Over lunch with Richard, associate designer Michael Gottlieb, and programmer Rob Bell (moonlighting from his gig as product manager with Horizon Control), the trio explained that Tale is the first Broadway production to integrate Strand Lighting’s Light Palette VL (with Universal Attribute Control) with Cast Lighting’s WYSIWYG and West Side Systems’ Virtual Magic Sheet. The result, the designers say, makes for a more dynamic, intuitive and designer-friendly graphic representation of the output and orientation of the lighting rig. Richard personally configured a video display to indicate, graphically, and in real time, levels and positions of lights. He cued the show (with over 1,300 control channels) without any other display from the lighting console.

I got to watch a bit of it at the first dress last week at the Hirschfeld. Well, a tiny bit anyway; the proceedings got something of a late start, as first dress tends to do. The setup is really quite something; Pilbrow can simply look at his computer screen and see exactly what happening with any individual unit on the rig at any given time.

Look to see more about this interesting new control concept in an upcoming issue of Live Design. In the meantime, here’s a quick breakdown of the entire lighting crew on the show as well as the rest of the design tem:

Lighting Designer: Richard Pilbrow
Associate Lighting Designer: Michael Gottlieb
Lighting Programmer: Robert Bell
Assistant Lighting Designers: Kathleen Dobbins, Graham Kindred
Production Electrician: Michael Ward
Assistant Electrician: Paul Ker
Followspot Operators: John Blixt, Thomas Burke, Bob Miller
House Electrician: Michele Gutierrez

Director: Warren Carlyle
Scenic Designer: Tony Walton
Costume Designer: David Zinn
Sound Designers:Carl Casella and Domonic Sack
Special Effects: Greg Meeh
Hair Design: Tom Watson

The first test for the server came at a festival in the mountains of NC.  We hung inflatable globes around the stage and used the masking and image warping features to match our projection to the screen.  VGA was sent to the projectors over Cat5e using Gefen VGA Extender units.  They’re tiny too and powered by a single 5v wall wart.  I really love the idea of sending your video around using Cat5.  Not only is it cheap but it inherently rejects noise.  During the last tour I spent much of my offtime creating loops using stock video I’ve collected over the years.  Lots ambient light patterns and fluid dynamics, some of it nature and flyovers of beautiful scenery.  I’m really getting into the idea of lighting 3D sculptural elements of the stage using projection.

Visuals looked great, by the way, as well…a mix of Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots and Martin MAC 2000 Washes and Profiles, as well as some Atomic Colors, DWE strips, and PixelRange PixelLine 1044s provided a nice rig, while a huge LSI Saco V-Lite Screen covered most of the stage backdrop, served by a High End Systems Axon Media Server. That’s why we’re there, right? That and 1:45 of rockin’ STP songs.

You can read all about Bramwell-Watson’s design in the August issue of Live Design.

“We do not have a lighting designer, or lighting person of any kind. We had a lighting designer once, but he went mad, so we shot him. It was the kindest thing. Now he’s a light of a different kind, one of God’s little Gobos in Dimmer Heaven. The point of all this nonsense is, of course, that we need someone to brighten up our day, and this is what we would like them to do, if it is at all possible using the whiz-bang technology that is the modern lighting system.”

“Oh, and a lighting person who could just set a scene at the beginning of a song, then sit on his hands until the start of the next song. I know that this seems like a tall order when most LDs suffer from some sort of nervous disorder that won’t permit their hands to stay still for longer than 8 milliseconds, but honestly, that’s what we would be happiest with. Maybe we could get somebody to sit next to the LD with a big stick, then if they looked like they were going to “do lighting” halfway through a number - WHAMMO!!! broken desk, broken fingers.”

“Sometimes we do gigs where the LD tries to sneak the spotlights on halfway through the show. Unfortunately, if that does happen, it then becomes encumbent upon me to find the LD after the show and eat his entire family.”

“I can promise you that our singer (Iggy Pop, by the way) will make it look like all your lights are attempting to jump off the front of the stage like a gang of par 64 lemmings. He’ll be all over the place, like a mad woman’s shit, so you don’t have worry about moving lights. Here’s a thought for you. Why not watch the band instead of trying to make patterns with the beams? Unless you can think of a way of writing “F*** OFF JOS” in beams across the stage….”

“This was written by someone who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. I cannot tell a lie. Lights-wisely speaking, I’m an absolute arse-head. But I know what I like. And although nobody goes home whistling the lights, it’s also true that no one goes to gigs to stare at the f***ing P.A. stacks.”

For my money, the only thing better is the current Foo Fighters rider, where bacon is referred to as “God’s currency.”

You can see the video here:

Addictive TV also will be performing an outdoor show in London by the Thames on August 22, the weekend of the official Olympics hand-over ceremony from Beijing to London. Read more about the VJ team in the May issue of Live Design or by clicking here:
http://livedesignonline.com/concerts/topstory/addiction_notice_0508/index.html.

“The video was a visual solution to the fact that we don’t have a rear audience in the stadiums,” Ravitz explains. “We had developed several scenic suggestions for back there, but Bruce wanted and okayed a video wall. This is such new territory for him, but he’s seen his other friends do it and the possibilities intrigued him. He’s shied away from it before, just like he’s shunned backdrops, because he thinks anything too literal just means he hasn’t planted these images into the audience’s brain with his lyrics and performance. He’s thought of those as a crutch. And anything too abstract would possibly distract. Finally, what to put up there? He just doesn’t want to devote the time to figuring it out, because, well, he’s sort of busy!

“But, this time he said yes,” Ravitz continues “I asked for it to wrap around the sides little because so many people see the side walls of a stadium stage as their “background” view. But, knowing that there might be many songs with no content, I also added around 16 Morpheus Panaspot XR2s on the floor to rake color and texture across the screen surface when there is no video playing. The only images were some clouds, fireworks and a few other things that have been added, gingerly, over the course of the last eight weeks in Europe and here.”

Other changes to the rig have been mostly as a result of the move outdoors. “We added a lot of audience light and supplemental stuff out on thoe side runways to outline and enhance the huge side screen areas and to give the show the scale it requires to ‘fill’ a stadium. We also added lights to the audio delay towers out in the house, so we could beef up the deep and far away audience without having to reach them from the stage. It also adds excitement and more “fill” for the large venue. Plus our usual front of house spots that are used when anyone ventures forward to the downstage ramps and runways, are now on these enormous delay towers instead of being up in the stands.”

I was lucky enough to attend the July 31 performance at Giants Stadium in East Rutheford, NJ–basically Springsteen’s backyard. It was something of an adventurous night: a propane trailer overturned on the Meadowlands exit off the Jersey Turnpike, causing total rush hour chaos and delaying the arrival of most of the attendees. I went with my wife and two daughters to the gig–it was the kids’ first rock show, and no, I had to explain to them, overturned tractor trailers generally aren’t part of a rock show–and it took us over three and a half hours to get to the parking lot. Luckily, most of the other attendees were late, so they delayed the start of the show for an hour. Springsteen fans were not disappointed, playing many of his hits as well as a few old chestnuts that are apparently rarities in concert, like “Jungleland,” “Rosalita,” and “Incident at 57th Street,” even one I’ve never even heard of called “Pretty Flamingo.” Ravitz lighting remain as crisp and effortless as it was when I saw the show back in the fall; I can’t think of many LDs who are so perfectly matched to the performers, but he’s right up there with the best of the lot.

I also have to say I’m quite proud of my little rockers, who quickly mastered both the generic rock concert fist pump and the quite specific refrain of BRROOOOCE from this particular audience. And was equally surprised at my youngest, who fell asleep after the first 90 minutes and didn’t stir for the rest of the show. We had to pack them into the car as the encore began, late as it was, but I’m glad this got to be their first show and not, shudder to think, Hannah Montana.

Ravitz’ lighting director on the tour remains Todd Ricci, since 2002; the GrandMA operator is John Hoffman, programmed by Jason Badger. Springsteen and the E Street Band are scheduled to tour through the end of August. Ravitz is currently working on a TV project and says he will try to be at LDI again this year.

I have been programming on an Expression 3 for the show, and the discussion came up between the designer and me about how you would write a RemDim Macro for the board.  Well I figured someone else had come up with the answer, but after a quick glance around the internet, I only found a few hits, and some of the Macros were fairly complex.  The one that I did try didn’t work, or I didn’t understand their complex syntax.  So none-the-less I went out to improve and write my own Macro.  I ultimately came up with two solutions that are more based on personal preference.  They work just fine, but I am still attempting to think of a way to start the Macro “At Full” so you can type in [Channel Number, Macro*] instead of typing [Macro*, Channel Number] and potentially missing the M-wait delay window.

[Rec] [Cue 999.9] [Enter] [Time] [0] [Enter] [Enter] [Cue 999.9] [Go C/D] [Rel] [Clear C/D] [M-Wait 1.5] [At] [Full]

To clarify what this does:  It records a very unlikely Cue 999.9, then change the time of that Cue to 0, then goes to that cue and releases the channels and clears the cue.  Then the cue will fade to whatever the default cue clear time is on the board.  It should be 5 seconds by default, but I like to change it to 2 or 3 seconds.  Your default time should be longer than the time you allow in the M-Wait command though that follows.  Then there is a M-Wait which allows you to type just the channel number or group number during 1.5 seconds or however long you would like it to be and brings it at full.  For channels you can type just the number as it defaults to channel, but if you want to bring a group up to focus on this Macro you have hit [Group] [Number]  The result is a nice fade of the current light or look followed by your new fixture popping on at full.  There are a few other things I might alter to make it better, but for me it works just fine.

[Stage] [Rec] [Group 999.9] [Stage] [Chan] [M-Wait 1.5] [At] [Full] [Group 999.9] [At] [0][0]

To clarify what this does:  This is very similar to the above Macro, except that it is a little more crude, as rather then having a nice fade of your other lights, your new light pops on and then your old light pops out.

If anyone else has any really great Macros let me know.

I feel maybe it’s time to start compiling a list of things that should never be, this being among the first bastardizations of many. I’m all for technology and how it helps our lives everyday, but doing away with people altogether? Has Lucas seen Terminator? So, let’s start a list, specific to our industry, of things that should never be (or should never come back).

I’ll start: iPhone apps that churn out production designs given just a few parameters (no designers required). Hmmmmm?

(Click, It Will Open a New Window)