Q&A with Camron Ware
Camron Ware is the founder of Visual Worshiper, a design consulting company that guides and mentors churches through the journey of what visual worship means in the Church today, and how and why to use technology in worship to tell visual stories.
ECHO: You’ve done a few “projection parties” in the past several months. What exactly are those and what kind of feedback have you gotten?
CW: A projection (or mapping) party is simply when you use multiple projectors to project on the outside of a building, VJ media content to music, and invite the community to come watch, enjoy, and fellowship. There are many other people and groups that do this on a much bigger scale, with brighter/better gear, but I think projecting on the outside of First Baptist Church Coppell was unique. The response was incredible. The church faced a main street into the city, so over the three nights we had about 100 people stop by, park, or walk over to the parking lot.
The other main projection party we did was in Nashville on the Marathon Village office complex. It was a smaller event simply due to time constraints, but when we are able to really get the word out about it, we will do it again and hopefully be able to invite more people.
ECHO: What does somebody need in order to throw a projection party of their own?
CW: From a gear standpoint; you will need multiple projectors, plenty of data and power cable, a computer with VJ software, and content. That’s only half the picture though. The other is social networking. What makes these parties exciting is having a wide range of people come and enjoy the evening. Blog, Twitter, email and call to get the word out. Get a friend to DJ the music using an outdoor PA system. It’s relatively simple, but does take planning and communication.
ECHO: At Echo, you and Stephen Proctor are going to spend two breakout sessions on visual worship. Are there any misconceptions about visual worship that you’d like to clear up here and now?
CW: Without writing a book here, I would say that visual worship is usually overrated and overdone. It’s not required for worship; it’s not the only form of worship during a ‘worship service’; it doesn’t bring people into your service; it doesn’t keep the youth group coming to your service…etc. I think that a lot of us have put too much importance on ALWAYS having something visual going on during the worship service, and think it is something required to be effective.
ECHO: You’re also going to do some VJing at Echo — how do you typically go about preparing to VJ an event?
CW: I personally start by going over the set-list of the event with the worship leader, and talking through the flow and overall mood that is trying to be created. This usually helps me start gather media together in playlists that I will possibly use to VJ with. I rarely script out each and every song; most of the events I do are on-the-fly. Stephen Proctor (@vjProctor) does many more live events than I do, and would probably have more insight as to his process. He runs the WorshipVJ blog at www.worshipvj.com.
At Echo, Camron, along with Stephen Proctor and Nate Griffin, will be leading two back-to-back breakout sessions about visual worship and the Church. The second part of the Visual Worship breakout is setup so you can learn from not only these guys, but the other breakout attendees as well. Stephen, Nate and Camron want to create a community of church leaders and visual worshipers within the breakout that far outlast the conference. Camron’s also offering a great deal on what he does best - At anytime during the Conference, come find Camron and sign up for an on-site design session at your church. You’ll receive a 10% discount on the design session as well as an exclusive content kit from Awake Images containing Volume 1, and a coupon for 50% off another volume!
**This is the first in a series of interviews with our breakout speakers. We’ll be posting new interviews weekly so you can get to know our speakers and learn a little more about what they’ll be bringing to Echo**
