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