My wife bought me the book, John Adams by David McCullough shortly after it came out in 2001. It’s a 700+ page book about the second president of the United States. (You thought it was about the guy who works at Vari-Lite and who used to work for High End Systems, didn’t you?) Although the book very much intrigued me, it sat on the shelf for almost eight years before I finally got the time to read it. When I finally did read it, I was struck by how long it took for news to travel back then. When the Treaty of Mortefontaine ending the Franco-American War was signed in Paris in September of 1800, it wasn’t until January 1801 that word of the agreement reached the U.S. Today, when Jon Gosselin cheats on Kate, you know it before your newspaper lands in your bushes the next morning. Is the world a better place because of it or in spite of it?
It can be.
We have the potential to use our modern day tech tools for good or for ill. We can use them to disseminate valuable information or spread idle gossip. We can use them to spread the truth or to spread lies, for good or for evil — for lighting or for audio. Tools like Twitter, Facebook, ProLightingSpace, and TheatreFace can be used to kill time or they can be used to help build your career. As the creator of ProLightingSpace and TheatreFace, we’re working on trying to make it more of the latter and less of the former.
A few days ago we received an email from a lighting designer who was coming to town with a popular band. He invited us to come out and see the show. But we had a little something more in mind than just watching it.
After arranging it with the LD, Morgan Loven and I showed up at load-in armed with cameras, a laptop, an air card, and a card reader. Our gracious host, Kevin Christopher, the LD for Journey, introduced us to the production manager, Rob Kern, and the production assistant, Sarah Schoup. They were kind enough to grant us total access so we began shooting everything we saw and immediately downloaded it to the laptop, went online, and posted it on ProLightingSpace.com. By the time the band took their final bow at 11 p.m., we had posted 14 blog entries with a total of 46 pictures up on the site. We were literally shooting, popping the memory card out of the camera, popping it in the card reader, moving the pictures to the computer, writing the blog and uploading the pictures throughout the day and night. Next month, you’ll be able to read a more in depth article about the show, the gear, the crew and the entire production in these pages.
Why did we do this? For the free meal pass in catering of course. Isn’t that why everyone is in this industry? It’s not? Oh, well, then it must be for another reason.
Actually, the idea is to get as close to the industry as possible. As Madge the manicurist says, “we’re soaking in it.” Or at least we’re trying to. But by soaking in it we hope to get it all over us and then pass it on to you. It’s our way of going beyond ink and paper and getting into the head of the industry. And in this day and age — the age of “Now is Not Soon Enough” — we want to deliver timely information that you can use to better your career.
This was our first attempt at it. As John Lennon once said, “I hope we passed the audition.” You can check out the results at www.prolightingspace.com/profiles/blog/list. Not a member yet? Go to www.prolightingspace.com/join.
