I’ve viewed a lot of huge cool productions this year. The photos I always see are giant productions that require trim heights of 50 feet and stage widths of 80 feet or more. This is great if you are playing stadiums and the local Enormo-dome. But to be honest, outside of the EDM festivals, there are only a handful of artists out there that play these kinds of venues exclusively. But that doesn’t seem to stop certain production designers from building unpractical touring packages.
A Workable Design
I’m sorry, but I have to laugh at certain concert tours as they adjust to the fact that they have just loaded 18 trucks of gear out of Brooklyn’s Barclay Center in four hours. But guess what? They’re going to drive 50 miles down the road and try and shove all this stuff into the Garden State Arts Center tomorrow. The production will spend half the day just trying to determine what the show really needs to hang and what just won’t fit in the gig that day. They have to compromise the show now, and half the stuff the act is paying for will lie idle in a truck.
Designers really need to work hand-in-hand with production managers. These guys are hired for their expertise in common sense, stage logistics and keeping costs down. Too often I see designers just come up with something that looks cool, but have to leave it to a PM to figure out the logistics to build it all. Then when the guy points out all the faults in a design, the designer doesn’t want to hear about cost overruns or anything else that may cloud his vision of his art. But it has to be done. I’ve seen a lot of finger pointing when stuff doesn’t fit. Somebody has to tell the star why some facets of the show that looked cool last night will not play today.
The production manager always has to have a plan B. It helps when a designer has an idea of how he can make his overall design fit in a smaller venue, but still keep the aesthetic of the show intact. I recently won a bid on a design I submitted against a few colleagues. I think I got the gig for two reasons. First, I listened very intently to all the guidelines. Second, I designed something modular. The PM straight up told me that he needed a unique production that can play the quaint Beacon Theater in NYC one month, then the Staples Center arena the next month. It had to be big when we went big, but it needed to scale down without losing a single item from the show. Designing within your budget and means is challenging at times, but I think it separates the men from the boys.
The PM’s Role
I think good production managers really round out any set fabrication. Guys like Jake Berry and Chris Lamb are instrumental in figuring out how to tackle big designs. They will flat out change an entire structural design with the engineers, because they are thinking of the time, labor force and packaging for transport of their production. I’ve seen PMs like Jordan Coopersmith design really cool sets and do a great job of packaging their model. Then stay out and run the ship within budget. Tom Marzullo designed Justin Bieber’s show soup to nuts. Then he stayed out there all year long to run it smoothly.
On the other hand, I have seen production managers who fancy themselves production designers do a crap job. I have seen these people commit major design flaws, then cut corners on production values to cover their budget. “Sure, we can do this entire production for $60K per week,” they will promise. Then go and rent the oldest, cheap light fixtures they can find. They will spec lo-res video walls that don’t do justice to the expensive content the band has rendered. It goes on and on. They will get their budget in line, but pay for it with the blood and sweat of the crew. And when stuff doesn’t work, they certainly don’t stand in the crosshairs. These types point fingers.
Lights vs. Video
I once saw a show where an artist had a wall of low-res video panels hanging upstage. Like so many people before them that year, this designer decided to hang lights upstage of the video panels. So they hung a bunch of blinky lights behind the video. The lights chased at times and flashed on cue, but they really didn’t do much. It kept an extra lighting guy busy each day to hang the crap. The video was all custom content played through a media server, and it was good. During the show, I would occasionally see these upstage lights flash white on the screen. After the show, all I could think was that a real designer would have hung these particular lights one time. Then shoot video of every chase and flash they do. Then play those same flash effects on a different layer on the media server at the precise time. The show was all time coded, so it would’ve worked the exact same. But it would have saved the band probably $10K per week in gear, labor and truck space.
I think the concert touring business is full of genuinely nice people who share ideas. It’s hard to come up with something new that’s never been done before, but it can be done. I often use some form of a stage gimmick I may have seen 20 years ago, or a variation on a stock theater gag. I often see things outside of a stage, say in a department store, and try and figure out how cool that would look on stage. Does this mean I’m original? Maybe, maybe not.
There are some pretty narcissistic designers out there. I’ve actually seen quotes where they praise themselves, acting as if they are the only ones who think outside the box. They call magazine publishers and demand that their events be written up with praise and include colored 8 x 10 glossy photos. Meanwhile, the quiet, respected pioneers like Paul Normandale and Roy Bennett keep coming up with fresh designs and get noticed, without asking to be.
The power of a beautiful stage rendering can be seductive. Bands often ask several designers to draw up an idea to present to the act. Then the act will choose which design they’d like to see for their show. This is often based on the lovely pictures. This is great, but the PM needs to show the artist and management the dollar amounts, as well as point out the logistical feasibility and other pros and cons of each design. This is where practicality often fights design. The design is only as cool as the people who figure out how it goes together.
Practicality vs. Design
Last year I saw a pic of a custom stage that looked pretty cool at first. The downstage edge of the set was jagged and formed a bunch of pointed thrusts out toward the audience. It was lit nicely and certainly was original. But there was one huge flaw from my perspective. There was no way for a player on stage to run from onstage from one end to another in a straight line. I constantly blind lead singers with two bright xenon spotlights. These guys need to know there is a solid stage across the front. Lining the edge of a stage with LED tape may be helpful, but I would rather see the artist singing to the crowd as he prances around the stage instead of looking down and watching his step constantly. All I could think was, “Why didn’t the design team just build a square stage and paint a floor that depicts jagged edges across the front?” I guess that would be practical and not original.
