I’m a firm believer that just about any light fixture is worth something to a show. I like old conventional fixtures, especially weird stuff that nobody else is using. I find big old 2K Lekos useful. I will still find uses for old moving lights that nobody else wants. Basically, I can often find a treasure chest of lighting fixtures that never get used — on a vendor’s shelf.
Lumens and Money
Budgets matter to 95 percent of the productions I work on. I try to do my best to accommodate them and certainly know not to skimp on the details. Of course, I like to utilize some of the latest technology, but I do not really need it most of the time. For instance, last year I found myself lighting a party for the opening of a car dealership. The gig was through a local Minneapolis lighting company I use called Heroic Productions. They are a one-stop shop for lighting, video and audio. They specialize in corporate shows and have a mixture of lighting fixtures. Not many models, but some of most types.
I go to a site survey and bring along Heroic’s lead electrician. She knows what they own for gear, so as I’m figuring out what I require, fixture-wise, I ask her for help. “I need three powerful lights to front-light these cars and some weaker ones to light the sides from another angle.” Becky replies, “We have some [Martin] MAC III Performances for the front light. We can rent something for the sides.” But wait, I think to myself. “Don’t you guys own some old MAC 700s?” I inquire. “Sure,” she says. “Are you sure they would work for you?” I just nod. If the fixtures work, why would I not use them? Of course, they were perfect. And the lighting company did not have to pay to sub-rent more fixtures from another vendor across town.
A few years ago, I was looking for a bunch of different white light sources to use on a punk rock tour. My friend Holly was the rep for TMS, the lighting vendor the band liked to use. I wrote her an email and asked her for a list of every light fixture in the shop that wasn’t already scheduled to be rented during this three-month span. “Nook, we will get you anything you want,” she advised. Sure she would, but the only thing I had going for my design was a budget and some X’s and O’s on scrap paper. She sent me the list of available gear. It was January, and her shelves were nicely stocked.
“Ooh,” I cooed, as I saw a plethora of different sized mole lights. I started wondering if they had three different sized Fresnels as well. Nope, but they had different sized cyc lights. I used them for a wide band wash. I had 40 lights in my plot before I had spent $300 per week of my budget. I want some Vipers now, I think to myself. I need like 24 of them.
“Well we have 12 of them available,” Holly says. “I guess we could buy more.” Silly girl, why cut into your profit margin? “What else ya got?” I ask. “I need to fill three trusses and get three techs for under 15K per week.” “Well, we do have enough Mac 700’s,” she says. “I can send you enough spares to keep the old lights working, if you really want to go that route.” I want to go that route. The lights work, they’re sitting on a shelf while everyone else is demanding the latest technology. I reckon 50 clams a week is a good payment for those fixtures. “We like to get a little more when we can,” Holly replies. “But, well these are just sitting here, and it’s winter time. Take ‘em.” Excellent choice. All the money for TMS, no money for sub rentals.
Of course, the corporate shows are the best. The majority of the clients I deal with have no idea what stuff costs. But I draw the line at using tons of dimmers and pin spots these days. They are not cost-effective, because they require manual focus time, dimmers and lots of cables. Those fixtures I will leave on the shelf. Wireless LED fixtures are worth their weight in gold these days. I see people buying great lights that will last forever for a thousand bucks. They’re renting them for fifty bucks a show to light up some tables and hide in corners of rooms for ambient lights. “Are these expensive?” the clients ask. “Oh, heck no. We can rent a bunch of these for fifty bucks each,” I tell them. No more cables all over the floor, No more hassling of making sure they are set up in my lighting console. These Astera LED puck-like things are the cat’s meow. And they will be paid for in twenty short gigs. After that, they will never sit on your shelf long.
Conventional Gear and Effects Gadgets
Sometimes I come across a gig that’s a hole in the wall in some place most people are not familiar with. But they will have a whole arsenal of old conventional fixtures. Like Klieg lights that are ellipsoidals, but take two people to hang. I found this great place somewhere in Wisconsin a few years backs. They had about five pipes worth of Lekos hung on the stage and dozens in the house. Probably close to 200 of them, and nothing else. I made ACL fans out of Source Four Lekos with 5° lenses. I put 13 fixtures on floor stands behind the band. I put 19° lens barrels on the odd ones and just removed the barrels completely from the even ones. I had blobs of light with tight beams cutting through them.
You know what I find sitting on old shelves? Effects gadgets. Old strobes. Film loop machines. Definitely not old gobo rotators — they need too much TLC. My best find ever was a pair of matching half mirror ball heads at a Meteorlites shop outside London. I was prepping a tour for Lenny Kravitz when I found these things in a milk crate under a shelf. They stood on end on a wobbly base and appeared to be hand made. I checked them out, and they worked. I stashed them in a junk road case with some packing blankets.
At the time I was working along side LD Jon Pollak. During production rehearsals, I waited until dinner time one evening and pulled these things out of a case and placed them on either side of the stage on top of a side fill monitor. I focused a pin spot beam on each with a single overhead Intellabeam — and waited.
Everyone comes back from catering, and Lenny starts playing a new trippy song we had not programmed. Jon brought up a blue wash and looked at me saying, “What do we do for this one?” I threw up the fader and lit the two mirror balls. I looked at Jon once more, with my eyebrows raised. He looked back with his classic dropped-jaw look and replied, “Perfect. Done. Don’t touch it.”
Having all the technology on any show is great. But sometimes the biggest gasps would come when you turned it all off and lit some stuff old-school. For free.
