They created this set for their Christmas feast celebration. They used old DVDs collected from their church members. Then they pasted the DVDs using double-sided tape to a large backdrop they already had.

They added 30 paper roles wrapped in gift paper…hung from their ceiling. Then they made some Coroplast boxes on the bottom to finish it out.

I love seeing church creativity applied to international tastes and settings!

The team was inspired by the Hillsong Chapel DVD as well as a set they saw (don’t tell anyone!) on Glee.

They welded together 3 sections of steel tubing (2 20′x20′ 1 12′x20′) with cross bracing and then welded all-thread in 2″ 4″ 6″ and 8″ increments to create their grid. Off the grid they hung OSB drilled with 2″ 3″ and random hole sizes in 2′ increments. They sanded and stained the OSB.

Then they backed the OSB with Coroplast. Mixed in with the OSB panels they put 23 2′x’2 light boxes made from OSB and loaded with 16 65W flood lights. Each light box was circuited individually which allowed them to do some cool chases. The entire wall was back lit with 16 ETC Seledor Vivid R’s.

The light bulbs you see in some of the pictures were an extra element they added for their Christmas Eve services.

Download the design drawings.

They started by suspending 20 feet of  1″x1″ square aluminum tubing from their movable battens. Then they attached landscape marking tape 6″ apart using gaffers tape. Then they added some paper lanterns and lit it all up. Total budget: under $100.

They created the trees by making a chicken-wire frame and covering it with paper maché. They got a thick mix of glue for the paper maché by using flour, Elmers glue-all, and water mixed together until it was about the consistency of brownie batter.

They created the bases of the trees from old newel posts on top of a piece of scrap board with a screw driven up through the botton. They’re a portable church so they have to break everything down week to week. With this, they could just pop the trees on and off the bases.

The trees and bases costs them just over $100.

They also had a scrim backdrop that worked nicely in between the trees. That cost them about $750.

Each curtain was 2 sections of 4ft wide burlap hung at the top using zip ties and safety pins (burlap is super cheap fabric!). They knotted the burlap together at the bottom. It took several hours to hang.

Their back curtain was about 40ft. x 22ft. and they used only one bolt of burlap.

Top: Make sure to add a couple feet to the length of each strip if you plan to knot it at the bottom.

For lighting, they hung 4 edison lamps in between each curtain on dimmers and then lit the black curtain around it with 575 Source4 ParNels to give the appearance that the light bulb gave off more light than it actually does.

They borrowed the idea from Todd Bougher–using children’s ball pit balls. The strung them together and hung them off axis to create their backdrop. They special ordered “Pearl” colored balls from BallPoolBalls.com.

They used a soldering iron to burn 2 holes (top and bottom) in the balls. Then they threaded a string through with a straightened clothes hanger. Then they threader a 4″ drinking straw on the string before adding another ball. (This kept the balls evenly spaced.) Then they secured the ends of the string with a large knot to keep the balls together.

They mounted LED’s on the top and bottom of the strings. Because the balls are round, if you use a different color downlit from uplit, you can see both colors on each ball.

The whole backdrop cost around $500.

Todd was intrigued by putting pallets on his stage, but they didn’t match his size requirement and they were very heavy. So he used some lighter materials like 1/4″ sanded plywood and elements from real pallets to create his own.

He taped off and painted white strips on the faces of the pallets to catch lighting. The center pallet has a projector aimed at it so they can project a motion logo for whatever ministry is using that room. It can also get motion graphics projected onto it during worship.

(No video mapping needed was used but it would be a great option.)

Jeremy pitched the Illuminate idea to a couple in his church that has a knack for scoring big at garage sales about a year ago. A year later they were ready to go. Most of the lamps were purchased for $2 or $3. Lots of them were just donated. They ended up with about 150 lamp. They filled their atrium spaces as well as the stage.

On stage there were fourteen individual dimming channels that the lamps were strategically plugged into. All the lamps had incandescent 40 watt bulbs in them so they could be dimmed. The overhead “lamp drops” were made in house for the specific lengths.

The budget for this set was $450–with a lot of garage sale and Goodwill runs.

They used 44 squares of metallic silver fabric attached to 1×1 pieces of wood on the left and right sides of the fabric. They screwed in hooks on the tops and bottoms of the wood and used small black chain to hook the squares together. They evenly spaced the squares out to make a grid on their back wall. Then they used wooden dowels from left to right on the top and third square to keep the squares’ shape.

For the side columns, they used ceiling grid and white fabric. The grid was riveted together and the fabric glued in. Once assembled, they made wooden boxes that attached to the ceiling and a small box (1×1′s) on the floor. Then they slid the columns over the boxes to keep them upright and in place.

They built this set for under $1000 then gave it to one of their sister churches when they were done with it. Very cool!

Stats:

• 12 rows high
• 24 columns long (3 panels of 8 columns)
• 24 feet long
• 288 C9 Clear Christmas Lights
• 3 4-CH DMX Dimmers
• 3/4″ holes drilled every 12″

Materials:

• 12x 2″x4″x12′
• 6x 4′x8′ sheets of plywood or particle board 1/4″ to 3/4″
• 3x C9 Clear Christmas Lights, 96-100 count per strand. They cut them every 8 lights and connected 24 on 1 channel for a total of 288 lights on 12 rows (12 channels)
• 3x 4-Channel DMX Dimmer packs
• 24x Brown 6′ Extension cords from Home Depot/Wal-Mart. They cut them to make them the connections between the middle panels.
• 96x Wire Connectors
• 1x Wire Stripping Kit
• 96x 1/4″ Bolts
• 96x 1/4″ Wing Nuts & Washers
• Misc, Bolts and Screws to keep the parts together. They also used black zip ties to keep the panels tight together
• Flat Black Spray Paint (They painted everything)

Hints & Tips:

• Get your Christmas bulbs, C9 Christmas Bulbs during the holidays…they’re easier to come by.
• 1 person can build it, 2 people are helpful, but 3 people can get the job done it no time!
• An electrician can zoom through the wiring.

To create this set for their series “the Box”, they stacked about 80 empty cardboard boxes. To add a more explosive element, they extended the boxes beyond the stage. So they used 20lb fishing line and hung boxes from their catwalk above congregation. Then they hit the whole set with some great lighting to bring it to life!

They made 4’ x 4’ panels out of 2”x2”’s and ¼” luan. They took an ivy pattern, traced it onto plywood, cut it out and created a template. Then they layed out their panels and used the template to create a running vine up the panels.

Once they were all cut, they painted them using a ragging off technique. They were hung with a wire running through the framing boards and separated with little wire cable clamps. The lights against the back scrim shone through the cut-outs in the panels.

Finally, it was framed with sheer curtains that were gathered with a fat rope and stuffed with batting to give a Victorian feel.

They used half-inch foam and heavy foil. They glued the foil to the foam. Then they made a roller tool to create a pattern in the foil. To create the tool Chris used 6 wooden toy wheels on a dowel. Then he glued a handle on each end.

Then they added square cloth panels (Light Blue) to hang in the front.

Above the set they created grids to hang simple lights from.

They started by cutting 52 squares (with rounded edges) out of 4×8 sheets of Styrofoam. They measured 32 inches squared; meaning they got 3 squares per sheet.

Then they painted them and used 12 foot long 2×4 mounted on the wall to mount the squares on the wood. They put 4 inch gaps between each square to add depth.

They grabbed some inspiration from Pining Away, building walls 1” x 6” x 10’ from cedar decking boards. They attached the boards to the framework from the back and stood them by running wires up to the ceiling.

Then they added faux barrel lights using fabric covered sono-tube. The lights did not actually have bulbs inside them. Instead, they were painted a soft creamy color inside to give the illusion that they were lit. They varied in size from 12” to 36” diameter and were cut to heights of 17” – 20”.
They suspended them using rope inside a length of conduit.

The strands of beads came from shopwildthings.com.

This was another repurposing of their Weave design. They built two 10 foot by 8 foot walls out of 2×4′s and stapled the Coroplast to the walls. They cut the Coroplast into 3″, 6″, and 9″ tall strips.

They used two High End Studio Beams on the walls and one High End Studio Beam to light the drums.

The fabric beneath the screen was white spandex that they had laying around from a previous design. The spandex was lit with 4 ADJ Color Bars.

Two churches were merging. So they decided to go a collage route…showing the different personalities that would be coming together. They printed the artwork pieces on a 10×15 banner and mounted it to foam board.

Their back wall was already black, so they added the foam board pieces as well as other designs painted black. They added the paper lanterns for an added effect and voila! Total cost was around $500.

Their budget was about $100 for a student worship even in their gymnasium. So they picked up some white plastic party plates and duct taped them to the back wall which was already painted black. They also purchased some Hemma light kits from Ikea and put some large round bulbs in them–hanging them from the front of the stage. They used four PAR64 LEDs to light the plates and a couple of Par Cans to light the rest of the room.

The started with the weed block from Texturesized and painted some texture on it with semi-gloss house paint. They used an old broom in a swirl pattern to get the look they wanted. Then they gelled some Par64 cans to light the strips.

They also purchased stretch fabric from Rosebrand. They reinforced the corners with white duct tape and put grommets to hang. They hung it from the light bar in the auditorium and on the bottom used 5 gallon paint buckets with sand in them for weight.

Cost:

• Stretch Fabric – 15′x12′ – $130
• Weed Block – 50′ roll – $10
• Paint Buckets – $5 each
• Sand – $5
• Lights – already had
• Gels – $30 for 5 sheets with different colors
• Misc Hardware – $15

They started by painting a free-standing wall in the center of the stage white. They used color-changing LED bars to light the wall.

They covered the side walls with corrugated sheet metal, which they hung at staggered depths and directions.

In between the projections screens they hung varied sizes of paper lanterns from the ceiling. They also added some floor lamps on the foreground of the stage (paper lanterns as well).

This set gave them a bunch of versatility. For new series’, they simply changed out the center wall to match their series title.

To create this set they used 2,000 pearl playground pit balls strung together with wire. They strung the wire down from pieces of PVC running parallel to their back wall. Then they added circles made from white, clear, and grey Coroplast in front of the pit ball curtains. They attached those to the PVC line with fishing line.

Cool!

They pulled this together using 3 ultra short throw projectors (Hitatchi CP-200′s I believe) that they hung upside down on the backside of their “jumbotron”. Each of the 3 screens were 7.5×10′ suspended with rigging from above.

The bits of art behind the band came from 3 different sets in the past. The two grunge panels on the outside of the background were 12′x4′ panels that were painted black, then splatter and brushed with white. They were lit from the top and bottom with Color Rails. The very middle was a simple wood frame wrapped in white nylon fabric, grunged up with black paint and lit from the top and bottom on the inside with Rain 64 LEDs. The 6 squares were 4′x4′ frames of 2″x2″ wood with all kinds of random supports that made up the middle of each one. The white nylon fabric was stretched tight and stapled on the back side. All six were front lit with Rain 64 LEDs.

All of those pieces were supported by a 25′ wide 2×4 support system they had laying around from another old set as well.

This set was fairly inexpensive but took a ton of volunteer hours.

The whole set was a paper mache nightmare! They had all the newspapers and paint donated from people in the church. Then they bought chicken wire, flour, salt, expanding foam, and wood to do the rest. The highest tree was 18′ tall so they needed to use a 4x4x12 up the center of it to stabilize it.

For the branches they used 1×1′s to help hold the branch weight. The texture was expanding spray foam.

The rest was just man hours–around 1000 hours with all the volunteers and staff. The whole set took them around 2.5 weeks.

To add a special touch, they added a fully functional swing hanging from their catwalk but made it look like it was hanging from one of the branches.

The back of the whole set is aluminum screening common in sets on CSDI.

They are constrained by a low ceiling height (+/- 15ft.).

So they put up 10ft of box truss that they purchased last year and hung five 3×10 sections of the screen mesh from it. They left a gap between them (8inches) and hung corrugated metal between the mesh. They hung the mesh and metal with zip ties.

To light it they used 10 American DJ Par 64 LED’s up and down lighting the mesh. They rigged two 575 spots on top of the truss to throw gobos on the deck so it adds depth when they haze the stage. They also put two 575′s on the floor to add more texture to the mesh. They got everything at Home Depot, and the set cost under $100 (minus the lights and truss).

He was inspired by a stage from the band, Muse (of course their hexagons were LED panels). He scaled the design down and built the pieces using Coroplast and projectors.

He started by cutting pieces of Coroplast into 2×2 square pieces, then used a template to cut them into hexagon shapes. They built a frame out of 1x2s to attach it to. All the supplies came in under $200.

He suspended the whole piece with tie line. The center piece has a projector shining on it. He created a mask in ProPresenter 4 to mask the edges. He didn’t worry about the gaps in between the panels. The whole piece was about 6 feet from a black curtain.

Dan was inspired by Hillsong’s stage design on their latest DVD, God is Able and a trip to Lowe’s. Hillsong had lights hanging in mason jars. He chose a really cool retro bulb ($5 each) instead. He also found some aluminum radiator covers at Lowe’s that he liked.

So he hung those along with the lightbulbs and some shear fabric they already had.

Check out these other bulbs for more options: bulb 1, bulb 2.

Matt’s a big fan of Jrags (16×16 self-dimming banks of MR-16 lamps)–which are everywhere in lighting design outside the church. Because they couldn’t afford to build enough to have the visual impact he envisioned, he went this route. He added bigger lamps with larger spacing.

For the build, wall sections were drawn and then built offsite using 1/2″ plywood and 1×4″ material to form the exterior of the frame. The faces were routed from 1/2″ MDF. Each face received (3) 8″ hardware store clamp lights and were secured with construction adhesive. Each wall section was installed edge to edge, across a pre-measured line on the stage deck to create the arc.

They lamped each reflector with a 75w mirror lamp to create the radiating circle look. Each lamp base assembly was wired to a terminal block, and then circuited to their self-build low wattage dimmers using zip cord.

To create the dimming capabilities, they used a hobbyist open source circuit board that is popular with DIY Christmas light display folks. Their staff, along with volunteers, soldered components on the board and tested each unit.

They delivered a separate universe of DMX to the mini-dimmers and then patched as a pixel mapped surface within their lighting desk. For programming, they shot video clips across the wall to create waves, wipes and bumps.

They hung clusters of two Source4 pars, a leko and either a Colormerge or BargeHeights 1200 profile on sch40 pipe, positioned at varied elevation to mirror the arc of the clamp light wall. Pars and lekos formed three separate systems of backlight. The flown Colormerge and BH profiles were used for aerials. They also placed a system of moving washes (Mac 600′s) upstage of the clamp light wall.

The set incorporates a total of 14′ plywood walls with about 14″ x 14″ cut outs. They attached muslin to the back side with a 1:1 Elmer’s glue and water mix. They also built a few smaller panels to hang in front of their baptismal opening. The smaller panels were 1″x4″ frames. They only weighed about 50 lbs.

Then they set LED fixtures behind the panels with a few gobos bring projected from the front to give it some texture.

Then they generated 24″ x 36″ posters that showcased the focus of each week with a different graphics and attached them to the walls on either side of the sanctuary. Finally, they hung sheets of lighting diffusion gels from the ceiling in squares similar to the ones on stage to bring the scenery into the congregational area.

They spent about $300 total on the design.

They created the main center pieces from 12″ x 12″ pieces of Coroplast attached to each other vertically using zip ties square sticky tabs. Then they connected them horizontally with a cheap pear-shaped shower curtain hanger. The material costs about $75–Coroplast sheets costing about $10/sheet.

They lit the set using 4 Chauvet Colorstrips and assorted LED Pars to fill the rest of the stage. They also added some Elation intelligent lights for movement.

We are using 4 Chauvet colorstrips to light them and an assortment of led pars to fill the rest of the stage with additional elation intelligence. They used an M1 by Jands Vista for control.

They started by building the truss towers from wood. They covered the towers with clear Coroplast and clear fiberglass panels. They held them in place with velcro so they could easily change the look of them.

To create the texture, they used bright aluminum window screen. They also used the same window screen material inside a frame they built for the cross.

They used stretched spandex to form the shape behind the cross and under the projection screens.

Behind the aluminum screen they hung black landscape fabric. It comes on a roll 48″ wide and 150′ long for $40.

Lighting:

They used all LED fixtures to light the set. The towers were lit with 4 X-Focus wall washers from Theatrixx. The texture drops were lit with 4 LED Tri Bar from Microh. Then they used 8 LED tir tours from Chauvet to light the rest of the set.