Working for UVLD, Cameron Yeary has the opportunity to work with some great minds in our lighting industry, including the company’s principal partners, John Ingram and Greg Cohen.
But as the resident visualist, he brings something special to the team. In our PLSN Interview, he explains the importance of previsualization, media servers and why better results are a function of how much control we have of the production.
How did you get into the business and end up at UVLD?
Cameron Yeary: I grew up at a lighting company in Dallas, Texas, called Gemini Stage Lighting. At the time, Ingram Associates would have shows that came through Gemini, and I would see them doing these huge corporate shows, which was kind of new to me at that point. I always thought, “Why would Coca-Cola spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to ship all this gear for a show?”
Once I started doing shows, I was fortunate to meet John Ingram and Greg Cohen. And after 9/11, when I got laid off from Gemini, I ran into Greg while I was doing freelance work as a Syncrolite tech at a small car show. He said they needed a programmer, and I had spent a lot of time programming. I ended up doing one gig with John Ingram, and it was all a whirlwind from there. I started doing more shows as a programmer for them, and I think it was October of 2004 when they asked me to join the firm. We stayed Ingram Associates for about six months and then brought in more and more people to end up where we are now, which is UVLD.
At UVLD, I’m the young one, and a bit on the geeky side. I’ve really been more of an asset since they’ve gotten into the media stuff because I kind of devoured it, and I spent a lot of my spare time understanding all of the different things it takes to create media and get it to work.
You’re a big proponent of that, digital media and pre-visualization, aren’t you?
Yes. As far as pre-visualization, we don’t use it all the time, but we try to use it on aspects of the show that really need it. For instance, a lot of the car shows that we do are intensive in their cueing, so we use it. On the other hand, other shows that we have are basic, like a drug company product launch, and don’t have talent sections to them, so we don’t use it unless the load-in is really tight and we have no programming time whatsoever. Our firm really tries to focus on our programming speed and being able to cue the show quickly. So, on our smaller gigs we can deal without the pre-visualization. But on our cue-intensive gigs we definitely use it.
And as far as media is concerned, it’s been a crazy year. I can only think of a few shows that haven’t had some type of media, whether it’s a simple Main Light Industries SoftLED curtain or using Barco MiPix and MiSphere to build custom shapes and stuff like that.
Do you create a lot of that content?
Yeah, we create some. We’ve really got a good 40 or 50 gigs of stuff that we’ve purchased as a firm. Some of it we’ve manipulated a bit, and some of it we kept intact. We have made some content, because there are those gigs that have special needs, like a pill bottle for a drug show or spinning wheels to represent cars. But a lot of it is stock stuff that we believe represents the ideas, or the looks, that we are used to providing on every show. It also depends on whether the production wants to provide more money to make content that’s custom to that show, or if the producers themselves decide to get involved in the process and make their own stuff and provide it to us. We carry a good stock. Besides the stuff that comes with the High End Systems Catalyst, DL.2 or the Green Hippo Hippotizer, we probably carry a good 40 to 50 gigs.
How does using media change the design timeline? Are you meeting earlier with clients to discuss it and sell them on the benefits of using media?
It’s definitely a learning process. The production clients that we’ve done several shows with have really gotten the idea. So now we’re talking about it a little earlier, and we’re discussing different ideas. They’ll give us a budget for creating media and they’ll ask us what they can do to get the most out of what we do. Then we have other clients, where this is their first or second time using any type of media server on a gig, and we pretty much just use the stock stuff for them and kind of show them the idea. We might float some words across the background so they get an idea of what media can do for them. In years past, the lighting people have had control over a large majority of the visual aspect of a show, and now we’re not only taking care of the visual aspect, but we’re taking control of the video aspect. We’ve taken control of just about everything except the actual PowerPoint aspect and IMag. And in some shows we’re actually providing PowerPoint background support on the I-Mag screen. The more seasoned the client, the earlier in the process we try to get together with them.
A show that we just finished was a basic meeting, except for the first 20 minutes, which was this big extravaganza with flying performers, dancers and the whole nine yards. We really tried to concentrate on customizing that portion of the show and let the rest of the show go to stock content.
How do you interface with the video crew and PowerPoint specialists — has that changed?
It has changed. Now, a lot of times on shows, where we are supporting the PowerPoint person, we are emphasizing certain points. They may say something like, “This year, we had 200 percent growth in sales,” and we’ll show something that says “200%.”
For the most part, we’ll get a graphics person that is used to doing PowerPoint, and they will be at our disposal. As we’re working through different speeches, they can be creating things in Photoshop that we can load into the server. Then, if one of the creative directors has an idea, they can quickly create a graphic, and in five minutes we can have that graphic ready for them to see. We really focus on using custom programs that have been created for the different media servers, and using people that have been involved in the production for years, in a different way. Instead of them working directly for the client, they are working for the lighting designers, so we can get the most out of the media server technology, and show the client the stuff as quick as possible. It’s very streamlined.
What is your primary function at UVLD — how much is design work and how much is media support and programming?
It’s split about 25/75; 25 percent of the time I design the show and do the gig myself, and about 75 percent I’m programming and doing a lot of the visual media stuff. A large aspect of our shows depends upon media. When a client decides to sign off on the visual media stuff, it’s usually an important part of the show. To have that portion not work would be like having your set designer fall through, which would be detrimental to the show.
If you had to give yourself a title, what would it be?
A visualist. As weird of a word as it is, it’s the word that best describes what we do. Now, we’re in charge of the entire visual aspect of the show.
