Saturday, March 28, 2009

Its All Free!


Several people have asked lately what types of software and resources we use in our church services. We have little to no budget for multimedia resources, but there are all kinds of great freebies out there. Below are some of my favorite applications and websites. Hope this can help someone. First, we run everything in Windows on a cheap Gateway laptop.

Presentation Software: I use Easislides to display song lyrics and Bible verses. I use Screen Monkey to display Motion Backgrounds, video illustrations, power points and images. Both are free and work great together!

Motion Backgrounds:
I get motion backgrounds for free at various sites. Movie tools is a great source. Dream scene is a bit strange, but I come across some good ones here from time to time as well. Muddy River Media produces lots of resources also. Again, all free. Various paid sites also offer once a month freebies. Two of my favorites are Worship House Media and Igniter Media.

Video clips and illustrations:
I get my video clips from Muddy River Media, various youtube channels or vimeo. If I choose to use videos from youtube or vimeo I use the free online converter Media Converter.org to download them so that I don't have to rely on an internet connection. Bluefish tv has some great minimovies, illustrations and countdowns that are very cheap and occassionally there are some good freebies. From time to time I also make my own videos using my cheap video camera and edit them in movie maker (free on windows machines).

More, more, more:
There are hundreds of resources out there and I couldn't possibly list them all. By far the best tools for keeping your ear to the ground and catching all the freebies and resources are to have a google reader account and a twitter and follow relevant contributors. (You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the link in the sidebar and follow me on twitter here).

I hope this helps. Pay it forward...

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4 comments:

Jesse J. Anderson said...

Great resource list - you can also find free motion backgrounds / free worship backgrounds at New Worship Media. The site is just getting started so there are only 8 or 9 different HD backgrounds for download right now but more are being added all the time.

Hope you find it useful as well!

Unknown said...

Jesse - I love the backgrounds, they are beautiful! I kind of feel like the logo on a worship slide is a bit distracting though. Thanks for the tip. I subscribed and I'll keep watching.

Jesse J. Anderson said...

Glad you like them! Actually the logos in the corner are only on the preview videos - if you download the videos there is no watermark or logo on them... ;)

Unknown said...

awesome! thanks!