In projection, it’s all about having the glass, or, more to the point, having the right lens or selection of lenses to remedy any venue-specific situation. On a one-off, it’s easy. Advance the gig and you’ll know what to bring. In a touring situation, it’s much more difficult to know. Sometimes, you just have to carry a lot of different lenses. Vendors hate that because those lenses are so very dear (read “expensive!”). A couple grand a pop for each is not unusual. Say you carry four different sizes, times two projectors and, whamo! That’s $15K to $20K worth of lenses! The client doesn’t understand words like, “We can’t because all that video stuff is expensive, right?!” Well, perhaps in vague terms. But that’s our cross to bear.
– From Mark Haney’s Video World column in the March issue of PLSN
