The last thing you would think to put on your resume!

I just finished a two week project with our Associate Arts Director, Sean Bublitz at the Yellow Box. When he got here to CCC 5 months ago, I said, "Make our stage not suck and do whatever you can to make our worship space a better environment." Translation: "Do all the stuff I always wanted to do, but never had time because I have to duplicate 350 CDs a month for distribution."

During our trip to San Diego last month to check out "The Rock" church, we saw some killer stage risers and decided to duplicate them (with our own improvements.) Here is a picture where you can see the ones from "The Rock". The drums are sitting on them. I guarantee I will be posting pictures of ours Saturday night after we get to use them in their first services!

We found two TOP NOTCH carpenters to build two stage platforms for us. (Thank you Cary and Guy!)(They are so sturdy, you could build a house on them.) Then we painted them, trimmed them with 1X2 (so our drummers don't fall off them) and installed bullet-proof glass (at least that is how the Home Depot guy who cut them described the glass) and then PAR lights behind them. They are awesome. We can light them in 32 colors to match the video and scrim palettes that are used.

BUT OF COURSE... every job eventually turns into ten jobs. We found out on Tuesday night, during our support and recovery services that the lights in them are too bright when the video teaching is running, so we had to find a way to dim them. (They are not currently installed into our house lighting system because we are out of channels.) Thinking back to something I saw in college, I decided to go to Home Depot (AGAIN) and build a dimmer pack from scratch with an electrical box, a extension chord and a household 1000W light dimmer.

This is where my topic for this post comes in. A really important job skill for an Arts Director is the ability to learn how to make things happen; and very specifically the general knowledge of how to construct things. I am definitely not saying every Arts Director has to have the two skills of Worship Leader and General Contractor (although that guy should TOTALLY call me!), but over time in the Arts you will consistently be presented with projects that require the ability to "figure out how to do things." You also have to know where to draw your lines and call in the experts. With the stage platforms, I knew I didn't have any business building the actual boxes. I had to recruit two guys with the expertise to do that. Sean gave the guys some simple drawings and described exactly what we wanted and told him to run with it. He did, and what they came up with was WAY better than what we had planned. Then we took it from there. (Like this incredible 3D drawing by Sean. In his own words, Sean says, "You may think this is a CAD drawing, but NO. That is Microsoft Paint!")

With the dimmer pack, I knew what to get for the most part and then took those parts to Lee Messesmith, our facility guy (Thank Lee!) and he helped me doing the electrical wiring. (I am not that stupid!)

But versatility has gone a long way in allowing me and our Arts ministry to do a lot of things over the last 10 years. (And saved us a TON of money from hiring preofessionals from the outside to come in and do them.) Here is a short list of things I have had to build or design:

1) Built water sprinklers to make it rain on stage for Easter

2) Rope Lighting to illuminate stairs backstage

3) Various shelving and hooks to hang cables and store equipment

4) "Teleprompter" Flat Screen TV Box to use at foot of stage

5) Pulled wire for every possible sound function

6) Installed remote speakers for overflow sound in cafe and baptismal area

7) We are currently working to tint the glass of every door and window into our worship space

8) Cut through counter tops and walls to add electrical or cabling runs

9) Installed wall-mounted speaker system in kids's areas and ran lines through drop ceilings

10) Ran long distance computer cabling to allow to set up network cameras to project shots of audience on the web

I am not any kind of Bob Villa (ask my wife). I didn't know how to do any of this when I got here, but learned everything as I went.

I don't think the ability to "figure out how to do anything I need to do" is usually the top skill listed on a Worship Leader or Arts Director's resume, but it is definitely something I would look for and ask about. And if you are getting into church planting or a portable church situation, that ability become even more important.

Here are the "before " pictures of our stage from last weekend. Come back Saturday night to see the "after" picts and give me your feedback.

Comments

[Jon]

Bill - Dude, I absolutely love what you're doing with the stage at the box. Can't wait to see it this weekend.

[Jim Conders]

Photos # 1 and 3.

Did the dude forget his guitar stand?

[Jeff Boriss]

AWESOME! I remember having similar thoughts when i first visited and now it looks great. Interesting side note, i was in a band in college and we made our own lighting board with residential dimmers and a cardboard box. We got par cans (56's) and crafted a 12 channel board and through creative use of extension cords and power strips were able to travel that entire summer all over the country using that cardboard light board (and a LOT of duct tape) so maybe it SHOULD be a requirement to be an arts director seeing as i am now one as well! anways looks great! good job bill and sean

[bill c]

Jeff,

How did that possibly not catch fire?

Bill