From Sampler to Sower

So, you’ve made that awesome Animoto video of scenes from your last youth retreat. You want to show it before service starts, but you always show countdowns before service so things start on time, and you just don’t know what to do about this connived conundrum . . .

Don’t worry.

Do the logical.  Turn your own custom video into a countdown.

There are a couple of good ways to do this.

First, istockphoto.com has some decent countdowns over green backgrounds perfect for chroma keying, assuming you have a video editor capable of chroma keying.  Don’t know what chroma keying is?  It’s a way to combine two videos, one over another.  The chroma key selects a color and makes all areas of the top video which are that color transparent so the background shows through.  You might have heard it called shooting in front of a greenscreen or a bluescreen and it’s how meteorologists show up in front of their weather maps on the news.  With a chroma key countdown from istockphoto, you can do the same thing to put a timer over your video.

Of course, that may not be the most cost effective way of making your own countdown, especially when you can buy the Countdown Creator for $34.95.  Countdown Creator is a program that will allow you to take your own photos or video and add a countdown clock over the top.  You can even customize the soundtrack and font of the countdown.  It’s quick.  It’s really easy.  And the final product is great.

And no, I didn’t receive any perks for this endorsement – I had to buy my own copy just like the rest of the world.  But for the same cost of two countdown video from sermonspice.com, I figure it may be one of the best video purchases I ever made.