Charlie Hernandez, Jake Berry, Marty Hom, and Stuart Ross have come together and launched “THE Conference: Live at Lititz.” Register today for this one-of-a-kind gathering for live event professionals. You can read all about it by following the link below.
I think that the “all hands-on deck” mentality is something that’s really important. And never getting too big for your britches; always realizing that at the end of the day nothing would happen without everybody else in the room. It is all teamwork, so staying humble and respectful is a huge one. We’ve all seen people who get jaded by the industry, so I try, every day that I get to be on site, to take a minute to be grateful. I always think, ‘I can’t believe somebody pays me enough money for this to be my career.’
Some programmers like to keep their effects arranged by song, while some keep their effects arranged by attribute. This is an indicator of how they will break down a song as well. Programmers who organize their palettes by song tend to focus on individual nuances of each song. Programmers who organize by attribute tend to focus on how the show will clone to new rigs and save time. Both systems work, but one is intended for speed while the other is intended for nuance.
The key to achieving a successful haze effect with a fog machine comes down to a few main factors, notes Jason Reberski in his article, “In Favor of Fog and Fans” (PLSN, Nov. 2022, page 46). First, you will need a fog machine that has good low-end control; meaning that ideally, it must be able to consistently output a small trickle of fog (less critical if your application is outdoors or very large scale). Second, a long-lasting, slow evaporating fog fluid made of higher molecular weight, low vapor-pressure glycols is required. Third, a good fan is a must. Almost any fan will work if it is quiet and moves enough air to properly aerate the long-lasting fog into a haze.
“I’ve subscribed to PLSN for years to help keep myself current, and not get too mentally locked-into whatever area of the biz that I happen to be in currently. I also love the collaborative nature; how the readership is invited to be part of the ongoing conversation,” says Craig Rutherford, Lighting and Production Designer, Principal Blueshift Design. Are you part of the conversation? If you are not currently subscribing to PLSN magazine, you’re missing out on one of most essential resources in your professional toolbox—the most current, in-depth industry information. And it is FREE!
Leon Bridges recently embarked on “The Boundless Tour” with Matthieu Larivée of Luz Studio doing the creative direction, production design, and video. “We collaborated with LD Bobby Mathias for the lighting,” Larivée says. “It’s again a real mix of lighting and video together. The new feature is the AI. We are using artificial intelligence to film Leon and be able to integrate him in virtual set pieces.”
Despite all our advance planning, we can’t completely control the outcome or the smoothness of our working day. Proper planning can make the local team’s day easier, though. In turn, that translates into a better day for all of us. If we all approach gigs with the intention of making it a better day for the other side, we can all have more days with most of these niceties. Taking just a few moments to be grateful for the things that we do have in modern touring puts most of the bad days back into perspective.
PLSN’s LD-at-Large, Chris Lose, turned the giant lemon of Covid shutdown downtime in a big vat of lemonade. Since early 2020, he has posted more than 200 of these topical chats with his fellow lighting designers and lighting directors along with others from different departments and disciplines. To have a listen, go to plsn.com/podcasts.
After paying tribute to mentors James Greer and Joe Schaffner, Lance “KC” Jackson was asked for a piece of advice that he got in his career that he still finds applicable today. “It’s very simple,” Jackson stated. “You’re as good as your last show. You could be in the business for 20 years, one year, 10 years, but the most important show that you’ll do is the one that you’re doing. If you go and mess that up, then a door could close. You could get sent home. Complacency is something that you have to be careful not to fall into.”
Lighting acrobats safely is one of the most challenging tasks in entertainment. As Mikki Kunttu, Lighting and Set Designer for Cirque du Soleil’s “Fuzion” notes, doing it successfully is “all about homework and meticulously watching the act to see the way they move, how they interact with each other and the technicians and what they need to grab at precise moments. It’s about studying both the technical and the artistic sides of each act and then putting those parameters together with your own creative approach.”
As demand is high for labor at the same time that budgets are tight, people are being asked to chip in a little extra. But where do we draw the line between being a team player and being taken advantage of on a show? As a touring guy, I would never want to know that one of my crew was being exploited. When people work for free, whether they know it or not, they are being exploited. Whether they care or not is up to them, of course. But I do question the intentions of the production manager who allowed this to happen.
Fan Controlled Football (FCF), born in a pandemic, moved into a unique arena for Season Two in 2022. Instead of a shiny new space, the vibe created by Production Designer/Production Manager Tom E. Marzullo within Atlanta’s historic but decrepit Pullman Yards industrial complex is industrial and edgy. “With Pullman as a backdrop, Tom achieved that dystopian futuristic Blade Runner meets cyborg-like industrial feel we were looking for,” says FCF COO Cyrus Farudi.