When the Red Bull International Freestyle Motocross competition came to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas, lighting designer Eric Cathcart was there to make sure the lighting was up to par for the hi-def acquisition.
Cathcart, who was recently named vice president of Midnight Lighting in Austin, brought with him a lighting plot, an Avo console, and 15 years of experience, both on the road and with local production.
More importantly, he carried with him the knowledge that each and every production is the most important in the world to the producer, the promoter, or that one kid in the cheap seats. PLSN caught up with him to find out how he approaches such a unique lighting project and to find out how he works both sides of the snake.
PLSN: How did you get involved in the Red Bull International Freestyle Motocross competition?
Eric Cathcart: C3 Presents was hired by Red Bull to produce the event. C3 has worked with Midnight Lighting on the Austin City Limits Music Festival as well as other local Austin events including the Red Bull Flutag last year. I was hired by Midnight Lighting. I have been working for them as a freelancer and a full time employee since 1995.
What are some of the challenges in designing a show like this?
I think that the main issue was coming up with the structure. This show was in a stockyard with no permanent structure to rig from. We actually worked for several months figuring out how to get the lights in the air without spending the entire budget on structure and not having anything left for the lighting rig itself. There were several factors that ended up dictating the final structure. The main thing that helped me out was the branding team needing more space for banners. The towers were originally going to be 40 feet tall, placing the rigging points only 15 feet above the last row. I had visions of Syncrolites bumping people off the bleachers. Fortunately the branding team had 26-foot tall banners that they wanted to put on the scaff towers, giving me some very much needed height. Another challenge was the fact that this was a big show with lots of eye candy but it was also being shot in hi-definition for ABC Sports, so the TV lighting had to be spot on.
Describe what some of your cues would be like on a show like this.
There were actually very few cues in this show. The opening sequence was fairly cue intensive, but the main show was concentrating on the TV lighting. In between runs I would have about 10 seconds to do a little bit of playing. The main thing that I was doing when I could play with the lights was to paint pictures around the venue. During the runs I was doing some subtle but effective cues like a slow dimmer chase with the 16 Syncro XL10s that I was using to create a ceiling of light.
What type of issues came up onsite that you didn't foresee?
The wind was the main factor. We had a couple of 70-foot scaff towers blown over by the wind. The crane had just finished placing the trusses and Syncros on the top of the towers when the wind just picked up and pushed it over. No one was hurt; the last guy had just gotten to the ground, but it was eerie watching a couple of towers fall over. Even the way that the track was laid out had to be changed to accommodate the direction of the wind. Other than that there were just some last minute changes, a couple of things that worked on paper that just didn't quite work in reality. The TV people wanted more light than we had on site so there were some calls made to get some more snorkel lifts and some Soft Suns trucked in from LA at literally the last minute. Those ended up getting hung at dawn the day of the show just as I was finishing up the programming.
What did you learn from doing this event?
As far as the event itself is concerned there was so much pre-production, that for the size of the event it went very smoothly. During pre-production I was doing some things I had never done before like figuring out how many footcandles a pod of 48 very narrow PAR cans will produce on a 125-foot snorkel lift 225 feet away from the track. Fortunately this event has been going on for the past several years in other countries so I was able get some valuable information from the Red Bull people about some previous mistakes. They let me know right off of the bat that in the past when they are not in an existing arena that the lights haven't been high enough and therefore not focused where the riders are jumping. It was kind of different while we were focusing keeping in mind that the riders are actually flying through the air 45 feet above the ground.
How did you get into lighting?
When I was a kid I loved going to concerts. In high school I was involved with all of the productions in the theatre. Since then I knew that I wanted to something with music, theatre, or the movies but I wasn't sure what. There was a short time when I wanted to be a sound guy, but I think that it was because I liked to watch the LED VU meters on my tape deck when I was a kid. When I was in college I worked as a stagehand and the local lighting company let me push the faders for an opening act and that was it. From that day on I have been a lighting guy. Most of my experience is in the concert world. I have put many years into doing local production doing a different show on a daily basis. I have done some work on movies, TV, corporate events and even a little stint in the install world doing some architectural lighting design.
Who are some of your most recent clients?
Olivia Newton-John and Michael Bolton have been my two main touring clients lately. I did just fill in for a couple of Devo dates in Europe. When I am not on the road I do quite a bit of local production work for Midnight Lighting in Austin, Texas, some of it standard 120k PAR can rigs and some of it larger shows like this Red Bull event, and a free concert that was in Austin last year that had Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson and a whole slew of other heavy hitters. I like doing the local production thing for the variety. I had a month recently where I did The Mars Volta, B.B. King, Ice Cube, Spoon, and the Bodeans. It's nice to have the variety even if I'm not the LD on all of the shows.
What consoles do you like using and why?
Avolites. I really like having a fader associated with a fixture. I guess I'm a little old school in that regard. I like how all of the consoles in their line are basically speaking the same language; you just use the console needed for the size of the show. I have been using Avolites since the early 1990s and they just upgrade, they don't change the way that you think when you are programming their consoles. Don't get me wrong; there are some other fantastic consoles out there and I have used quite a few of them. Everyone has the one that they gravitate to and right now for me it’s the Pearl or the Pearl Expert.
What are some of the challenges to doing different kinds of shows on a regular basis and how do you approach each type of show?
The last few years I have spent most of my time on the road both as the LD and also as a crew chief and tech for one of the major lighting companies on some fairly large tours. I have recently re-entered the world of local production. It really takes well rounded techs to pull off the local production world, having been on the 10+ truck tours I can really appreciate the 24-foot bobtail shows.
A lot of finesse and foresight is needed to pull off a different show on a daily basis and make the LD happy. Every show is different; that’s the beauty of lighting, that's where the creativity comes in. However I have a basic structure and system that I keep to when I prep a show so that it is easier when it comes to load-in, and more importantly load-out.
When I am designing I like to keep it as different as I can from the last show. I have, however, begun to notice that my shows have started becoming a culmination of the last 15 years of trying things. I think that I am just now figuring out what works really well, but I always want to keep doing different things to keep it fresh. Same thing when I program. I start off using the same palettes that I always use, and each show I seem to add at least one new trick to my repertoire.
When you’re on the board end of the snake on a tour that uses local production, the lighting company can make or break your day. If everything is done right you’re focused and programmed in a couple of hours. If you walk in to a venue that has a clueless lighting crew, you can be lucky to have the work done by the time doors are opened.
When I am doing a local production one-off, I approach it as if I were the LD. I know that I like to be able to walk off of the bus, tell the local guys where to put the floor lights, get out to FOH and start programming and be ready to focus as soon as the back line guys have the band gear in place. So I always do my best to make this happen for the other LDs out there.
Being on both sides of the snake, and doing local production versus full production touring has really rounded me out. I approach every show as if it is the most important show. Whether the show is in a tiny club or in a huge stadium it is the most important show in the world to either the band, the promoter, or most importantly that one person in the audience that walks away from the show having had the greatest time of their life because they just got to see their hero.
