ENVISION I BUILD I TECH I GO
JULY 2016
RDEN AN IMAGIN ATI VE SECRET GA É A FO RMATION FOR BE YONC WN LIG HT ING HADE STO
HA RT TAL KING WI TH BOB BA RNSNER AND JON KU RA DIO CIT Y’S SU MMER SPEC TAC UL AR DE SIG NING WA LM AR T’S SH AR EHOL DE RS ME ET ING CIR QU E’S PARAMO UR
COUNTRY
STYLE
T MUSIC AWARDS CM AL U N AN E TH G IN N IG ES D
TABLE OF CONTENTS ///
J U LY 2 0 1 6 /
GO ///
5 QUESTIONS
ROZ FULTON-DAHLIE, LIGHTING AND MEDIA DESIGNER /// B Y M E G H A N P E R K I N S
BUILD ///
GO ///
SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR
STAGING RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL’S SUMMER SHOW, NEW YORK SPECTACULAR /// B Y M E G H A N P E R K I N S LOADOUT ///
MEETING EXPECTATIONS
DESIGNING THE WALMART SHAREHOLDERS 2016 MEETING /// B Y G R E G O R Y C O H E N
COVER: MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES MUSIC BY AUDIONAUTIX.COM
TECH///
WHAT’S TRENDING: ROBE BMFL
/// B Y K C W I L K E R S O N
BOXED SET
BEYONCÉ’S FORMATION WORLD TOUR /// B Y M A R I A N S A N D B E R G
COVER STORY ///
COUNTRY LIFE
CMT MUSIC AWARDS TURN OUT FAN FAVORITES AND STAR-STUDDED PERFORMANCES / / / B Y M A R I A N S A N D BE R G
22 DEGREES
A NEW DESIGN FIRM: Q&A WITH BOB BARNHART AND JON KUSNER / / / B Y E LL E N L A M P E R T- GR E A U X
FEATURES ///
AS A GARDEN GROWS
LIVE VIDEO PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN A REVIVAL OF THE SECRET GARDEN IN PHILADELPHIA / / / B Y E LL E N L A M P E R T- GR E A U X
HELLISH LIGHTING
BRADLEY KING LEADS THE AUDIENCE INTO THE UNDERWORLD IN HADESTOWN /// B Y E L L E N L A M P E R T- G R E A U X
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL HITS THE GREAT WHITE WAY
AGILE ACROBATS AND AMOROUS ACTORS ANIMATE PARAMOUR ON BROADWAY
/// B Y E L L E N L A M P E R T- G R E A U X
GO ///
5Qs
Roz Fulton-Dahlie
Lighting And Media Designer /// BY MEGHAN PERKINS
F
or more than a decade, Roz Fulton-Dahlie has been making a name for herself in the industry under various titles, such as lighting designer and resident video designer for Kinesthetic Sense Dance Company, assistant designer at MODE Studios, and assistant professor of Theatrical Design & Lighting Technology at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). As an LD and a CalArts protégé of video designer Bob Bonniol, Fulton-Dahlie has designed for concert tours, theatrical performances, and dance, and also won the Triangle Award for Best Lighting in 2011. Now, she operates under the title of media specialist at ENTTEC. Fulton-Dahlie will be presenting a two-part session, “Design On A Dime,” at LDI 2016 on October 22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Live Design caught up with Fulton-Dahlie about her career path and LDI session. Learn more about Roz Fulton-Dahlie’s LDI sessions, “Design On A Dime.” Part 1 4
and Part 2
How did you first become involved in the entertainment industry? Did you always intend to be a designer?
I became involved with the industry in high school, when a friend had me cover his props position on the final show of our senior year. Soon after, I was heading off to college in New York City with a focus on choreography, but as I had enjoyed working backstage, it wasn’t long before I was busking consoles for bands and nightclubs in Manhattan. The hardest part was convincing my mother I wasn’t going to starve by pursuing a career in lighting, which was odd to me, as I knew dancers have a harder challenge finding work. I changed my major in college and went on my first rock tour during the fall of my senior year, attending classes part time by flying back to New York on my days off. After college, I worked for LSD, before it became PRG, and toured as an LD for small bands, living in both New York and Los Angeles. I spent a year in architectural lighting with Fisher Marantz Stone and ended up discovering that I wasn’t ready for a desk job in my early 20s. On a rock tour in 2004, I happened upon CalArts, met Chris Barreca, and decided that’s where I wanted to be.
1 2 Who or what influences have helped bring you to where you are today? The biggest influence in my career will always be MODE Studios: Bob and Colleen Bonniol. As mentors within my graduate school faculty, they were instrumental in my expansion into video. I assisted them on many productions, both during school and after graduation, often generating media in Adobe AE or working in the field with media servers. Under their guidance, I started to explore more technology and latched onto [Cycling ‘74] Max/MSP as a method to explore media in an interactive setting. JULY 2016 \\\
5
GO ///
3 6
How did you go from teaching at UNCSA to becoming a media specialist at ENTTEC? With changes in my personal life, I required a flexible work environment that accommodated my parenting choices. After leaving UNCSA, I was courted by ENTTEC, who gradually worked with me over the past year to develop the position.Â
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What does your current job entail? Is it a culmination of everything you’ve learned, or is it a more targeted specialty? My current position targets my teaching background with the creation of educational media for ENTTEC products, as well as my creative side in custom media content work for presentations and trade shows. As one would expect, a proficiency with Adobe software is always needed when dealing with video media.
To whom would you recommend your conference sessions at LDI, and why? The sessions are geared toward students, independent artists, and hacker-minded individuals who want to expand their video capabilities yet are constrained by finances. The participants should walk away with a better grasp of the capabilities possible to them with affordable software options on the market. Whether it’s taking software to a new level or combining various programs to achieve new possibilities, the ideal outcome of the class should be a revelation of many more ways to expand our work as artists. I feel it is imperative to convey to this LDI class that one doesn’t need to fear technology. One doesn’t need to be a master of a technology to make it serve your particular artistic needs. This comes out more in the second part of the class, where we talk about how [the panelists] addressed issues in productions. JULY 2016 \\\
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Spectacular Spectacular STAGING RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL’S SUMMER SHOW, NEW YORK SPECTACULAR /// BY M E G H A N P E R K I N S
Video trailer for New York Spectacular
JUSTIN CARLSON
N
ew York Spectacular, starring the Radio City Rockettes, follows two children who get separated from their parents while on summer vacation in New York, where the city magically comes to life to reunite the family. Directed and choreographed by Mia Michaels, the show premiered at Radio City Music Hall on June 23 and will run through August 6. The production features sets by Patrick Fahey, lighting by Alain Lortie, a video and projection system designed and installed by DWP Live, sound design by Steve Kennedy, costumes by Emilio Sosa, scenery and properties built by Tait Towers, and video content created by Moment Factory.
New York Spectacular is the first theatrical production at Radio City Music Hall to utilize its newest projection upgrade. After DWP Live executed the projection mapping for Adele Live In New York City, a one-night-only show at Radio City Music Hall on December 14, 2015, The Madison Square Garden Company called on DWP to install the upgrade, marking the company’s first permanent installation in New York City. The upgrade included 22 Christie Boxer 4K30 projectors.
JUSTIN CARLSON
JDP WORKS
12
“The installation was a major undertaking that had to be completed within a short timeline,” says Rick Boot, DWP Live’s general partner and owner. “Between rehearsals and the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Christie, The Madison Square Garden Company, and our team all pulled together to get this project completed.”
Moment Factory uses photography, animation, 3D elements, live footage, and more to create the visual content depicting iconic New York landmarks and locations for the 90-minute production.
2015 JANUARY \\\
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Throughout the show, New York landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty and the lions that guard the New York Library, come to life to help the lost children. Tait Towers provided a power transmission unit to move the Wall Street Bull as well as additional props and puppets.
Tait Towers manufactured three multi-purpose stage structures that elevate to different heights, display scenic props that move on and off the stage, and filter the rain deck and splash pans for The Rockettes’ performance of “Singin’ In The Rain.” Tait also built 3D LED video walls that move on Tait winches. Tait Navigator controls the speed and movement of the LED video walls, the power transmission unit, and the rain deck, splash pans, and plumbing system.
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Q & A
Fourth of July
22 Degrees A NEW DESIGN FIRM: Q&A WITH BOB BARNHART AND JON KUSNER
RENE LAGLER
/// BY ELLEN L A MPER T-GRE A U X
Q & A
JON KUSNER
2016 ESPY Awards, lighting by Bob Barnhart
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A
new lighting firm, 22 Degrees, Inc. (www. 22deg.com) arose from the inspiration of like-minded designers who have pioneered a way of integrating lighting with the entire creative concept of a project. “We believe that our vision, both professionally and socially, makes us uncommonly appealing to producers and fellow designers,” say designers Bob Barnhart and Jon Kusner, formerly of Full Flood, who founded the firm along with designer Matthew Firestone and project coordinator Marie Turner. “Our unique team develops solutions for any show, on any scale, within the budgets and limitations that can frustrate other teams,” say Barnhart and Kusner. “Producers want the same thing as we do: creative solutions that help tell stories in engaging, provocative, and memorable ways. We appreciate the creative challenge that drives us to communicate in emotionally compelling ways. Finding those creative, unique ways of staging a story is why all of us love our jobs.” Live Design talks with Barnhart and Kusner about their new focus.
JULY 2016 \\\
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Q & A
LIVE DESIGN: Can you each talk about how you first got into the lighting design field? JON KUSNER: I fell into lighting back in high school in the suburbs of Chicago. My high school had a large theatre program that also supported small traveling shows and community events. Soon into my time in theatre, I decided that lighting was the most interesting discipline to follow. BOB BARNHART: I was 16 when the college in my town offered twice the minimum wage if you were willing to unload trucks, set up the show, and run a followspot. Getting paid to work on Billy Idol and Joan Jett concerts seemed like a lot more fun than working at Taco Bell where my brother was.
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MADIGAN STEHLY
So You Think You Can Dance, lighting by Bob Barnhart
LD: What is the most challenging project you ever worked on, and why? BB: Well, of course all projects have their challenges. I think what makes a project stand out more than another is when you try to approach it from a non-traditional standpoint. I’m reminded of an Andrea Bocelli special we did in Portofino, Italy. The challenge was to light the stage and small port town without seeing a lighting rig. So finding lighting positions on people’s balconies and rooftops of their tiny apartments was not just a challenge in physics, but also a challenge in door-to-door salesmanship, and I don’t speak Italian. The project
I THINK WHAT MAKES A PROJECT STAND OUT MORE THAN ANOTHER IS WHEN YOU TRY TO APPROACH IT FROM A NON-TRADITIONAL STANDPOINT. BOB BARNHART
JULY 2016 \\\
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Q & A
2016 Miss USA Competition, lighting by Bob Barnhart
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JULY 2016 \\\
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MATT FIRESTONE
was successful, which is why I remember it as one of the more challenging projects I have done. If it had not been successful, then I would have either forgotten it or considered it one of the worst projects I had ever done. JK: Funny enough, it’s probably all the projects no one has ever heard of. It’s usually the random projects that are off the radar that are more difficult, due to a lack of support or infrastructure. I lit a dance company through India and Sri Lanka that was a daily struggle for two months, but I probably learned more about survival, prioritization, and kind interaction with others on that project more than any other since. LD: How do you find out about new technology, and have you embraced LEDs? JK: Probably word-of-mouth is the best means of learning about technology. Also, I am lucky to have worked on high-profile events with others who appreciate technology and their job, which often becomes the intersection of new products and ideas. As for LED sources, I have certainly embraced LED products, initially for treating scenery more than lighting people, but as the technology continues to get better, especially with tunable white, it is becoming a great way to light people because the sources tend to be smaller and easier to
Q & A
MATT FIRESTONE
2016 Miss USA Competition, lighting by Bob Barnhart
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BOB BARNHART
get into hard-to-light areas. BB: I would agree with Jon and add that we have a very close relationship with the manufacturers, and they are very proactive about showing us new gear as well as working with us as to what the next generation of tools should include. Thinking of LED sources in TV lighting, especially, you spend a good deal of time lighting the scenery. Not that long ago, if a set designer wanted to illuminate a cove or something of the like, he or she would use neon. Now, with the advent of LED tape, and even pixel-mappable LED tape, the options and process are incomparable. LD: How does video play into your designs, and is there more convergence of video and lighting? BB: I think you have to truly
seamlessly integrate all aspects of the production design to have a successful outcome. The video has to fit into the set design, and the lighting and video need to support each other. It can be tricky, and as you add creative departments, you add opinions, which are like snowflakes: They are nice on their own, but no two are alike, and when you get too many, you’re shoveling your driveway. With or without video, it’s truly a matter of everyone working together to convey the same message, place of being, emotion, and dynamics. When done right, video and lighting can and should become an extension of each other. JK: Video is certainly one of the foundations of what most set designs are today, so it has a heavy hand in the look of the show, which also drives what the lighting is or is not. I often think some of the best uses of video and lighting is when you don’t totally understand where one begins and the other ends. This seamless integration of the two disciplines makes for a better visual experience. LD: Can you talk a little more about the intersection of design and technology? BB: I have been doing the
National Memorial Day Concert on PBS for 18 years. It’s a unique outdoor event on the lawn of our nation’s capital. We have a custom outdoor band shell that Dave Grill and I use as a cyc. Over 18 years ago, we started with High End Systems Studio Colors. We actually stuck with them for a very long time, simply because they could handle the rain with no issues. Then once LED wash lights came into play, we began auditioning them. In the last five years, we have gone through the evolution of fixtures and now have settled on the GLP series, which we are very happy with. Also there is an upstage cyc that we lit for 15 years with 1kW palace lights. Now it’s [Philips Color Kinetics] ColorBlazes. So you look at what we used to do not that long ago and think about “three-color gelled” cyc
JON KUSNER JULY 2016 \\\
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Q & A
MADIGAN STEHLY
lights and the like. Not only do we have a much more versatile rig, but our power consumption has dropped dramatically. JK: As in Bob’s example, it’s about picking the right tool for the right job. Technology usually springs from the need or desire to solve a problem or deliver a specific visual. Looking at LED and scenery lighting, as we talked about earlier, is a great example. It used to be clunky incandescent fixtures with gel on them, and it has since shifted to LEDs that are bright, have better color rendering, and are more efficient. The melding of LED lights and video products is an interesting bridge between scenic and lighting designers’ job descriptions. More and more lights are used as scenery, and producers and set designers acknowledge this. LD: What advice would you give to young designers who would like to get into television lighting? JK: To listen more, to not be afraid of hard work, and spend time looking around at the entire machine of a production. We all rely on each other once on a show, so to not appreciate or give respect to the others around you will make for a short career. BB: As Jon said: Listen. I have always said, “Be a three-year-
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2016 AFI Awards, lighting by Jon Kusner
old.” Don’t just accept information; ask why, why, and why until you truly understand. Attitude, work ethic, and personality are the keys to success in this industry. At the professional level, like it or not, your skill set is expected. It is how you conduct your business that sets you apart from one another. LD: Talk a little about your design process. What are the steps to a successful production? JK: I think that each show has its own design path. Like all things that turn out well, it’s in the details to make something special or not. I think good collaboration is related to listening to the ideas and having an open mind with the fellow designers, looking at how best to populate a venue/location with the design, and then being diligent in following through with all specifics that make the show come together. The load-in process can easily be hijacked by bad planning, which dilutes the creative outcome of a project. BB: I started my career in theatre. I did two years of feature film work, and now and then, I do some live event/industrials. Now I spend about 90% of my time on live TV specials. Like any other part of the entertainment industry, the process starts with a simple
JULY 2016 \\\
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Q & A
I THINK GOOD COLLABORATION IS RELATED TO LISTENING TO THE IDEAS AND HAVING AN OPEN MIND WITH THE FELLOW DESIGNERS.
WILL GOSSETT
JON KUSNER
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Greatest Hits on ABC, lighting by Jon Kusner
understanding of the show, and we look for a clear as possible direction for the producer and director. I think the difference for television lighting designers is that, if you want to see it, you need to have some control of it. This can be a long, complicated process to explain. Simply put, we need to control everything you want to see. It’s about getting the contrast ratio in an area the live broadcast type of camera can handle, which is about 20% of what the human eye can see. So this means we have to break down the set design with the production designer, piece by piece, to make sure we can do what will be necessary. This would also include the venue. If it’s an awards show, the audience and the theatre need to be lit. If it’s a rooftop at night in New York City, you can’t control the city lights, so they now dictate your contrast ratio’s high and low point. Now we have to figure out how we get the rest of the show at that level. After all of that, I think the process is the same for everyone, except maybe one point: TV specials move at a fast pace, and we get little time. On most music award shows, you might get 45 minutes to program the entire number, and then maybe a run through, and if you have time, a little clean-up work before they load the house.
JULY 2016 \\\
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WILL GOSSETT
2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards, lighting by Jon Kusner
WILL GOSSETT
2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards, lighting by Jon Kusner
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LD: What is the biggest challenge in live broadcast, and how do you ensure the live audience and TV viewers both see a great show? JK: Live broadcast television is an unforgiving animal, where tight schedules, short timelines, and high expectations are kind of the norm. It’s often highly unpredictable and under rehearsed, but at the same time, it is highly viewed and scrutinized. To add to the challenge, there is a dichotomy between the needs of a television show and a live event. It’s often impossible to serve both masters. This is when a good producer is essential in helping navigate what is the priority of that show or event. BB: I think Jon has stated the problem and challenge well. The producer is always very concerned with the live audience’s reaction, because it will affect the performer and, therefore, the performance. Going back a few questions, you will see one advantage we have. The human eye contrast ratio is so fantastic that we are able to discern the difference in light levels. Now the cold reality of this question: Often the audi-
ence is a visual part of the show, which means they might have audience light on them, as well as be on camera, more often than not. So at some point, they become scenery. I think, in many cases, that knowledge is exciting for many of the audience members, and the experience is enhanced by it. LD: Tell us about your most recent shows. JK: My recent projects include: Teamsters National Convention for Ricky Kirshner and Hip Hop Honors for VH1, followed by the finale of Greatest Hits for ABC, which takes me into Lip Sync Battle, and then organizing for Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which is in Paris. BB: I just finished Miss USA, and then So You Think You Can Dance on Fox. Patrick Boozer and I are the production designers, and I am also the lighting designer. At the same time, I had my annual Fourth of July show in DC, and the next week, I did the ESPYs—ESPN Awards— which will then lead me to the 2016 VMAs, and we have already started working on the Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show.
JULY 2016 \\\
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FE ATURE
As a Garden grows LIVE VIDEO PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN A REVIVAL OF THE SECRET GARDEN IN PHILADELPHIA
MARK GARVIN
/// BY ELLEN L A MPER T-GRE A U X
FE ATURE
A
turntable peeked out from under the front edge of the stage. Small scenic constructions were perched on the turntable, waiting their turn to rotate before a video camera. The main set element on stage was a large, white picture frame standing upstage between two staircases. The audience’s curiosity piqued as a revival of The Secret Garden at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre was about to unfold with an unusual scenic conception. The Secret Garden, based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Edwardian novel by the same name, premiered on Broadway in 1991, with book and lyrics by Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon, winning a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Book Of A Musical. This revival was co-conceived by scenic designer Jorge Cousineau and Terrence J. Nolen, artistic director of The Arden Theatre, which he cofounded in 1988. With costumes by Olivera Gajic, lighting by Solomon Weisbard, and sound by Daniel Perelstein, The Secret Garden tells the story of ten-year-old Mary Lennox, whose parents died while in India, and she is sent to live with a dour widowed uncle at Misselthwaite Manor, a desolate house in the north of England. She finds joy in a secret garden, and as she gets it to bloom, she serves as a catalyst to bring warmth and love back into her life. “Over the past 10 years, we have been exploring how to use technology to increase intimacy between the work and the audience,” says Nolen. “As technology has become more readily available, we have been trying to push the boundaries a little each time. I had been thinking about the idea of using a live camera to project the visual world of a piece and thought it could work well for The Secret Garden, so we created something unique for this production.” In terms of inspiration, Nolen cites the world of paper dolls and popup books as things the creative team was really drawn to, as well as the film, Alice, by Czech filmmaker Trailer for The Secret Garden
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MARK GARVIN JULY 2016 \\\
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MARK GARVIN
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Jan Švankmajer. “There was an image of Alice looking through a doorway, an image I remembered seeing that was thrown into the mix,” says Nolen, who had this image in mind when thinking about how the actress playing Mary interacts with popups and dollhouses in this production. “The models used in the show were handmade by Jorge, with interiors very much like dollhouses,” notes Nolen. “As we went into tech, Jorge had done incredible storyboards. He had also done little video studies in the past, little vignettes to show how things look, but in this case, he drew them by hand, and it unlocked such a valuable part of the process, including camera moves and content. It was effective for us, as we were playing with the technology. Even so, we walked into tech and thought, “What if it doesn’t work, and what if it doesn’t feel connected?” But the solution worked, with a cream rear-projection screen stretched in the wooden frame, the revolve placed under the stage, and the scenic models individually lit as they rotated into place before the camera for the next scene. “In previews, the challenge was to embrace that the scenery was being made before the audience and let them in on it,” adds Nolen. “They could see the models before they were used. It was a great way to engage the audience and allow for a real visual sweep, while they could also see the camera operator’s fingers dropping leaves or closing shutters. We could show the audience how it was made yet pull them in emotionally.”
“The models used in the show were handmade by Jorge, with interiors very much like dollhouses,� notes Nolen.
Cousineau conceived the turntable as part of the set design to allow for the integration of the models into the production.
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The revival of The Secret Garden was co-conceived by scenic designer Jorge Cousineau and Terrence J. Nolen, artistic director of The Arden Theatre.
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MARK GARVIN
AMAZING GRACE
MARK GARVIN
The revival features costumes by Olivera Gajic, lighting by Solomon Weisbard, and sound by Daniel Perelstein.
THE SCENIC CONCEPT For Cousineau, The Secret Garden marked the result of working with Nolen over the years on a number of different shows that involved projection. “Although we have always tried to integrate them conceptually, they often create somewhat of a disconnect between the performers and the audience,” he says about projections in general. “The moment we ask the audience to shift their attention to content that was created prior to that moment or suggests a different place, we ask them to leave the here and now. Questions like ‘Where did this come from?’ or ‘Where are we now?’ might subconsciously become part of the experience, which is generally not a bad thing, but if the answers are not clear enough, those projections could become a distraction rather than an augmentation to the story that wants to be told.” Cousineau and his wife, Niki, have been working with their company, Subcircle, for almost 20 years on dance-based performance pieces in a wide range of site-specific venues and more traditional stages as well, often using video as a design component. “In one particular piece, we integrated a miniature version of the set in a suitcase with projections of performers on the actual set and filmed what happened inside the suitcase to project it back onto the set,” he explains. JULY 2016 \\\
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MARK GARVIN
“Sounds pretty complicated, but it created a magical moment within the piece,” Cousineau adds. “Terry [Terrence J. Nolen] had seen it at some point and liked the idea a lot. We also worked with a live camera idea during The Three Sisters, where the camera’s point of view shifted from that of an archival outsider to the inside of the play, by being inserted into a model of the room the play takes place in, filming the actors onstage through the windows of the model. Once again, more complicated to describe than it was to witness during the
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play, but I hope you get the idea.” Another source of inspiration was the trailer Nolen found for a production called Kiss And Cry, which included ideas Cousineau had been considering but focused more on the mechanics and the magic of the creation of the content. “As inspiring as that concept is, we weren’t sure at all whether this kind of idea would work for The Secret Garden. But going through the show conceptually many times with Terry, we discovered that it was indeed very applicable to the piece, once we understood that Mary’s point of
view is how we should journey through the piece,” Cousineau adds. From there, it was a short jump for the designer and director to embrace the idea of popup books to replace the dollhouse requested by the stage directions, creating more of an element that Mary could control. “Terry always imagined Mary to be cutting out a paper doll in the very beginning of the play,” says Cousineau. “I was searching for ideas to integrate into a world that could work as a background, as well as an extension of the world the paper dolls could belong to. The way to
bring that world to the stage where performers needed to be seen was by filming and projecting it and, therefore, enlarging it. We were exploring an area that a camera could go around and through, and could film the different backdrops for the different scenes but soon discovered the turntable/lazy Susan idea where the models could be installed, and the camera could remain relatively stationary.” Cousineau conceived the turntable as part of the set design to allow for the integration of the models into the production. The full 20’-diameter turntable was
Nolen cites the world of paper dolls and popup books as things the creative team was really drawn to, as well as the film, Alice, by Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer.
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MARK GARVIN
a loose disc of plywood and Masonite, sitting on top of reversed casters and held in place by smaller casters on the inside. “I raised the height of the deck to allow for room below, enough for the models to fit below the deck, without lowering the turntable itself too much for the operation of the camera and the models themselves,” he says. The black RP screen followed the inside arc of the turntable, just far enough away to allow for movement of the turntable and the small casters that held the turntable in place. It was stretched from just below the deck to the floor and from the stage-right side to the stage-left side of the inner arc. “In two places, we installed projectors to provide additional backgrounds to augment the miniature scenery, with different skies, moving clouds, and even fog and rain,” Cousineau continues. “One was installed behind the downstage center, where the camera started at the top of the show, and one over at the stage-left position, where most of the miniature scenery was filmed. It also allowed us to amplify the movement from one location to the next, as I had designed a number of very wide images of the scenery that would accompany the sequence of transitions, for instance, from the arrival at the mansion to Mary’s room, to the ballroom and the library, to finally the outside gardens. I was able to automate the movement of those images to match the movement of the scenery on the turntable and make adjustments throughout the rehearsal process and previews.”
With a cream rear-projection screen stretched in the wooden frame, the revolve was placed under the stage, and the scenic models were individually lit as they rotated into place before the camera for the next scene.
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Six Chroma-Q scrollers comprised a diagonal back system that allowed for shifting source light that bounced away from the screen.
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The lighting
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needed to be everresponsive to the dynamic video imagery in order to continue to place the performers within that context and bring the two worlds together.”
MARK GARVIN
Solomon Weisbard
For this director/designer team, part of the process involves a number of very long conversations between them, “usually in my studio, with me drawing along while we discuss different ideas,” says Cousineau. “All the ideas end up in a storyboard, where the main ideas for the staging are kept with the ideas for the projections. We have done this that way many times, with Next To Normal, Parade, and Passion, in order to achieve clarity and create a guideline through the rehearsal process.” Cousineau’s pages of thumbnail sketches show the work that has to happen to make this kind of production work, get done in time, and in accordance with the larger picture. As a result, camera angles, the
details and the lighting on the models, and even the movement from one to the other, were already pretty established by the time they got to rehearse with the actual setup. Once in rehearsal, they determined if what they had in mind actually worked and made adjustments as they went along. “Some of the movements we had imagined ended up not being as useful, and others were found or clarified in the moment. In each case, the camera operator, Patrick, who we were very fortunate to have as part of the entire rehearsal process, would take notes and still photos on the actual camera to keep track of the camera journey,” says Cousineau. “The lighting designer worked with us on the lighting changes on the models JULY 2016 \\\
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to match the mood onstage with those in the projections.” Interactivity was always part of the design concept. “From the opening idea of Mary cutting the paper doll to shifting the camera angle to below the deck to match the scenery of the popup book, we always wanted to make sure that the backdrops and the models remained connected to the action on stage,” explains Cousineau. “Terry and I couldn’t entirely predict how everything would work, but in rehearsals, we were able to assign at least one actor to each scene that would be able to help with transitions, as well as other interactive moments. Not every moment was crucial, but whenever Mary had a chance to connect with or take control of that world, it 46
The camera used was a Canon VIXIA HF G20, which Cousineau selected after some testing of different models.
became powerful for the story and useful for making the connection clear.” The moment at the end of Act One, when Mary discovers the gate to the garden, was conceived right from the beginning as one of the most important ones in the show, and that decision resulted in the particular layout of the scenes on the turntable. “The idea was then to create a scene for the area where the gate to the secret garden was—the maze—but the first time it would be overgrown and not visible,” says Cousineau. “The second time, after Mary turns the turntable back in order to get back to the maze, it would be revealed to her where the gate was.” For the complete layout of the turntable, Cousineau used a 1’’ scale model and
arranged little paper cutouts as he went through the storyboards that he and Nolen had created earlier. “I was rather fortunate to have been able to get all the scenes arranged around the whole circle more or less without having to move things around, and we used that model to arrange the final models on the actual turntable in the same way,” he says. Cousineau notes there is always a good amount of collaboration needed when trying to integrate projections into a stage set and collaborating with the lighting designer, in this case, Weisbard. “Initially, the white portion of the set was brighter to match the color of the frame more, but as I had feared, the light bounced back a lot and made some of the projections hard to see,” he explains. “We did some testing and decided to take the brightness of the floor down a few notches. Sometimes we needed the brightness on stage to make us feel the bright day, and in those moments, the projections were falling short of course, but there was nothing we could do with what we had. In most cases, the transitions were the moment when the projections were more important, and once the scene was established, the lights would brighten to let us focus on the characters and the story.” Another aspect, of course, was the lighting below the deck that was hitting the models. “And again, SoloLighting Section
mon and I had many moments when we negotiated what the scene should look like, both on stage as well as in the miniature sets. At the very beginning of the tech rehearsal process, we tested the camera in a variety of settings to determine how fixed or how flexible it should be. We settled on a fixed white balance but left the iris on auto exposure,” Cousineau adds. The camera used was a Canon VIXIA HF G20, which Cousineau selected after some testing of different models, as he found this one has very good color accuracy and handles close-ups extremely well, besides being compact, affordable, and able to output video via an HDMI port. “It also turned out that an older zoom and focus control unit that I own is compatible with this camera, so that became a pleasant surprise,” says the scenic designer. The live images of the models were projected onto the cream RP screen stretched in the large picture frame on stage. “We used a short, mini HDMI-to-
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standard-HDMI cable for the first part, attached to the jib I designed to track around the turntable, and at the bottom of the tripod part of the jib, with a coupler, we attached a 35’ high-end HDMI cable to run back to the Mac Pro that was stationed under the deck,” Cousineau explains. “That machine has a Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro video card with an HDMI port for ingesting the video feed. After initial problems with [Figure 53] QLab reading the video feed correctly, we settled on letting [VIDVOX] VDMX5 handle the intake of the feed and sending it back to QLab via Syphon, a sort of internal video exchange program that mainly takes place on the GPU. VDMX5 has a lot of realtime treatment options as well, and in the course of the show, we found a few moments when slight alterations to the live camera feed was help-
The full 20'-diameter turntable was a loose disc of plywood and Masonite, sitting on top of reversed casters and held in place by smaller casters on the inside.
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ful to integrate it better into the look we created on stage.” For the main frame RP screen, two BenQ short-throw projectors—mounted sideways and overlapping by about 18’’—were used. The blending was adjustable in QLab. MODEL LIGHTING For Weisbard, much of the task of the lighting was to support a connection between the vivid projected models and the minimalist physical space of the actors. “The lighting needed to be ever-responsive to the dynamic video imagery in order to continue to place the performers within that context and bring the two worlds together,” he notes. “Kudos to costume designer Olivera Gajic, who was able to manifest very real clothes within the tight color palette that felt right for the space. Her work was key to bridging the
gap between the projected and the physical realms.” The lighting also helps tell the story as Mary “is whisked through an unsettling and alien adult world. The models were shifting constantly and so was the light, cutting and shaping each episode to give a sense of the confusion that Mary experiences on the journey from her native India to her uncle’s estate in northern England,” Weisbard says. “The large, masculine space of her uncle’s mansion, shrouded in cold Yorkshire fog, served as a metaphor for the grief that he and Mary both feel. It’s only when they gain access to the verdant garden that the veil of sadness is interrupted. The vibrancy of the light reflected the emotional shift towards a budding new beginning.” In the lighting rig, the LD points out that, “shins and head-highs were important, as they carved the actors out from the
screen and the light gray floor.” Six Chroma-Q scrollers comprised a diagonal back system that allowed for shifting source light that bounced away from the screen, while three ETC Source Four ellipsoidals in City Theatrical AutoYokes as followspots and three Philips Vari-Lite VL1100TS fixtures provided needed flexibility to shape the space and control focus. “We pretty much only used Arden stock, except for purchasing a couple of lengths of LED tape,” says Weisbard. “The models were primarily lit with birdies and LEDs.” It’s great to see a director and design team taking a risk as they did with The Secret Garden. The technology enhanced the production without being too high-tech for the period story, and the audience was delighted to watch the process take place right before their eyes, much as Mary was delighted to watch her garden grow.
For Weisbard, much of the task of the lighting was to support a connection between the vivid projected models and the minimalist physical space of the actors.
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MARK GARVIN
Three ETC Source Four ellipsoidals in City Theatrical AutoYokes were used as followspots, and three Philips Vari-Lite VL1100TS fixtures provided needed flexibility to shape the space and control focus.
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The black RP screen followed the inside arc of the turntable, just far enough away to allow for movement of the turntable and the small casters that held the turntable in place.
LIGHTING GEAR Control/Dimming ETC Ion Console with Remote Focus Unit 192 ETC Sensor+ 2.4kW Dimmer Lighting 3 Philips Vari-Lite VL1100 TS 77 ETC Source Four 26° 27 ETC Source Four 36° 31 ETC Source Four 19° 2 ETC Source Four 14° 1 ETC Source Four 10° 1 ETC Source Four 90° 14 ETC Source Four PAR WFL 6 ETC Source Four PAR XWFL 2 Altman Zip Strip 6 Chroma-Q Scroller
2 High End Systems Dataflash AF1000 6 MicroPAR16 NFL 3 LED Diode 2 LED Tape 1 Rope Light 1 50W Light Bulb 1 Birdie 575W 3 City Theatrical AutoYoke Video 4 BenQ 822ST Projector 1 Canon VIXIA HF G20 Camera 2 Apple Mac Pro Figure 53 QLab3 VIDVOX VDMX5
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For the complete layout of the turntable, Cousineau used a 1’’ scale model and arranged little paper cutouts as he went through the storyboards that he and Nolen had created earlier.
Hand-Drawn Scenic Thumbnails
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The live images of the models were projected onto the cream RP screen stretched in the large picture frame on stage.
Lighting Plot JULY 2016 \\\
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MARK GARVIN
“The lighting needed to be ever-responsive to the dynamic video imagery in order to continue to place the performers within that context and bring the two worlds together,� Weisbard notes.
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COVER STORY
COUNT LIFE 56
TRY
CMT MUSIC AWARDS TURN OUT FAN FAVORITES AND STAR-STUDDED PERFORMANCES /// BY M A RI A N S A NDBERG
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he CMT Music Awards 2016 took place on June 8 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN, with production design by Anne Brahic and lighting by Tom Kenny, working with art director Aaron Black and video content producer Laura Frank. Awards are given to country music videos and television performances, as voted by fans, and the production featured performances by everyone from veterans of the genre such as Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Carrie Underwood, and Blake Shelton, to newbies like Brothers Osborne and LOCASH. The show also featured appearances by non-country artists performing with their country colleagues, including Pitbull with Leona Lewis and Cassadee Pope, Little Big Town with Pharrell Williams, and Dierks Bentley with Elle King, among others. “CMT was exceptionally good this year, with a stellar line up of talent on and off stage,” says Kenny, who has designed the show the last several years and is very proud of the product, referring to this year’s production as “a very high-tech, country pop show.”
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BE SERIOUS ABOUT SAFETY • INSIST ON THE BEST • REDUCE RISK
www.etcp.esta.org etcp@esta.org
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COVER STORY
MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
Anne Brahic says she started working on the design for the CMT Music Awards as a two-stage concept, on each end of the arena, but that idea didn’t end up working due to the budget. “I designed the set as a cube set on the diagonal, with two LED V-shaped walls making up the back walls of the set and with a V-shaped sharkstooth scrim close-down projection screen on the downstage V,” the production designer says. “The linear elements of the stage all departed from this video cube, with lines of video breaking the walls of the cube and extending downstage into fingers of imagery, as well as above into linear headers that zigged and zagged into the house.” The video surfaces comprised WinVision Air 9mm and WinVision 18mm, Big Bear BB 25mm, and a Revolution Display X15 Modular LED Floor System, all from VER (Tony Macre).
COVER STORY
The stage featured a long, curved runway that led from the cube stage out under the arena scoreboard to a B-stage with an LED-tiled floor. Andrew Akers Theatrical in Nashville fabricated the set, and Accurate Staging provided the stage decks. “The sides of the arena were also lined in video tiles, on one side wrapping the VIP seating section and on the other, wrapping the house band stage sponsored by Firestone,” says Brahic, who has designed the production for the last seven years and says she tries to make it sculptural and environmental, bringing it out into the arena and embracing the crowd, as well as trying to create an immersive feel for the television audience. Rebecca Lord-Surratt was assistant art director, and Tony Hauser was staging supervisor.
MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
“Fingers of video stretched out into the house in every direction, wrapping the arena in imagery and movement, and making the set as much of an environment as a set,” adds Brahic. “This awards show is about the Nashville fans and making it an experience live and on TV is a huge part of the task for me—making it big and breathtaking in the room and on TV. I loved incorporating a close-down for the first time this year. It allowed us a new dimension to the immersive environment. We could bleed through the projection to the performances and also gave a real sense of geometry and scale to the show.”
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Feeding the screens were eight HD signals from a d3 Technologies d3 media server system, using the d3 SockPuppet DMX feature via an MA Lighting grandMA2 console. “Content for the host looks was provided by the CMT graphics team led by David Bennett,” says Laura Frank. “Performance looks were provided by Visual Noise Creative, Electronic Countermeasures, Darmah Studio, and CMT.” Eric Marchwinski programmed the LED screens, working with screens associate Trevor Burk and screens engineer Joe “Fluffy” Denham. VER’s crew included Dustin Cunningham and Jon Johnson on screens support.
CONTROL 4 MA Lighting grandMA2 14 MA Lighting NPU LIGHTING GEAR 148 Robe ROBIN® Pointe 70 Robe ROBIN® 1200 LEDWash 32 Robe ROBIN® 600 LEDWash 66 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX 55 Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 Spot 34 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot 20 Philips Vari-Lite VLX Wash 36 Clay Paky Mythos 36 Clay Paky Sharpy 28 Clay Paky Sharpy Gold 94 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRX 40 Philips Color Kinetics iW Blast TR 28 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4x4 52 TMB Solaris LED Flare
24 TMB Solaris Strip 24 Showtec Sunstrip 40 Harman Martin Professional Atomic 3000 Strobe 25 ICD Elements Krypton 25 24 Mole‑Richardson SkyPan 2kW 24 Mole‑Richardson Molefay 2-lite 12 14’’ Scoop1kW 12 De Sisti LED Fresnel 8 LED 300W Fresnel VIDEO GEAR d3 Technologies d3 Media Server WinVision Air 9mm WinVision 18mm Big Bear BB 25mm Revolution Display X15 Modular LED Floor System JULY 2016 \\\
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COVER STORY
MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
Kenny’s lighting design also featured Chauvet Professional Nexus 4x4s, TMB Solaris LED Flares and Strips, Showtec Sunstrips, Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRX units and iW Blast TRs, and Harman Martin Professional Atomic 3000 Strobes. VER Lighting also supplied the lighting equipment, and lighting was programmed by Mike Appel (also lighting director) and Jess Baker, with Mike Grimes, Tim Donovan, and John Ellar as gaffers, and production electricians Stephanie Schecter, Todd Latia, and Andy York.
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COVER STORY
Anne Brahic’s Set Renderings
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MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
Tom Kenny notes that he worked closely with Brahic, Aaron Black, and Frank to create “a very stylized, mega awards show backed by the CMT production and our respectfully brilliant lighting, video, scenic, and audio crews.” His lighting rig featured a slew of moving lights: Robe Lighting Robin® Pointes and Robin 1200 and 600 LEDWash units; Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX fixtures, VL4000 Spots, VL3500 Spots, and VLX Washes; and Clay Paky Mythos, Sharpys, and gold Sharpys. “The CMT Awards is very much a hybrid show, with massive country talent crossover into pop and rock, and all the top artists working alongside each other,” the lighting designer says.
MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
COVER STORY
“The CMT Music Awards is a special project for me,” says Frank. “Tom [Kenny] promoted my work to get me on the project in 2014. In this role, I create a workflow for content production, work on creative for the screens in collaboration with Tom and Anne and our show producers, and engage with our engineering team on signal flow. I have an incredible team, and this show has always been a great experience for us. Anne has challenged us both creatively and technically with her thoughtful use of video surfaces. Tom is very supportive of our process and is an engaged visual partner.”
ERIKA GOLDRING, STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES
Kenny also designed performances that took place outside the arena on Broadway. “The street concert drew a capacity crowd of fabulous country fans on what’s become the major week of high-energy shows, with the high ratings, followed by the massive CMA Festival.” Kenny’s outdoor team included lighting director Ronnie Skopac, programmer Keith Hoagland, and gaffer Buddy Lunn, with Han Heinz working on the red carpet.
MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
“The producers in CMT are just the best, with execs John Hamlin, Margaret Comeaux, Jim Craig, and producer Amy Johnson guiding us all to a very explosive show,” says Kenny. “High ratings on TV and on social networks—the highest this year due to the massive line up of the top country artists.”
MIKE COPPOLA, GETTY IMAGES
“I love working in Nashville and with the many country artists who just bring a wonderful, dignified approach to performances so we all work to compliment that mood on the show,” adds Kenny. “The collaborative spirit every year is a breath of fresh air, always with the professional A-list crew and designers that work on the show every year. The quality of the high-end vendors from VER, Clair Brothers, and Kish Rigging, the great local talent in Nashville, and personnel behind the scenes makes this one of my favorite shows.”
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FE ATURE
HELLISH LIGHTING BRADLEY KING LEADS THE AUDIENCE INTO THE UNDERWORLD IN HADESTOWN
JOAN MARCUS
/// BY ELLEN L AMPERT-GRE AUX
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ew York Theatre Workshop in Manhattan’s East Village is known for its commitment to new work and innovative staging. Its current production of Hadestown, which runs through July 31, is a case in point. Created by singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and triple Obie Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin, whose production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812 is heading to Broadway this fall, Hadestown is an operatic musical that retells the myth of Orpheus as he tries to bring Eurydice back from the underworld. Set in modern times, the music ranges from American folk music to vintage New Orleans jazz, with sets designed by Rachel Hauck, costumes by Michael Krass, sound by Robert Kaplowitz, and lighting by Bradley King. The show is set in a 5/6 thrust space, with the audience clustered around a central stage or bowl, with actors also appearing on staircases, in doorways, and in the voms. A band sits upstage. Basically, this means that King, who is also the LD for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812, was faced with the challenges of lighting a show almost in the round. “When you’re doing a show in the round, I think you have two major options,” King says. “You can decide to approach the show symmetrically—the same instrumentation, color, and angle from all sides—and you give every audience member a similar experience no matter where they’re sitting.” King’s other option was to embrace asymmetry and give each audience member a unique experience. “Both methods have their advantages and challenges,” he adds.
“We wanted the whole evening to feel as much like you’re at a funky space watching an amazing concert as much as you are in New York Theatre Workshop, and the lights, the haze, the set, the clothes, the sound—all of those elements combine to that effect,” says the LD.
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“I think the show and the space really lead you toward one. Given the inherent asymmetry in the space—the fact that we’re not quite in the round, coupled with the truly unique structure of the seating layout—I deliberately chose to feature the fact that every audience member would experience a different show.” King reports that 90% of the show is lit with a handful of moving lights and two followspots, which are ETC Source Four Series 2 Lustr LED 10º fixtures, loaned to the production by ETC and mounted in City Theatrical AutoYokes. “The actual central playing space is not that large,” King explains, “so we only needed a small number of fixtures. The single-source diagonal backlight—that is the workhorse of nearly every cue—comes from Harman Martin MAC Viper Performances, and all the color comes from MAC Auras. Color on the band and on the tree is from ETC [Selador Desire] D60 Lustr+ LED PARs. I had originally asked for nine Vipers, and we ended up with five, plus four MAC Quantum Profiles for budget reasons.” All the conventional fixtures come from the in-house rig, while the LEDs and moving lights are from Hayden Production Services. The LED fixtures allow King to exploit his use of color, as well as his impulse to be able to cue with color changes after
KING REPORTS THAT 90% OF THE SHOW IS LIT WITH A HANDFUL OF MOVING LIGHTS AND TWO FOLLOWSPOTS, WHICH ARE ETC SOURCE FOUR SERIES 2 LUSTR LED 10ยบ FIXTURES, LOANED TO THE PRODUCTION BY ETC AND MOUNTED IN CITY THEATRICAL AUTOYOKES. JULY 2016 \\\
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JOAN MARCUS
The whole above ground color palette was also built to be the opposite of Hades, or the underworld, with a golden rose hue in the summer and a cold white for the winter.
JOAN MARCUS
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For the 5/6 thrust space, King embraced the asymmetry and gives each audience member a unique experience.
Bradley King designed the lighting for Hadestown, a New York Theatre Workshop production with sets by Rachel Hauck, costumes by Michael Krass, and sound by Robert Kaplowitz.
listening to the music. “That meant I needed really, really responsive color control, hence the LEDs,” he says, pointing out that the overall color palette was a discussion with Chavkin and Hauck. “The ‘above ground’ look is heavily influenced by early 20th-century Dust Bowl/ Depression research, but at the same time, the play begins with a really lush love story between Orpheus and Eurydice,” adds King. “Times are hard, but it’s summer, and folks are happy, joyous, and singing songs like ‘Livin’ It Up On Top.’ Orpheus summoning Persephone is the first time we use the lights on the walls, and it’s a really magical entrance; you suddenly become aware of the whole space, and it’s lit with a golden, rosy glow.” The whole above ground color palette was also built to be the opposite of Hades, or the underworld. “We know that Hades lives in a red world but not just because of the psychological implications of hell. Hades is an industrialist robber baron, and he’s a captain of industry, who mans forges, ironworks, and factories,” notes King. “That also pushed us out of primary red and more into an ambery, fire-red.” In an ideal world, King would have lined the entire top and bottom of the room with LED striplights, but for budgetary reasons, he was only able to use mini-strips from above. “So we chose the golden rose for above ground summer, the fire-red for Hades, and a cold white for above ground winter,” says the LD, who worked with two programmers, Rachael Shair (main) and Chelsea Zalikowski (final previews). An ETC Ion console was used to program the show. The primary scenic element is a tree with bare branches that sits in the upstage right corner of the theatre. This is lit using more ETC Selador Desire D60 Lustr+ PARs on the floor. “There is so much surface area of the branches,” says King. “And the tree is so close to the grid and actually goes above it in several places that the only effecJULY 2016 \\\
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The show is set in a 5/6 thrust space, with the audience clustered around a central stage or bowl, with actors also appearing on staircases, in doorways, and in the voms.
CRAIG SCHWARTZ
The tree with bare branches, a primary scenic element, is lit using more ETC Selador Desire D60 Lustr+ PARs on the floor.
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“We know that Hades lives in a red world but not just because of the psychological implications of hell. Hades is an industrialist robber baron, and he’s a captain of industry, who mans forges, ironworks, and factories,” notes King. tive angle is from underneath. The paint treatment takes light beautifully.” There is also the suggestion of a train steaming into the space in a combination of light from offstage and the sound of a train whistle. King has six ETC Source Four PAR VNSPs on a boom, or as he says, #keepitsimple. “With a vom into a 5/6 thrust space, it’s a powerful entrance, and I wanted to put a big beam of light back there, so why not six of them?” he asks. “With all the haze in the air, it creates a really cool, smoky, steamy look that really punches into the room.” Ultimately, the lighting helps tell the story in several ways. “Firstly, much like Great Comet, it tells you where to look,” notes King. “There’s staging all around the bowl and in the aisles. The final number, ‘Doubt Comes In,’ Orpheus and Eurydice’s journey out of the underground, is staged completely in the audience.” In addition, the lighting hugely supports the score. “It’s heavily cued in both rhythm and tone to what’s happening musically,” explains King. “We wanted the whole evening to feel as much like you’re at a funky space watching an amazing concert as much as you are in New York Theatre Workshop, and the lights, the haze, the set, the clothes, the sound—all of those elements combine to that effect.” JULY 2016 \\\
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FE ATURE
JOAN MARCUS
King reports that 90% of the show is lit with a handful of moving lights and two followspots, which are ETC Source Four Series 2 Lustr LED 10ยบ fixtures, loaned to the production by ETC and mounted in City Theatrical AutoYokes.
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LIGHTING GEAR 1 ETC Ion Console 9 Harman Martin Professional MAC Aura 5 Harman Martin Professional MAC Viper Performance 4 Harman Martin Professional MAC Quantum Profile 12 ETC Selador Desire D60 LED Lustr+ 2 ETC Source Four Series 2 LED Lustr 10º 28 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal 36º 13 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal 50º 10 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal 26º 7 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal 19º 2 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal 70º 18 ETC Source Four PAR WFL 6 ETC Source Four PAR VNSP 2 Altman 2kW Fresnel 19 MR-16 Mini-Strip 4 Mini-10 2 MR-16 Birdie 2 City Theatrical AutoYoke 1 Look Solutions Unique 2 Hazer
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The single-source diagonal backlight—that is the workhorse of nearly every cue—comes from Harman Martin MAC Viper Performances, and all the color comes from MAC Auras.
JOAN MARCUS
All the conventional fixtures come from the in-house rig, while the LEDs and moving lights are from Hayden Production Services.
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JOAN MARCUS
The LED fixtures allow King to exploit his use of color, as well as his impulse to be able to cue with color changes after listening to the music.
FE ATURE
Cirque D
H
the Great
ENIM R E T D R A H C I R
Du Soleil
Hits
t White way
AGILE ACROBATS AND AMOROUS ACTORS ANIMATE PARAMOUR ON BROADWAY /// BY ELLEN L A MPER T-GRE A U X
FE ATURE
P
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JORDAN MONK
aramour marks Cirque du Soleil’s Broadway debut, with star-crossed lovers set in a kinetic world of song, dance, and acrobatic feats, from trapeze to trampoline. The show premiered in June at the Lyric Theatre for an openended run, produced by Cirque du Soleil Theatrical (Scott Zeiger, president and managing director). Un d e r t h e a r t i s t i c supervision of creative guide Jean-François Bouchard, Paramour i s d i re c te d by French director and choreographer Philippe Decouflé, whose design team includes set designer Jean Rabasse, costume designer Philippe Guillotel, lighting designer Patrice Besombes, projection designers Olivier Simola and Christophe Waksmann, and sound designer John Shivers. Live Design asked the designers to talk about their biggest challenges in creating a Cirque du Soleil spectacle for Broadway.
Projection designer Christophe Waksmann notes that one of the most challenging things for him was to find the proper camera for the use of live video in the show, with the least latency possible. “As the lip synchro is important for live cameras, we had trouble finding the right model. After a few weeks trying different models, we finally found the right one,� he says.
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RICHARD TERMINE FE ATURE
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Another challenge for Waksmann is that the show is run without a projection operator, which is not the way he’s used to working. “Usually in every show I design, an operator is necessary to run the show properly,” he says. “So the challenge was to find a way to get rid of the operator and launch the cues with the lights on a timecode. Actually, it seems to work.”
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Jean Rabasse, the scenic designer, found that “working on Paramour was extraordinary, but there were a certain number of specific constraints related to this spectacle, and one must understand that, in producing Paramour on Broadway, Cirque du Soleil wanted for the first time to unite three very different universes,” he says. “First, the universe created by Philippe Decouflé and his design team: costumes, choreography, video, lighting, and scenery. We all tried to find a different angle, a spirit of contradiction, the desire to show things in a graphic or abstract manner, but also to try and mix styles, and the ways to tell a story in a linear and figurative way but also be elliptical, in a more abstract manner.”
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JOAN MARCUS
The second universe for Rabasse is the world of Cirque du Soleil, where, he states, “acrobatic performance, or the showcasing of the artists is balanced by a style close to that of Commédia dell'Arte, with a strong sense of direction, that is dreamlike, festive, young, and above all, always looking for the highest level of acrobatics, without doubt the best in the world.”
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RICHARD TERMINE
The third universe in Paramour is the world of Broadway theatre, “with its high level of music, the exceptional quality of its singers and dancers, an incredible sense of narration, and the incredible quality in the creation of scenery, costumes, and lighting,” says Rabasse. “So, while uniting these three universes was exhilarating, rousing, and magnificent, it was also difficult, sometimes conflicting but possible. It took an incredible amount of energy by creative guide Jean-François Bouchard from Cirque du Soleil, by producer Jayna Neagle, and, of course, Scott Zieger to drive all these teams that are so different yet so creative together.”
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Rabasse also finds that creating scenery for Cirque du Soleil entails certain technical constraints. “This is the very essence of Cirque and its demanding performance style, as well as its concern for the safety of the artists,” he explains. “Every acrobatic element is a long, patient discussion that includes trainers, coaches, the director, choreographer, engineers, scenic shop, and the set designer. It is a huge job to succeed in creating a new number.”
JOAN MARCUS
For Rabasse, “The number with the trampoline on the rooftops of New York, in the spirit of Warren Beatty’s film, Dick Tracy, was extraordinary but long and laborious to create. Even the choreographer for this number took a really long time to create the impression of lightness and ease," he says.
JOAN MARCUS
JULY 2016 \\\
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FC EO AV TE UR R SE T O R Y
RICHARD TERMINE
“The Western tableau was also a long process, even though the basic idea was to create a light, joyous number. You often have to put yourself at the service of the performance to make these tableaux successful, while remaining true to your convictions,” Rabasse notes.
JOAN MARCUS
Rabasse’s experience of many years working with Philippe Decouflé, followed by three spectacles with Cirque du Soleil, gives him what he feels is “sufficient experience to be part of the creation of these tableaux and propose scenic solutions in the service of the acrobatic performance,” he adds. “It is truly a team effort, with a lot of strong personalities and strong convictions.”
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RICHARD TERMINE
In addition, Rabasse found that working on Broadway with American crews was a true joy. “I had the good luck to have Christine Peters as associate designer and David Benken as technical director,” he says. “I was also able to discover techniques that are specific to Broadway and an ease of getting all the scenic elements coordinated. I also really enjoyed working with the team of painters and have great memories of their work.”
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JOAN MARCUS
“Voila!” concludes Rabasse. “At the end of the day, these three universes, with their knowhow, their desires, and their convictions, created, I hope, a light and enjoyable production. I hope that the audience senses my pleasure at being invited to create the décor for Paramour.”
FE ATURE
Costume designer Philippe Guillotel discovered that Broadway is different from circus or ballet costumes, “with which I try to define a strong universe and the characters that inhabit that universe in an original, and even exaggerated, manner,” he says. “This time, for this show, I had to apply myself to create costumes that were more from everyday life, in service to the narration.”
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RICHARD TERMINE
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JOAN MARCUS
FE ATURE
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Guillotel found he had to rein in his creativity, he says, “in order to be sure to more deeply define the psychology of each of these characters, while providing costumes that did not limit the actors and singers in their specific actions at specific moments, so that the audience would recognize themselves in them.�
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FE ATURE
RICHARD TERMINE
“In terms of the speaker design for the house system, we decided to use a system with components designed and manufactured by KV2 Audio,” explains sound designer John Shivers. “We were introduced to KV2 Audio on a project we did two years ago in Hamburg and absolutely love them. They’re compact, light, powerful, cost-effective, and more importantly, excellent sounding products that proved to be a perfect fit for Paramour and the need for a wide dynamic and diverse stylistic scope.”
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RICHARD TERMINE
RICHARD TERMINE
For Shivers, “Paramour, like most shows, presented a unique set of challenges, but the show, having a range of acrobatic acts as well as more traditional Broadway elements, added to the scope of tasks to make the sound design effective and satisfying. We paid special attention to the stage foldback, monitoring to ensure that the cast and acrobats could hear well for the purpose of cueing their precision movements,” he says. “We also added wireless monitoring systems for musicians who were required to play on stage during some songs so that they could remain synchronized with the rest of the orchestra in the pit.”
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BUILD ///
HOW I DID TH AT
DESIGNING THE WALMART SH
LUCY A KENNEDY
/// BY GRE
102
HAREHOLDERS 2016 MEETING
EGORY C OHEN
JULY 2016 \\\ 103
BUILD ///
HOW I DID TH AT
LUCY A KENNEDY
For Walmart Shareholders 2016 Meeting, huge talent, including James Corden and Katy Perry, were part of the production.
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Imagery played on two cropped 16:9 screens, two flying angled LED walls, and two side screens.
B
ro a dw ay. Are na rock. EDM festivals. Awards shows. There’s no question that these gigs are on every entertainment design professional’s bucket list, but a corporate shareholders meeting? Every public company in the United States holds a yearly gathering of owners to discuss both the past year’s business as well as their hopes and dreams for the future, and, for the vast majority of companies, these are sedate affairs, sometimes painfully
so. Clients usually play to their frugal side, with the audience sitting in a hotel ballroom for four hours of financials and a seemingly endless PowerPoint parade. But Wa l m ar t , t h e world’s largest retailer, is well-known for doing its own thing, and the shareholders meeting is no exception. The annual event encompasses a company-wide associates meeting, two nights of headline entertainment, and a Friday session. The actual business meeting, while containing real con-
tent, also features a celebrity host, interstitial acts, and, typically, a big-name headliner to close out the day, or really, the morning. It’s all over by 11am. This year, as in years past, the show was held at the Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The world-class talent included Katy Perry, 3 Doors Down, The Goo Goo Dolls, American Authors, Nick Jonas, Daughtry, Maxwell, Andy Grammer, and Jordan Smith. The shareholders meeting was hosted JULY 2016 \\\ 105
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HOW I DID TH AT
by James Corden, with the associates meeting hosted by Steve Harvey. I was hired by executive producer David Kenyon, SVP of Production for LEO Events. I’ve known Kenyon for years, and working for him is always a pleasure. He’s got no problem saying what he wants and get106
ting the resources to pull it off. He’s technical without being dogmatic, and he gives truly thoughtful notes on the creative elements. He’s also good at not holding six-hour conference calls. That’s a great skill. My firm, UVLD, focuses on industrials, which means live corporate events. We
light pharmaceutical sales meetings, automotive press conferences, technology conferences, and projects for clients in the financial industry. After Walmart, though, I guess I need to say, “I light drugs, cars, computers, banks, and entertainment-focused public meetings for large
Kahn designed 150 Ayrton MagicPanel-R 602s into the set, placed along the upstage wall to create subtle bookends to the speaker looks and insane over-the-top accents for the headliners.
LUCY A KENNEDY
consumer-facing retailers.” Man, it’s going to be hard to get that on a business card. The point is: Walmart hits a sweet spot for us. It’s a large corporate show in an arena with a livestream component, bigname headliners, and, always, a fantastic group
of colleagues across many departments. SET DESIGN This is our fourth year doing the show and our third doing it with set designer Star Kahn, who is awesome, and I’m not afraid to say so! She comes from a television background, which means,
among many other great things, she thinks outside traditional parameters and doesn’t hesitate to cram a lot of screens into the show. Too often in corporate, designers stick to standard aspect ratios because we don’t have the video assets to place in non-standard pixel spaces. Working with JULY 2016 \\\ 107
HOW I DID TH AT
creative director Chris Simmons, Kahn designed an array of screens that filled the space with unique places for video to play. We had two cropped 16:9 screens outboard, two flying angled LED walls, and two side screens inboard that didn’t fly. The angled LED walls, “chevrons,” formed different configurations to reveal headliner acts. Kenyon’s team employed PK Pictures to drive Dataton Watchout to these screens, so unlike many projects, UVLD wasn’t involved in content delivery. However, Kahn did design 150 Ayrton MagicPanel-R 602s into the set. These panning and tilting 6x6 LED fixtures were placed along the upstage wall that created subtle bookends to our speaker looks and insane over-the-top accents for the headliners. Take a look at Kahn’s renderings. At top, for the speaker look, the lower chevron is at its in-trim, and the upper chevron at a mid-trim. The MagicPanel-R 602s are visible surrounding the set, but in the entertainment look at bottom, the lower chevron flies out to hide behind the upper chevron at a higher trim. And look at those MagicPanel-R 602 units. They’re everywhere. The set also featured strong diagonal lines, LED tape on the edge of the deck, and translucent stairs to be backlit, and Kahn made great use of negative space. The black between the MagicPanel-R 602s and below the outboard screens defined the space. The deck itself put the executives in the foreground on a diamond-shaped stage, which recalled a vanity ramp while still giving speakers ideal sightlines to the downstage monitors.
LUCY A KENNEDY
BUILD ///
108 STEPHEN A’COURT
Working with creative director Chris Simmons, set designer Star Kahn designed an array of screens that filled the space with unique places for video to play.
PRE-PRODUCTION Whatever success I’ve had in the business is in large part due to my relationship with my business partner, UVLD cofounder John Ingram. He and I work so well as a team that I sometimes take it for granted. We lay shows out together, for each other, and without each other, and we each can get things done without contradicting the work of the other. On a larger project like this, we tend to fall into a pattern. Ingram does the layout, while I handle the bidding, money, staffing, etc. On Walmart, we worked closely with the technical director, Steven Barrett, to ensure that every iteration of the truss drawing fit with the challenges of both the venue and the automation required to fly the screens. Kenyon runs a tight ship in terms of money, and this project was no exception. We issued an RFP to four vendors, and then the award itself was done with very limited input from us. This isn’t a problem. When others handle the money, we’re usually thrilled, as long as we get everything we want! Of course, if we’re told we can’t have every single thing we want, we cry like children and claim that, had we been allowed to manage the bids, we could have gotten every single thing we wanted. In this case, we got every single thing we wanted. The show was awarded to Upstaging, a fantastic vendor with the bandwidth to do many big shows at once. We were happy to have them on board. From the outset, we were keen to use pre-rigged truss, meaning the lights would be hung in the shop and then travel within the truss and be hung quickly. This is done JULY 2016 \\\ 109
BUILD ///
HOW I DID TH AT
We wanted a thick moving light system that was as awesome as it was flexible.
LUCY A KENNEDY
Upstaging supplied the lighting rig for the event.
110
all the time on touring projects but almost never in corporate, as the pre-rig truss is more expensive, and since the lights have to be hung in the shop, the rental period is longer. However, on Walmart the additional cost up front was warranted by the savings on site. We needed to get up and out quickly. The show is at a very small arena, which you’d think was a contradiction in terms, and everyone is on top of each other until we’re finally at trim, and then there’s about 40 seconds before the house starts setting chairs. THE PLOT We wanted a thick moving light system that would be appropriate for the most important part of our show—when a lone executive holds the stage—as well as be awesome and flexible for the many bands performing. For our executive looks, we borrowed a page from television and lit all the talent with followspots. We balanced to 5,600K to be in the same neighborhood as the LED products, but we did tend to run a little hotter, at around 90 foot-can-
dles. While there was a lot throw of more than 50’. We of I-Mag and a web feed, we had some Harman Martin were lighting (as ever) for Professional MAC Viper live audience. Profiles as well, which did For the few moments graphic looks overhead. For when there seemed to be a followspots, we used four million people on stage— Lycian 2.5kW Xenon longat the top of the show, for throws, which looked fanexample, when they intro- tastic. duced the many countries To c o n t r o l t h e in which Walmart has a MagicPanel-R 602s, we presence—we used spots wound up using two PRG until they were spread Mbox Studio media servthin, and then we cov- ers, which we then took ered with Harman Martin as an Art-Net input to the Professional MAC III Per- MA Lighting grandMA2 formances for frontlight, console. It worked well, which we also corrected to and as the input has a 5,600K. highest-takes-precedence We’ve got no great love (HTP) relationship with the for the MAC III Perfor- desk, we could control them mance, but it’s an absolute via video on the Mbox or workhorse even as it is lighting from the console. aging. Its zoom is good at throws of about 115’, and its color is THIS YEAR, AS IN pretty good. Also, YEARS PAST, THE SHOW Upstaging had them in stock. WAS HELD AT THE BUD Overhead, we used Philips WALTON ARENA ON Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes with Clay THE UNIVERSITY OF Paky Mythos as our tight-beamed ARKANSAS CAMPUS fixtures. We also IN FAYETTEVILLE, spread those out as back specials, as they looked great ARKANSAS. at the backlight JULY 2016 \\\ 111
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HOW I DID TH AT
For example, we could play a subtle blue-cyan cloud loop for walk-in, but when we wanted to just go to a deep blue background for video, we could take those channels to Congo blue without hunting for a dark blue video clip or adjusting the hue in the server. We could also use the effects engine in the grandMA2 to do geometrics quickly using MA Tricks. This allowed for cool chases for play-ons, and many of the headliner LDs were more comfortable using the console, rather than hunting around on the media server. It was really the best of both worlds. HEADLINER INTERACTION I sent each act a link to the light plot as well as the magic sheet, which I think makes the rig a little easier to understand. Everyone was happy to work with the grandMA2, and everyone worked in the same show file, which was a huge benefit. Switching files mid-show can drive even the most relaxed designer to a cardiac event. When we had to go to black for a second before Katy Perry came on, there was enough LED coming out of the screens to make it look intentional. Which it was. Inevitable, but intentional. Matthew Piercy, another UVLD partner who is fast on his feet (or in his comfy chair), was 112
LUCY A KENNEDY
The angled LED walls, “chevrons,” formed different configurations to reveal headliner acts.
JULY 2016 \\\ 113
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HOW I DID TH AT
the programmer for the headliners. Some of the acts didn’t bring an LD, and depending on the rehearsal schedule, either Piercy or Matt Webb, our main programmer, lit them. This worked well, and when things got a little confusing, in a move that will surprise no one who knows me, I made a spreadsheet. I can’t really imagine it going any better. ONSITE Nicola Taylor was the stage manager, and she was a constant force of awesome. She kept things moving and kept me on my toes. At one point, she did mention to me gently that “it’s not all about the lighting!” While I largely disagree, I did learn to 114
stop rehearsal a little less. And, perhaps surprisingly, the high caliber of the headliners actually made the show easier in terms of scheduling. When you’ve got A-list entertainers scheduled for a sound check, everyone needs to be done by their sound check. It’s really something to have a technical rehearsal stop so the backline guys can do the kick-snare thing, but it’s quite refreshing to go out to dinner in the middle of a show with 400 moving lights. There were onsite changes but nothing crazy. Webb asked for some Mythos to be moved from the overhead trusses to the vertical walls with the MagicPanel-R 602s. Of course, once I was sure they were going
LUCY A KENNEDY
Harman Martin Professional MAC III Performances provided frontlight, while MAC Viper Profiles created graphic looks overhead.
to look awesome, I took full credit for the idea. Katy Perry had a huge effects package (nitrogen, CO2), but her team was totally professional, so for us, it was only a power-drop, and by “us,” in this case I mean production electrician Pete Campbell. LOOKING BACK All in all, I think things went phenomenally well. I was particularly thrilled by the MagicPanel-R 602 units which, driven by the media server, were just the right blend of subtle and pronounced. They provided some huge “wow” moments, but when executives were on stage, they were discreet and recessed nicely. Mostly, though, I could not be prouder
of the team we had on this very large and complicated show. We had outstanding electricians, many of whom knew the venue and the job well. We had a producer who gave us the resources to execute the design and a client who booked world-class talent who put on a great show. With its unique combination of venue, entertainment, and technology, Walmart Shareholders 2016 Meeting was truly rewarding. Gregory Cohen is a lighting designer and founding member of UVLD. Visit www.uvld.com for more information.
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HOW I DID TH AT
Kenyon’s team employed PK Pictures to drive Dataton Watchout to the screens.
UVLD worked closely with the technical director, Steven Barrett, to ensure that every iteration of the truss drawing fit with the challenges of both the venue and the automation required to fly the screens.
LUCY A116 KENNEDY
LUCY A KENNEDY
For executive speaker looks, the designers borrowed a page from television and lit all the talent with followspots.
JULY 2016 \\\ 117
BUILD ///
HOW I DID TH AT
The Lycian 2.5kW Xenon long-throw followspots were balanced to 5,600K to be in the same neighborhood as the LED products.
Matthew Piercy was the main programmer for the headliners and he and Matt Webb programmed and lit acts without an LD.
LUCY A118 KENNEDY
Overhead were Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes and Clay Paky Mythos as tight-beamed fixtures.
Controlling the MagicPanel-R 602s were two PRG Mbox studio media servers, which went as an Art-Net input to the MA Lighting grandMA2 console.
JULY 2016 \\\ 119
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HOW I DID TH AT
The set also featured strong diagonal lines, LED tape on the edge of the deck, and translucent stairs to be backlit.
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Set designer Star Kahn created renderings of the upper and lower chevron screens.
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HOW I DID TH AT
Overhead Lighting Plot 1650 Broadway Suite 405 New York, NY 10019 (212) 414-1502 www.uvld.com
BLEACHER OBSTRUCTION +8" [confirm height]
BLEACHER OBSTRUCTION +12" [confirm height] BLEACHER OBSTRUCTION +6" [confirm height]
THIS DRAWING REPRESENTS DESIGN CONCEPTS AND CONSTRUCTION SUGGESTIONS ONLY. THE DESIGNER IS UNQUALIFIED TO DETERMINE THE STRUCTURAL, MECHANICAL OR ELECTRICAL APPROPRIATENESS OF THIS DESIGN AND WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS USE. ALL RIGGING SHOULD BE EVALUATED AND APPROVED BY A STRUCTURAL ENGINEER PRIOR TO CONSTRUCTION. ALL EQUIPMENT, AND INSTALLATION OF SAID EQUIPMENT MUST COMPLY WITH THE MOST STRINGENT APPLICABLE SAFETY AND FIRE CODES.
NOTE ALL 7 TRUSS MYTHOS ARE TAILED DOWN 2' BELOW TRUSS. SEE SECTION EXAMPLE
18
821 19
14
V
15
10
6
823 8
424
347
MY
3
VL3500 WFX
243
9
V
11
13
346
MY
VL3500 WFX
242
12
822
423
345
MY
VL3500 WFX
241
16
V
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422
344
MY
VL3500 WFX
240
20
V
21
421
343
MY
VL3500 WFX
239
VL3500 WFX
244
5
V
V
7
4
7 TRUSS-50'X20.5" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=26'0"
1
824 2
MYTHOS
5 32 0
22 V
5
4
0
22
81
V
8
5
7
32 0 VL350
WFX
9 8
3
9
22
80
V
3
10
32
7 V
22
0 VL350
WFX
12
MY
4 1
43 0
15
2'-0"
MYTHOS
2
8 86
6 30 0 VL350
1
WFX
5 7
86 2
+2 4"
86
6
86
70
+1 2"
2
86
4 6
+2 4"
1
86
86
+1 2"
3
0
86
0
FL O 5 30 0
VL350 WFX
V
MYTHOS
2
30
VL350
R
WFX
3
O
O FL
3
4
4
2
70
5
70
4
3
5
4
SPARES
In addition to spares provided by Production Electrician, please supply the following additional units (full fixture): 4-Source 4 36° @ 750w 4-Source 4 26° @ 750w 4-Source 4 19° @ 750w 4-Source 4 10° @ 750w 6-Source 4 PAR @ 750w w/ Lens Kit
MYTHOS
30 0
0
5
2
DSFU ON 2' CASE
WFX
3 VL350 WFX
454
30
203
In additional to the color and scrolls on the hookup, please provide: 1 Roll of blackwrap 1-sheet of R100 Frost 1-sheet of R101 Light Frost 2-sheet of R114 Hamburg Frost 2-sheet of R119 Light Hamburg Frost 4-sheets of L202 1/2 CTB - ProvideUnits: lots of extra of everything Spare
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3
MY
VL350
48
P
DSFU ON 2' CASE
3
70
4
70 1
6
KEY 6'-6"
4L TRUSS-25'X20.5" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=54'0"
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MAC III Performance 48 Hung MAC Viper 44 Profile Hung
6
P
MYTHOS
4R TRUSS-25'X20.5" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=54'0"
CONFIRM ALL PIXEL MAPPING / MBOX NEEDS W/ PROGRAMMER
Spare Color:
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O
6
R
85
2" 85 +1
2
86
MYTHOS
9
85
85
4" +2
5
5
4
MY
453
**ALL CONTROL CONSOLES MUST ACCEPT BOTH MIDI AND SMTPE SIGNALS.**
4
P
43
• (2) grandMA 2 Fulls [1-is Backup] -4096 channel consoles with 100mb ethernet cards Also provide: • Necessary control lines with spares as needed • 4-Little Lite desk lamps • Opto splitters as needed • Ethernet cables as needed • NSP's as needed
MYTHOS
6'-6"
6'-6"
DSFU ON 2' CASE 6
CONTROL
450
2
MY
5
P
3
VL3500 SP
• PRODUCTION ELECTRICIAN TO INSPECT AND DETERMINE BEST MOUNTING METHOD OF ALL LIGHTING POSITIONS. • ALL CABLES NEAT. DISCUSS ANY AREAS THAT WILL BE HEAVILY TRAFFICKED WITH WALKING, AND PROVIDE RUBBER MATS WHERE NECESSARY. • DETERMINE DIMMER PLACEMENTS WITH TECHNICAL DIRECTOR. • MINIMIZE FOOTPRINT OF LIGHTING POSITIONS WHERE POSSIBLE WITHOUT COMPROMISING SAFETY. • POSITIONS MUST BE VERY SECURE. • PROVIDE A GENEROUS AMOUNT OF SANDBAGS TO SECURE ALL FLOOR MOUNTS WHERE POSSIBLE. • ALL UNITS HAVE SAFETY CHAIN, C-CLAMPS, AND COLOR FRAMES. • ALL UNITS AND COLOR FRAMES ARE BLACK. • ALL PIPE, CLAMPS AND OTHER HARDWARE ARE BLACK. • PROVIDE SPARE CIRCUITS TO ALL POSITIONS. • PROVIDE SPARE UNITS. • PROVIDE SPARE LAMPS FOR ALL LAMP TYPES. • EXACT PLACEMENT OF ALL FLOOR UNITS AND SET MOUNTS TO BE DETERMINED ON SITE BY DESIGNER. • EXACT PLACEMENT OF SET MOUNTS TO BE HAZERS DETERMINED ON SITE BY DESIGNER. (5) LEMAITRE RADIANCE HAZERS WITH PLENTY OF JUCE AND FANS
SCREEN
P
44
449
170
REVERSE & REPEAT FOR STAGE RIGHT 6'-6"
3
1 MY
11
8
9 22 2
80
2
42
MY
V
13
8 0
3
42
VL350
MY
WFX
15
7 4
MY
14
2
81
3
7
3
33
MY
5
4
1 43 2 2 23 V
43
32
2
MY
0
MYTHOS
MYTHOS
213
LED PARS UNDERSTAGE BACK LIGHT STEPS. PROVIDE LSF#536 FOR ALL SHOWN DS OF TRUE POSITION
3
1
4
MYTHOS
SCENIC DIAG TRUSS DETAIL
DSFU ON 2' CASE
MYTHOS
214
804
25
CH 314 7' PIPE TOP OF BOT CORD
3
8
85
1
70
85
6
DSFU ON 2' CASE
V
VL350 WFX
0
4" 85 +2 2" +1
VL350 WFX
4
1
85
30 452
3
21
V
1
212
18
2
1
456
V
448
V
V
23
MY
26
1
204
24
409
VL3500 WFX
43
42 6 22 1 42
4
7
5
MY
314
447
B TRUSS-30' HUD PRERIG BOX TRUSS TRIM-57'0"
1
MY
215
22
VL3500 WFX
408 MY
2
V
3
MY
WFX
5
803
19
MY
315
VL3500
4
211
85
4
MYTHOS
P
8
20
410
313
MY
6
V
7
2
219 V
5 TRUSS SECTION
216
MY
VL3500 WFX
2
210
VL3500 SP
435
9
217
805
15
G FLA
MYTHOS HUNG FROM F TRUSS. SEE DETAIL BELOW
AN
TRUSS F FRONT DETIAL MYTHOS HANG ON 3' PIPES
V
11
V
17
411
316
4
V
MY
3
407
43 1
81
WFX
23
VL3500
8
MY
NOTE ALL 5 TRUSS MYTHOS ARE TAILED DOWN 2' BELOW TRUSS. SEE SECTION EXAMPLE
312
MY
9
V
10
1
6
80
5
209
451
DSFU ON 2' CASE
16
VL3500 WFX
406
0
VL350 WFX
V
2
5
7
33
16
V
2
0
81
23
WFX
12
MY
317
VL3500
11
ERIC
AM
E TRUSS(1) 30'X12" (1) 12" CORNER BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=41'0"(ARENA FLR) (attached to F)
• ALL TRUSSES TRIM FROM VENUE FLOOR TO BOTTOM RAILS OF TRUSSES. • PLEASE CONFIRM THE FEASIBILITY OF ALL TRIMS ON THIS DRAWING, AS HITTING OUR EXPECTED HEIGHT IS THE ONLY WAY TO AVOID SITELINE ISSUES. IF THERE ARE TRIM PROBLEMS, PLEASE EMAIL OR CALL THE LIGHTING DESIGNER (GREGORY COHEN, GCOHEN@UVLD .COM OR 917 284 8853. CALL US NO MATTER WHOM ELSE YOU'VE SPOKEN TO ABOUT THE ISSUE, OR HOW OBVIOUS IT IS. THANK YOU!
GENERAL NOTES
(5) MYTHOS ON SCENIC TRUSS DISCUSS HANGING W/ TD & CARP. PROVIDE CENTER PIPE IF NEEDED.
SL L TRUSS(1)@20'X12" (1)@25'X12" (1) CORNER BLOCK BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=50'0"
14
412
311
12
13
TRIM=52'0"
218
13
VL3500 WFX
405 MY
V
MY
318
WFX
220 BLACK BOX TRUSS
10
413
310 VL3500
14
5L TRUSS-40'X20.5"
806
5
MY
VL3500 WFX
404 MY
15
16
802
MY
1
3 V
443
V
4
6
7
414
319
WFX
17
2
VL3500 WFX
MY
444
4
MY
MY
321 415
320
VL3500
208
3
416
0 VL350 WFX
309
19
20
6
MY
445
9
42
8
NOTE ORCH STAND LIGHTS ON DIMMING
8
32
830
VL3500 WFX
MY
V
0
206
VL350 WFX
829
MY
1
2
MY
460
828
403
SCREEN
45
MY
459
827
WFX
MYTHOS
201
MY
458 826
RIGGING NOTES
1
MY
446
2
MY
16 MY
457 825
VL3500
21
169
3
7
0
308
22
V
436
3
TBD BAND FLOOR UNITS PROVIDE ROLLING BASES FOR MYTHOS SO UNITS CAN REPO DURING MAIN SHOW
32 VL350 WFX
1
402 MY
V
23
18
1
14
6 TRUSS-35'X20.5" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=37'0"
6
WFX
25
801
LED TAPE: HEAD ELEC NOTE THERE IS LED TAPE BUILT IN THE SR, TOP CHEVRON & SL SCREEN SURRONDS. CONFIRM W/ TD & SCENIC ALL NEEDED POWER & CONTROL.
V
818
5
6
1
V
22 V
307 VL3500
24
205
0 VL350 WFX
VL3500 WFX
236
4
817
V
8
9
11
12
9
32
338
VL3500 WFX
235
7
V
2
401 MY
26
V
27
5R TRUSS-40'X20.5" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=52'0"
207
202
816
337
VL3500 WFX
234
10
V
10
815
A TRUSS-30' HUD PRERIG BOX TRUSS TRIM-57'0"
2
MYTHOS
336
VL3500 WFX
233
13
SR L TRUSS(1)@20'X12" (1)@25'X12" (1) CORNER BLOCK BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=50'0"
1
437
335
VL3500 WFX
33
334
V
(5) MYTHOS ON SCENIC TRUSS DISCUSS HANGING W/ TD & CARP. PROVIDE CENTER PIPE IF NEEDED.
MYTHOS
6
0
9
1
MY
442 D TRUSS(1) 30'X12" (1) 12" CORNER BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=41'0"(ARENA FLR) (attached to C)
1 81
32 VL350 WFX
3
22
MY
441
FLA G
438
12
4
5
N
22 V
4
13
VL350
WFX
6
11
2
0
VL350 WFX
AN
TRUSS C FRONT DETIAL MYTHOS HANG ON 3' PIPES
440
THIS DRAWING AND ALL OF THE IDEAS, ARRANGEMENTS, DESIGNS AND PLANS INDICATED THEREON OR REPRESENTED THEREBY ARE OWNED BY AND REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF UNLIMITED VISIBILITY LIGHTING DESIGN, INC., AND HAVE BEEN CREATED AND DEVELOPED FOR USE ON AND IN CONNECTION WITH THE SPECIFIED PROJECT. NEITHER THIS DRAWING NOR ANY OF SUCH IDEAS, ARRANGEMENTS, DESIGNS OR PLANS SHALL BE APPROPRIATED BY OR DISCLOSED TO ANY PERSON, FIRM OR CORPORATION FOR ANY USE OR PURPOSE WHATSOEVER, EXCEPT BY THE SPECIFIC AND WRITTEN PERMISSION UNLIMITED VISIBILITY LIGHTING DESIGN, INC.
F TRUSS- VERTICAL 20'X12" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=21'0"(ARENA FLR) (attached to E)
P
22
24
2'-0"
420
342
MY
23
820
V
25
0
3
MY
MYTHOS HUNG FROM C TRUSS. SEE DETAIL BELOW
ERIC
419
VL3500 WFX
238
33
4
MY
439
AM
26
27
V
28
V
30
341
MY
VL3500 WFX
237 819
TIO UC ] TR ight BS he O nfirm ER " [co CH +6 EA
29
31
MY
418
340
MY
VL3500 WFX
BL
417
339
C TRUSS- VERTICAL 20'X12" BLACK BOX TRUSS TRIM=21'0"(ARENA FLR) (attached to D)
7 TRUSS SECTION
Clay Paky 60 Mythos Hung MYTHOS
MY
WALMART SECUIRTY LIGHTS: HEAD ELEC TO PROVIDE SECURITY LIGHT SYSTEM.
SP
EEN
SP
SCR
VL3500
2
166
VL3500 SP
EEN
SP
SCR
VL3500
7
3
154
SCR
EEN
165
VL3500 SP
SCR
EEN
164
VL3500 SP
EEN
SP
SCR
VL3500
5
5
156
SCR
EEN
163
VL3500 SP
SCR
6
157
EEN
162
VL3500 SP
EEN
SP
SCR
VL3500
3
7
158
SCR
EEN
161
VL3500 SP
EEN
SP
8
159
EEN
160
VL3500 SP
SCR
9
EEN
LIGHTING DESIGNER: GREGORY COHEN UVLD
SCR
H TRUSS-40' PRERIG BOX TRUSS TRIM-57'0"
G TRUSS-40' PRERIG BOX TRUSS TRIM-57'0"
6 18
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: STEVE BARRETT
SCR
EEN
Elation Q7 LED Par
SET DESIGNER: STAR KAHN
EEN
SP
VL3500
1
Generic 8 Lite
PRODUCER: DAVID KENYON LEO EVENTS
SCR
VL3500
2
SCR
32
Par Bar EEN
SP
VL3500
4
SCR
16
Solaris Flare 30
4
155
SCR
HOUSE AUDIO RACKS
EEN
SP
VL3500
6
Philips Vari-Lite VL 3015 SPOT
VL3015 SP
153
EEN
VL3500 SP
1
167
VL3500
8
SCR
60
Philips Vari-Lite 47 VL3500 WashFX DISCUSS LENS Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot 20 Hung
SP
VL3500
of Show Deck
152
EEN
Mythos
Clay Paky 60 Mythos Floor
MY
168
SP
VL3500 WFX
151 VL3500
9
SCR
Venue:
Bud Walton Arena Fayatteville, AK
REVISIONS: 4-21: T1&2 NOW 135' LONG. T3R&L & G & H MOVED 8' U.S. SCREEN 11
SCREEN 10
SCREEN 9
SCREEN 8
SCREEN 7
SCREEN 6
SCREEN 5
SCREEN 4
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
USR 1
3
USR 2
2
BAND
USR 3
1
P
P
P
34
35
36
3R TRUSS-50' PRERIG BOX TRUSS TRIM-61'0"
3L TRUSS-50' HUD PRERIG BOX TRUSS TRIM-61'0"
14
BAND
13
BAND
12
BAND
11
BAND
10
BAND
9
P
P
P
P
P
P
37
38
39
40
41
42
SCREEN 8
SCREEN
SCREEN
SCREEN 5
SCREEN 4
SCREEN 3
SCREEN 2
SCREEN
7
6
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
SCENIC/VENUE SOURCE:
1
ISSUE DATE:
4/21/16
SCALE: 1/4"=1'-0" Project:
DRAWING:
L2 STAGE LIGHT PLOT
CREDITS
PARTIAL GEAR LIST
Walmart Shareholders 2016 Meeting, Bud Walton Arena Executive Producer: David Kenyon/LEO Events Creative Director: Chris Simmons Technical Directors: Jim Dorroh and Steven Barrett Set Design: Star Kahn Lighting Design: Gregory Cohen, John Ingram/ UVLD Art Director: Aaron Black Programmer: Matt Webb Headliner Programmer: Matthew Piercy Production Electrician: Pete Campbell Assistant Electricians: Gerry Walls, Bill Moore, Ryan Breneisen, Elliot Harney, Josh Henderson
(supplied by Upstaging: Steve Wojda)
122
1 MA Lighting grandMA2 Console 1 PRG Mbox Studio Media Server 60 Clay Paky Mythos 48 Harman Martin Professional MAC III Performance 44 Harman Martin Professional MAC Viper Profile 47 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX 20 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot 16 Philips Vari-Lite VL3015 Spot 30 TMB Solaris Flare LED 32 ETC Source Four PAR BAR 18 Elation Professional Q7 LED PAR 6 8-Lights
UVLD Magic Sheet
MAGIC SHEET 438
447
439 MY
MYTHOS
440 MY
441
437
MY
442
M
MYTHOS
M
448
MY
443Y
MY
446Y
445Y
444
M
MYTHOS
MYTHOS
449
436
MYTHOS
MYTHOS
450
435
MYTHOS
MYTHOS
V
MY
VL3500 WFX
339
417
819
V
MY
VL3500 WFX
237
340
418
341
820
V
MY
VL3500 WFX
238
419
342
V
VL3500 WFX
334
420
821
335
343
MY
241
336
V
VL3500 WFX
421
344
822
V
VL3500 WFX
234
816
V
VL3500 WFX
240
V
VL3500 WFX
233
815
V
MY
VL3500 WFX
239
337
817
V
VL3500 WFX
422
345
V
VL3500 WFX
235
MY
242
MY
243
823
V
VL3500 WFX
423
346
9
42
338
818
V
9
Y
2
VL
35 00
33
FX
FX
00
1
V
23
V
22 7 35
VL3
8
MY 500 VL3 X WF
500 WF X
MY
4
MY VL3
31
500 WF X
500 VL3 X WF
0
8
MY
MY
40
5
VL3
500 WF X
31 1
80
2
500 VL3 X WF
MY
6
9
MY
40
VL3
31
500 WF X
500 VL3 X WF
3
V
21 1
00 35 FX VL W
MY
40
1
3
0
41
6 31
2
41
00
V
23
2
9
21 8
7
21 5
6
V
5
21
V
4
21 4
V
456
204
MY
314
VL3500 SP
170
35
FX
W
VL
2
30
30
5
00 35 FX VL W
00
SCREEN
STEP LEDS 860>868
48 P
2
70
70
5
454 MY
V
203
SCN
0 SP
154
VL350
0 SP
43
SCN
155
VL350
0 SP
P
VL350
0 SP
SCN
156
SCN
157
VL350
0 SP
VL350
0 SP
35 VL
SCN
158
SCN
0 SP
VL350
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
34 P
10 P
11 P
12 P
13 P
14 P
15 P
16 P
17 P
DSR
DSC
TSC
DSL
1P
2P
3P
4P
18 P
19 P
35 P
46
0 SP
VL350
0 SP
VL350
P
0 SP
VL350
0 SP
VL350
0 SP
VL350
0 SP
VL350
VL350
36 P
37 P
MSL XMSL
20 P
164
47 P
0 SP
VL350
0 SP
VL350
BANDBANDBANDBANDBANDBAND SCN SCN SCN SCN SCN SCN SCN SCN
USR 1 USR 2 USR 3
XMSR USR MSR USRC MSRC USC MSC USLC MSLC USL
163
162
168
167
0 SP
0 SP
SCN
161
160
166
165
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
SCN
159
VL350
SCN
W
4 3
SCN
153
VL350
70
0 SP
70
SCN
152
VL350
4
3
30
30
SCN
151
FX
00 35 FX VL W
00
201
44 P
FX
21
1 MY
35
W
3
3 21
VL3500 WFX
STEP LEDS 851>859
453
VL
33
21
MY
V
4
2
455
P
81
20
80
V
MY
45
6
80
V
V
V
452
SCREEN
4
9
31
3
41
8
31
80
V
1
V
70
70
VL3500 SP
5
31
9
40
V
21
2
169
MY
8
80
30
MY
500 VL3 X WF
MY
7
0
451
500 WF X
2
V
21 V
202
1 41
VL3
31
7
31
MY
40
V
20
23
V
6
00
40
V
20
35
9
7
14
FX
30
V
20
VL
3
6
VL3
W
20
MY
40
V
6
1
0 32
Y
00
41
1
32
5
41
500 VL3 X WF
500 WF X
30
30
80
FX
FX
VL
W
MY
2
35
W
8
MY
40
0
VL
33 MY
500 VL3 X WF
500 WF X
7
M
43
3
VL3
30
Y
81
6
1
5
M
43
35
W
1
W
VL
M
43
81
32
MY
40 V
20
Y
V
22
00
00 35 VL WFX
80
00
2
7
2
32
32
32
1 22
FX
0
8
3
3
35
W
M
43
VL
33
0
V
7
00 35 VL WFX
V
2 22
3
81 1
830
Y
2
32
22
MY
829
6 22
00 35 VL WFX
08
828
6 32
Y
M
80
4
MY
827
4
00 35 VL WFX
V
22
826
M
43
460
TBD BAND FLOOR UNITS
V
6
42
V
9
00 35 VL WFX
4
MY
825
5 22
7
42
81
5
32
459
22 8
00 35 VL WFX
V
458
MY
0
8
42
M
457
32 9
Y
M
Y
5 42
347
824
HOUSE LIGHTS 721>736 Y
M
Y
VL3500 WFX
424
VL3500 WFX
236
HOUSE LIGHTS 711>716
M
MY
244
38 P
39 P
40 P
41 P
42 P
109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
XMSR MSR USR MSRC USRC MSC USC MSLC USLC MSL
21 P
22 P
23 P
24 P
25 P
26 P
27 P
28 P
29 P
30 P
31 P
VL3015 SP
VL3015 SP
USL XMSL
32 P
TSC
DSR
TSC
DSC
DSL
5P
6P
7P
8P
9P
33 P
HOUSE LIGHTS 717>720
JULY 2016 \\\ 123
t i d e r c e g e l l o Earn c I D L @ F U : 6 1 0 at LDI2
Save money and time through LDI’s special partnership with the University of Florida! Qualified students* can earn transferrable undergraduate and graduate credits in just one or two days at LDI2016, for as little as $332 a class – including lunch! Choose from four professional-level courses. See full descriptions and register online at www.ldishow.com in the listings for LDInstitute™ and LDIntensives™.
L38_UF • ENTERTAINMENT RIGGING FUNDAMENTALS WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19-20, 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM TPA4930, 237B, $498, 3 undergraduate credits THE6950, 237H, $498, 1 graduate credit Cost includes lunches both days
L43_UF • HANDS-ON WORKSHOP FOR ENTERTAINMENT ELECTRICIANS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM TPA4930, 237A, $332, 2 undergraduate credits Cost includes lunch
L51_UF • TECHNICAL DIRECTORS BOOT CAMP WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM TPA4930, 237E, $332, 2 undergraduate credits Cost includes lunch
L52_UF • PIXEL & PROJECTION MAPPING SUMMIT WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19-20, 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
TPA4930, 237D, $498, 3 undergraduate credits THE6950, 237F, $498, 1 graduate credit Cost includes lunches both days
OCTOBER 17-23, 2016 LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER
LDInstitute™ + LDIntensives™: October 17-22 LDInnovation™ Conference: October 20-22 LDI2016 Club Tour: October 20 LDI: Live Outside: October 20-22 Exhibit Hall: October 21-23
*You must provide a valid student ID to be eligible for the UF@LDI pricing and credits.
LDISHOW.COM
TECH ///
WH AT ’S TRENDING
What’s Trending
ROBE BMFL /// BY KC WILKERSON
JULY 2016 \\\ 125
TECH ///
I
WH AT ’S TRENDING
first saw the Robe BMFL Spot several years ago at LDI. It was set apart from the main Robe booth at one end of the building, and the beam shone brightly down the entire length of the convention hall. At the time, we were considering replacing followspots in one of our venues, and the BMFL seemed a likely option. Fast-forward a couple years, and our guests are now enjoying Frozen—Live At The Hyperion with 16 Robe BMFL WashBeam fixtures integrated into Cast BlackTrax, functioning as followspots. We’re living in a fairly incredible time for enter126
tainment lighting technology, with a bewildering array of fixtures from which to choose. The creative tools we have at our disposal are truly incredible, with more gear being added to the arsenal every year. That said, gear is usually one of the last decisions I make regarding a show. We go through a fairly extensive process of creative gestation, exploring the look and feel of a new show, how all of the effects will be integrated into a visually cohesive whole, and what the various colors and textures will be. As part of the process, we look at quite a bit of technology. These days, we see a lot of LEDs because they’ve dominated most of the offerings recently, but several manufacturers have released notable high-output, multi-functional discharge fixtures. Robe has done exactly that with the BMFL family. I’ve spent some time with these fixtures recently (Spot, Blade, and WashBeam). All three units
use the Osram Lok-It !® HTI 1700/PS lamp, feature wide aperture lenses for a fat beam, and are distinguished by a beautifully flat field of light. The BMFL Spot has all the normal features you might expect to see on a moving head: CMY color mixing, iris, frost, CTO, and a good zoom range (5º to 55º). It has a second color wheel that holds some very TV camera-friendly options that are also replaceable. I love that designers have the option of picking specific dichroics for the second color wheel. The two rotating gobo wheels have a solid combination of gobos suitable for aerials and projected images. My favorite feature, however, is the dual graphics wheels. These two wheels, in concert with the two rotating gobo wheels, allow you to create beautiful, subtle textures. Of course, you can rotate the gobos or the graphics wheels (or both), which imparts a surreal quality to the images. Dropping
Robe BMFL
in either of the prisms (circular or linear) amps the effect up even more without killing the output of the fixture. At one demo, one of my collaborators saw the output of this fixture and asked, “What video content is this?” I thought that comment was a testament to the graphics capability of this unit. The BMFL Blade adds four shutters to the feature set of the BMFL Spot. These shutters are set in a fully rotating frame and operate smoothly. One of the things I like about this unit is that each pair of opposing shutters is capable of closing to a complete
blackout. The shutters are especially helpful in shows with projection, where we’re masking scenery and carving out areas of light while trying to stay off of video surfaces. Because of the shutters, however, there is a tradeoff, resulting in a single graphics wheel and only one rotating gobo wheel and one static gobo wheel. Finally, there is the BMFL WashBeam. There’s a great deal of competition in this space, currently, with fixtures getting increasingly brighter and more powerful. The BMFL WashBeam’s intense output speaks to the power of great optics, but it’s combined with a good gobo selection, plus a graphics wheel and shutters. These features offer me a veritable buffet of options to create incredible looks. The large front lens allows for fat beam effects that cut right through video, which is more and more helpful these days. Is it a wash? A spot? A beam? The answer is “Why, yes.
Yes, it is.” After spending several days with these units, I walked away considerably impressed. Using all three in combination with each other allowed me to create an expansive variety of looks and effects, aerially and projected on surfaces. As we were looking through all the options, I realized just how lucky we are to have so many options from our industry’s best manufacturers, and these particular fixtures are great additions to the toolbox. KC Wilkerson is a senior lighting designer for Disney Parks & Resorts Creative Entertainment. Recent projects include Disneyland Forever, Diamond Mad T Party, Fantasmic!, and Mickey And The Magical Map. His work for local theatres has earned him two LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, an LA Stage Alliance Ovation Honors Award, two Backstage Garland Awards, and four StageSceneLA Awards. JULY 2016 \\\ 127
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Boxed BEYONCÉ’S FORMATION WORLD TOUR
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eyoncé has embarked on her much anticipated Formation World Tour, featuring production design by Es Devlin and lighting design by Tim Routledge. “The Formation box is on a stadium scale, more like a giant 3D billboard, a huge LED armor within which Beyoncé is revealed as an all-too-human scaled, real-life figure,” says Devlin. “The tour is conceived along the same linear chapter lines as Beyoncé’s extraordinary film Lemonade. With each rotation, a new chapter of the sequence proceeds.” Beyoncé’s Formation World Tour
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For the Formation World Tour, the predominant set piece is a 70’ revolving box comprising video screen walls, an idea that started with last year’s festival performances. Devlin says that she “was struck” during those festival performances at how compelling Beyoncé is as a performer. “It can be hard to take your eyes off the side I-mag screens and pay attention to the exquisite detail and craft of the choreography,” she says. “So I wanted to encourage as much as possible of the live footage onto the central scenery itself so that the audience focus could center on the performance.”
“The scale of the revolving box, the ‘Monolith’ as it came to be known, was born of us wanting this to be the tallest object in the stadium, a piece of kinetic stadium architecture the equivalent of a seven-story, revolving LED building,” says Devlin. The Monolith screens are WinVision from PRG Nocturne, 9mm on the larger sides, with 18mm on the narrower sides. The media servers are all from d3 Technologies, and the projectors are Barco HDQ-2K40s.
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Devlin worked with Dirk De Decker and the team at Stageco to bring the stage to life. “Tom Frederickx is the engineer who was central to bringing the idea of a giant revolving sculpture to life and worked closely with Tait and with all other departments throughout the process,” says Devlin. “It was very much a case of Stageco building a revolving/sliding skeleton and Tait and PRG coating it with staging and video skin.” Devlin’s associate for the tour is Jason Ardizzone-West. Malcolm Weldon and Jake Berry are the production managers for the tour.
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Much of the inspiration for the design, including a B-stage pool, came from Beyoncé’s recently released visual film/album Lemonade, the centerpiece of which is “Forward,” adds Devlin, “a turning point in tone from anger to forgiveness. The pool of water is the antithesis to the fire-spitting Monolith; the most joyful, redemptive sequence of the show takes place here, from ‘Freedom’ through to ‘Halo.’”
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Routledge says of the lighting, “The overriding direction was that this was not a light show or a normal concert design. This was a pure art show with I-mag on the Monolith forming the major part of the content. Camera was king. This show is all about balance of Beyoncé’s image on the screen. It’s not always about the big lighting effects. We stripped back a lot.”
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The Monolith and Beyhive audience pit areas limited available lighting positions. “Available for a floor package was a slice down the side of the stage, but optimal positions were not available due to the Beyhives,” says Routledge. “This meant only three downstage lights for cross light, and that was a bit of a battle to get them there!” The tour’s lighting director is Jon Rouse.
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Space inside the Monolith is at as much a premium as outside. “With various flying gags, the apertures, such as the pole dance gag and all the machinery to drive it, as well as the video drive racks, space is at a premium,” says Routledge. “The four Kinesys trusses just about fit. We also added three vertical runs of movers on soft ladders to cross-light any action in there. Many options of performance inside the Monolith were workshopped, but sightlines for the majority of the audience to see inside are just not great enough to justify too much happening inside, and the strength of a solid, bold Monolith became more and more striking.”
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Routledge’s lighting rig includes a strobe horizon on a curved structure with 602 SGM Q-7 strobes. “The horizon gave me a position, but the distance to center stage is 25m from top of horizon to Beyoncé, so a large fixture was needed. I also had the huge problem of whenever you wanted backlight, the Monolith was always in the way,” he explains. “So I added two runs of lights. On top of the horizon are Clay Paky Mythos units as my spot and beam fixtures, and hanging underneath are a long row of Robe BMFLs as my wash fixtures. They are spots, but at the distance I am throwing and to still keep a not-too-wide beam, the spot is a better choice to fill the stage with color. This double row of fixtures gives me a wide curtain of light that can be seen in different ways, depending on which way the Monolith rotates or opens.”
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Routledge also created short 5’ pre-rig trusses that hang underneath each other “like a big train,” he says. “It looks neat, and loaded with Robe BMFLs and Harman Martin Professional MAC Viper AirFX units, it gives me the ability to actually light people on stage.” Eight Robe BMFLs on each side of the stage on the floor, he says, are the real workhorses of the show, and eight SGM G-Spots light the B-stage. Neg Earth supplied the lighting.
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The Monolith also created complications for followspot positions, so Routledge put PRG GroundControl Followspots inside the monolith and two on the side PA towers—“my only way to get any true backlight,” he says. “The side ones are used a lot, as they are the only ones that I can use all the time. We do a lot of strobing and colored spots with them for a number of camera effects. We had six other 4k Robert Juliat Lancelots for front light: four out front and two in the audience for B-stage reverses.”
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Stageco engineered and built the central revolving set piece, working with Tait Towers, which built the custom stage, including a treadmill runway, a B-stage pool filled with water, a stage lift, winches carrying acrobatic performers, and the structure that supports the PRG Nocturne 70’ video screens. Devlin notes that she met with Tait’s Adam Davis in New York at the Mandarin Oriental, “with a pair of cuboid salt and pepper pots, and it all seemed suddenly achievable. It was an incredibly expedited process. I put together the design ideas at home on Christmas Day, while my family was eating dinner downstairs! And by April 27, the show was open.”
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McLaren Engineering Group produced the engineering analysis and served as engineer-of-record for all of Tait’s scope (structural and mechanical engineering, but not electrical/controls). Theta Consulting provided engineering for Stageco as their US engineer-of-record.
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Much of the content is treated live footage, while creative directors Ed Burke and Todd Tourso collaborated with Luke Halls and Smasher Desmedt on the treatment of the live footage, both of whom worked with Devlin on the recent U2 tour. Film footage was directed by Burke and Tourso, with Dikayl Rimmasch and Jonathan Lia, also working with Beyoncé’s creative producer Erinn Williams. “The stunningly beautiful interstitial films were commissioned by Ed and Todd, directed by Dikayl Rimmasch, and produced by Jonathan Lia,” says Devlin, adding that Beyoncé ultimately maintains creative control of every last detail of the content as well as every other aspect of the tour.
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Lighting Plot View 1
Lighting Plot View 2
COURTESY OF TRIBE, INC.
Tait Towers Drawing
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Devlin works in many media, she says, making “models and collages, as well as [Adobe] Photoshop and [Maxon] Cinema 4D renderings. We did one animation of the Monolith revolving in realtime, four minutes per 360°. In the animation, it seemed terrifyingly slow, but in reality, it felt appropriate to a piece of this scale.”
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Stageco Drawing 3
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Stageco Drawing 2
Stageco Drawing 1
LIVE DESIGN ///
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save the dates!
october 17-23, 2016 • exhibits: october 21-23, 2016 • las vegas