That giant fluttering sound you heard last month was the sound of 600 million American eyelids opening at once. Such was the reaction to Mike Wallace’s report on 60 Minutes highlighting a study from Leicester University in Leicester, England about happiness. The study reported that Denmark was the happiest country in the world. In fact, it has ranked first in Eurobarometer surveys for the last 30 years.
Nick Freed, president, Inner Circle Distribution
Who: Nick Freed, president; Noel Duncan, vice president; and Gary Mass, vice president of business development.
What: A full-service distributor of entertainment lighting products for professionals.
Where: Sunrise, Florida
Let me put this right up front: I’m not the brightest lamp on the truss. At times, I can make Jessica Simpson look like Marilyn vos Savant, who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for five years under “Highest IQ” for both childhood and adult scores. I’m not particularly proud or embarrassed about that, but admitting it has served me well. An empty head can be like being an empty vessel looking for understanding with which to be filled.
Motorized rigging eliminates the need to figure out how to safely adjust rigged loads with counterweights in a conventional fly system. You just push a button, and up it goes. And so far, for the most part, it’s stayed there. Catastrophic hoist brake failures have been exceedingly rare. With the scarcity of major hoist failures, we want to avoid breeding a new kind of danger: complacency.
Last night I found myself sitting in a bar with a bunch of lampys. How unusual. So I decided to check in with them on how they’ve seen the business of lighting shows change in the last few years. Between the five of us we have close to 100 years of experience in the entertainment biz. And since we’re lighting guys, it goes without saying that we have opinions about everything. So I posed a few questions.
The first Strike Survival Workshop that IATSE’s hard-hit Local 728 in Hollywood ran late last year was standing-room-only, which suggests the impact that the strike by the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) was having on those who literally do set the stage for filmed and televised entertainment. The second one, held Feb. 8, a clinic for financial help and counseling from the Motion Picture Trust Fund, was just as packed.
You’re in a nightclub on a Saturday night, you’ve had a drink or two, the DJ is spinning wicked live, and the most incredible guy/girl in the place walks up, and stands at the bar next to you. You (A) lean over and softly say, “Hey babe, are you tired? You’ve been running through my dreams all night.” (B) put on your sexy voice dripping with suggestiveness and ask if you can buy him/her a drink, or (C) don’t notice because you’re too busy watching the light show.
At 530 feet in diameter and 152 feet tall, the Tacoma Dome is one of the world’s largest wooden domed structures. For the past 25 years, it has been the hub of entertainment in the city, with events ranging from music concerts to freestyle motocross taking place here. Yet the Dome’s management team started to feel the pinch of competition coming from Key Arena in Seattle, White River Amphitheater in Auburn and Everett Event Center.
If you've read enough of my jargon, you realize I'm a big believer in "giving something back". In other words, for years people have spent their time teaching me my craft. So now I spend time teaching others the same thing. But this morning I had something cool given to me.
Scenic designer Michael Hotopp and his creative partner/scenic designer Bill Hoffman have worked together for two decades on myriad productions — touring theatre shows, trade shows, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular — but nothing could have prepared them for working during the last eight years on ice sculpture installations as part of the Ice series for the Gaylord Hotels. Working on Christmas-based themes, they have created walk-through attractions that depict famous holiday characters and events, but this past year they got a real treat — designing the Ice! How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Every year I design the set and lighting for a traveling rock show called “A Taste of Chaos”. Ten bands will perform on 2 stages every night. Each year I take a few young kids and try to school them in the art of setting up and lighting a rock show. Some pass with flying colors while others flounder miserably.
When Kevin Mitchell of Sugar Society booked the legendary Rabbit in the Moon at Amos’ Southend, his ace up his sleeve was Jack Kelly of Eye Dialogue, who had four years of experience doing shows at the Charlotte, NC music hall. He handed Kelly the tour rider and asked if he could light it for $4,000.