Anticipation heightens, the drums are pounding a beat, and the lighting follows the percussion. Then the moment the crowd waited for: in a flash, the artist makes a surprise entrance as she hurtles into view from behind the stage, launched into the air and landing feet-first onto the arena stage. Billie Eilish has kicked off a new show on her Happier Than Ever, The World Tour 2022.
The stage is clean and uncluttered. Everything is covered with LED screens—even the risers that elevate her brother, Finneas, on keyboards/guitar and drummer Andrew Marshall to various heights during the show.
It’s a balancing act to blend the technology that blankets this immersive experience. PLSN spoke with Lighting Designer Ben Dalgleish of Human Person and Lighting Director Tony Caporale about the collaborative process with Moment Factory on the entire creative design, direction, content creation and operation. The production comes to life each night through lighting vendor Upstaging, video vendors PRG and Vis-A-Vis Video, TAIT staging, SPGS automation, and special effects by StrictlyFX.
Ben Dalgleish
Lighting Designer
Talk about your introduction to the Billie Eilish camp and the starting point for this tour.
I started working with Billie in 2021 when myself and Human Person collaborated with Moment Factory on production design and content for that festival show. It was a really great taste of things to come going into this year and the headline tour. The tour was of course timed with the release of her new album Happier Than Ever, which is an album that travels through many different musical styles. I knew coming into the show that we would have the opportunity to create unique lighting for heavy rock, dance, even Bossa Nova moments. The design had to be flexible to work with all those different styles; pretty one moment and subtle as a sledgehammer the next.
Knowing that video content was going to play such a large role in the show, we went with a transparent LED Wall as one of the main features of the production design. We used the ROE Visual Vanish 8 LED panels [from PRG]. To support the content, I wanted to have a large array of lighting behind the screen on automation that could move into different positions throughout the show. LED is everywhere! Every bit of the stage is an LED screen including the automated ramp, band pods and walkway.
There’s a lot of movement from the artist and automation, and ambient light from the massive video screen. How did those factors influence your lighting specifications and your lighting placement?
The prospect of having LED literally everywhere on was definitely a driving factor in the design, for both the lighting placement and lights themselves. I wanted to place a large flown diamond as a main lighting feature to have something recognizable that could provide architecture that was similar to what the floor LED setup was but was also its own unique piece. We also had automated trusses inside this diamond that could change the shape of the whole stage by flying in and out.
Besides the truss arrangement I wanted to incorporate some new fixtures. We used two unique lights—the first being the SGM G-7 BeaSt, which I positioned in an orientation of three lights per pod. The goal was to create the classic god-like look in a unique way. Billie has a song called “NDA” and I designed the base formation knowing exactly how I wanted to light that song before we got to rehearsal, which was imposing beams from the ceiling that she would walk through. Those lights are flexible so in another song, “ilomilo,” the orientation and the movement of the lights was designed to replicate an underwater creature to continue with the theme of the underwater journey. We are always trying to match the lighting programming with the music, the lyrical content and the visual on the screen in interesting ways.
The other light that I wanted to feature was the Acme Gemini. I was blown away by how effective it could be in multiple uses. It’s a strong linear fixture. When lights are hung end to end, it creates a curtain of light, but also has an effective zoom. Of course, the secret sauce in that fixture is that it has the white strobe on the back side of the head, so it looks similar to a GLP JDC1 white strobe, which was another fixture we used. Finally having infinite pan and tilt, was an effective look and with one cell on it looked similar to a Robe Spikie, which was another fixture we had in the rig. I was trying to make combinations of lights using multiple fixtures.
I normally prefer to use a multi-function fixture rather than a separate spot and wash fixture. The Claypaky Scenius Unico does every job under the sun from washing the stage, to a beam moment such as the architectural looks in “Oxytocin,” to key lighting the artist. Having a large amount of one quality hybrid spot fixture is the most effective design choice for this show. The Unico look nice in large numbers!
We used [TMB] Solaris Flare LR units to outline all the architecture on the stage, both onstage and in the air, most of the time as a subtle accent. There was a real goal to use lighting in the way that some tours would use scenic.
Talk about the lighting that continues from the stage out into the audience.
Continuing the lighting into the arena was a big priority for myself and Tarik Mikou, the Creative Director. Billie’s connection with the fans is one of the reasons why the show is so great; they are such a big part of the show. So, I wanted to reflect this by having the lighting not just contained to the stage but also over and around the audience. We ended up with four automated towers of lighting with Robe MegaPointes and SGM BeaSts that would move into different positions throughout the show as well as two long lines of Unicos running all the way nearly to FOH.
What are your favorite lighting moments in the show?
The goal was to really push the envelope for a lighting show that also featured a large video component. We worked with the content team to have as many dynamic back-and-forth moments between lighting and video. In the song “Lost Cause” we had a really dramatic moment between I-Mag of Billie switching to a strong diamond Gemini look behind the blow-through LED screen.
The other look would be “Goldwing”—we took inspiration from the song and the visual created, to create an interesting look that featured the Gemini fixtures as if they were bending light, which was masterfully programmed by Kasper Iseger. A lot of time was spent trying out looks and essentially, we would be on version five of the song until we were happy with it in the lighting programming.
How did the collaborations with everyone go?
Collaborating with Moment Factory, particularly Tarik and James, is always exciting and enjoyable. There is no shortage of good ideas working with that team! On the lighting front, I was incredibly fortunate to be working with Tony Caporale, whose knowledge of Billie and her music is invaluable to the success of the show, and our programmer Kasper Iseger who put in a huge amount of work and managed to flawlessly translate my hand gestures and bizarre references into very solid programming. We all pushed each other to make the best show we could for Billie, and we are all really happy with how it turned out!
Tony Caporale
Lighting Director
Talk about collaborating with Ben Dalgleish.
This will be my fourth year working with Billie Eilish. Working with Ben has been a pleasure. I knew with his creativity and my knowledge of the artist, it would combine into something special. We knew out of the gate we wanted a lot of each fixture type. It always made me laugh because I would be like, “Ben, these Acme Geminis are great, have a look.” After he’d check them out, he would ask, ‘How many we could get our hands on?’ Since there is a gigantic video look, we definitely knew there had to be a lot of powerful fixtures selected to make sure lighting’s presence still felt strong.
Having worked with the artist in the past, how did you approach this design?
There were some ideas that Tarik Mikou, our creative director from Moment Factory, wanted to revisit. In 2020 before the shutdown part of the creative idea was to have automated audience trusses but as we began to refine things those towers didn’t make it into the show, and then of course Covid happened. However, fast forwarding to this tour, Ben came up with a nice concept for them and really helped make unique moments with the towers for this tour. On the other hand, coming out of the Covid shutdown there were a lot of new things to explore with a new album, and a new vibe. So, with that all considered we wanted to make sure it was as fresh as possible. We even gutted a lot of the show file to give a fresh take on building the show this year.
Since Ben has the lead on the lighting design portion of the show, he was still cool enough to keep me included to help out with the drawings and fixture selections, for which I was very thankful. I also had a great experience working with his team at Human Person building pre viz environments for us with Depence2 to get a jump on lighting programming. Working with a new programmer was a delight as well. Kasper Iseger is probably one of the best out there and humble enough to share his knowledge and be a solid collaborator. While it was a lot of new things for me, I learned a lot from a group of solid humans.
You also worked on Billie Eilish’s special for Disney+. What effect did that lighting experience have on this tour?*
It made me take a closer look for modern lights that give off a retro vibe. For the Disney+ shoot, we had used the Vari-Lite VL6000 but for the festival shows and tour, Ben wanted to use the SGM G-7 BeaSts. The face of both of those lights gives off the classic search light look, which would work nicely for the show. Plus, once we traded off to the G-7 BeaSts there were extra features in those fixtures we got to show off, especially the LED strobe in the middle of the fixture! The most recent album Happier Than Ever has this Old Hollywood style to it, so the team wanted to be sure to resonate that with the lighting in some way. [*For more details on the Disney+ shoot, see PLSN, Nov. 2021, page 24 —ed.]
How do the video elements affect the lighting?
We definitely had to think differently. This show has always been huge on screen visuals so Ben wanted to implement a powerful enough lighting design to stand up to it. The [ROE] Vanish LED video choice he and Moment Factory made played a big part because we were now able to put automated trusses behind a big video look, so we ended up using four automated HUD trusses with Robe MegaPointes and Acme Geminis. We knew the MegaPointes would have the strength to output well behind the video wall but adding in a newer fixture from Acme called Gemini was a great touch because they are a double-sided fixture with RGBW LED on its front side and an Atomic Strobe-like portion on the back side of the fixture and it can do infinite pan and tilt! So, when you have a gadget fixture such as that with Kasper’s programming, the looks we got were super unique. You know you’ve done something special when we get all sorts of questions about those fixtures on social media; they’ve definitely been a work horse for this tour!
We got some phenomenal looks through the Vanish product. As I mentioned before we needed the fire power to make our presence felt but combine that with automated looks from TAIT we were getting, took it to another level. I remember Tarik wanted the automated trusses to look like a ‘V’ for a moment in the show to compliment the lyrics from the song, “Bellyache.” Or just the random movements for the set closer, “Happier Than Ever” to replicate the chaos of a storm when the song rocks out at the end. Or just a simple 45˚ angle or the four trusses we did for one of Billie’s old ballads, “Lovely”. I remember recommending that look because we were trying to find a unique look we hadn’t seen yet and I said, “Hell, let’s slant them all!”
How do the diamond shaped stage and rig affect the lighting?
This was a new idea based on the stage design. Usually when Moment Factory comes up with a stage design, they show Billie different options with shapes to see what she may be into. The overhead diamond truss configuration didn’t exist until late in the game when the stage shape was decided. I really liked the diamond choice Ben made because it complimented the stage well. I’m quite the fan of unconventional shapes because you get more unique beam angles with those kinds of shapes especially when you make big fan looks with the fixtures. But yet you can also point the fixtures straight into themselves to give unique symmetrical beams and even more so you can zoom the lights out and it looks like a huge pool of light blanketing the inside of the structure.
Describe your interaction with the video team.
I had to work pretty closely with our Notch designer Ryan Sheppard and our Media Server Programmer Andréanne Lafrance. We use a number of Notch effects in the show for I-Mag so I had to make sure I was providing enough lighting output on the artist to help the effects show up nicely. This show uses a lot of color for Billie’s key lighting so at times I would have to double additional fixtures from the FollowMe [followspot] system to get the effects to pop more on the screen, while in other songs that would be in white we could stick to the script for the FollowMe target assignments. Another neat thing we got to use is the PSN [PosiStageNet] data from FollowMe to allow the effects to trail with the artist on a few songs. One song has a water element that looks like Billie is walking through puddles of water, then on another song there’s a lightning streak following her on the video floor. Pretty neat!
What were you and Dalgleish looking for to achieve, as he describes, “the right look?”
Ben strives for the perfect look on each song. When you’re in the heat of programming session it can seem strenuous when the looks are constantly changing but in the end, we knew the reward to keep searching and refining the looks would pay off. Having Kasper as the programmer really created a nice balance between us three because we all understand how to execute a show whether it is design, programming, etc. I still chuckle because we each had our own console at FOH for rehearsals—which might seem like a lot but when you think about it, if there’s something one of us can dive in to help facilitate what the other is thinking it really helps keep the creative process of the lighting moving forward. We each had a cool perspective on finding the right looks, some were planned, then on others we said, ‘let’s just try this and see how it plays out.’ So in that retrospect Kasper was very much involved with the creativity, but also is the technical wizard. We got the best of both worlds working with him.
Talk about automation in the show—the intro, when Billie Eilish bursts through the stage on the TAIT Toaster Lift, and the stage ramp that tilts up toward the audience.
The TAIT Toaster and the ramp are really important parts of the show. The Toaster moment serves as the second part of the reveal for Billie. In the beginning we hide her on a zip lift for a quick glimpse behind the video wall. Tarik really likes things to be a mystery and keep the crowd guessing where the artist is at for the show reveal. So, after this quick glimpse she is loaded into the Toaster afterward. Once the end of the intro track makes a huge boom sound is the moment Billie springs into her final reveal to start the show. James Richardson, our technical director from Moment Factory, did a superb job coordinating all of the timing for the show calls.
The ramp can either be flat for more of a viewing perspective for the audience in the higher seats but when it tilts up it can be a nice viewing angle from the general admission floor. That’s what truly makes this show unique because you have a nice view of the production no matter where you are seated in the arena.
Describe the role of special effects in the design.
In the past, we have had automated elements in the show but not much special effects. A lot of us on the team have a relationship with our friends at Strictly FX so they were the obvious choice. We had a great experience out of the gate for the Disney + shoot and the work that they did for us there. Then they also did the Billie Eilish festival run and her brother Finneas’ solo tour last year. So, I feel there was good momentum heading into this tour with everyone being familiar with each other. Much like our lighting programming, the team was searching for the right looks and to decide how they would either compliment or drive a part of the visual for specific songs. Doug Cenko did a wonderful job programming the lasers. I liked how for certain songs like “My Strange Addiction” and “Halley’s Comet” it focused more on an immersive visual with Billie within the laser projections. While a song like “OverHeated” utilized mirror bounces with multiple beams spanning around the arena while Billie would be riding the SGPS turret at FOH.
What are your favorite moments?
My first favorite part of the show is the low automation move we do with the vertical towers out in the house for the song, “Oxytocin.” Tarik wanted the lighting to look like a cage surrounding the four towers using the Robe Pointes on the truss. Along with that and the SGM G-7 BeaSts mounted on the bottom of the trusses we use intense strobe effects pounding down into the audience at a low trim height. [It’s a] Very intense Nine Inch Nails kind of look.
My second favorite has to be the Gemini blow-through look for the song, “Lost Cause.” It was one of the songs we reprogrammed a couple of times trying to get the right look. It was originally supposed to be all I-Mag on the main video wall but Kasper did this tilt effect with the Geminis through the wall when it was turned off and we had the trusses behind the video wall in a diamond formation and we discovered this extremely powerful look with them. We loved it so much we pleaded to get that look into the show. After some discussion we would then trade off the lighting look with the I-Mag video in certain portions of the song back and forth. Sometimes you find these kind of things randomly!
Any comments about working with the Upstaging team?
I have been working with Upstaging for quite a few years now on tours. Crew Chief Wayne Kwiat and I have been working together now for three tours so there’s a good relationship there even when he probably wants to put me in a headlock as brothers do from time to time. I always appreciate the level of service John Huddleston and the team at the office give us for tours. The techs have a lot to deal with on this tour and I am proud to have them out here making it happen every night. Special thanks to Marta, Coop, Andy, Ray Ray, Abbey, Donati, and Myranda!
Happier Than Ever, The World Tour 2022 started Feb. 3 in the U.S. and has dates set through Sept. 30 in Australia.
Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever World Tour
Production Team
- Creative Direction, Production Design & Show Direction: Moment Factory
- Moment Factory Creative Director: Tarik Mikou
- Moment Factory Technical Director: James Richardson
- Production Manager: Nicole Erin Massey
- Tour Manager: Brian Marquis
- Assistant Tour Manager: Lauren Millar
- Stage Manager: Jayy Jutting
- Production Coordinator: Dick Massey
- Assistant Stage Manager: Donny Clay
- Creative Consultants: Maggie Baird, Chelsea Dodson, Laura Ramsay, Michelle An
- Lighting Design: Ben Dalgleish and Human Person
- Lighting Director: Tony Caporale
- Lighting Programmer: Kasper Iseger
- Video Content Direction: Moment Factory
- Video Content Production: Moment Factory, Human Person, Sila Sveta
- Multimedia Director: Moment Factory
- Notch Designer: Ryan Sheppard
- Video Content Artists: Moment Factory, Charlotte Risch, Antonin Gaud, Zachary Blais, Hélène Astier, Ian Valentine, Aron Johnson, Matthew Cummer, Frank Xavier, Lourenca Alencar
- Video Director: Stuart Merser
- Media Server Programmer & Operator: Andréanne Fine Lafrance
- Video Crew Chief: David Keipert
- Video Engineer: Dakota Bennett
- Video Crew: Lorenzo Loche, Rachel Hudson, Noel Galan, Jordan Wesolek, Derrick Briinger, Donovan Delabruere, Nick Pishghadamian
- Lighting Crew Chief: Wayne Kwiat Jr.
- Lighting Crew: Marta Kwiat, Ray Castro, Abbey Rae Wright, Adam Cooper, Andy Cordova, Chris Donati, Myranda Risley
- Head Carpenter: Jack Deitering
- Carpentry Crew: Stuart Farnell, Mike Boyd, Dana Vanella, Robby Floyd
- Head Rigger: Mattie Rynes
- Rigging: Dion Pearce, Tom Lambert II
- Automation Crew Chief: Andrew Johnstone
- Automation: Bryson Duheaney, Brian Benauer, Dillon Leslie
- Arm Tech: Patrick King, Kevin Kunkle
- Playback: Kyle Fournier
- Video Playback System: disguise
- Special Effects & Laser Crew Chief: Scott “Bull” Allen
- Laser Programming: Doug Cenko
- Strictly FX Crew: Tanner Morris, Brianna Osorio
Production Vendors
- Lighting Company: Upstaging
- Video Companies: PRG, Vis-A-Vis Video
- Lasers & Special Effects: Strictly FX
- Staging: TAIT
- Automation: SGPS
Gear
Lighting:
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size Console
- 1 MA Lighting grandMA3 light Console
- 1 MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size Console
- 16 MA Lighting grandMA2 NPU
- 14 MA Lighting grandMA2 – 4-Port Node
- 3 Brainstorm SR112 Time Code Distripalyzer
- 1 Follow Me Followspot System
- 138 Claypaky Scenius Unico
- 58 Robe MegaPointe
- 56 Robe Spikie
- 102 Acme Gemini
- 12 Acme XA-1200 BSWF Solar Impulse
- 21 SGM G-7 BeaSt
- 84 TMB Solaris Flare LR Q+ Linear Strobe
- 32 GLP JCD1 Strobe
- 2 Martin Atomic 3000 LED Strobe
- 27 Chroma-Q Color Force II 72 LED Batten
- 6 Astera AX3 LightDrop
- 18 Eurolite PMC 16x30W RGB
- 4 MDG The One Hazer
- 4 Look Solutions Power Tiny Fogger
- 6 HES FX-100 Fogger
- 7 TMB Pro Fan DMX
- 4 RSC Lightlock
Video:
- Yes Tech MG7 4.8mm LED Floor
- ROE Visual CB5 5.7mm I-Mag
- ROE Visual CB5 Band Pods
- ROE Visual CB8 8.3mm Blow Through LED Wings
- ROE Visual Vanish 8 Touring 8.9mm Center Wall
- 4 Brompton Technology Tessera S8 Processor
- 2 Brompton Technology Tessera M2 Processor
- 6 NovaStar MCTRL4K Processors
- 4 disguise gx2 Media Server
- 2 Darkmatter Real Time Render Machines
- Adder XDIP KVM System
- Lightware MX2 16 x 16 HDMI 4K Matrix Switcher
- Blackmagic Design SDI 40 x 40 Router
- Blackmagic Design 2 M/E Desk
- 6 BlackMagic Design URSA G2 Broadcast Camera
- 2 BlackMagic Design Micro Studio Cameras
- 1 Polecam
- 3 Blackcam B60 Tracking Rail Camera
Automation & Controls:
- Raynok Motion Control Software, by Niscon
- SGPS/ShowRig Servo Controllers
- SGPS/ShowRig SIL3-Rated E-Stop Controller w/ Niscon Raynok firmware
- SGPS/ShowRig 208 to 480VAC Power Isolation/Distribution Package
- Indramat 40A Servo Drives in SGPS/ShowRig Custom 640 Touring Drive Enclosures
- 5 Axis Turret Style Extending Stage Arm, with independent controls over Main Lift, Main Lift Rotate, Arm Lift, Arm Telescope, and Platform Tilt
