Stage
Christmas 09 “Velma’s Diner”
How we did it:
We had the problem of knowing that we couldn’t build this set from scratch in a single week’s time. We set out two weeks prior to the install week, to build the structural backbone for the set. The biggest obstacle was that it had to be planned and built modularly to fit through the stage doors. The entire set was actually built as 39 different flats, structured out of 2×4s.
We then brought in and put together these flats during the install week to create the structural backbone for the set. We used textured vac-u-form 4’x8’ sheets of bricks and stone which we cut to size and molded to the flats, tacking them in place to create the surfaces for each of the buildings. The vac-u-form was then finish painted to give texture to the actual buildings. We also sprayed a base coat of paint on all the vac-u-form sheets in the weeks prior to the set install. While the buildings were being finish painted other finishing touches like the awnings, molding, shutters, benches, tiles, and lights were being added to the set.
Special thanks to all the guys who worked so hard to make this set happen.
Stats (Approximated):
Man Hours: 1200 hrs for the install alone, 400 pre-build hrs
2×4’s: 3 pallets (Over 1,000 boards)
Nails: 6,500
Brad Nails & Staples: 10,000
Compressors: 3
Sheets of Luan: 200
Sheets of Vac-u-form: 166
Gallons of paint: 12
Scissor Lifts: 3
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The Wall
I like to refer to this set as “THE WALL,” kind of ominous I know. I would dare say that this is the most engineered set we have ever done in my tenure here at North Point. It has so many different complex angles that have to work out so that the wall is seamless and the doors open and close. The doors open just enough to get the risers through and nothing larger. Our backstage crew has done a stellar job of moving these risers on and off in very tight transition times throughout the life of this set. I would prefer that I didn’t have to patch the wall or re-duvetyn the risers so much but that is a different story.
How we did it:
The panels made out of extruded fiberglass were cut in 6 different sizes with a 7 degree angle around the edge for the first half inch and then with a 45 degree cut for the other inch. The 7 degree angle aloud us to wrap the panel with the Muslin fabric without rounding the edges to much while still allowing the panels to butt up with one another. The 45 degree angle then gave us the desired beveled edge that creates the shadows and lines of the design. (All this precision cutting was done by Matt Borbi)
The fabric was sprayed with super 77 glue. The panel was then put on the fabric and the fabric was wrapped to the back and stapled into the fiberglass. The panels were attached to the backbone structure using Snap-on Anchors from rotofast. http://www.rotofast.com/home.htm
The backbone structure was made out of ¾” ply and cut using a precision CNC router operated by Matt Borbi. We constructed the framing in house by taking the two backbone pieces and using 2×4’s constructed the horizontal and diagonal supports.
The door pieces were constructed on top of a piece of ¾” ply with 5” casters. A 2”OD Pipe was flanged to the floor making the pipe static and the doors were equipped with two ball bearing flanges that allowed the door to sit on the static floor mounted pipe and pivot only on the ball bearings inside the flanges. This method was chosen because it insured that the doors would easily line back up with the rest of the wall every time.
The lights were all hung off T-joint pipe dead hung off of truss using cheesboro clamps to attach the pipe to the truss.
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Summer 09 “Sunburst”
This set was very modern. We decided early in the design process that we wanted it to be heavily light driven almost rock-in-roll esk, because of our Drive conference. We also wanted the set to have a video element so that we could custom fit the background to match the series because the set was going to be up for the entire summer. Some might have refereed to this as the “Sun Ray” set. It was very bright and radiated out across the stage like the beams of the sun.
How we did it:
We used Panasonic Pro performance plasmas because they have grid-mapping technology built in. Meaning we tell them what part of a larger image we want them to display and they display that part only, allowing us to send video signal down the line and the TV’s display that large image over the entire 10 plasma layout. We had custom plasma plates made so that we could hang the plasmas and swivel them at any angle and fasten them down to hang that way.
We dead hung four 20’ sticks of truss off one point from a 40’ stick of truss that was dead hung from the roof steel. The bottom corner of each 20’ “finger” truss was kept in place by drilling 2×4’s into the floor on all sides.
We used coroplast sheets slit on one side so that they could be folded and feed into the truss on one end to construct the interior box that allowed us to create the glow of the sticks. One Chaveut Colorado was fixed to both ends of the 20’ length of truss to light each “finger.”
The three panels that were flown between the truss were hung by horizontally running a piece of aircraft cable from one truss through the panels frame to the adjacent truss and tightening with a turnbuckle on one side. The outside two panels were dead-hung off four points from the roof. Each panel was backlight with 2 Chauvet Colorados.
The panels themselves were manufactured punched sheets of metal from McNichols in Kenasaw, GA. We then took Voile fabric and glued it to the back of the metal to catch the colored backlight. The whole thing was framed with angled aluminum strips tied to the punched metal sheet, this angled aluminum gave the sheet the rigidity it needed to be flown off four points without warping.
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Fabric Columns
This was our second set for 2009. The columns were internally lit from above which gave us the ability to create some motion on stage by simply chasing color and intensity between them. The set was very well received.
How we did it:
The back wall is 4’ squares of tufted fabric sown together in house by our great volunteers. They are comprised of 2 different types of colored fabric, a silver and a copper, this giving us the option and flexibility for reuse in the future. The two types of fabric were sown together into a pocket, stuffed with a 1” sheet of cotton stuffing and then sown closed. They each have 13 buttons punched through them to give them their texture.
The columns are long strips of iridescent fabric with grommets at the top and tied off to the top aluminum square. The horizontal lines on the columns are actually 2’ square pieces of aluminum that were welded by an outside company. Each aluminum square was hung off the one above it from all or corners using aircraft safety cables. The Columns were lit from above using a Mac 250 wash.
Between the Background and the columns was a row of extremely transparent light green fabric that was drawn together behind each column and drooped over a 3’ wide piece of PVC pipe that was dead hung from the ceiling creating a fabric swag that swooped in from about 16’ wide down to about 3’ wide.
The truss at the top was internally wrapped with Voile fabric and lit from both ends with a Chauvet Rain 56 Led.
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Multi-tone Squared
This was our first set in 2009 primarily used for the Balanced series. It was also the first multi-campus set, meaning we built this set on every campus at the same time because we were going live. It consisted of a lot and I do mean A LOT!!! of 2×4’s. It was adorned with 2 different types of fabric and screen (the type of screen used in a screened in porch). It had some very interesting challenges because of sheer weight and the need to be able to move risers. Many a volunteer hated this set because on more than one occasion, someone smacked their head on one of the low-lying horizontal beams. But in the grand scheme of things it was a very cost efficient set.
How We did It:
We made rectangles out of 2×4’s by screwing a 5’ vertically board on both sides to a 10’ horizontal board on top and bottom. We then evenly split them into three sections by using three more vertical 5’ boards nailed into the frame using a nail gun. We then proceeded to nail horizontal board in between the vertical boards to give us 6 squares on each 5’x10’ rectangle. These rectangles were sprayed with two coats of flat black paint using a compressor powered paint gun. The air filter was also painted black in the process ☺ This entire process took 2 weeks to do all the frames for the four rooms.
We then took the frames and stapled the 3 different types of fabrics onto the back to create the desired design. The rectangles were stacked into the desired configuration and screwed into the floor and to one another. We also had 2 pieces on either side that were hung using aircraft cable through a counter balanced pulley system that allowed an operator to fly them up and down. This system was used on Sunday mornings so that our risers could be struck for Andy’s messages.
The curtain in the back was silver voile fabric strips hung pinched together to give it some fullness.
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Christmas 08 “Welcome to the Ball”
This was our Christmas set for 2008. We set out to create a very clean set that was easy to install and would be quick to tear down and install the next set. It was only up for 3 weeks. This is an example of what you can do on a rather small budget.
How we did it:
There are 3 design elements to this set. The first is the red backdrop made out of strips of red encore fabric. The fabric (approx. 5’ wide) was hung and pinched together in two different rows to give it the texture seen in the photo. The strips of fabric were grometed and hung alternating from front to back on a single 40’s stick of truss. We used par cans mounted on the floor to backlight the front hung fabric, which casted light on the edges of the back hung fabric. This was just a cool extra. Otherwise, the fabric looked solid.
The second element is six strips of pink voile fabric grometted and hung from a pipe with fullness and then pinched together about 6’ off the floor using a piece of tie-line.
The third element, which is hard to see in photos, was a row of small mirrors that had been hot glued to 20’ pieces of 80lb test fishing line. When hit with light, the mirror row twinkled behind the pink voile.
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Why Worry
For this set, primarily used for the series Why Worry, we set out to create the feel of a spa type environment. The billowing fabric started out above the audience and drew the attendees’ attention to the stage as it sloped to the back wall. This helped break the line between attendees and the stage. The fabric fell behind three vertical rock walls on the stage.
How we did it:
The rock walls were simple 12′ flats that we covered with vacuform rock. The rock was painted with a base coat and then treated with two additional colors to give the walls texture and depth.
The fabric started out in the house at the roof about 15′ in front of the stage and then dropped over several dead hung pieces of pipe on its way to the back of the stage. The fabric was backlit with LEDs from above and could also be lit with movers from the massive 32′ wide riser below.
The risers were laid out in three tiers and covered with the vacuform rock. This actually drew the risers in and made them a part of the set rather than an addition to it.
The truss was four 20′ sticks raked out into the audience in a fan pattern between the fabric.
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Illusions
This was one of very few sets designed specifically for a series. The name of the series was Illusions and the desire was to have an element that mimicked a scene in the movie the Prestige.
How we did it:
The main element is the light towers. Each tower consisted of 12 small bulbs mounted in candle operas wired in sync with every other one. This gave each tower the need for 2 power supplies. This also allowed us the ability to do chase sequences or different dimmed designs with the towers. The towers were built with 5/8” plywood with the 12 shelves in a triangle if viewed from above. The towers stood 8’ tall and the entire front side was backed with bronze sheets that allowed the light from the bulb to spread horizontally like what you see in the image.
The back curtain was purchased from Georgia Stage. It is a red Austrian designed curtain.
Each truss, a single 10’ stick, is hung at an angle from low in the back to high in the front. The sticks are straight on the left to right plane and were loaded down with approx. 5 moving lights each.
The truss above the stage was left in place from an earlier set. It was internally lit with Chauvet Rain 56 LEDs casting light onto a frosted piece of plexi-glass.
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5 Things
5 Things was a huge 6 part series conducted at North Point by Andy Stanley. The icons were designed by our media department to represent the five things God uses to grow our faith: Practical Teaching, Providential Relationships, Private Discipline, Personal Ministry, & Pivotal Circumstances. We decided to incorporate these icons into our set and every week enlarge the icon that represented the thing that Andy was teaching on.
How we did it:
The Icons were cut out of MDF on a CNC router to give them there image and shape. We then cut out a circular piece of milky white plexiglass with a jig saw and liquid nailed them to the back of each icon. This allowed us to backlight them for the desired glowing effect.
The backdrop was made out of a 64″ espresso colored Encore fabric with horizontal slits cut every 6 inches. What looks like a solid wall is actually 9 columns of fabric. Each column has a pocket sown in on each side with a piece of aircraft cable running through it. The aircraft cable was attached to the floor on one end and to a pipe hanging from the roof. A turnbuckle at the top allowed us to tighten the cable, thereeby tightening the fabric and giving it the seamless look seen in the photo. We also hung another solid white curtain behind the slit fabric so that we could back light the design with color.
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