We use CMG or Church Motion Graphics at our church. I met the owner Jeff via social media and then in-person while speaking at a conference up in his neck of the wood (Canada). I got him connected with our worship pastor, Matt Rector. This is Matt’s review of their resources:
If you work for a church on a tight budget, like me, I am sure you have run into this dilemma more than once. I reached a point where I wore out my motion background library. I felt like I was gonna tear my eyeballs out if I had to see the same stale loops again. So where do I turn? I could reach to a pay-per-download service. I could go with a free resource that is a total grab-bag. Or I could go with a brand new service I learned about earlier this summer when I traveled to speak at a conference in Canada.
The resource I speak of is called Church Motion Graphics. I was wondering through the exhibitor hall and ran into a guy named Jeff McIntosh. Behind him, I saw a screen leaping to life with slick, colorful, and diverse graphics. I was quite impressed by what I saw, so I began to ask about CMG and what Jeff’s service was all about. Jeff explained to me that he was a designer who wanted to create an easy, affordable, high quality worship media service that anyone could use for a cheap monthly rate. As I looked at his demo reel, I was thinking for something this nice, you’ve gotta be charging $20-$30 per month at least. That’s not so affordable in my book.
Then Jeff hits me with the jaw-dropper… his service costs $10/month! I was pretty surprised. After our conversation ended and we got back home, I decided to give this service a try. Here’s what I got…
- an email link on the first of each month with directions to download the newest set of media. That’s right… new media every month, not just a subscription to a library!
- each month’s package includes several really cool motion backgrounds (for August 2013, I got 9 awesome backs), available in 720p or 1080p in either PC or MAC compatible formats.
- among these backgrounds, you get some title graphics slides that match this month’s theme… things like welcome, events, even seasonal messages. In the August 2013 pack I got four title/message backs and 2 special videos exalting the many names of God.
So now, I know you are asking… Matt, for $10 a month, how good can this stuff be? Let me tell you, for the most part this media is excellent. They range from bright, fun, and energetic to slower, subtle, and more worshipful. Jeff is trying a lot of different ideas out and every once in a while I will come across something that doesn’t blow me away. However, I totally applaud him for trying out new things.
We have been using CMG for three months, and it has truly been a great experience. Our visual experience gets a facelift every month! I look forward to that email so I can see what new goodies I get to play with. It’s like Christmas comes the first of each month, just with less births of the Savior and more presents.
The icing on the cake is the additional free resources available through the site. Jeff has a great blog with lots of tips regarding the implementation of media in worship experiences. In fact, he is about to release an e-book called the Worship Media Handbook. I have great confidence using this resource because Jeff has tons of experience in this field and is willing to answer any question or solve any issue that may arise.
So, after checking out this service and product, I can’t encourage you strongly enough! Check out Church Motion Graphics! They have a great website with some great examples of their work. They have other packages besides the $10/month if you are interested in the back catalog of media. Overall, they are a great team and a really cool resource for any church that is trying to make every dollar count.