Christmas Designs

Geometrees

Josh Collesano from Woodside Bible Church in Troy, MI brings us this awesome look for their Christmas stage design. (originally posted December 2015)
Info from Josh:

At Woodside our stage and venue designs are more based around the seasons of our culture and church vs series-based. That being said one of the 5-7 looks we do every year falls at winter time and Christmas. For us, just like you, Christmas Eve is a massive season where many are coming that normally wouldn’t come; so we put a lot of effort into this look.

The look is based on a few different elements:
1. The upstage wall
2. The stage left/right sections of truss, lighting, and soft goods
3. What we’re affectionately calling the “geometree’s”

The upstage wall is roughly 32’x8′ and comprised of three 10’x8′ panels mounted to the front of a scaffold setup. The scaffold is one of our stage decks for Christmas Eve so we built it into the winter look. Between each of the three panels are Elation LED bars. The face of the upstage wall is made up of Mio ceiling form tiles. To hide the seems we taped over them and then painted the tape. From a few feet out each panel looks like one cohesive surface.

The side truss and softgood’s are simply that. On each side there is a 12′ 10′ and 8′ stick of truss. Inside each truss is an Elation par 100 truss warmer. On each truss is a single Elation LED bar facing out; and on top of the truss are ADJ moving washes and Elation 15r profile fixtures. The soft goods are a semi sheen fabric that we had laying around from the early 2000’s :-)

The GEOMETREE’S where a crazy shape that I found in a German Christmas conference report from last year. I took the idea to a friend of mine here on our team and he figured out all of the trigonometry and angles needed to cut, bevel, and miter the pieces so that they meet up perfectly on all sides. I’ll post those details of the angles in the comment section later! There are two sizes of trees: 10′ and 8′ and inside each tree is a lighted star from Sams Club and each one is on a dimmer giving us control. The trees are light enough to be hung via safety cable from our grid above our stage and look amazing when gobo’s hit them or simply on.

This build took a team of staff and volunteers 4 days to assemble and set up and we couldn’t have done it without each of them!

The upstage wall projection:
Our team is always looking for ways to better engage our congregation and leverage technology and design for the sake of our mission. That being said the upstage wall is perfect for projection mapping! For this we purchased two NEC ultra short throw projectors and a Matrox Triple Head 2 Go. We used a MacBook Pro with Pro Presenter to drive the content. To handle the edge blending we chose Pro Presenters edge blending module which takes a lot of the math out of it for us! The plan is to project dynamic motions, some lyrics, as well as our series package (pictured)

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ModScenes Christmas Angled Layers

29 responses to “Geometrees”

  1. Shelly says:

    How are the Mio tiles attached to the wood frame? (One photo appears to show this process with wood frames laying on the stage.) Tape is mentioned, and painting the tape…what kind of tape is used? Thanks!

  2. Hugo says:

    What kind of Nec ultra short projectors did you guys use? it looks amazing!

  3. Grace Strube says:

    I’d love to know the dimensions and cutting angles used for these trees! So stunning.

  4. Jan Hansen says:

    Can you tell me where you got the star ornaments that are hung in the center of the wood frame? Did someone make them for you?

  5. Josh Collesano says:

    Oh man so sorry for not responding!

    If you’re still interested:
    1. Mio panels are stapled to the wood frame. There’s an image that shows how we laid 2×4 or 1×4 on end to add rigidity to the walls and provide something to attach the panels to.

    2. I don’t recall the model # but you could ask your AV gear provider and they could discern.

    3. The step by step for the cutting and assembly of the trees is coming soon!

  6. Tre Salisbury says:

    Could you please post or send the specs/angles for the geometree. We have been trying to make these for our church program coming up soon. Thanks!

  7. Ami says:

    This is beautiful! Would love to have the measurements for the trees. We are building this week and this info would be so appreciated. Thanks for sharing!

  8. William says:

    I didn’t see the degree that the top point of the legs are supposed to be on the directions? Do you happen to know those? Or could you email me a full list of instructions?

  9. Josh Collesano says:

    Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the feedback and questions! Last year Jason and I developed this PDF that should be your go-to for your angles and build of the tree’s themselves.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ewq00mw6kh8ez3f/File%20Nov%2023%2C%2011%2040%2023%20AM.pdf?dl=0

  10. lori hedlund says:

    Would love to know this as well

  11. Josh Collesano says:

    I don’t recall the specific angle of the cut but I do remember mitering them twice like it says under “B”

  12. Betty Alford says:

    Looking for stage designs for church please contact 601-527-5244

  13. Melanie says:

    Does anyone have the angles for the tops and bottoms of the legs? Bases are done. Legs are ripped twice, but now to get them to meet at the top and attach to the base. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

  14. Gaynor Henshall says:

    My triangular pyramid is finished apart from joining the legs at the top. I haven’t got a clue how to do it. Please can anyone help?!!
    Thank you.

    • Danae Polley says:

      We are currently “trying” to build these as well. Did you have any success with these plans? We are at a stand still with the top cuts/ angles. Would love to know if you came up with anything.

  15. Andy says:

    Not putting all of the angles is really testing the sanctification of our work group

  16. Emanuel R Ratliff says:

    Looking at trying to connect the top piece of the tree. If yall have any help to offer email eman.ratliff@gmail.com please!! Thank you

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