The Simple Church Easter
Ice Chips Show of Champions 2014
Lighting Co
East Coast Lighting & Production Services
Venue
Agganis Arena, Boston University
Boston, MA
Looking Back and Moving Forward
How long have you been reading these pages of PLSN? A year, five years? Maybe 10? Maybe you are one of our original subscribers who have been enjoying the latest in industry news, production profiles, editorial and industry insights for the past 15 years. That is right, PLSN Magazine is five months into its 15th year in the business! This month I want to share a little bit of history of how PLSN Magazine grew to become the largest magazine for our industry, not just in print, but online and via your mobile device as well.
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From the Cinema to the Stage: “Bullets Over Broadway”
Translating a film into a musical presents numerous challenges, and it certainly helps when you are the scenic designer who also did the production design on the original movie. Santo Loquasto has worked with Woody Allen on 27 films so far — the 28th goes into production this summer — and when the iconic director’s 1994 comedy Bullets Over Broadway was recently brought to the Great White Way, it made perfect sense for Loquasto to come aboard to help transform the 90-minute film into a two-and-a-half hour musical. In distinguishing them, Loquasto states that, visually, the two productions are different, and that he did not set out to recreate the look of the film so much as the spirit of it. And his approach paid off: he was nominated for a Tony Award for his work on the show.
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Billy Joel 2014 Tour
After Four Decades, it’s ‘A Matter of Trust” between Artist and Director Steve Cohen
There was energy. There was dancing. There was an electrifying performance. And that’s just the FOH platform. Steve Cohen appropriately feels he’s part of the Billy Joel band – after all, this is his 40th year with the American pop icon. The Parnelli Award-winning video and lighting designer/show director is back in the arenas with Joel (the stop in St. Louis was the 20th Anniversary of the last time he was here, playing what is now called the Scottrade Center). Fueled by diet A&W root beer and an obvious deep love of the music, Cohen was a blur of movement as he kept the lighting and video in sync with the music.
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Matt Shimamoto
Volt Lites LD/Programmer Energized by Fresh Looks
On behalf of PLSN, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with LD and programmer Matt Shimamoto while he was working on the ACM Fan Jam. This was no easy task to schedule. He has been working seemingly non-stop ever since I first met him during tapings for Q’Viva, the TV reality series that culminated in a live stage show in Las Vegas in 2012.
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Coachella 2014
The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival kicked off its 15th season in Indio, CA over two weekends in mid April. More than 180 acts along with surprise guests and artists performed on six stages each weekend. Headliners included OutKast, Zedd, Muse, Arcade Fire, Skrillex and Pharrell Williams, among others. graced the various stages throughout the entire festival run. Here’s a comprehensive listing of the crew and gear supporting the lighting, pyro and laser effects at the various stages, along with the staging itself, at Coachella 2014, working with Kevan Wilkins, festival production manager.
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Demi Lovato “Neon Lights” Tour
Demi Lovato’s “Neon Lights” tour, named after the single on last year’s album release, Demi, is the artist’s third headlining concert tour, and the most elaborate yet. High-tech touches include an app from Wham City Lights that links handheld smartphones with the overall lighting design, pulsing to the beat of the tour’s title song. A tightly woven interplay of high-res video, faux low-res “neon” elements, lighting and special effects adds up to an enormous number of cues per song, and timecode helps keep everything in synch. Yet despite all the visual flourishes, reviewers have praised the production for not overshadowing the main attraction: a remarkable, multi-faceted talent who’s still just 21 years old.
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