On a cold Texas night in 2003, with only a handful of generic motion backgrounds, brothers Josh and Mitchell Lyon launched VMG Backgrounds. Years later, after changing the company’s name to Shift Worship and relocating to Lincoln, Nebraska, Shift Worship is now a respected producer in the world of church media. From mini-movies and motions to stills and countdowns, Shift Worship offers quality visual media for the creative church on a limited budget.
Josh Lyon, Co-Owner
COLLIDE : How do you encourage churches to use media?
Josh Lyon: Actually I wouldn’t always encourage churches to use media. Obviously we live in a very visual culture. It would be easy for me, as a producer, to list all of the visual outlets people use today and to make a case for why a church should join the “visual age.” However, media used incorrectly is much worse than none at all. I often tell churches exploring the use of media to compare it to the music ministry in their church—it takes practice to do it right, to know what kind of media to use, and when to use it. When media is used right, it can add a lot to the message, much like a beautiful song can add to the worship. The good news is there are a lot of great education resources to help churches make sure they’re “doing it right.” One is the Echo Church Media Conference held in Dallas every year. I highly recommend it!
COLIDE : Your video, “Life of Worship,” has been one of the most popular resources on WorshipHouseMedia.com for a while now. Why do you think this film has been so successful?
J. Lyon: We have a really big family—lots of uncles and cousins, and we asked them all to go buy it, which is actually how we get most of our sales. Honestly, I don’t really know. I think the music plays a big part in a lot of mini-movies, and the song from “Life of Worship” is really good. (Thanks, Staggerford boys!) I also think the message is simple and direct. People can relate to the concept of living their life, going to the bank, doing their laundry, whatever, and still worshipping God. It doesn’t just have to be in church. So it’s either that, or the big family thing.
COLLIDE : What has been your favorite project to work on so far?
J. Lyon: Hands down, our mini-movie “Juice Box Christian.” A local elementary school here in Lincoln, Nebraska, allowed us to invade their first grade class for a couple of days—shout out to Mrs. Farup—and shoot this piece. Most say you should never produce a movie using animals or kids, and boy are they right! But if you do, the first (now second) graders at Lincoln Christian School are the ones to work with. It was a blast!
COLLIDE : Tell us about Shift Tones.
J. Lyon: ShiftTones.com is an experiment that we’re still tinkering with.
Basically, we have some really good friends who own a recording studio called CODA Record House (www.codarecordhouse.com) and are part of the band Staggerford. We’ve been working with them for a few years now, and they’re the ones responsible for most of the music on our site. We started getting requests from our customers about where they can buy this music and at the time there was nowhere to get the songs. So, we originally started Shift Tones as a place to purchase and download the music. Through this, we’ve found that there’s a huge need for independent artists to get their music recorded and exposed. This has lead us to take a slightly different route and now we’re tweaking Shift Tones and partnering with CODA Record House to be more of a resource for independent artists to get their music made and heard. As a result, we also hope to get access to really good music to use in our productions. Be on the lookout for some big changes to the Shift Tones site coming soon!
Mitchell Lyon, Co-Owner
COLLIDE : What is your background in video production?
M. Lyon: I began making movies with friends and learning some of the basics of video production in high school. When my senior year rolled around, I found out about a scholarship to the Art Institute of Colorado that called for a 10-minute video showcasing your knowledge of video production. After three mediocre ACT scores, I thought making videos sounded like more fun anyway, so I went for the scholarship and got it! The Art Institute approached the study of video production in a very hands-on, career-oriented way. I enjoyed the classes and instructors at the Art Institute and thought they prepared me well with many of the tools I needed to work in the industry. It was actually during college that I began making backgrounds for churches at the prompting of Josh and Shepherd Multimedia (www.shepherdmin.com), but I also worked for several years doing freelance projects and miscellaneous PA, DP, and editing jobs for production houses and television studios.
COLLIDE : How do you come up with ideas for new videos? What is your creative process?
M. Lyon: Honestly, I don’t often know. I mean, we’ll have brainstorming sessions in which we’ll come to terms on an idea or script but that idea seems to very rarely make it to the finished product, and if it does, a significant morph will have taken place. Obviously, we’re often stirred to produce a specific video based on the season or what we’re currently thinking about or asking questions about, but other than that, the creative process continues to baffle me. Some days I wish I could just pull it off the shelf, but that’s just not how it works. Most of the time, it’s just one step in front of the next until the haze clears up. I will say that coffee and a chocolate chip cookie around 3:00 pm seems to help the process on most days. I guess the bottom line is story, but you can read all about that in the September/October issue of COLLIDE.
COLLIDE : What words of wisdom would you like to share with other video producers or those taking a stab at video production?
M. Lyon: Keep it simple.
To learn more about Shift Worship and to see their work, visit www.shiftworship.com.