Designer Watch

Is Flying Drone Tech the new crew position in production? LD Chris Medvitz of Lightswitch would agree. He has four cities of auto shows on his agenda. But it was his involvement in the Infiniti exhibit and press events at the Los Angeles Auto Show that pointed toward the future.

Aaron Black: “I was in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Opera with a new production of Lohengrin, which premieres Jan. 22.”

Andy Cass: “NYE is our biggest show of the year with String Cheese Incident, and it’s my personal favorite because it’s in my backyard, in Broomfield, CO. We brought in a huge 3D video wall (48 by 15 feet) and a massive light rig along with dancers and aerialist. I used a local vendor and a national vendor to make it happen.”

It wouldn’t be a holiday without the heavy metal and production spectacle of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and LD Bryan Hartley is back with this year’s winter tour, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve.” Hartley has been designing the production and lighting for 17 years, since the beginning of TSO, he says. “I decided not to build a traditional custom set and instead, I designed the video as the set. Then I can change to whatever set look I want.” The identical East and West Coast legs run through Dec. 30 in the US and Canada.

Congrats to all the 2015 Parnelli Award winners, including Lighting Designer of the Year Sooner Routhier for Imagine Dragons, Lighting Director of the Year Cosmo Wilson for AC/DC, Set/Scenic Designer of the Year LeRoy Bennett for Maroon 5 and Video Director of the Year Mike Drew for Rascal Flatts. .

Fresh off the heels of Tribe Inc.’s production designs for Lady Antebellum’s “Wheels Up” tour, the 2015 Apple Music Festival in London, Dierks Bentley’s “Sounds of Summer” tour and the Opening Ceremony for the Pan American Games in with Cirque du Soleil in Toronto, Bruce Rodgers and company steps into their next project with Cirque and their next Dierks Bentley 2016 tour.

Richard Neville of Sydney-based Mandylights said the “big project of note” is Ricky Martin’s “One World Tour,” which hits North American arenas Sept. 15-Oct. 25 after previous tour legs in New Zealand, Australia and Mexico earlier this year.

Call her “Deadicated.” Forty-seven years ago, in 1968, Candace Brightman lit The Grateful Dead for her first time at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. Her first tour with them was in 1972, she recalls. She’s held the key as the overall production designer and lighting guru since then — keeping alive the psychedelic ballroom vibe no matter what the venue.

“He said music has color, and the color of music is blue,” said LD Chris Stuba. The design inspiration for Brian Wilson’s summer tour starts with that thought from the Beach Boys legend. Wilson, who is performing with fellow band mates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplain, presents a welcoming design and programming challenge for Stuba on the lighting console. “Sometimes the bridge of the song starts at the beginning, or the song changes through many time signatures throughout,” Stuba said. “I had to approach programming and running this show differently because of those variances.”

This year Mercedes-Benz has been launching its new model luxury automobiles, but along with its sophisticated exteriors, the lighting needed to shine on the advanced electronic technology inside. A key theme: “driverless driving.” To accomplish this, the German auto manufacturer tasked its longtime lighting designer Richard Profe with using lighting technology that would also reflect the luxury, efficiency and high technology of its own cars.

LD Brent Clark operated his design for The Tragically Hip’s Fully and Completely tour through mid-February in Canadian arenas. He then returned to Sarah McLachlan’s U.S. run Feb. 27-April 1. Describing The Hip’s design, Clark explained: “Our main focus was to create two distinct shows. The main part of the show was the band playing the album Fully Completely in its entirety, which they had never done before, and then book end that set with five songs. So those five songs had to look and feel entirely different. We did this by using only black and white I-Mag side screens and straight up rock and roll lighting with no video content. So when Fully Completely started, all the video elements rolled into play and the side screens sprang into color. It was quite a fun project to work on.”