Even though Good Friday and Easter are behind us this year, many church teams are exploring ways to add impact to weekend productions. While oftentimes associated more with Halloween than with church, black light effects can add a dramatic look for special holidays and events. With that in mind, CPM takes a look at the Avid Labs Avere 4UV LED fixture, distributed by Avid Labs' sister company, Apollo Design.
Black Light in Action
A black light, or more accurately ultra-violet (UV) light, is designed to emit light in primarily the invisible ultra-violet spectrum. UV lighting fixtures cause materials that are fluorescence to generate and emit light (not merely reflect light). The result is a dramatic glowing effect that increases with intensity as the amount of UV radiation it’s exposed to is increased.
So what items are fluorescent? Many fabrics will glow somewhat under UV radiation, and sneakers often contain fluorescent materials. But perhaps the most interesting use for UV light in the church context may involve UV reactive paint.
Numerous companies create UV paint for scenic design. It comes in a variety of colors, and in both visible and invisible styles. The visible form of UV paint actually appears the same color both under UV light and regular light; invisible UV paint appears white under normal lighting, but fluoresces in its stated color when exposed to UV light. These paints can be mixed with regular paint, such as acrylics, which gives you interesting options for painting scenic elements on stage.
While evaluating the fixture, I purchased some invisible blue and invisible yellow UV paints from Wildfire Lighting & Visual Effects. I chose to paint a scene with a Good Friday theme—three crosses on a hill with a blue sky and clouds. While not an artist, I wanted to see firsthand what UV paint can bring to the table. My goal was to create a daytime scene under normal light, but have it turn to a dramatic sunset look by having the low horizon glow with blue, the underside of the clouds glow with streaks of yellow, and the upper clouds have streaks of glowing blue, when exposed to UV light. If the regular stage lighting is faded down on the painting while the UV light is faded up, we would see a dramatic transformation take place—an awesome effect as a pastor talks about how the death of Christ brings life to His followers. To accomplish these looks, I blended the invisible UV paint with my white and blue acrylics and blended it into the sky and clouds. I did this painting with the 4UV light turned on, so I could see the effect I was creating while I painted.
Fixture Description
CPM was provided the dimmable version of the Avere 4UV LED fixture, which has six 2.8-watt
