Chad Pippin from Big Valley Grace Community Church in Modesto, California brings us this design that belongs to a starry night.
They created this set for their series “Philippians : Shining Like the Stars.” All of the hanging light bulbs were 25 watt/12 volt (to keep within fire code) and powered by 2000 watt dimmers. Behind the hanging lights was a 40′ muslin cyc which was lit with around 30 Elation LED Brick 36’s.
They attached crumpled screen mesh to the front edge of their choir steps and color washed it with 4 Elation Platinum Wash LED Zooms. This allowed the choir to still stand on the steps as well as create a pleasing texture behind their pastors as they preached both live and on video.
They also created half walls with crumpled mesh on the sides of the stage and lit them with three Elation LED Brick 36’s per side.
All front lighting was done with conventional PARs. Backlighting of the speaker was done with three Elation Power Spot 700’s.
Beautifully cheap alternative to a star cloth. Might have to work this into Christmas!
What sort of wires/extension chords did you use to hang the incandescent lights? Where did you buy the chords?
We purchased cables in spools. Not sure exactly where we got it…..an electrician helped us out with the purchases.
This wasn’t in the initial post, but there are two 450 watt transformers that interface between the lights and the 2000 watt dimmers. We had to drop it down to 12 Volts during that process as well. These transformers simply sit up in the cat walk and the light strands terminate from them.
What lighting are you using on your main speaker – how are you lighting him without washing out your background in light (how are you achieving such depth and color in your background without it being washed out and loosing the effect?)
Hey Myrna! A lot of that is from the angle of the lights above the speaker, and the distance he is away from the stage design elements. You can actually see two shadows on the ground in the third picture…that shows the angle of the lights and the tightness of their focus.
Let me recommend this book to you to learn a bit more about angles and types of fixtures that can help you: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097981071X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=csdi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=097981071X
Jonathan – THANK YOU!!! This is clearly a new arena for me (loving it and loving learning all about it). Thanks for posting this site and so freely sharing with us newbies!
You got it! I was a newbie when I started it too! :)
Qual o nome do livro, será que encontro aqui no Brasil, sou novata na area, e admiro muito seu trabalho e agradeço a Deus por sua vida por ajudar tantas pessoas postando seu trabalho, esta incrivel criatividade
That is a fantastic book and was a huge help to us in learning how to effectively light our speakers.
The method we used is clearly laid out in the book that Jonathan recommended. There are three instruments for front light (we used 1000 watt ellipsoidal lights, all at about a 45 degree down angle, one directly in front of the speaker and the other two coming in from either side at a 45 degree angle).