RENOVATE Series - Walk In Playlist

Life is Beautiful - Vega 4
Don't Carry it All - The Decemberists
Broken American - Dispatch
Generator (First Floor) - Freelance Whales
A Bad Dream - Keane
Lucky Now - Ryan Adams
Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
Traveler's Song - Future of Forestry
Down By the Water - The Decemberists
Major Minus - Coldplay
Everlasting Light - The Black Keys
Fences - Phoenix
Without You - Ben Rector
Kick Drum Heart - The Avett Brothers

PreService Playlist

Here's our "walk in/out" playlist for December 2011.

The Ascent by The Classic Crime
Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall - Coldplay
Carol of the Bells- Family Force 5
12 Days of Christmas- Relient K
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear- Kutless
Wonderful Christmas Time- Earthsuit
Timestretch- Bassnectar
My Favorite Things- Family Force 5
Deck The Halls- Reliant K
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (A Shrift Remix)- Andy Williams
Stay Crunchy- Ronald Jenkees
Do You Hear What I Hear - Family Force 5
Angels We Have Heard On High - Future of Forestry
Blue Bossanova- Bossanova
Equals- MuteMath
Paradise- Coldplay
At the End of the Day - Amon Tobin
Derty- Ronald Jenkees
Tell Your Heart Heads Up - MuteMath
Major Minus - Coldplay
Fortune Days - The Glitch Mob
Sun Ray, Pt. 2 (Bonus Track)- MuteMath
I've Seen Enough- Cold War Kids
Broken American- Dispatch
Traveler’s Song- Future of Forestry
Germany- Errors
God of Victory- The Village Church
Fences- Phoenix
Without You- Ben Rector
Life is Beautiful- Vega4
A Bad Dream- Keane
Woo Boost- Rusko
Bass Cannon- Flux Pavilion
Bass Head- Bassnectar

Chained

Since we've moved into our facility in 2008 the lighting bar setup hasn't changed a whole lot. I've added some circuits to the bars but we've been limited to the lighting bars that were originally installed by the electricians that were on site when the building was built.

I wanted to change the look up a bit so for the Chained series I had a local steel fabricator make a couple of round bars for us that I hung in a concentric pattern. I figured if it was functional and looked good I'll add more in the future.

It did give us some new layout looks and I do hope to add some more rings flanking the stage.It's a little known fact that an overwhelming majority of the production team are Mute Math fans. So, whenever it's decided that a Mute Math tune will make the necessary point we get excited about working it in.

Here's a clip of the circle rig with a Mute Math sound track. Again, this is a sound check clip shot on a cell phone...

Guts

In the fall of 2011 we did the Guts series.

We decided on a Western theme hoping it would convey the gutsy grit of the old west. The juxtaposition worked well and each week had an instrumental rock anthem opener, LaGrange, Blaze of Glory, Whole Lotta Love, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Wayward Son. The set was western and thanks to a lot of help from one of Stokes County finest residents we procured some western gear to get the detail we needed. Burlap was the back wall texture and the deer skull above the stage entrance was my favorite.

I attempted to "stack" two projectors to get the intensity I needed to project the guts series logo on the back wall. Projecting on burlap isn't ideal and stacking two projectors in an attempt to overlap pixel on pixel isn't ideal either. My conclusion is that it's can't really be done but since I was only using a small portion of the whole projected image I was able to get the amount of overlap I needed to have the image as bright as I needed. It took about three hours of tweaking on a custom mount but the end result was pretty good. I don't recommend stacking two 5500 lumen projectors in an attempt to get a good image but in a pinch for environmental projection you may want to attempt it.

I call them "People from the brown lagoon"...

When I first map out band positions for a new set I would get tired of needing to have someone run up on stage to check coverage. So, if you've got a little bit of time a handy thing is to make some "larger than life" cardboard cutouts to verify your coverage. It really helps checking your sight lines too.

Foundations

The title of the series was "Foundations" but the goal wasn't to go literal with the set. Literal sets tend to be more theatrical requiring a lot of elements to look full, non cheesy. On a tight budget it's often difficult to get the amount of detail wanted in a look. On the other hand a nice clean abstract look can communicate the same theme while looking complete stand alone.

So, the inspiration was building blocks with a sort of tetris feel. The blocks are made from coroplast and the cheapest local source I found was Tarheel Paper Co. Many people sell coroplast as a printing medium but if you buy it from a shipping supply/grainger type place it'll tend to be less expensive. I think it was less than $12 for a 4'X 8' sheet of white. The coroplast was cut into 24" X 24" squares and made into cubes using the wonderful magic of duct tape. Black duct tape to be specific. It's about $10 cheaper per roll than gaff tape so that's why I used it. Anyway, the cubes were actually hollow and I inserted some 4' florescent tubes inside the cubes. The tubes were on dimmers so I was able to light the cubes from the inside as well as splash color from the outside. It was a really simple look that was inexpensive.

Here's a little video of the look in action during a sound check:

Summer 2011

This was the look for two of our summer series in 2011. I wanted some color and texture but it had to be on a tight budget. So, wandering around Lowe's Home Improvement the final result was to use ceiling grid light panels, tar paper, extruded attic venting plastic and gaff tape to create the set. As with most of our sets the key element is distance and lighting. 20' away, well lit, most sets can look passable.

The columns are 2"X 6" wrapped in tar paper, the column of color is American DJ Par64LED's with some Mega Bar 50s in the mix behind the "unbreakable" light panel lenses for drop in ceiling florescent light fixtures. The industrial faux gridwork is the attic venting plastic cut to overlap symmetrically.

From a distance it looks great and the color really popped. For the money it was a really cheap set that looked good. For the "Summer of Love" series I threw in a disco ball and hit it with some Vizi Beams.

Disco ball madness.

Easter 2011 / What's Your Status?

For Easter of 2011 we decided to have the band on top of a mini video wall. It was an engaging look that was pretty versatile.

I apologize for the poor image quality, most of the pictures in this blog were shot with my Moto Droid, yes the original one, and it's not so hot in low light.


We had recently upgraded to High Definition in the main auditorium so I had a couple of extra Sony FX52 projectors sitting around. On the video side we used the Matrox Triple Head to Go, Digital Edition, to send the content to the platform the band was on out of ProPresenter 4. I would have sent two separate feeds out of the Matrox but one of my Extron twisted pair transmitters had bitten the dust. It was going to have to be one feed for both sides of the wall. Since the feed was from the same machine as my main program screens I didn't have to worry about any sort of sync.

Here's a video of the set in action from during sound check:



The platform was pretty much constructed like a stage

but faced with some white sheeting and scrim fabric. It did a pretty good job acting like a screen material and it withstood a little bit of abuse during the 5-6 weeks this set was up.

The most difficult part was aligning the image on the center of the platform and making the mask identical for both sides. If the image was a separate feed this wouldn't have been as big a problem but since the mask for the middle seam was the same mask for the right hand image on the Stage Left side it had to be a really good symmetrical alignment. At one point it seemed that ProPresenter 4 had a bug with the mask "moving". I'd correct an issue, save the file, close PP4, reopen it and the change wasn't there or it was different than before in a new way. It was the most frustrating part of the set.

Connect The Dots

In January of 2011 we did a series entitled "Connect the Dots". Inspired by a 2010 MTV European music video awards show set for a performance by Kings Of Leon, I had the idea to buy some cheap ( ~ $7 for a 4'X 8'sheet) Styrofoam insulation from Home Depot that has an aluminum foil exterior and adhere it to a 2"X 4" framework on stage.

First, we built a rough frame work using 2" X 4" members and some 1"X 3" pine. It was pretty much free standing with some bracing against the back wall.

Second, I mapped out a grid work of holes and cut them out by pressing a 6" hole saw bit thru the insulation. The trick for a clean cut was to start on the foil side and not spin the bit as it was pressed into the material. After all the holes were cut we mounted the sheets of insulation to the frame work with liquid nail and some drywall screws. The seams were covered with some 2" wide HVAC aluminum tape to give it a completed modern look.

The key to the look was to have some moving heads mounted behind the set so with some good haze coverage the moving head beams would pop through the 6" holes and create a multiple spot light effect. The face of the set popped with a blue wash giving it a metallic sheen. The whole set cost less than $200.

In retrospect we wished we had gone wider with the look incorporating more of the stage into the look but given some lighting limitations it was better to focus the look instead spread it thin and lack in lighting. I hope to experiment more in the future with this texture.

The Why...

Before God created people he created an environment for them to live and worship Him in. As a production team one of the most valuable things we can do to minister to the people that attend the Summit is to create an environment that facilitates people connecting with God. The purpose of this blog is to help others create engaging environments by sharing what ideas we've had as well as help provide a context to the role production has in the mission of The Summit.