LD at Large

Few shows are put on without a budget. In the 30 years I’ve been gigging, I may have only done a handful of them. And they were private shows for billionaires. Even giant shows like the Rolling Stones travel on a budget. Of course, ticket prices at any event are directly reflected by this budget. Thus, to put on the greatest show on the planet, you may have to charge exorbitant amounts. But that’s not saying you cannot design a large, original design within your budget constraints — you just have to figure out how.

I travel to different venues daily. I’ve done gigs in every grand arena as well as crap hole pretending to be a proper concert venue, on this planet. Of course some gigs are better than others. Some are very tough to load into, but many of them can be overlooked as physically bad gigs because the local stagehands there are just great. But often enough, the opposite is seen. Horrible venues with less than desirable hands are not fun. Especially when the local hands can’t shut their mouths for a minute. Then these gigs just plain suck to work.

By now, most of you should know the number one rule in the entertainment business. “Never Assume.” By this we mean, never assume a lot of stuff. You can never really assume you are going on a gig until you step foot on a plane to take you there. You can’t assume that because you spent days designing something, your client will like it. And you can’t assume that everyone responsible for pulling your gear for this gig tested everything before it left the shop.

I’ve viewed a lot of huge cool productions this year. The photos I always see are giant productions that require trim heights of 50 feet and stage widths of 80 feet or more. This is great if you are playing stadiums and the local Enormo-dome. But to be honest, outside of the EDM festivals, there are only a handful of artists out there that play these kinds of venues exclusively. But that doesn’t seem to stop certain production designers from building unpractical touring packages.

No matter what show I design, I always strive for one aspect — to make my show look theatrical. It doesn’t matter if I am illuminating the unveiling of a new automobile, or an opera; I want dramatic lighting. The biggest problem I endure at most events is actually the venue itself. The place where you are holding your show can make for a pleasant experience or a long, slow day.

I believe most people have a favorite color. I’m partial to a deep blue myself. I asked around. Guys seem to like blues and purples. Girls like red and pinks. Some musical acts hate certain colors and have actually asked me to never light them in a certain color, while others only allow themselves to be lit in certain colors. But one thing I found is that nobody really digs yellow.

Earlier this year, one of my clients called me in for a meeting about what he wanted to do for his annual summer shed tour. We were currently playing arenas, but were headed outside for the summer. He wanted to talk about the current trend in arena shows to get some big looks. He looks me right in the eye and asks me, “How high is that front truss flying?” Fifty feet or so, I tell him. “And how wide are all these trusses?” I reckoned they spanned about 90 feet, side-to-side. “Now don’t get me wrong, Nook. It looks frickin’ great, but when did we all decide these shows had to be so big, to be good?”

I like shooting the breeze with the old timers in our biz. People who have been around the block a few times. The folks who follow all the unwritten rules just the same as the pertinent ones everyone knows. Whenever we start chatting, the subject of loyalty will eventually rear its head. It may be a great story of “Gee, look how far that person has come. So and so has kept them busy.” Or it may be ugly as in “Shame about that one, he had a shot… once.”

In my continuing pursuit of figuring out how lighting vendors build their inventory, I have come across three distinctive methods that a few different companies have utilized. A company may buy all their gear based on supply and demand. Or they buy certain pieces of gear and sub-rent the latest expensive fixtures on the market rather than risk they will be outdated. In the past, some companies actually built all their own lights, truss and dimmer racks. I thought that I summed it all up. But then I got to talking to some friends who work for Christie Lites. And it didn’t take long to figure out that there is one other way to build a business, and it seems to be working just fine. If you do it Huntly’s way.

Teamwork. It’s a big word. Everyone nods their head and agrees that, on any show, big or small, it’s about the teamwork. But lately I’ve been wondering why so many people in our business don’t really practice what they preach. Don’t get me wrong, I watch them work their butts off, doing great at the task they have been assigned. But the minute they are done with that, they are out of there. Gone from the arena. Waiting for that silly inconvenience between the load in and the load out (the show), to be done.

Each year I get a few calls from bands looking for a set or lighting design for their tour. It’s always an exciting process as I let my imagination run for a few days before I start putting pencil to paper. Last month, I got a call from a booking agent looking to hook me up with one of her new acts. So I contacted the management company and they emailed me a response. “Before we chat, take a listen to this music and let us know if this is something you would be interested in.” Nobody has ever approached me in this manner before. I had not thought I heard the band’s name previously.

This month, I continue on my quest to figure out which gear has the best return for a lighting company investment. Is it as easy as following the old “Supply and Demand” way of thinking? I always assumed that a lighting company chose what fixtures they would purchase based on what the customer’s latest needs were. But what if you did many shows each year with various LD types, and they all want different fixtures? Do the lighting buyers choose to base their decisions on the latest, coolest moving heads in the business? Or do they buy from certain manufacturers because they have good, lasting relationships with them and their salespeople?