November 2015
entertainment, presentation, installation
www.lsionline.co.uk
David Gilmour Live at the RAH Also Inside:
PLASA Show Review SiPA: A 10 Year Plan The story from Excel . . .
Sustainability goals for us all
Production Park
Platinum FLX
Many things to many people
Elation Pro’s new fixture reviewed
PLUS: Order from ArKaos • Review: DPA’s d:fine headset mics • BEIRG Campaign Update Jody Chiang’s Farewell • Rigging Call: PLASA Rigging Conference • LD Terry Cook in Profile
LSi: 1985-2015 - 30 Years as the Industry’s favourite magazine!
inprofile
Sarah Rushton-Read talks to lighting designer Terry Cook . . .
“Five years ago, I would never have described myself as a lighting designer, but by the nature of my development with WBD I’ve become one . . .”
Lighting designer Terry Cook says he is the most “un-designer-ish” lighting designer that you could care to meet. He is of course wrong. Cheerfully affable, he’s that rare kind of individual who makes you feel he’s been your friend for years, even at first meeting: surely the perfect disposition to have as an upcoming international lighting designer? A recent winner of a Knight Of Illumination Award for his work on Secret Cinema’s immersive Star Wars experience, Terry Cook is part of the much-revered creative collective that forms entertainment and architectural lighting design practice Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD).
www.lsionline.co.uk
Delighted to be working for a company best known for concert touring with bands such as The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and a host of others, Cook points out that they also design for theatre, special events, dance, one-offs and largescale events such as the 2012 London Olympics. In addition, the company consults on a range of global architectural projects for a number of high profile brands. But where did it all start? Life in entertainment for Cook began as a child actor: “I was in several TV shows but my agent died unexpectedly and I just lost my confidence,” he confesses. “My agent’s wife staged a memorial show and I helped out backstage. I loved it and promptly volunteered for work experience at my local
98 LSi - November 2015
theatre - Millfield Theatre, North London. This inspired me to develop my skills further and I won a scholarship to attend Mountview Theatre School.” Post-Mountview and keen to be working Cook and a couple of friends set up what he describes as a ‘garage lighting company.’ “We called it Lights Up Ltd and it was extremely successful - for about five weeks!” Following that, the aspiring LD embarked on what he describes as his first ‘proper’ job, at the Millennium Dome: “This is where I met Mark Fisher, Paul Cockle, Patrick Woodroffe and Adam Bassett. One of my first tasks was to use a spirit level on every single moving light on the main show to ensure they were hung dead straight. Adam reportedly said that Patrick wanted each fixture hung dead straight, so should any fixture require swapping out, the replacement would always be in the same position. We spent a week abseiling, climbing, using the cherry picker and ladders to spirit level each fixture in the rig there were hundreds, many hung in difficult to access spaces. To this day, Adam says they never asked for that and that someone must have made it up as a joke. Let’s just say I had used Adam’s name a lot during that little project!” After the Dome, Cook went on tour as sound designer with Watershed’s productions for The Borrowers. “When the tour finished I returned to Millfield Theatre where Bonnie Lythgoe - wife of ‘nasty’ Nigel from Pop Stars and Pop Idol was directing a show. I was crew chief and tech for Adam [Bassett]; in that time we became firm friends and we continued to work together on corporate gigs and then on the annual Italia Conti summer show.” Time went by and in 2006, a show Cook was touring with closed early. For the first time in seven years he found himself with no work. “A friend told me of a circus tour going to Japan that was in need of a production manager. I called the company
director, Paul Cockle, and he asked me if I knew how to do a Carnet. I said ‘yes’, but to be honest I had no idea. Fortunately, my cousin worked in the Carnet office and gave me a crash course, so, when I went to the interview, I blew Paul’s mind with my in-depth knowledge the job was mine!” Soon after, Cockle was producing Aqua - a 650-performer outdoor water spectacular in Shenzhen, China: “Mark Fisher was the designer, Jeremy Lloyd was associate/engineer and Durham Marenghi was LD. I was asked to come on board and the rest, as they say, is history.” Cook says: “It was a bonkers show. When we first ran the 4.5m high wave effect, we managed to rip the tiles off the bottom of the swimming pool and flood the local town at the bottom of the hill! The client - the Chinese government would regularly request things such as alligators in the pool and we’d try to explain that this could be dangerous given that there were 40 divers under the water at any one time.” After China, Cook worked alongside Bassett on the 2009 Doha Tribeca Film Festival. “A year later and the event had grown beyond recognition. We went from a lighting rig of a few hundred moving lights to one with a few thousand and from three or four temporary venues in existing buildings to 13 custom-built 1501,200 seat cinemas. One cinema spectacularly floated in the sea!” In 2011 Cook finally joined Adam Bassett Design to work full-time on theatre shows, corporate jobs, live events and help support Patrick Woodroffe’s growing portfolio of projects. “In 2011, Patrick and Adam won the London 2012 opening and closing ceremonies. I was given the enviable task of calling 36 spots, plus overseeing the David Beckham flamedelivering sequence down the Thames. I could regularly be seen at 2am racing down the Thames in a speed boat to test how robust a lighting fixture was.”
London 2012 was also the launch pad for the inception of Woodroffe Bassett Design. “At the time it was an entity of five people, now six since John Coman joined us in March 2015.” For Cook, this opportunity to learn from the best is a privilege: “For me it’s about team effort: we produce good work but we also value our friendships with one another. Patrick and Adam are the most amazing people to learn from and the projects we do always stretch us technically and creatively - it’s inspiring.” Indeed, Cook’s personal approach to design is drawn from his experience as a technical realiser and supporter to other LDs. “My skill is in identifying and specifying the most appropriate equipment for the job and ensuring that the rig is as versatile as possible. Five years ago, I would never have described myself as a lighting designer, but by the nature of my development with WBD I’ve become one. I’m keen to do more concert touring; it’s an area I’ve worked hard on over the last year. 70% of my day-to-day life at WBD is taking a concept from Patrick and Adam and delivering that technically on shows like AC/DC, Black Sabbath and The Rolling Stones, all of which are going on the road in the New Year. “As a company I would like to see us cultivate the studio side of our work and deliver an even greater standard of back-end support to our projects. I would like to lead on more designs, but I’m sure in 2016 I’ll have that opportunity.” 2015 has been an incredible year for Cook. “I started it in Las Vegas doing Showstoppers and I’ll end it in Japan lighting a Japanese Pop act. In the middle of the year I lit Secret Cinema’s Star Wars, for which I won a KOI Award - and, best of all, I got married in August. For me coming to the end of a brilliant 2015, 2016 is looking pretty good!”