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Early Planning

The Best of What’s Around

As I write to you, oh ardent citizens of Technopolis, movers surround me, putting most of my worldly possessions in the back of a truck.

It reminds me, surprisingly not, of a load-out.

For the next week, these brown cardboard boxes will travel roughly eight hundred miles, en route from the Windy City to the Big Apple.  (Those of you in NYC, don't hesitate to drop me a line, as I will soon be your newest neighbor.)

So, since things are a little busy in the Gilbert household, I thought I'd shower you with a few random thoughts and a little link-love.

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A few tricks and Elvis Strobes?

Today I’m going to start filling you all in on exactly what I’ve been writing lately in my notebook. There are three main topics: A couple cue ideas, and Casino Arizona lights. For starters I wrote a new trick I like to use when there is a dynamic arrangement in the song.

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Hands Across the Water

I have to start out by apologizing that it has taken me so long to start posting, but now that I'm comfortably over here in Stratford, I'm fully ready to tell you about (and I hope not bore you with) all of the details of my job at the RSC. At the moment I'm working at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I've been learning so much and having a great time. The people I work with are so patient and hugely accepting of me. I really appreciate their willingness to explain anything and everything I don't understand and I couldn't be happier to be working with such wonderful people. (And I promise that I'm not just saying that in case some here reads my blog; I really do mean that.)

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Size Matters

Are instruments shrinking? Or is bigger still better?

Does Moore’s Law, which dictates that all technology must inexorably move toward a smaller/faster/cheaper paradigm, apply to lighting? Less theoretically, are there dynamics that are compelling the footprint of lighting platforms to shrink, even while they’re demanding that they increase in power and decrease in cost?

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A New Era of Cruisin’

Princess Cruises plans on captivating its audience.

If you have ever thought about taking a cruise in the Mediterranean, now might be the best time to start planning for it. Why? Because Princess Cruises’ new flagship, the Emerald Princess, recently set sail from Rome, Italy, and in the process launched a new era in cruise ship entertainment production.

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The Substitue LD

This month I welcome a little change. I have no musical tours to design or program, but because I have a lot of friends who do the same thing as I do for a living, I have plenty of work as their substitute for a few gigs.

The music business is quite different from other sides of lighting. The main thing is that it isn’t consistent, and it often leaves holes in your schedule — and by “holes,” I mean time periods where we aren’t gigging and we ain’t making no cash. It pays to keep in touch with your fellow lighting brethren. Besides the fact that they are your friends, there’s an old adage that really applies to the music biz: “Out of sight, out of mind.”

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Holder Speaks with Holder

Doug Holder interviews his brother Don Holder, lighter of The Lion King

[The Lion King is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Having recently opened in the Montecasino Theatre in northern Johannesberg, South Africa, and another opening slated for Paris in October, the production will have played in 11 different countries worldwide. There are currently eight productions of the show, including Broadway, the West End, Hamburg, Tokyo, Seoul, two U.S. national tours and Johannesburg, making it a global phenomenon. In recognition of his stellar work lighting the show, we bring you an interview with lighting designer Don Holder conducted by his brother Doug.—ed.]

When we were kids, my brother Don (or Donnie, as I still call him) was always involved in a frenzy of activity. In high school, in Rockville Centre, N.Y., he was like a hyperactive Mickey Rooney, running from one project to the next. And now at 49, he hasn’t changed. 

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Expanding the Production Landscape

Muse uses video to blur the genre line.

If you took equal parts electronica, heavy metallica, music classica and rock progressiva, you might come up with something like the English rock band Muse. Combine their varied music influences with a penchant for telling stories of apocalypse, outer space, politics and religion, and you have a production landscape rife with design possibilities and themes. For their current world tour, the design duties landed on the shoulders of Oli Metcalfe, who has been designing and directing lighting for Muse since 2000 after they opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the Californication tour, and on media director Tom Kirk.

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Torn Between Two Cities

Rick Baxter, master of electricity, is a sometime citizen of Vegas via Broadway.

While lighting designers create grand visions that bring productions to life, electricians are responsible for putting them together and making sure they work correctly. More often than not, they are faced with the challenge of taking a complex system with thousands of control channels and making it a reality. They are tireless workers and can spend months prepping a show.

One of the most well respected electricians in our industry is Rick Baxter. And in this month’s interview, he tells us about working on Broadway and in his home-away-from home, the importance of good paperwork, and offers a bit of advice for manufacturers.  

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