FIRST IN LAST OUT
DISCOVERING CREATIVE INTENT | Todd Elliott
To be a technical artist in the local church , you need to become really good at asking questions . Not only are there details we need , so that the right gear is set up , but a key reason for asking questions is to get a better understanding of what we are actually trying to do .
There was an era of my production life , where I wasn ’ t asking enough questions about intent . As a result , our production team just did what we thought was best , which turned out more often than not , to be 180 degrees from the intent of the idea . dark at that moment in the song ?”
Getting answers to how production can support an idea can ’ t happen without you asking the right questions .
I have been a part of so many misunderstandings derived from assuming you know , or they know , or that everyone is thinking the same thing . As it turns out , nobody is thinking the same way about any one idea . We are all coming at it from very different angles .
At the baseline , production exists to support an idea , someone ’ s creativity . In our case , we are trying to create an environment where people can meet with God . Without fully understanding the intent of an idea , and how production can support this idea ; things can get out of hand quickly .
Production can get pretty distracting when there is a misunderstanding about creative intent . If creating a distraction-free environment is a keyvalue ( and it should be ), without understanding the point of an idea , we will often distract from what the idea is trying to achieve .
This kind of question-asking is less about going after the answers you need and more about making sure the answers in your head are correct . The kind of answers you are looking for are less black and white , “ How many snare drums will the drummer bring this week ?” and greyer , “ Are you wanting us to blast the audience with light , or do we want them in the
Todd Elliott Todd is a writer , speaker , technical artist in the local church and founder of FILO , which stands for First In , Last Out . FILO was born out of his own need as a technical artist in the local church to be in community with other church tech people , to learn new ways of doing things and to be inspired that what he did mattered . The more FILO-type people he met , the more convinced he was that these are things we all need . That ’ s why FILO exists : to equip , encourage and inspire technical artists in the local church to become the best version of ourselves . Formerly the Technical Arts Director at Willow Creek Community Church , he started FILO in 2015 to help other technical artists become more effective so that the local church can be more effective . In his free time , he enjoys being inspired by Winston Churchill speeches and visiting the gravesites of U . S . presidents . Residing near Chicago , he and his wife Bissy have three kids and a dog ... none of whom are into production .
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