My wife bought me the book, John Adams by David McCullough shortly after it came out in 2001. It’s a 700+ page book about the second president of the United States. (You thought it was about the guy who works at Vari-Lite and who used to work for High End Systems, didn’t you?) Although the book very much intrigued me, it sat on the shelf for almost eight years before I finally got the time to read it.
Anyone who has ever looked after lighting a musical artist will eventually find themselves having to work in strange surroundings, with a light rig and set they did not design. Whether it’s a TV show, an awards presentation or a radio station-hosted arena bash, there is an unwritten etiquette that would be wise to follow.
This month I’m celebrating a 10 year anniversary. Ten years ago I was fired for the second time in 18 months. Oddly enough, I didn’t receive a single greeting card. Some people might think that getting fired twice in 18 months is no cause for celebration. Those people are wrong.
“Scream if u luv nick/joe/kevin!” reads the I-Mag, displaying monitored text messages from fans in the arena. Not everyone at a Jonas Brothers concert responds, but anyone arriving without earplugs will leave with a ringing reminder of how excited the girls in the audience can get when even a text-message proxy for the Jonas Brothers comes into view. The lighting and stage design for the boys’ current tour revolves around a Tait Towers-designed main stage with two smaller B stages. The design and gags heighten the excitement of the concert experience for the younger crowd by bridging the distance between the teen fans and their idols.
For her 50-city Fearless tour, Taylor Swift asked production designer Jonathan Smeeton for a set that was “as multi-dimensional as possible,” featuring a “theatrical presentation of graphics, sets and visual elements.” Smeeton saw the logic of Swift’s ideas. “She is a songwriter who tells stories that have a place and setting,” he said, “so we had the opportunity to provide a very theatrical show for her fans, rather than just dreaming up nice looks for nice songs.”
LD Stephen Page of DBN Lighting lit the 50-meter-tall façade of the riverfront Port of Liverpool building for LuminoCity, a 30-minute multimedia show that included video projections, pyrotechnics, live performance and sound. DBN also provided gear for the show, which was the culmination of Liverpool’s 2009 Art On The Waterfront event produced by Walk The Plank for Liverpool City Council. Walk the Plank was also produced in conjunction with the Tate Liverpool art gallery and one of its exhibitions, Colour Chart.
While the recent revival of the classic Broadway musical Guys and Dolls starring Oliver Platt, Craig Bierko and Lauren Graham lasted only 149 performances (including previews), it will likely stand out for a more important reason: its use of 3D video animation to extend the sets and give the show a more cinematic feeling.
As the lights go up on stage in the Atlantis Resort’s expansive, Imperial Ballroom, 51 teenage girls dressed in matching cobalt blue dresses are waiting nervously in the wings. Only one of them is going to get exactly what she wants tonight; the title of Miss Teen USA 2009. The crew, in contrast, is feeling fine. The stage looks great, the girls look great, and after the show is done, there’s load-out, and then, well, then there’s the Bahamas and the lazy river ride. But more on that later.
In the pristine setting that is northeastern Pennsylvania resides the staging company known as Mountain Productions. The 17-acre spread is an unlikely location for a business in the live event production industry, but from there they have served local, regional, national and international clients in concert, institutional, educational, religious and commercial productions for exactly 30 years. They provide staging, roof systems, grandstands and bleachers, soft goods, production accessories, as well as rigging needs.
From a Baltimore teen working raves during high school to designing the video system for the Opening Ceremonies for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, Scott Chmielewski has been at the forefront of lighting and video technology. In this month’s PLSN Interview, we discuss digital technology from the designer’s perspective.
For many years, ArKaos has been very successful at producing video mixing software, including its VJ line of software. It combines real time video mixing technology with intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUIs), and it is widely used in nightclubs around the world and on tours such as The Prodigy in 2009.
Innovations in LED technology have resulted in some very interesting lighting fixtures for the entertainment industry. Some of the advantages of LEDs include: Long lamp life — 25,000 to 50,000 hours or more (We don’t really know yet since most of the new generation fixtures haven’t been around long enough to tell); Economic benefits — Because there are no lamps to replace, this also means there are no associated labor costs involved; Time Savings — Lower maintenance because of the fixture’s limited moving parts reduces labor and the total cost of ownership as compared to conventional lighting fixtures; Low Energy Consumption — Higher efficiency means it uses less energy to produce the same amount of light.