HELP! MY STAGE NEEDS SHOCK TREATMENT!

[rockportpastor]

I recently took a senior pastor position in Rock Port Missouri. I do not like the stage at all. In fact I would venture to say its the most unattractive part of church. All the other rooms in the building look good. But this stage has got to go. I don't even know where to start. I've never done this before. I'm a missionary at heart (I studied world missions in bible school, not pastoral studies). So I'll take any help I can get! Holla back at me!

Marcus

Oh yeah, here's a pic of the stage:

[petereit]

Paint it black. (I'm not joking.)

[[Admin] osborn4]

Investigate environmental projection. That will give you a lot of flexibility week to week.

That's the direction I'd head if I had a blank slate like that.

[riafekim]

Check out http://www.churchstagedesignideas.com there are a lot of cool ideas that even smaller churches can incorporate.

[waynehoskins]

Mark's right on with painting it black. I'd also paint the whole ceiling black since it's so ridiculously low. Black surfaces disappear, making the whole space seem more expansive.

Doing that, you'd also need to make some major changes in lighting since I don't see any stage lighting and the chandeliers use the white ceiling as a reflector. Then you can put light on the things you want to see, and not on the things you don't. It should also improve image contrast on your projection screen since it won't be washed-out like it looks like it would be now.

[rockportpastor]

Originally Posted by osborn4

Investigate . That will give you a lot of flexibility week to week.

That's the direction I'd head if I had a blank slate like that.

Ok so now what exactly is this now? Is this something that is done with a projection screen? I'm not sure I understand exactly what it is or how it works...Help me out. I love the way it looks on the website that you sent. If we were to do that, would I still need to paint the back wall black?

[rockportpastor]

Originally Posted by waynehoskins

Mark's right on with painting it black. I'd also paint the whole ceiling black since it's so ridiculously low. Black surfaces disappear, making the whole space seem more expansive.

Doing that, you'd also need to make some major changes in lighting since I don't see any stage lighting and the chandeliers use the white ceiling as a reflector. Then you can put light on the things you want to see, and not on the things you don't. It should also improve image contrast on your projection screen since it won't be washed-out like it looks like it would be now.

Ok so you say to paint the back wall black AND paint the ceiling black? So am i to understand that we keep the other walls white? I'm just curious. I'm trying to get a visual. And then beyond the walls, should we pull up the carpet do something different with the flooring or no?

[Esoteric]

I will post more this afternoon. Check out my website for things we have done in the past www.esotericvisions.com.

Your space would be Very challenging for environmental prohection but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

I am headed out for an hour or so, but I will be back later with my take.

[waynehoskins]

Originally Posted by rockportpastor

Ok so you say to paint the back wall black AND paint the ceiling black? So am i to understand that we keep the other walls white? I'm just curious. I'm trying to get a visual. And then beyond the walls, should we pull up the carpet do something different with the flooring or no?

The side walls could be black, or some other color, something in the semi-dark, somewhat neutral range. There are many options. Something that comes to mind is to paint the walls themselves black but add some accent pieces that aren't black -- panels in earth tones maybe -- set slightly off of the wall. It would make the walls more interesting, and somewhat more visible, without accentuating how short they are. The more you can do to obscure the transition from wall to ceiling, the better. I'm looking mainly from a theatre background. The darker something is, the more it recedes, while lighter objects jump forward.

The other trend these days is environmental projection (projecting imagery on the walls, ceilings, etc.). This needs light-colored walls (maybe a medium-to-light grey at the darkest), and it's really nice when done well. You can turn a space into something completely different. I think it works better when there's substantially more vertical space than you have there; I don't think your space is a good candidate for it.

Either approach would take a significant revamping of the lighting, adding stage lighting, improving the house lighting, and especially for enviro-pro, minimizing light on the walls.

At this early stage, I'd recommend looking around at what other churches are doing with their spaces (in person, in magazines, online) that you like. These range from uber-traditional (which admittedly is completely foreign territory for me) all the way to uber-progressive.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Originally Posted by rockportpastor

Ok so now what exactly is this now? Is this something that is done with a projection screen? I'm not sure I understand exactly what it is or how it works...Help me out. I love the way it looks on the website that you sent. If we were to do that, would I still need to paint the back wall black?

Wayne covered the environmental projection questions pretty well. You shoot the projector(s) directly on the wall. The walls should be painted a light color to do this well.

Mike Campbell, of Esoteric Visions (that's the web site I linked to) has done quite a bit of that and he said it would be challenging. And I can see how that would be with the sloped roof.

It will be interesting to see what he has to say.

[Arlin]

I think we need to keep both the church atmosphere & the available resources in mind here.
Atmosphere: I don't know what kind of service (traditional, blended, contemporary) this church is accustomed to. Form the looks, I appears blended to me, but there are a lot of different levels of blended too. A quick, radical change in appearance could alienate existing members.
Resources: And when I say resources, I am not thinking about money & equipment, but rather people, skills, and availability. All ideas presented above would require significant technical work & effort, probably on a WEEKLY basis. Someone will need to at least have a working knowledge of the lighting & projection system, not to mention artistic skill and knowledge to design or change or tweak the visual system.

I think the discussion & ideas here are great, but they might not fit the style of this particular church... (or maybe the do!)
Much of the above might be considered VERY contemporary and that is not my first impression looking at the picture.

For a more traditional or blended church style, here are some of my thoughts:
Change the stage design... perhaps full wide steps across the front stage, bowed either concave or convex, but not straight.
Add some decorative wood trim. On the edges of the steps, doorways, handrails, etc.
Hang some banners. On the walls, or even free-standing.
Hang some decorative acoustic treatment panels (if applicable)... break up the plain walls a bit.
Paint decorations on the walls. Maybe they are cartoon-like depictions from the bible. Maybe a wall mural. Maybe just some good looking, decorative wall paper or trim.
Add some greenery like flowers, trees, & plants. I think some large trees or bushes could be placed near the front wall.
Hang & stylize the cross a bit... mount it at an angle or something.

That is all I have for now, take it as you wish.
First of all, I think you need to take a close look and think about what you want to accomplish with a new look for the sanctuary.
What kind of church are you now?
What kind of church do you want to be 5, 10 , 25, or 50 years from now?

[Esoteric]

I hesitate to even post these because the Photoshop work is so bad, but here are a couple of images of what the space might look like.

The first one is with environmental projection. This would be VERY DIFFICULT and time consuming in your space, but makes an awesome impact. It also requires a tremendous amount of devotion in your volunteers to get the most out of it (although it is VERY easy to run if someone else can set it up). You would do a straight image all the way across and with the lights down, and some back light that top triangle would disappear. To do EP and get that triangle would not be possible given the low ceilings. the physics just wouldn't work.

The second is something a little more standard and traditional. Of course if you prefer you could use an old wooden cross and light it from the front.

Either of these looks can be as dynamic or static as you want them to be. We do EP installs in VERY traditional Lutheran and Baptist churches where all they sing are hymns with a choir in full robes.

A few warnings. Banners are very difficult to do well. They usually end up looking cheap and bouncing a lot of light (very distracting). Decorative wood trim looks nice in the total light of day from 5 feet away, but once you get in the first row, or if you dim the lights even a little, *poof* its all gone.

Now I have seen some cool things done with murals, but lets hope you don't get tired of the good Shepard after dropping $5k on a really nice mural.

When we do an install we try to attend a service or two (or at least see one on video) to make sure the design fits your style. But almost any design can fit almost any style.

Once again, forgive the Photoshop work, I was onsite all day today and only had about 30 minutes to knock these out.

Mike