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Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein

Transylvania Meets Broadway

Look out Dorothy! Kansas is out — Transylvania is decidedly in! The team that created the mega-extravaganza The Producers is at it again, this time with the musical version of the 1974 Mel Brooks Academy Award-nominated hit film comedy Young Frankenstein.

When New York brain surgeon and professor Frederick Frankenstein inherits a castle in Transylvania from his grandfather, deranged genius Victor Von Frankenstein, he goes to Transylvania and carries on with his grandfather’s mad experiments in reanimating the dead. In the process, he falls in love with his sexy lab assistant, Inga. 

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The Five Lighting Metrics

“As the circle of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness around it.” — Albert Einstein

I was fortunate enough to start in the lighting business when my own personal circumference of darkness was oh so small. I didn’t even know enough to know how little I knew. I was in the lighting business a long time before I stumbled across the secret to understanding the relationship between the five lighting metrics. It’s called ED-100.1.

“ED-100.1 Light & Color” is the first section in the Fundamental Level of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Lighting Education (www.iesna.org). The entire course is excellent, but if you do nothing else, read and understand pages 1-12 to 1-16 — the part that explains the five lighting metrics. You’ll learn in just a few minutes what it took me years to find out: The five lighting metrics hold the key to understanding all you need to know about lighting. 

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Fenton Williams

For fifteen years, Lighting Designer Fenton Williams has been working with the same band. In the early days, the audience was smaller than the entourage that currently travels with this group. Now, Williams enjoys a steady gig with a popular band; so popular in fact, that he almost has to fight his way to the console to start the shows.

The band, of course, is the Dave Matthews Band, and Williams lights them with the help of his partners at Filament Productions. Williams recently came off the road and graciously agreed to talk about what it takes to create a production involving so many visual elements. 

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Dear Bradley

Dear Bradley is a world-famous lighting advice columnist who has graced the pages of publications such as the Broadway Programming Times and Automated Lighting Syndicate. PLSN is pleased to bring this tantalizing sample of Dear Bradley’s works.
 

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Is ACN MIA?

I don’t know if it will get you money for nothing or chicks for free, but I want my ACN, and so should you. ACN is the latest control protocol developed by the ESTA Control Protocols Working Group and was published late last year. It stands for… never mind what it stands for. It could stand for Another Cool Name or Artificial Canadian Nickels — it doesn’t matter. What does matter is what it will do and where it will eventually take this industry.

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Beers and Brainstorming

Hey, hey the time has come for another blog. I just got done the last part of Bonerama’s east coast tour since the last time I posted. Some interesting developments have happened after the Baltimore show at the 8 x 10. Since I live here in the Baltimore area and we had a few days of down time. I invited a few of the guys from the band to have a couple of beers and talk about some ideas I have for the lighting design in the future. So I pulled my notes and made a master list in chronological order based on what we should move toward first.

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Don’t mess with me no mo… Don’t mess with me no mo.

Hey everyone sorry for the delay on this particular blog. My laptop, which is pretty much as important to me as my left arm is in the shop getting fixed. Luckily I have a few days of down time here in Baltimore to find a computer and get writing again. My last blog talked about the tour with Porter Batiste Stoltz which went awesome. I wasn’t home for more than 3 days until I had to pack back up and head out to Charlotte, NC to meet up with Bonerama and begin their tour at a venue named The Visualite Theater which was a nice room with good space to use my rig. 
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Smoke Factory Scotty II

If you see fog emanating from a seemingly invisible source, chances are you’re looking at the Scotty II Fog Generator from the German-based manufacturer Smoke Factory. Scotty II is the successor to the Scotty I, and it’s a little machine that puts out big volumes of fog. The battery-operated, very compact and easy-to-operate machine delivers fog quickly and without much of a warm-up time.  

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Stage Research SoftPlot 9

As the pace of technological development increases, finding a software tool that is easy to understand and easy to use is becoming more challeng-ing. That’s what makes The Stage Research SoftPlot 9 lighting CAD software so appealing. It provides enough power and features to effectively create a complete lighting plot without overtaxing your brain, leaving it free to concentrate on the design.

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