Things were simpler when we were in kindergarten. We learned about important things like sharing. We got to spend a bit of time coloring and painting. We even got to make big murals out of those long rolls of butcher paper. When I was programming for an upcoming tour in Nashville recently, I came to realize that there were some distinct similarities to what I was now doing.
The gig you’ve just landed will be using 30 media servers, and you need to upload custom content into all of them. Some of the questions that are probably popping into your mind right now are: How long will that take? Will I have the opportunity to load the content before the load-in date? If not, will I have enough time to get everything organized on site at the gig? If any of these sound like questions you’ve asked yourself on a show using digital lighting fixtures and/or media servers, then you will appreciate this article.
The stage is set, the lights go up, the speaker walks out on stage, and the video screen is black. The producer begins yelling at the technical director, and the TD starts yelling at everyone. It’s a demonstration of what flows, and in which direction. It’s also a reminder that, as a camera operator or engineer, you are at the bottom of the hill on which it all flows. Assuming we remembered to remove the lens cover, there are many other pitfalls we would like to avoid. But what other kinds of problems could we have? By understanding a very basic signal flow through the camera, we can protect ourselves from doing something foolish and, more importantly, help us recover quickly when we have already done something foolish.
Back in 1996, when the art of conventional lighting still reigned supreme on the “legitimate” stage, I was working as LD for a new play. (Yes, some of us do that.)
I received a packet of design materials from the M.E. at the theatre where we would load-in. We all know the condition in which many of these packets arrive, if they arrive at all, but this one was truly an exception. The instrument schedule detailed types, colors, lamps, circuits, channels, patch and everything else that I could think of. The plot, well drawn and to scale, gave a precise view of every instrument relative to its focal point. I even got the almighty sectional, which had the potential to save a lot of focus time. (This was before 1999, understand. Moving lights were still confined to the “big” shows and rentals.)
“Convergence” can become tiresome to hear, but never truly gets overused in this day and age. It’s an appropriate term for what’s taken place between video and lighting as elements of live performances. The trend dates back to 1998 when Lighting & Sound Design (LSD) first had a private showing of the Icon M (Medusa) at the LDI show. It combined the Texas Instruments nanotechnology-based DMD (digital mirror device) and the automated yoke of an automated luminaire into a single fixture, with “soft” gobos. Even though the fixture was never mass-produced (it was used on a few tours, including Korn and one or two others), it aligned the industry into the realm of video, media servers and digital lighting.
A funny thing happened on the way to the top of the grand master fader. I found out that it not only goes up, but it also comes down. It was a complete accident, but it turned out to be a discovery that was right up there with the time I found out my VCR wasn’t supposed to flash “12:00.”
When a tour manager voiced concerns about the pacing of a show, I listened intently as he described what he wanted to see. He wanted the show to build. He wanted a steady building of lighting looks, punctuated by a climax. He wanted to hold back the best for last. In short, he wanted the impossible.
[If last month’s LD-at-Large column resolved anything, it’s that sushi is definitely the cuisine of choice among most lighting designers. Four of them, Nook Schoenfeld, Bob Peterson, John Featherstone and Olivier Ilisca, got together for an informal lunch discussion at Nook’s urging. On the menu? Sushi, of course. Once the sushi connection was established, the four LDs talked about how they started in the business and how they ended up where they are, all the while working on their appetizer. By the time the main course arrived, they were on to bigger and better things, like what it takes to get ahead in this business. This is the second of a three-part series. – ed.]
Watch the Video from the 2006 Parnelli Awards honoring Jere Harris, the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Watch the Video from the 2006 Parnelli Awards honoring Bill Hanley, the recipient of the Innovator award.
My workbox is filled with all sorts of useful widgets.
There’s the spare power supply for my laptop, a table-top tripod for my camera and a bundle of zip ties. You’ll also find a couple of sets of 5-pin to 3-pin XLR adapters, various types of pliers, and a hemostat for…ahem…delicately removing the gobo springs from a MAC 2000. So, how I never had a widget like this, I’ll never know. But at least it’s there now.
Young people often ask me how I achieved my position in the lighting profession and how I ended up in Chicago. I started thinking about the fact that the majority of successful U.S. lighting designers hail from New York or California. But Chicago is right up there with the rest of the world, and what better way to discuss how to advance in the industry than to invite three renowned Chicago lighting designers to dinner to discuss it.
Josh Damrauer
Owner, Operator, Designer
JD Productions Intelligent Stage Lighting
Harrisburg, PA
717.215.2025
Jdproductions03@yahoo.com
www.myspace.com/jdproductions
Services Provided:
Intelligent stage lighting.