By the time the Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, they had sold close to 40 million albums worldwide, which had produced six number one singles among the 15 songs that made the Billboard top 10. To Alastair Bramall-Watson, the band was iconic, particularly in the U.K., where he grew up. When the band reunited in 2008 for a tour and to record a new album, Bramall-Watson got the gig as the tour lighting and video designer.
It was, he said, in a word, “awesome,” adding that “it has allowed me to remember an earlier, more energetic time in my life and I feel some of that energy comes through in the show.”
Not that the band needed help with their energy level. “The band doesn’t sit still for a second,” he said, “so I decided that solid positional focuses on stage was not going to cut it most of the time. So with the exception of a few songs, the lighting is used to paint the whole stage and provide a picture frame for the video centerpiece we have in the background.
“The video wall is hung low on purpose, and with such a small backline, it has made it possible to really achieve that lightbox look onstage. So anything that the band does is silhouetted beautifully; it captures their movements and adds a masque to the video content on the screen. The band members are basically running around in a whole simulated world. They can go where they want on the stage at any given time and they are part of the whole dynamic look.”
One of Bramall-Watson’s concerns at the start of the tour was that a huge video wall running the width of the stage can make the presentation look flat with no depth. So he found or designed content with as much depth as possible. “I wanted the back wall not to be an end to the depth of the stage but the start of a tunnel which pulls your eye into it,” he said.
Since he designed both the lighting and video, he was able to tie the two together much more easily. But with that control comes added responsibility. “Ultimately having the control of the whole show is obviously what anybody would want to do,” said the designer, “especially as over the past few years it has become a very easy and practical solution.
“Taking on the whole design and visual responsibility for a show is time-consuming at first, but as the tour settles down it becomes increasingly easy and extremely rewarding. I think it also allows for a lot more flexibility,” he adds.
“In some songs on this tour I programmed first with video in mind and then added lighting to complement that. Other songs were definitely more lighting based and either did not have video content or video elements were used more as lighting.”
All of the lighting and video control on the tour is made by High End Systems. Bramall-Watson uses a Flying Pig Systems Full Boar lighting console with a playback wing to program and play back the show. Two High End Systems Axon media servers run the video content and a Flying Pig Systems iPC console is used as a backup for the lighting console. The Hog 3 software runs “seamlessly” between the two desks, he adds.
But having responsibility for all of the visual elements of the show does not mean that Bramall-Watson doesn’t ask for input from others. He and production manager Steve Drymalski constantly discuss ideas and tweak the show even after four months on the road.
“One of the main benefits is that lighting and video are programmed together, and the execution of the cues is seamless,” Bramall-Watson says. “Now content can be made on a good laptop prior to the tour or even at the start of production rehearsals, fed into a server upon arrival, and a huge chunk of the work is already done. Using the Axon and the Full Boar console together makes adding or changing new content the simplest thing. I can change out a single piece or multiple pieces of content into multiple queues.”
This is the first time he has used the Full Boar console, but he has used the iPC exclusively for the last three years. The software is the same, but it has the added functionality of a third touchscreen with the playback wing. That alone, he says, makes an “already great desk even better.
“The layout of my windows is now superb,” he adds. “I can access all I need instantly. The Axon media servers I have used before, but in the guise of a DL.2,” Bramall-Watson says, referring to the media server that is part of High End Systems’ DL.2. “They work really well, and if you were doing a one-off show or had no interest in designing your own custom content, there is more than enough stock content in them to furnish any kind of show.”
Bramall-Watson created the custom video content on a Mac computer using the Apple Studio Pro suite of software, mainly with Motion Three and Compressor. The latter of the two convert the content into MPEG 2 format, which is a requirement of the Axon media servers. The lighting is supplied by PRG, and all of the power and data distribution is handled by the PRG Series 400 PD system. A package of 62 1,200-watt moving lights, including Martin MAC 2000 Wash, MAC 2000 Profiles, Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots and 29 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes make up the bulk of the lighting package.
On a show of this size, power distro is another important consideration. “The floor package for lighting alone runs 600 amps, so advancing power is a definite must,” Bramall-Watson says.
The video wall, which Bramall-Watson calls “amazing,” is a Vidicon V-Lite supplied by Nocturne. “We used Main Light Industries’ SoftLED 2.5-inch drape on the start of this tour and it was great. This wall, however, looks beautiful. It’s so light; we hang a 57-foot-by-18-foot wall and it only weighs 5,000 pounds. It has a clarity and depth that surpasses anything else I have seen in that resolution.”
As the tour zigzagged across North America, Bramall-Watson kept programming the console, tweaking the lighting and video along the way. But even as the looks for each of the songs become fully realized, he didn’t stop adjusting parts of songs or changing the video content. At times he would replace them with something he felt was more suitable and at time he just got tired of looking at the same scene.
“I generally try to build six new pieces of content every day,” he says. His reasons for doing so were twofold; in addition to perfecting the looks on the tour, he plans to offer his custom content for sale. “Some pieces ultimately make their way into the songs on this tour while other pieces are stockpiled for future use on the market or for other tours,” he says.
{mosimage}The tour has given the designer an opportunity to work with Charlie Hernandez, production manager Steve Drymalski, and stage manager Coli West for the first time. “Steve and I bounce ideas off each other all the time,” says Bramall-Watson. “It’s good to have somebody who actual looks at the details of the show. Only Steve can tell me about individual tiny pieces of the show with an intimacy that you would only expect the LD to be aware of. We had a great piece of footage in a song which I stopped using for one reason or another, and one day Steve said, ‘Hey, where did the rose petals go?’ And I suddenly thought, ‘Oh! I forgot we had those.’ We pulled the clip into another song and it looks great. They would have been lost to the show forever without the interaction we have.”
Jim Petrusson is the crew chief, Joe Huq is the dimmer tech and Angelo Bartolme is the video tech. “Jim, Joe and Angelo are hammering this thing up in less than four hours now,” Bramall-Watson said, “which gives me more time to program the show, build content, and watch movies on the tour bus.”
And he can afford to watch those movies with piece of mind afforded by great support. “The tour has been great; the vendors have given me solid support and the show has benefited from an experienced and happy crew,” he adds.
Bramall-Watson sums it up with an appreciation for the opportunity to light a band with a healthy back catalogue, with new and old fans coming to the shows in equal numbers. “When the tour ends,” he says, “I will definitely miss more people from this tour than I have on any other. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to work with them again.”
CREW
Lighting Company: PRG (John Lee, account rep)
Lighting & Video Designer/Director/Programmer: Alastair Bramall-Watson
Lighting Crew Chief: Jim Petrusson
Lighting Dimmer Tech: Joe Huq
Lighting Tech: Johnathan Fuller
Video Company: Nocturne (Bob Brigham, account rep)
Video Tech, Soft LED system: Bobby Cox
Video Tech, V-Lite system: Angelo Bartolome
Production Manager: Steve Drymalski
Tour Manager: Tim “Gooch” Lougee
Stage Manager: Colin West
GEAR
Lighting consoles: 1 Flying Pig Systems Full Boar consoles, 1 Flying Pig Systems iPC console (for back up)
20 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles
25 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures
17 Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots
29 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes with Atomic Colors
10 Mole Richardson 8-Lite Blinders
2 Short Nose PAR64s
1 High End Systems Axon media server
57’x18’ Nocturne V-Lite video wall
1 load of smoke machines
