trey taylordiscover | imagine | create

Behance is one of my favorite sites. They’re all about creativity and productivity, and those are two things I always need more of in my life. Last week I ordered a new Action Pad Mini, I’ve been using the Action Book for a while now and I thought I’d give the Mini a try. I got the package on Saturday, and when I opened it there was a little card with random tips for creativity & productivity (one of the many reasons I love those guys). So I thought I’d share them. You can learn tons just from title, but each tip is the title of an article on their site. So don’t stop with just these titles, take the next step, read the article, you won’t be sorry.

./Tip 39. Generate Ideas in Moderation.
./Tip 22. Measure the Value of Meetings with Action.
./Tip 65. Seek Stimulation From Randomness. 
./Tip 4. Think Inside a Self-Constructed Box.
./Tip 23. Fight Your Way to Breakthroughs.
./Tip 56. Distinguish Urgent Vs. Important.
./Tip 7. Advertise Action to Yourself.
./Tip 15. Share Ownership of Ideas.
./Tip 18. Always Move the Ball Forward.
./Tip 10. Stop Focusing on Visionaries.
 ./Tip 11. Judge Based on Initiative (Not Experience).
./Tip 21. Leaders Talk Last (Silence the Visionary!).
./Tip 32. Value the Teams Immune System.

This is a bit of a repost, but this time its for Creative Chaos.

If you haven’t seen Wordle yet you need to check it out, its a new website that lets you create fun little word clouds. I created the one above real quick using random things about my life just to test it out. I ran across this other one that is the names of the best movie directors of all time. Which I think would make a very cool print for my wall. Click the images to enlarge them. The more times you list a word, the bigger it will appear in the cloud. If you create any cool ones, post the url in the comments, I’d love to see them.

I’m a big fan of Spike Jonze, I think he’s extremely quirky and original. I ran across his ‘97 short film ‘How They Get There’ and I thought it was pretty clever. Spike Jonze was the guy who directed ‘Being John Malkovich,’ which is a pretty great movie, plus he directed Fatboy Slim’s hilarious music video to ‘Praise You.’ He’s in production right now on next years ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ which I’m stoked about because that was my favorite book as a kid, and I think he’ll do a great job (even though I’ve read there’s was a little drama on set).

Back to this film. I think its really great, he accomplishes quite a bit in 2 minutes, without any dialogue, and nice pacing. It’s a complete story, beginning, middle, and end. Take a couple of minutes and watch it.

For the last year we’ve been feeling that multi-site was the direction God was taking us. I had the opportunity to go check out LifeChurch.tv and see how they roll… which is a sight to be seen if you’ve never been out there.  Go. Thats all I’ve got to say. Anyway, all you guys in the blogosphere that I read have taught me tons on the subject as well, and I’m sure we’ve got a long way to go, especially when it comes to fine tuning ‘our way’ of doing multi-site. Everybody is doing it so differently, and its working for you guys where you are. So right now, we are in the phase are studying, researching, praying, and trying to figure out what ‘our way’ looks like. 

Over the last 2 days, I’ve been meeting with the guys from Fowler Design Group about wiping our existing video system and taking us to HD from lens to screen, as well as designing the delivery system for each of our future campuses. Which is our first step in the journey of going to a second site. On top of that, we are in the process of extending our existing building to accomodate more room for youth and kids, as well as a second venue on site, which will technically be our first venture into multi-site. 

So, to step back and look at this, we are doing a lot all at once. A full video overhaul, including lighting, in the main worship space, and then full production (audio, video, & lighting) in the new youth room, the new kids room, and the second on-site venue, all while making plans for our first off-site campus launch some time early to mid 2009. 

So my last 2 days have been working through this, dreaming a little about what is possible. And of course filling my head with more acronyms than I thought existed in the entire world. Can you think of another industry with more acronyms than the video/production industry?

So needless to say my head is hurting right now just thinking about it all. But at the same time, its really exciting. I love technology, especially when its used to advance the kingdom. 

I’ll be posting a lot more details in the future. We are still in the infant stages of this, but as we build this system and our plan for multi-site I’ll be posting as much info as I can.

“Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.”

           -James Allen