Lighting and Production Designer Patrick Brannon talks about his approach to design, including for country superstar, and Grammy Award-winner Tim McGraw: “I like to just… Read More »Incorporating All You Learn in Your Design
In the February PLSN issue, Chris Lose wrote of advice he got from Nook Schoenfeld when Lose took over the LD-at-Large column. Here’s an excerpt from that column on being inspired by everything around you.
When we look at a rainbow, we see a full spectrum of light. Every color we could imagine. Except one – magenta. Where is it? Well, officially magenta doesn’t exist. There is no wavelength of light for magenta, meaning the human brain literally makes it up, but how?
Here’s a video on the subject of magenta from the BBC:
Richard “Nook” Schoenfeld, noted Lighting Designer, Writer, and Editor Emeritus of PLSN, died Dec. 14, 2022 at age 65. In addition to his writing, editing, and designing, Nook joined the board of directors of the Parnelli Awards, where he created the NextGen category to highlight the work of up-and-coming people in the business. His career was marked by his generosity and mentoring. He always looked to shine the spotlight on people newer to the industry, helping their career take off. As a result, Nook’s true impact on the entertainment lighting field was not limited to his own accomplishments but can also be seen today in the work of the many designers he influenced and nurtured in their careers.
Chelsea Hartley, who just finished the recent South American leg of Bad Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour, took some time to speak with PLSN about her current work as a Production Coordinator. Besides Bad Bunny, she has also worked on Gwen Stefani’s Just a Girl concert residency at the Zappos Theater in Las Vegas as well as toured with Karol G in 2021 and the New Kids on the Block for their Mixtape tour in 2022. Her tips for success in this unique backstage niche, where she takes care of logistics and reports daily to the Production Manager: “Patience, focus, and just loving it.”
“We’re slowly moving the needle [on diversity], but like racism and sexism, change moves at a very slow pace. I made it a point to invite as many women and people of color as possible and it was nice to see how many there were in attendance. The conference definitely had real-world benefits and was very organized, structured, and welcoming as well as offering an abundance of networking and learning experiences,” noted Conference panelist, Tour Manager David Norman.
“The lighting and video were about 80% timecode, so just enough manual action to keep [Lighting Director] Ryan [King] busy all night long. The automation was not on timecode, though, which caused us to turn to live motion tracking for some of the flying gags, especially the Ferrari. I’m really happy with how well that worked with 40 fixtures following it seamlessly. …
For Lauv’s “All 4 Nothing” tour, Parker Genoway of Silent House described the design of the LED structure that provided a blank canvas for Blink-Inc.’s blend of video content and I-Mag. “The shape of the LED structure stemmed from the idea that most shows play with horizontal space, and we wanted to force ourselves to play within a more vertical canvas. We also raked the floor to ensure all fans could see the surface. It was a delicate balance of finding something that visually catered to the audience but was also safe and practical for Lauv to run around on.”
If you are designing a Nine Inch Nails show, it’s important to stay current with the latest trends in concert looks—and then consider doing a 180. “We wanted to be on our singular path of anti-technology and didn’t want gratuitous visuals,” says Paul Guthrie of Toss Film & Design, explaining the absence of a video component in the production and the inclusion of vintage PAR fixtures among the LED light sourced fixtures. Instead of video, there’s a torn gauze backdrop for textured shadow effects, affectionately referred to as “the dirty diaper.”
In terms of human evolution, Herbert Spencer coined the term “survival of the fittest” in his Principles of Biology in 1864. In our ever-changing industry, we also see dramatic changes. In my lifetime, I have watched the transition from tungsten to arc to LED, and now we are seeing lasers start to flood the market. The same tools that I used even 20 years ago have become obsolete. They have been replaced with newer, more effective, and far more complex gadgets. But for us, it seems, a far more accurate description is “survival of the adaptable.”
For Swedish rock band Ghost’s Imperatour trek, Brazil-based LD Erich Bertti took on the challenge of highlighting a story narrative, not just a band and its songs. “I told [Ghost frontman Tobias Forge] that if I close my eyes listening to Ghost, I imagined it as being a theater rock show with all the concepts of the character creation that he had. The whole storytelling behind the clergy, and all that stuff. I said I could easily see that almost as a musical. We’re telling a story more than doing a concert. It was exactly what he was looking for.”
In the early days for Upstaging, now marking 50 years, the company’s main work was lighting a lot of small, local shows. “We worked with a lot of local bands. We did Styx, who back then were playing high schools in the Chicago area every Friday and Saturday night,” notes Don Carone, who founded Upstaging with his brother Robert along with their friend Robin Shaw. Follow the link to learn more about the bands Upstaging lit in those early days.