Production Musings

April ’09, The Vineyard Series Stage

// April 24th, 2009 // Stage Design

The Team:
Crystal George, Art        Laura Eagle, Art
Randy Redmond, Pipe Bending       Sawyer Scott, Pipe Bending/Design
Sue Scott, Pipe Bending/Design        Scott Breiholz, Trellis Work
Todd Foster, Design/Stage Hand        Colin Harman, Design/Stage Hand
Andrew Hunt, Design/Stage Hand

It’s going on five months since we’ve been using the extra big stage riser and it looks like it has 7 weeks left through this next series.  We will miss you, you big, giant, trusty stage riser.  You treated us well.  Actually, the neat part is the cost of this whole thing.  The initial build took about 5 days and cost $1160.  We’ll be getting about 6 months of use out of it….at an estimated $192 per series (assuming a 4 week series).  It was also constructed so that about 95% of it will be recycled into our housing repair ministry.

The challenge within each series this year has been how to incorporate the riser in a new fresh way that ties into the series.  As Colin, Todd and I brainstormed ideas going into The Vineyard series, we all settled into using a mixture of flourish/vine art and soft goods.  Laura and Crystal hand drew each vine onto the spandex and then colored them in.  Sawyer and Sue made the side structures come to life.  Each structure is supported by three main vertical 1.5″ pipes and 5 hand bent (Thanks to the help of their good friend, Randy Redmond) 3/4″ pipes.  Diameter = 5′ and their radius expands just slightly past 180º so they look more circular rather than half round from the front.  Pipe couplers were used to expand the total height to 15′ and were bolted at each vertical pipe.  We stretched spandex around each structure, covered the tops with black plastic (the technical would be “Giant Garbage Bags”) and lit each from the bottom used AC Lighting’s LED Color Splits.  (I’m a big fan of these LED fixtures, BTW.  They’ve been rock solid.)

Scott’s trellis design worked very well in front the vine art.  We back lit this w/ 4 Par 64s using Rosco Light Tough Spun diffuser and Storaro Yellow.  Here’s a few shots.  For more, check out my Flickr.

6 Responses to “April ’09, The Vineyard Series Stage”

1. wade says:

   April 24, 2009 at 8:13 pm

   It looks great!! Awesome work. I will miss the giant riser as well but it will be nice to be on the same level with the band again.
   The framing inside the lighted boxes of the riser remind me of the back drop at Saddleback when I was there last summer.

   Reply
2. Dorothy (vicar of vibe) says:

   April 27, 2009 at 8:54 am

   As always simply great.
   I love, love, love your design. Give the entire team a big shout out from me!
   I’ve been playing around with the concept of incorporating LED lights, but I have absolutely no experience with them.
   I particularly like that you are planning to use the materials in your housing repair ministry. That is such an awesome idea!

   Reply
3. Crystal says:

   April 29, 2009 at 10:28 am

   I love that you guys are keeping records of all the stages. So cool. And the big tubes on the side are my favorite parts of the stage, actually! (=

   Reply
4. Denny Weinman says:

   May 7, 2009 at 4:13 pm

   loving the pipe and spandex! the vines are awesome too. way to keep what you’ve got but freshen it up.

   Reply
5. zak says:

   May 10, 2009 at 3:34 pm

   Looks incredible man! I am curious if you have some directions somewhere on how to construct the light towers that you made out of spandex and poles. What kind of poles did you use? Measurements? etc?

   Thanks!

   Reply
6. Sawyer Scott says:

   May 10, 2009 at 6:03 pm

   @zak

   The pipe is EMT thin-wall electrical conduit. As Andrew explained, the verticle uprights are made out of 1 1/2″ EMT and the horizontal ribs are 3/4″ EMT. Couplers are used on the verticle conduits (conduit comes in 10′ lengths so one full length and pne 5′ length coupled together to make of the six 15′ verticles) and horizontal ribs are an uncut 10′. The verticle conduits are measured and marked with medium sharpie approx every 44.75″ after starting 1/2″ in from the first end. After marking, we used a milling machine as a drill press to make quick work of drilling a total of (5) 9/32″ holes in each 15′ verticle member. The hardest part was bending the 3/4″ conduit. A pattern was first drawn on the shop floor using a concrete nail and a string to get our 5′ diameter. Once bent, the 10′ conduit made up close to 2/3 (240 degrees) of a full 360 degree circle. We made very slight bends about every inch along the conduit, often removing it from the bender to match it up to our pattern. Adjustments were constantly made to keep each rib as close to the pattern (and flat) as possible. On our pattern, we found the center of our bend and then marked each rib. We then measured in 1″ from each end and marked. Because these would not easily fit in the drill press, each mark was prick-punched to leave a dimple that would keep the drill bit in the center of the mark… otherwise the drill bit would slip off the conduit when you tried to drill it. These holes have to be drilled after bending, otherwise the pipe would kink right where the middle holes were drilled. All drilled holes must be de-burred, otherwise it could put “a run in the spandex stocking” or worse, put a nasty gash in your body (as Todd found out). Because a carriage bolt has a smooth head, we used these to bolt the pipes together. A carriage bolt has a square part next to its head pn the shaft that calls for slightly larger hole to be reamed out on the outer bend of the 3/4″ pipe. Next, 1/4″ X 4″ carriage bolts are used to fasten all the pipe together. Finish by filing all sharp edges. sawyer

   Reply