Production Musings

Collide Series Part 1 (2009)

// January 12th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Stage Design

Several weeks ago we kicked off the last series of 2009: Collide. Todd and I had been tossing around the idea of doing some slanted floor risers so we thought we’d finish up this year by giving it a shot. As a matter of fact, “give it a shot” became a pretty popular phrase/idea within this last series. We did alot of new things we’d never tried before. We tried new lighting angles with the funky lighting bolt truss idea. We tried the moving lights from stage positions. We tried slanted stage risers. And we also tried Rosco 02, Bastard Amber. It’s not what you think! It’s a popular front light gel to make things a bit warmer. Let’s begin with our original Google Sketchup drawing of the design idea:

I think this may have been the first design that we’ve successfully integrated the Studio Beams from the stage floor. If my memory serves correct, I was a little unsure of the results of using them from this position. I was afraid of losing some flexibility of creative backlighting. Thankfully, Colin and Tim challenged me to give it a shot and looking back I think it’s safe to say that it worked very well. We hung 5 S4Jrs in the grid as backlight in place of the Studio Beams.

The front 3′ of the slanted riser stage right was constructed to be removable for 2 reasons:

1. Lift access to stage

2. Easy exit/entry for groups of people (Baptism service in mind–we also stuck some rope light on a dimmer to aid those unfamiliar with the stage as they exited for that service.)

The truss was provided by Lester Hamrick of Just Right AV in Bedford, VA. We used two CM Loadstar half ton chain motors to lift the assembled truss off the stage and loaded it with 3 ETC SmartBars and 24 par 64 cans. The dimmers and fixtures were not rented or purchased. They were removed from our installed grid. Yes, it was quite a bit of work but now half our grid is clean as ever! Once everything was safetied correctly, we lifted it into placed and attached the final safety cables.

We had never tried positioning lighting fixtures in this space on our stage. The front side produced a very strong backlight on the vocals and looked nice in the haze. The backside was used for front lighting the band and down/side lighting center stage. We lit the truss with 3 different colors to produce separate feels. (Deep purple and fuchsia in addition to the blue I have shown below.)

And then there was Rosco 02, Bastard Amber. For over 5 years, we’ve stuck with cool front light. I personally like cooler color temperature but it was time for a change. We replaced it all with R02 and love it. I think I’d like to try Light Bastard Amber as well in the future.  For sidelight, we left the gel cooler resulting in very nice looking camera images.

Student Ministries Stage Design

// January 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Stage Design

**Note from Andrew:  I asked Britni Nelson, our newest stage design family member at Blue Ridge, to write about Student Ministries’ most recent stage design.  I snapped a few photos from a non-Student Ministries event to give some context to their ideas and execution.  May I introduce to you…Britni Nelson and the student ministries design team:

We all leave a mark, we all influence people we come into contact with, and whose mark are you leaving, our own or Christ’s? With this stage design we wanted to really drive home the point of making and leaving a mark.

Who doesn’t love to throw and splatter paint around sometimes? We took 3 different colors of paint, in this instance, orange, blue, and green semi-gloss and used 8 foam balls. We dipped them into the paint and threw them onto to wall to create yet another type of mark. Each splatter is different representing that each of us leaves a different mark. To fill in gaps between the marks that the foam balls had made we used paint brushes and paint stirrers to create the more unique marks and designs on the wall.  We hit the walls with blue gels to make the colors pop.

We used 4×8 sheets of insulation board t hat had been glued together and painted with flat white paint creating 4×16 sheets to create our “X”. the top corners of the board were fitted with wires then screwed into the wall. Then screws were screwed in the wall for the boards to rest on. We Used Pink gels and closed the shudders on our lights to focus the lights only on the “X” making it stand out with its vibrant color.

“Inside Outside Upside Down” Series

// October 27th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Stage Design

The life that Jesus lived and the things he taught were totally backwards from the ideas the world held.  Today it’s no different.  Love the person one cubicle over who grates on your every last nerve?  (Don’t read too much into that Colin.)  This series explored the teachings of Jesus regarding things such as modern idolatry, human sexuality, what is love (baby don’t hurt me), family and a few others.

For those much farther along the lighting and design process that I am, I’d love your critique of our stage designs.  We always strive to do the best with what we have when it comes to stage design.  At the cost of $3.25 plus shipping per umbrella we created this.  There are obvious similarities to the previous design.  The idea behind it was to include a few subtle tie-ins to the series title.  Umbrellas belong outside but we used them inside and upside down.  Too cheesy?  :)  Hit them with some deep purple gel and really made them pop.  The rectangles in the back were supposed to be like falling dominoes, except upside down.  Only a few people connected that.  What would it look like to really do an upside-down stage design?  How could we have done it better?  I was personally pleased with how this one turned out.  It’s one of the most colorful/Dr. Seuss looking things we’ve done in a while.

Now, let the next stage design begin…

Unabridged Series Design

// October 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Stage Design

The big stage riser finally came down!  We struggled with how to best make the transition into this design from the previous and had a few goals in mind for this design as we began the Google Sketchup brainstorming.

• No strong thematic tie-in with the series topic needed
• Keep it simple and clean
• Make it cost effective
• Make it recycle-able

We decided on making several 4′x16′ rectangles made from 1/2″ sheets of pink 4′x8′ foam insulation board (Owens Corning or something similar) with no foil backer.  They were purchased from Home Depot. Sawyer and Sue Scott of Advanced Design Electronics here in Lynchburg assembled two 4′x8′ insulation sheets using a thin strip of metal (Band Iron strap for binding pallets, etc.) down both 16′ sides, trimmed both edges with plastic edging, and glued the middle joint with Quickset Gorilla Glue.  Each rectangle was painted with two coats of flat white paint to absorb the most color from our lights.  Glossy paint tends to reflect more light and although I suppose there’s a situation that calls for glossy, this wasn’t it.  All items were purchased from Home Depot and each rectangle costs less than $25 each to make.

Each panel was hung at an angle and braced at the floor and the lighting grid using the Band Iron metal along the sides.  (We left about a half inch excess at each end of the panel with a hole drilled in the metal.)

The cyc on stage left was made using a 30′x40′ piece of stock spandex
from I.Weiss. We were very fortunate with this piece of fabric.  I.Weiss had one in stock that had been returned from a customer because they didn’t realize it has a seam.  We were happy to accept a generous discount for such a large piece of fabric.  ($350)  We’ll be able to use this for video shoots in the future and many more stage designs we hope.  The frame was again thought of and constructed by Sawyer and Sue Scott.  It was constructed from standard metal conduit and ingeniously bent around a giant water tower to create the bend.  (Simple solution eh?!)  After some welding we we had a 16′x22′ frame safety cabled to the lighting grid.

For lighting, we used the Color Splits to wash the cyc.  An old starry gobo we found from a previous stage design from last year was also used on the cyc.  Each of the panels were lit with an ETC Source Four Jr. Zoom and were uplit with Par64 fixtures.  Additional photos and full size images can be viewed and downloaded at my Flickr.