Working with “local musicians” took on a whole new meaning for Dublin, Ireland-based Cormac Jackson. During the pandemic lockdown, U2’s Bono and The Edge reimagined and re-recorded some of their old iconic hits, then invited friend/TV host David Letterman to join them in a special performance of these songs at the old Ambassador Cinema building in their Dublin hometown. The production/lighting and stage designer was asked to design the lighting for this concert featured in the resulting documentary, Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman. Filmed in late 2022 and released in March, the Disney+ special was directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville with Director of Photography Graham Willoughby.
Lighting was largely a collaboration between Jackson and Willoughby. “I did get on a call with Alex Murphy prior, who is U2’s Lighting Director/Designer,” Jackson explains. “I got some brilliant and insightful insight regarding key light and overall dislikes and likes, which was helpful but nothing that said what was and wasn’t possible. The discussions prior brought us to a point where the live performance design wouldn’t look overly staged, and the venue, which is an unused theater, wouldn’t look overly changed, almost as if the band were rehearsing and it was more impromptu. We did add a considerable amount of lighting but the majority of it isn’t obviously seen or visible.”
The look he was going for was “cinematic and stark,” he adds, “which I think we achieved with some considered lamp placement and careful use of color. I avoided big gobo looks or any fixture movement within a track, so it is all about color temperature/colors and lamp placement and intensity.”
Willoughby and Jackson kept in constant contact prior to and up to the shoot as they had a limited amount of time together at the venue. “There were plenty of email/Zoom and phone calls as they were building in Dublin and Graham was in NYC,” he notes. Jackson gives kudos to the lighting suppliers and lighting programmer Darragh McCauliffe. “It was an amazing event to be involved with, with a huge team supporting both myself and Graham, and the end result is something I’m very proud to have been a part of and a definite career highlight,” Jackson says. For a short trailer, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMkGdSfiKm8
Knight Time
Celebrating along with the NHL Vegas Golden Knights in their recent 2023 Stanley Cup Championship victory is LD Sean Guarino, who’s been lighting the professional ice hockey team full time since their founding in 2017.The LD designs and programs everything from the pre-game intro to special moments when scoring goals. He also controls the CO2 and other special effects from his console in their T-Mobile Arena residence. Pumping up the crowd excites him as well, inspiring “crazy ideas” to top each season with the team’s full support.
“Two seasons ago, I started putting lasers in their helmets,” he says. “This season they gave me a bigger budget and I probably tripled the lighting rig.” The team has changed his life and opened more lighting gigs such as figure skating with NBC Sports. Supplying all these projects led to him forming his own rental company. “I’m blessed,” he says.
Erykah Badu
Martin Thomas is playing double duty as designer and production manager of Erykah Badu’s Unfollow Me Tour. K. Major Wynn is handling the lighting director duties of the Relentless Entertainment Design LLC/BaduWorld design, with Skipp Raftery on special effects and Michael Clark on video and projection. The tour hits U.S. arenas through July, followed by a fall U.K. trek.
Anita Baker
Charles Ford of VUE Show Design shares a few recent projects including Strength of a Woman Festival, and the lighting and production design for Anita Baker’s Songstress Tour, which runs through the U.S. into December. “Ms. Baker wanted a show that felt cohesive, simple and clean with bold and impactful lighting looks,” Ford explains. “Working with our programmer (and my brother) Mason Ford, we were able to build out a show that reflected the dynamic [quality] of Anita’s show.”
Quick Cues
- AJ Pen is “doing a small design” as production and lighting designer for up-and-coming Canadian singer-songwriter, Lauren Spencer Smith. Connor Brashier is creative director. “The challenge is to fit a small set and floor lighting package into a trailer towed by the tour bus,” he says. The Mirror Tour kicks off its North American run on July 14 with Lighting Director Amy Edge.
- Carl Burnett picks up the role of production manager along with his lighting designer duties for Heart’s Ann Wilson and her backing band, Tripsitter. The North American tour runs July through December.
- Celine Royer designed and launched RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Werq the World Tour 2023, then headed out as lighting director for Alicia Keys at the end of June.
- Jack Davis is out with ODESZA this summer as lighting director, programmer, and board op for Lighting Designer/Programmer Kyle Kegan of Voyage Productions.
- Michael Duncan is in the UK and Europe with Generation Sex playing festivals and a few headlining shows. “Once again, it’s me, a console, and a media server,” the designer says, noting that Boxcat Studios created the content.
- Paul “Smiffy” Smith is designer/director on a run with English singer Rag’n’Bone Man in Europe until the end of August.
Keep Debi Moen posted with news of your gigs and tours. Reach her at dmoen@plsn.com
