MUGSHOTS!--Be Not Afraid of Their Faces!--Ezek.3:8-9!--By Father David DO979 3/81
(Compiled by James 3/81 from tapes of advice to MWM, Keda, Paul & Marianne & others.)
1. TEST SHOTS: IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA, ESPECIALLY WITH VIDEO IN WHICH YOU CAN TAKE A COUPLE OF TEST SHOTS, to start off with a test shot & have your subject either speak or sing just for a few moments while you run a test shot, & then rewind it right away & see how well you did, see how your audio & video both are coming & see how you're doing. Then when you're sure you've got it right, go ahead, start rolling with your real, go shootin', because you can roll right on & record right over those test shots & it re-records & no tape's wasted. It's time well spent to make sure you got it right. You also have to be very careful that those things are very fine-tuned in order to properly pick up the colour clearly.
2. SCENERY: GOD'S PRICELESS BACKGROUND! We really enjoy those scenery shots like the snow in Sweden, the city of Hong Kong, the beaches of Australia etc., to give us a little idea what the country looks like & what the homes look like & the people etc. Even a few shots of the cities as you're passing through can get us oriented & get a little idea of what their surroundings are like as well as the people. You should give us a little shot of the surrounding scenery & the stream or whatever it is nearby & then come in on your subjects for their testimonies. Let's see more of that scenery & get a little sample of the locale as well as the local yokels, OK?
3. SO TRY TO GIVE US SOME OF THE SCENERY TOO, AS WE'D ENJOY THAT VIEW. You're there & travelling & you perhaps don't even appreciate it as much as we do because you see it all the time, but we've never been there & we have never seen it, so we would like to have a shot of the scenery as well as the people. It's nice when you get a shot of the setting & the scene & tell us where you are & what we're seeing, & then zoom in on the folks close up & let them give their testimony.
4. DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE GOD'S OWN SCENERY, the most beautiful there is in the whole World! There's nothing more beautiful & inspiring than God's Creation, just nothing! Nothing made by man could be more beautiful! So don't knock it--use it! PTL? With those outside scenic backgrounds you absolutely couldn't have more beautiful scenery, it's priceless! It's not million-dollar scenery, it's priceless! God's beautiful creation! What could be more beautiful than that?--Only a beautiful woman!
5. NATURAL SCENERY IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCENERY YOU COULD POSSIBLY HAVE! Good shots! Also remember that sunlight always brings out the best colour, so take as many shots as you can out in the nice bright sun. Just be sure you never get that sun in the camera or in the lens, or it's had it! Sunlight brings out the beautiful colour, but direct sun can ruin your camera!
6. FLOWERS ARE ALWAYS GORGEOUS, beauties of God's creation for decoration. I noticed on the "PTL Show" that they use a lot of flowers. They even use a fake window, a lighted window with a beautiful outdoor scene, a grassy park-like scene so that you think you're seeing out the window, looking at God's lovely Creation!
7. YOU CAN EVEN HAVE AN ORNAMENTAL TABLE WITH FLOWERS ON IT or more colourful drapes perhaps in some scenes, particularly since this is colour & you put the colour to use as much as you can. You girls wear colourful & flowery dresses or even plain colours, but colour! I used to tell publishing units before we ever did anything in the other colours--they were begging for colour--I said, "Listen, we've already got three colours to work with: Black, white & gray, & don't forget them too!" So use your colour, get all the colour you can in there, even black & white!
8. LOVE THOSE NICE LOW NECKLINES! When they've got such a pretty dress on as she has on with that very beautiful open space half-way down the middle, give us a little more view there, back off a little bit so we can see all that beauty!--Don't be afraid of revealing the beauties of God's creation, girls! GBY! Cameraman, be sure to move in close on those lovely low necklines!
9. I DON'T KNOW WHY THOSE GIRLS IN THE LAST SHOW WERE ALL COVERED UP wearing high-necked dresses & looking like missionaries! We know that they are of course, but we certainly don't want them to look like what the World thinks missionaries look like! We'd like to not only see the beauties inside but the beauties outside, as well as the outside of the beauties!
10. AND WHEN SOMEONE IS DANCING, CAMERAMAN, YOU NEED TO BACK OFF & SHOW US THE WHOLE BODY, because it's all a part of the scene, clear down to the feet. One thing you've got to remember with your subjects is to follow the action! If they start ducking out of view & you've got nothing left but the curtain, as has happened several times, don't be afraid to follow your stripper or whatever she's doing, even turning on her tape recorder, so that you don't leave us alone with nothing to look at but the curtain!
11. CLOSEUPS: PERHAPS YOU HAVEN'T DONE MUCH CAMERA WORK WITH A ZOOM LENS BEFORE. You must remember that you always should zoom in as close as you can get, to the limit of your lens, then focus, & then back off for other shots. You'll see then that they're all in focus, if you zoom in close to the closest possible close-up & focus. Those video cameras will usually zoom in pretty close to where you can read the page of a book or see photos up close, so try that from now on: Focus zoomed in!
12. BEFORE YOU START VIDEOING AT ALL, GET YOUR SUBJECT ARRANGED & PLACED & YOUR CAMERA SET UP ON ITS TRIPOD. Always try to use a tripod if you can, because it gives you a much steadier picture & it's easier to handle a camera that way, easier to zoom & pan & all the rest of the things you have to do without having to hold the camera too. Get your camera in place & your subject in place, & before you even start shooting, focus by zooming in as close to them as you can get, very close up, as far as your lens will go, & then focus while close up.
13. THEN ALL THE REST OF YOUR SHOTS OF THE SAME SUBJECT WILL BE IN FOCUS whether you back off or zoom in or whatever you do. That's true of almost all zoom lenses & movie cameras & video cameras etc. So try to get those close-up shots in focus. Remember that on close-ups, you cannot see the distant scene. So it's more interesting if before you zoom in on people, you take a pan of the scenery from that spot in a different focus.
14. YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO FOCUS THE CAMERA FOR THOSE LONG DISTANCE SHOTS. When you come off of close-up's you can't go straight to distant scenes, you've got to re-focus, unless it's all the same distance, & then you can zoom in & out. But for those changing shots, changing subjects, changing distances you have got to re-focus. Please try to remember that, & remember you always focus on the zoom-in, the close-up. Zoom in as close as you can get with your zoom, focus, & then zoom out. It's that change from shot to shot & scene to scene & subject that gives you trouble on focusing, because each time if there are different distances you've got to re-focus.
15. ON YOUR CLOSE-UPS, WATCH OUT ABOUT COMING TOO CLOSE TO THE TOPS OF THEIR HEADS. They might be focused a little close & spread a little, so if you come in too close, although it may look OK to you on your viewfinder, it might chop off a few scalps on people's TVs! So watch out about coming too close. Leave a little air space between the top of their heads & the frame of the picture.
16. CAMERAMAN, DON'T BE AFRAID TO MOVE IN CLOSER! BE NOT AFRAID OF THEIR FACES! Even if you come right in & the face fills the whole screen, we love those close-ups! Move in, zoom in & get closer! Be not afraid of their faces! You should have some close-ups! I love those close-ups! Come in, come in! Zoom in! Hallelujah! Close-ups are good, so try to get close-ups, even when you have to have two people at a time. And when you do have two people sitting talking together, I do like to see both faces at the same time so that we not only hear & see the speaker, but we get the listener's reactions as well. I suggest you get those two closer together so we can see'm better & they can hear each other better.
17. VIDEO & TV ARE GREAT FOR CLOSE-UPS! For when you get into those long-shots it gets fuzzy, indistinct, hard on your eyes--unless maybe you've got beautiful scenery behind you, a beautiful background. When you get this beautiful background, show us the background & then zoom in on the performer. You just can't see people clearly enough on videos & television when you're that far away! A knees-up, crotch-up, even a bust-up shot is not always close enough! We need more mug shots!
18. I WANT TO SEE THEIR FACES! My God, how many times do I have to say that? Our kids' faces are their credentials!--That joy & light & happiness & smiles on their faces, that's what people always remark about. Now if there's some reason to show the body--it's such a pretty dress or such a pretty body or such a beautiful dance--then that's something else & there might be some excuse for occasionally backing off far enough to see the body. But most of the time you ought to zoom right in tight on their faces, the mug shots!--Even only eyes-to-mouth!
19. OF COURSE TO GET HER BODY WHILE SHE'S DANCING IN THAT PRETTY WHITE DRESS WAS BEAUTIFUL TO BEGIN WITH, with her arm motions, so you can keep going back & forth. But I still prefer the close-up mugshot because I think the faces are more important than the bodies. You should seldom get further away than waist-up unless the dancing steps are so important that you'd better get'm.--Or unless they've got pretty bare legs, that you want to show off & be sexy! "Be not afraid of their faces!" I don't know how many times I've said that!
20. IT'S GOOD FOR YOU TO MOVE IN & OUT IF YOUR SUBJECT IS NOT IN A GREAT DEAL OF MOTION. (Ha!) The cameraman should keep moving, but never get any further away than the crotch unless you can see some pretty legs. Preferably stay in at least at the bust & even better, zoom in on the face. When she's walking down the steps, that's fine, that's graceful, there's a purpose for getting her feet, there's action & beautiful steps & scenery. Then you should zoom in, keep coming right on in, right to her face till her face fills the screen. Why not? We've seen the scenery & we don't have to see it anymore. We're more interested in the singer, so let's get in tight & see the faces!--Touch'm!
21. THE CAMERAMAN HAS GOT TO LEARN HOW TO KEEP MOVING, slow zoom. Instead of just getting her from the neck-up & all that space above her head, you should have gotten her bust--from the top of her head to below the bust, on a woman particularly. The full-figure is nice, but you ought to come on in on the close-ups, more on the bust. We're all busting to see the bust! So make faces & busts!
22. SOME OF YOU SEEM TO THINK THAT THE GUITAR IS AS IMPORTANT A PERFORMER & AS IMPORTANT TO SEE AS HIS FACE! We don't even need to get the guitar! Once you've seen the guitar you've seen it, & you don't have to be watching how he plays. What you want to do is see his face, his expression. We don't have to see the guitar or him playing the guitar, we can hear it. We want to see their faces!
23. THE PAUSE BUTTON: I DON'T THINK YOU'VE LEARNED YET TO CHANGE SCENES ON THE PAUSE BUTTON INSTEAD OF A STOP BUTTON. We have discovered that you can change scenes, stop on Pause, & then proceed right directly from that exact frame again without any interruption or any cross lines or interference or wows or screeches or whatnot. I don't know whether you've discovered that yet or not, but you might experiment with it & see how you like it. I think you'll like it a lot better than stopping on Stop. When you're going to momentarily change a scene & within the next few minutes you're going to start videoing again, I suggest you try stopping on your Pause button instead of with your Stop button, as this will eliminate that bad interference in between scenes.
24. AS LONG AS THE SCENES ARE ONLY A FEW MINUTES APART, REMEMBER TO STOP ON YOUR PAUSE BUTTON. Usually there's a Pause trigger right on the camera itself, cameraman, & all you have to do is poke that, punch it or pull it or whatever, & it'll stop it right where it is; & when you start your next scene it'll start right exactly from there, from that very exact spot without any interference, without a little squeak or blip or a beep or crosslines. Try it!--You'll love the Pause that refreshes!
25. MOST PAUSE BUTTONS WILL HOLD SEVEN TO NINE MINUTES BEFORE AUTOMATICALLY REVERTING TO PLAY OR STOP. Some will continue to hold, but most are geared to cut off automatically if you leave them on too long, as I understand that to leave them too long can be wearing on the heads--not your heads but the video heads! So nevertheless, it's worth it to keep from having those interference lines & that bleep or squeak in between scenes. Try it, I think you'll like it. Stop with the Pause button, not the Stop button, & start again soon with the Pause button also--don't pause with Stop!
26. FADE-IN, FADE-OUT: TO REALLY GIVE OUR MUSIC WITH MEANING VIDEOS SHOWS A NICE SOFT MORE PROFESSIONAL TOUCH we do need some fade-in, fade-out type of lens such as is used in the professional shows where you can fade from one scene to the other. Either the type that just fades or the type which has an iris that dwindles down to a mere point & then opens up again like a hole in the screen--not like a hole in the head! Let's look around & see if they've got anything like that, as it would make a nice easy smooth change from scene to scene without such an abrupt jump from one to the other. The easy way is to just slowly lower your hand across the lens!
27. CUES: YOU GUYS HAVE GOT TO LEARN SOME KIND OF CUES so that you will know when to cut & when to begin, & not have to hold somebody on camera too long. It becomes a little bit embarrassing & a little bit difficult on the performer when you're still hanging onto him & he's got nothing to do or say or sing except wait for you to pull the trigger!--Not to shoot him, but to stop shooting him! Try to work out something where you've got your cues straight so you know when to cut. That's where a floor director really comes in handy, or any kind of a director to tell everybody what to do & when to do it, including both cameraman & performers. You really do need help--a good cameraman, good equipment & good direction!
28. SHOOT PARENTS WITHOUT CHILDREN: TRY NEVER TO TAKE A SHOT OF A PARENT THAT'S GOING TO EITHER TESTIFY OR YOU'RE GOING TO INTERVIEW WITH A CHILD IN THEIR LAP. The child usually steals the show or the microphone or the soundtrack, & we miss a lot of what is being said by the parent. It also worries the parent to have the child on their lap, & they can hardly give what they're saying their full attention as long as they're caring for the child, especially if it's active & busy trying to grab the mike or steal the show. If one parent is talking, let them pass the child to the other parent, & vice versa. That's a standard rule for our videos, so please don't interview parents with children on their laps! It makes it distracting & difficult for them to talk & for us to hear.--Thanks!
29. SWING THAT CAMERA WHEN SOMEBODY MAKES A COMMENT FROM THE AUDIENCE! Swivel it around quick & catch'm while they're still talking! And when making musical videos with musicians on these dances etc., turn to your musicians once in awhile & give them a little video credit! We'd like to see who is playing!
30. WORKING IN PHOTOS: A CLEVER IDEA IS TO WORK IN THE PHOTO OF SOMEONE THAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, like their fish, to make a flashback to the photo of her fish. Any related photos can be readily worked in very well that way. That's really good, bringing those photos in when there's a photo of someone related to the story.
31. I KNOW YOU WANT TO CREATE MORE MOTION BECAUSE IT'S A MOTION PICTURE, but you didn't hold on to some photos quite long enough to really absorb them. They were so pretty & we really wanted to look at them, but you snatched them away too quickly. Some of your photos you only held two or three seconds. We could have stood 6 or 7 at least! If you are showing them with a musical background, try to hold the photos at least for 4 downbeats of the song, as you kind of expect the photos to change on the next beat.
32. VIDEO BATTERIES: YOU'RE ALSO GOING TO HAVE TO WATCH YOUR VIDEO BATTERIES when you're operating mobile & portably. Although your equipment is still running, it was running slow, so that when we put it on our own machine at normal speed it began sounding like Donald Duck. The same thing happens when you're using audio tape recorders. If your battery gets low & is running slow, then when you put it on a tape recorder that's running at normal speed, it speeds it up & gives it a funny Donald-Duck sound.--Check batteries!
33. WHENEVER ELECTRICITY IS AVAILABLE, I HOPE YOU USE ONE OF THOSE LITTLE SUPER CHARGERS, transverters or adapters that can convert the mains electricity into your 12-volt video unit so it can save your batteries, & at the same time it will charge up your batter pack. I think I would be worth perhaps carrying an adapter along with you for that purpose since you do so much taping, & not to depend entirely on your battery pack or batteries, or you're going to use up a lot of batteries & miss some good shots!
34. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU TRY TO KEEP THOSE BATTERIES UP, or better yet have a battery pack that's chargeable, like overnight, or useable with a 12-volt transverter while you're operating. I believe your portable video unit recorder operates on 12 volts normally, nearly all portables do, so that you could actually plug it into a car battery or lighter cord that comes with some of those units which will also change the battery back, or whatever, in order to keep your power up so that you don't run slow on your tapes & make them sound rather funny when they're replayed at normal speed. Try to watch that power while you're at it. As we're going into this video business, we've got to do it & do it well & the way it ought to be done, & watch all these details so that we get it done right! Amen?
35. LIGHTING: I WANT TO WARN THE CAMERAMAN that when you have your subject in the shadow & yet your camera is facing the bright sunlight outdoors, the camera eye automatically adjusts to the bright light. Result, you can see the outdoor very clearly, but her face is so dark we can hardly distinguish her features. Remember that you must not have a background which is much brighter than your subject. You must either put the subject in the bright sunlight or turn your camera in such a direction so its lens will not pick up the very bright light. Then it can adjust its eye to a wider opening & pick up the face of the subject much clearer.
36. I THINK PERHAPS A DARKER BACKGROUND MIGHT HAVE EVEN BEEN BETTER WITH YOUR LIGHT FACES, as most of you are light faced. You can always put Topaz against a while sheet & she really makes some good contrasting colour. For the rest of you, maybe a little darker background will make you stand out better with the light clothing.
37. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GET YOUR LIGHTING PROBLEM FIGURED OUT & not just use one big grand spotlight. It causes some shadows, & the subjects are not lighted sufficiently. I think you're going to need more lighting from various angles. Back-lighting is good if you don't see the light, if the spotlight doesn't blind you in the face. I wish they hadn't had that bright light in the background facing the camera. It's hard on a video lens, the photocell, & it's hard on your eyes. I don't know what the idea was supposed to be with that lighting effect or that back-lighting. It really distracted as far as we were concerned.
38. WATCH OUT ABOUT THOSE BRIGHT LIGHTS GETTING INTO YOUR CAMERA LENS! You'll notice even a candle flame can make a scar that will last for quite awhile, especially if it's under dark conditions such a outdoors after dark.
39. I THINK WE CAN HAVE A LITTLE TOO MUCH LIGHT ON THESE SOMETIMES, FOLKS. Videos will take even in available light, electric light, & if you get too much light you're apt to have a glare, particularly if the light is coming directly from the direction of the camera. It might be wise to have your light positioned at a slight angle from the camera, either well above it, say a meter or two, or to either side of it, to avoid that bright light glare right on your subject to the point that it can even leave a shadow each time you move. The light on your subject will be so bright in his eyes that he will have to keep his eyes shut!
40. THE LIGHT SHINING IN HER FACE WAS ALMOST TOO BRIGHT & IT WAS ALMOST GLARING! I notice it was a little hard on her eyes too, made her look too dazzlingly white. I think you should use a little softer light for these close-ups, you can't use a very bright light on close-ups, just like using a flash on close-ups. You've got to watch out about using a flash picture too close or too bright, or it makes the face completely white-out with very little definition or delineation & detail. I'd rather have a little soft light.
41. THERE IS NO WAY OF LIMITING THAT GLARE ON MY GLASSES, SON, there are too many lights from too many different directions. (Peter: I was wondering if it would help to hang tracing paper 2 or 3 feet in front of the lights so that the light is diffused through the tracing paper.) Maybe so, I don't know. That is probably why they use those special panels on TV lights, a great big translucent thing in front of the lights.
42. THEY USED TO MAKE POOR FRED WEAR LENSLESS GLASSES, & the funniest thing happened once when one time he got the program mixed up. He was a scream, he was always doing something crazy, like me. And let's face it, I learned a lot of it from him like King David learned from Saul, but he was a good king.
43. ANYHOW, HE GOT THE PROGRAM MIXED UP & everybody was going crazy, the cameraman & everyone, because he didn't follow the agenda. Finally, his wife, the director & everybody was waving & motioning at him & he said, "Well, I'm nearly blind without my glasses, so how do they expect me to see with these things!"--& he stuck his finger right through the lens right on the show & everybody roared! They left it on the tape because it was so funny!
44. SO WATCH THAT, CAMERAMAN, OK? PTL! GBY! You're doing pretty well for amateurs, & let's face it, we're all amateurs. I don't think anybody's got a degree in cinematography, at least not those that have been taking the pictures!
45. MAIL: BE SURE THAT WHEN YOU SEND VIDEOS IN THE MAIL FROM NOW ON that you send them registered or insured or certified so we'll be sure & get them safely. Be sure that the little customs declaration sticker is stuck plainly on the front or on the back so that the customs will know what it is. Just call it a "Used Personal Tape" & that's usually the best thing to get it through customs without too much charge, if any.
46. IT WOULD BE WISE & SAFER if you've got another machine available to make copies of these before you send them, lest they get lost in the mail, & that would be a great loss because you go to a lot of trouble & expense to make them. So I suggest you try to see if you can make copies before you send them.
47. BE SURE THAT YOU ALWAYS SEND VIDEOS EITHER REGISTERED OR INSURED, because we have had some losses. You're tempting'm to steal if people know what they are, & they usually do because you have to have a declaration slip stuck on the package if it's going across borders, which they usually are, & therefore they know the value even if they just know it's a video tape whether it's even recorded or not, it's still valuable. Of course recorded it's even more valuable, & with your kind of recordings it's priceless!
48. BE SURE YOU TRY TO AT LEAST REGISTER IT IF NOT INSURE IT. We've suggested to our folks who send us videos that they at least register them, if not insure them; that way you don't have to necessarily declare the monetary value & it acts almost like insurance. It pretty well guarantees that it gets in the right hands & gets to you, because registration requires that each person that handles it signs the slip. So try to register your videos when mailing them--whoever you mail'm to or whatever videos--especially as they're usually pre-recorded they are priceless & we must take care of them.
49. INSURANCE IS ANOTHER THING AS THEN YOU HAVE TO USUALLY PUT IT AT QUITE A HIGH MONETARY VALUE DECLARATION which could cause you some customs problems & the recipient might have to pay fairly large duty on things like that. Some countries charge up to 30% duty & even as a blank tape that would be $6 for a $20 tape, & if it's pre-recorded, this raises the value to about $100 & you'll be paying $30 duty per tape!
50. THEREFORE WE HAVE DECIDED THAT REGISTRATION IS THE SIMPLEST CHEAPEST WAY TO DO IT. You declare it & get it registered & then it pretty safely guarantees it's going to get to its destination where it belongs. Don't send big packages, as they attract too much attention & custom duties, but just one or two at a time, & mark them "Personal used video tape" when you declare the customs on the package across borders, so that you don't have to pay big duties. Otherwise they're apt to think they're pre-recorded movies or something that are high-priced & expensive & they're likely to slap a duty on'm. If you just mark them "Used personal video tapes", they usually get through without any problem.
51. LABELS: THEN PLEASE LABEL THOSE TAPES CLEARLY, the labels that you put on the tapes as well as on the tops & spines of the boxes, particularly the outside labels, so as we're scanning a row of boxes the titles will stand out clearly & I won't have to put on my glasses or use a microscope to read'm. Please make those principal titles in large caps at least a centimeter high so that we can read'm from a distance. Include the number of minutes of the length of each portion of each interview or each number or whatever, so that we would know exactly what's on the video, as we hope you do in a more abbreviated form on the radio tapes.
52. IT WOULD BE HELPFUL IF YOU WOULD WRITE A RUNDOWN ON EACH TAPE AS YOU MAKE IT. It would even help you if you do it as you tape. That means that little list on each scene or subject or interview or testimony or song or whatever is on the tape as you go along so you'll remember what's on it, & when we get it you can send us a copy & we'll know what's on it.
53. ALSO MAKE A PROGRAM RUNDOWN OF YOUR TAPE showing the subject matter item by item according to the number of the digits played. We found that the digits on some sets do not necessarily correspond with other sets, but close enough, & it's a very good idea so we can know what's on it & keep track of it. When you send us video tapes, people shouldn't be too lazy to rewind your tapes rather than expect us to take our busy time to rewind them for you.
54. YOU SHOULD SEE OUR TOWER OF BABEL STACKED BESIDE OUR BED on one, two, three, four, five shelves high, including our video machine & our little tiny television & all of our video tapes & our radio & all the rest! I told Maria last night, I pray that we don't have any earthquakes here, because if his place starts to rockin' or a shakin' our tower will surely fall!
55. WE REALLY ARE CROWDED FOR SPACE HERE & we have everything stacked on these shelves right beside the bed where we can easily reach them & turn them on when we're too tried to do anything else & our poor old eyes are too tired to read any more or edit any more or proofread any more. We just go back & lie down for a little rest & we turn you on & you turn us on, hallelujah! We like to have it all right there within reach & we like to be able to read the labels right there. If you can't read the label from a yard or a meter away, then your label's too small, amen?
56. PLEASE MAKE THOSE MAJOR TITLES ON THE LABELS BIG ENOUGH TO READ FROM AT LEAST A METER'S DISTANCE so that we can lie comfortably on our pillow & run our eye lovingly up & down the row of labels & select one that we want to play next to get us in the right mood. Hallelujah? So please do label'm clearly, at least the main label. The contents you can label or list microscopically if you want to, because if we're that interested we'll pick it up & give it a closer look.
57. PUT YOUR MAJOR TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE LABEL, whatever it's about: "MWM Video Show Number So & so" & the main content: "Kid Power" or "By the Sea" or whatever it is that can ID it. "Christmas" or "Jesus is Born" or whatever the main title is, please put it at the top of the label very clearly--both on the tape itself where you usually list the contents, then on the outside of the box on the spine of the box like a book. So when we put our tapes on the shelf, just like books standing on end, we'll be able to read those spines just like books are labeled on the spine & we'll be able to see what we have.
58. IT'S ALSO A GOOD IDEA TO LABEL THE TOP OF THE BOX. You have the tape standing on a shelf & you can read the front of it, which is the spine or back of the box. But also if you should not have room on your shelf & you have to tip them down or lay them on their edges so you'll be able to read the end labels, put a label on the top of the box or on the end of the box also, so that we will be able to read from any direction, whether the thing is turned around so that we read the label on the spine of the tape itself or we read the label on the spine of the box itself or on the top or end of the box.
59. THAT MAKES ABOUT FOUR LABELS THAT YOU NEED TO PUT ON EVERY TAPE & BOX. Put two labels on the tape, one on the side of the tape & one on the spine of the tape. Be sure you get'm on the right places, by the way, not on the side you stick into the machine, or it's apt to gum up the works! Be sure it's on the back spine of the tape & not on the front edge of the tape which goes into the machine, and on the flat top side of the tape. That is where the labels usually go, it's quite a large label as you're facing the tops of the spools, & describe the contents.
60. THEN ON THE BOX YOU PUT A VERTICAL LABEL ON THE SPINE & ALSO AN END LABEL ON THE TOP. You don't have to describe the contents in detail on every one of those labels, or you'll never get done labeling, but particularly on the larger inside label that's inside on the top of the tape you should have your contents itemised. On the other labels you can abbreviate them & just have the main title. Perhaps on the long label, the long way of the tape on the back spine of the box that shows as they're standing on the shelf like books, you could have a brief description of the contents.
61. IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU HAVE & HOW MUCH TIME YOU'VE GOT, but it would sure be a help to us if you would at least label the back spine of the box large enough, as big as those JVC letters or VHS letters or whatever they are. Or at least make it as big as the lettering that they put on the box, so that we'll be able to read it from a distance of at least a meter, amen? Thanks a lot!
62. ALSO BE SURE NOT TO FOOLISHLY LABEL ANY OF THE TAPES themselves inside with such curiosity-arousing investigation inspiring & perhaps even illegal titles such as "Love Tape" or "So & so strips" or any other sexy titles which may provoke an Inspector to take a look at it & thus delay it or even ban it! Use your heads, Family!--Don't lose'm!
63. "WHATSOEVER YE DO IN WORD OR IN DEED, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD!" (Col.3:17.)--And "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might"! (Ecc.9:10.)--Amen!--Pray! Ask the Lord to help you! Do it for His glory & the love, inspiration & encouragement of others & you can't fail, for
64. "LOVE NEVER FAILS!" (1Cor.13:8.)--Even when videoing!--Amen? GBAKY videoing!--We love'm!--But face'm! "Meats for the body", (1Cor.6:13.) when it's meat you wanna see!--But when you want the spirit, mugshots it's gotta be!--Amen?--Thanks! We love you!--And your videos! Keep'm rollin'!--Love,--Dad.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family