Boring set

[bri4827]

I do some work for a church who videocast's their sermon into a second room for video playback. We finally have a decent Panasonic HD cam (the model escapes me at the moment), and decent lighting in the room but the back wall of the alter bores me to death. It is a one camera shoot. There is no height to the shot, and I am drawing a blank for a feature that can sit on stage without interrupting the normal service too much, or looking to tacky or staged, and that the powers that be would approve of. I've thought about gobos, but I can't find a good placement for the fixture. Any suggestions? I've attached a pic from one of our services.

 

[avkid]

Perhaps tall floral arrangements or a nice wooden cross? (if appropriate)

 

[bri4827]

There is actually a little one behind him now - it really needs to be bigger but for the space anything more would seem like too much - I've always wanted to find a couple old racks of pipe organ pipes and set them up behind there, but I couldn't get it approved

 

[NickJones]

People dancing in animal costumes. Makes things more interesting every time.

 

[BrianWolfe]

Some draped fabric could work. Also the lillies could be made to look more interesting by raising some to make a more interesting profile rather than a dull straight line. Wood paneling would look interesting if allowed.

 

[jrgunn]

Depending on the size of the space, consider painting the wall something other than white that coordinates with the colors in the rest of the room; I convinced my pastor to do so, and the wall behind the platform is now a rich burnt sienna with a light toning dry wash. It looks terrific on video and the pastor pops right out of the background.

 

[gafftaper]

-What about a banner with some sort of inspirational saying on it. Lots of churches use these and change them with seasonal sayings.

-Or go with nature. Tall plants. A trellis with ivy vines. A larger cross is a great idea.

-Just repainting the back wall some sort of interesting textured color would help dramatically.

 

[BrianWolfe]

Another idea that might work would be a fake window(stained glass or not). Not that I am trying to sell anything but we make vacuum formed paneling that looks like wood panels.
Armour

We have a nice gothic window too:
Armour

 

[g15]

that stained-glass windows made out of gel that's sitting in the shop??

 

[sk8rsdad]

Paint the back wall chroma-key green and drop in whatever background you like with a video mixer. Hours of fun for everyone.

Sorry but I've been fighting the urge to say that all day.

 

[gafftaper]

You can get giant decals at home depot that look like stain glass windows.

 

[Van]

I like a lot of what's already been said, but honestly looking at the depth you have to play with a repaint on the back wall looks to be one of your strongest options. A Cross, large enough to be seen would, IMHO be inordinatly humongous in the primary chapel. A good textured paint finish would add a lot to the look .

I do have to admit I'm kinda in Sk8rsdad's camp though. Chroma-key green and you could have a blast.

 

[bri4827]

Thanks everyone - I'll take some of the suggestions to the staff and see how they react to it - I'll post an update if I can get them to bite at anything

 

[FatherMurphy]

One thing I notice from the pic is that the speaker could use some rim light, either a top or high sides, to help outline him from the background. Dunno what you have for available angles, though.

You might think about an LED cyc light of some sort behind the flowers, shooting up the wall. Create a hot spot behind the speaker, and play with color during the sermon (very, very slowly, though). Or, some narrower fixtures doing stripes to the side, or a combination.

 

[Sayen]

Might look strange to the live crowd, but even just a couple of horizontal tones created from light on that back wall would break it up. Maybe move from white to a cool blue or something, just to create some depth.

 

[gafftaper]

I would just change the color and do some sort of texture paint. I just built a set for the campus TV station. We went to Lowes and got this sandstone colored paint with actual grains of sand in it. It looks fabulous on camera. When you look at it up close the little grains of sand are actually black which adds some wonderful color texture to the whole thing. The grain also defuses the light and prevents glare and reflection. This picture was taken with the regular room lights on not the camera lights.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Along the same lines as the chroma key, but doing it live, you could project an image behind the pastor. If you don't have the budget for a video projector, I'd suggest using a imagepro from Rosco. This way you could have a nice easy way for you to change your background with the seasons. The pastor could even choose something to accent the sermon.

 

[Les]

I would just change the color and do some sort of texture paint. I just built a set for the campus TV station. We went to Lowes and got this sandstone colored paint with actual grains of sand in it. It looks fabulous on camera. When you look at it up close the little grains of sand are actually black which adds some wonderful color texture to the whole thing. The grain also defuses the light and prevents glare and reflection. This picture was taken with the regular room lights on not the camera lights.

Gaff, that looks amazing! Nice work!