Bargeheights is excited to announce an awesome contest in partnership with the Church Technical Artist Network Online. It’s super simple:
We’re awarding prizes for:
- Coolest Application of LED lighting
- Most Innovative use of inexpensive scenic materials
- Honorable Mention(s) for pictures that are too cool to ignore
The Prizes:
- (4) Bargeheights LED par cans and cool Bargeheights t-shirt
- (2) Bargeheights BAR 252 LED linear wash bars and cool Bargeheights t-shirt
- Bargeheights.com swag for honorable mention
Submissions will be received until July 7th. A panel of church lighting and scenic design folks selected by CTAN will determine award winners. Winners to be announced July 14th.
To enter follow these simple steps:
Check out the official contest page on the Church Technical Artist Online community
Bargeheights is cranking out a ton of ideas for churches, youth group spaces, even some environment updates. Stayed tuned for the always cool before & afters.
for now, here’s a peek of some project visualizations in progress…
The Bargeheights crew was happy to help out good friend Greg Gilmore of Crossroads Christian Church’s Georgetown Campus. Bargeheights provided a BH LED37.5 scenic video solution and supplemental moving head LED and LED wash lighting for worship and teaching during the church’s Georgetown campus commitment evening.
I was happy to join up with my old volunteer buddies from the Georgetown campus and produced the night. By far, the highlight of the evening was ”God of this City” with clips of custom scenic b-roll video content of Georgetown’s historic downtown and panning shots of the new building which will house the permenant location for Crossroads’ Georgetown campus…all beautifully shot by @aaronchampion.
It’s been sometime since I’ve blogged. What once was an idea in a notebook, then personal blog has grown into this. Lighting vendor? Sure. Design Resource? Ok Repository of cool inspiration? Maybe. The idea which has grown from much prayer and God’s perfect timing and resources is now a healthy handful of things to manage and a growing resource to help churches. Just as with growth in my personal life—growth is good, but it’s often challenging. I’m comforted to read how even giant organizations struggle with brand identity, social media presence, strategy and customer service. It’s good to know the growth Bargeheights is experiencing is good and the challenges we face are not unique.
So here’s where it is for me…
//// I’m still a person and this blog will still be about people, their thoughts, ideas and hearts/// Don’t get me wrong, my friends and I love sharing about how one of our crazy design ideas worked…but this blog is about more than cool lighting and set design ideas. It’s real people. Real lives. Real stuff. It’s the kind of posts I like to read…and the stuff I hope you want to read too 
Yes, Bargeheights offers some really cool lighting and led video products for a nice price. But, it is also two words scratched in the back of a notebook. It’s a group of likeminded church production guys with thoughts, ideas, dreams and a light or two…who want to share their thoughts with the world. We’re just artists, making art because of and in honor of our Creator. These guys also happen to be some of my closest friends….people who care about me, and who I care about. I’m committing to continue to blog about the dynamics of our relationships, the values of volunteers and staff serving in the church and a crazy idea or two
No apologies, Bargeheights is not just gear. It’s people.
My wife and I attended a regional WGI competition this past weekend. What is WGI? Short answer: an international association of color guard units that have several large regional competitions leading up to a world final usually in Dayton, OH. If you’ve ever been to a drum corps (marching band on steroids) show, these are the visual units from those shows – movement, rifle, flags, sabres, etc.
So why am I posting about such things here? Well, Matt and I both are huge believers that music is a basis for almost everything, and that good design follows musical guidelines as well. In that same way, you should be looking for design inspiration from everywhere – not just the obvious places.
Two things I took away from this weekend:
Stained Glass
- I had some discussions with folks in the music/guard scene, and they were relaying their concerns when it comes to budget. Clearly everyone is affected by the economy right now, and the arts (visual, musical, and technical) are among the hardest hit. But in spite of that there were 65 performing groups that attended this weekend’s palooza, and each had a story to tell. In years past where you may have seen elaborate sets and multiple pieces of equipment for each performer, many groups showed up with a drastically simpler approach. The shows were no less effective. They did require more effort by the performers, since the only overall effect available was what they brought in performance and ability. Sounds kind of familiar, no?
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Giant Birdcage
These groups make great use of the same things we should: use of existing items, re-purposing things that may have originally been intended for use elsewhere, and filling large spaces on tiny budgets.
Printed Floor
On a side note, I was reminded of a largely overlooked part of scenic design in the church – the floor. The floor is visible in a LOT of spaces we work in, and is almost never treated as a scenic element. Do something to the floor! Even if all of your room cannot see the stage floor when seated, it’s likely that some can, and cameras almost always do. From the simple area rug to a full-scale painted surface, the floor can give you incredible visual bang, for relatively low cost. These performing groups generally bring a large vinyl cover in with them that is painted or printed to go with their show. Clearly the design of a gym space makes the floor the ‘backdrop’ – but think about how much of the floor in your space could be unused canvas. It could make a great difference!
