There was a time when the reputation of a production company was more important than its profits. Those were the days when a FedEx shipment could fix just about anything and damn the cost. If it meant that the show would go on then the company would survive another day, and the deposit in the karma bank just might yield enough dividends to pay back the loss of revenue. If not, then another hopefully more profitable project would be coming along soon. No one understands that better than Chaos Visual Productions partners John Wiseman and Nick Jackson, both of whom helped usher in the modern era of production with Vari-Lite and Light & Sound Design (LSD), respectively. Those were the early days of the production industry before the bankers and venture capitalists put profits before people and productions. And those are the days that Chaos Visual Productions (CVP) wants to bring back.
Wiseman started CVP in Dec. 2008 with the goal of building a team of industry professionals and to go back to “being about service like good old days of LSD and Vari-Lite.” To that end, he brought on Jackson as a partner earlier this year.
“The early days of production were about a bunch of guys trying to be in the rock ‘n’ roll business before it became wildly corporate,” Wiseman said from his office in Los Angeles. “Back then, you did the right thing no matter what without having to get it cleared by some f****n’ bean counter. We want to get back to automatically doing the right thing for the customer with long-term thinking.”
It’s not that profits and cash flow don’t count, because, as we know all too well from the lessons of Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, et al, a solid business plan is fundamental to the health of a company, even in the production industry. To that end, Wiseman and company have been busy executing a plan of their own. “If you have efficient processes, you don’t have layers of middle management, you’re able to do [business] at the correct price and move business forward.”
“By being a smaller boutique service provider, which is sort of how we’re geared right now,” Jackson added, “we’re able to focus all the resources of the company on each client because we have a smaller, more focused, more streamlined business. That’s sort of where Vari-Lite and LSD used to be.”
“We’re the size of a cruise ship but we operate like a jet ski,” Wiseman said.
Building the Team
For many years, Val Dauksts plied his trade in the industry, running lighting crews on the road with Journey and for 10 years as production manager for Bryan Adams, among many other positions. He also ran the lighting department at Nocturne Productions and he was the general manager at PRG in Los Angeles before moving on to XL Touring Video as the general manager. After Dauksts was “summarily let go,” Wiseman saw an opportunity to grab another team member.
“He’s an amazing guy,” Wiseman said. “I couldn’t believe my luck when they fired Val.”
Dauksts is now the general manager of CVP.
Pat Morrow was a founding member of Nocturne and he put in over twenty years there. Today he is the senior project coordinator for CVP.
Morrow “invented the touring aspect of video for bands, and he’s never been properly credited with that vision,” Wiseman proclaimed.
Barry Claxton is a fixture in the production industry. He has worked as a production manager, lighting tech, crew chief, and projection technician for 20 years. He worked for LSD before it became a part of PRG and he has put in multiple tours with Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, U2, Luther Vandross and others. He is now a senior project coordinator at CVP.
These veterans joined CVP along with Marty Wickman and Fred Waldman, both of whom came along with the gear and facilities when Wiseman and his partners bought CWP Productions. Wickman, the “W” in CWP, took over from his brother, Chris — the “C” in CWP, and successfully ran the company for many years. Waldman joined CWP in 2001 after touring with Alanis Morissette and working as a crew chief, stage manager, rigger, and production manager. He is now an account manager with CVP.
“Marty Wickman and Fred Waldman are very important key players.” Wiseman said. “They basically remain in the same roles they were in before. What we’ve done is that we’ve put in a little bit more processes for them. Val now oversees general management, and that allows those guys to be out in front of customers more and do what they actually enjoy doing.”
What all these people have in common is a long tenure in the industry and a passion for the business. “We’re all misfits that fit in here,” Wiseman commented.
From Old School to New Beginnings
Wiseman and Jackson go way back to the early days of production when automated lighting was new and somewhat of a rarity. “Back in those days,” Jackson said, “Vari-Lite were pretty much the only game in town. (LSD) was providing all of the conventional lighting so [Wiseman and I] actually worked a number of years together. We provided the trussing, motors, PAR cans and dimmers and John would provide the moving light package and a couple of crew.”
Over and over, the two kept finding themselves on the same projects and working for the same clients — Motley Cruë, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, the Scorpions, the Rolling Stones… Wiseman remembers many times when they had to come together to make a project happen.
“Sometimes they’d have a project and we have to sit down over lunch and go, ‘Well, how are we going to divvy this up a little bit?’ Because we knew what the budget was. There was this give-and-take from the very beginning. That’s where the friendship and good business relationship came from.
“There was a point where John was supplying Vari-Lites and LSD was supplying Icon and we did compete,” Jackson said. “But we knew each other well enough back then and we had respect for each other, so even though we competed we still had a like for each other and respect for each other and there was no bad blood between us.”
“That kind of goes to the core of how we think about what we do now with our customers,” Wiseman added, “and that’s in that give-and-take. When we sat down to try to work things out we could have had a short-lived relationship but we worked it out for the long-term. And that’s kind of what we do here now with our customers and that’s where it goes back to those good old days again. We have the ability and the financial strength to be able to go, ‘Okay we’ve worked with this production manager, tour manager, or designer before, we know we’re going to do about six or eight jobs over the next eight or nine years.’ We give-and-take as we go.”
New Dimensions
Wiseman’s last tenure before launching CVP was with XL Touring Video as CEO and president. Given the number of people brought in from different segments of the production world, one might think that CVP is CWP with a twist. Wiseman has another take.
“There are all these delineations between lighting and video. First there was lighting, and then there was automated lighting, and then projection. Is projection lighting or is it projection? And then is LED a light source? Is it LED or is it fixtures? Is video I-mag? Or is it eye candy? Or a set piece? This is why we came up with the name ‘visual productions’ — Chaos Visual Productions.”
What about the “Chaos” part?
“We came up with ‘chaos’ because it just fits our lifestyles. We’re kind of digging the chaos. If you look at definition of the word chaos, in chaos is to be found perfect order. And that’s what we have going on here, we have everything very much together. The ‘visual productions’ part of that is our way of saying this; it’s not lights, it’s not video, it’s not LED, it’s visual productions. The guys sitting in row 20 doesn’t look at one part of the show; the show is the complete thing.
Nurturing the Business
Jackson has some experience growing and running companies. LSD was a homegrown company that was acquired by Christian Salvesen before Jackson and the rest of the management team bought it back. When PRG bought it later on Jackson went to PRG along with the sale of the company.
“One of the things I’ve enjoyed over my career,” Jackson said, “is being involved in creating a company, nurturing it, and growing it — creating something that has a place in the history of the production industry. Myself and my partners created a company that was successful and respected and it evolved that we became part of PRG, which was the better part of 10 years. I enjoyed those years but I missed being involved in all aspects of the company — nurturing it and being very connected and proud of running the whole thing, the camaraderie of working together with colleagues.”
Jackson now has a chance once again to help run the whole thing. In his words, he’s “doing some of everything.”
“From the very beginning back in the 1970s, whatever I was doing as far as running the business and trying to administrate it, I was always involved with the customer. To me it always seemed important, and you have to do that, otherwise you get lost in the administration and you lose track of what is really there. John is at the rehearsals, he’s at the first shows, he’s taking meetings all over the world, so I tend to be the one who’s back here now keeping everything together, getting our business systems together, looking for the building we’ll be moving into in the next few months. I am trying to build the foundation of the company while John’s concentrating more on selling production services. We both overlap to a certain degree, but generally I’m more involved in the day-to-day running of the business and John is more involved in selling our services.”
But, as Wiseman points out, on any given day their roles could flip-flop.
“That’s where it’s pretty good because,” Wiseman said, “although Nick and I are completely different people, we complement each other well. Right now I’m driving sales and part of the operations. Nick is driving sales and operations as well. It’s probably weighted differently on any given day, but I’ve got tell you, on any given day I might strike out for a couple of months and Nick will be hitting home runs.”
So the team that began sitting on opposite sides of the table working for a common cause are now sitting on the same side of the table doing what they’re done for almost three decades. It’s the perfect illustration of symbiosis in the industry.
“I think a lot of the production industry is waiting for the big blow up, but it’s never going to happen,” Wiseman said emphatically. “I’m out of my f****n’ mind, or I have a solid clear vision on Wednesday. It depends on which way I’m being pulled. On the other hand, nobody doesn’t like Nick. He’s got his s**t together. We’re absolutely complementary to each other. He’ll come in and be on a business thing and I’ll hate what he’s saying but I’ll know that he’s right. That’s the beauty of it.”
