Christmas is right around the corner. At our church that means it's time to harvest the projectors. We typically get all the projectors from the auxiliary environments that won't be used during Christmas season and push them into service in our main auditorium. In the past we have used as many as 11 projectors for our Christmas production.
Projectors are among the more flexible pieces of technology used in churches today. Here are some inspiring ideas you may not have thought of for using them.
Obviously, projectors can be used to display words for songs, sets for dramas, or, believe it or not, just light. However, with a little imagination and some carefully selected content, they can create amazing environments. In this article we'll cover some standard and not so standard uses for projectors and some places you can find content.
Location, location, location
Most church techs get the concept of using projectors for lyrics over backgrounds, or even for IMAG. But screens are not the only place for projected images. Take, for instance, the work of Cameron Ware at Visual Worshiper, . Just look at the website and you can be inspired by some amazing alternative uses for projection. Environmental projection, when done properly, can be very powerful. It is also a great way to extend the on-stage set to encompass the audience. Once the set is designed and built you can find similar images that can continue the look beyond the edge of the stage, and if you have enough projectors, it’s possible to surround your audience and make them feel like they are part of the production. If you pair this with actors mingling among the crowd, it can make for a completely immersive experience.
Set-savvy
While environmental projection is amazing, sometimes it's not quite the right effect for your situation. A white or grey cyc or backdrop is a great place for projection as well, and if it's at the back of your stage it might be a good place to project a set or supplement the set pieces or set elements on the stage. In the past, our church has created large set pieces for Christmas productions and once the set was built, I would find a background scene or image to project behind it on the cyc. With some good content and a little creative masking, you can produce a seamless look that can make the stage look much larger than it actually is. The great thing about these scenes is the flexibility. You can create a particular scene, and with some minor tweaks and lighting effects, you can create a daytime and nighttime look that is great for showing the passage of time in your drama.
Upstage isn't the only great place for projecting a scene or set. On the downstage side, a scrim is also a fantastic target. For those of you without a theater background, a scrim is a piece of gauze cloth that appears opaque until lit from behind, that can be used as a screen or backdrop. If you use a front-lit or front-projected scrim in front of your actors, they can move and get in position behind it without being seen until they are lit.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article was published in December 2014 under the title: Projection for Connection.
New thinking on light
Another use for a projector is as a simply as another lighting fixture. At the end of the day that's really all a projector does is put out light. Typically it's used for an image, but it doesn't have to be. In the past, I have used projectors just to project shaped light on a set element, highlighting it. One of the things I love about this it that it isn't as sloppy or random as intelligent fixtures, and you can shape the light easier and sharper than with barn doors or gobos. If you are using ProPresenter, you already have a masking tool at your disposal. Find a set piece that needs some more pop, and project just on that piece by masking out everything else. Using a projector this way can create an incredible and memorable effect. Once your mask is built, you can use a white slide to brighten things up or you could go big and project something else entirely on it; the possibilities are endless.
All-important content
Content is king. This is why it's important to have great content, and when it comes to projection there are a plethora of places you can purchase it. Some of my favorites are:
Triple Wide Media –
Buy the content once; get it in single-, double- and triple-wide sizes.
Church Motion Graphics –
Home of the monthly mega pack, fresh content delivered to your inbox, monthly.
Digital Juice –
It's like Netflix for creative content.
Video Blocks –
Offering free trials of up to 140 downloads.
Motion Loops –
Celebrating 10 years of exclusive cutting edge content.
Video Hive –
Some 111,864 royalty-free video files.
