Church and Editing

There is a lesson that churches should learn from editing. But it's more painful when editors have not learned this lesson either.

This Sunday was fairly typical, but they also included an extra hymn, communion, and a time for people to talk about what they are thankful for from this past year. All good things, sure, but we still sang the normal amount of songs. This put the end of the service 10-25 minutes over when it usually ends.

Granted, I've only got to do lunch after church, but others have places to be and things to do, not to mention the teachers who are wrangling kids for an extra half hour. In short, if you run an scheduled "event"--service, dinner, show, whatever--you need to make sure you are on time. It's the respectful thing to do. Plus, people get antsy the moment you start to go into overtime (at least here in the "go, go, go" United States).

So what should have been done?

Drop three songs from the worship set to accommodate the three additional bits.

In short: Make the music fit the length of your piece.

If you've ever had to sit through a service that was going over, you know the frustration I'm talking about.

Now think about the student films you've seen (and, honestly, some of the Hollywood flicks as well). How many times do these filmmakers let the song they chose dictate the length of their movie? Over and over again I see videos drag on and on while we wait for the filmmaker's favorite song to end.

Make your point and get out. The music is there to support your movie, not dictate its length.

Similarly, if you've got a length for your service, cut out music if you're going to add other elements.

Rant over.

Please resume your productions.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father