Special Event Design

Ground Zero

Chad Ellenburg from Pleasant Valley Church in Winona, MN brings us this haunting commemoration of the Twin Towers.

This stage design was for their series called Ground Zero. The idea was to use the significance of the day to show that every encounter with Christ in Scripture was a Ground Zero moment where nothing could stay the same.

To create the rubble they used 2″ foam board from Menards (similar to Home Depot). They cut out section with 5 openings for the rear section and 3 openings for the nearer sections. This allowed a bit of forced perspective.

They focused on the Ground Zero cross as a focal point for the series. They used a bit of 1″ foam board for the cross pieces. They painted it with gray paint as a base then used a lot of splatters and sprays to give the details of burned material.

They lit it all with a bunch of LED lighting.

Behind the rubble they used 4′ weed block painted with a push broom and white paint. Behind that were stacked cardboard boxes.

Cage Fighting A Swag Contest

4 responses to “Ground Zero”

  1. Duane Dodge says:

    This looks amazing. You have done a fantastic job on this project. Did you use any gobos to get texture on the building sections.

  2. Chad Ellenburg says:

    No, the holes cut in the individual sections helped to cast some neat shadows and light patterns, but no gobos. We painted it flat gray an then used a wet sponge to splatter black. Thenm some spray black to give the look of fire damage.

  3. Russ says:

    Looks amazing! I know that Styrofoam can be a pain to cut. How did you do it?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.