Little movers
This week I have been testing out a slew of new lights that manufacturers have been coming out with this year. And I have to admit that I have been impressed with all of them.
Read More »Black Ties, Boots, and A Steelers Win
What up everyone. Well BuckCherry fell through so immediately I had to find another gig. Luckily the gig found me. I got a crewspace message from the PM at BSL Productions who gives a ring when they can use me for a string of days on shop work or show dates. Of course we get the talking about the Inauguration because any companies in the Baltimore/DC area are hella-busy around this time. If you read up in the upcoming February edition of PLSN magazine I got the opportunity to write about the Texas State Society Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball held at the Gaylord National Convention. In that piece I concentrated on the event as a whole instead of my own personal experience, which I wanted to share in this blog I'm writing today.
Read More »What it takes
Years ago I was doing a corporate show with some friendly clients who produce multi million dollar events. Over a few drinks I got to know one of the executive producers pretty well. I asked him how his firm got in with these big drug companies he did events for. He explained the process he has to go through to make a presentation to get the gig. After wowing me with details he let me know that his company had spent 40k just in the presentation. I gasped and told him I could not imagine spending that much of my own money just for a chance at getting the gig. His reply was simple. “It takes money to make money.”
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Top 10 Tours of 2008
*Ranked by Billboard Magazine, according to total sales, Nov. 14, 2007-Nov. 11, 2008
1. Bon Jovi's Lost Highway Tour
Lighting Co: Ed & Ted’s Excellent Lighting (now Epic Production Technologies)
CREW
Performance Environment Designer: Doug “Spike” Brant
Show Director/Executive Producer: Justin Collie
Lighting Director: Pat Brannon
Lighting Crew Chief: Storm Sollars
Lighting Crew: Jason Bridges, Greg Walker, Trevitt Cromwell, Chris Keen
Set Company: Tait Towers
Rigging Director: Mike Farese
Video Director: Tony Bongiovi
Video Suppliers: Kosher Pixels, Nocturne Productions
Oak Ridge Boys Theatre
LD Greg Russell walked into the newly-named Oak Ridge Boys Theatre in Branson, Mo. last year with the words of the owners ringing in his ears. “They wanted to have the biggest, baddest lighting system that we could get,” he recalls. “They weren’t going to spare any expense to get it done.”
While that was good news for Russell, he also had good news for them after a quick look around the venue formerly known as the Glen Campbell Theatre. He discovered that much of the lighting and rigging gear that was installed in 1994 was useable, including almost 500 channels of ETC Sensor dimming.
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Inspiration Behind the Canvas
Lincoln Maynard leads a double life as an artist and general manager of Scenic Technologies for PRG.
Adorning the walls of PRG’s Las Vegas offices are photographs of flashy sets from famous shows and concerts — the Billboard Music Awards, VH1 Rock Honors and Criss Angel: Believe, to name a few. They showcase decades worth of work on the Las Vegas Strip and across the country. Photographs of sets the company has built, however, aren’t the only works of art on display. They share the space with paintings by artist Lincoln Maynard, who also happens to be general manager of PRG Scenic Technologies.
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WYSIWYG R23
The CAD tools in WYSIWYG may not be as advanced as in AutoCAD, but they are sufficient for most applications in our industry, and very easy to use.
One of the most important lighting design tools to emerge in the post-automated lighting era is lighting design software. The first to market was the WYSIWYG suite of CAD, paperwork, rendering, and visualization software for lighting designers and programmers. Eighteen years after version 1.0 comes the latest release from Cast Software, Release 23, and it represents a major step forward in terms of real-time visualization, detail, and quality of rendering.
Read More »Look Ma, No Console!
Last month I was hired to program the COTT 2008 music awards on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. While the initial concept and plan for the show was very straightforward, there were many surprises that left me well equipped with material to write about the experience. The show was a typical awards-style TV shoot with five cameras, a podium, and twelve musical numbers. I was in control of automated lights, LEDs, media servers, and more. Conventionals were controlled from another console. The LD had done this show the year before but could not attend this year because his pregnant wife was due any day. So it was up to me and the superb crew to help the locals make this show spectacular.
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The Bare Truth About What’s Really Recession-Proof
Looking for a recession-proof market sector? That joint near the tracks with all the neon might be a good pace to start. This particularly pernicious economic climate is chipping away at the entertainment-related areas of business that putatively do well in recessions: film box office results are flat, video game sales are down slightly and music sales — fuhgedaboudit.
Read More »Bozo’s Balancing Act
“Know the light, but keep the shadow.”—Tao saying
Three-phase power distribution systems are very common around the world for a couple of reasons; they save money, and…I forget the other reasons.
Three-phase distribution saves money because it takes less copper to transmit the same amount of power with a three-phase system than with a single-phase system. In fact, it takes about 25 percent less copper to transmit the same amount of power with a three-phase three-wire delta system as with a single-phase three-wire system because the conductors need only be half the cross sectional area. And with a three-phase four-wire system it takes even less copper — about 66 percent less than with a single-phase three-wire system.
Read More »Accessorizing Your Lights
‘Tis the season of trade show lighting. And whether you are starting to design the lighting for your client’s booth or you are already on site, you must make sure to put some thought into bringing a box of lighting accessories; you know, those little things good designers can’t live without.
Read More »Should’ve seen it comin’…
I should’ve seen it coming. I should’ve hit delete immediately. I should’ve done anything but what I did. Accepted an offer to join this phenomenon sweeping the country called Facebook.
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