They wanted to make a stage element that would fit with their three week Easter sermon series, but could also be used throughout the spring and then repurposed. They have a large stage (52′ wide and 28′ high) which gives them plenty of space to work with. They have a stage curtain and wall with a cross behind the curtain, so using the existing wall was not do-able. They needed something that was sturdy on stage, but could be taken down if needed.

Using some inspiration from Chalk and Paper Strips by Oasis Church, they started charting out a massive chalkboard wall. Because of the previously mentioned drum cage and the angles of two side walls, they determined that making a 40′ wide wall would work, but the challenge was what to do with the 28′ high back wall. Cost prevented them from making something to cover it all, so they decided to make it 8′ tall, which worked out well.

Materials they purchased/used:

4′x8′ Sheets of plywood
Qty: 10
Cost: $170

2″x8′ Studs
Qty: 35
Cost $57

2 Gallons of flat black paint
Cost $40

10pound bag of unsanded grout
Cost $10

3 Rolls of 2″ Painters Tape
Cost: $28

Lots of Chalk
$50

They first laid out frames of the 2×8 studs and screwed them together with deck screws. They made the frames in 8′x8′ sections and braced the center with a trimmed 2×8. So each section took 5 studs. They made sure to shorten one side of the frame so that there would a slight over hang of the plywood sheet. This helped them slide each frame together with minimal gap in between. Then they screwed 2 of the 4×8 plywood sheets to the frame. They started along the left hand side of the stage, standing them up and made an angled brace so that they could be screwed into the stage and not fall over. From there they continued framing and bracing the wall sections to the floor.

To save on cost, they made their own chalkboard paint. They mixed one gallon of flat black paint with 2 cups of unsanded grout. It took one coat to cover the entire wall, but that took about 1 1/2 gallons of paint. Next, they used painters tape and a chalk line to make a grid. The painters tape was 2″ wide, which is what they wanted the gap between the squares to be. After they made the grid, the hard part started. They wanted the tiles to look “Shabby Chic”. So they layered different colors together to get some depth to the coloring.

All together the project took about 20 hrs for two people to complete. They worked on it over a week, as time permitted. Total cost for this stage design was $355.

To make this happen they created three panels with a shower curtain wrapped tightly around them – back lit with six LED strips. This project cost about $90.

Tyrone bought ten 8” 2×4 pieces of wood and built the frames. He went to Walmart and bought three frost shower curtains and wrapped them around the frames. He already had the LED strips so he just put them behind the panels and shining on the band.

They used Coroplast, butcher paper, and PVC pipe for this design.

They made 10 ft sections of the design and hung each one using hefty wire. Each section would consist of a 2×10′ Coroplast sheet (these were cut from the warehouse where they purchased them), crinkled white butcher paper sprayed glued onto the Coroplast sheets, then one and a half inch PVC pipe to cap off the bottom and top of each section. The Coroplast was zip tied onto the PVC. They screwed in eye hooks to the top piece of each PVC and each 10ft section hung from the one above it. They used one and a half inch PVC couplers to make all the 10ft sections come together as one.

The side sections you see were 6ft sections of the design. Rather than hanging them, these were drilled into the walls.

Places of purchase….
White Coroplast – www.coroplast.com
White Butcher Paper – www.discountschoolsupply.com
PVC Pipe – Lowes/Home Depot

They constructed the cross from 6mm mdf board, all screwed together, gap filled and painted. They braced it at the back to make a 3 meter tall free standing cross. The words were simply vinyl lettering attached to clear perspex suspended from the roof with fishing line.

A lot of lighting was used in conjunction with a smoke machine to give a cloudy wispy feeling.

They also created some footage to project before each event to set the scene, and to showcase the people from the church.

Technical info:
2x Christie LX605 projectors
Drapes: 5 foot wide. 22, 16, 10 foot high
Resolume Arena software (with masking and keystoning on a 2160 x 1152 composition)
Blackmagic Intensity Pro card for HDMI in
Content created in After Effects CS6, Premiere Pro CS6, and Cinema 4D (R13)

The driving idea behind their easter services was that our God is unstoppable. To help visually impart that idea they wanted to create a scenic and lighting design that had a lot of movement and energy. They accomplished this in a couple of ways.

The Coroplast squares gave them a way to saturate the stage with color, and they were suspended in such a way that they could move freely on their center axis creating a real life motion background of sorts.

For the paint treatment on the floor they used basic forced perspective techniques to create the illusion of extra depth on their stage. They also pulled elements from the Easter logo to create fronts for the drums and keys risers.

Everything else was done through the lighting design and the awesome work of their video team.

Using mesh, LED cubes, and video cubes, they were able to give them a clean and fun look for there Easter services. They built the LED cubes out of PVC and used white fabric to stretch over them. On the video cubes, they are custom built frames with short throw projectors. Then, using Pro Presenter and TripleHead2Go’s they were able to get the image they wanted – to give it the look of a high dollar LED Cube.

They achieved the effect using fluorescent paint and black lights. Since fluorescent paint is so expensive, they tried creating a “homemade” fluorescent paint from some recipes they found online. The recipes said to mix laundry detergent with optical brightener with regular household paint, but that didn’t work at all. So they had to break down and buy the expensive stuff. They bought a gallon of pink, orange, blue, green, and yellow of Rosco’s fluorescent paint at Stage Lighting Store.

The artwork was painted on 40 sheets of 4′x8′ plywood (which they bought on sale). The plywood was first painted black, then strokes of “crayola” colored household paint, then white where the artwork was going to be, then the fluorescent paint on top of the white to help it glow better.

The piano was an actual upright piano they found on craigslist for $150. They bought it, gutted it, and placed a digital keyboard in the shell. This allowed them to paint the piano itself, have a “vintage grungy” look, and still have amazing sound from the digital keyboard.

Luckily their kids/youth ministries had quite a few black lights. They ended up only needing to buy 6 LED blacklight bars. In total 17 blacklights were used.

Overall this project ended up costing around $3200. Supplies used are below…

- 40 sheets of 4’8′ plywood
- 6 gallons of flat black paint
- 3 gallons of flat “crayola” colored paint
- 5 gallons of fluorescent paint
- 17 blacklights
- 4 cans of fluorescent spray paint

Justin brought about the change in two stages to keep from freaking people out. Having a guest choir gave him the perfect opportunity to add the stage elements, then after that he changed the beige walls to black walls with colored lights.

He made 2 frames that were 3′x7′ (inside measurements) and attached crumpled aluminum screening inside. Instead of landscape fabric he just painted the frames black. He used a textured paint on the wood surface to hide the possible wood grain look, then painted over with a flat black spray paint.

They sheet rocked over the very back wall (behind the projection screen) and painted that wall black. (They took down a 4′x8′ landscape painting just above the baptismal.) Then they hung the 2 aluminum screen frames on the wall and were ready for the guest choir.

Justin then made a cross out of 1″x8″ pine, with 1″x4″ pine turned on its side to create a “box”. The cross was 8′ tall and 4′ 7″ wide. He painted it black as well, then stapled more aluminum screening to the inside.

Finally he made 2 light boxes. He framed up 1′ square x 4′ tall frames and painted them white. Then he attached a piece of 3/4″ plywood on the bottom for some weight and to have a solid surface on the bottom. 1/4″ ply was on the back and he added 5″x9″ access panels at the bottom to allow him to take the lights in and out as needed. He wrapped the outside in white spandex fabric and then attached 1/4″x1″ trim pieces that he painted black to hide the staples. He then installed a flat LED par in each light that has Red, Green, Blue, Amber, and White LED’s (Blizzard Puck).

Two weeks later, phase two started when they painted the entire back wall black after church on Sunday. They hung the cross about 2′ off the back wall using 3/8″ wire rope to give it some dimension. Then they moved the framed panels to the walls on the sides of the cross and put the light boxes in front. The left over palms from Palm Sunday finished off the look.

In all this was around the $600 mark in supplies, including the two new LED lights.

They repurposed their wooden planks for this series. The ladders of wooden planks (which were painted white for Christmas) were taken out to the parking lot where they beat them with sledge hammers, pipe wrenches, blow torches, and spray paint to look apologetically destroyed.

The carnage was then brought inside and suspended from the pipe grid with black chain in a way that made it appear as if the planks were growing out of the wreckage. A lot of haze and CB12 LED’s screwed right into the planks to self up-light itself made for a very surreal and dramatic presentation.

They also purchased 24 sheets of 2′x4′ plastic corrugated roofing material which was spray painted black and gray to give it the appearance of aged corrugated metal. This was suspended from the upstage batten as a cyclorama behind the planks which was up-lit with MEGAbar LED’s for color changing.

This set was done for $0 since everything was re-purposed from previous sets.

Since their church doesn’t have lighting, Jenifer was looking for a way to incorporate color into their stage design. So she bought duct tape in two shades of the four colors of the logo for their series for $29.34. It took one person and a ladder 35 minutes to do the back drop and another 15-20 minutes to do the sides.

It also made the day for a few children of the teardown team who loved collecting the colorful duct tape afterwards.

10 sheets of 3/8″ plywood ripped into 4″x48″ strips and mounted onto 2×3 “ladders” painted black. Each of the planks were stained or painted in a variety of fall colors. Once assembled, each tower was tipped up and just leaned against the black stage wall, with blocks screwed into the floor to prevent slippage. Decorative LED branches and branch rope were woven into the planks and plugged into the stage dimmers for added warmth.

Each tower was up-lit with a combination of LED MEGAbars and CB12′s.

Material cost was roughly $600 for wood, and $800 for LED branches (which were purchased previously and re-used for this set). Planks would be re-purposed for Christmas by being painted white, and then once again in January for their “End of Days” Armageddon sermon series (both coming up).

They used hammered metal/aluminum screen to make their design. They used 2x2s to create their frames, spray painted the fronts/sides black, wrapped those in black landscape fabric, and then covered each in brite aluminum screening. They made different sizes and shaped frames. They hung the frames from 2×4′s they nailed around the top of the stage with eye hooks, clips, and chains. This kept them from nailing or attaching anything to the walls.

They used 6 Chauvet COLORband PiX lights, four in the middle and one on each side to light the frames. They painted their back wall dark gray (Knight’s Armour – Behr paint). They don’t have regular screens for their video projection but rather use screen paint. They painted a 4-inch light gray border around that. They purchased a new black metal pulpit from Podiums Direct. The frames, hooks, chains all cost around $700. Podium $600. Lights $1600.

They were inspired by Air Filtered for a benefit concert they held. They took the towers and combined them into a staggered wall surrounding the drum cage. The Chauvet LEDs behind the walls made for a great back splash. Their senior pastor liked them so much they kept them for future services.

They wanted an old-school camp-meeting look for their stage but in a modern context.

They made the boxes from 4×8 sheets of luan plywood ripped into 4″ strip at various length. The whole stage was on risers leftover from fall and Christmas stages. Inside the boxes they wired regular light sockets to boards and ran to a portable dimmer.

The first week they debuted the stage they used large white poly silks to create a tent feel for the camp meeting. But the stage was so large when they turned off the lighting for speakers the silks were still seen. So they removed those and added a couple sheer panels that were in the curtain material clearance section at Jo-anns Fabrics. Both panels were $6.

The mourners benches were made from 1×6″ ‘s with corrugated metal sheets for fun and contrast. Total design cost around $350.

They wanted a cool set for their youth ministry but also wanted it to be inexpensive.

They bought some 4×8 ft styrofoam sheets from the local hardware store and cut them into three rectangular sizes. They recycled some white and black paint they had laying around and made some grey by mixing them. Theyh randomly spaced the different sizes and shades to give it some texture.

They hung an upstage truss to mount some LED pars. They placed one par per section of the backdrop so they could color each vertical strip separately.

They wanted a rustic look for Easter. The sheets of plywood they used had been with a production company for the last 10 years so they already had a very worn look. They broke them in half to get the even more rustic, ripped look. They lit it with colors and gobos to bring out more texture and depth.

They added some soft goods (fabrics) to add another texture as contrast.

This was their stage design for a concert from Sheila Romero at their church.

They used red backdrop fabric 30 feet high by 40 feet wide and about 50 paper lanterns in different sizes from Oriental Trading. They spent about $100 in materials.

Lighting:
40 feet of trussing.
4 Chauvet Beam Led 350
4 Chauvet Legend 3000
2 Chauvet Followspots
26 Par 64 Slim Led
1 Chauvet Nimbus low fog
2 Martin Magnum 2500 hazer

Team: Orlando Palagallo, Misael Afanador, Kenneth Machuca, Danny Rosa, Jacky Reyes, Lizbeth Guidini

They bought all the materials at Home Depot for $1200. They used 2×4′s painted black to attach the boards to. They used primed boards of different sizes to make the horizontal look. They attached them randomly with a nail gun. They painted the board with five shades of gray to give some texture.

Then they used LED washed to make them come alive.

They stacked a whole bunch of 3ftx3ft cardboard boxes. Jesse Ralph and David Prensner worked on video mapping through the whole conference. That allowed them to use the boxes as a whole wall or separate individual squares for some really cool effects.

The lighting design was made to accent the video boxes and not blow them away.

This design was accomplished in a gym. They wanted to create a lot of texture for the lights to pick up. They bought large amounts of various textured fabric and shades of white to beige sheer, muslin, and burlap. After rolling it out on the floor, they cut it into various widths and lengths of strips then began creating textures by stapling layers on 1″x3″x60″ wood. Each wood panel had custom C clamps to hold it onto their pipe and drape. They then created “chandeliers” with 2 sizes of hula hoops covered in the same fabric and then with strips of fabric tied on. They also created a cross communion table that was custom made. They used various candles to decorate it and pillows from IKEA for kneeling.

They spent about $300 on fabric, $200 on the cross, and $300 on decor elements (candles, pillows).

They used a pop chalk line to mark the wall. Then they used velcro to attach 2×2 Coroplast squares with rounded corners to the wall.

Materials:
2×2 Coroplast Squares with Rounded Corners
Velcro
Pop Chalk Line

Cost was $120.

They bought six sheets of 4′x8′ white Coroplast, cut them into 4′x1′ sections for the big walls, and 3′x6″ pieces for the middle wall. Initially, they were going to just stick them flat on the wall in a checkered pattern, but Scott wanted more dimension than that. So they came up with the idea of using thin, squared off crown molding as a way to allow them to bow the Coroplast on the wall.

They sprayed the molding black with a flat black Rustoleum paint, and stuck them on the wall vertically with extra strong 3M tape. Then they bowed the Coro pieces into to pattern that they wanted on the wall by sticking one side of each piece on the inside edge of the molding, and the other side on the inside edge of the parallel molding strip.

The Coro held well for the first couple of hours, and then they could tell they were going to start falling off the wall. So they held them in place with a dot of hot glue on the corners of the Coro pieces.

They about $220 for the whole stage. Nice!

This was their church’s first major staging upgrade and the total cost was around $750 for the wood and some tools. They already had the TV’s and stage pieces.

They used six LED strips to light the wooden slats. The stage was lit by a total of ten Par 64s. The graphics package came from GracewayMedia.

They built the lumber walls simply by creating a frame then attached pieces horizontally with a nail gun and a compressor. They bought those at Lowes for around $180.

They purchased six sheets of 4′x8′ Coroplast from a local sign shop. The sheets cost $20 each, so they spent about $120. They scored the sheets every foot and then folded them to create the tower. They simply held them together with packing tape. They built two 4-foot towers, two 6-foot towers, and two 8-foot towers. They also used the excess Coroplast to make lids on the top. Then they up lit the towers with can lights that they already owned. They also lit the stage with colored gels for their stage lights. Those were ordered online and were relatively cheap.

The two short towers were lit with white light, and the two 8-foot towers were lit with blue. The towers in the back simply caught the stage lighting.

They purchased Bloom Foldscapes (cardboard ceiling tiles) that fold into a cool cone shape. This cone shape creates illusions and shadows that a flat white tile will not create. Bloom Foldscape tiles may be purchased online for $98 per 24 pack.

They simply created this design as they installed. They are 2×2 squares (once folded) and with a ladder, an electric staple gun, and a lot of patience, they were able to create this brand new stage for under $500. There were 66 tiles used in this design. They had originally planned to do more, but once they reached this design, they knew it was done. The side walls only had three LED panel up lights on each wall. Because of the height of the center sections, they used five LED panel up lights on each side.

To help them design they used a level, a small 1×1 board for spacing, an office staple puller, and at least one other person with an eye for detail to stand back and eyeball.

The only expense they had was the framing, and that money was donated ($96). It took volunteers two days working from 2-5 on a Sunday afternoon, and 3-9 on Monday.

Pallets were picked up through their community: Home Depot, Tractor Supply, Roofing Suppliers.
Frame was constructed from 2×3′s (cheaper than 2×4′s)
Only 7 colorpallet LED lights to light the set.

For this design they made a center screen 7′x10′ and used the backside of billboard material to project on. Then they used the spandex cube design from another stage design to place below. For the sides they used stone paneling, painted it light gray, and put 1x2s at the bottom to tie in with the suspended pallet wood panels.

For the pallet panels they took 2x4s and built frames to 4′x10′. Then they took aluminum window screen and crinkled it up and stapled it to the back. Then they took Christmas lights and ran them inside perimeter of the frame. To finish them they took 1x2s and spaced them at an equal distance. They then angled them off of the wall to the ceiling.

For the TVs they cut a truss in half and hung the TVs on them. The TVs were used for media and video. From the ceiling they took the pendent lights from the previous stage design and added the metal parts from utility work lights to give it an industrial look.

At Northview, they try to vary their stage every week so it’s a different experience for their attendees. And for their series, they wanted something that was both masculine and hi-tech.

Travis had seen the JARAG walls a lot lately, and he was struck by the intensity and warmth of that look. Buying a pre made system was not an option for them, so he went to work trying to figure out how they could recreate that look. After some research, he came across a look designed by Matt Cooper.

He based his design largely on the work that Matt had already done. But to meet their specific needs, he needed to re-engineer aspects of the design to be more portable and durable, as it would be moved around for weeks to come. Check out his detailed write-up on the process.

As a result of this wall being built to be assembled in different shapes, it is portable and has been loaned out to other churches on two separate occasions.

They create this look for their Christmas Eve services, but it could work for any season.

They accomplished this by renting Austrian Slit drapes from RoseBrand.com. Then they rented truss and rigging from Production Support Group in Tallahassee. Nice!