Production Futures: Hog Factor

HOG FACTOR 2018

With the exciting news that the UK round of the Hog Factor will be hosted at this year’s Production Futures, TPi speaks to High End Systems’ Regional Sales Manager for Central USA and Canada, Paul Hancock, about the history of the event.

Officially launching in 2015, the Hog Factor has become an internationally renowned competition being held in conjunction with major trade shows across the globe. The goal; to bring a selection of promising lighting students to showcase their talents, competing against one another to program a lighting show that demonstrates mastery of show design under pressure. Since its creation, the Hog Factor has gone from strength to strength. With the UK iteration of the competition being held at a selection of tradeshow over the years, 2018 marks the event making a new home at TPi’s own Production Futures.

“The objective of the Hog Factor is simple and has remained the same over the last 3 years,” stated Paul Hancock, High End System’s Regional Sales Manager for Central USA and Canada. “To cultivate the next generation of Hog users.” Having been involved since the beginning of the event, the idea to make the Hog Factor a global event came from the UK. “The first competition was run at trade show in 2014 and the reaction was overwhelming,” stated Hancock. “It sparked several discussions for us to adapt the competition for the US and LDI 2015.”

For the uninitiated, the competition has 2 phases. The first is open to all university students who can register a team for up to 3 people along with a sponsoring professor. “Each team is then provided with a special demo of Light Converse with a pre-designed lighting rig in the visualiser,” explained Hancock. “The teams pick from 1 of 3 pieces of pre-selected music, for which they will collectively choreograph and program the lights.” From there, the teams submit their work for the internal judges at High End Systems and ETC to pick the top 3 submissions, who are then brought along to one of the regional competitions. For Americans it’s LDI and this year for UK participants the competition ground will be Production Futures. “The UK leg joining forces with Production Futures means ETC/ HES are successfully growing the competition,” explained Hancock. “More importantly, it is giving more students the opportunity to learn an industry-leading lighting console in a fun and unique way.” He went on to explain during the first year of running the Hog Factor Competition at LDI, all students reported it was their first experience using Hog 4 Software - and they all taught themselves with the Hog 4PC version of the console. “This speaks volumes on how easy it is to learn and run a Hog 4,” enthused Hancock. “It also means that the students’ work will get more recognition - by getting in front of the face of the industry. We’ve already seen how the contest has helped launch some careers!”

Along with the title, each winning team member of the UK round of the Hog Factor will receive a High End Systems Hoglet 4 - the compact wing, designed for tight spaces and small productions such as clubs, churches and small concert venues.

“At the end of the day, this competition is about giving students the opportunity to learn a lighting console they may not have been exposed to,” concluded Hancock. “I would like to see the incentive expand in a way that put more Hogs in the hands of students and their institutions. Personally, I would be thrilled to see the competition grow into a World Hog Factor Finals, but I think we still have a way to go before that point!”

There is still time for those keen to enter the 2018 event. You must be a student enrolled at a college of university level institution and can be applied via www.highend.com/hogfactor. TPi www.productionfutures.co.uk

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We take a look back at some of the previous UK winners.

2015 – UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH WALES

USW DRAGONS Team Members: David Howard and Sam Clay

This was the second time the University had entered a team to the Hog Factor. For 2015 the USW Dragons consisted of David Howard and Sam Clay. “Both Sam and I thought the Hog Factor was a great opportunity and a great way to learn a new lighting control package while being in with a shot of winning a desk!” stated Howard. He continued: “Looking back now 3 years on, I’d say the Hog Factor was the main thing that pushed me to learn how to program properly. Before, I used to design on manual desks, which was fine for the work I was doing at the time, but the training that came with Hog Factor from Colin Wood was one of the main factors that helped me learn how to program and program well.”

Having both graduated now, Howard has gone on to become a main stage lighting designer for 2 major UK festivals. Meanwhile, Clay has moved into the world of high end lighting integration working with London-based Ideaworks.

2016 – ROYAL CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA

THE CENTRALS Team Members: Zoe Burnham and Kostis Mousikos

Following some encouragement from their course leader, Nick Moran, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s students Zoe Burnham and Kostis Mousikos joined forces for the 2016 iteration of the Hog Factor. Designing looks for Royal Blood’s Figure and Ingrid Michaelson’s Warpath, the duo found themselves in the UK final and left victorious. “We spent 2 days programming in a bedroom,” reminisced Burnham. “We listened to the songs so many times during that time. Personally I learnt a lot about lighting for music and how, when there are no humans to light, you have to rely on movement in the fixtures.”

Since graduating, Mousikos went on to produce lighting for theatre in Killing Time at Park Theatre in the UK and in Dominion at Theatro 104 in Greece. Burnham has also pursued a life in theatre lighting having worked on a variety of West End shows and is currently in-house at the Young Vic.

2017 – LIPA

RAINBOW CHASERS Team Members: Will Peters and Alex Gardner

After hearing about the competition from their Lecturer, Sofia Alexiadoux, roommates Will Peters and Alex Gardner put themselves forward for the 2017 event. “We had worked on many shows together prior to the Hog Factor with Alex programming and myself designing,” stated Peters.

“I remember standing at the desk being so nervous,” admitted Gardner. “I’m used to being behind the scenes and it was quite scary when you are busking live in front of a substantial audience.” Despite the challenge Gardner stated how the Hog Factor gave him a chance to really get a feel for the Hog 4. “So much so I recently used it on once of my end of year assessments,” he commented.

Following the UK round, the Rainbow Chasers went on to claim second place at the European final.

Having graduated, both Peters and Gardner have already gone on to make strong moves in their careers. With the success of England in the FIFA World Cup, Peters had his hands full tour managing The Lightning Seeds. “I’ve also been working on several other projects for Seven and Footasylum for the Nike Air Max Day,” stated Peters. “This was the first time outside of LIPA I got to use our HedgeHog we won during the contest!” Since graduating Peters has also been taken on full time by Hawthorn as a Video Technician. Meanwhile Gardner has been working on numerous productions, most recently being employed for the Royal Court Liverpool’s Summer Season as Lead Programmer.

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