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Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what my actual job is. For the last 20 years, I thought I was a lighting designer. After this week, I’ve pretty much realized that I am not just an LD; I wear a whole lot of hats at gigs. And I’ve been doing this more and more over the last five years, so much so that I am at a loss for words when trying to describe my title.
Let’s face reality: Video elements have become implanted on most touring shows and all the industrial shows I work on. If you’re an LD and you haven’t jumped on this wagon yet, you’re late. I am not a huge fan of all this technology. I still prefer good theatrically- lit scenes as opposed to high-tech gadgetry, but I would be ignorant to ignore it. It’s fun. But why am I picking and choosing video content, let alone creating it now?
I once thought set design was complicated and best left to professionals who do this for a living. Show me the set and I will then design a lighting rig to illuminate it. Those rules have all changed as well. What’s happened to me in recent years is that I will show some lighting concepts to an artist, and the next thing I know, they are asking me what their set will look like. Then I have to whip out old set designs to see which direction they may be leaning towards. Do they want ramps and risers on the stage? Perhaps a stage thrust into the audience? Curtains? Projection? How did this all happen to me?
I think I know. About 10 years ago, I started drawing all my light plots in 3-D and making glossy renderings to show different bands. They looked cool, but without any band members with instruments and assorted stage risers, it was hard for anyone to conceive what the whole stage would look like. Therefore, I started to insert such items to take up space. I would look on the Web and find pictures of where the band members stood and what their backline looked like. This made my drawings look like they were custom-designed for the act, which was basically true. But then these bands started expressing their ideas to me and asking me if I could show them what it would like in reality. So I did.
One of the first set ideas I had came from drinking in a bar with some guys from the band Sugar Ray. I had my laptop and a CAD program called Vectorworks sitting next to me. The guys asked to see a checkerboard Marley floor. I inserted a texture this CAD program provided and had the computer render us a JPEG. From there, we added red curtains, festoon lights, a tiki bar, a custom-lit sign and a Wheel of Fortune-type spinning wheel for a karaoke gag. Am I a set designer?
I sent the drawings out to a set guy in L.A. named Joe Gallagher. He got the contract, and I told him to build a set that looked something like I had drawn up. One month later, I’m looking at a full-size replica of all my drawings. Joe had paid attention to every detail from the precise tiki lanterns I had drawn to the crooked spinning arrow on the Wheel of Fortune device. What was a new high for me was realizing that somebody had just paid a lot of money for all this stuff I drew up. I’m amazed at the stuff that Joe at Accurate Staging cranks out. Last month, I needed two 3-D metallic-looking replicas of golden eagles complete with an 8-foot wingspan. Joe found a sculptor in Idaho and makes good on my vision.
A ha! I must be a visual designer. Nah, sounds too frou-frou. I’ll keep thinking of another title while I’m writing…I listen to people’s ideas and I stockpile different concepts in the back of my head to use later. I have pages of different cool light rigs and sets I have drawn over the years. Stuff I drew five years ago I may use next week for a project. When I meet with a performer, I will often show them several different concepts other than the one I have personally drawn up for their event. Sometimes, I piece different parts from sets and light rigs into one new grand design.
But now, the management wants to know how much everything costs. With any luck, there is a production manager already hired who can get prices on everything. If not, here we go again. Gotta price the new drapes, the lights to rent, the risers to build…do you know where I can get some old used stuff cheap? I’m pretty good with monetary figures and spreadsheets. Guess I’m now a visual accountant.
This month, I have received 16 CDs from several different acts. They will go on tour and play music from these albums. It’s my job to learn this music. I learn it all over time, mostly by keeping the same CDs playing in my car until I want to hurl. Some of it is pretty good. Some of it is painful. Got some punk, some metal, some R&B, some kids who play pop music, but who have informed me that it’s punk. I love it all. The young bands are my favorite. They are not afraid. They listen to me. We bond. Guess I’m a musician consultant as well.
One act needs a large arena rock-sized light rig. I have a giant TV upstage center. I’m talking about these D7 video walls at concerts, and I know how to treat them. I don’t fight them by placing trusses of lights above or in front of them. It’s a waste of light, as the video wall will always be brighter. Instead, I have a custom-built picture frame designed to attach to the screen. Now, it looks sexy. I want to light that.
I place trusses of lights off to the sides of this TV. I design a set that fits just under the TV, complete with a catwalk for the performer to run on and some giant horseshoeshaped trusses standing on end. All of the trusses are curved sections kept lit by LEDs. When lit, they become an integral part of the set. The set is lined with conventional lighting from MR16s to Moles to PARs to hundreds of 25-watt golf ball lights lining the ramps and thrust. I place moving lights every 10 feet along the 100-foot wide stage to go for big sweeping moves and eye candy.
My lighting director is editing cues as I bark at him. We’re pals. We spent a week in Upstaging Lighting’s visualization suite, so the lighting cues are pretty much in the bag. Instead, I’m picking out media files from my hard drive to show on the TV for certain tunes. They have to be loaded into a media server and get triggered by the light desk. Brad is pretty new at this video stuff and nervous. But he’s catching on fast. Guess I’m a teacher now.
As you can well see, a career in lighting design can actually cover a wide variety of other fields. People are coming up with fancy names for their total performance services. Even trademarking them, I hear. My buddy Mike and I have been toying with calling ourselves “The Ocular Edge.” But what’s in a name? Guess I’ll just be good old Nook, the LD.
E-mail Nook at nschoenfeld@plsn.com.
