Lighting Co
See Factor
Venue
Various (Tour)
- Crew
- Lighting Designer & Director: Marty Postma
- Lighting Tech: Keenan Bevans
- See Factor Rep: Alban Sardzinsky
- Tour Manager: Chuck Randall
- Production Manager: Paul Binder
- Production Coordinator: Lindsey Long
- Staging: Accurate Staging/Jose Cantu
- Soft Goods: Sew What?/Rent What?/Megan Duckett
- Trucking: Janco
Gear
- 1 HES Hog 4 console (full size)
- 14 HES Shapeshifter C1 fixtures
- 14 Robe Pointes
- 4 Martin MAC Quantum Spots
- 6 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRX
- 8 Chauvet COLORado LED pars
- 6 4-Lite moles
- 2 Martin JEM K1 hazers
Tour Notes: Alice in Chains finished up the second leg of their summer tour in October. The band has not had a new album since 2013 but, in their own words, they “just wanted to get out of the house for the summer.” LD Marty Postma once again made fine use of High End Shapeshifters as a large part of his design.
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings:
Marty Postma
Lighting Designer & Director
“Last year we toured with a similar design that was based around a ‘clean stage’ look that was achieved in part with two sets of neutral gray shaded legs and borders and a semi-translucent textured backdrop. We were looking to expand on the same look for this year’s tours without losing the overall ‘clean’ look. Economy of design is critical to maintaining this since having too much gear all over the stage and around it quickly ruins the look. The trick here is to create enough dynamic and unique looks with a small rig. The High End Shapeshifter fixture is the perfect choice to meet all of these requirements. They are effectively seven units as a single fixture. We can easily create looks with 10 fixtures that look as if there are 70 or more fixtures in the rig. To complement this we added the Robe Pointe fixtures this year for even more aerial effects and punctuation. The Pointes are nice and compact with a great feature set with the multiple gobo wheels, zoom, and multiple prisms. They have quickly become my favorite ‘beam’ type fixture.
“We are using 14 of the C1 model Shapeshifters. Eight units atop vertical truss towers that frame out the stage and scenic drapes. Two units on the floor at the base of the upstage drapes, and four units that sit on top of empty cases behind the backdrop. Having units in front of and behind the semi-translucent textured backdrop aids in our ability to create a large range of very dynamic looks without it looking 2D or ‘flat.’ We can create the illusion of depth and change the perception of the stage space very easily this way. Instead of simply washing the drapes and backdrops with 2D looking colors and patterns via more ‘conventional’ fixture types. At the same time we are able to achieve aerial effects and highlights on the band members themselves in addition to the Pointes. The Pointe fixtures are hung off the front of the towers on short pipes. By blending them into the truss tower structures we are able to put more fixtures into the design without creating more visual clutter. The vertical arrays of Pointes work perpendicular to the horizontal arrays of Shapeshifters. All this together serves to make ‘big’ looks from a ‘small’ rig.
“Alice In Chains is a band of such astounding talent alone that they don’t need any special tricks or gags to compensate for weaknesses in the performance. This leaves me completely free to highlight and enhance all the little individual layers and details within the music. Having all the little individual ‘cells’ within Shapeshifter is a very natural and easy way to apply visual enhancements to these. Couple that with the Pointes for additional beams and shapes and the whole picture comes together quite nicely.
“See Factor supplied our lighting gear both years. They have done an outstanding job on the prep as well as with support along the way. Sew What? supplied us with our rental drapes and custom backdrop. They have a great team and continue to be a strong partner in our productions.”
More tour photos by Steve Jennings:
{gallery}16/12/alice{/gallery}
