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A Flurry of Improv

A Flurry of Improv

The cues come as fast as flakes in a blizzard for Slava’s Snowshow.

Slava’s Snowshow is a theatrical free-for-all unlike anything else you’ve experienced. Russian clowns play tricks on each other, parody famous cinematic moments, wander through a winter wonderland and even invade the audience and heckle the crowd during intermission. For two years now the comedic and semi-improvisational show has delighted audiences at the Union Square Theatre near Greenwich Village, and lighting director Derek Brashears has been there since day one, from unloading the truck to learning the lighting design to manning the boards. He’s learned to weather a storm of surprises that can happen on a dayto- day basis, so much so that the connection is somewhat telepathic. 

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A.C.T Lighting

Who:
A.C.T Lighting

What:
Wholesale distributor whose business includes being the exclusive North America
distributor for MA Lighting, Zero 88 and the U.S. distributor of MDG smoke, fog and
haze machines.

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Art on Demand: the Path and the Nirvana

Among the working lighting designers of the world, few names carry the cachet as the name Jules Fisher. His 18 Tony Award nominations have netted him eight shiny statues dating back to 1973. His work extends beyond Broadway and into the realm of film (School of Rock, Chicago, A Star is Born), ballet, opera, television and concert lighting (Rolling Stones, KISS, David Bowie, Whitney Houston). But to speak to the self-effacing man you might never guess that he has met with any success, as he is quick to praise his design partner, Peggy Eisenhauer. Ironically, it is Fisher whom Eisenhauer credits with inspiring her early in her career. Together, they form the design firm Third Eye Studios. Our interview started in their offices in New York and culminated over the phone, as it is quite challenging to pin them down.

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High End Systems DL.2

Things were simpler when we were in kindergarten. We learned about important things like sharing. We got to spend a bit of time coloring and painting. We even got to make big murals out of those long rolls of butcher paper. When I was programming for an upcoming tour in Nashville recently, I came to realize that there were some distinct similarities to what I was now doing.

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CYA With CMA: Managing Your Content

The gig you’ve just landed will be using 30 media servers, and you need to upload custom content into all of them. Some of the questions that are probably popping into your mind right now are: How long will that take? Will I have the opportunity to load the content before the load-in date? If not, will I have enough time to get everything organized on site at the gig? If any of these sound like questions you’ve asked yourself on a show using digital lighting fixtures and/or media servers, then you will appreciate this article.

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Do You See What I see? Getting the Picture and Getting It Right

The stage is set, the lights go up, the speaker walks out on stage, and the video screen is black. The producer begins yelling at the technical director, and the TD starts yelling at everyone. It’s a demonstration of what flows, and in which direction. It’s also a reminder that, as a camera operator or engineer, you are at the bottom of the hill on which it all flows. Assuming we remembered to remove the lens cover, there are many other pitfalls we would like to avoid. But what other kinds of problems could we have? By understanding a very basic signal flow through the camera, we can protect ourselves from doing something foolish and, more importantly, help us recover quickly when we have already done something foolish.

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Patches? Those Go On Pants!

Back in 1996, when the art of conventional lighting still reigned supreme on the “legitimate” stage, I was working as LD for a new play. (Yes, some of us do that.)

I received a packet of design materials from the M.E. at the theatre where we would load-in. We all know the condition in which many of these packets arrive, if they arrive at all, but this one was truly an exception. The instrument schedule detailed types, colors, lamps, circuits, channels, patch and everything else that I could think of. The plot, well drawn and to scale, gave a precise view of every instrument relative to its focal point. I even got the almighty sectional, which had the potential to save a lot of focus time. (This was before 1999, understand. Moving lights were still confined to the “big” shows and rentals.)

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Fiat Video: Picture and Light Have Become (Mostly) One

“Convergence” can become tiresome to hear, but never truly gets overused in this day and age. It’s an appropriate term for what’s taken place between video and lighting as elements of live performances. The trend dates back to 1998 when Lighting & Sound Design (LSD) first had a private showing of the Icon M (Medusa) at the LDI show. It combined the Texas Instruments nanotechnology-based DMD (digital mirror device) and the automated yoke of an automated luminaire into a single fixture, with “soft” gobos. Even though the fixture was never mass-produced (it was used on a few tours, including Korn and one or two others), it aligned the industry into the realm of video, media servers and digital lighting.

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Illumination Inflation: But It Goes to 11!

A funny thing happened on the way to the top of the grand master fader. I found out that it not only goes up, but it also comes down. It was a complete accident, but it turned out to be a discovery that was right up there with the time I found out my VCR wasn’t supposed to flash “12:00.”

When a tour manager voiced concerns about the pacing of a show, I listened intently as he described what he wanted to see. He wanted the show to build. He wanted a steady building of lighting looks, punctuated by a climax. He wanted to hold back the best for last. In short, he wanted the impossible.

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The Main Course, Sushi in Chicago Continues

[If last month’s LD-at-Large column resolved anything, it’s that sushi is definitely the cuisine of choice among most lighting designers. Four of them, Nook Schoenfeld, Bob Peterson, John Featherstone and Olivier Ilisca, got together for an informal lunch discussion at Nook’s urging. On the menu? Sushi, of course. Once the sushi connection was established, the four LDs talked about how they started in the business and how they ended up where they are, all the while working on their appetizer. By the time the main course arrived, they were on to bigger and better things, like what it takes to get ahead in this business. This is the second of a three-part series. – ed.]

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