Create a Captivating Church Video With These 9 Pointers

Your church wants to create an engaging video different from the usual filmed sermons. How can you ensure it turns out exactly as you envision?

Here’s how to make a captivating church video, from planning and writing the script to post-production.

1. Make It Unique to Your Ministry

Many great church videos exist, and it’s easy to get caught up in trying to be like the best. However, your ministry’s unique touch will make your video captivating.

Ensure you understand the senior leaders’ vision before creating the video. This will help you focus on the objective and direct all creative efforts and ideas toward packaging to reflect your unique identity.

2. Create a Realistic Timeline

You must create a schedule that outlines everyone’s roles and deadlines ahead of time, especially if the media or video teams are volunteers and not full-time church employees. The key is to work backward, so consider the schedule.

• When should the video go in for editing? How long will that take?
• Do you have an allowance for last-minute changes and edits?
• How far ahead of the deadline do you need to film the video?
• Who’s responsible for roping in speakers or people who need to appear in the video?

Use a project management app like Monday or ClickUp to keep everyone updated and working within the schedule. You’ll know exactly where people need to pick up if things fall behind and can make plans to fix the issue immediately.

3. Write a Script

A script will ensure you cover every detail of the video and cohesively present the information. Only a few people can pull off impromptu dialogue on camera. Create an outline and detail each step.

You can use AI for inspiration to make the script captivating if needed. You may need something to promote a men’s conference and want to grab their attention or seek a fun way to advertise the kids’ ministry online. Write your script, then ask the chatbot to rewrite it to your specifications.

4. Get Creative With the Location

Choose a location that suits the type of video you’re producing. If you’re shooting a video about the neighborhood, get some views of the area. If it’s about a person in the community, ask if there’s a space they prefer, like their favorite spot at the local park or the swinging bench by their front porch.

Don’t be afraid to get creative. For example, if you’re filming a promo video, you may want to hire a drone to give viewers a bird’s-eye view of how to get to the church from the city as an introduction. If you plan to do this, look up your state’s drone regulations and restrictions. There could be zones you must avoid.

5. Prioritize Post-Production

Make all your hard work count with post-production. After hours of shooting and coordinating, you want people to be able to see and hear everything.

Focus on color grading and audio mixing. Captivate the audience and enhance the experience by balancing dialogue, music and other sounds.

6. Provide Alternatives for the Camera-Shy

Your pastor may be confident and funny on the pulpit but struggle to express their personality naturally on film. Staff members might be hesitant to talk on camera. Look for alternative ways to present information in these situations.

You could get someone in the church to animate a cartoon for a kids’ ministry video or film action shots with music in the background and a voice-over.

7. Keep It Short

Take a page out of marketing strategies and keep videos short unless necessary. Shorter videos receive 2.5 times more engagement than longer ones. They’re convenient, and people will remember more over a super-long production.

Of course, this depends on the kind of video you’re creating. If it’s a feature showcasing a project in the community or a video about someone’s testimony, focus on making the content engaging.

8. Include Graphics and Captions

One of the best ways to create a captivating video is to include graphics. This can be anything from animation highlighting areas you want to focus on or the church logo in a different color at the bottom of the screen.

Your video will end up on the screen of someone who needs captions. Whether they are deaf or hard of hearing or don’t want sound because they’re in a public space, make it easier to watch the video wherever they are. Considering that 80% of viewers between 18 and 35 use subtitles while watching TV, captions are essential to reach the hearts of viewers.

9. Engage the Audience

Depending on the purpose of your video, you may want to include a call to action.

Whether you would like them to subscribe to the church’s newsletter for more information or share the video with friends, it will get them to engage with your ministry long after the video.

Creating a Captivating Church Video

Remember to align every step with your ministry’s identity and unique vision. The excellent technical work and Christ-centered content will captivate your audience.