Every year, I find myself at some stadium lighting something. If it's not a rock show, it's often the halftime entertainment or pre-game ceremonies of some sporting event. The gigs vary drastically, but the one thing that they all have in common is that it is broadcast on live TV, and you only get one shot to do it right…The one thing I have learned over the years is to take advantage of downtime when working in television. When I write my chases, I record them with various timings as well as different levels of intensity. The cameras and the producers are unforgiving. As we ran through the opening ceremony several times, I was told that the first strobe chase was too fast. So I whipped up a different fader with a slower speed. This one wasn't random enough. On the third fader I had yet another cue. This time the producer said that I had nailed his vision and it's a wrap. The same with the ColorBlazes. The shade of blue I had chosen apparently did not match the players' jerseys, but the second cue made them content with color. Nobody wants to wait on the LD, and I give them no reason to.
-Nook Schoenfeld, from "LD-at-Large," PLSN, Feb. 2011
