Pyro Pioneer is More than a Flash in the Pan
Along with the opening of its new production facility in rural Missouri, its first manufacturing hub outside of the U.K., Le Maitre is celebrating a milestone this year — the 40th year since its humble beginnings in 1977.
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If you were to become lucky enough to get to work for Elation at their Los Angeles world headquarters, during a tour of the facility you’d dig the deep freezer, the full shower and the steam room on the premises. Then you’d likely get disappointed when you are told that they ain’t for you — those perks are for the Elation products.
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While stage lighting advances occur yearly, the art of lighting the audience is often overlooked. In today’s new arena and theater installations, the buildings are making it easier for touring LDs to control the house lights. The first series of audience blinders to become popular were the Mole Feys. Mole Richardson manufactured these various sized fixtures around the amount of DWE par 36 wide bulbs that the user wanted. They were soon used on tours so touring acts could see their audience on cue. AC/DC incorporated over 100 of these on their last tour. Almost any bright light illuminating the audience from stage is now just called a “blinder.” Here’s a look at a bunch of fixtures lighting audiences these days.
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The LD on Moving from a Touring Show to TV
So, you’re directing the lights on a tour and somewhere along the way, management decides to document the show on DVD, or perhaps shoot it as a TV special. At this point, a lighting designer specializing in capturing shows on camera may be brought in to help. A fixer, so to speak. Lighting designer Allen Branton has made the “Tour to TV transition” his specialty for the past 40 years. If you don’t know him personally, you know his work visually.
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We’re looking at the backs of two heads in a moving car, as a boy known as Little rides with a man he just met. The man, played with understated finesse by Mahershala Ali (who won an Oscar for the role), turns his head repeatedly to the silent boy beside him, but Little (Alex R. Hibbert) stoically refuses to speak. We are struck by the distance between them—the gap made even more pronounced by the extended width of the screen.
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Scott Barnes, a lighting console programmer for motion pictures, recently took some time out of his busy production schedule to speak with PLSN about how he got started in the industry and some milestones of his career. So far, that career has included working on many of today’s biggest blockbuster films. In all, Barnes has been building a massive resume of work on more than 50 films. He has worked extensively on the Marvel franchise, starting with Iron Man and continuing through the currently filming of Avengers: Infinity Wars, Parts I and II.
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Provides Peace of Mind Amid High-Amp Video World for Live Broadcast Music Awards Shows
Whether it’s The Country Music Awards (CMAs), iHeartRadio Music Awards, The American Music Awards (AMAs) or countless others, the trick is to grab the audience’s attention and keep it, with dynamic and creative visuals to go with the tunes. That’s a big challenge, and although there may be rehearsals in preparation, just imagine the added pressure when it goes LIVE and there are no second chances.
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Rosco’s Backdrop Technology Boosts the TV and Film Industry
The Tonight Show on NBC has long been noted for the cityscape backdrops over the years. Carson had the Hollywood hills behind him. Leno had the downtown L.A. high-rise look. Now Fallon has the NYC cityscape as his background. Each new set brought a sharper, clearer backdrop of the city they were shooting in.
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Notch is fresh. Notch is exciting. I would go so far as to say that Notch is the future of media server playback/creation. Here are a few reasons why.
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Cameras are like drugs for me. I liken getting into cameras kind of like getting into skiing. You start out with a cruddy rental of some ho-hum gear, slide down and get the general hang of it, and then you need to upgrade. And it’s not cheap. Because that thrill — that thrill costs money. I bought my first decent camera because I was tired of taking awful pictures. Now I need to rein myself in every time I go near a camera store. It’s almost worse in my professional life due to the fact that cheap gear ain’t pro, and pro gear ain’t cheap.
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I cut my teeth in lighting from early on, but eventually found myself working for a video production company, finding the gear far cooler — and far more complex. Back in those days, lights were lights, projectors were projectors, and never the twain met. But there were some emerging technologies and we always dreamed about marrying them, or at least producing a weird hybrid-freak-son-daughter.
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Some fixtures do their best to defy categorization. In recent years, we’ve seen manufacturers release lights that attempt to fit characteristics of several types fixtures into a single unit, generally combining key aspects into a fixture released under the banner of “hybrid.” Today we look at an Ayrton fixture that combines elements of high-resolution video panels and narrow-beam LED matrices into a single fixture.
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