Electric Forest, held in Rothbury, MI at the Double J Ranch, is a three-day, four-night gathering that hosts over 30 bands and artists performing while fans step across the threshold of the mundane world into the magic of light created on stage and throughout the woods. Lambda Productions Inc., under the helm of Production Director Hadden Hippsley, is the production company that stages the event for AEG and Insomniac but, “It is a team effort working with AEG, and all of our vendors to produce this one of a kind event,” Hippsley says. He brought in Michael Smalley as the lighting designer, who then introduced Hippsley to Aaron Soriero and Music Matters Productions (MMP).
“I can’t say enough about the Lambda crew,” says Soriero. “Especially the stage managers Joe Gordon for Ranch [stage] and Sami Slovy for Carousel Club [stage]. They’re very involved with everything in the event from the advance and working with all the artists. There’s a lot of audibles with the weather and stage conditions and any schedule fluctuations. They are just super helpful working with us as a team.” To which Hippsley responds, “We have worked with Aaron and his [MMP] team at several other festivals and corporate events over the years. We’ve been very impressed with their staff and their equipment. What we are most impressed with is the level of detail and attention with the prep. Their gear and teams arrive with the systems labeled, loomed, and prepped as though they were on a tour. They collaborate well with the artists to adjust gear to try to meet their exact needs as much as possible.”
Ranch Arena
Michael Smalley of PHNTM has been the lighting/production designer for the festival for the past eight years and his client The String Cheese Incident are predominant headliners. He “ grew up” with the festival in that he has worked it consistently since its first year when he was the lighting crew chief. Over the years several different lighting vendors have supported his designs for the various main stages including Ranch Arena and Carousel Club, as well as two other equally unique stages throughout the grounds.
Consequently, a lot of trust has been built regarding his skill set, vision and intuition as to the essence of what Electric Forest is all about. “Nova Han is the creative director for the festival. she manages much of the approvals on the scenic elements,” explains Smalley. “What happens is each stage has a scenic design that will evolve slightly over the years. Those stages give me shape language, theme, look and feel. I integrate that shape language and aesthetic into the design of the lighting rig. Additionally we are just jazzing up the proscenium and lighting the elements around the proscenium.”
Ranch Arena is the main stage and one of two for which MMP provides a lighting system. Along with String Cheese Incident headlining, a lot of world class artists perform there. This stage is heavily populated with Martin technology. “We went with a bunch of MAC Ultra Performances which are my new favorite light. I use them on everything now. We had a bunch of the new MAC Ones running on a P3 network. We were able to send video content to the back lens for the eye candy part,” Smalley comments. “Beyond all the sweet features of P3, it provides a lot of flexibility and ease to how the system is controlled.”
Smalley also specced the Robe MegaPointes for the Ranch rig as “they work well with the EDM acts scheduled on that stage. I really like the Chauvet Color STRIKE M’s. They were especially helpful due to their IP65 rating as both stages got poured on with rain one night. I’ve been using profiles for my downstage wash for a few years now and the [Elation] Proteus Maximus with its IP rating saved us during those rainfalls as well. We used Cuepix panels to create a diamond in the sky which mimicked some of the scenic.”
Carousel Club
For the Carousel Club stage, which is actually a large tent, this year Smalley expanded on the Glow Motion technology available. Previous years featured Glow Motion orbs, which operate on a winch. “Last year we also worked with Glow Motion and got these tiny little pixels that look like little space invader type things that happened, but it’s always been like a little central chandelier. This year,” describes Smalley, “Nova Han and I really wanted a more immersive experience.” Glow Motion provided LED Bars 54’s that, when activated, perform almost like like icicles. These are on winches, which lined the roof to create a whole array constantly in movement over the audience. Controlled by Madrix, Smalley notes that “house LD operators and staff really did a great job of mixing in that constantly evolving magic. The coolest part I saw, honestly, was in between bands, when the whole audience is just lying on the grass in there and staring up. This way you can have those be something that’s entertaining and keeps people in the space and kind of builds energy towards the performance. That was exciting for us. Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Martin MAC Auras and Martin Axiom Hybrids fleshed out the rig to give the space a total nightclub vibe.”
As for challenges, Smalley notes one that is the common denominator for all festivals. “The biggest challenge is how to ride this line between the wants and needs of all the different incoming LDs and how to keep the festival’s brand or proprietary identification cohesive. With Carousel it is not such a big issue as it’s a club vibe and the more ethereal bands play this nightclub setup. On the Ranch stage, where the international big name bands play, there is a lot more give and take. I have multiple conversations with the incoming band creatives about their own visual dynamic, their own approach.”
From Day One, Electric Forest was all about playing into the uniqueness of the festival aesthetic. Smalley points outs, “We determined that all artists invited to play defer to the concept of keeping everybody inside this fantasy world. At the same time allowing every artist the opportunity to put on their best show. Luckily, a lot of the headliners’ lighting and production designer people are friends whom we I have worked with and networked with for a long time. It all goes back to the trust facfactor.” Music Matters Productions has been awarded the contract for the past two years and that trust factor is a key to the relationship. “This is the first year I didn’t even come in for the build.,” says Smalley. “I had folks that we trusted to implement and make sure everything was good from the get-go. My Associate Designer/Technical Director Chris Ruppel does an excellent job on all things advancing and ensuring my designs are done right. Plus, I mean, honestly working with Music Matters, there’s a level of trust with those guys. Not just Aaron himself, but all the project managers and the techs, and every single person that I interface with. I know they’re going to do it right for me and that if I come in and something’s not right, they’re gonna do whatever has to happen to fix it and make it right. Aaron has taken the company to superstar levels. So yeah, for me, it’s very exciting to see this company that Aaron and I started in his garage 25 years ago on Electric Forest. I don’t have anxiety. I’m surrounded by all these people that want me to succeed, you know?”
Content Creation View
JASPER MOSHER
Projection Mapping Visionaire
How has your vision shaped or enhanced the look and feel of the event?
I like to believe it is the spirit of the event and the characteristics of the individual installations that guide our team’s visions for the projected results. The EF art directors do an incredible job of curating wildly talented artists from all over the world to create the attractions that are put on display during the fest. We like to think of our process as creating a projected soul for each of the sculptures that the original artists have already brought to life with their unique creativity and stellar craftsmanship.
What tools do you use to accomplish this?
Our team exclusively uses Epson brand projectors for every project we take on. We find that Epson’s projected colors to be much more vibrant than anything else on the market. This makes a huge difference in the overall quality of our projected art’s final product. We used 14 Epson laser projectors, and 5 custom built media servers to activate all the installations. The Resolume software is used to accomplish all of the projection mapping and many of the special effects. We probably use a combination of roughly 15 different software models to create the content that is displayed, but Resolume is by far the most useful and versatile digital tool in our arsenal.
Tell us about doing the projection mapping for a stage, four large art installations, and the Daniel Popper centerpiece.
Daniel Popper’s “Roots” installation was an absolute privilege to work on this year. The piece stood roughly 30’ tall and towered over the land as the main centerpiece of this year’s entire production. We used four large laser projectors to create a 360° fully mapped attraction. We quickly learned that the nature of Popper’s elegant and detailed sculpture lent itself to certain content creation methods that exceeded our wildest expectations. The process was not an easy one, but the end results were nothing short of spectacular. In addition to the centerpiece, we animated the northern portal artwork created by Carey Thompson who is a legend for creating huge and intricate laser cut attractions. We were also able to create a 360° mapping on a pagoda structure, animate the southern portal entrance, and operated live projection mapping on the Good Life stage for the duration of the event.
Talk about signal control over that large expanse of area.
Resolume is the software that makes the entire process possible. Each individual installation is run by a media server encased in a hand crafted weatherproof wooden case. Each media server would use this software to automatically trigger completely different scenes and add new effects to an ever-evolving stream of visual content. This system allowed us to lock the boxes and leave the area with full confidence that these massive attractions would continue to run flawlessly for the duration of the event. Some of our permanent installations at other venues have been running this same configuration every night without incident for over the past decade of continued use.
What is the timeline like for the installation?
The setup itself is an absolute rollercoaster. If projection mapping were a video game, EF would be the super hard expert advanced settings mode. The event is held in the forest with no pre-existing infrastructure. Between the far northern latitude and the annual timing of coinciding with the summer solstice, the MI nights are the shortest spurts of darkness I have ever experienced while setting up a production. Each night is a race to accomplish as much as possible before the sunrise comes to end your short-lived creative session. If that isn’t enough, the lake effect weather from Lake Michigan kept us on our toes. I must say that while this is no easy task, once you do overcome the obstacles and defy the mission impossible timeline, the final product feels nothing short of triumphant.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our entire team that made this production possible. On top of producing copious amounts of jaw dropping content, this crew was an absolute riot to work with. The laughs never stopped, and the collaboration shattered any expectations I may have had.
For a crew and gear list go to https://plsn.com/articles/showtime/electric-forest-festival-2/
