whoisgrace.com

My wife probably would not approve of me bragging about her in a public space like this, but I'm afraid that there is just no other option. She and Chris Falzone have just completed a major overhaul to Grace Church's website whoisgrace.com. I am absolutely in love with the redesign. It is sleek, sharp, and sexy (can a church website be sexy?). Great job, guys. It looks fantastic.

One of the things I am most excited about is that whoisgrace.com finally has the functionality to play videos directly on the site. Last summer, I asked a question on this blog as to whether people would prefer Vimeo or YouTube as a host site for the videos that we create at Grace. Although opinions were divided more or less right down the middle, I decided to abandon YouTube and switch completely over to Vimeo. I believe the quality is better on uploaded videos at Vimeo, and the interface is definitely nicer as well (it's grown on me). You can see the videos yourself by going to whoisgrace.com, clicking on "connect" on the left side of the page, and then clicking on "Vimeo".

Another thing I like about Vimeo is that a Plus membership allows you to create a personalized channel for your videos. In fact, the Grace Church channel is the page that is linked directly off of the front page on the whoisgrace.com.

Finally, directly underneath the connect button on the front page is a button for "The 411". The 411 is what we have begun calling our weekly video announcements at Grace. We have been showing video announcements in our weekend services at Grace since 2005. Now, if you miss them, you will be able to view the video on whoisgrace.com. Although there have been cosmetic changes to the announcement video format over the last four years, there has never been a major overhaul on the way we do them. Starting earlier this month with the countdown [it's all part of the package], we are in the beginning stages of a brand new way of doing video announcements at Grace. I think that the people of Grace will be very pleased with The 411. I am working with the communications team as we speak and am so excited to unveil the new format sometime over the next few weeks.

Grace may be over 110 years old now, but I believe we're as cutting-edge as ever. As time goes by, the message always always stays the same, but the methods of delivering that message can and should change. At Grace, we are 100% convinced that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. But shame on us if we think that the methods used for communicating this Hope in the church of yesterday will work in the church of today. Yes, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But that doesn't mean that we should sit idly by as we watch technology, time, and relevance pass the church by.

So check out whoisgrace.com, check out our new Vimeo channel, and get excited by what God is doing at Grace Church in Erie, Pennsylvania!! Oh, and if you happen to be reading this and don't currently have a church home, I encourage you to check Grace out "in person". :-)

Worse than the blue screen of death

Do we all remember the blue screen of death from PC's 'glory days'?
To me, this screen is worse. And I see it at least 10 times a day when I am working with Final Cut. That, or my Mac just shuts down completely. Without explanation.

It makes me want to scream.

But mostly, I just cry.

Shiver me timbers.....literally

The seasons have definitely changed and winter is getting nearer everyday. We're approaching the end of October and Danielle & I have yet to turn on the heat in our house. For me, it has become somewhat of a game as I try to see how long we can go without turning it on. We do have a space heater, which actually -- for as small as it is -- works wonders. It keeps our bedroom warm at night and when we combine that with our down comforter, we are actually quite warm and comfy at night. I hate the price of home heating, but at what point do you bite the bullet and say, ok, i'm tired of shivering my butt off everyday? For me, it's when the daily high temperature fails to reach 15° for four consecutive days. I think Danielle may disagree though...

I had a fun(ny) time with Michelle V and Kathy W tonight on a film shoot. We had to navigate rush hour traffic on Peach Street to get the perfect shot. Several near-accidents later, we got the shots we needed. After that, Michelle and I met up with Eric R, Mark B, John W, and Mark B's son to film a fake football game at their house. It was hilarious. Sometimes, I wish that the videos in the services could be the raw footage. People wouldn't believe what they were seeing! :-)

The rest of this week promises to be extra busy. Lots of video work to do (personal and church). The load keeps getting heavier and heavier...but I love it...and I'm not complaining!

I am EXTREMELY excited about this upcoming weekend. This past Sunday, Danielle and I received a pretty incredible gift from a friend of ours. We've decided to make a weekend out of it, and I can't wait. Yay!

Granger Film Festival

Well, the results [click on Granger Film Festival then 2008 Entries] from the Granger Film Festival are in, and - sadly - Grace did not win the grand prize. However, the good news is that out of the many videos they received, one of Grace's was chosen. (I submitted three). So, despite the fact that we didn't win anything, I am extremely pleased that my work and our church got some national exposure at a renowned event like the Granger Film Festival. That, in and of itself, is huge!

The irony of it all is that the video that they chose was a video that was created PRIOR to the purchase of our new and incredible video camera. Oh well.

I hope it's not too lofty to set a goal of Grace being one of the winners in next year's festival.

Allow me to brag a bit...

Things are really crazy right now. I have about 200 video projects going on, which I am very happy about. Some are for church, others are not. I'm glad that things are so busy with that right now, but it doesn't allow me much time to do other things...ya know, like blog.

One of the big projects I am working on this week is the video for the 2008 annual meeting being held this Sunday at Grace. I have had the privilege (some wouldn't call it that, but I consider it as such) of going through hours and hours and hours of video from this past year. In doing so, I feel the need to brag a little bit about this place called Grace. I have much to say, but for now, I am going to just say a couple things:

• Grace Church is an absolutely amazing place. If you live in Erie and you're reading this and you have yet to visit Grace, I just need to say that you are missing out big time. PLEASE VISIT! We welcome you with open arms. But I have to warn you: when you do finally visit, please know that you have entered into a movement of God that is thriving like crazy.
• This past year has been incredible. If somebody would have told me one year ago that we would have just under 1,000 people worshiping at Grace on any given weekend, I wouldn't have believed them. But in going back through the footage of this past year and seeing everything that makes Grace tick and everyone that makes Grace tick, it has brought me to tears several times as I realize how God is moving amongst His people and how He is leading so many in our community to begin a relationship with Him.
• When I walked through the doors of Grace on Easter Sunday 2003, I had no idea that God had placed me in the middle of something so amazing. Over five years later, I continue to be grateful that I am a tiny little part of His story as it unfolds at Grace.
• When I think about the future of Grace, I get goosebumps. I know it's going to be incredible. And the best part? This is only the beginning.

I have so much more to say about all this, but I must get some sleep right now.

Have a great Thursday, all!

Here it is!

Here's the video from last weekend. Enjoy!

(the dancing starts at 3:34)

We Are Family from Dave Hartland on Vimeo.

In other news, I am looking forward to what will be a beautiful moment this morning down at the courthouse as Chrissy becomes the lawful daughter of Justin & Juli (she already is considered as such in the eyes of everyone else). She's great...and makes a great addition to an already awesome family! Praise God that Justin and Juli have chosen to give this beautiful child (and by child, I mean almost college-bound) a much-deserved chance for love, happiness, and success. She is also getting the opportunity to fall in love with Jesus for the first time in her life -- and that rocks. I love that they are doing this. It's like an incredibly happy story or movie -- only, it's happening in real life. I get teared up even thinking about it...

Like my wife said, we are heading to South Carolina this weekend to visit my daddy. He doesn't know yet, so please don't tell him. He turns SEVENTY (70) ::gasp!:: this weekend. I'm so excited to surprise him tomorrow!

Enjoy your holiday weekend, folks. Labor Day?! Seriously!? Wow. Doesn't it just seem like Memorial Day or 4th of July? Heck, doesn't it seem like it was just Christmas?!

By the way, speaking of Christmas: only 119 more days.

Screenshot Hilarity

I took some random screenshots of the video I was working on for church this past weekend. Here's a sampling of some of the hilarious craziness that occurred during the shoot.

I'll hopefully have the video online within the next day or so!

YouTube vs. Vimeo

Although I'm not crazy about the interface of Vimeo, it has a clear advantage over YouTube in terms of picture quality.

Compare the latest video from Grace, a trailer for "The Awakening"; Grace's August sermon series.

This is YouTube:


And this is Vimeo:

The Awakening [trailer] from Dave Hartland on Vimeo.


It is obvious which one is better. My question is whether the ugliness of Vimeo's interface should be a factor in deciding whether to begin using it. Hmm. Thoughts?