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WIDE ANGLE PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS George Michael 25 Live Tour Photos & Text by SteveJennings You don’t have to be that old to be surprised with the fact that George Michael, frontman for the 1980s pop band Wham!, has been performing for more than a quarter of a century. The first leg of his 25 Live tour, which supports a greatest hits album by the same name, traveled though Europe in late 2006. The North American leg that began earlier this year represents the artist’s first live tour in the U.S. and Canada in 17 years. Benoit “Ben” Richard, lighting designer and director, and Richard Shipman, video programmer/director/ department head, say Michael played a significant role in coming up with the ideas for the tour’s visuals, where video dominates and lighting plays a supporting role. “I’m sad that the tour is almost over,” Richard said. “All great things must come to an end. But I’m ready for the next big challenge.” In little more than a blink of an eye, that might just be a George Michael tour called 50 Live. George Michael marked 25 years in the music biz with a tour that lasted almost two years longer. Video Steals the Show Benoit “Ben” Richard: “Late in 2005, Vince Foster was the original lighting and set designer for the show but when he had to leave for another tour, I was brought in to take over after the first dozen shows in Europe in Oct. 2006. Willie Williams and Ken Watts worked with Barco to develop the MiStrips for this highly visual show. George Michael himself actively participated in all aspects of the design process and everything you see during the show comes from his original ideas. There’s no doubt that the video screens are the main highlight of the show. The lighting system serves as a ‘supporting role’ to pump the beat in the dance numbers and make the slower songs more theatrical. We also programmed the show to time code, which makes the whole experience even more impressive.” The tour represented the artist’s first tour in the U.S. and Canada in 17 years. Support from the Crew Benoit “Ben” Richard: “To my right at front of house is Blake Rogers, who has been my right hand man forever. On this tour, I needed him to be at front of house during the show to monitor the system and to deal with me moaning about broken gear. Thanks to his hard work and dedication to the project, we’ve had great shows during this North American leg. Kevin Forster, the account rep at Ed & Ted’s Excellent Lighting put together a great crew for us on this tour. Richard Shipman started at front of house and used Zookeeper to communicate with his three Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers backstage. Once everything was programmed and locked to code, he moved backstage and monitored the show from a SpyCam feed at the front of house.” A large video wall dominated the center of the multi-level set, flanked by video screens on both sides. Lighting played a supporting role. 50 PLSN SEPTEMBER 2008
A Political Juggling Act Richard Shipman: “I joined the U.S. leg in May for pre-production to iron out some previous issues. I’m the department head for video and the graphics programmer/editor and final vision mixer for all screen content. I liaised with the software suppliers on formats, pixel ratios and general formatting of any content for the screens. During the show I vision mix between the graphics and the camera cut, inserting camera pictures with the visuals as agreed with George directly. I’m responsible for all aspects of the visual look of the show and act as a bridge between tour production, artist production and software producers, so you could say I am a ‘politician.’ I am the bridge for tour artist and content providers to ensure the screen hardware is built and working, that the material is synched and correct with cameras inserted to George’s brief, and that the current or revised edits of any content are being used and managed for the software providers or content production. Before the tour in preproduction, I specified the graphics units from XL Video, liaised with the content providers, Bikini Films, and received an artist brief from George regarding final overall looks for the tour. It was quite a juggling act.” Richard Shipman vision-mixed camera footage with graphics during the shows, incorporating ideas for the visuals from George Michael himself. Serving Up the Video Content Richard Shipman: “I’m using Hippotizer V3 units running from MIDI time code triggering three independent timelines, one for each screen, managed by a Zookeeper PC at front of house via a Cat 6 Ethernet link to the servers backstage. The PPU camera cut by Paul Eggerton is fed into the Hippos live and any DVE sizing and mirror effects are via the Hippos, thus eliminating delay down to two frames to the screen. This final vision mix is done uniquely via a MIDI map on the Zookeeper system onto a Berringer BCF2000 unit. So all I had at front of house was a laptop PC and the BCF. Nigel Saddler at Green Hippo, who wrote some specific code required for this MIDI map and timecode display, was a big help.” CREW Lighting Designer/Director: Benoit “Ben” Richard Video Playback Programmer/Director/ Dept. Head: Richard Shipman Video Staging Designer: Willie Williams Tour Director: Ken Watts Production Manager: Mark Spring Lighting Crew Chief: Kevin Tyler Syncrolite/Moving Light Tech: Jeremy Knight Lighting FOH: Blake Rogers Dimmers: Jerry Smith, Rhane Rhodes Lighting Techs: Moss Everhard Lighting Company: Ed & Ted’s Excellent Lighting Account Rep: Kevin Forster Video Company: XL Video (Belgium, U.K., L.A.) Live Director: Paul “Eggy” Eggerton Video Engineer: David Cruz Video Screen Technician: Frederick Opsomer Design: Innovative Design Video Content: Sam Pattinson (Onedotzero Industries), Willie Williams (Neal Street Studios) Set Construction: Chris Cronin, Merv Thomas, Total Solutions Group; Adrian Brooks, Lite Structures: James Fairorth, Adam Davis, Tait Towers Soft Goods: Megan Ducket, Sew What? Inc. Stage Engineering: Neil Darrocott, Andy Prescott, Xolve Ltd. GEAR Lighting Consoles: Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3, 2 Catalyst v4 w/ PixelMad Media Servers, 3 Hippotizer V3 Media Servers 22 4-Light DWE Mole — Feys 2 Arrisun 4kw HMI 40/25 Fresnels with Eclipse DMX dousers 21 Color Kinetics Color Blaze 72 LEDs 24 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 LEDs 4 Lycian 2.5kw truss spots 32 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes with color changers 45 Martin MAC 2K Profiles 74 Martin MAC 2K Wash fixtures 28 PAR 16s with MR16 flood 16 PixelRange PixelLine 1044s 22 Robe REDBlinder 2-96 LED Fixtures 14 Syncrolite SXB-5/3 Fixtures Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 2008 SEPTEMBER PLSN 51
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