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The Blenders

Justin Lang with new BCFF (best computer friend forever)

Losing a Computer the Easy Way

It is a sad, sad day for me.  Earlier this week, I lost a dear friend of mine.  For that past six years, Mielziner has been one of my closest and most trusted friends.  No matter how I felt or what is going on in my life, I could share my stories, photos and so much more with him and he would not think any less of me. He was always there, ready to help me out.

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Imagined as a “Grammy Half Time Show,” the 2:36 minute Pepsi commercial focused on Deion Sanders, Terry Bradshaw, Shannon Sharpe and Mike Ditka as they brought out inner R&B/country star/rapper/pop idol personas.

The Making of Pepsi’s Grammy ‘Halftime Show’

Pepsi scored a hit among TV viewers and on social networks this year with its Grammy Halftime Show commercial, which aired Jan. 26 for a full 2-minute, 36-seconds halfway through the Grammy Awards telecast on CBS. Despite the spot’s length, it was crammed with a mash-up from the worlds of sports and entertainment. The production company, Holmes Defender of the Faith, with McG as director, worked with Ramsey Nickell, director of photography and LD Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting, which provided lighting, video and staging for the spot.

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'Beautiful' on Broadway. Photo by Joan Marcus

Creating a ‘Beautiful’ World

The lively musical Beautiful captures the musical essence of Carole King while chronicling the life events and artistic evolution that led up to her landmark solo album, Tapestry. “She’s an amazing songwriter,” declares the show’s scenic designer Derek McLane. “Most of us are familiar with Tapestry and with the stuff that she wrote for other people, but we don’t associate [all of] it with her and don’t necessarily know that she wrote it. What surprised me when I first read it was that she wrote ‘The Loco-Motion.’”

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Super Bowl halftime show with Bruno Mars. Photo by Brad Duns

One Cool Show

A look at the lighting, video and pyro for The Pepsi Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show

This year’s Super Bowl was held in MetLife Stadium, located in East Rutherford, NJ. It was the first — and many on the crew hope the last — cold weather Super Bowl in a stadium without a roof. To pull off the potentially cold and snowy Pepsi Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show with Bruno Mars and his band along with special guest, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, it took a lot of pre-planning. Known for high tech lighting and video, the show’s core technology is not exactly comprised of gear that loves cold temperatures, much less Arctic conditions.

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Beyonce tour photo by Steve Jennings

Beyoncé: The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour

The Visual Team Keeps Pace with Beyonce’s Creative Output

As the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé Knowles had already enjoyed considerable success before launching a solo album, Dangerously in Love, more than a decade ago (while Destiny’s Child was in hiatus, in in 2003). By the time Destiny’s Child disbanded, in 2006, the trio sold 60 million albums worldwide. Combining her solo and collaborative efforts, Beyoncé, now 32 years old, has 46 Grammy nominations to her credit and 17 wins.

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Florida-Georgia Line tour photo by Justin Mrusek

Florida Georgia Line

Lighting Director Scott Cunningham Helps ‘The Line” Shine

Country music’s Florida Georgia Line, comprised of Floridian Brian Kelley and Georgian Tyler Hubbard, are hotter than a $10 pistol. Their sextuple-platinum song “Cruise” broke the record for longest Number One on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart, scoring more than 6.3 million downloads in the U.S. alone. It is the second-highest-selling country single ever. Entertainment Weekly magazine called “Cruise (Remix) featuring Nelly” the eighth-best single of 2013. Their first three singles hit Number One for several weeks each, an accomplishment equaled only by Brooks & Dunn. Their debut album, Here’s to the Good Times, earned the highest album sales of 2012 for a new country act.

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