We were delighted to have the music DVD with words for us to use this year. Jeff Slaughters music is always rich in meaning and catchy in tune. The music fits the lessons perfectly and our children and adults really enjoy singing the songs over and over again. However, some minor production changes would make this DVD much more effective in ministry. First: Because of the live location filming and natural lighting, Its hard to see Jeff's face. In the past, his facial expressions really carry the song. Second: When the words come up on the screen, the ones that are black letters disappear in the background. Also the special effects used to bring the words in and out is very distracting. A simple cut from verse to verse would be much more effective. Third: All the music seems to be distorted, and is recorded at a very high level, making the sound mushy. The audio from the drama is also distorted. Fourth and finally: when the videos are projected onto a large screen, the images are very dark, even with powerful projectors. I would suggest that the producers watch their productions and design them based on how they look on an LCD projector, rather than a computer production monitor. Lose the special effects, just get the message across in the simplist and quickest way. Isn't that how Jesus did it?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SEBCSound,

I agree with some of what SEBCSound said. We use performers for our Worship Rally and always tweak the dance/signs from Jeff. So, his performance videos are not an issue for us. A BIG kudos to Jeff for always creating songs with a high level of quality and variety each year! They are easy to learn, fun to do and catchy for kids to remember. The main issue we had was with the daily video dramas. While creatively edited, the sound was way off! The background noise overpowered at speaking times and some of the ambient sounds (i.e. birds) where way too loud at points. We had similar projection quality issues with our large projection screens, too. Keep upping the level of excellence LifeWay!

I have been very disappointed with the sound quality in the drama videos...the rest are ok. The Hawaiian lady that narrates is very difficult to understand due to the recording quality! We ended up turning on the closed captioning! i always am so - so about using the drama videos each year as it is. Everything else was great!

We had the same problem with the dramas. It was very hard to understand the Hawaiian lady when she was speaking especially when there were birds swaking in the background. Lifeway, please cut down onthe ambient noise or raise the volume of the speakers.