Chaplain Recruitment

The Project

The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA asked us to create a Catholic Chaplains recruitment video. The Archdiocese is responsible for providing Chaplains to provide spiritual and emotional support and guidance to thousands of men and women in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Chaplains go wherever their people are—in a tent in the desert, on the deck of an aircraft carrier, in the barracks on base, on a fire-fighting line, in the VA hospital, in the halls of the Pentagon.

The Content

The client wanted to draw the viewer into the video by addressing the exciting nature of this ministry. Chaplains in the military make themselves available and present, day or night, to offer guidance, education, and direction on Church doctrine or simply to listen. As the people in our military do the difficult work of protecting our freedom, Catholic chaplains walk beside them, providing the spiritual and emotional strength they need.

The Theme

The video opens with extreme close-ups of faces of men describing their vocation with a series of promises. Graphics on-screen emphasize each theme. As the video progresses, the same men are revealed to be Chaplains. Each Chaplain describes one fulfilling aspect of their job. That they are also members of the military is learned when the Chaplains appear in their military uniforms. Interspersed are video and still photos from active duty troops. We filmed each chaplain in 4K for a 1080 delivery and adjusted the framing in post. The video was filmed at the Archdiocese Headquarters in Washington, DC with a green screen in their main conference room. The client was offered a choice of different backgrounds and using fractal mapping we created a slight movement on the background. Color correction was done in DaVinci Resolve; green screen and graphics were done in After Effects, and the final edit was done in Avid.

The Results

The video was received with great fanfare by members of the faith. “High praise from here on an outstanding production. FANTASTIC job on the lighting, composition and framing, as well as the edit.” “The video is generating “rave reviews” worldwide… it’s awesome…the script, music and video. GREAT JOB!" “I posted the video on Facebook and you would not believe the number of positive comments”.... Deliverables included Blu-Ray DVDs and a compressed high resolution digital file for the Archdiocese website.