Crazy Weekend!

This was weekend was absolutely exciting, hectic, bright, tiring, inspiring, and amazingly illuminous all at the same time. I came off exams last week and moved straight into turn at the tower. That continued into the weekend, but it went so well I was able to go to set up and take sunday off…

Saturday set up was interesting. We were able to set up some new lights for stage. We have depended on overhead gym lights for “wash” lighting on stage. These lights washed out the screens and left the stage in a dim florescent morgue-like light. The new lights allowed for the gym lights to be off and the stage to be lit in a nice bright light. We also had full control over the “house” lights.

There were some transitional fun items with the lights. They are causing some interference with the sound even though they are all being run on different circuits. I think we need to run the speakers and soundboard through a “de-hummer” or power cleaner. They are also EXTREMELY bright. I guess 1,500 watts of light being directed towards you via spot lights… yea thats gonna be bright. It reminded me of when I was at C3 at fellowship and sat in the “worship pit” during two sessions. We were actually sitting behind Ed and Bishop facing the audience and the lights. Fellowship has very similar spots around the auditorium focused on the stage and it was EXTREMELY bright because Fellowship’s Sony HD’s requires a lot of light!

We have dimmer packs on all of the lighting, but whenever the lights are not at full power the hum in the speakers is very loud. Once we get the humming out we will be able to tone the lights back to about 50-75% power, and it will help with the brightness.

Overall I was VERY pleased with Sunday. I know things could have been smoother and gone better -but- when you consider we had a new series starting, a TON of new lighting, a full set on stage, mothers day, second saturday service, and a busy week… I would say things went VERY well.

A lot of lessons were learned. We learned things with lights, but we also learned some things on the production end. There was suppose to be a Mothers Day video that had been filmed a week or two ago, but somehow the dv tape got lost in transition. We are overhauling our DV tape policies. It is well worth the cost of not reusing tape and buying new ones if it means that all tapes will get labeled, saved, protected, and not lost.

My Sunday afternoon was also interesting. I left from Discovery and drove straight to Raleigh. My mom and dad were there visiting family. Mom didn’t know I was coming! SO – I walked into my Aunts house in Raleigh and walked up behind her and put my arm around her. She looked to see who was beside her, and her jaw dropped because she thought that I had to work. It was a great surprise and mothers day gift! It was nice getting to see the family. My family is learning more and more the importance of spending time with each other.

My humongous weekend ended in a way it has never ended in at least 10 years! I went to bed at 9:30pm. I am glad I did because turn continued Monday morning at 8am!