Paul Normandale, LD for fun.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES: Australia in March, UK/Europe in April, returns to North America in July for summer amphitheater tour through September.
THE DESIGN: “As per the band’s name, it’s designed to be fun. There’s a 32-by-8-foot video wall behind the band with a 40-by-8-foot (W x H) Plexiglas two-way mirror in front of that. Five media servers show content through the Plexiglas from behind. There are four robotic and six static cameras that can then feed the live crowd shots back through the mirror, thus reflecting the live crowd. At other times in the show, the lights are pointed directly at the mirror, which makes them reflect back and appears to double the quantity of fixtures in the rig.” Read More »
The ESA’s Event Safety Guide and YOU
Are you tired of hearing about safety yet? I hope not. It has always been important, but it lurched front and center for our industry during the stormy 2011 summer touring season, and it won’t go away any time soon. Being safe ensures that you’ll make it to the next gig. Sure, you may overlook some minimal safety concern and still be fine. Honestly, who hasn’t forgotten a safety cable now and then? It’s a slight oversight, and may not be the end of the world. That is, until something else fails, and there is a 20-plus-pound dead weight traveling 120 mph towards the deck. Are you wearing a hard hat?
Read More »
The Flow and Motion of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Super Bowl XLVII: The Technology and People Behind Beyonce’s Halftime Show
When the clock ticked down to 00:00 at the end of the first half of Super Bowl XLVII, more than 700 people began a well-choreographed and meticulously rehearsed process to get the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show onto the field. In under eight-minutes, the field was transformed into a fully realized concert spectacular. Beyoncé, along with a reunion of Destiny’s Child, entertained the 75,000+ football fans in the stadium and over 108 million people watching worldwide. Twelve minutes later, the field was just as quickly cleared and the game resumed. (Okay, for only a short time before an unscheduled break, but that is not our industry’s story to tell.)
Read More »
Jeff Ravitz, LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Jeff Ravitz, longtime LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, got a surprise call in late 2011: The Boss would once again be hitting the road with the 2012/2013 Wrecking Ball tour, with a new five-piece horn section attempting to fill the void left by The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, who died June 18, 2012. Ravitz and fellow Intensity Advisors designer Kristie Roldan were in New Jersey most of February for rehearsals. The tour launched in Atlanta after pre-tour gigs at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and Austin’s South by Southwest Festival.
Read More »
Lighting the Grammy Awards
There are two things that you need to know about lighting the Grammy Awards, the 55th annual edition of which was telecast on CBS Feb. 10 from the cavernous Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. First, even though the venue holds nearly 20,000 when seating can be extended to include the floor (it’s less than half that for basketball and hockey — it’s a big floor), and the first 20 rows on that floor hold the crème de la crème of the music industry, the show isn’t about them. Rather, it’s about the 28.37 million or so pairs of eyeballs that the show drew this year, some of which will buy recordings that they might not otherwise have. The camera adds ten pounds and 10 million units of sales. On a less pecuniary level, it’s also about presenting a record industry as robust, creative and vital despite concerns about losses to piracy, a bad economy and growing consumer ennui.
Read More »
iWeiss Rebrands, Expands, Partners Up
Sure, you know iWeiss.
Or do you?
Don’t confuse it with I. Weiss, the century-old supplier of soft goods to Broadway productions. Building on that legacy, the company continues to embrace that market while expanding into others. This includes putting their rigging expertise to work on different projects, and their foray into products like the ViaWinch. Read More »
LD/Programmer Steve Richards
PLSN: Steve, tell us what you’ve been up to lately.
Steve Richards: I just finished the U.S. leg of the Gotye tour. I was also the lighting director for Lady Antebellum. That was a long run, but it was a lot of fun. And I’ve also been working for U.K. artist Cher Lloyd. She was on X Factor a couple of years ago. She’s got a single out now, and I’ve been doing some promo stuff with her. Read More »