The Opening and Closing Ceremonies of any Olympic Games is a daunting production task, and the ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. were no different. David Atkins of Australia-based David Atkins Enterprises (DAE) served as the ceremonies' executive producer and artistic director.
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Scenic designer Scott Pask is admittedly a perfectionist. When PLSN called him to discuss his work on the new Martin McDonagh play A Behanding in Spokane, he was examining a set piece on the new musical Promises, Promises. "I'm on stage," he reveals. "We'll talk, but I'm kind of looking at something as well. So if I break away for a second, forgive me." This is a polite but unnecessary disclaimer. It actually takes a matter of moments to work out what he is doing, and then the passionate Pask is ready to chat in-depth about Spokane. But that moment emphasizes how he is committed to his work at every phase of creation.
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The road to corporate success is littered with the ghosts of companies who have spun out in the ditch or otherwise failed to navigate the twists and turns along the way. Life on the corporate streets can be rough. But every once in a great while, a company comes along and defies the odds of survival. J.R. Clancy, the manufacturer of stage rigging systems based in Syracuse, N.Y., has not only survived for 125 years but has thrived in the theatrical rigging market.
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Daughtry, the group fronted by Chris Daughtry – and also, incidentally, the group who has embraced my favorite font, Bleeding Cowboys – is on tour in 2010. After finishing up some shows in the U.S., the tour is moving to Europe and then on to unspecified locations to entertain U.S. troops. Then it's back to the States for more dates in the U.S. As Daughtry's LD, Matt Mills, says, "This one is going to go for awhile."
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For the first time at the 2010 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, a special roundtable session was held on the "greening" of music tours and production. The result was anything but predictable. Eight diverse and accomplished pros dove headlong into a two-hour conversation that began with the technicalities and practicalities of environmentally responsible touring practices. They ended on a deeper note delving into the value and worth of our industry "going green."
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Over the last decade, stage lighting has taken some extreme curves and turns. What started as a weak source of light in questionable fixtures has emerged as a most viable source of light with new fixtures emerging at a rapid pace. LED lighting has become quite the buzzword with touring productions, bands and management, and is strongly associated with green lighting or environmentally friendly lighting.
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When the package arrived in the mail, I thought it was a mistake. Surely an entire dimmer couldn't fit in the small box that was delivered. When I picked up the box, my suspicions were confirmed; the box was way too light to have much of anything in it and certainly not a dimmer.
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Now and then, outside of my "bread and butter" role as the world's finest tech writer and world's worst fly-fisherman, I get the opportunity to venture outside of the corporate vacuum – out where the crews work. This wonderful perk has taken me to Rascal Flatts concerts, The Who concerts, Reba McIntyre concerts and many more – to meet the crews and write about how the creative LDs and set designers put their video tools to work.
Read More »I am fortunate that, as an automated lighting programmer, my work takes me all over the world, although I rarely program in my hometown. Travel has its ups and downs (pun intended), and you must learn to make the most of your time as you travel.
Read More »As goes Maine, so goes the nation," according to the adage that putatively predicts American presidential elections. Replace "Maine" with "Las Vegas" and you'd get a pretty good predictor of the health of the corporate event market in the U.S.
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Over the years, I've come to realize that talent isn't always enough to get you by in life. You might be a gifted designer, but if you can't talk a good game, sometimes a gig may pass you by. To keep working steadily in this wacky business of ours, you have to have an edge, something that makes you stand out, something that makes people remember you long after they've witnessed your talents on a production or shared a meal with you. You've got to have your schmooze down.
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