Justin Bieber’s Believe Tour, which began a year ago and runs through December, has the 19-year-old Canadian and his vast entourage flying around the world with more than 150 shows in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East, South Africa and Australia.
Apart from the look of the show’s opening, where Justin Bieber makes a winged entrance, tour director/production designer Tom Marzullo created the show visuals with little more than a one-word directive from Bieber and manager Scooter Braun — to make it “epic.”
The scale of the 18-truck arena tour gave the design team plenty of gear to work with — a sizable lighting rig to go along with the multi-deck stage, hydraulic lifts, pyrotechnics, lasers, LED screens and additional musicians and dancers.
Even so, Marzullo strived to adhere to the design principles he learned from Shep Gordon, manager for Alice Cooper and Luther Vandross, years ago — to “make anything that you do appear three times larger than it actually is.”
Tom Marzullo
Tour Director/Production Designer
“Having been there from the beginning, I took my understanding of what they were looking for and set about framing a concept in. I am incredibly proud of the design and production group for the Believe Tour. Justin’s original idea for the opening of the show was close to where we ended up. He was very involved with the music and the choreography, but aside from the opening, he pretty much left the production design to our team.
“Jon Chu directed Justin’s 3D feature film, Never Say Never, and he also directed the Beauty and a Beat music video. We had a great time working on the movie together, and he gelled well with Justin & Scooter. Jon is a joy to work with, and brought a cinematic eye to the design. When Jon joined the team, we approached the live show as if we were mapping out a movie script. It worked very well, and I intend to employ many of the same methods on future projects. Jon also brought a team of resources outside of the usual suspects. Garrett Grant and Cristobal Vallecillos came from the movie world and added a flavor that made a difference. In retrospect, I think we all took a little of each other’s world home with us, and there’s no doubt more tools and methodology is always a good thing.”
Team Approach
“I am a 100 percent believer in the team design approach. In my mind all of the ideas are evolutionary, and they grow exponentially by adding more expertise.
“One of my favorite things to do is to repurpose existing machinery and customize anew. It saves the artist money as well as helps the vendors.
“One of the first things that I do when a new project lands on my desk is go ‘warehouse exploring.’ I walk through the vendor warehouses and see what can be repurposed in a fresh way. On the Believe Tour, the centerpiece of the design is the giant ‘Whirly Gig.’ In its past life, it was used as a flying ‘B’ stage for other shows. Basically, the band would climb on this giant flown rotating platform and float over the audience for some acoustic numbers. We chose to remove the bottom platform and use the existing winch system for a circular lighting truss that can track up and down, rotate, and counter rotate.
Since the entire machine crawls along a double spine, it can be placed anywhere over the center stage and the thrust. By automating the center video wall to track on and offstage, we can place the Whirly Gig upstage of the main LED wall, open it on cue and have the Whirly Gig track out over the stage. This is how we accomplished Justin’s winged entrance. The crane was actually a repurposed idea courtesy of my friend and talented designer, Brian Hartley. We needed a way to get Justin out to the crowd without losing seats. Walking through the SGPS warehouse in Las Vegas, Robert Achlimbari spotted the crane and suggested that we imbed it in the thrust for JB. It has worked flawlessly for over 100 shows. Thank you Mr. Hartley!”
Tracking Experience
“One of the innovations on this tour that I am most proud of is the tracking lighting pods that travel along the dasher line. I wanted to involve the audience into an immersive experience as well as get great light at the end of the 40-foot thrust. The tracking pods (my guys call them the ‘sleds’) constantly change positions throughout the show and place 7K Syncrolites, Sharpys and MAC 3K’s anywhere we want along the path. The support trusses that extend into the audience also provided excellent special FX positions.”
Familiar Faces
“We have all of the same vendors returning from the first tour. From Nick (Jackson) of Chaos Visual Productions, Brian (White) on the automation and rigging side from SGPS, All Access’s account executive Robert Achlimbari. My longtime friend and working associate Robert Roth represents Christie Lites. Ted Maccabee represents Strictly FX. Back line comes from Crossover Entertainment — Billy Johnson is the account executive, and Danny Akin is my lead back line tech.”
Lighting Co-Design
“Chris Kuroda came to us midway through the process via a suggestion by Dan Kanter, Justin’s musical director and dyed-in-the-wool Phish fan. Because the automation took up a large part of the overhead real estate, I already had the truss configuration completed when Chris arrived. He and Andrew ‘Gif’ Giffin took the plot and programmed a masterful light show. I wanted a more sophisticated spotlight design that is usually only seen on Broadway and the West End. Nick Van Nostrand accepted and rose to that challenge. Nick’s efforts allowed Chris and Gif to focus on the rig. And Reid Nofsinger, Doug Cenko and Mark Grega created some truly spectacular pyro and laser FX. Now, 100-plus shows later, we are still making
improvements. With 10 shows to go on the final North American leg, I think we have a good chance of finishing the design.
Truly Believe
“I am truly proud of this crew and this show, I am grateful to Justin Bieber, Scooter Braun, Allison Kaye, Solomon Smallwood, Jon Baden, Bill Thompson, Kim Marion and Vicki Huxel for supporting the creative vision and providing a truly great opportunity to give all who attend another reason to ‘Believe.’ Years ago, Shep Gordon (manager for Alice Cooper and Luther Vandross) taught me that the key to creating a memorable show that is equally as successful on the financial statements as it is to the public is to make anything that you do appear three times larger than it actually is… If it is a five-truck show, make it look like 15. In our case, we took 18 trucks and filled the arena. I want Shep to know that the formula still works!”
Nick Van Nostrand
Lighting Director
“The design team of Tom Marzullo and Chris Kuroda have created a terrific show, which is definitely the most intricately cued and programmed show I’ve had the pleasure of running. All songs were complete when I took over as lighting director — when Chris left to go back out with his longtime client Phish. For the odd occasion where things get changed up or there is a special guest, Chris also created a fairly elaborate busking page that I can turn to. The show’s overall attention to detail is really amazing. With well over 1,000 cues, it really keeps things interesting and keeps me on my toes every night. With all the lighting being driven manually, we have a lot of fun with it every night.”
Crew
Tour Director/Production Designer: Tom Marzullo
Creative Director: Jon Chu
Co-Lighting Designers: Tom Marzullo, Chris Kuroda
Art Directors: Cristobal Valecillos, Isabel Aranguren
Lighting Directors: Chris Kuroda, Nick Van Nostrand
Production Administrator: Vicki Huxel
Production Stage Managers: James Gould, Mike Morobitto
Talent Stage Manager: James “Scrappy” Stassen, Michael Vargas
Load Master: Dale Henry
Lighting Programmers: Andrew Giffin, Mark Butts
Lighting Crew Chief: Scott Amiro
Lighting Techs: Arnold Pereira, Conrad Dew
Spot Tech: Paul Reeves
Artist Road Manager: Kenny Hamilton
Cast Manager: Josh Williams
Head Rigger: Billy Daves
Riggers: Dale Gauldin, Tom Cusimano
Master Electrician: Doug Eder
Syncrolite Tech: Travis Slater
Video Director: Mark Stutsman
Video Crew Chief: Dustin King
Video Engineer: David Cruz
Projectionist: Chris West
Spyder Operator: Ken Delvo
LED Tech: L Ptah
Automation Crew Chief: Jeremiah
Anderson
Automation: Alex Dew, Lan Turner, Jacob Murray, Kyle Wolfson, Len Purciful, Mike Williams, Trey Welch, Neil Welch
Lead Backline Tech: Danny Akin
Backline: Justin “OJ” Alavi, Joshua “Herbie” Gaunt
Pyro/Lasers Crew Chief: Grant Sellers
Pyro/Laser Tech: Anthony Amato
Pyro Tech: Brook Blomquist
Laser Operator: Nick Meyer
Prop Master: KC Jackson
Props: Joshua “J-Mo” Miller, Samantha Sullivan
Head Carpenter: Jesus “Chuy” Arroyo
Carpenters: Dylan Lovelace, Phillip “Phideaux” Walton, Arturo Martinez, Ben Ullman, Matt Garrett
Lighting Co: Christie Lites (Robert Roth)
Staging: All Access (Robert Achlimbari)
Rigging/Automation: SGPS (Brian White)
Video Co: Chaos Visual Productions (Nick Jackson)
Pyro & Lasers: Strictly FX (Ted MacCabee)
Trucking: Ozark Mountain Tour Trucks (Dale & Denise Henry)
Back Line: Crossover Entertainment (Billy Johnson)
Audio: Clair Global (Todd Johnson)
Buses: PTS Coaches/Roberts Brothers Coaches (Roger Burris)
Gear
2 grandMA full size console
4 MA Lighting NPUs
148 Martin MAC 101s
54 Clay Paky Sharpys
26 Martin MAC 2000 Wash w/ Beam kits
24 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs
12 Martin MAC III Profiles
23 Martin MAC III Performance fixtures
18 Martin MAC Auras
9 Syncrolite SX7s
8 Philips Color Kinetics Color Blast 12s
12 Atomic 3000 strobes w/ scrollers
16 4 Cell ACL blinders
2 Lycian M2 touring spots
1 ETC Sensor rack (24 ch)
F-Type Truss from Christie Lites
Dance Tower Truss from Christie Lites
For more tour photos of Justin Bieber’s “Believe” world tour by Steve Jennings, go to www.plsn.me/BieberExtras
