DALLAS – LD Ryan Patrick Murphy chose VL440 Spot luminaires from Intelligent Lighting Creations for Andrew Bird’s “Break it Yourself” tour. Murphy wanted to travel lightly with a minimal lighting rig, yet he also wanted the power to create his vision of “shadows and silhouettes” in his design.
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DALLAS – As musician and lyricist Andrew Bird prepared to launch the “Break it Yourself” tour in support of his latest album, LD Ryan Patrick Murphy was looking to create a new look for the show with a rig that could travel lightly but still pack the power he needed. His design would have to be creative yet minimal. He found all of this working with Authorized Philips Vari-Lite Dealer Intelligent Lighting Creations (ILC), who provided him with 10 VL440 Spot luminaires.
“I have been working with Andrew Bird since 2007 and in the production meetings we work off a symbiotic relationship between the set designer Ian Schneller, Andrew and myself,” said Murphy. “On previous tours, we have used gramophone horns that work onstage as speakers, so for this tour I wanted to try and get away from that a little bit and deconstruct the horn idea. After several discussions, we came up with the idea to use what we called ‘Aerocells’ which are like twisted horns that look as if they are being taken apart or they are yet to be finished. These pieces along with a white cyc backdrop would be the only elements in the set design, so the lighting design was essential in creating the finished look and feel for the audience.”
Playing theatre and club venues, Murphy next set out to find the ideal lighting fixtures that would help him create his vision of shadows and silhouettes.
“My goal is to incorporate the four ‘Aerocells’ and create a shadow-play. With the varying venue sizes, shadows would make it easy to have the set pieces appear larger than life, so I started looking for a single-point fixture to make this happen. I couldn’t really look at LED products because they are multiple-point sources and you get a lot of aliasing dependent upon how far away you are from the object you are trying to light so I needed the single point source to make this happen.”
“When we first met with Ryan and discussed his upcoming tour, he needed to find a reliable, smaller fixture with great output, which is not an easy find,” said Bob Moisan, ILC VP Sales/Marketing. “As our senior account executive Matt Pearlman discussed the situation with him, we were able to identify the VL440 as a perfect solution, so we set up a demo and he loved the light instantly. Ryan is great to work with as he is continuously looking for new ways to accomplish his visions. ILC was happy to be able to deliver the best solution with our new VL440 Spot luminaires.”
“They are a great looking fixture,” said Murphy. “They are so small, but still powerful and the colors are fantastic. For this tour, fixture size was definitely a factor because my whole travel lighting rig is a floor package. I am using the existing house rigs and then incorporating my floor units into each show at all the venues. So I place four VL440 Spots downstage to create the shadows on the white cyc, and then four VL440 Spots upstage that sit against the white cyc to create silhouettes of the ‘Aerocells’. We have two more VL440 Spots that sit mid-stage on 10’ pipes so that I can create deeper angles of shadows and all this together makes a beautiful combination of shadows and silhouettes.”
Murphy also wanted to incorporate some traditional lighting elements, such as gobo and frost effects, which was not an issue for the VL440 Spot luminaire.
“I don’t like to be too literal with gobos on white backdrops because it’s been seen and done,” explained Murphy. “I have the frost rolled in along with a slow gobo roll and it looks like the background is morphing for a video look…They have a really flat field that is even throughout the whole zoom range. When I throw the frost in, it still looks great no matter what size I make the zoom. I have been happy with the lights, especially with how they create the shadow-play because you have no drop-outs or dead spots in the beam field.”
Murphy said, “I think lighting designers around the world will absolutely embrace the VL440 Spot because they have everything that you love in a VARI-LITE luminaire: the color mixing, the gobos, the speed, but now it’s all in a smaller size. I am a one-man crew and with them being so lightweight, it’s extremely easy for one man to set them up. I have had zero issues with the VL440 Spots and this makes them the perfect light for me and this tour.”
The “Break it Yourself” Tour plays across North America, and then heads off into Europe later in the year.
