Cotton Christmas

Porter Cyr from Real Life Church in Myrtle Beach, SC brings us this simple and soft stage design.

Materials:

(4) sheets of 3′ x 6′ white Coroplast from Home Depot
(1) wide roll of heavy duty aluminum foil from Sam’s Club
(1) roll of black gaffers tape
(2) 50 bulb white strands of warm white LED Christmas lights from Walmart
(1) roll of 50 lb fishing line
(1) bag of 400 ct jumbo cotton balls
(2) bottles of Elmer’s multi-purpose glue
(1) pack of clear thumbtacks (already had in the church office)
(7) Solena Max Bar 28 RGB 28-Watt DMX LED Wash Lights from PSSL.com (already had these)
(2) 1″ x 6″ x 6′ pieces of wood (painted black) with two brackets on each side
Stage didn’t extend far enough on the wall to put the light fixtures on the same level, so they added these to extend

Spent $125 total on the materials (except for lights which were $99.99 per fixture brand new).

First they cut the triangles out of Coroplast at 3′ wide by 6′ tall. They saved money on the sheets by taking the two half triangles left over from cutting the original triangle and taped them together to form the two triangles that were wrapped in aluminum foil, which would cover the tape anyway. To stagger the heights of the triangles, they left the ones in the middle at full height, the inside ones cut 6″ shorter, and the outside ones cut 18″ shorter. They taped the aluminum foil to the back side of the inside triangles, and they intentionally crinkled up the aluminum foil to give texture. They attached the string of Christmas lights to the middle triangles using clear thumbtacks. They tried scotch tape, but it didn’t hold long enough. They left the outside triangles as is, which was a cool reason to get white Coroplast because any other material, they would’ve had to paint it white. They attached the triangles to the wall by simply folding over strips of the gaffers tape and attaching to the back of the triangles, and it held up like a champ without having to drill holes or leave residue behind on the stage wall.

Now for the falling snow effect: They strung cotton balls on the fishing line roughly 6″ apart, but they didn’t want it to be so evenly spaced where it didn’t look natural when hung. The inspiration for this actually came from another stage design idea on the site called Snowfall. However, they utilized the benefit of black masking their back stage wall by attaching the strands (staggered heights, also) to the wall with strips of the black gaffer’s tape. (Black on black virtually “disappears”). They also cut the strands where the bottom was touching the triangle so they wouldn’t overlap. They lit up the triangles with two of the LED fixtures on both sides (RGB color settings are R: 52 G: 0 B: 255) as well as the other three fixtures on the stage shining out.

*Bonus Technique/Tip: To tie the whole look on stage together, it really helps to color coordinate your graphics/video backgrounds on the projection screens with your backdrop. Then, it makes your projection become a part of your set design.