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Tips & Tricks

Rocking the Real House with Virtual Magic

The 1975’s fifth (and ongoing) concert tour, “Still…At Their Very Best,” kicked off in mid-September, 2023, on the heels of their fourth tour, “At Their Very Best.” And although the set looks the same as the two-story house that debuted in November 2022, there are visual—and virtual—twists beyond the newly added B-stage where lead singer Matthew Healy acts out bits between the new tour’s two-act format. Act 1 also features fresh video content from Green Wall Designs, and as Green Wall’s Viktor Rundlöf notes, there are nuances that play with the audience’s perception of what is real and what is virtually enhanced. “We did a piece where we took a 3D model of the set and lit it in different ways in software. Then we captured the shadow from that lighting on a virtual screen and rendered that to the real screen.”

Learning the Ropes Before Running the Show

A thoroughly educated production manager is always going to be better at running the show than someone who’s brand new. And the best education comes from learning the basics as a new hire, then learning more and more as you work your way up. Asked of a particular job that “really set you on your course in your career,” Production Manager Denny Rich cites “being a head carp for Opie [Dale Skjerseth] and Jake [Berry]” on tours for the Rolling Stones and AC/DC and also working with Chris Kansy on ‘Roger Waters: The Wall.’ “You are not just focused on your one aspect of what you do,” Rich told PLSN. “I think having been on the floor and building stages; facilitating in all the other departments, getting what they need and all that, I think it gives you a very balanced view of where everyone’s needs lie. That experience gave me the understanding of a production that I then took and built on right up to today.”

Defying Gravity with P!nk’s Production Design

P!nk’s songs have always had an edge, but her shows never get too dark. “A part of the whole ethos of the ‘Summer Carnival’ is to keep it light, keep it fun,” says Baz Halpin, CEO & Founder of Silent House, who served as Creative Director and Producer for the ongoing tour. Bright colors and silliness aren’t the only aspects of P!nk’s shows, the artist also defies gravity. Along with the artist’s aerial skills, she has been performing her hit, “Trustfall”, with a mesmerizing act involving staircases and trampoline artists. Halpin discussed the development of the trampoline/staircase structure in the Dec. 2023 issue of PLSN.

Connecting Music and Color: New Twists on a Venerable Idea

When Wassily Kandinsky first heard a performance of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin in 1896, he was moved by the powerful imagery the music evoked in his mind. More than a century later, musician, teacher and synaesthesis Natalia Sidler invented the Farblichtflügel (pictured here), which also combined music with color and to create a new perceptual experience. That, in turn, served as the inspiration for Peter Decker’s DyLOS, or Dynamic Light Operating System, which he worked on for Martin’s M-Series range of controllers, later acquired by Elation before the company launched Obsidian Control Systems in 2018. About 18 months later, with Decker’s help, Elation launched DyLOS as a revolutionary new component of the ONYX lighting control platform.

Taking the Audience Along for a Whimsical Road Trip Across America

Weezer’s 2023 Summer tour, “Indie Rock Road Trip,” brought their fans along as passengers with the band performing on the dashboard of the car, courtesy of an imaginative production design by Blank Wall Creative’s Travis Shirley. Working with Weezer for the first time, Shirley connected quickly with lead singer Rivers Cuomo. They landed on the idea of going on a road trip of America as the core concept.

Automation Flexibility Enhances Phish’s Lighting Looks

Chris Kuroda, Lighting Designer/Director for Phish, is famous for visuals that jam along with the band’s free-form musical stylings. “No two shows are ever the same; there’s no set list. Everything is on the fly,” he tells PLSN. Along with developing his own strategies to quickly adapt his lighting looks to whatever direction the band takes, Kuroda gets an assist from Automation Programmer Madison Wade. “Before we started working with Madison, if we were in a shape and we wanted to go somewhere else, we would have to go to a home position first. Madison has rewritten all the code that we used to use. Now, no matter where we are, we can go anywhere without needing to go to that home position first.”

Lights, Sound, Video, Pyro, Fireworks, Lasers…and Now, Drones

In PLSN’s Dec. 2023 issue, Rocco Vitale, Pyrotecnico FX Executive Vice President of Special FX, spoke of the latest service offered through Live Events: “Sky Stories,” a.k.a. drone shows. “At Live Events, of which PyrotecnicoFX is a brand, we build events by providing a real 360 solution for people—lights, sound, video, pyro, fireworks, lasers, and now, drones—all under one roof… For the drones, we felt the best way to do that was to partner with Nova Sky Stories, who we believe has the best drone technology in the world.”

No Trucks, Get Creative

“As a production designer, I put together the overall design based on what is required,” and this required quite a bit of bells and whistles including rolling stages, lifts, kabukis, and other gags. Other aspects, though, were axed due to the unavailability of trucks. “Everybody is touring now so even getting trucks and buses was tough.” But Production/Lighting Designer Gary Westcott and team got creative with risers used in different configurations that made for the unique look of a stage on top of a stage look.

A Simple and Affordable VP Studio Solution

At Tokyo-based PANDASTUDIO.TV, Blackmagic Design products serve as the primary equipment in Studio 2 and Studio 4, with multiple Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2s installed. “When you build your system entirely with Blackmagic products, you can control all the cameras and recorders. By mounting them in a rack, you have an all-in-one system for shooting, streaming, and recording, which is very cost effective,” said PANDASTUDIO.TV’S Orio Nakamura.

Spotlight on Mental Health

Behind the glitz and glamour, our fellow crew members continue to face some unique mental health challenges that need a spotlight. The three most urgent problems affecting the mental well-being of our backstage compadres are the elusive therapist hunt, the stigma that’s more stubborn than a rusty C-clamp, and the lonely road we wander on… There’s no shame in asking for a little help. You may discover that therapy can be a richly illuminating experience—helping you to heal from past hurts and live life in a more fulfilling way.

Dreaming Up Fresh (and Distinct) Nightmares for Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie

If you are looking for an example in how a single lighting and video setup can be used by two different designers to create distinct visual narratives, the North American ‘Freaks on Parade’ tour with Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper could serve as a case in point. “It’s always really cool to see how designers use the same rig in different ways,” said Damian Rogers, Lighting & Video Designer, Programmer & Director for Rob Zombie. An expansion in LED video gear and content also played a key role, not just for Zombie, who “makes great videos and provides tons of cool content for our show,” Rogers says, but also for Cooper, who took the LED video content plunge for the first time with this trek.

A New NYC Icon, 20 Years in the Making

New York’s Perelman Performing Arts Center, first envisioned as part of the 2003 Master Plan to rebuild the 16-acre World Trade Center site following 9/11, opened last month to great fanfare from architectural and arts organizations. The building fulfills a promise of unparalleled theatrical flexibility, fosters powerful artistic expression, and delivers technologically advanced and digitally connected spaces for creative performances—and the lobby is open to the public seven days a week.