It should be required for anyone aspiring to be a lighting designer, programmer, or director to go see a Bruce Springsteen show. For 25 years, Jeff Ravitz has been his lighting designer and designated keeper of the flame of the classic rock show. Along with lighting directors Todd Ricci and John Hoffman, Ravitz schools the industry on how to do it right.
One Smokin’, Smoke-free Show
On show nights, the set, designed by Bruce Rodgers of Tribe Design and built by Tait Towers, is lit up, literally and figuratively, by The Boss, the E Street Band and the lighting crew. The fog- and haze-free show relies strictly on the masterly use of color and lighting angles. The color combinations were simple and effective. Rarely were more than three or four colors used at a time, and at times, it was simply a monochromatic color wash. But more often there were combinations of two or three colors, typically primary colors or analogous colors like green and yellow, blue and cyan, or UV and blue, and it was often punctuated with bright bursts of impeccably timed audience blinders or the big, fat beams from Zap Technologies Big Lites.
“This is not just a wash and followspot show,” Ravitz said, “but instead sculpts the band members continuously in an orchestrated response to the music and staging. We really aim to achieve our design through angle, color, texture, intensity and cue dynamics.”
Indeed, the most dramatic looks in the show were produced by using various lighting angles — top light, up light, back light and side light. Ravitz is a virtuoso when it comes to exploiting lighting positions and setting the mood with light. What you won’t see at this show is a lot of gobo projection (at least not from the FOH — from the arena seats the gobo projections are more visible but they are directed in the house, not on stage), no beamage and no strobes (thank you for that).
“No, patterns in the air can’t be seen like at other shows, but I put patterns on any surface I can find — amps, the white piano, stage deck and band faces when it’s appropriate. That’s where those patterns really add a lot. Taking the air visibility out of the mix really forces me to actually light the band and whatever scenic elements exist, instead of painting beams in the sky.”
The Big Step
Given a choice, Ravitz might opt for more aerial beams, but it’s out of his hands. “Bruce is haze averse because of his voice and the perceived affect on it,” Ravitz revealed. “He also used to be against ‘visible lighting beams,’ shunning the air focuses that have become the staple of modern rock shows. But we did a show in a misty rain for the opening of the VMAs one year and everyone asked why the show looked so great. The answer was that they saw more beamage than ever before and they apparently discovered a taste for it. But haze is banned. So, it gets me back to sculpting the band—revealing them as three dimensional objects onstage with color, angles, etc. And now, with IMAG video being a huge part of the show, I pay a lot of attention to how Bruce and the band are lit for the screens.”
The IMAG Ravitz referred to used to be the only video element in the show, but no longer. When Springsteen and the E Street Band played the Super Bowl halftime show, the design team took the opportunity to introduce a new staging element that completely changed the looks and dynamics — a low profile video wall running the entire width of the stage. It’s fed by a Green Hippo Hippotizer media server and triggered by an MA Lighting grandMA console run by Russ Hochstedler of Pete’s Big TVs. Pete’s also supplied Lighthouse R6 6mm and R7 7mm LED displays and the Toshiba 10mm LED displays.
For a Springsteen show, a video backdrop, low profile though it is, was a big step. But according to Rodgers, it didn’t take too much convincing to get the Boss to agree to it.
“We achieved approvals thanks to a slew of nice color sketches and ground rules that were laid down, Rodgers said, “such as the type of visuals that would be used. One rule was that the video wall would serve more as a lighting instrument and not just a tool for imagery. I hoped that it would make it possible to have the same sort of background for a future Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour.”
Powerful Images
Just as Rodgers promised, the video wall serves not only as a scenic element and graphics display, but it is also used very effectively as a source of back light. Ravitz says he had little time to adapt to the addition, but when the band is silhouetted against the LED backdrop, it’s a powerful image.
“We had relatively little warning it was happening for this tour,” he said, “and all the content had to be approved by Bruce—who didn’t give any feedback until a few days before the opening night. So we were somewhat hamstrung and I had a lot of lighting to do just to cue the new songs and fix up the old ones. By the time we got to the first shows, I was interfacing with the video programmer a lot. Not about content—that was Bruce’s domain — but for brightness and timing.”
Given the intensity of the LED display, it creates a completely different environment for the lighting. The video wall, Ravitz said, “has changed our cuing somewhat because of the brightness and ambience it adds. It’s directly behind the band and from a front view the top is just under Bruce’s head. It’s pretty low, but all the way across the stage. If it were a cyc or a scenic element, I would have lit it so much more muted. But as a video screen, its surface is often twice as bright as the band is, sometimes four times as intense. So, it is a competing element, to be sure.”
Despite dealing with what might be the biggest change in the tour since he started lighting it, Ravitz sees this show as a sort of a continuation of the Magic tour of 2007/2008.
“The Magic system was quite tweaked to achieve better angles and options than we had ever had,” he said. “There was an overwhelming sense of ‘don’t fix something that’s not broken.’ As a result, we decided to use this same configuration, improve a few miscellaneous elements that were on my to-do list and use this system as a starting point for approaching the new music. I also looked at every song in the repertoire to clean up some old problems and to bring the aesthetics of those cues more into my current thinking and style.”
The Visual Response
In 25 years, the E Street Band has changed little and the lighting crew has had ample opportunity to get it right. “Most of the arrangements of the old music and the stage moves are the same as they’ve been forever,” Ravitz said. “So, if, in theory, we found the best angles and assortment of fixtures, textures, etc, then wouldn’t changing it ‘for change sake’ move us towards less than best? That being said, we still always search for new and different ways to do things. We just don’t feel obligated to change if we like where we’re at.”
The newer material also affords a rich environment for lighting play. During the breakdown in “The Rising,” Springsteen is uplit in red as the music fades. It’s chilling.
“I’ve always played with angles” Ravitz said, “because I like to surprise the viewer by changing perspective from front, underneath, top, etc., to reinforce my visual responses to the music. It can be very powerful. An outgrowth of my television work had reminded me that everyone watching the screens or a DVD is in the front row and those angles can be quite effective in telling the story and they are more precisely decided. But the angles that might work for a live, non-televised show or non IMAG show are quite different. For a live arena show, angles are used to exaggerate features and make people more clearly visible to the back row, even though the front row might see that exaggeration more profoundly. For TV and many shows being IMAG’d, there is an emphasis on angles that flatter the talent. The stars want to look their best on screen, and they examine the DVDs burned from the IMAG cut. So, drama is still encouraged —especially by Bruce. But it would be a mistake to not make him look good most of the night for the camera. That requires good intensity balance as well.”
Part of that balance comes from the fact that the lighting director, Todd Ricci, takes time before every show to meter the followspots — three in the upstage truss for back coverage, five in the FOH truss, three on the sides and four more in the house — from FOH with an illuminance meter and a colorimeter. Ricci, along with automated lighting operator John Hoffman, work in unison to execute the lighting cues with precision timing. Ricci uses an Avolites Diamond 2 console and Hoffman works on a grandMA.
“You always have to keep your eyes on Bruce,” Hoffman said, “just like one of the band members because he may change something in the song slightly at any given moment. Also he calls plenty of audibles — songs that were not on the set list that night. So Todd and I both have to think quickly about what page to go to, or if it’s a song that doesn’t have a specific page of its own we will go to what we call one of our punt pages.”
The Challenge
Ricci calls the followspots and Hoffman is on intercom with him. “I cue from my monitor, the show cue book and Bruce and the band,” Hoffman said. “Bruce challenges you every night. That’s what I think makes running a Bruce Springsteen show very fun and exciting.”
“The cuing of the show is a nice collaborative effort,” Ravitz added. “Todd injects a lot of excitement into the show and the design by knowing the music so well and keeping pace with the major accents, timing changes and transitions. The same goes for John. You need a lot of eyes to see and cover everything that’s happening in this amazing show of Bruce’s!”
“I take great pride in being a board operator for Bruce Springsteen,” Hoffman said. “I grew up a big fan of his in the 1970s, and he was probably my main inspiration for getting into lighting. Every night is like it’s the first time. It’s never the same show. Working for Jeff Ravitz over the last 20 years has also been a great inspiration. I’ve learned so much from him and it has helped me in my own work.”
Too often, LDs and programmers rely on computer generated effects, stock gobos and lots of movement to create looks. In the absence of these elements, some designers, programmers and directors would be hard pressed to create a rock ‘n’ roll show. If you recognize yourself, then do yourself a favor and go see this show. You can’t help but learn something.
Crew
Production Manager: George Stipanovich
Tour Manager: George Travis
Lighting Designer: Jeff Ravitz
Set Designer: Bruce Rodgers, Tribe Design
Lighting Directors: Todd Ricci, John Hoffman
Lighting Programmers: Michael Appel, Jason Badger
Crew Chief: Brad Brown
Lighting Techs: Bryan Humphries, Kevin Humphries, Carl Hughes, Troy Garcia
Fixture Tech: Travis Braudway
Lighting Supplier: Morpheus Lights
Video Supplier: Pete’s Big TVs (Guy Benjamin, account rep)
Video Director: Chris Hilsson
Media Server Operator: Russ Hochstedler
Set Construction: Tait Towers
Gear
12 Morpheus 9-Light fixtures
10 Morpheus BriteBurst 2000Es
12 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze72s
16 Color Kinetics ColorBurst 6 LED fixtures
25 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s
70 Morpheus FaderBeams
1 Arri Junior 300+ fresnel
1 Arri 650+ fresnel
6 Zap Technologies BigLite LittleBig Lite 3.0s
19 Morpheus ColorFader3 MFader CYM color changers
22 Morpheus ColorFader3 XLFader CYM color changers
20 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles
38 Morpheus PanaBeam XR2+s
1 Morpheus RomniLight luminaire
9 ETC Source Four PARs, MFL
13 ETC Source Four PARs, WFL
4 ETC Source Four ERS, 19 degrees
3 trong Super Trouper Long Throws
8 Robert Juliat Topaze Followspots
3 Robert Juliat Manon followspots
14 Vari*Lite VL1000 Tungstens
22 Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots
1 Avolites Diamond 2 Lighting Console
1 MA Lighting grandMA Lighting Console
1 MA Lighting grandMA Lite (backup)
2 MA Lighting NSPs
6 MA Lighting 2Port nodes
360’ Morpheus Lights 30” FlipBox™ truss
16 Morpheus Lights 30” FlipBlock™ structural corner blocks
13’-8” Morpheus Lights 30” FlipBox™ truss
3’-4” Morpheus Lights 30” FlipBox™ truss
40’ box truss (20.5” x 20.5”)
5’ box bruss (20.5”x20.5”)
136’ box truss (12”x12”)
2 box truss 3 way corners (12”x12”)
8 Motion Labs 8-way chain hoist control
42 CM® 1-Ton 16 FPM chain hoist
1 Ross Synergy Video Switcher
Sony 1500 Video Cameras
