Easter Set Design

I am in love with our current set design. We revealed it on Easter Sunday. Yes, that’s a ton of work to put on ourselves the week of Easter. But there’s just something about revealing the big set change on Easter Sunday that’s just really cool. I heard this year that most churches ended a series on Easter Sunday so their set change was already done, but I think this set design is too good to show it off too early.

Just take a look at this video(Sorry about all the haze. I was taking a break from programming lights when I recorded this)…

Yep, we put a make-shift screen behind the band using PVC pipe! It looks a lot like versatubes. I’m so stinking happy with how it came out.

Here’s the details…

We had 2 extra projectors laying around which were actually the projectors that we replaced in the main auditorium just a few months ago. So we thought it would be cool if we could somehow use them to create a screen to show jumpbacks(motion backgrounds) on behind the band. So we came up with the idea of projecting onto PVC pipe.

To create a single image with 2 projectors, we are using ProPresenter with the Matrox TripleHead2Go. The Matrox allows us to split one signal across up to 3 different projectors. This allows us to use 2 projectors to create one giant image. So we did have to install a second CG computer to control the center PVC screen. The hardest thing about doing this is blending the edges of the projectors in order to create one solid image. It was especially difficult because the projectors we used don’t have edge blending. But it still worked out really well with a lot of working with the projectors.

We cut 2″ PVC pipe into 3′ sections. Then, we drilled a 1/2″ hole on each side of the PVC, and dropped chain through the holes and hung it from the ceiling. To hold the pipe in place and create separation between each piece of PVC, we put a bolt through the chain links at 1″ increments and fastened then to the link with nuts and washers. Here’s some pics to clarify because I know that makes no sense…

Another thing we did with the PVC that we really did out of necessity, but it added a lot of flexibility, is put an LED above each column of PVC. We did that because for Easter and our current series, we bring out this big 10′x6′ banners for the message and for skits we’re doing with our current series. So with the PVC using front projection, the image would be shot on the banners. Obviously no good. So when the banners come out, we light up the LED’s. That way it’s not just a bunch of ugly white PVC pipe hanging up during the message. Here’s a pic of that…

And here’s something we can do with the LED’s during music if we ever get tired of using jumpbacks…

The next thing we did was create a backdrop behind the PVC screen. We bought a few pieces of 10′x20′ camo mesh and used Chauvet COLORstrips to light it up. The mesh stretches all the way across the back of the stage, and the COLORstrips were placed every 5 feet…

Now, I have to be honest. Not to long ago I was bragging on how I was able to get the COLORstrips working with our Jands Vista and not getting the flashing everyone else seemed to naturally be getting. Well… That’s not the case any more. I can’t figure out what in the world happened, but we are getting the flashing. Honestly, I haven’t really had the time since we installed them to really work on it. I’ll have to do that soon though since we’re planning on keeping this set design until August.

Another great thing that we did with the lighting that we haven’t done before is place LED’s above each band position. So where the worship leader stands, where each guitarist stands, keyboard, and drummer. That’s something that I think I might be doing for a long time. It really gives you the ability to do so much with dimmer lighting on the stage. For instance, if we’re doing a very intimate song that’s say mostly just the worship leader with the rest of the band kind of filling in, I can pull the stage lighting completely off the band and just light them with the LED’s. It gives it just such a dramatic look and looks amazing.

This set design turned out so good, but there are a couple of things I would’ve done differently. The biggest thing I would do differently is put more space between each piece of PVC. Spacing them out 1″ just isn’t quite enough once you get halfway back in our auditorium. The next thing I would’ve have done is use larger PVC pipe. It’s really relative to the space and how far back on the stage it is. I think I would’ve liked 3″ PVC better than 2″.

The one other thing I would change is the placement of the projectors. Where you place the projectors on something like this is so important because you don’t want someone standing in the back of the stage to have the image spilled all over their face and chest. So I put the projectors very close to the PVC and keystoned the mess out of those jokers. We were able to keystone them because it’s just jumpbacks projecting on PVC so you aren’t going to notice any distortion in the image at all. Plus there’s no worries with delays so manipulate the junk out of that thing. The reason I say I would change something here is because after installing the projectors it became evident that I could have placed them even closer to the PVC than I did. But we don’t have any problems with anyone on stage having the image spilled all over them at all, so it’s really fine just the way it is.

So that’s our awesome new set design. I hope that gives you some good ideas on what you could do. I don’t have a final dollar figure for this set design, but if I had to guess, I would say it was around $1000. Now I will say we spent more than that only because we worked though a lot of trial and error. We bought one size chain to hang the PVC, cut it all to the size we needed, then realized it wouldn’t work when we tried hanging the 1st column and the chain broke into pieces right as we got to the top. So we had to buy all new chain. We also tried using some other cable that didn’t work. We also bought more PVC pipe and nuts and bolts than we ended up using. So if you do it right the 1st time, it shouldn’t cost you more than $1000. Remember too that we already had the projectors so there wasn’t any renting or buying projectors in our cost.

If you’ve got any questions or any other ideas, let us know!