Leveraging the Arts is a recent theme Paul Christensen and his wife Donna Christensen experienced while producing a live concert DVD and CD for Columbia, Missouri based Woodcres
t Chapel. The state of the art multimedia performance piece titled, The Artist, consisted of a mix of dialogue and contemporary music performed by the church’s talented ten piece band and an astute ensemble of resident actors. The performance was part of Woodcrest’s annual three day 
“Arts Weekend” involving performance and visual art exhibits, which are open to the public.
The staff and members of Woodcrest Chapel are committed to leveraging the arts in order to improve the lives and celebrate the creative spark of those in their community. It would be an understatement 
to describe Woodcrest’s numerous services as nontraditional, since they resemble a veritable bill of musical theatre and cutting edge multimedia presentations, rather than traditional church fare. Working with their staff and members on this project was a creative breath of fresh air for the Omega crew, an experience they will remember for some time to come.
A number of Woodcrest staff worked to produce the event and performance, including Creative Arts Pastor Chris Mitchell, who
served as Project Producer, Technical Director Mat Matlack, who served as Project Director, Creative Arts Director Lori Goins, Video Coordinator Brice Spencer, Visual Arts Coordinator Stacey Smith, who also served as Lighting Director, and Audio Coordinator Troy Rickertsen. Thanks are also due to Pastor
Pieter Van Waarde for his overall guidance and vision for the project.
Paul and Donna Christensen served as Television Producers bringing in their award winning team of shooters, including Director Don Moore. Ruthel Flunder assisted the Christensens with talent and logistics. Rounding out
Omega’s talented crew were Mike Filippi and Vince Wendel on Hand Held Cameras and Steve Cobb, Brad Woodall and Brice Spencer on Fixed Cameras. Woodcrest’s Brice Spencer also shot and edited the behind the scenes portions of the DVD. Troy Rickertsen , Woodcrest’s Audio Coordinator, coordinated the audio recording for the live CD and DVD soundtrack.
TELFAX, Ft. Worth, TX provided their remote facility to originate the video, with the assistance of 
Engineer and Owner Tony Symanovich. Katie Symanovich shaded the cameras providing the spectacular look of the show. Remote recording facilities were provided by Forrest Production Services, Tulsa, OK . Forrest’s owner and chief engineer, Tim Kennard provided the engineering expertise
for the live sound track, assisted by Quinton Davis. Woodcrest provided sound reinforcement services with Troy Rickertsen taking care of the FOH mix. Other companies and individuals who assisted were Denise Gray, Catering and Craft Services, Rental Services Company
(RSC), Columbia, Generator Services, and Bexel, who provided wide angle lenses.
Having the opportunity to produce this project with the folks at Woodcrest was an inspiration. Our thanks and appreciation go out to the staff, actors, band and all the members of Woodcrest who made us feel at home.
The DVD will be edited in Nashville by Perry Trest, POST DIGITAL, Inc., on Trest’s AVID Adrenaline System. The CD and DVD sound track will be mixed by Woodcrest’s Troy Rickertsen.
