LD Joel Reiff grew up listening to Alice Cooper on the radio, so he was familiar with the songs. What he had to learn to light were the stunts that Alice pulls onstage on his current tour. The “Spend the Night with Alice Cooper” tour entertains with props and gags galore, as Alice has done since the 1970s. Reiff says Cooper and his manager, Shep Gordon, create the ideas for the stunts with James Randi as one of the stunt designers.
While his design for Coldplay’s “A Head Full of Dreams” world tour made its way to North America, we heard from U.K. production designer/LD Paul Normandale, who was winging his way to Chicago to make sure the show was playing out as planned. When asked to describe his design in one sentence — as there’s no space to cover the entire production here — he says it’s “a cascading waterfall of vivid stars.”
There are so many sad stories regarding the recent Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre. LD Kevin Cauley shares one of them. Cauley has been doing lots of programming lately, including the May 26 Red Nose Day live broadcast from Los Angeles for NBC, which raised money for needy children. He was now starting on programming this season of La Voz Kids, a Spanish version of The Voice for youngsters, produced by Telemundo. “The show tapes three rounds in Orlando over a four or five month period,” he explains. “We had just reconvened for the third round. The attack (at Pulse nightclub) happened the night before.”
LD Martin Thomas of Relentless Entertainment Design LLC informed us of a new DVD/Blu-ray release of the Alan Parsons Symphonic Project, Live in Colombia, which was originally performed in Medellín in the late Aug. 2013. While Thomas designed and directed the show, video director David Davidian directed the cameras and cuts live.
LD Philip Ealy has designed the much anticipated reunion tour for Guns N’ Roses. Aptly titled “Not In This Lifetime” — referring to the fact that nobody believed it would actually happen — Ealy is working with lighting programmer Rob Koenig and content programmer Chris Lose on the stadium tour.
The Imagine Dragons film, Smoke + Mirrors Live, uses scenes captured at their Toronto show on July 4, 2015. The movie premiered for one night only March 2 in select cinemas worldwide. It’s now available on Blu-Ray. Imagine Dragons LD Sooner Routhier and lighting director Mitchell Schellenger worked with film director Dick Carruthers, director of photography Rob Scarborough and a film crew of about 45 people with an audience lighting package to help make the live show appealing to the cameras.
Venting his frustrations, LD (and frequent flyer) Joe Paradise jotted down notes as he navigated the world’s airports. Four years later, his notes built up into a book. His paperback, The Courteous Flyer: The basics of good manners while traveling by air, is now selling on Amazon.
Is Flying Drone Tech the new crew position in production? LD Chris Medvitz of Lightswitch would agree. He has four cities of auto shows on his agenda. But it was his involvement in the Infiniti exhibit and press events at the Los Angeles Auto Show that pointed toward the future.
Aaron Black: “I was in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Opera with a new production of Lohengrin, which premieres Jan. 22.”
Andy Cass: “NYE is our biggest show of the year with String Cheese Incident, and it’s my personal favorite because it’s in my backyard, in Broomfield, CO. We brought in a huge 3D video wall (48 by 15 feet) and a massive light rig along with dancers and aerialist. I used a local vendor and a national vendor to make it happen.”
It wouldn’t be a holiday without the heavy metal and production spectacle of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and LD Bryan Hartley is back with this year’s winter tour, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve.” Hartley has been designing the production and lighting for 17 years, since the beginning of TSO, he says. “I decided not to build a traditional custom set and instead, I designed the video as the set. Then I can change to whatever set look I want.” The identical East and West Coast legs run through Dec. 30 in the US and Canada.
Congrats to all the 2015 Parnelli Award winners, including Lighting Designer of the Year Sooner Routhier for Imagine Dragons, Lighting Director of the Year Cosmo Wilson for AC/DC, Set/Scenic Designer of the Year LeRoy Bennett for Maroon 5 and Video Director of the Year Mike Drew for Rascal Flatts. .
