Unique Ideas

[Adam Ogden]

Hey guys-

This Forum is a little slow....let's try to pep it up. If you have lighting questions or ideas, please start posting.

For this thread, let's talk about Unique or unusual things you have done with lighting, that really made your moment come alive. If you have pics, please attach them.

[Adam Ogden]

Ok...first unique idea for lighting. So picture this.....you need the setup. This is Easter 2004, right smack at the time of The Passion movie...it was huge then....We, like many other churches did our entire Easter Series around it....our set was.....dark. Just like the movie, it almost made you uncomfortable.....very dark, tons of cross....literally hundreds both 2D and 3D, covering the entire stage..... It made for an interesting backdrop: (blurry, i know)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1202/771912910_faa9608cd4.jpg

Then, at just the right time, we would.......well.....see for yourself.....just keep looking, you will see it.....

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1235/771126947_f5146bc155.jpg

It's amazing what you can do with Wal-Mart rope lights...

[Klampert]

wow adam that is absolutely brilliant. My church so far hasnt messed with lighting per say due to small budget and 100 member church, but I am really looking forward to heading that route soon. Keep posting these pics. I really appreciate them as a major resource.

[Adam Ogden]

Hey thanks a lot.

We have found that we can do some pretty cool looking stuff, for pretty cheap, and really easy. Take this first picture. The clear stuff is that wavy, corregated stuff you can buy in sheets from Home Depot. Just connect it to something, and light it up.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1192/771419843_770b231cdf.jpg

The next one took a little more time, but still very effective. A couple years ago, we jumped on the Extreme Makerover spin-off bandwagon. So, we built a 960 sq. ft. "house" on stage. We had volunteers come in for 2 weeks, framing the walls. Then, just for fun, we added Home Depot (again) work lights, and suspended them above the house. (we considered this as a viable housing solution for our interns that summer....)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1348/771419847_0e5c085f41.jpg

The last one was a big one. We were doing "The Path" series, the lauch of our discipleship classes at the time (101 class, 201, 301, etc). So, we painted a relief-looking map over the entire stage, complete with a compass, and used the signs to indicate the 5 topics of the series, 1 topic per weekend.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1061/771419857_fc70db1c05.jpg


Hope this helps give you ideas. Lighting is fun....think outside of the box.

[Klampert]

That is absolutely freakin cool. WOW!..

<as he saves all picture to ultimate coolness file>

[SeanMichael]

Wow! Adam thanks so much for posting those pics! My church is similiar to Klampert's in that we are a smaller church but have a desire to be relavent through lighting and staging designs. Those pics gave me a few ideas that I can run with now.
Question, where do you get your trussing from? (your's is AMAZING btw) that is something that I have been researching to get for over a year now. Most of the places I have found want me to purchase large sections of it at a time but I really only need a couple 4-6' sections to do what I want it to do.

Sean

[chrismoncus]

SeanMichael, what do you mean about lighting making your church relevant? How would it do so?

[SeanMichael]

Hey Chris, relevant isn't the right word (i should probably stop posting before I'm awake in the morning lol). What I mean is setting an atmosphere where distractions are limited and hearts and minds can being focused on the One we are worshipping. Through the use of lighting and even set design I believe that we can contribute in that way. In no way do I think that a church must have these two elements to be "relevant", I just think we should utilize what God has given us.
Hope that cleared it up!

Sean

[chrismoncus]

I got ya. Relevant is an easy word to use. It sounds good. :)

Relevance is the method, not the equipment.

[SeanMichael]

Exactly...it's like the phrase that's been buzzing around our staff here Methods may change but the message stays the same

Sean

[Adam Ogden]

Hey guys-

Thanks for the nice words. For the trussing, we use Applied Electronics (http://www.appliednn.com) for almost all of it. Our heavy duty truss that we hang a lot of lights off of is Tomcat and James Thomas, but that stuff is the real deal....you could probably hang a VW Beetle of of that stuff and be OK. The Applied stuff works REALLY well for what you see it used for in those pictures....we have done a couple other sets that were perdominantly truss, and it works really well. You can attach drapes, a FEW lights, banners, posters, etc, etc, and it gets the job done. They come in 5', 8', and 10' standard sections, but you can special order custom sizes (Special Order is code for JACKED PRICE). They usually are willing to help out churches, so let them know.

If you want to continue equipment discussion, feel free to start a thread in the "Equipment" Section, and we will continue there......Just trying to keep this more about technique.

Thanks guys. Here are some other truss ideas:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1266/802499944_e68fca18ea.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1333/801618039_6c94128d5e.jpg

[ElevationNC]

Hey Adam and the rest of the LT's here. I'm new the Worship Comm. and I am really glad I found a place to share ideas and techniques with. My only problem is what I am limited to as far as my lighting set-up. Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC is only about 2 years old and we are still in the process of building our actual sanctuary/building. Currently we have a main campus and our first satellite campus (the one I'm at) that are both in high school auditoriums. We utilize video tech. for our satellite campus and with the way the projectors/screens are set-up it cuts off about 3/4 of the stage and about 80 percent of the lights that the school has installed. I have 20 cans up in the catwalk that I use for the various band members and to do color washes on stage. The school has a very nice light board (a Bijou Plus) so I have been able to program some effects to try and add a little flare to our worship experience but I am starting to run out of ideas to keep it fresh. Just wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for having a forum where we can fellowship and socialize. Shane Jenkins

[twc_admin]

Shane,
I just couldn't help myself from jumping in ... I've not posted here in a couple of weeks - been way too busy, but saw your post .. I totally dig what you guys are doing at Elevation, and when I saw your "handle", I thought "no way, somebody from Elevation is here!?" ... that's totally cool. Tell Pastor Steven "hi" for me ... we'd love to get up and visit sometime. Do you blog like Steven? (I guess we should PM or dialog off topic, so we don't steer away the thread).

Fred

[ElevationNC]

Thanks Fred. Yeah just PM me anytime. As for lighting, I am new to the this whole area, sort of a trial by fire if you will. I have tried to simulate some of the things I have seen others do but alas I am only one man and currently don't have anyone else helping me run the lights. The way our stage is set-up, the band is lined up across the stage and we have a small "thrust" in front of the stage for our lead vocalist. I have set-up 3 cans to light him up; 1 overhead, and 1 from each side (to cut down on the shadows on his face). I have assigned 1 can to each of the band members (drums, bass, guitar, and back-up vocals). The rest of the cans I have various color gels in. One of the interesting things (I think) I have done is program an effect to randomly flash on each band members PAR-can to highlight each one of them. With the rest of the lights down it is kinda cool looking.
The way our screens are set-up we have a large screen in the middle for the video feed and then a smaller screen on each side of the middle one (for lyrics, parent alerts, etc...). While we are having P&W the video guys have various backgrounds on the screens and I usually try to match up my color washes to these background images to add a bit of ambience to the stage. All in all I think I have done a good job to not know much about lighting, but that is why I have sought out a place like TWC to try and network with some fellow LTs. Shane

[twc_admin]

Thanks, Shane -

If you scroll up and read through this thread, you'll see lots of posts from Adam Ogden .. he's our main lighting mod here, and is the Tech Director at Canyon Ridge in Las Vegas, NV. He's a lighting genius and will be able to answer lots of your questions ... just post here, or create a new thread to be more specific for things you're looking for. If all else fails, PM Adam!

[Adam Ogden]

Thanks for the words Fred...

I am by no means a lighting "genius", but I do have the opportunity to work with a lot of gear, and I have tried a lot of things...so if nothing else, I know what works, and I certainly know what doesn't. I like trying to do cool things that really enhance a look, that doesn't take a lot of fixtures or effort....so feel free to start a new thread any time you want, and lets all get our creative juices flowing!