Garrett cut the letters out of MDF and covered the front surface with AC ducting/aluminum tape. He bought 4″ diamond plate tape rolls. The tape really helped reflect the lights off the letters.

He used ordinary lighting sockets and 14 gauge wiring to wire it all together. Garrett got the normal, 60W lightbulbs that you can find anywhere.

He used paint thinner on a rag to quickly wash the wattage print off–to give the bulbs a cleaner look. Then he used a separate dimming circuit for every letter so he could light each up independently from the other.

Budget was around $400.

Inspired by his three year old son, Mike decided to construct this design on a larger scale. His son brought home some crafty art project they were creating in their Sunday morning childrens service.

Mike constructed the cross from half inch plywood framed by 1×4′s with compound miter cuts to create depth. He created the outer panels with simple bed sheets bought from Walmart framed with 1×4′s. Simple, white and blue.

The producer wanted a Civil War scene for a drama about “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day;” but they also needed a tomb for a later scene. So they built the entire set on casters so it could be rotated for the scene change. The cannon is made out of two old wagon wheels and scrap wood found in someone’s back yard. The Barrel is PVC pipe painted black. The cannon balls were styrofoam balls from Wal-Mart painted black. The tent was made out of a white sheet with patches penciled on.

The tree was an old artificial Christmas tree and the trunk was made out of styrofoam. The bark look was made by melting the styrofoam using a soldering iron. The campfire was made with a Bob-led fire lamp and with smoke from fog machine piped through it. The tomb was also made entirely out of styrofoam melted with a soldering iron. A door cut in the set inside the tent allowed Jesus to come out of the tomb during that scene.

The final cost for the entire set including paint, plywood, styrofoam, PVC, and all other supplies was $1,155.

They called their series, “Relentless”. They got inspired by the ”Make your own Jumbtron” stage design and created their own back panels. They theirs out of wood, but you could do something similar with Coroplast and gaff tape.

You could easily recreate this set for about $75.

They build the Bold letters with pink insulation foam from Home Depot. They cut the letters out then painted them white. Then they hung them up with a little fishing line. To light it, they shined LED lights onto them and there you go!

The red fabric represents the Gospel, the Scarlet cord stretched through eternity to save us in the winter of our our own souls – one 10 yard piece of crushed red silk.

The back wall is one piece of bleached muslin. They projected onto it from the front about 40 ft. away (just above the heads of the musicians).

The trees were made of rabbit-proof fence wiring from their local Menards (Home Depot or Lowes). They covered them with white sheets and painted the details. They used rebar tie-wire to suspend the trees and branches from their grid. Then they added in some real branches to sell it.

The painted the stage walls and roof black to make all the elements pop out.

Promo Video:

They started their design with “urban junk” – a collection of chain link, corrugated metal, pipes, barrels, duct work, scrap wood and miscellaneous objects off the curb.

A few years back they were given a neon cross, and since its arrival it had only served as a humorous light for back stage where their worship team gathers before service. This set lent itself perfectly to having it be the center piece. They also created a backlit sign saying “LOVE”. It was created using light boxes that were being tossed out by one of their stage volunteers’ work and black gaffers tape.

They minimized their color palette for lighting focusing on blues and yellows to recreate a night on a city street. They used LED’s and some old pars.

Almost all the materials were salvaged from congregation members and the frugal eyes of some of their volunteers who can see treasures in trash.

Assembly of the set was done by attaching the various materials to wall flats they created for earlier sets. Some items were mounted or built on palettes. Since the series was a few months long, everything had to be done in a way that deconstructing or moving off stage was simple for scheduled weddings and community events.

To create the network they used 20mm and 6mm white nylon rope. They threaded it up and down over stainless steel bathroom rails installed on the ceiling and floor. They spend about $100 on the rope and $300 for the rails.

They added 100mm welded mesh to the space and attached art boards of various sizes into the shape of a heart. They progressively drew cartoons of random people in the church over the weeks.

They built wood frames to look like windows and suspended them with black rope. Then they cut out letters from cardboard, painted them, and stapled them to the wood frames.

The center screen was driven by a Dell Precision workstation running Easy Worship (at the time) and a TripleHead2Go device. A secondary workstation running Easy Worship also was used to drive additional CGI on the side screens.

The VU towers were constructed from OSB and lamped with BR30 colored lamps with fluorescent type diffusers cut to size and slid in front of each section. Each VU pod was driven by 2 Socapex connectors. However, all sections operated as one (totaling nearly 100A of power) required using 36 dimmer channels.

A custom piece of software was developed to control the VU towers in real time. A computer took an input via ASIO based interface, the custom software then converted the audio level into MIDI note ON messages based on input level. MIDI was then routed out of the computer to a discrete 16 channel lighting console which acted as a MIDI>DMX converter. It also allowed for dimming and other chase effects to be applied to the towers.

Additional theming included Apple style ear buds hung left and right on stage with aircraft landing lights mounted within. This was constructed with a wooden frame, wire mesh and finally sculpted to shape with drywall putty compound. The ear bud wire was flexible drainage hose painted white.

They started by gearing off some graphic design work from Anthony Roe. They built a simple mountain background using crumpled kraft paper (shipping paper). They bought it from an online supplied in a bulk yardage roll. They attached it to the back wall of their stage with a staple gun. They layered it heavier as they moved from top to bottom for a more three dimensional look.

They used six par 64 cans and color gels for the colored lighting effects. The natural light was achieved with two par 56 cans–one on each side lighting the structure from ground level to give shadow and depth. The stars on the wall were just stick-on plastic stars commonly used on children’s bedroom ceilings (toy section at Walmart).

The boulders on stage were made from paper mache formed over a wire frame. The large boulder was actually a facade for their keyboard on stage. They used a textured rock spray paint to give them a rough, boulder-like finish. They scavenged the wire, and had all of the newspapers for the paper mache donated by a local newspaper company.

Total design cost was under $100. Great news for a smaller church (around 200 in attendance).

This design consisted of wooden pallets, white fabric, a couple pieces of styrofoam, some black spray paint and a few LEDs. Jake first spray painted all of the pallets black. Then he cut out a white sheet of fabric to fit the frame of each pallet and stapled it together on the back of the pallet. The styrofoam was also spray painted black.

He used an old transparency projector to cut out the letters for “TRANSFORMED”. Once that was done, he hung the styrofoam on each side of the stage by chains to give it an industrial look. He made a 90 degree reinforcement out of wood for the pallets and secured it to the stage and the pallets by screws. He then took an LED and back lit each pallet individually. The word transformed got thrown on the wall by lighting the styrofoam from the front rather than being back lit.

The only materials he purchased were the spray paint and white cloth. He picked up the pallets from a local business for free.

They were going for a storybook design tree for their series. So they created their tree using real tree branches and mounting them on a wooden frame. To create the tree silhouette, they cut out a tree trunk shape from pink insulation board and attached it to the front of the wooden frame.

The white curtains were theatrical gauze. They were able to bounce the light off a back scrim to create the silhouette onto the theatrical gauze.

They were even able to hit the front of the theatrical gauze with the projector to display their series graphic and song lyrics. (For videos they lowered their projection screen.)

They set design included a large tree constructed on stage built from a wooden and tubing frame wrapped with fabrics. They were able to get approximately 12 full rolls of fabric from an RV interiors supplier for $100 the previous fall. All of the fabrics came pretreated with fire retardant too.

A 30′ wide 16×3 (4267×800 analog) projection scrim was designed internally and sewn by Rose Brand. Framing was custom built from 3/4″ conduit. 3 projectors were used, driven by an iMac with a TH2G running ProPresenter 4. Side screens were separately driven by an iMac in 4:3 configuration. Both iMacs were using synced libraries and motion backgrounds.

Inside the “tree” they built in a 4×5 matrix of BR30 lamps all independently controlled via dimmer packs. This was used for simple patterns and symbols and driven by the Vista i3.

Additionally a 3/4″ OSB floor was installed on top of the installed stage and routed out to allow 2 circuit rope lighting to be installed as multiple branch circuits.

Additional lighting included:

• 2x L & R Upstage double hung truss on end
• 5x Martin MX4 Scanners
• 60x S4 Pars
• 26x S4 Ellipsoidal’s
• 8x Generic 10mm PAR64 LED’s
• 3x 4-way pin spot bars
• 4x Times Square 701 strips (blinders)
• Various Altman 360Q’s & Fresnel’s
• 4x T12 4′ black light fixtures
• Jands Vista i3 Controller running 2.x software

To provide themselves a design they could use for multiple series’, they build a 8×12 aluminum “wall” and added two 4×8 wings of frosted plexiglass. They added smaller frosted plexi in random spots with newspaper type graphics printed on corrugated plastic that had some of the sermon themes. For the backdrop they lowered the 26ft center screen (motorized wench) and up lit it with 5 Chauvet COLORstrips.

Check out a video of the sermon to get a peek at what it looked like live.

They used foam core for each projection surface and hung them with tie-line. Mark went into the Masks layer in ProPresenter and drew all the negative space–a very tedious process. Though it was tedious, it saved them quite a bit of money by not having to purchase Pro Video Player, a bunch of TV’s or tons of Mac Minis.

They projected a single image from a Mac Mini at 3840×720.

Behind the foam core they put 4′ wide x 20′ long sections of mosquito screening zip-tied together. They crumpled the screen to give it depth and dimension.

If you want more info about the series artwork, check out their blog post.
http://fxnproductions.com/bts-break-out/

This design consisted of approximately 100 fluorescent lighting fixtures purchases on Craigslist for $100 from a factory transitioning to more efficient fixtures. They used it to emulate LED tubes.

Each fixture had two 110w 8′ bulbs. They experimented with painting and gelling techniques, but ended up carefully spray painting each tube. Then they hung the fixtures from their lighting grid in single units as well as in side groups, ladder style, using aircraft cable and the appropriate fittings.

They powered each unit by modifying each unit to have a pass-through power connected. They put 3-4 fixtures on a circuit allowing for different chase effects.

The 12-foot wide “Lite Brite” in the center of the stage was constructed from OSC with 8 of the above mentioned fluorescent fixtures inside. The color pegs were made by PVC gluing two translucent party cups opening to opening. These were then friction fit into the OSB face.

Check out a highlight of the set here: (5:30 for a quick shot of the set in action)

Editor’s note: I didn’t rewrite this post so it’s in Southeast Christian’s words.

Night of Worship started with a brainstorming meeting in April. One of our worship staff members threw out the song “Beautiful Things.” The ideas started circling around the fact that God can take our junk and make it beautiful. We then decided that there had to be a way for our people to participate in a way other than singing. We wanted them to bring their burden, their sin, or their “junk” and give it to God. Then we wanted to make something beautiful out of it.

Our scenic/lighting designer, Joel, remembered seeing an artist who used colored water bottles to create a mosaic. We decided that we could do the same thing, but have the water bottle be the burden and throwing it away could represent surrendering it to God. We also thought that building the mosaic during the worship time would be a greater impact because we could show people what God could do with their “trash.”

As people came in for the night they were handed bottles and a small piece of paper. Brian, our worship leader, told everyone to write down their burden or sin and place it in the bottle. They were then instructed to bring their bottle at any time during worship and place it in trash containers at the front of stage. We did not tell people what the bottles would be used for.

During the worship set, there were workers on stage pushing the bottles into a chain link fence stretched across a truss frame. This part of the stage remained in darkness. The people in the audience could only see the workers and their headlamps.

The reveal of the bottles happened during the reprise of “Dry Bones” by Gungor. The mosaic is the flower from the promo material. Watch the reveal:

Their theme was “Illuminate”. And they did it all for under $300.

They made the letters ($50) out of 1/8″ plywood and used fluorescent spray paint to paint them. Then they sewed their own curtains ($120) with black canvas ducking cloth. They made five 5′x12′ sections of fabric.

They rented 8 LED par cans, light controller, and stands for $160–five day rental.

They started the set with two water lights ($150 each) that they shined on the sides of the stage.

To create the whale, they used leftover styrofoam from a previous set. They created the whale and the waves in front of it from that. To cut it out, they used an electric carving knife. The whale and waves took about five minutes to cut. Then they painted the whale a light blue and the waves a darker blue.

Then they hung paper lanterns with blue and green lightbulbs in them to add a bubble theme.

They also added some glass blocks on the stage with some LED lighting behind them.

They added a bubble machine behind the whale and waves for an added dynamic element. They also hooked a PVC pipe up to a fog machine pointing through the whale’s blow hole.

The whole set cost around $350 and took about 10 hours to complete.

Check out Katie’s site, ChurchStageDesign.org for more of their stuff.

Tracey shopped Habitat For Humanity ReStore for some great doors that varied in size and color. Then they recruited artists from the church to paint a door–no other instructions, no theme to the doors. Then they assembled them into 3 door walls.

They lit them with Source4′s from the front with a seedy pink color and through the glass with a yellow-gold color.Then they created a ‘digital door’ using Coroplast and a projected image.

They also had “response stations” associated with the series. They were fashioned of doors as well, carrying the image through the whole service.

Total cost of the doors: $200.

The set consisted of Colorplast, display grids (gridwall), zip ties, aircraft cable, and few sheets of MDF boards.

They started this set by borrowing some display grids from a team member. The main weight of the structure was evenly spread out over the length of it then they built the rest of it as it hung. They used heavy zip ties to connect it together. The two side towers were created to keep it from moving and to add additional support.

In the middle of the display they hung two 4×8 sheets of Colorplast. Then they projected onto it!

The letters were cut out by a team member who had access to a large format router. They created the size and sent him the vector file for the letters. To attach the letters they purchased some garage hangers at Lowe’s.

They traced the dollar signs and cut them out of insulating foam board sheets. They painted them green. The two light boxes were clear Coroplast sheets cut into 2 1/2 foot wide pieces and framed in at the bottom with 2×4′s. They added some cheap trim painted black for a cleaner look. Then they lit them with som panel LED lighting.

The money trees were just trees that they cut down from a local farm and cemented them into the bases. They used paper clips to add the dollar bills (200 one dollar bills) as leaves on the tree.

Their pastor played off of the money trees to bring some humor into the series. The entire set was lit with some par 64 LED lighting.

Editor’s Note: Forgive my sarcasm in the opener. (It’s my motivational gift.)

Materials used:

• Matte board (donated).
• Sheets of leftover 1″ thick styrofoam.
• 1″x1″ pieces of wood (donated).
• Shish-kabob sticks.
• Spray paint.

Get the nitty-gritty details from Angela’s blog.

They wanted a stage that would change throughout the series. The series was called “Restore” and their key art was an image of a destroyed city with a hand holding a polaroid. Within the polaroid, the city was completely pristine. So during the 5 week series, they wanted our stage design to morph from destroyed to restored.

They took two graphics and printed 2x2foot tiles–one version of the restored city and one of the destroyed city. They then hung the tiles on a grid (repurposing their grid from the Love Illuminated series) and each week they switched a few tiles.

They used commercial grade patio light strings on 8 separate dimmer channels with commercial grade sign bulbs. They ordered 330′ online at a commercial dealer. The lights were attached to a built wooden frame supported by trussing. The under-screen valances and red curtains were made in-house by a person on their set team.

For their 7-week series, EPIC, their pastor requested a visual timeline on the stage. So they built columns on the front of the stage. The columns consisted of two wooden crates ($8/each) from A.C. Moore stapled to each other, then wrapped with blinds (8 total).

The hanging blinds were 3 blinds per column, tied together and hung from the ceiling with hanging wire. They bought the blinds from Lowes for around $28/each (12 total).

The letters were made locally with PVC material for about $85/letter. (You could also use foam.)

Total cost for the design was a little over $1,000.

They wanted a stage design that looked like roots. So they went into the woods and found vines. They used zip ties and attached and arranged them to make it look like a root system. They have a drop ceiling so they started by moving a few tiles to stick the roots up into the roof.

Overall set time was 7 hours–2 guys.

For their Easter series titled “God Is”, they needed a simple, low-cost stage design that communicated the message. So they bought about 30 Japanese paper lanterns varying in size from 30″ diameter to 12″ diameter that they painted with acrylic paint from a craft store. Each lantern was filled with 2-3 flameless LED candles (either placed in the bottom of the lantern or suspended from the top with pieces of Easter basket grass and scotch tape). The lanterns were scattered throughout the stage, on top of speakers, and by the worship team’s equipment.

They also used sandwich bags filled with sand to anchor down the lanterns.

In total, the design only cost a couple hundred dollars and only a few hours to set up–great for a portable church!

They needed a design that worked with limited space and budget. They also wanted something that worked for their series “Transform”.

So they borrowed the Box Words design and simplified it. They used plain white paper to cause the words to be translucent, and used a simple CFL style light bulb (important because it puts out way less heat than a regular light) plugged into a $2 adapter that plugs right into an outlet. To make the light stand up, they simply used 4 power strips they already owned. The total cost was $8 for light adapters, and about $6 for black spray paint.

In addition they used a Chauvet Par 38-18 (1w leds, but discontinued) for the uprights and about 6 Par56 cans to light from the front. They added an inexpensive hazer to the mix and really made it pop – the Irradient Z-300.