Production Musings

Arts Party ’09

// September 17th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Thoughts

Our annual Arts Party took place a few weeks ago.  It may have been the best one yet.  Each year we do an event in the summer and one in the fall for everyone involved in the arts at Blue Ridge.  The summer events are more relaxed.  People hang out.  They talk amongst themselves.  They play disc golf.  Whatever.  Fall events, while relaxed, have a more specific purpose.  We want to be reminded why we do what we do.  Why wake up at 5am on Sunday mornings?  Why park a quarter mile from the building and walk, while dodging deer, in the pre-dawn darkness?  Why sacrifice our Wednesday or Thursday evenings at home watching movies?  Because.  Because of what’s at stake for the hopeless and hurting.  Because of the life that Jesus offers.  We want to remember and refocus.

SO, here’s the scoop on what went down this year.  Dinner was prepared Alex Richardson of Robin Alexander American Bistro and served by Shea Foster and the events team at Blue Ridge.  Soooo Cheesy (made to order cheesecakes) provided some pretty unbelievable cheesecakes.  Mmm mmm mmmm.

After dinner and good conversation we migrated into the Sr. High auditorium for the evening festivities.  Todd Foster got us kicked off.  To his surprise I made a little welcome tag for him:

Todd’s Stage Welcome

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Todd made a few announcements and set up the next portion.  A major change took place this year within the Arts @_theridge.  Nan Torrence has led the Arts ministries for many, many years.  This year she passed the baton to Judson Lee.  In keeping with what we’re given in Romans 13, “⁷Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”  We all wanted to give honor to her for her encouragement over the years and her example of servant leadership…

Nan was totally shocked.  In keeping with Nan’s famous double entendre tradition, we presented her a few little  awards to signify her new role as Director of Communications.  So, as we transitioned into what we endearingly have termed “The Nancy’s” we rolled this little clip.  It was hand crafted by Colin Harman:

The Nancy’s

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One of Nan’s famous lines when she’s recruiting for manual labor is, “I’m looking for a few big, strong, handsome men.”  It’s amazing how many old projects come to mind before answering this question.  The number of things that you remembered HAD TO BE done which is exactly why I don’t know of any big, strong, handsome men.  Reality sets in though and you offer your big, strong, handsome self to serve with joy.  None the less, we thought it would be fitting to provide her with her very own big, strong, handsome men.  This gives you an idea of the nature of the gifts…there were many more.

Following this, Peggy Schaub gave the keynote address.  Rather than write more about it, take a listen for yourself:

Peggy Schaub’s Talk: Or download it here

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Irrational Series Stage Design

// September 16th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Stage Design

Ok, back to stage designs.  I’m not going to lie, this design wasn’t a big hit.  It definitely wasn’t a big hit for the poor couple that chose to get married on the stage with giant question marks in the background.  (But hey, I like to think that we helped strengthen their marriage – what better day to really question everything.  Right?) On a serious note, to that couple and all who get married at Blue Ridge, we do apologize that we are unable to change the stage to be more wedding friendly and elegant. There are just not enough hours in a Saturday!

The week of stage change, the whole team was in Chicago for Willow Creek’s Art Conference.  There wasn’t much we could do but we gave it our best shot.  Two of the stage design volunteers, Sawyer and Sue Scott, took it upon themselves to make several giant question marks matching the series graphic above.  Styrofoam insulation is the stuff.  It’s cheap.  It’s light.  It’s easy to work with.  After some tracing and many many hours of cutting 3 different sized question marks they were done.  Prior to leaving for Chicago, I changed a few colors and aimed the Color Splits where the question marks would appear.  When we returned to Lynchburg on Saturday, Todd and I spent several hours getting them hung, stood back, and said, “It is good.”  It was our best.  This was our last design with the giant riser built on stage.  I’d say it was split 50/50 of those where were sad/happy to see it go.

In the upcoming designs, we’ll be using Google Sketchup more.  I’m excited about the potential for designing virtually.

ETC’s Ion Lighting Controller

// September 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Stage Design, Thoughts

I know I know, if consistency is the key to keeping a successful blog then I fail.  It’s ok though, even though it may be a helpful thing to some, it falls behind my daily responsibilities here at Blue Ridge Community Church.  I have at least 3 big things to write about, including 2 new stage designs but today I’ll be writing about ETC’s Ion console.

For several years now we’ve been facing challenges within our lighting team.  Volunteer programmers would have trouble performing certain tasks with our old Leprecon LPX-48x controller. Basic tasks such as editing a cue live or moving cues around within the cue list were cumbersome for volunteers.  As I began moving towards these issues I realized that it wasn’t a people problem as much as it was a hardware problem.  Enter the ETC Ion.  It has replaced our Leprecon LPX48.  The Leprecon controller wasn’t a horrible controller and it does have it’s place in the industry, but it did use syntax and workflow that didn’t make it as easy for the weekend warrior volunteers who serve at Blue Ridge.  Simple changes of service became a big issue, no one could make a blind edit with confidence, and not to mention a mysterious problem with our house lights where we would lose control and have to manually reset the dimmers.

The Ion solved many problems for us.  Here’s a list:

1. Undo – my oh my, the simple pleasures.  One tiny mistake while editing can cost a programmer but this great feature has proven it’s worth.  It also keeps a history log of commands entered.  This is helpful from a directors stand point when a programmer says, “The console isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do!”  So, “Let’s see what we told it to do.”

2. On Board Learning – forgot what a command key does or how to use it?  The console will tell you!

3. Networkable – I can save tens of hours every stage change, hundreds of hours every year by controlling the console from my laptop from stage wirelessly.  It came with the network dongle allowing my laptop to become a Primary controller.  I still have a few issues to resolve with this feature…looks like Macs don’t play as friendly with ETC but I haven’t explored the latest firmware and editor updates…we’ll see!

4. iPhone – yes, you can control it via iPhone – iTunes App

5. Expandable – add multiple fader wings for up to 240 programmable faders.

I don’t know if the ‘perfect’ lighting console exists (some say it was the MicrovisionFX) but I can say with utter confidence that going with the Ion was a giant leap in the right direction for us.  Even our beginner volunteer programmer has picked it up and can edit with a level on confidence that comes more quickly than it ever has before!