Cory FitzGerald is the production designer for Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights tour. “The set is based on a neon-like concept full of Video Blades in smoke colored covers — which are essentially tubes of single pixel video elements diffused by the plastic covers. We also used a phone app developed by Wham City Lights to let the audience participate in that song. It was very cool!”
The app engages the audience, turning smartphones into handheld lighting effects by flashing color, text and imagery to the music. Songs for the interactive experience are selected in advance, and the resulting effect can be created by the app’s developers or using the app’s online lightshow editor program. When the inaudible ultrasonic Wham Waves signal is made active through the sound system, the Wham Waves can be embedded into the song, click track or played on its own to sync the phones in the audience. Once the Wham Waves are played, every app-enabled phone bursts into color and syncopated flashing with the music.
“It is an app that was integrated into the Demi Lovato app that allowed the audience’s smartphones to listen to a high frequency inaudible tone and play back a light show using the screen on their phone as well as with their iPhone flashlight,” FitzGerald added. “The guys did a great job coordinating a responsive and interactive light show that matches what we did on stage and actively brings the audience into the show.”
The app has already pumped up the crowds for Brad Paisley, Icona Pop and Pretty Lights, and for various TV talent shows.
The Neon Lights tour switched on in early February and will light up venues in the U.S./Canada until March 30. It then moves on to Brazil and Mexico in April and May.
In related news, LD John LaBriola has finished his run with the French group Phoenix and is now out directing Bruno Mars’ Moonshine Jungle tour using the design previously created by Cory FitzGerald and Roy Bennett. The tour runs through November.
“It’s kind of funny now that I’m over here on Bruno while Cory’s putting together Demi,” he said. “I designed her first two tours while I was with Jonas Brothers!”
Guitar Center Sessions at SXSW
Since 2010, Guitar Center Sessions have been capturing noteworthy musical performances in hi-def at the world famous GC Hollywood Vintage Room for Audience Channel. But once a year, they escape the studio to tap into a local music scene. This year, the Sessions series literally reached new heights atop a parking garage rooftop in Austin, Texas, at the SXSW music conference. The show’s longtime LD and director of photography Victor Fable flew out to handle the lighting design for three days and nights with programmer Susan Rose. Challenges were many, including 40 m.p.h. winds the first day and rain the final day. But the views over Austin were stunning backdrops beyond the stage for artists including Soundgarden, Phantogram, Snoop Dogg and more.
Fable is an early pioneer of automated lighting for theatrical, touring, corporate events and later, TV shows. His roots reach back as a programmer in the early years of the industry, so when his TV world comes together with the live festival world, as in this event, he finds himself greeting long-lost friends and colleagues. He admits to missing tour design, is open to new technology, and welcomes those opportunities again, but then again, he also thinks about lighting in any environment he encounters. “I like lighting everything,” he decided. Friends wishing to find Fable may visit the Victor Fable Lighting website at VFLinc.com.
iTunes Fest at SXSW
Stan Crocker was the lighting designer for Apple’s first iTunes Festival in the U.S., which was streamed live on iTunes March 11-15 during SXSW in Austin, TX. The five-night event featured Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Soundgarden, Keith Urban and Willie Nelson, among others, at ACL Live at The Moody Theater. Apple started its first festival in London in 2007.
Killer Karaoke
Lighting designers Michael Veerkamp and Adam Portelli collaborated on the new season of truTV’s Killer Karaoke series, in which contestants compete by singing their favorite songs in extreme situations. Lighting challenges include calculating the proper beamage on contestants who undergo jolts with electricity, drenchings in chocolate syrup or animal parts, getting dredged in flour and breaded like fish, and the like, all while continuing to perform. “It was especially difficult holding a light meter up to the alligator’s nose and to bring out the flesh tone on the snakes,” Portelli said. But it was all fun, he added. “Our host, Mark McGrath, (lead singer of Sugar Ray) was a blast to work with.”
Kieran on TV
LD Kieran Healy has finished pilots for a singing show for CBS and a dating show for NBC. He is presently shooting Whose Line is it Anyway for the CW and Last Comic Standing for NBC. “I am just about to start an exciting new variety show with Lorne Michaels (of Saturday Night Live) called The Maya Rudolph Show again for NBC. I was not invited back to American Idol after 11 years and 12 seasons, so no more ‘Dim the Lights Kieran’ for me!”
Films of Summer
LD Benoit Richard finished working as a set lighting console programmer on
Tomorrowland, a sci-fi adventure film starring George Clooney and slated for a May 2015 release. Richard says he’s worked on so many sequels, reboots and remakes, it’s refreshing to work on an original story. “I really believe this feature will be awesome!”
Richard has a slate of summer movies coming up for release in coming months, which he worked on last year as a set lighting console programmer. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set for release in May, followed by the musical bio drama Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood, in June, and the sci-fi fantasy Jupiter Ascending in July.
Touring season is getting underway. Take a moment and let Debi Moen know how you’ll be spending your summer at dmoen@plsn.com.
