Production Futures: Tom Bexon

TOM BEXON

Since graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, this 24 year old has made great strides into the world of professional lighting having been part of Jack Whites’ latest European tour.

Like many of his peers, Tom Bexon’s career origins can be traced back to senior school working on plays and live performances. “During that time I threw myself into lighting, volunteering at local battle of the bands type events,” reminisced Bexon. “While I was still as school it moved from a hobby to something more serious as I began working for a local company – AV Matrix – on a casual basis on corporate events to weddings.”

It was at this moment when Bexon realised that lighting could be more than a glorified hobby. This dream in mind, he signed himself up to a BA in Production Lighting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. “I opted for the production BA rather than a design focused course as I have always been interested in the technical aspects and the fine details of how everything fits together,” explained Bexon. He also asserted how the course set him up to have a “quicker transition” into the industry then a more design-weighted course. He explained, “As I was going down the production route, there was a lot of opportunities available. Even while I was studying I did a lot freelance work for the likes of Blinding Light and DCLX working on various corporate shows as a Lighting Tech.” In fact, due to his work with Blinding Light, immediately after graduation he began working full time for the company.

“I think the biggest shock when I graduated was how much I still had to learn,” laughed Bexon, while looking back at his first few years in the industry. “Not only that, one of my greatest discovery was just how important relationships are in this world. There were so many people I met in those first years who were so helpful and willing to share their knowledge.”

The burgeoning lighting specialist was certainly thrown in the deep end during his first year with Blinding Light, working in the world of eSports. “My first gig was in a League of Legends event in Rotterdam. This event was so big and was a real learning experience. To give you and idea of scale, a similar event we would after had close to 1000 fixture in the roof – it certainly was a hell of a load-out.”

With a vast knowledge being garnered at Blinding Light, Bexon made the leap at the start of 2018 to go freelance and peruse his dream of going on tour. “One of my first moves was to have Dom Main from Blinding Lighting introduce me to Neg Earth Lighting. Neg put me on a tester gig – WE Day (a charitable event for young people) at Wembley - which went really well. For the rest of the year he started to put more work my way.” One such shows was a one off gig with non other than Jack White in Islington. “It was just a small show but I got on really well with the crew. Down the line Neg asked if I fancied joining the crew on tour.” A question that TPi is sure required little-to-no thought.

What followed was two, one month European runs. “Life on the road has been a slightly bigger transition then expected,” admitted Bexon. “The level of planning and preparation is unreal although, it makes complete sense as there is little time to tweak things on the road. Also the day schedule is much more extreme then in the corporate world. That said, my time with Blinding Light certainly gave me a good bar to aim at in terms of prepping a show. Thankful the Jack White crew were amazing and certainly showed me the way.”

His time with White also gave Bexon the inspiration to pursue a new career path. “Operating, for the longest time, has always just been a fantasy. But while on the tour I was given the opportunity to operate for the supporting band, Demob Happy. Jack’s incredible LD, Michelle Sarrat, gave me so many tips and pointers when it came to programming and working the MA Lighting grandMA2. It’s certainly something I am looking forward to exploring in the future.”

With 2018 done and dusted, the young lighting specials reflected on the year. “It’s been very busy but that’s exactly what I wanted for my first freelance year. I’m sure I’ll have to figure out a work life balance at one point but for now I exited to keep working.” TPi www.productionfutures.co.uk

96