Lighting Co
Upstaging
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
Lighting/Set Designer/Director: Jason Alexander Bullock
Crew Chief: Mike Ponsiglione
Lighting Techs: Blake Elkin, Owen Zoars, Jason “Mookie” Blaylock
Video Director: Dave Jacobs
Laser Tech: Richard Gonsalves
Set Carpenter: Dan Gurchik
Video Crew: Sixx Williams, Nelson Funk, Zach White
Riggers: Nick Purciful, Yader Mena
Production Manager: Howard Hopkins
Tour Manager: Ivan Copelan
Tour Coordinator: Jennifer Bullock
Upstaging Rep: John Huddleston
Trucking: Roadshow Services
Staging: All Access Staging & Productions
Video: Chaos Visual Productions
Lasers: Lightwave International
Gear
1 ChamSys MagicQ MQ300 console
64 Ayrton MagicPanel 602 LED panels
12 Martin MAC Viper Profiles
18 Martin MAC III Profiles
16 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs
14 Vari*Lite VLX Wash fixtures
18 Martin Atomic strobes
4 Reel EFX DF-50 hazers
4 Jem ZR33 smoke machines
3 Jem AF-1000 DMX fans
1 LED Main Wall
More photos by Steve Jennings at www.plsn.me/KhalifaExtras
WIZ KHALIFA Under The Influence Tour 2013
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings
PLSN caught the opening night of Wiz Khalifa’s Under The Influence Tour, designed and directed by Jason Bullock. Having just finished a Korn European tour, with little time Bullock flew from Sweden straight to Chicago’s Upstaging lighting to start programming the show. This tour also features the Ayrton MagicPanel 602 fixture which Bullock discusses below.
Jason Alexander Bullock (Production Lighting & Set Designer) –
“I was the LD on Wiz Khalifa’s last leg using a system that was already hanging by the time I got the call. As we started to put this tour together management asked if I could take over the show design. Benjy and David (management personal) thought it was best if I became the artistic conduit to make this tour. All told, their was only 2.5 days at Upstaging to get the lighting and lasers all programmed and then 3 days at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mt. View, CA where the tour would start, to add video and the set all together. It was done in a short time, in stages.
Concept & control –
We spent a month getting all the design concepts nailed down. About half way through the process we needed a set. I designed one that fit into the lighting system and filled out the stage. Then we added to that lasers and video. The set is covered in video panels to be able to set the stage anywhere the artist was thinking. All run through a Catalyst server from Upstaging. All the video panels and cameras came from the guys at Chaos Visual Productions. The laser system came from the guys at Lightwave International. The laser’s themselves are written into the lighting cues with the video. The lasers work as media servers with pages and cues. This connectivity leads for a lot of DMX addressing but the overall result speaks for itself. Everything is very tight and timed. All because everything is channeled through one design and control surface..
A new fixture in town –
We have on this tour the new Ayrton MagicPanel 602 lighting fixtures and I LOVE THIS LIGHT! I was sent a video clip from Plaza by my old mentor Richard “Nook” Schoenfeld right after the Plaza show. He said it was right up my alley. Well, he was right. I passed the clip around to John Huddleston (Upstaging Inc.) and we agreed they looked very promising. Once the design process was finished we all tried to see if we could get the 64 units in the design (and if they were going to be built). Upstaging and Infinity Point Design have in the past had great luck rolling out new units. Last time it was with the Martin Aura fixture we first used with Korn the day they had their US release. The MagicPanels are a complicated fixture. To get the maximum out of it (bit mapping, video playback, etc) requires 160 channels each. This large amount of data handling requires a new way to handle this much data. Having only 3 units per universe leads to lots of copper. We worked around this by running Artnet to each pod and breaking it to DMX at the light location via Martin ether to 8 box. Programming them with a Chamsys console solved a lot of issues involved with playing video back through them. Only because the bitmap utility allows you to load video into the console and send it to the fixtures rather than needing a dedicated server to take care of it.
Lending hands –
Wiz has hired a great production staff. While I was out of the country all of them (Production Manager Howard Hopkins, Tour Manager Ivan Copelan and Tour Coordinator Jennifer Bullock) all took the lead getting my ideas to the vendors. Without them none of this would have happened. All the vendors involved were absolutely fantastic! Trying to assemble all these different aspects and funnel them through one control surface is challenging. Being out of the country for five weeks prior didn’t make things any easier. John Huddleston, Chuck Spector (Upstaging), and Mike Ponsiglione (crew chief) managed to get everything together so the second I landed from Europe I was able to start programming long nights.
New & different –
We are blessed and cursed working in this industry. Getting an artist that is this into bringing the newest gear on the market is a rarity. Wiz’s music allows for lots of radically different looks. Allowing sections of the video and lasers to all take their moment in the sun. Bringing new gear out is a roll of the dice sometimes. If you base your entire design on something new and it doesn’t work out, well your in trouble. Infinity Point Design put this job together with every vendor involved stepping up and understanding the total show concept and their part of it. I couldn’t have made this without all the staff that makes it happen. Thanks to everyone who made this happen, we will do it again soon…”
