning of a bit of a timeline for me of these last week. We are living in a history that will be long remembered but the details of which seem soon forgotten as their enormity is normalised into routine.
We met in Church together on Sunday 15th March for All Age Worship and then later for an evening Holy Communion. By the 17th we had been told to avoid gatherings, and so on the 18th I did Morning Prayer from the side chapel over Facebook. and then on the following Sunday, 22nd March, I did a short "solo" service in the morning from St Chad's. That day had been nominated as a National Day of Prayer, in response to which Faith and I did a live time of prayer on Facebook, lighting a candle as a sign of hope.
We were then given guidance to effectively close the Church buildings for public worship and private prayer. Faith and I led Morning Prayer on the 25th from home over Facebook and Trev had uploaded videos to create a Sunday morning service via YouTube for Sunday 29th March. Faith and I led a Facebook live Morning Prayer on the 1st April.
On the 4th it would have been our monthly Prayer Breakfast, so we hosted that using Facebook live and Zoom simultaneously.
I had been working on a series of YouTube videos for Palm Sunday (5th), Maundy Thursday (9th), Good Friday (10th) and Easter Sunday (12th) with a Monring Prayer on the Wednesday 8th on Facebook.
It has been a slightly hairy learning curve, especially on Facebook where it is live, so there is no re-take or edit possible. The Sunday morning from Church taught me that using the forward facing camera reverses the image and also Facebook seems to prefer portrait for video (who makes videos in portrait!!??!!) so it is far too easy to end up with a back to front and rotated by 90 degrees video.
The YouTube videos are less interactive, but there is time to shoot a retake and the software allows editing to get a better image and scene. I have developed my set up quite rapidly on this, noting that capturing consistent audio is tricky - I found another microphone in a cupboard, so I will give that a test. I think I have found a workable pattern of settings for my cameras and a workflow for getting the videos done and uploaded.
The final technical thing which still needs work is lighting. Doing these recordings in the house or garden gives very limited options of space and available light indoors is not enough usually for decent video. Thankfully, we have a good LED light which helps.
Content is still something that needs careful thought. Am I trying to recreate a service in Church, or offer something different? For example, on Easter Sunday I relied on being able to use video conferencing to record conversations with the rest of the team rather than have a traditional sermon slot. I think this worked well. It was good to have other voices and faces on screen too.
I am hoping to take some downtime after Easter to catch up and think about what might be a sustainable model of doing this for the next few months until lockdown is relaxed in some way.
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