LD at Large

Last night I found myself sitting in a bar with a bunch of lampys. How unusual. So I decided to check in with them on how they’ve seen the business of lighting shows change in the last few years. Between the five of us we have close to 100 years of experience in the entertainment biz. And since we’re lighting guys, it goes without saying that we have opinions about everything. So I posed a few questions.

The rules for lighting a concert in front of a camera are quite different than lighting one for the eye. The cameras tend to pick up things that the human eye cannot. Over the years I’ve had to teach myself how to change and adapt my show so it still looks the same to the audience and still looks good on camera. The fact is that this particular evening’s performance is not meant to be perfectly lit for the 15,000 people who bought tickets; it’s for the million people who will view the concert footage.

It’s winter again, which means t’is the season for trade shows — the time of year when new products like automobiles, housewares and electronics fill the convention centers of America. And somebody has to light them.

I have a feeling that we in the entertainment biz actually like our jobs. The reason is that we are always working with different people on various jobs until that project ends; then we start another project with a whole bunch of different folks. Along the way, we meet a lot of buddies — people who we meet with on occasion, but with whom we don’t stay in constant contact.

The hardest thing about our business is maintaining a balance between work and the rest of our life, as most of us spend time working away from home. Being away from home for long periods of time can be stressful for anyone, but what happens when we have to deal with a sudden change in routine? What do we do when something happens to interfere with the gig? Whether it’s a new child or a death in the family, how do you adapt while maintaining the old adage, “The show must go on?”

No matter which part of our biz you’re in, chances are you’ve worked a business conference. You set up like a dog for 18 hours straight, just to repeat the procedure for days. But as the meetings commence, you become aware of the hardest part of the whole gig — staying awake.

I spend a lot of time traveling, but I’m home a lot more often than I was when I toured the world with rock bands. I’m frequently asked by lots of young folks how to get into the road business. But lately, I’ve been asked by older people a more important question: How do you get off the road? 

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.”

I work a lot of corporate shows each year. Many are events where a company brings its national sales staff to a nice resort for four days of motivational speaking and sales pitches. These events usually include a dinner followed by a big-name musical act. These acts are usually bands that were big 20 years ago and had a slew of hits that they gladly replay for a phenomenal fee at your corporate dinner party.

I’ve been hearing some disturbing stories lately. And I’m getting upset. It seems like its becoming normal for touring shows to fire lighting techs. On several occasions in the last two years, I’ve heard stories of whole crews being replaced. I get calls from people who hate working with techs that I know do great work for me. I don’t get it. Is it the new generation of youngsters and their attitudes? Or the fact that many techs don’t know what they’re doing these days?

I am blessed in that I am busy all the time. It’s also a curse as it cuts down on time at home and the amount of preproduction I can do on-site. So I depend on visualizers to get a jump start on my lighting programming for most of my shows.

In the last few months I received two offers to light a symphony. I thought to myself, “How hard can this be? Set a pretty look for each segment and key light a couple of solos. Simple, right?” Now add some flamenco dancers, jugglers, acrobats, assorted guest vocalists and 100 choir members. What I ended up with is a variety show, featuring the symphony.