For Ben Hur Live, staged recently at London’s O2 Arena, Patrick Woodroffe used a lighting rig of more than 200 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB, MAC 2000 Profile and MAC III Profile moving heads to light a musical stage production involving a cast of 400 and scenes that include a ship battle and chariot race.
Any time someone chooses to revive a Broadway masterpiece, they take on a big responsibility and risk drawing criticism if it does not live up to expectations or takes an unexpected turn. But then that is part of the thrill of live theatre — taking risks and trying to exhilarate audiences with something new and different.
It’s not supposed to be like this. Let’s just get that straight. I have enough friends who tour. I’ve listened to plenty of tales of woe, exploding egos, tree pissing contests and the misadventures of local crews with expensive gear — enough to know that load-ins are not supposed to be so easy.
“A true visionary” is a phrase that is often overused, but it’s probably an understatement when describing High End Systems co-founder Richard Belliveau.
"Number one, and something that isn’t often talked about in these types of articles,” says creative director Ray Woodbury, “is that No Doubt is an awesome band.”
In an industry where the only constant is the rising expectations of production values, special effects are the magic elixir that soothes the savage need for excitement and thrills. But the downturn in the economy has thrown many parts of the industry into a fishtail. Road tours, however, seem to be the exception.
Es Devlin is best known for her scenery and costume design work in opera, but she has recently lent her talents to the Pet Shop Boys for their Pandemonium tour of North America.
All lighting designers want to create compelling visuals that inspire awe, but not many of them will tell you they feel a responsibility to represent the visual aspect of the band they work for. Jason Liggett is perhaps unique in that regard as he described in his quest to become the lighting designer for alt rock band Wilco. For someone who started as a security guard in a nightclub, Liggett has come a long way.
The popularity of the band Green Day has afforded the trio the opportunity to headline and establish high production values. A major part of the production for their 21st Century Breakdown tour is the video element, most of which is controlled by lighting director Kevin Cauley. The other Collie on the tour is lighting designer Justin Collie of Artfag. This is what they had to say about the tour.
During the last year I have seen many manufacturers unveil various 300-watt lighting fixtures. Each of them had some impressive features that made them stand out. Unfortunately for them, Robe has just upped the bar for everyone by unveiling their evolutionary compact Robin 300 series of fixtures, and, let me tell you something, they’re not missing anything here.
There’s a fascinating book called The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr about how cloud computing is changing the world.
(or “How I Learned to Climb Truss”)
When I think about how fast the entertainment lighting industry has grown over the last 10 years alone, it makes my head spin an infinite number of pan rotations.