Production Musings

I mentioned yesterday that this was the design for trying new things. For part 2 of Collide we were into the holiday spirit and decided to have a little stage change-up for several weeks. For several years now, a few other Blue Ridge leaders have really desired a giant screen on stage. We currently have 2 screens off stage left and right. At any rate, finally we had a fantastic opportunity to explore some uncharted technical territory. We pulled off a 24′x6′ image across the back of the stage.

The response to our experimenting was overwhelmingly positive. Our executive pastor told me, “Out of all of the technical things we’ve ever tried, I haven’t received as much positive response to anything as I have the center screen.” Despite the way we bootlegged this setup, people seemed to like it. The number one comment we received was that it was “much more engaging being able to look straight ahead rather than off to the side.” It was a technical learning win as well. While we were in the planning stages, someone asked me if it was going to turn out ok. I responded, “I have no earthly idea. It could be successful or we could fall flat on our face.”  Either way we would have learned something.

As far as changes to the set, we did away with the angled truss, joined the ends and made one nice long straight piece of truss from which to hang the projectors. We measured their placement and distance as best we could, 8′ apart and 15′ from the screen if memory serves me correct. VGA was supplied to each projector fed by a Matrox TripleHead2Go. Our operating resolution was 2400×600 and our screen was about as homemade as you can get.  Todd used thin finishing boards as a flat surface and a half inch frame around the back.  In addition we used two 20′ battens secured to the frame to give us rigging points.  To finish it off we wrapped it in spandex.  We love spandex, can you tell?

My Macbook Pro drove the whole system from stage left after we discovered that the Matrox doesn’t appreciate having a 100ft VGA extension between it and my laptop. (It is supplied with a proprietary cable that must be between the computer and itself.) If any of you understand why that is so, feel free to educate us! To control my laptop and be with the rest of the tech crew, Colin screen shared it over our network and it worked like a charm. Overall, we didn’t have any major issues with screen sharing although we would not recommend this method for anything other than a short term experiment.

Here are a few solid things we’ve learned from this project as we look to do something more permanent:

1. We shouldn’t make our own screen. Fluctuating humidity and temperature causes wood to warp. Even over 5 weeks, noticeable image distortion could be seen.

2. Brand new projectors and new lamps are a must. As projectors age, so do their LCD panels. Color and brightness should match as closely as possible. The provided photos illustrate the color/brightness differences.

3. Edge blending is a must if you desire smooth transitions between projectors. We’re considering Panasonic projectors because it’s built in and hard to beat the quality.

Propresenter worked very well in controlling the display. As we consider a longer term solution to a center display we feel strongly about Renewed Vision’s product in terms of reliability and quality. Special thanks again to Lester Hamrick of Just Right AV for the use of his projectors and volunteering countless hours as well as Mark Hudson for giving several days worth of his time during this stage design and for his faithful service over the last several years.

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.

**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.