Jeff Atkisson – Lighting Design

I fist spoke to Jeff at the War of the Worlds wrap party. He told me all about the state of the art equipment that is used at the Fist Baptist Church of Orlando. He explained that he would be setting up the lighting for a big concert on Sunday night so I asked him if he would mind if I sketched his lighting crew at work and he was all for it.
The sheer size of the interior of the First Baptist Church is almost impossible to convey in a single sketch. I decided to move in for a closer view rather than sketch the half dozen workers like ants on the stage. Here Jeff, in the backwards baseball cap, and Derrick Mckenzie, a former Disney Co-worker, work on getting some fabric columns attached to the lighting boom. Jeff showed me the lighting design sketch he had done and explained that lights would shine into the columns from above and below creating an ethereal effect.
The stage lights hanging from the boom are state of the art LED lights. LED’s use much less energy than traditional stage lights and they can be made to project any color. Jeff showed me some of the LED’s in action and let me tell you those tiny bulbs are bright.