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Lighting for the Camera

Lighting for the Camera

We all have our specialties when it comes to the business.  In the attempt to make a name for ourselves, each of us has carved a specific niche.  But sometimes our path to success does not go the way we originally planned, or even imagined. I am a prime example.  I knew early on that lighting design was where I wanted to go. But if you were to go back in a time machine and ask my former self if I thought I might be destined to become a writer and an editor of a magazine, I would have laughed hysterically. (I still do that sometimes; I guess that is my jolly nature.)

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From left, Yes production manager Joe Comeau and LD Don Weeks. Photo Debi Moen

Don Weeks, LD for YES

TOUR: Yes (the band)

DATES: March 1- April 12, North America; May, Brazil; more dates though summer 2013.

SHOW CONCEPT: Live performance of three albums in their entirety: The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going For the One.

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Texture and clutter add realism and grit to the set for Picnic on Broadway. All photos by Joan Marcus

Exterior in the Interior for “Picnic”

The social graces, traditional roles and quaint backdrops of 1950s Kansas belie an unease that some people feel underneath the norms that they conform to in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Picnic. When college dropout and Hollywood failure Hal Carter comes home to roost, lacking any real vocation or direction, he reconnects with his well-to-do college buddy Alan Seymour and meets Seymour’s girlfriend Madge Potts and her sister and single mother. While everyone prepares for a big town picnic, and Alan prepares to spend time with his sweetheart before heading away for a semester at school, Hal and Madge become irrepressibly drawn to each other, sharing an urge to flee the small town, which threatens the peace, harmony and conformity of those around them.

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The Killers Battle Born Tour

The Killers Battle Born Tour

For more than a decade, The Killers have been pumping out hard-driving, danceable and emotionally-charged rock music, with glimmers of techno pop. Through his eight years (and counting) as a member of the band’s production team, lighting designer/director Steven Douglas has kept the visuals as fresh as the music.

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Crew Member Dies after Fall in San Antonio’s AT&T Center

SAN ANTONIO — Thomas Dean Williams, 44, died April 5 after falling between 70 and 100 feet, according to local news reports. Williams was working on the venue’s concert lighting rig at the time and fell to the stage, where others were working. No other injuries were reported. The accident happened about 2 am Friday after a Romeo Santos concert took place at the venue Thursday night.

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LD Oli Metcalfe on tour with MUSE, photo by Steve Jennings

Oli Metcalfe, LD for MUSE

The British trio, Muse — including Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass, vocals, keyboards, rhythm guitar) and drummer/percussionist/synthesist Dominic Howard, with the addition of keyboardist/percussionist Morgan Nicholls on their live performances — offer an engaging blend of electronica, metal, classical and space rock.

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CNN’s Virtual Studio uses immersive imagery to teleport Tom Foreman into settings relevent to his news coverage.

CNN’s Virtual Studio is The Real Deal

Show, don’t tell. Although this time-tested saying has most often been associated with fiction writing and storytelling, one major television news network has embraced this inspired phrase as their own mantra. Tune into CNN any given night and witness what appears to be visual magic occurring right before your eyes. Case in point: During a broadcast of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer in December 2012, a virtual 3D graphic depicting a North Korean satellite, with the approximate dimensions of a large car battery, spins in mid air over what appears to be an translucent news desk.

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NBC Sports turned to FLDA for LED lighting for its new home base in Stamford, CT

NBC Sports’ New Energy-Efficient Headquarters Facility

This year, NBC Sports launched their new headquarters in Stamford, CT — a new home for everything sports-related for the media giant which, after a merger with Comcast in Jan. 2011, led to the re-branding of Versus, Golf Channel and other Comcast-launched entities as part of the newly-created NBC Sports Network in Jan. 2012. Most NBC Sports operations are now Stamford-based, including Bob Costas’ Costas Tonight; an exception is Football Night in America, which remains at Rockefeller Center in NYC.

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At the Special Olympics in Beijing, Ted Wells called cues for followspots through a Chinese interpreter

TV LD Ted Wells: Painting with Light

Television lighting designer Ted Wells has been honing his craft since the early 1970s. He starting out in Topeka, KS where, while still a student, he got work at the local PBS station and the CBS affiliate. He didn’t even have dimmers at the PBS station, but came up with lighting cues using a breaker panel, which no one at the station had ever seen done before.

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Thomas Riedel

At 25, Riedel Looks Back – And Ahead

You only turn 25 once, and what Riedel Communications did to mark their quarter century in business was a doozy. The party itself took place at their headquarters in Wuppertal, Germany where 1,400 revelers joined in a celebration that included musical performances, high-wire acts, a robot band (playing heavy metal), outdoor whirlpools and a fire show. The event also capped a banner year of projects that included the Olympic Games, the UEFA Euro 2012, and the Red Bull Stratos project, among hundreds of others.

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