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Happy Friggin’ Birthday!

marchnightmare.jpgIn 1988, I had the chance to go to Cascais, Portugal, on my 29th birthday no less, with a group for which I was LD’ing. I should have known when the airline lost all of my luggage that I was in for a bad trip.

The show was to be broadcast “live” on Portuguese national radio. When I showed up to focus and program, I discovered the lighting rig was only half set up, and there were no local lighting personnel anywhere in the building. As I walked around checking out the rig, I also noticed that the power to the dimmers was not connected properly. I found this out the hard way when I got a nice electrical jolt to my left hand. When the crew finally did show up two hours later, the first thing I did was to let the head electrician know of the problem. He informed me that I was completely wrong and he refused to double-check his work.

ETC

ETC Town Square.jpgWho: Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc. (ETC)

What: A manufacturer of entertainment and architectural lighting equipment.

Where: Middleton, Wis. Other offices include New York City; Hollywood; Orlando, Fla.; Hong Kong; Copenhagen; Veenendaal, the Netherlands; Rome; London; and Holzkirch Holzkirchen, Berlin and Dresden, Germany.

Yo! Who You Calling an Employee?

April 15 is coming at us faster than we realize. It’s a good time to discuss one of the big bugaboos in the entertainment business: the status of the freelance worker.

The term “freelance” translates in IRS-speak to “independent contractor,” a category that has undergone significant revision and clarification over the last decade because, in an age when few people stay at one job more than a few years, the notion of self-employment has gotten fuzzy around the edges. Back in 1996, the Internal Revenue Service redefined what constitutes an independent contractor, establishing a complex set of 20 common-law factors plus interpretations of numerous tax court cases. Here’s how the IRS establishes the boundary between independent contractor and employee:

Light Factory PC-Based Lighting Controller

marchroadtest.jpgAs an experienced sound and lighting contractor, I am often put upon by manufacturer reps to “…take a look and let us know what you think” about this piece of gear or that. Sometimes, there may be an actual potential need for the product, a free lunch or sometimes just plain old curiosity on my part. In this case, however, the stars aligned properly and I came across this product that I wanted to check out.

A One-Up on One-Offs

VidWorld_Mar06.jpgI recently had a change of scenery that involved less of driving a switcher and more of driving a desk. This has given me a different perspective on preparation for the one-off gig in the world of video. What I’m finding is that an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure. So what exactly is an ounce of prevention? This is my take concerning video flightpacks, LED screens and projection.

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Don’t Let Hiccups Get You Down

What happens when you arrive and the lighting crew or the video projection crew is waiting for you to tell them where you want the digital lighting projectors to be placed, but the truss isn’t hung or where you need it to be? What would you do if you arrived at the gig and the screens were already hung, but they’re 10 feet further than the optimal throw distance? These situations, and many more like them, are commonly referred to as hiccups. How you handle them is going to require thinking on your feet. Here are a few common sense things that may just help you get through those stressful situations.

Valley Christian HS Theatre: Making the Hard…Easy

Promotional - kids 1.jpg“Children have a natural antipathy to books—handicraft should be the basis of education. Boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something, and they would be less apt to destroy and be mischievous.”
– Oscar Wilde

(Growing) The Hard Way
Dave Dunning, CEO of Legend Theatrical, says, “There’s an argument that’s been made that ‘most colleges are using a counterweight system and kids should learn that.’ But, in reality, you’re not going to school to learn to operate a fly system. You’re going to school to learn to be a technician or be a designer.”

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Dan “Malibu” Krygowski

The jam band scene is a tight knit group of kindred spirits that are less corporate rock and marketing, and more in-theknow rock ‘n’ roll music junkies. Most bands have die-hard followers and rely on their live performances to not only generate income, but also to create the scene that results in their success. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that LD Dan “Malibu” Krygowski plays a vital roll for the band he tours with, O.A.R., or that he even has his own fan Web site. After all, he’s rock ‘n’ roll at heart, and he’s one of the family.

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Keith Urban: Award-winning designer lights award-winning artist

Lighting designer Chris Lisle started in the business in 1992 when he toured with the St. Louis-based rock band Novella. Along his way, he has picked up experience as a production assistant, stage manager, tour manager, production manager, assistant producer and producer. In 2003, he won the Bandit Lites “Rookie of the Year” award, and he recently picked up the “Rock” award from the same company. And now, he can add to his resumé lighting designer for one of country music’s hottest commodities, Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year for 2005, Keith Urban.

Ring of Fire: The Story of the Songs of Johnny Cash

Orleans Parish Prison.jpgThe arrival of March will bring with it the opening of Ring of Fire, the new musical based on the songs written and performed by Johnny Cash and the evocative stories those songs tell. The show’s premise revolves around the telling of these stories and how the smaller vignettes tell a larger overarching story in and of themselves. To bring the now-immortal songs of Cash to life, projection designer Michael Clark and lighting designer Ken Billington have created a stage environment to match the versatility of the lyrics and the wide range of both emotional and physical space that the characters must go through along their journeys. I recently spoke with the creative team behind this show to find out how they ignited this Ring of Fire.