What I never had was a mentor.

tin cups

I never had someone to sit down with me in a coffee shop and explain how things worked. I never had someone who had been there, done that and was willing to teach me everything they know. You can’t go to the library and peruse the Church Media Production section to find out how to deal with that hum that comes from the guitar that annoys the pastor so much. The internet helps, but I never had someone to ask the questions of.

This is what I want to be for you. This is why I am writing this blog and this is my promise to you.

  1. I will give teach you everything I know about Church Media Production
  2. I will post new information weekly each Wednesday
  3. I will continually improve this blog and present information in easily understood ways
  4. You can ask me your questions and I will answer them. It may take a while if things are busy, but I will answer

I don’t know everything, but I know where to get the answers.

I want to band production team people together to learn from each other, to support each other, and to help each other. We all tend to work in isolation at our individual churches and we don’t have to. Locally, I have started a group called The Forum where church media people get together monthly to share with a group that understands and to help each other get better at what we do. If you are in the St. Louis area and are interested in checking us out, let me know. If you think The Forum would be good in your area, I would like to help you get started on a group of your own.

Some information about me.

My name is Jason Pennell. I have been married to my wife Tamarin for 32+ years and we have a growing list of children, both biological and spiritual, including our 3 biological boys and about 30 kids in India we are attempting to build a home for. My resume includes being a youth pastor, a manager, a soldier, an administrator, and a consultant. I have lead teams as small as 1 and as large as 50 in every one of these capacities and on 2 continents. I have worked more than 10 years each in sound, video production, lighting design, event production, live video direction, stage direction, every aspect of media production, pre, post, and in between.

Blogging is a new thing for me and this is the second iteration for ‘The Sound Guy is Invisible’. The first time I couldn’t even get my family to read it. Hopefully, this time will be different. The title, ‘The Sound Guy is Invisible’ refers to the idea that if he does his job well, no one knows he is there. Most recognition for media/sound people is negative. You know what I mean, all the looks that come your way when there is feedback or when something doesn’t go well. A good job is under the radar. Television has primed us all to think that production just happens and that all anyone is doing is turning knobs or pressing play. Very few people realize the thought, training, skill, and effort that goes into every production.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is when I was developing a promo for a leadership class at our church. The pastor commented to me that he liked the promo. I was kind of bragging when I told him that I had gone from nothing to a finished product in only 6 hours. This project included heavy Adobe After Effects work, recording voice-over, selecting stock footage, not to mention the concept development, script writing, and editing required. I was totally in the zone, working at 100% efficiency, and everything went right the first time. I felt it was a tour-de-force. The pastor’s comment was, “Wow! that’s a long time. What can we do to fix that?” He just had NO concept of what is required to do this type of work. This is fairly typical in my experience. In order to be understood I think we need to go to other media people rather than people who have never done this type of work.

So I am here, tell me your stories, ask me your questions and we will get better together.