It’s Finally Here!

When it comes to any production, one thing I love to do with a burning passion is lighting. And since City Reach this past year, our lights haven’t worked at 2Twenty. Leaving me either to do sound (which I don’t mind), computer (which I never do but sometimes would like to do), or do nothing. And personally, I don’t like to do nothing. But finally, lights return!!!

We recently just bought an Elation DMX Operator 192 light board. This is for our Intelligent lights, which are the three old intelligent lights from APC. They are 3 American DJ AccuScan 250’s. The lights are going up the first of April. CAN’T WAIT!!!!

Fine Arts Sectionals Recap

By the way, the tech side of fine arts for me, MY GRAPHIC DESIGN IS GOING TO DISTRICTS!! AND SO IS MY SERMON!!! Take a look!

BTW, Winter Retreat is this weekend in ERIE!!

Winter Retreat Lighting Ideas

Winter Retreat is Awesome!

But seriously, when I do lights for any APC Event, my goal is to make them look good and still make an atmosphere for worship and for people to connect with God. So I have had a couple of thoughts for how I can do this. This year we are planning to use all LED’s and some Intelligent  lights. So do you think we should still get par cans? Here are my thoughts for what we have.

1) Have four LED’s on two trusses and a few on the floor with Intelligent lights on top of the trusses.

2) All LED’s on the floor and intelligent lights in the ceiling.

What’s the best idea?

1st Post of 2011: Winter Retreat Countdown Video

NYE Bash Motion Logo: First Look

Software Review: Elation Elumination

Today I thought I'd start doing some software reviews. Today I'm going to start with Elation Lighting "Elumination Software". This software let's you control up to 8 groups at one time with 8 different light banks. Along with each bank, you can program up to 48 different fixtures. This software gives you the same capability as a normal light board.If you can look at the image, you can see that I have programed 2 Intelligent scanners which I can change how it moves, the gobos, color fixtures, and so much more. Also I have 8 color LED's from American DJ, and 11 LED par can lights from Elation (good for any preach or stage white lights).

Personally, I've always been the one to run lights from multiple light boards, one for intelligent lights and one for everything else (including house lights), but I like this program because I can control all that just from my laptop (and I have a small laptop [netbook]) and it's a free software. Now you maybe wondering. "Don't you need a special cord to run lights from a computer?" Yes you do, and it's cheap. All you need is a USB to DMX cable, then attach the DMX end to the other end of another DMX cable and it will work. Hope this helps! Next I'll start doing worship softwares!

Looking Back on Old Videos

The past week I have been home sick. I have had nothing else to do, so I have been looking back at some old videos I have made in the past 2 years. I took some of my favorite and put it into one. Check it out.

Mike Fowler Video Reel from Mike Fowler on Vimeo.

Home Sick Really isn't That Fun

Today on Veterans Day, I am home sick with a fever. That gives me a chance to do a couple of things that I really need to do before the next couple of weekends.

1. 12 Disciples Video for Joe. Here's how the first try came out, so I'm redoing it.


2. Look up lights for 2Twenty. Any suggestions, let me know!!!!

The Search is On

A couple of month's ago, our light board at 2Twenty :'(
Anyway, time to move on. I am currently on the search for the following:

• New lights at 2Twenty
• PC Based Software
• Oh...and a new computer (Laptop or Desktop i don't care)

So, does anyone have any suggestions? Let me know asap!

Hayden Loven--Fine Arts Drama Solo

This guy in the video below won 1st Place in Drama solo last year when I went to Orlando Florida. This was 2Twenty's experience last year.



But this guy is just flip out hillarious! Check it out!



Plus also check out our chrisian band that WON!!!

Worship...just what you need in Stressful times

I know this has nothing to do with 2Twenty media, but I felt like I had to post this....The past couple of days, I guess I wouldn't call them my best. Just because of some relationship issues and wondering as summer comes to a close, who can I help and become really really close to this year. Well an attempt last night (Tuesday), as we teenagers say, epically failed. But then I started to reflect on an APC Minute we had in December that Brad Harvey was in........



So what can I take from that in my personal life....

1. Worship reminds us that God provides for those in need. If you're having a stressful time, just pray to God for guidance that he will lead you down the right path and point you in the right direction.
2. Worship puts our current situations in to proper perspective. Once a situtation hits, you think that the world is coming to an end. After worship, everything comes into reason
3. Worship Fills our spirits with strength. God gives strength and a new hope for the future.

So now I'm heading over to 2Twenty for some awesome worship.

City Reach Prep Time!!

We'll, it's finally time. Time to plan for City Reach 2010. Above is the Countdown video I created for this event. City Reach is the event where we reach out to our church plant communities. Unfortunately, for the first time in 2 years, I will not be able to attend because of a school commitment. :-(

But I will be there the first couple nights for service and possibly staying over night at Allison Park Church. I'll keep you updated.

A Huge Success!!!

As you can tell by this weeks APC Minute, Kidz Kaboom was a huge success. We had over 300 Kids on the Campus over the week and over 1oo youth and adult volunteers this week. I had the chance to work with some amazing people along with my producer Brian Lippert. He is an amazing man of God and loves doing what he does. I love him with a passion and he will continue to do great things. But every year we do something called a penny weigh. If the Girls win, Joe Schafer gets a pie in his face. If the boys win, his wife Rachael gets a pie in the face. Here was the out come.

Working on Tech Sheet for Kidz Kaboom

Normally for our Kidz Kaboom outreach (which you can register for by clicking here), the tech sheet we use is a little confusing to follow. Simple, but confusing. That's why this year I am going to see if we can try something new. For our normal APC Services, we use a site called Planning Center
To make our tech sheet. That's one way I'm going to try and do it this year, or we'll try and doing it the 2Twenty Style way in Microsoft Word. So I'm looking for opinions. If you know about planning center and Microsoft word, which would you choose? Looking for feed back. Thanks!!

My ProPresenter Tutorial

Recently they just released the beta version of ProPresenter for Windows. I just so happened to download it today and test it out. And I also thought it would be cool to make a little on screen tutorial video showing how it all works. Check it out.

Mexico Slide Show--Enjoy!

Kidz Kaboom 2010 Production

Okay, one of my ALL TIME favorite events at Allison Park Church is Kidz Kaboom. Over 400 Kids will be taking part in High Energy Rallies, Miscellaneous camps, games, worship, and more. And over 60 Middle School and High School students will be on campus at APC to make sure this happens in an orderly fashion. Where I come into this is that once again, I will be in the Tech booth running lights again. Most likely I will be using, yet again, the DMX Operator 192 (Two of them) for Intelligent lights. Then two or three other boards after that. I can't wait for this event. I you are interested in signing up for this even if you're a middle school or high school student, Click Here.

Testing out ProPresent in Easter Services

This past week we had six services in honor of Easter Weekend. Two on Good Friday (Noon and 7pm), an Easter Sunday Sunrise service in the Concourse (7am Sunday Morning) and then our Normal weekend services (Sat: 6pm--Sun: 9am/11am). Most recently I've been getting use to working with ProPresenter Worship Software because, Thank You Jesus for this, ProPresenter is coming out with the latest version of their software for Windows (YES!!!!!!!!! :D). This weekend, again, I will be working with ProPresenter in the 9am and 11am service. I worked with it during Good Friday at 7pm, and both Easter Sunday services. What I like about ProPresenter is the ability to do iFlexx (or also know as iWorship) which are the samething as putting the lyrics up on the screen but alot cooler. When we get it for 2Twenty, we will be able to do stuff like this...

Worship Band for Winter Retreat

This Past weekend as well during the Winter Retreat, I got to hear and work with one of the best college worship teams I've ever worked with. (Okay the only one I've Worked with). That band is the Valley Forge Christian College Worship Team. They had such a positive attitude, great hearts for God, and made some awesome music. You can check out their Friday Night Fast set by Clicking HERE.

The New Experience of Working Winter Retreat

This past weekend, I got the chance to work with new people. A new band to start with. I got the chance to work with The Valley Forge Christian College Band (featuring Brendon Robinson From APC) and a bunch of other people from the college. The biggest Inspiration from that group that I got from that whole weekend was from the sound man Jason. Before the first service and before a little bit of the second service, but he was able to pull through and make it one of the best retreats ever. One other person I'd Like to thank for being there this weekend is Brian Russell. He was the person who ran the computer and did an outstanding job. The retreat this year was a big success. Plus also in the first night alone, 25 people gave their lives to Christ which I think is awesome!