UPCI Wisconsin District Christmas for Christ 2010

Mukwonago, WI   /   Milwaukee, WI

CenterStage Media is honored to have been chosen to produce the 2010 Christmas for Christ promotional film for the UPCI Wisconsin District’s Home Missions Department featuring Pastor Mark Showalter from Bread of Life Apostolic Church (Mukwonago, WI) and Pastor Marshall Newble from Apostolic Worship Center (Milwaukee, WI). Christmas for Christ is an annually produced piece that showcases smaller churches throughout Wisconsin in the early growth phase for the purpose of soliciting donations to assist in the funding of their operating expenses.

We were approached by the Director of the UPCI Wisconsin District Home Missions Department on short notice to redo a first attempt at a promotional piece from another production facility that showcased the two pastors in a studio setting. We decided to go in a different direction, sort of back to basics. Instead of having the pastors just talk about what it meant to start a home missions church, we wanted to showcase the pastors and their congregations in their elements – to bring the home missions church experience straight to the viewers of this short. And that meant packing up our cameras, our multitrack audio recorders, a small selection of versatile mic’s, and heading out to film everything on site at the churches and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Having less than a month to go from pre production to distribution, we decided to wrap production filming as quickly as possible. So on October 3rd, we headed down to Mukwonago, WI to capture the "Friends Sunday" event at Bread of Life. Interviews with members of the congregation and Pastor Showalter were conducted at the church while a baptism was filmed at a local beach along the Mukwonago River.

The following Sunday on October 10th, we again packed up our gear and headed down to the inner city of Milwaukee to learn more about this church being held in an elementary school in the worst neighborhood in Southeastern Wisconsin and to try to bring another amazing home missions story to the viewers. Because service is held in a school gymnasium, a team of volunteers must setup and tear down every service. So we decided to capture the process using time lapse photography so we could weave that element into the final edit. For audio, we recorded stereo instrument and vocal submixes, the audience, and the MC mic all of which would be mixed down to stereo in post production. After service, we conducted interviews with Pastor Newble and several congregants, and we accompanied several members who later that afternoon reached out to members of the surrounding neighborhood.

Not having much direction from the Home Missions Department regarding the desired subject matter of the final edit, we were left to build the story on the timeline during post, relying entirely on the various dialogue components filmed during each service and post service interviews. Additional post processes included multitrack audio mixdown, audio mastering, final grading and color correcting, and insertion of English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired. We duplicated our final short film to 100 DVDs that the UPCI Wisconsin District Home Missions Department distributed throughout the state of Wisconsin.

Our final edit showcasing the Mukwonago assembly can be viewed above. To view additional imagery and the edit showcasing the Milwaukee assembly, please view this page from the sortable portfolio area of our homepage.

About Aaron J. Courtney

Aaron J. Courtney is the Director of Technical Production at CenterStage Media. He brings media production, marketing, web development, and graphic design skillsets to the firm. He began working with film cameras at age nine and has served in various media post production capacities for over 15 years. Connect with him on Google+ and LinkedIn and follow CenterStage on Twitter and Google+.

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