EGWolfe

Showing all posts tagged #lighting:

Coaching Stage Design

Posted on September 3rd, 2020

So, I’m coaching a Worship Director friend in a consultation thread about the design updates they want to implement on their stage. Here’s a copy/paste of the last message I typed in the thread:

My encouragement to you in thinking about design is to build a mood board of things that you’d like. I can then help you in designing something that is true to your taste and feels current and that will look good for in the room as well as for the lens.

And I definitely encourage not gathering any more than 50% of your inspiration from HOW. Honestly, I recommend staying beneath 10 or even 5% if possible.

The "church scene" is sadly very derivative. Don’t make a copy of a copy of a copy. The best design in the world is inspired by nature and original eureka ideas. If choosing existing work to be inspired by, I suggest studying great architecture, flipping through an art history textbook, or watching a broadway show. Watch the Grammys or some top name as well as highly creative indie concerts if you want something that is more live production. Watching other churches is far too often simply copying people who have copied many people before.

Also, it’s never about specific gear. It’s about the feel that you want to have things look like and the budget and existing inventory that you have access to.

And then I just read this related thought in the book, Disrupt by Luke Williams.

Troy Live Production Volunteer Positions

Posted on February 21st, 2017

We love providing the opportunity for volunteers to use their skills and passions to support and enhance art and communication. *no experience necessary! We have four entry area options to join our team:

Stage Crew

Assistant Stage Manager

Audio & Lighting Crew

Setup of Staging & Equipment
Programming & Operation

Live Video Crew

Camera
Control Room
Multimedia and Graphics

KKids Crew

Audio
Lighting
Multimedia and Graphics

Please do connect with us and join our great team!

FILO 2016 Production Design

Posted on May 23rd, 2016

One week ago, we were finishing load in and initial programming for 2016’s edition of the FILO Conference. It was an honor and privilege to be the Production Designer (responsible for Scenic and Lighting Design) for the conference. It was a scurry of a few days so I never really had time to post anything. Here are a few of my favorite moments from the event:

Some of you took my Scenic Design Concepts breakout class. For the rest of you, here’s the story behind how I landed on the final version of the design. These are the notes from the slide where I talked about "Branding (and the iterative process of design) …and Metaphor"

The O in FILO seemed to be the best part of the brand to play off of…

PlexiDiscs (something that I have in storage that’s not being used)

They set up easily enough (tie-line and zip-ties)

They can give depth to a shallow stage

They easily fit in my hatchback!

We concept designed about building a pretty cool set piece that we chose to say no to. (the builder, time, money, space on stage, etc.)

The iterative process - never settle for the first idea, if you stay disciplined to the process, the best idea will eventually be revealed. (certainly the idea at the greatest intersection of creativity and stewardship)

Metaphor…

The 40 O’s represents each of us who are FILOs. Some of us are lone guys, some of us are part of teams. Coming together we can encourage each other with our beauty as we come together. Together we can find a chorus of a "new song" (Psalm 40) to carry with us as we go back to support and enhance the sharing of the good news that Jesus loves us.

The lights, I selected for a few reasons.

First, the B-EYEs are a light that every church tech nerd has seen the videos of and dreamt about having in their venue. I thought that giving a chance to see could be beneficial.

The opportunity to have access to the use some great hybrid fixtures in the Mythos was an amazing bonus.

Finally, the Aura XBs had a primary use of lighting the scenic. However the bonus of such a great light is that we created a number of presets to give us several bonus looks!

For the whole design I played with clusters that followed the Fibonacci sequence. I wanted to have the thought of each part of the design to have a beauty on its own and contribute to the beauty of the whole in a way that felt like it fit...

Thank you to Ryan and ILC for providing the amazing lighting gear. Thanks Jeff and Brian CCC for being perhaps the most hospitable hosts an any venue I’ve ever had the chance to work with. Thanks Nate and Chelsea for the logistics, leadership, and vision. Thanks to Michael and Nic for helping us set it all up, troubleshoot issues, and Nic especially for that great catch with the B-EYEs' profile issue. Thanks Alex (whom I met as we were both on the LD panel discussion breakout) for guest designing Session 3 as I was putting finishing touches on the Keynote presentation for my breakout.

Special thanks to Patrick for being my partner in the project. Having a guy on the console who knows how to interpret the ideas of my mind almost even before I say them is the dream for an LD. A good friend with me for the journey to and from Chicago is a bonus.

Thanks most of all to Todd for inviting me to play a small role in your vision. It was a privilege and an honor.

christmas tree 2014

Posted on December 24th, 2014

Good Friday 2011 Production Design

Posted on April 25th, 2011

Kensington Good Friday 2011

For Kensington's Good Friday service this year, there was a powerful moment at the end where live poses portraying scenes from the crucifixion were revealed. Until that moment, the audience had been taken on an artistic journey from walking in to simple beauty with a simple stage containing only a decorated table, a piano and string section, some candles, and screen.

The screen was the key to the design. It was the focal point for a powerful video early on in the day. It also supported songs and teaching with graphics with lyrics and scripture projected on it. However if that was all that it was used for, we would've just used a standard video screen.

Our screen was a custom frame for a RoseBrand Gray Sharkstooth Scrim. The *frame was built out of plywood and wrapped in Burgundy Pinched Taffeta for color and texture. The interior dimension was 19' wide and maintained a perfect 16:9 ratio for projection.

Behind the scrim was a 32" high 20'x8' stage with a cross (capable of supporting an actor) that rose 10' above that. Scrim is a magical material. It behaves much like a standard soft good when lit from the front. However, with only a simple lighting cue, actors are revealed in a stunning way.

The trick to achieving a Renaissance inspired scene is less **light, not more...

The Good Friday service is really only the secondary event for the holiday weekend. Easter is trump. I had to design the GF set to work on the same stage as Easter's. Much of Easter's design lived upstage of the closed mid traveler. The rest was hidden behind a temporary curtain made out of strips of RoseBrand Black Duvetyn. The double intent was to create a black void of negative space to allow the story focal points to pop.

They did. It was a powerful service.

*The frames were shipped to each of our five campuses in trailers; and therefore had to be shipped in 4 pieces and assembled at each location. The scrim was then stretched over cardboard and stapled into place.

**Because of the tight timeline (only a few hours!) that our portable campuses had for setting up and programming we rented 4 Martin Mac250s for every campus. This allowed us to fine tune our cues (specifically the nuanced cues for the poses) at Troy Campus' rehearsal and send a cue sheet and photos to the campuses. This let them quickly program in those values and be 95% there.

***We used no haze for this service. That's very rare for us, as haze is a prominent part of our brand. I wanted to create a sense of focus on what was being lit, rather than the beams of light.