For those production individuals who have to produce weekly video announcements for your organization here are some guidelines to help your planning and workflow. Specifically, these guidelines are for a non-profit environment with limited on-premises production staff. I hope you find this information useful. There is reference to the “Video Announcement Portal” in the guidelines. The IT Dept at the organization I work for created this portal which is a very useful platform for announcement submissions, scripts, and studio session scheduling. This platform has helped in this process greatly. I hope to post on how to create this portal in a future post.

Here is an example of one of the produced announcements:

Here are the guidelines for our Video Announcements. Enjoy!
For those who are trying to present this as an idea to your organizations leadership you can find a printable version of this information on Google Docs here.

OVERVIEW

Create video announcements that will replace in-person announcements. This directive provides announcement distribution over various platforms after the venue playback has been delivered. Each week’s video announcements will consist of a welcome, two announcements, and a visitor / call to worship outro with the same host from the welcome. The welcome portion is planned and produced for variation and uniqueness in a quarterly rotation using six independent scripts and six hosts. After each host has read all six welcome scripts that offer 36 independently unique welcome sections for the weekly videos. The visitor / call to worship outro is more generalized with one script. Department / Ministry leaders will be the on-camera talent for their requested announcement. If the leader opts not to be the talent they will suggest someone else for the role. The announcement will be recorded in the studio using a teleprompter with the supplied script from the submitting department / ministry.

GOALS

1. Shorten and streamline announcement time.
2. Create announcements that are immersive and welcoming.
3. After venue playback, distribute announcements individually through social media and email.
4. Rotate produced video clips to keep the content fresh.

SPECIFICATIONS

In order to successfully produce the video announcements, the departments / ministries must abide by the schedule / milestones or the announcement will not be produced.

MILESTONES

Announcement Scheduling and Script Submission
(First day of the month to the 3rd Wednesday by noon)

Action Items

1. All announcement submissions should be made for the upcoming month’s announcement schedule by the 3rd Wednesday before noon. This request should be made through the “Video Announcement Portal”
2. A requested announcement doesn’t ensure you will have an approved announcement spot as there are limited spots available.
3. Announcement participants are asked to submit their script through the “Video Announcement Portal”. This is a custom build platform for leaders to submit and schedule video announcements.

Finalization Planning Meeting
(3rd Wednesday of Every Month)

Action Items

1. Recognise upcoming church-wide events and national holidays (campus closures).
2. Finalize and approve submitted announcement submissions and scripts.
3. Discuss delivery and any other elements needed for each announcement.

Pre Production Planning
(3rd Wednesday to Thursday)

Action Items

1. Receive and review scripts. If needed, the scripts will be revised for the spoken word.
2. Studio sessions scheduling is handled through the “Video Announcement Portal”.

Production / Studio Sessions
(following the third Wed on Thu, Sun and Tue)

Action Items

1. Each month, following the third Wednesday on Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday of the current month there will be 15 minute time slots available for hosts and announcers to come to the studio and record their announcement.
2. All talent will read from a teleprompter. All submitted scripts will be loaded and ready for the talent.
3. Set-up studio for green screen production.
4. Transfer footage and back-up raw footage on server.

Talent (Host/Announcers)

1. Hosts and Announcers are to be Immanuel staff or leadership only (Elders, Deacons). There may be exceptions if the announcement requires the above requirement. This request will have to be cleared by the leadership.
2. Remind on-camera talent to avoid wearing green and clothing with detailed patterns and thin lines. Shiny jewelry should also be avoided.

Scripts

1. All announcements will be scripted. The script will be loaded onto the teleprompter in the studio for the host of the announcement spot. The initial script will be written by the requesting ministry. If needed, the script will be revised for better delivery via spoken word.

Post Production
(Tuesday following the 3rd Wednesday)

Action Item

1. Create each Sunday’s full announcement with intro and outro for Sunday playback.
2. Post all individual announcement online on Facebook and Twitter.
3. All videos should be ready by the last Wednesday of the current month.

Announcement Roll Out
(Every Sunday of the year)

The announcement roll out is the scheduled order of Sunday announcements. This order should not change after the planning meeting on the 3rd Wednesday of the current month.

The complete welcome and announcements are produced in one video file. The video is loaded into the Worship Center ProPresenter application.

Individual announcement videos will be uploaded to YouTube and Facebook every week for social media distribution