In an industry where the only constant is the rising expectations of production values, special effects are the magic elixir that soothes the savage need for excitement and thrills. But the downturn in the economy has thrown many parts of the industry into a fishtail. Road tours, however, seem to be the exception. “Business is good because entertainment is entertainment, and we’re lucky that way,” says Lorenzo Cornacchia of Pyrotek Special Effects. “Have we increased business since the [recession]? No. But there’s been no decrease either. There is still the same amount of tours out there.”
But there have been changes in the special effects industry — not always good.
“This is the first fall in 25 years that we haven’t done a car show,” says Advanced Entertainment’s Matt Dillingham. “That’s the strangest thing of all. A lot of car shows cancelled outright or at least cut back. And they are apprehensive about celebrating in the current climate.”
But there’s a lot of good, and a lot of innovation in this market. Reid Nofsinger of Strictly FX notes their comeback. “Lasers, lasers, lasers! It’s a strange thing. We haven’t done lasers in years, but lately it’s all we’ve been doing.”
Direct-diode laser technology is “the key to our success,” says Lightwave International president George Dodworth. This laser technology is being used on almost every major tour currently on the road, replacing bulkier water-cooled lasers. Back when the water-cooled units prevailed, a rock tour typically filled a semi with them, and they used a lot of power. The newer lasers, such as Lightwave’s Prism Series, take up far less room in the truck, a single person can carry them, and they plug into any regular wall socket, drawing a mere five amps of power — and the quality of the beams and palette of possibilities is astounding.
If old things are new again, new things are making the most of cutting-edge technology. “One of the most exciting things happening today is the convergence of laser and video,” Dodworth says. The two have been seen on screen together before, but Lightwave has a new technology that allows the designer to synchronize the two for maximum impact.
“We can now take laser vector images and fill it with video accurately,” he says. “Video can be dull and flat, but the combination of the two is just amazing,” he adds, referring to Lightwave’s use of the combination for an opening game celebration for the Pittsburgh Steelers, which involved projecting images on the nearby Carnegie Science Center building next to Heinz Field.
Working with Lightforce and coolux, Dodworth also notes the promise of the VLP-3D workstation, to be shown at LDI, which is “an extension of the early technology. It allows directors to render 3D objects in laser and video in real time, manipulating it at will.”
A broader question, however, is whether the ongoing advances in special effects technologies will be able to overcome a new economic climate where everyone seems to be watching their pennies. But a discussion with several other industry leaders reveals that those who add pop to live events are doing well.
Advanced Entertainment recently completed a merger with Alumifax, a lighting and trussing sales company owned by Dillingham’s father, Don. While the two companies have long shared a building, by becoming one company, they are able to expand their customer base.
“We’ve been staying busy,” says Matt Dillingham, who is Advanced Entertainment’s CEO. “We have always been busy with Cirque du Soleil, cruise line shows, and the long-running shows in Las Vegas.” He’s also pleased that they’ve seen activity picking up in the corporate realm. They are also working with acts like Poison.
From Dillingham’s point of view, it’s hard to assess trends because what’s happening in today’s marketplace is dictated more by costs than technology. “For example, we’ve seen large growth with confetti and streamers because the cost of doing pyro is cost-prohibitive for smaller events.” The rise in costs come from an unlikely source: as local governments everywhere cut fire department budgets, those brave men in the red trucks are looking for other ways to raise funds, and that has meant raising permit fees. While that is certainly understandable, Dillingham sees it as a double-edged sword: “In the long run it could hurt them because once clients are used to using alternatives to pyro, why would they go back and pay the fire department fees?”
In the area of confetti/streamers, there is a lot developing. Corporate events are featuring custom confetti shapes, like their logo, and embossed confetti for extra flair. “Also [the technology] is making it easier to interface them with pyro and lighting for the more sophisticated shows.”
Many clients turn to Advanced for custom work, including Cirque. Building on the success of The Beatles’ LOVE, they are currently creating one based on Elvis. “That’s been exciting. There’s a fair amount of pyro involved in that, though I can’t say much more about it!”
Unlike many of the effects themselves, safety concerns never dissipate, and Dillingham notes with satisfaction that he’s seen more venues becoming more aware of, and complying with, regulations and code.
“We’ve seen a lot of theatres becoming proactive in keeping their drapes and soft goods flame retardant regardless of whether or not they are using pyro,” he says. “Even for corporate events there is sensitivity, and that’s a good thing all the way around, because if one [bad accident] happens somewhere, no matter how tiny it seems, it affects everybody in our industry.”
Lorenzo Cornacchia, vice president of Pyrotek Special Effects, is also seeing an increase in demand for lasers. A heavy investment in laser technology has yielded great results for Pyrotek’s sister company, Laser Design Productions, he reports.
“We’ve been offering plug-and-play lasers that are easy to work with,” he says. Many of these went out with the latest Jonas Brother’s tour. “We had two 20-watt and four 15-watt full color diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers, two five-watt DPSS potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) lasers; and eight DLP 10 ANSI lumen projectors controlled by Pangolin Live Pro. We’re able to hang these lasers in the air and with a lot of mirror flats on their main stage, we hit those so they would go back out into the audience, adding another dimension to the visual element of the show.”
This tour also featured a circular water screen that was 20 feet in diameter, and was used like a billboard. “At first the boys were like, ‘Oh, it’s water,’ then we opened it up and were able to enter into this 3-D world.”
Not that fire is out completely. For their reunion tour, Creed took Pyrotek’s dragon tails and foot heads, creating a wall that can shoot flames up to 10 feet high. “While it’s been used many times, it’s the music that drives creative choices,” Cornacchia says. “Has everyone seen flames before? Yeah. But in this manner? I don’t think so. The band loved it. It’s all in how you use the effects.”
On some tours he’s designed pyro while others get cryo, like the recent Britney Spears tour where he had 58 cryo jets every four feet. “It’s how you deal with the parameters and the stage they give you. They wanted a massive look but didn’t have the budget to do lasers, though we did do a 30-foot diameter waterfall that circled and trapped her 14 dancers for 20 seconds. That got a good crowd reaction.”
Currently he’s busy readying the seasonal tours for Trans-Siberian Orchestra — two simultaneous tours running from October to January. They will feature lasers, including the new optically pumped semiconductor (OPS) lasers with a tighter beam.
The demand for lasers seems not to have peaked yet. Lead special effects designer for Strictly FX, Reid Nofsinger, notes that while maybe “everyone is sick of flames,” the laser alternative is not a cheap one. “Not everybody has access to $60,000 lasers,” he says.
He laughs that they are “spending lots of money” in beefing up their inventory with new equipment. Recently they bought eight brand new solid-state systems in addition to all the laser-related gear they already had.
Another trend is the embrace of wireless technology. This has been a great help in complicated shows like the Super Bowl, allowing for cues to be fired from any spot on the field. The technology is still evolving, though, and he says Strictly FX will take the latest technology and “beat it up and give [the manufacturers] feedback. It’s finally to the point where what we use is very reliable,” he says.
One of their biggest acts of the summer was Coldplay, an act that features lots of lasers in their indoor shows and pyro in outdoor stadiums and in Europe. “Right now, it seems what’s old is new,” Nofsinger says. “Five years ago, everybody did confetti; three years ago everyone stopped doing it. Now it’s crazy again. Coldplay had 32 machines blowing 200 pounds of custom butterfly confetti.”
Other unusual projects include a custom fabricated guitar for Keith Urban with LED-embedded lights. For Slayer, meanwhile, Strictly FX fabricated a big logo with built-in flames. This year the crew will be working with the NFL again, though that’s not the only pigskin-related sport they will be handling. “We did an event for the Lingerie Football League the other day. That was different,” Nofsinger notes. The full-contact indoor game features scantily-clad ladies for the fall season.
As far as the future goes, Nofsinger is excited about some of the lesser-known acts they are working with that are growing. “The more people they play to, the more effects they want as part of their acts,” he says. And always, they are working to make something old into something new. “Fire? Sure. But what if you made letters with it? Used different colors? We’re always trying to do things differently.”
