Production Profile

Mark Foster is another one of those talented musicians who worked for many years to become an overnight sensation. One day you’ve never heard of them; the next day, they’re everywhere. Like thousands of hopefuls, Foster moved to Los Angeles after high school to chase a career in music. After several years of onerous odd jobs and stillborn bands, he landed work with audio production house Mophonics as a commercial jingle writer, giving us immortal works for California Tourism, Cadillac and Muscle Milk.

Think about it: The Beatles had no lighting designer on tour. The thought boggles the mind.

This year, America celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ 1964 landing in New York and the launch of Beatlemania. On their three 1964-66 tours, the world’s most popular band may have had a followspot operator, but otherwise were stuck with poor house lights or, in the case of stadiums, industrial fixtures meant to light the field, not the Fab Four. Forget “stage design.” One promoter lined up 200 folding chairs onstage — and directly behind the band — to squeeze in more of the screaming girls and society celebrities for over-capacity ticket sales.

The seventeenth annual Reventón Latin rock festival drew close to 18,000 to Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on July 19, 2014. Organized by KSSE Super Estrella 107.1 FM, Reventón featured a lineup that included largely accessible, if fairly diverse, Spanish-language acts, such as Caifanes, La Ley, Fobia, Roco Pachukote de Maldita Vecindad, Enrique Bunbury, La Unión, Víctimas Del Doctor Cerebro and La Santa Cecilia.

Video Production Helps Bring a Locally-Grown Festival in Oregon to a Wider Audience

Over a 16-year span, the annual Pickathon Music Festival —so-named, according to executive producer Zale Schoenborn, for the “hand-picked” assortment of artists across a wide range of genres — has grown from a modest shindig at Horning’s Hideout in Portland, OR to a three-day music festival with seven unique stages on Pendarvis Farm, an 88-acre horse farm framed by the forests and mountains near Happy Valley, OR, a half-hour outside of the big city.

Cleverly named The Final Tour, Mötley Crüe’s final tour began July 2 in Grand Rapids, MI. And final it is. In January, under a banner proclaiming “All Bad Things Must Come to an End,” the iconic band’s members held a press conference in Hollywood, complete with a New Orleans-style funeral marching band, at which they publicly signed a legally binding “cessation of touring” agreement. It prohibits them from going on the road together or individually under the Mötley moniker after their current 18-month worldwide victory lap ends. No biennial reunion tours, no country fair oldies circuit, no package cruises.

Ready to launch into the next song, Sarah McLachlan suddenly stops and squints into the spotlight. A fan has come to the footlights with an ill-timed request. Lifting up her T-shirt, the fan asks: Would McLachlan autograph her bra? McLachlan repeats the request into the microphone with surprise and a laugh, while the audience collectively groans at the fan’s faux pas. McLachlan calls for a pen and signs. Now the fan lifts up her boot. She has another request. At this point, security guards grab the gal and guide her away.

“Tim McGraw likes his rock ‘n’ roll,” says lighting director Pat Brannon in what proves to be an understatement. “He likes that big look.”

If there’s a word that sums up McGraw’s current Sundown Heaven Town tour is “big.” Big set. Big lights. And perhaps most of all, a big new 7mm video screen custom designed by Screenworks NEP that has put that company in the manufacturing business.

In Katy Perry’s world, more is more. Warriors wearing neon clothes holding dimmer-controlled LED infused spears, LED jump ropes, a hanging diamond-shaped structure that lifts her into the arena, a mechanical horse … the audience needs the 3D glasses they receive.

You couldn’t have written this Cinderella story with a happier ending. After being dropped by Columbia Records, pop rock band OneRepublic, formed in 2003, watched their Internet presence grow exponentially, attracting the attention and winning the support of producer Timbaland, who signed them to his Mosley Music Group and remixed their song “Apologize,” turning it into an international hit.

After Four Decades, it’s ‘A Matter of Trust” between Artist and Director Steve Cohen

There was energy. There was dancing. There was an electrifying performance. And that’s just the FOH platform. Steve Cohen appropriately feels he’s part of the Billy Joel band – after all, this is his 40th year with the American pop icon. The Parnelli Award-winning video and lighting designer/show director is back in the arenas with Joel (the stop in St. Louis was the 20th Anniversary of the last time he was here, playing what is now called the Scottrade Center). Fueled by diet A&W root beer and an obvious deep love of the music, Cohen was a blur of movement as he kept the lighting and video in sync with the music.

Comedian Gabriel Iglesias is living large. In a 17-year career, his popular stage act, based largely on largeness and Chicano culture, has taken him all over the U.S. and to 20 foreign countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Norway, Dubai, Greenland, Australia and Singapore. Having graduated from 200-seat clubs, he routinely sells out venues ranging from 2,500 to 12,000 seats, often adding extra shows to appease the demand.

Iron Maiden, eat your hearts out…

Using vintage 1980s metal motifs, terrifying pits of flame, an ominous structure patterned upon a medieval castle wall and one monstrously animated mascot, heavy rock titans Avenged Sevenfold (A7X) have become the gold standard in ghoulish, budget-conscious concert bonanzas.