Good to Great: Onscreen Lyrics and Notes Part II

This article was originally published on The Worship Community

In Part 1 of this article we explored Contrast, Alignment, and Font Choice. You can start there and catch up.

The Purpose of Backgrounds = Enhance ? Distract

The whole purpose of backgrounds - loops or still graphics - is to add visual interest to the screens and to break up the monotony of plain black behind the lyrics.

On the flip side, many churches drank the kool-aid and now believe that worship can’t happen unless there’s some sort of motion - whether abstract or video - behind the lyrics. Backgrounds were never meant to become the focal point of the music set (unless of course you want them to be the focal point on special occasions). If at any point in time they become the focus, pull a “Heart of Worship” and get rid of them for a time. They cannot become a crutch.

Some things to understand:

• Black backgrounds aren’t bad. One ministry in our church uses black backgrounds with their logo tucked in the corner very effectively.
• Loops aren’t bad. But like guns and matches, it’s not the object, it’s whose hands it’s in that can cause trouble.
• Still graphics aren’t bad. You could use one background for the entire set that fits in with the message/series. I’ve seen this done really well.

Use backgrounds in ways that empower the focal point. On songs that call for nature shots like “How Great is Our God”, use nature shots. On songs that call for something else, use backgrounds in that vein. But NEVER force backgrounds or use backgrounds out of place.

An artistic eye is of the utmost importance. Let art and appropriateness decide their use. Putting an accountant at the helm may mean you have someone perfect for looking for details but may make horrible artistic choices. Then you have someone like me who can’t pay attention to the screen due to the service going on in front of him. The balance of the two is to get your art guy to set the presentation up and have your details guy run it.

Here’s the test to see whether or not the backgrounds are enhancing the lyrics. The preferred answer follows in (parenthesis).

• Do you ever catch yourself wondering why a particular background was chosen? (no)
• Is the text set apart from the background so that the text is easily read? (yes)
• Does the text brightness contrast the background brightness? (yes)
• Do you leave it up to your volunteers to randomly choose backgrounds? (no)
• Does the speed/tone of the background match the song? (yes)
• Does the material in the background match the song? (yes)

KISS: Keep It Super Simple

Three sub-tips in this one. All focus on simplifying what is presented to the audience so that they can follow along and not get lost.

Break at logical points. Periods, commas, and musical pauses are all good places to begin new lines. The reader is already breaking in their mind so back this visually. For example, notice how awkward the breaks are on the left compared to the right where the lines break the way the song is sung. See how the odd breaks slightly disrupt the natural flow we expect. Fix this and you’re one step closer to great presentation

Don’t put too much text on each slide. We tend to limit the lines per slide to 4 for lyrics. Occasionally we might have 5 if they are short lines. Our goal though is to break them up as much as possible in order to give the audience less to sort through when looking at the slide. It helps them to find where we are in the music quickly. Again, compare these two for examples of too much and just enough.

For sermon notes, “make it look great” is the rule. If it looks like too much, it is.

Simplify the formatting. I know this may give some masters of the English language heart attacks, but try to remove as much punctuation and other extraneous formatting as possible. No, I ain’t promotin’ bad use of the English language. I am suggesting that the use of logical line breaks as stated above replaces the punctuation and formatting. The other formatting I mentioned may include italics, underlines, and quote marks. In addition, use sentence case. Do not use all capitals. The readability of the test decreases greatly with all caps. It’s just a bad idea.

Summary

When it all comes down to it, God must be worshipped. One way is through song. Our job on the media side is to do whatever it takes to see to it that we have prepared the way for God to be worshiped. Laying all opinions aside, let’s make sure that slides are designed with that in mind.