PLSN Talks with Several Designers About illuminating Prince
It was a sad day in the city of Minneapolis last month. The musical icon who put the First Avenue performance venue and this city on the musical map had passed on. The streets outside the club where Prince Rogers Nelson had filmed Purple Rain some 30 years ago closed down as the masses gathered to “get through this little thing we call life.”
Fred Bock has been lighting The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since Fallon debuted as the new host of the iconic show on Feb. 17, 2014. After decades on the West Coast, having left NYC for “beautiful downtown Burbank” in 1972, The Tonight Show returned to its roots, moving back to the East Coast. Bock was no stranger to the fast pace and ever-changing setups lighting for late night TV. Over the years, he has lit a number of NBC productions and projects, including 16 years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
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Reliable Design Services, (RDS) based in Quinlan TX, is a custom fabricating company. While originally founded to manufacture specialty projects for the aviation industry, production companies in the entertainment industry have sought their expertise as well.
It’s been about 15 years since media servers made a splash and one did not have to be a professional video engineer to play clips… Read More »Media Servers
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All Access Staging Had Five Weeks to Design its Biggest Las Vegas Residency Stage Yet
For casinos hoping to draw large crowds with big-name acts, the ante for artist residencies in Las Vegas keeps getting higher, whether the music genres represented is EDM, classic rock, country, heavy metal or pop.
Exhibitionism, a major museum retrospective of the Rolling Stones’ long career in music, is taking over both floors of London’s Saatchi Gallery through Sept. 4. The multi-media show includes more than 500 artifacts. It’s produced and curated by Australian event company IEC (International Entertainment Consulting). After the London exhibition ends on September 4, the giant production will tour another 11 global cities over the next four years.
For the past six years, Black Girls Rock, Inc., an organization that promotes empowerment and mentoring for young women of color through the arts, has partnered with BET Networks to broadcast their annual awards event. The Black Girls Rock! production is an inspiring evening of performances, awards, speeches, and celebration. The 2016 show included appearances by Lauryn Hill, Gladys Knight, Brandy, Corrine Bailey Rae, Rihanna, Monica, Shonda Rhimes, Danai Gurira, and Hillary Clinton.
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“My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.”
That quote was on an etched-wood plaque that hung on my mother’s kitchen wall for years, and for the longest time, I’ve used it as my personal philosophy concerning cleanliness…..at least in the kitchen and house. When it comes to gear, it’s a whole different game.
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I’m staring at a shiny silver/chrome looking piece of love here as I open the case containing a scaled down version of the elektraBar strip light. I easily lift this miniature 11-pound fixture out with one hand and gaze at this architectural model. They make a black one for theatrical use, but this one just looks so stealth. The fixture itself is just under two feet long and about seven inches wide. It has a built-in power supply that is permanently attached to the back.
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Despite their name and long association with lighting primarily meant for clubs and smaller venues, ADJ Lighting has released a number of professional touring fixtures recently. Their Vizi line includes lights with feature sets normally seen on larger-format lights, but with attractive price points set to be within reach of houses of worship and other facilities or productions that need to be conscientious with their budget.
Whether “Tis Nobler” Is Not the Question. Here’s a Roundtable Discussion of When It’s the Answer.
For some, timecode is the auto tune of lighting designers — a lazy choice. Others insist that timecode is doing the job of the operator, freeing him or her up from being chained to just punching the “go” button for each and every cue. But the truth is that when properly implemented, it can be used for a show’s greater good.
Most automated lighting programmers work as freelancers meaning that they have to not only program shows, but also are responsible for negotiating the terms of their payment and services. Usually this negotiation is done with the production manager, producer, or lighting company. It is very important for lighting programmers to understand basic negotiation skills and to know when to make changes to their standard agreements.
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