No matter which part of our biz you’re in, chances are you’ve worked a business conference. You set up like a dog for 18 hours straight, just to repeat the procedure for days. But as the meetings commence, you become aware of the hardest part of the whole gig — staying awake.
Meetings by the Book
These meetings have many different formats, but the formula is standard in my world. There’s an opening Welcome Night where people are forced to gather for a little speech by the hired host or the CEO of whatever corporation has hired you. These are generally short meetings as the people are in a hurry for their main destination — the bar.
The next morning, everyone is gathering for the annual breakfast conference. Executives from our beloved employer are ushered on stage for 45-minute speeches that are less than fulfilling, even for the intended audience. By the time they break for lunch, you are in agony from using toothpicks to prop your eyelids open. After lunch, comes the highly paid motivational speaker. That person is there to tell a life story that will motivate you to work harder to sell yourself and whatever items your company is hawking.
The company usually takes off that night. The crowd’s hung over and in need of a nap. That gives the crew a nice long room turn-around to get ready for the gala dinner and awards ceremony followed by an almost well-known entertainer. True to form, the final evening involves a constant parade of award-winning salespeople entering the stage for their 15 seconds of fame and a congratulatory handshake from none other than the head honcho.
Next is the dinner. Prime Rib = Successful Year for the company. If it’s chicken, well you all did not work hard enough — better step it up. After dinner, comes the musical talent. This is the point where the intoxicated get worked into a frenzy by a disco revival group.
Something Pretty to Look At
Why do these events need special lighting? Because it’s my job to give the people something pretty to look at while yawning. Just kidding. Like anything in entertainment, you have to “light the money.” By turning off the house lights and turning the stage a brilliant color, you will draw everyone’s attention to it.
Someone has constructed a 40-foot-wide stage, built some well-crafted set pieces for ambience sake and draped the entire room in elegant crushed velour. You must light all of this somehow, or the person who designed it will hunt you down, guaranteed. Start with two 40-foot-wide trusses. One hangs across the upstage of the set. This will hold up whatever soft goods will mask the backstage area. I hang moving lights and Fresnels straight across the truss. I generally hang one hard-edge mover, one wash mover and a 2k Fresnel in a row. Repeat the procedure until you run out of truss.
The moving lights will bathe the scenery with color during the meetings, then wiggle and flash for the gala evening performance. The Fresnels will provide you with an even wash of white light that is necessary for the cameras to pick up various stage presenters from any angle. Then overhang six lekos off the top rail of the truss. Eventually, they will backlight the podium, a speaker, a deaf signer or a plant.
Across the downstage truss, I have a simple formula. I frontlight the podium with four lekos. The reason behind this is to get an even flood of light on whoever is standing there. These gigs always have video screens and cameras zoomed in on anyone who is talking. Having these lights at low levels from different angles prevents shadows. These shadows will make the person look bad, and you will suck as an LD.
I try to correct the front color with a slight touch of bastard amber, such as R04. This makes the video image look softer and the speaker look more tanned. The fourth leko lights the podium itself. There is usually a custom seal on the front of it. Put some pastel color on a leko and soft focus it on this emblem.
I place similar lekos in other parts of the front truss just to cover my ass, because at any time during the next three days, the client can move the podium, hang some banners or decide that the motivational speaker needs a key lite special. In between the lekos, I place another half dozen 2 kW Fresnels. This bathes the stage with an even wash of light for the cameras.
Last, I place another set of hard-edge lights along the truss. These lights are designated for lighting the scenery or to ballyhoo the audience as people are introduced. Never use them for front light, if possible; they will contaminate the picture on the screen.
Fading 101
Use all your faders on the console. These shows always have a script the event organizers follow with strict times for sound effects, light changes and video rolls (usually about the new product you must peddle to be eligible to attend next year’s gala event in Puerto Vallarta). Sure, write a main cue list on Fader 1, but you will need to grab lights instantly at any time.
I use the main cue list to change color on the scenery as different people take the stage. I will light the set in different manners to try and create a separate scene for each speaker. On the next faders, I put intensity cues that will automatically light each podium. Sometimes an unannounced person will appear, or a scheduled guest speaker will walk to the wrong podium. You must light them immediately.
In the next fader, I place the front Fresnel wash. If a group of people gathers on stage, you must be able to cover them all. Make sure you pull the podium faders down whenever you bring up the front wash. Otherwise, there will be too much light on the podium area for the cam-eras, and the video shader will hate you.
The next fader has the video look. During each show, there are dark spots that are needed to draw everyone’s attention to the projection screens. You can choose to write these cues into your main cue list, but I don’t. I make this fader a high priority that will override all other faders. This fader will kill the intensity on all conventional lights. At the same time, it will turn every moving lite to deep blue. No matter what happens in a show, you can grab this fader to darken your stage without blacking it out.
On the next fader, I put the ballyhoo. That’s where all the hard-edge moving lights bump to white and roam the audience. When you bring this fader back down, all the lights will return to lighting scenery. Someone will always call for a ballyhoo at some point in the proceedings.
On another fader, you can put your audience lights. There are always house light controls for every ballroom, but never trust them. Every once in a while, you will need to instantly light the crowd. Having a few mole lights or PARs pointed at the audience will save your butt when someone is calling for house light.
Last, I write cues for the big entertainer. This will have color bumps, intensity chases and position focuses for the moving lights to pick up various band members and wow the crowd.
Then you can load out and fly home the next day, while the hung-over employees return to their spouses to explain how hard they worked during the week. Technically, they’re right — they worked hard to stay awake for it all.
Nook Schoenfeld is a freelance lighting designer who can be reached at nschoenfeld@plsn.com.
