Less than two months before videos are due!

With less than two months before videos need to be submitted, I wanted to give everyone idea of where they should be at in the process.  If you haven’t even started yet–don’t worry there is time!  Where every you are in the process head on over the resource page to find material to help you on your journey.

In talking with different churches, youth groups and leading workshops I have to realize some of the first steps can be the hardest.  Since time seems to fly by, I would encourage everyone to start getting together a small team of 3-6 people to start brainstorming ideas within the next week.  Brainstorm–put out any and every idea.  Think out of the box!  Think big.  Think crazy.  When brainstorming do not take the time to explain your thought or even tell your whole idea–just put it out there.   It is also not the time to say ‘no’ to any ideas–all are valid.  After you have a number of ideas out there, go ahead a evaluate.  This is where you would explain the idea and clarify questions.  From there narrow down to a few ideas (two or three) and vote on which one to go with.  Feel free to vote in whatever way your group prefers, it could be consensus or majority or neither.

Once you have your idea, you can decide to split up the group and delegate out roles or film the whole thing together, this up to the group.  This is right were you want to be with 7 weeks until submissions are due: be moving forward on an idea and beginning to film.  If you are not in the process of doing that now, make sure to be doing so in no less than two weeks.

Go luck with filming!  And remember to have fun and build community!

 

 

E-News and DioMass Film Project Highlighted!

Check it out here:

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Welcome to the DioMass Film Project

The DioMass Film Project is dedicated to empowering and equipping congregations with the tools necessary to capture their stories through film.  The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is dedicated to offering resources to make it an exciting and accessible experience.  We will be doing this through two main areas.  First we will be offering workshops for congregations and deaneries interested in storytelling and film making.   During these workshops we will go through main concepts of storytelling and film making and how a congregations takes its first steps.   Please contact Katie Ernst at 617.482.4826 ext. 232 or kernst@diomass.org to book a workshop or get more information.  All workshops are free of charge.

Secondly, in the spring the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts will be sponsoring the DioMass Film Festival.  It will be at this event that we showcase short films put together by congregation and Episcopal sponsored organizations around Eastern Massachusetts.  Head over to the Film Festival page to find out more information, rules of entry and how to win the cash prize.

Welcome to the DioMass Film Project!

Scheduling Headache!

In my last couple of posts I have mentioned the beauty of doodle.com.  Well, even with a great system to help you schedule large groups it can still be difficult.  I have been trying for the past three weeks to find a time for all ten of us to meet and delegate roles.   It has been nearly impossible to get all of us together.

I think there are a couple of things happening here.  First, this time of year is extremely difficult to schedule meetings.  Many people are busy with the

holidays, work or school.   Second, when scheduling with doodle.com you can offer many options for dates and times.  I have found it best to only offer 3 or 4 times to choose from. When I started giving too many options people were

overwhelmed and either didn’t respond or only gave their top preference.  Unfortunately,  even with limit times it can still be difficult to set a meeting up.  When this happens I pull out all the stops.

What is the big thing I do?  I call each person, one at a time and talk with them to nail down a time to meet.  When you do this–they have no where to run!  :-)   Also, it is just more personal and affirming of that person and what they bring to the table.

If you find yourself having difficulty getting people together for meetings–have patience and call people!

-
Katie

Second Meeting

After having our first meeting–where we brainstormed topics and ideas–it was time for our second meeting.  Again, I used doodle.com to find times that would work for people.  Not everyone was able to make it but that is okay.  We made sure we took good notes and filled people in on what they missed.  Even though not everyone was there we thought it was still important to pair down the topics and vote on which one we wanted to go forward with.

We began with discussing the topics a little further and giving people a chance to explain in greater detail their hopes for the topic they suggested.  This is an important part of the process.  As the person facilitating the conversation–it is important to make sure everyone’s voices is heard.   Once everyone had a chance to talk we voted on a topic.  We did this by giving everyone three votes.  From there we picked the topic that had the most votes.

After we nailed down our theme/topic for the film (YAY!!!), we made plans for our next meeting–what we hoped to get done and covered.   We decided we needed to figure out what subgroups we needed, who we needed to interview and what questions to ask.

The second meeting went really well and we are onto a great start!  The meetings have been lasting for about 45 minutes–fyi.

Good Luck!

Katie

Where to Start?

So about three weeks ago I found myself trying to put together a team to tackle the film project.  This is where it all begins.  It is extremely important to get a team around you that is excited, dedicated and invested in the project.  Without that, you will feel like a burden and bothersome to all involved and that is the last thing either you or I want.  Luckily for me the group in Life Together is small–there is only 25 people total.  I sent out a mass email explaining the project, my excitement for it and expectations for being part of the creative/planning team.  From that email I received 10 emails back.  The next email I sent revolved trying to set a date to meet.  If you have not heard of doodle listen up!  It is an amazing tool to help groups organize and figure out times to meet.  Check them out here! By the way doodle is a free service.

Once we figured out all of our schedules, we met in a central location.  As the facilator of the first meeting I made sure we were all on the same page.  I shared about the general purpose of the project, hopes and expectations.  One way this part could have smoother is by being prepared with printed resources (which you can find here) or by emailing them ahead of time for people to look at.  For there we went onto brainstorming, following this outline of how to create films:

1. Brainstorm
2. Find a story from the brainstorming activity
3. Pull out as many details as possible—be descriptive
4.  Be self reflective—describe how it made you feel and why is it important?
5.  Incorporate the categories: Challenge. Choice. Outcome.
6.  Spend time with all the details and write out the story
7.  Practice telling the story to a friend (make sure it is within 2-3 minutes)
8.  Get feedback and rewrite
9. Retell the story to a friend

We stopped at brainstorming.  Conversation will get off track–do your best to pull people back in.  Once the group was satisfied with the options we wrapped up the conversation and talked about next steps.  I would encourage the facilitator to designate a time keeper and a scribe (to write everything down). This way you can stay on time and have an archive of what was talked about.
After the meeting I sat down and type up the notes, summarize what was talked about and sent out a doodle for the next meeting.  This can happen the next day through email–I find it best to do it soon after the meeting.  Within a couple days or so!

Good luck on your organizing of your first meeting and facilitating your meeting!  If you have any questions feel free to email me at kernst@diomass.org.

Peace,
Katie