Guest Blogger: Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

Today I sat down with the Design Team and mapped out the video production schedule for the next couple weeks. It’s super hairy, but doable (sidebar: that’s one of the reasons why I love the Design Team–they recognize the difference between super-hairy-but-doable and crazy-heavy-can’t-pull-it-off). The best part of the whole process was we dumped all the computers for the planning session and went straight paper, pen and scissors. Scissors? Yep, scissors.

I was cutting out graph paper and mapping out the schedule old school. Sliding video shoots and post-production edit sessions all around on the table on little scraps of paper. It wasn’t the best, most efficient approach to project planning. But sometimes you’ve got to go old school to get back to the basics. To remind yourself how the technology is supposed to help, not be the point.

For example, just because you know how to use the technology to edit a video in Final Cut doesn’t mean you’re a video producer. Handing in something that looks like a movie doesn’t make it a movie.

If you can’t tell a story, you can’t make movies. Sorry.

Don’t be confused by being able to tell a great story and being able to communicate a lot of information quickly. We’ve gotten really good at covering up our lack of substance with style or technique. But substance always wins. Just like character always wins. And integrity. And truth.

Get back to some of what you lost when you got the new toys and tools to play with. Get back to the basics. It might surprise you how far you’ve walked off the path you always thought you’d follow.