TPC CHRISTMAS EVE OPENER 2012 from TPC on Vimeo.

 
Here is our Christmas Eve opener.  This is the raw footage, no edits, no mix downs.  Merry Christmas!

Recently, as part of our Christmas set, our Visual Arts Director constructed several large white “boxes” out of coroplast.  If you have never used coroplast before, you can think of it as the plastic version of cardboard.  It is a very durable, yet lightweight material that can be used in thousands of different ways.  It is also fairly inexpensive, comes in multiple colors and can be ordered in sheets up to 4’x8′.

The three boxes became the centerpiece of the set design by projecting video images on the front sections.  As you can see in the image above.  It is a pretty amazing effect and the great part is by using ProPresenter, Media Shout or Powerpoint, you can easily change the image with the push of a button.  If you want to go really high end, you could also show videos on them with a little creative editing.

Now I’m sure by this point you are wondering how all this works.  Well here are the steps we used to make it happen.

1.  Get the props you plan to project on in place and make sure your projector can project an image wide enough to cover them.  We downloaded a grid graphic and inserted it into a ProPresenter slide to help us see where all the edges and corners would be.  By tweaking the position of the boxes and the projector, we completed this portion of the setup and were ready for step 2.

2.  Color in the grid to cover each of the boxes.  To do this we basically added a “shape” in the ProPresenter slide and sized it until each of the boxes was covered.  In our case, we used different colors to help us see the edges.  You have now created a template.  Save this slide as a jpeg and then use it as the “slide background” every time you start building a look.

3.  With your template in place, cover each of the boxes with an image and fill in the grid with black shapes to cover the lines.  You may have to do some minor tweaking once you project the images, so be sure to test each one for clarity and alignment.  You will also need to make sure you have layered the images correctly over the template. Below are a couple more examples of slides we created.

There are a couple more hints to making this work effectively on your stage.  First it is important to be able to control ambient and stage lighting.  Remember that these surfaces are white, and natural light from windows or stray stage lighting can destroy the illusion by washing it out.  Second, make sure your players, singers, actors and teachers know that these are projected images and that if they walk in front of them, they will cast a shadow.

This is not the first time we have used this method for set projection and I’m sure it won’t be the last.  I’d love to hear how you use video set projection in your church or theater.

Finding clever solutions for stage design is really not rocket science.  Two elements walk hand-in-hand, like a bride and groom, each having equal relational importance in designing a great stage.   These elements are reflective surfaces and good lighting.  In the past 12 years, I have used everything from styrofoam, bubble wrap, and vinyl floor tiles to spandex, rope and brown paper bags.  It is amazing what kind of ideas a slow walk through your local Home Depot or Lowes can produce.

Recently, our Visual Arts Director added a new surface to our arsenal of palettes.  That surface would be a few rolls of stiff, shiny window screen.   Who would have thought that a material developed in the 1820’s to sift flour and provide home protection from insect invasion while still allowing good ventilation would be great for set design?   If you work in any area where quick, innovative and inexpensive set design means the different between good and great, keep reading.

There are several methods you can use to create very unique looks with window screen.  All of them involve bending, twisting or crumpling it in some way.  It is imperative that you use screen that is stiff enough to hold a shape.  The synthetic, flimsy stuff won’t cut it in this arena.  In this picture, two rolls of screen were crumpled and then stapled to a black surface.  The deeper the crease, the better the look.  After the installation the screen is lit with LED lights from directly above and directly below, which gives it a three dimensional look.

Here you can see the same shot side-by-side with flash and without.   It is fun to watch people walk up on the stage to try to figure out what in the world we used to create this effect.

So if you are looking for a simple way to make your stage design turn heads, the answer is literally right outside your window.  Run by your local home improvement store and let the fun begin!

If you work in ministry for any time at all, whether as a professional or volunteer, odds are that you will probably experience a “perfect storm” of sorts in a weekend experience.   When multiple complications arise that threaten the success of a service, you may be faced with difficult decisions that force you to prioritize and may ultimately determine if you sink or swim.

Growing up in Florida, the threat of Hurricanes was an annual event, and I can say that I have experienced several, first-hand.   When you live with an awareness that a storm of this nature can form in a matter of just a few days, and when you understand the unpredictability of a hurricane’s exact path, you learn to always be prepared.  Flashlights, candles, water, canned food, generators, and materials to protect your home are something that, if you are wise, you invest in and keep on hand all the time.  Many homeowners, especially on the coasts, will even build storm shutters into the architecture of a new home from the beginning.

Preparedness in media ministry is equally important.  Just recently on a Sunday morning, we found ourselves without a FOH engineer, Lighting Director and our Media Director was at the hospital with his wife, after discovering she had a life threatening blood clot in her lung.  To complicate this, we lost our video scope less than one hour prior to the first service and the video feed between our two campuses was down.  And yet, we didn’t miss a beat.  We executed our weekend experiences without a single flaw.  How you ask? Cross Training.  

Just like hurricane preparedness can save your life in a storm, good cross training between staff and volunteers can save your weekend in a crisis.  Over the past several years we have intentionally cross trained everyone on our team to be proficient on at least one other media position.  While this process doesn’t happen overnight, it truly does pay off when your Sunday morning falls apart.

So what was our solution?  We huddled up, determined our priorities, re-assigned responsibilities and watched what being prepared looks like in action.

I have had the opportunity to be a part of previews for the opening of three Cirque shows, Zarkana being the latest.  I had the good fortune to snag a seat in the front row center of the balcony.  After being told, “that’s a great seat!” by two different ushers, I was definitely not disappointed.

The theater is located inside the beautiful Aria hotel at City Center in Las Vegas.  It is the former home of “Viva Elvis” that closed at the end of August.  It is a beautiful venue with 1840 seats and an enormous stage.  It took 65 semi trucks to deliver the set for retro-fitting the theater  for Zarkana and the talented people at Cirque made the transformation beautifully.  Elvis has definitely left the building.

Zarkana is the story of a magician in an abandoned theatre who has lost his love and his magic.  Guided by a cast of interesting characters, his journey takes him through a mystical landscape towards finding that which he had lost.  As with nearly every Cirque show, there is very little speaking.  The story is ultimately told through the artistry of the presentation. The very talented performers in Zarkana brought their game and delivered several impressive “wow” moments during the show.  For avid Cirque fans, there is enough familiar content to make the show a true Cirque, but the new and unique undoubtedly trumps the standard fare.

The first attention grabber in the show is a very gifted woman who juggles.  While in print, this doesn’t really sound impressive,  it is when you see it live.  She juggles up to eight green spheres at a time, but that’s not all. She doesn’t juggle them in the air, but bounces them off the floor, walls, boxes and most impressively walking backwards up a set of stairs while bouncing them (yes all 8 of them) on the steps in time with the music.

About halfway through, the next memorable moment was a very talented sand artist.  For whatever reason, performance art of this kind moves me and this act was no exception.  Artistically telling the story of the magician, she beautifully and seamlessly walked us through the journey in sand pictures that were projected on a large circular screen above her head.  I have seen many sand artists and this particular one was a master of her craft.

The last of my “wow” moments was a very gifted athlete who performed a series of gymnastic poses & movements on a circular platform at center stage.  Behind him were hundreds of white ropes suspended from the ceiling forming something of a “rope curtain” as the backdrop.  As he began his performance, a digitized, almost ghostly video image of him in blue & green was projected on the front of the ropes.  The effect was mesmerizing.  This particular artist was featured on “America’s Got Talent” a while back and you can look him up on youtube.

Zarkana stands strongly on the talent of it’s cast and the beauty of the set design & lighting.  Major kudos for the integration of video into the set design.  While stunning, it never overpowered or upstaged the talent.  Every look and scene was beautifully created and unique to the particular act performing.  The talent of the musicians was world-class and was delivered on a pristine audio system.  My only constructive comments would be the need for beefing up the musical score to better support the visual elements and to evoke more emotion from the audience.  Additionally, transitions and set changes between some of the bigger acts were sometimes lengthy and not well covered.  Since the show is in the preview stage, I’m sure these are issues that will be addressed before the Grand Opening.  I look forward to seeing it again on a future visit.

If you are an avid Cirque fan, then Zarkana should be on your list of must see shows.  I still believe that the show “Ka” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas holds the title for the best all around Cirque show in the world, but Zarkana still offers a stunning and satisfying visual journey into a magical story that is well worth the price of admission.

Check out the preview video here.

The unit can be controlled on your computer desktop through a standard looking A/B control panel.  I found the interface easy to use, but it does require some practice and good mousing skills to operate it quickly.   You can manage the switcher media pool and set all adjustments, and switcher control includes full keyboard shortcuts.  In addition, the panel lights work just the same as a standard hardware control surface.

If you require repeated fast cuts or dissolves or just prefer the feel of a real take bar and buttons, the ATEM 1 M/E control panel will solve this problem, but comes with a price tag of $4995.  A cost jump of nearly $5000 really negates the low budget benefit of the base unit and puts the system more in the price category of several competitors.

The one feature that you rarely see in a switcher at this price point is a built in Multi-View.  All 6 inputs, the 2 media players and a large preview and program window all fit on a single SDI or HDMI monitor.  Several layouts and fully routable inputs make for a very versatile display, and tally indicators highlight both on-air and preview sources.

Of course, I never like to play by the rules and I love to creatively trick out my gear.  Two really cool options I added to the switcher were a ELO 22″ Touch Screen monitor and an X-keys programmable USB remote box.   The touch screen saves having to mouse over buttons for transitions by instead allowing the software interface to be operated more like a conventional switcher at a price of $500 instead of $5000 for the ATEM 1 M/E panel.  The X-keys USB remote panel allows me to make use of the switcher’s keyboard shortcuts and control the switcher remotely from a secondary location.  This is especially helpful when you are shorthanded and need a remote control panel at another workstation.

Whether you work at a church, school, theater or local community television studio, the Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio provides a feature-packed, broadcast quality, full production studio for less than $1000.  We are planning on installing this unit for local IMAG screen control in one of our venues.  I’ll keep you updated on how it performs.

I will never forget a visit to my doctor when I was in my late twenties after several anxiety attacks and repeated chest pains.  I was shocked when he quickly offered me medication to manage stress and anxiety.  Without blinking he laughed and said, “You know about half of the staff over there is on this stuff.” I honestly had no idea.

Whether your church is highly conservative or on the bleeding-edge of contemporary, post-modern worship, I believe there are three common keys to consistent success in the weekend experience.  We have built these values into our culture.  And although we have plenty of room for improvement, I think you will find these to be helpful.

Key #1:  Intentional Planning

In planning a weekend experience, do your best to plan a service from the end to the beginning.  Start with, “What should the audience walk away with?”  and then build the service backwards from there.   The same premise applies when planning a series.  Decide what the final take away should be and build the series in reverse, leveraging each week to move closer to the end.

Key #2:  Excellent Execution

I know this one may seem to be an obvious key, but the reality is that you can have the best elements and teaching and still fail to be excellent.  Distractions such as poor transitions, bad lighting, sound that is too loud or too soft, poor quality video and even room temperature can derail even the best service.

Key #3:  Honest Evaluation

Probably the most important key to a successful service is honest evaluation.  This sounds again like an obvious piece of the puzzle, but the reality is that honesty requires trust and vulnerability.  Evaluation has to be a two way street and needs to be limited to a small group of individuals.  Before you implement honest evaluation you must have buy in from the entire teaching, tech and worship team.   I have coined the term “Win-Based Evaluation” as a way to describe this philosophy.  If everyone understands that the evaluation will produce a win for them as an individual and for the team, they are much more likely to buy in to the process.  The flip side of the evaluation is to understand whether the change required is one that should be implemented immediately or over a longer period of time.  A knee-jerk reaction can backfire if the individual or team can’t make the change on the fly.

While some results can be seen immediately, the bigger change will happen over time.  I find it helpful a couple times a year to pull a service video from 6 months and a year back to compare them to with our most recent.  I am always amazed at the changes that happen over time that are not so obvious from week to week.

There is nothing out there in the world of music like the classic Hammond B3 organ.  Since 1935 when American engineer and inventor Laurens Hammond unveiled the Model A, the organ has found its way into almost every genre of music  from classic live radio drama, to gospel, jazz & rock.  There is just nothing quite like it.

A big part of that classic sound is the signature Leslie cabinet, named after its inventor, Donald J. Leslie.  The Leslie system is an integrated speaker/amplifier combination in which sound is emitted by a rotating horn over a stationary treble driver and a rotating baffle beneath a stationary bass woofer . This creates a characteristic sound because of the constantly changing pitch shifts that result from the Doppler effect created by the moving sound sources. It was originally designed to mimic the complex tones and constantly shifting sources of sound emanating from a large group of ranks in a pipe organ. The effect varies depending on the speed of the rotors, which can be toggled between fast (tremolo) and slow (chorale) using a console or pedal switch, with the most distinctive effect occurring as the speaker rotation speed changes.

Because of the complexity of the Leslie cabinet, synthesizer keyboard manufacturers have been unsuccessful in recreating the B3 sound artificially.  This has resulted in a huge market for used B3 organs and Leslies as well as companies that do nothing but buy, sell and repair these instruments.

In 2003 our church purchased a used B3 and Leslie in great condition and have been using it every week ever since.  The one downside is that the unit is approaching 50 years of life and frequently requires repair to keep it in prime condition.  Over the past 5-6 years we have spent thousands of dollars in repair costs to continue the resuscitation process.  Today we found the solution to our problem.

The Ventilator by Neo Instruments is the very first piece of gear that actually emulates a Leslie 122 rotary cabinet, right down to the independent treble and bass rotor speeds, the crossover (800Hz), and even that rich tube drive that the classic cab adds to your sound. This amazing 2-footswitch pedal even includes microphone placement emulation, so you can choose the perfect setup and sound for your rig.  The best news is that it costs less than what we normally pay for one repair.

Our MD showed up today, just after the installation of the unit by our trusted repairman, to test it out.  The best way I can describe his reaction would be ‘giddy.’  Every time his fingers touched the keys he would smile.  Needless to say, this Dove Award winning, Grammy nominated musician walked out with one of these units under his arm for his personal B3 at home.

So basically, our poor 50 year-old Leslie has now actually been taken off life support and has been replaced with a Ventilator.  And it sounds AMAZING!!