Last night I found myself sitting in a bar with a bunch of lampys. How unusual. So I decided to check in with them on how they’ve seen the business of lighting shows change in the last few years. Between the five of us we have close to 100 years of experience in the entertainment biz. And since we’re lighting guys, it goes without saying that we have opinions about everything. So I posed a few questions.
“What’s the most significant change in a lighting tech’s career the last few years?”
One guy immediately points out that we are being forced to learn about video gear. Another states that we have to look at our job from a whole new angle since every show seems to be revolving around video. And he is correct. A few years ago media servers started coming around and now they are on 50% of my shows. There was a bit of a learning curve, but from a programmer’s point of view it was just like a new moving light fixture.
The unanimous vote at this table of techs is that they would rather see trained video people taking care of video stuff while they keep up with lighting. Plus the lighting guys feel like they are lowering their standards by becoming video guys. Ouch! But it doesn’t stop there. Go to LDI and all the lighting companies are now pedaling their own line of video gear. As if moving head projectors aren’t enough, they are now building lo-res video walls.
I actually enjoy designing with video. And I think that video and lighting are all part of the same genre. But these guys have a valid point. If a lighting company is going to venture into video, should they hire video guys to run this equipment? And vice versa? We’re just pondering here, but it seems the reverse is becoming reality now. Barco is making a moving head projector to compete with High End Systems’ DL.2s. Does that mean that video companies are going to hire lighting guys to fix their gear? Who knows?
I think I do. I’ve been watching salesman from big lighting companies move on to running big video rental companies. And they are hiring my lighting brethren more and more.
Next question: “Has the state of moving lights gotten better?”
The answer to this is a unanimous yes! The consensus is that manufacturers are actually listening to lighting techs and asking them questions before they start planning how to build their next fixture. This is exemplified by Martin probably more than any others. All the techs love that they sent a representative to ask questions about their current product line and how to make things better. They came to me and listened to what I had to say for hours about building a lighting desk. Now they’re asking if the techs would like better servo motors and if everything should be modular. The days of repairing moving lights on the road are numbered. We now design shows with a hundred moving lights. The techs take countless hours to set up enormous rigs. They should be able to quickly swap a color module and let a guy in the shop fix the faulty one.
As a side note I ask, “What kind of fixture is missing from the marketplace?”
Everyone has the same answer: a new moving mirror light. It’s been 14 years since the Cyberlight came out. The Coemar Nat and the Telescan were too heavy and too high maintenance. And they disappeared when Obie’s Lighting did. Can’t anybody get this right? I know a hundred LDs who will tell you the same thing, “We want something fast that can black out, reset position in under a second and be reliable.”
Next question: “What about all the new consoles we have to choose from?”
They say that five years ago we all had the ‘Hog 2 and it was easy. Getting through all the networking and patching of all these desks is three-quarters of the work. Once you can actually turn a light on, the rest of the programming is almost the same on most consoles. Heck, Jands makes a lighting console that thinks in video timeline terms now. While none of us at this table wish to think in those terms, others do. There’s no denying they’ve thrown a whole new way of thinking into the works.
Next up: “What’s the difference in lighting crews now from when you guys started?”
One guy says that the biz has grown so diversified that it takes longer to learn everything. There was a time when learning how to patch an analog dimmer was a big step. Now techs are expected to master dimmers and everything about power in a much shorter time span. Someone questions why everyone doesn’t start with just pulling cable and working their way up anymore. I realize he’s right. I get calls from people who want to be my assistant. I ask them if they know what feeder cable is, and they don’t. Excuse me for stating my opinion, but I think all LDs need to work from the ground up.
Somebody points out that crew chiefs don’t bother to explain things to young techs any more. But these guys I’m sitting next to are all crew chiefs themselves. Aren’t they pointing their fingers at themselves?
Everyone agrees that there are two kinds of young lighting techs: the kind who want you to stop and show them the proper way to do their task, and the kind who think they know what they are doing and are insulted that you would even stop to tell them differently. I’ve seen both. And the latter will certainly become a freelance tech soon, and not necessarily by choice.
Next question: “Do any of you guys do gigs with only conventional lights?”
It gets really silent and after a while we realize we don’t. I can’t remember the last time I did this and I’m a bit ashamed now. Everyone likes a PAR can rig, or so they say. But in reality, do we really want to go back to hours of focus time, multiple boxes of heavy cable and a wall of dimmer racks? Hmmm…maybe.
Going back to the subject of video, a friend says he saw the band My Chemical Romance this year and they had no video or LEDs at all, and it looked stunning. Well of course it did; Ethan Weber designed it. Then another guy pointed out that Bob Peterson and I didn’t use a single LED or piece of video gear on the Bob Seger tour last year, but it was not for lack of trying. We set up panels of Soft LEDs and hi-def video walls for the manager to look at over at the Upstaging shop in Chicago. When the manager walked in, he looked at us like we were out of our mind and told us to take that crap down. Just use good old-fashioned rock lighting, he said. So we did, and in the end I have to admit, he was right.
Last week I designed a tour for an act I’ve been lighting for 10 years. For the first time ever, we went out with no video, no pyro, no confetti, a minimal set with only a few LEDs to under light it. I thought I would be bored, but in reality the show came out looking great and nobody asked for their money back.
