When Mary J. Blige decided to embark upon a solo tour, her production manager wanted Justin Collie of Artfag, LLC to be the designer. Over the course of several weeks the tour evolved into a joint collaboration with Jay-Z. But rather than sharing design duty with someone of Jay-Z’s choosing, Collie was asked to handle the design of the entire tour. The result was their Heart of the City tour.
Patrick Dierson, who has worked with Collie on many occasions, was asked to take on lighting director duties in addition to maintaining the integrity of the design for the run of the tour. Collie had the role of “Performance Environment Designer,” and he handled every aspect of the design including scenic elements, lighting and video layout.
But it was a joint collaboration, with Collie taking the lead. “Spike Brant, Kristin Costa, Zack Guthimiller, Michael Goodwin and myself were all involved throughout the process,” Dierson explained. “This is a formula that we have honed over the years and one that works to the extreme advantage of the client. From the performing artist’s point of view, they know that that there is a team of people handling the technically creative portions of their show to make it the best that it can possibly be and minimize the surprises that sometimes pop up in the technical rehearsal process. And it gives them the convenience of having a single go-to guy.”
Collie, Dierson, and Brandt started by creating several concepts in the early stages of their involvement. They were ultimately rendered in a VectorWorks file that was passed between them until they arrived at the final design. “Justin passed down an edict and we were all in agreement — there needs to be a definitive aesthetic difference between the two artist’s looks. Both of them needed to be incredibly strong but Mary’s needed to have a softer, more feminine feel. Jay’s needed to command strength.
“Having that direction is always key, because it keeps you grounded from start to finish. In this case we knew that we would end up with a lot of hard edges on the stage and that they would need to be softened for Mary’s portion of the show.”
The “softness” ultimately came in the form of swaths of soft goods framing a massive curved video screen. Three sparkling crystal chandeliers were hidden in the lighting rig and lowered into position at just the right time for several of Blige’s songs.
Video plays an important part in the presentation of the show. “From the beginning,” said Drew Findley, the video screen director and PRG M-Box Extreme media server operator, “the plan was to have a large video element that wrapped the stage.” They tossed around ideas and came up with several different ways to accomplish that from projection to segmented LED panels. In the end, they settled on a solid LED curved wall.
“The idea was that it would give the most versatility to accomplish different looks for each artist. When Justin Collie got involved in the project he helped to refine the concept even more by adding the Barco MiPix band risers that helped to bring the video look down onto the stage.”
Once the design was finalized, they went to Prelite, LLC studios in Manhattan to pre-program some of the show with a visualizer and get their presets ready for the rehearsals. They used the ESP Vision software for that process. “Prelite provided the typically enjoyable experience that we’ve come to expect from them,” Dierson said. “It’s comfortable, quiet and productive. You can just get things done while being there with no distractions.”
Dierson programmed the lighting on an MA Lighting grandMA control system. For the first time, he used a PRG Series 400 power and data distribution system, which lived at the front of house control area. “We simply sent ArtNet from the console directly into the Series 400 rack,” Dierson said. “It was a very simplified system in terms of cabling and it proved to be extremely reliable.”
“The video control system for this show is probably one the coolest I have ever used,” Findley said. His grandMA console at the front of house connects to video world backstage through the Series 400 system via ArtNet. It, in turn, controls four PRG M-Box Extreme media servers and an Encore-DMX Bridge from Control Freak Systems. “The Encore-DMX Bridge is the heart of the video system,” Findley said. “It gives me access to 12 layers of video on the main screen, six layers for the side screens and access to the router. The router inputs include all seven cameras on the show, a line cut of these cameras, four M-Box Extremes for Jay-Z’s video content and two Green Servers from Media Evolutions for Mary J Blige’s video content — created by Mark Argenti and Ian McDaniel of Media Evolutions. The Encore-DMX bridge allows me to route any source, whether it be a standard-def camera or a high-def M-Box, to any Encore layer. Each layer can then be sized, positioned, colored and keyed. All this can happen as a cued event or on the fly during the show.
“The advantage to this system is that we can blend cameras with only a field of delay with media server content on the same control surface. It allows me to select individual cameras during the show and also to show camera director Mark Stutsman’s line cut on multiple layers and have it integrated with M-Box cues that are running content.”
The video content was supplied by William Hines of Smash Studios, Hype Williams and Media Evolutions. But according to Findley, it is “constantly evolving — management for both artists are very interested in the imagery that their artist stands in front of,” he said. “With the use of media servers like the M-Box Extreme, we’re able change around elements on a daily basis to find the best mix of imagery and IMAG to support the song and the action on stage. Working with media servers also allows content designers to supply us with different elements that we can use to layer live during the show.”
Despite the networking capabilities of all the lighting and video gear, they chose to operate them independently. “We made the decision at the inception of our involvement that we would roll old-school and not network the grandMA control consoles to run in tandem,” Dierson said. “Since we were running things completely independently of each other we could deal with any wild on-the-fly changes that might come our way, and that happened on a nightly basis. Whereas Mary J’s show is very structured, Jay’s is very loose. We never knew when a guest artist might pop out from the side of the stage and start into a song that we weren’t planning on performing. In theory, having two grandMA consoles networked together would offer the same flexibility but that requires some planning that, in the fast pace world of on-the-fly hip-hop, just wouldn’t be comfortable for us.”
Dierson attributed the success of the approach to the skill of his colleague. “Drew is a consummate professional,” Dierson said. “He has years of live production experience in both the lighting and video disciplines. Not only is he technically proficient but he has taste and timing; two things that are increasingly hard to find these days.”
Striking a balance between the lighting elements and video elements in the visual presentation can be challenging. With so many LED sources, it’s easy for them to overpower the lighting. No so here, said Dierson. “There was very little issue with either one of us overpowering the other on this project,” he said. “I say very little issue, but there was definitely great concern. The video wall that Drew was controlling was fairly massive and had the ability to make an entire rig of VL 3500s and Syncrolites disappear if it was used improperly. Once again, with Drew’s experience, I didn’t have to worry about it, because he’s right on track with making the show look its best.”
Combining all of these elements during rehearsals and during the show let them refine the look live and on the screen, instead of in a video-editing suite. Having both lighting and video control at the front of house allowed them to more closely communicate with each other. “This project has been a prime example of how it should be,” Findley said. “During rehearsals and during the show we could change things up and adapt to things happening on stage — not to mention we have a good time.”
Dierson gave ample kudos to his support team. “PRG did a fantastic job in handling the lighting rig and provided a top notch crew starting with Jason ‘Attaboy’ Stalter as lighting crew chief. XL Video handled every aspect of the LED screen, Mi-Pix, projectors, and camera package along with some help from Control Freak Systems who provided their Encore-DMX Bridge touring package to interface the Encore video processors with the GrandMA control desks. All Access provided us with a rather massive stage, catwalk, and several elevator lifts while Pyrotek handled all things that go boom with the typical safety standards that one would expect from them. Kevin Hughes and Adam Biscow handled the ‘high-explosives’ on a daily basis. Atomic Design created the curtains and chandeliers that were used for Mary J. Blige’s performance, and last but certainly not least was Five Points Production Services, which handled the rigging for the tour under the direction of head rigger Gabe Wood.”
Findley is no less appreciative. “Working with both Patrick and Justin on this project has been terrific. And the vendors played a large part in the flexibility of the system. Matt Corke and Mark Hunt at PRG provided M-Box Extreme support and updates that enabled us to push it to the limit. I would also like to thank Stuart White and Dirk Sanders at Control Freak Systems for helping me configure an extremely diverse video system. I honestly don’t know how I did shows without the Encore-DMX Bridge. And although it sounds like the whole video system is automated, I relied very much on my incredible XL video crew, from camera work and camera direction to high pressure troubleshooting. This show would not have been what it is without those guys.”
“It’s always fun and challenging,” Dierson said, of his experience working with Collie. “In this particular instance it was much more challenging than fun for the both of us.” That’s no diss, just a reflection of that fact that both Collie and Dierson contracted pneumonia before the tour started. The two of them were oh-so-close to being hospitalized on opening night. But, as they say, the show must go on, and indeed it did.
“Cory Fitzgerald dropped what he was doing to come help me program the first week of the tour. I was in shambles with the pneumonia. I couldn’t walk straight much less be creative, call follow spots, or execute cues on time. Cory came out and saved my bacon. It also proved once again that the Artfag machine works well. The team saw how the physical health of both Justin and myself was rapidly deteriorating in rehearsals and had already put plans in motion to get us support.”
