Anyone who has ever looked after lighting a musical artist will eventually find themselves having to work in strange surroundings, with a light rig and set they did not design. Whether it’s a TV show, an awards presentation or a radio station-hosted arena bash, there is an unwritten etiquette that would be wise to follow. Of course, there are different rules for each of these types of shows, and it would be proper to address them separately. First I’m going to start with television talk shows. Each night, these shows have a musical guest. And of course the musical guest will bring his personal lighting director along because they need to feel confident that it will run perfectly. But to be honest, there is rarely a reason for any act to bring their guy to the venue. When I’m there, it’s to offer some color suggestions and to insure one particular blackout cue happens on time.
These shows have permanent lighting directors who excel in television lighting. The normal band LD does not. What the human eye sees is not what the camera sees, so a scene you may think looks great might look like ass to millions of viewers. And you know your artist is going to watch himself that night. If he looks bad, your job could well be in jeopardy.
Hint #1: Let the folks at the TV studio do their job. Feel free to offer hints such as “In this song, the artist likes to be amber,” or “Please hit the strobes on this breakdown.” The programmers often appreciate those kinds of comments because they usually don’t know the music. Let them run the console.
Hint # 2: Don’t touch the spotlights. Every show has either key lights or spotlights trained on one specific person on stage. The house director has balanced and color corrected them to perfection for the camera. Again, you may think that your artist is going to hate this light in his eyes (he will), but he will hate you more if he appears too dark on the stage when his mug shows up on that flat screen around 11 p.m.
Of course, there are occasional exceptions. Ten years ago I was lighting Kid Rock when he performed on some televised awards show. He had a hit song called “Devil” that started with a monologue. I sat with LD Alan Branton and had to insist that he put a red gel in the spotlight for the opening monologue of this number. It was important to the artist that he looks evil. Alan whined, but finally got over it once I assured him that the red would go away after the first 20-second intro.
As musical acts age, they no longer have hit records, and they become novelty acts, performing at corporate parties. The upside is that these bands can demand more money than they did when they packed arenas. The downside is that they have to play in front of a bunch of drunks dancing with their wives on a parquet floor. But it’s all about the money. Face it, these bands are happy that anybody still wants to pay them and dance to their tunes.
At half of these shows, the acts will demand that the client rent their specified lighting package. Then it’s an easy day for the LD. But at a lot of these corporate events, the band LD will have to make do with whatever gear is provided. At these times, I find it wise to set up about 30 faders with various punt cues. One fader may bally the lights, one may chase intensities, and so on.
Hint #3: The important thing is that you adopt a CYA strategy, lighting-wise, for the few essential cues that each artist demands in their performance, like blackouts and strobes at specific times. All the rest will be fine.
Festival shows (often put on by local radio stations) are a big part of a lot of new acts’ itineraries. This gives a young band a chance to perform (albeit for little money) in front of a large crowd. This is a good way to build a following.
Organizers of these festivals will often hire me to design a lighting rig that each band’s LD can use. If you are lucky, there will be a good programmer already there who has a buttload of looks pre-programmed in the console. Otherwise, I build my Ultimate Punt Page in an hour and I am set to go.
Hint #4: It’s my personal belief that the stupidest thing any band LD can do is come in on the day of show and try and recreate their entire show, cue by cue. It takes forever, keeps other LDs from getting time to familiarize themselves with the light rig and makes you unpopular with the local lighting vendor. It really tends to look better when you just punt.
A few years ago, I had a big-name act coming to play one of my radio festivals. The LD is a great guy and his touring show looks fantastic. As a favor, he asked me to bring him down a portable WYSIWYG visualizer system so he could clone his entire 45 minute set from his show disk to the lights I had on the rig that day. I was not going to argue; heck, he’s my friend.
So for eight hours, this guy sat alone backstage behind his grandMA, typing away. The other LDs and I ran all the other bands off the punt page and the show looked great. When it came time for the big name artist, we loaded in his show disk and prepared for the best.
Unfortunately, the whole plan backfired. The focus positions for the moving lights were not precise and the colors didn’t match. But the worst part of it all was that the stage was extremely dark. He had lights sweeping around the arena, strobes going off at the right time, but he overlooked the one basic rule of concert illumination. No matter what, you always have to “light the money.” All the cool cues in the world will be worthless if you cannot see the artist on stage.
Hint #5: Trust your local programmer; chances are he’s good. I can program almost any console faster than most. But as soon as I get to a gig I didn’t design, I look for the programmer and we have a few words. If I am confident in his ability, I simply hand him a handwritten sheet with the lighting cues I need and where on the console to place them.
Today, I find myself on the set of the Jimmy Kimmel show. I know the talented house LD is working the room. Pete Radice is behind the Virtuoso console here. I am clueless on this beast, but I have faith in Pete. I have given him a list of cues to be placed in front of me, and I have full confidence in his programming ability.
While he works, I spend the afternoon reminiscing with Christian Hibbard and Kylie. The stage is outside and the sunlight is blinding, yet I have no fear. Pete does this for a living and deals with guest LDs every day. I have no doubt that tonight’s show will be the best one ever.
