Stage
Summer Set 2010
Summer Set 2010
The desire of this set was to create a look that was generic enough and relevant enough for our drive conference, yet had the ability to look different every week for almost four months. So we decided that video would be a big part of the design. In the pursuit of being as relevant in our culture as possible our desire was to have LED bands on the stage running video across them. The LED band is a look that many award shows and rock-n-roll shows have been incorporating into their designs recently.
The problem is that we can’t afford LED bands, not to rent for the type of time period this set required and definitely couldn’t purchase. So we decided on projection, but more on that later. The whole set was designed as a giant “V” pattern reaching out towards the audience. This slight angle was designed to give the stage depth. Part of a rock-n-roll look is that the lights are low and become a part of the background so we knew that, that was going to be a part of the design. The background vertical strips as well as the plasmas where added as a way of creating color and movement across the lower part of the stage where we couldn’t project video without hitting the people on the stage.
How we did it:
We first laid out our pick points on the steel supporting the roof in a way as to get the desired “V” patterns. We dead hung the four sticks of 20’ truss as well as two additional 10’ sticks with a combination of span sets, steel rigging cable, and deck chain. The deck chain was used in order to give us the flexibility needed to get the truss level and at the desired height. We then hung and rigged all the moving fixtures off of the four 20’ sticks of truss. The 10’ sticks were used to rig the eight 50” Panasonic pro-performance plasmas that were the primary background for our speaker setting look.
In order to create the projected “LED bands,” we took 2×4’s cut down to 20 inches and zip tied them to the top of both bars of the truss pointing out towards the audience. We then screwed vertical pieces of 2×4’s between the top and bottom sticks of horizontal 2×4’s. From there we took 1×2 strips and screwed them onto the vertical 2×4’s. These 1×2’s basically gave us a frame for the LED bands that set about 6 inches off the front side of the truss. We used pieces of coroplast sheets cut down to 30” x 8’ and 46” x 8’ segments, which were hot glued to the wooden structure. Then we covered the seams of the coroplast with 2” gray gaff tape. The whole surface was painted white to cover up the lines as well as cut down the transparence of the coroplast. We have a Barco HD30 (30,000 Lumen) projector that we use to project our speaker onto the center screen whenever he is being broadcast from one of the other campuses. We used this HD30 to project the graphics onto our “LED Bands.” We used software called ArKaos run from a separate computer but triggered from our Jands Vista Lighting consoles for all our graphic content.
The background panels were two separate sheets of Coroplast. The front layer is a sheet of black that was cut out on a CNC router. This was done off site and delivered to us. We then took a second sheet of white and hot glued it to the back of the black sheet. We ran aircraft cable down the flutes on both sides of each finished sheet and hung them from the truss that hold up our back, black curtain. We lit the center panels from behind with Chauvet Batten strips and for the side panels under the screens we used Chauvet Colorados.
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Burn Out Fabric
When we started thinking about this set the desire was to have something fairly generic but with a rock-n-roll feel. So we immediately new it was going to be a truss and lights set. We originally wanted to do a huge arc of truss from the back wall up to the roof, but the cost was too great so we used regular 10’ long 12”x12” truss that we already own. The fabric was something we had seen used before and we were eager to find a use here.
How we did it:
We started off laying out our four vertical sticks of truss 102” apart, mounted on four base plates weighted additionally with sandbags on the backside. We then did four additional sticks of truss hung from the ceiling at an angle to create the sloped background. We used four more sticks of truss to create a 40’ long run that we hung from the roof with motors. We then used this solid 40’ long horizontal piece of truss as a pick point for the front side of the diagonally hung truss. This allowed us to use two cheeseboroughs on the front topside of the truss so that it could not sway or be kicked out of alignment with the bottom vertical truss. The back of the diagonal truss was dead hung using 12’ long span sets from the roof.
We then used cut pieces of schedule 40 black 1.5”ID pipe extended horizontally from the truss by using two cheesboroughs on either side of the truss. This gave us our point off-set from the truss from which to hang our moving lights. We also strategically hung pars lining the center of the truss for added theatrical flare.
The fabric spanning the truss was a burn out fabric. The material was attached to the truss using fabric clips, which were then zip tied to the truss. All the fabric was front lit using a High End 575 Color Wash that was hung from our downstage grid. We also created a type of fabric door covering our stage entrances by attaching fabric to a sliding pipe that traveled along a piece of cable. When closed the curtain would be latched to the wall via carabineers allowing for a solid look to our stage and a background that covered our slash camera angle. We also decided to put the fabric underneath our side screens and light them by throwing light horizontally across the length of the fabric. These sides allowed the set to grow outside of our proscenium opening and make the stage feel bigger, which we like to do whenever possible.
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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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Summer Series 08
The primary series of the summer was “Letters to the Next President.” The desire was to come up with a generic look that would work for the series but then last for the entire summer and was fairly inexpensive to produce. This was one of the first sets designed to be up for over two months. This was also the first set designed specifically with removal of band risers for message as a central focus. Something we think about for every set now.
How we did it:
The panels in the foreground were built with 2×4s making up the outer structure and then reinforced with 1×2s diagonally to achieve the desired design. The whole structure was then painted with a dark brown paint. Oyster colored Voile fabric was then stretched across the backside of the flats and stapled along the edges.
Each panel was designed with different dimensions to achieve the asymmetric design. The panels were all designed at less than 12’ so that we could fly four of the panels out via pulley systems in order to remove the risers from the stage.
The trusses were hung off balance to add to the asymmetrical random design. The lights were hung low so that we could use our LEDs to light the middle panels and so that we would create some energy with some of the moving lights. The truss at the roof was hung so that the moving lights hung off of them could easily light the side panels. The truss was also backlit with LEDs hitting an acrylic panel that we had cut out and placed on the front side of the truss.
The back wall was covered with 3’ wide 40’ long strips of grey craft paper that we had crumpled up and then stapled to the wall. It was lit from above with our 6 High End Studio Colors.
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Faith, Hope, Luck (East)/DRIVE 08
Our Drive Conference 2008 fell in the middle of the series “Faith, Hope, Luck” which was preached from Buckhead Church. This allowed us to design our stage with Drive in mind and then add drive elements to it for the Conference. The picture is from the series not Drive. The desire of the look was so that the IMAG screens and the “set” screen become one massive wide screen.
How we did it:
The primary element was the 40’ wide 10.5’ tall projection screen, which was front-projected on from the HD30 in the back of the auditorium. This was used primarily for jump backs on Sundays but we did do some IMAG at the Drive conference.
Because the sermon was preached from Buckhead Church, we needed our HD center screen to drop down in front of the “set” screen. We re-hung our HD screen on chain motors so that we could raise and lower the box that our HD screen rolls out of. We used a pin camera mounted at the roof to see where to lower and raise the box.
Behind the screen we hung our white curtain, which was then front lit from our six High End Studio Colors.
The lights below the screen were mounted on schedule 40 “T” pipes which we cheesboroughed to a 30’ section of truss that was also hung from motors. We raised and lowered this truss to allow the risers to be removed from the stage.
The Martin 250 lights on each side of the “set” screen were placed there to fill in the gap between the “set” screen and the IMAG screens. The HD 30 was unable to project all the way to the IMAG screens so the gap was something we were stuck with. The lights were hung off of schedule 40 pipe that “T” jointed out from a set of pipes that ran from floor to ceiling. The bottom was mounted to the floor with a flange and the top with a cheesborough to our stage grid.
Faith, Hope, Luck (West)/Summer Series
This is one of the few sets were the West Auditorium actually looked different from the East Auditorium. The problem was we could not afford to buy 2 of the 40’ x 10.5’ “set” screens. The solution was to come up with a set design that mimicked the look that Buckhead Church had come up with for the “Faith, Hope, Luck” series, but mix in the plasmas for graphics that we were using in the East. The look was not originally intended for the Summer Series but was extended to save money.
How we did it:
We couldn’t afford the versa tube knockoffs that Buckhead was using so we decided to use 6” diameter PVC pipe that we already had from a previous set. We drilled a hole at the top of each pipe and ran a long bolt through a piece of chain and then though the PVC holes and back though the chain creating a loop with the chain that we then hung via a piece of aircraft cable from the ceiling. The layout of the pipes was simply a copy of what Buckhead was doing. The pipes were up lit using seven Martin Cyclos.
Two of the plasmas were cheeseboroughed directly to a section of 30’ truss. The other three were cheeseboroughed to a schedule 40 pipe that was “T” jointed and hung via cheeseboroughes off the 30’ section of truss. The truss itself was hung with two chain motors from the steel.
The High End Studio Spots that are not on in the photo were hung via “T” joint pipes from our upstage grid. The Martin 250 movers on each side of the stage were hung in the same was as they were in the East.
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Metal Siding and Vertical Truss
Before any of you get the wrong idea, yes this is North Point and no the Cross was not a part of the design of the set. The Cross was simply added for our Easter services that year. This set was up for about a month and a half and so needed to be generic but was primarily for the series “He’s still got the whole World in His Hands.” The design incorporated materials that we already owned in order to keep the cost to a minimal. The desire was to encompass the entire space so that it felt like there really was no way on or off the stage, that the stage became a world unto itself. The panels were placed in a slight arc that just enough room was provided for someone to walk between the first and second set of panels on each side of the set.
How we did it:
The panels were simply metal siding originally bought from Lowes which we then foe painted rust onto. The panels were hung from the upstage grid using aircraft cable. We down lit the top panel from the grid and uplit the bottom two from the floor via Chauvet Rain 56es.
On each side of the panels we stood a vertical piece of truss mounted to rented base plates, six pieces of truss in all. We mounted a Studio Spot (moving light) at the top of each truss that we ratchet strapped to the top of each truss. We also mounted a Martin Mac 250 to the front of each truss.
The remaining moving lights were hung off a 40’ section of truss that was hung in front of the proscenium, along with several gelled pars.
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Text
This was one of those few sets that matched with the other graphics extremely well. The idea for the series was to create a feel that was reminiscent of an overwhelming amount of instant messaging windows. The title package had lots of stylized windows of text flying by the camera. We mimicked this with our set design. A few of the panels had specific scripture that were relevant to the series, the rest were books of the bible.
How we did it:
The text panels were single sided milky acrylic sheets. They originally came in 5’ x 10’ panels, which were then cut out mechanically into many different predetermined sizes by a company in Cumming, GA called Iron Spirits. Iron Spirits also did all the text, which was cut out of vinyl and placed on the glass.
We used solid U-channel cut to size and attached to the top of each panel to give us a rigid structure from which to hang each panel. We accomplished this by first drilling two holes through the top of the U-channel. We used these two holes to bolt two i-loops on either side of the channel in such a way as to evenly distribute the weight between these two points. We then slid the acrylic sheet into the channel and using a drill press drilled holes every 2’ along the U-channel. We then ran bolts through the structure, attaching the acrylic to the U-channel.
We then hung all the panels via aircraft cable from pre-determined points, which we laid out along four of our upstage grid pipes. This allowed us to have four layers of depth to the design. Each hanging point also had a turnbuckle placed in line at the top so that we could easily balance each panel.
The larger panel that consisted of a rather long scripture verse located on the right side of the stage was actually too much text to fit on a single panel so we had to sow two panels together using fishing line. It was a very interesting solution to a design verses materials problem.
Our 6 High End studio colors were hung evenly behind the panels in order to wash the design with color. We also hung our 6 Mac 250s in front of the design to give us additional options for front lighting the design.
One of the really “cool” factors of this set was that we used our HD30 projector in the back of the room to project a masked out image of the cursor. We looped a video that turned the cursor on and off making the physical printed cursor on the end of the actual word “TEXT” look like it was blinking.
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