Church Production Magazine: You are designing your next worship service and your worship leader requests doing something “exciting” with the lighting. You ask: “What exactly do you have in mind?” The leader responds: “Well, what if we have some lightning?”
3 comments:
As a person who has worked as a light board operator for a church, this is a very interesting article. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in the design side of things, as it was done off-site and transferred to several other locations (cookie cutter style). To me, this was damaging to the actual creativity, however, it was a show for children, so the audience was never really too focused on the lighting. I thought it was very interesting how much money this church was able to spend on production for these events, despite most of the moving lights they acquired were really Chinese knockoffs of real brands. One thing that they heavily invested in was special effects. They were never shy to rent or buy hazers, confetti cannons, or snow machines. I think that it’s interesting that the realm of lighting design has been able to intertwine with the religious sphere in such a cohesive way.
While this article is mostly about the informing someone on what a lighting designer does, I’m going to focus on the premise as to which it was introduced on; using lighting theatrics in churches. Coming from a traditional Christian home, I have been to many different sized churches. From small churches that the best way of engaging the members is through the passion of the pastor to enormous churches that have a technical crew running a whole show from the back of the space. While one isn’t necessarily better than others, there is a controversy as to whether big technical elements take away from the message that is being delivered. While this is a very technical generation, that churches feel they need to step up their game in this way to get younger people to come to church every Sunday, this can be done in moderation. Using hazers, big moving lights, etc. I feel is very excessive for a church. It is very visually pleasing but it just makes me feel very disconnected from the sermon that is being delivered.
This article makes a good thoughts flow on how a lighting designer carrying out a special effect with instruments. First, author made a equipment comparison between current industry and what is was 40 years ago. Many gears we think common today are actually put to practice just for less than a decade. The capabilities of moving lights today is incredibly sophisticated comparing to the old models in 20th century. The article went on and focused on how to deliver the emotional atmosphere to the audience. I see this part most interesting during the design stage of a show. So many different path would reveal themselves while you are trying for the best solution. Author mentioned the integration of the video into lighting design at the end of the article, which left a lot to think of. Theatrical design is always a living and breathing being.
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