PRE & POST-SERVICE

Start Up

• Turn on any lighting equipment
• Turn on lighting console
• Turn on hazer, but do not immediately fill room with haze (some hazers require a 10-minute warm up time)
• As your hazer is warming up, check that all the lights are responding correctly by sliding up the control faders
• Once the hazer is warm, begin to fill the room with haze and check positions/movements of lights

Service Prep

• Choose what color combinations you plan on using during each song
  • Store them as snapshots in GrandMA
• Practice transitions (between songs, in/out of announcements, in/out of sermon)
• Practice lighting movements during sound check and rehearsal
• Set haze to a reasonable value

Shut Down

• Turn off haze
• Turn on venue lighting, if applicable, before closing lighting software
• Turn off any lighting equipment at the console with faders
• Turn off lighting console
• Turn off physical power to lighting equipment

BEST PRACTICES

Front Lighting

• Always make sure the area the campus pastor walks in is lit
• After this, make sure the lead and background vocalists are properly lit and seen on stage
• Next, if there are more front lighting fixtures, light the band
• We aren’t looking for bright front lighting, but enough so that you are able to see people’s faces without taking away from the color wash on stage

Lighting Supports Emotion

• Remember that this not a concert, and that the goal is for the congregation to encounter the Holy Spirit
• Movement and flashing can add to the worship experience but can also be distracting
• Lighting should not manufacture energy but should support and react to the music
• An effect used once or twice is more impactful than the same effect used over and over
• Often, during slow worship songs, little to no movement adds more than constant movement
• Layer the use of the lights and effects. Don’t start too strong with the lights on most songs….BUILD!!!
• Pay attention as a song winds down and scale back accordingly.
• Always be a ½ step behind the song or a transition. Don’t prematurely transition a lighting look. Let the worship team start the transition to a new song and be right behind them. We should never drive a transition but be right behind it with the appropriate lighting changes.

Color Combinations

• White will go with anything
  • No matter the color chosen, white spotlights would go well
  • This can help the spots be punchier, and you don’t have to worry about smoothly transitioning spot colors/gobos
• Warm with Warm. Cool with Cool.
  • Warm colors always look correct with warm colors and cool colors look correct with cool colors
  • There are times when cool colors work well with warm colors, but if you are just starting off, this is a good rule to follow