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INTERVIEW
PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
Eric Cathcart
on Both Sides of
the Snake
By VickieClaiborne
The towers grew in height to accommodate 26-foot high banners, keeping the Syncrolites farther away from the top rows of the bleachers.
Eric Cathcart at the Red Bull International Freestyle Motocross
event’s FOH booth.
When the Red Bull International Freestyle
Motocross competition came
to the Stockyards in Fort Worth,
Texas, lighting designer Eric Cathcart was
there to make sure the lighting was up to
par for the hi-def acquisition. Cathcart, who
was recently named vice president of Midnight
Lighting in Austin, brought with him
a lighting plot, an Avo console, and 15 years
of experience, both on the road and with
local production. More importantly, he carried
with him the knowledge that each and
every production is the most important in
the world to the producer, the promoter, or
that one kid in the cheap seats. PLSN caught
up with him to find out how he approaches
such a unique lighting project and to find
out how he works both sides of the snake.
PLSN: How did you get involved in the Red
Bull International Freestyle Motocross
competition?
Eric Cathcart: C3 Presents was hired
by Red Bull to produce the event. C3 has
worked with Midnight Lighting on the
Austin City Limits Music Festival as well as
other local Austin events including the Red
Bull Flutag last year. I was hired by Midnight
Lighting. I have been working for them as
a freelancer and a full time employee since
1995.
What are some of the challenges in designing
a show like this?
I think that the main issue was coming
up with the structure. This show was in a
stockyard with no permanent structure to
rig from. We actually worked for several
months figuring out how to get the lights
in the air without spending the entire budget
on structure and not having anything
left for the lighting rig itself. There were
several factors that ended up dictating the
final structure. The main thing that helped
me out was the branding team needing
more space for banners. The towers were
originally going to be 40 feet tall, placing
the rigging points only 15 feet above the
last row. I had visions of Syncrolites bumping
people off the bleachers. Fortunately
the branding team had 26-foot tall banners
that they wanted to put on the scaff
towers, giving me some very much needed
height. Another challenge was the fact that
this was a big show with lots of eye candy
but it was also being shot in hi-definition
for ABC Sports, so the TV lighting had to be
spot on.
Describe what some of your cues would
be like on a show like this.
There were actually very few cues in this
show. The opening sequence was fairly cue
intensive, but the main show was concentrating
on the TV lighting. In between runs
I would have about 10 seconds to do a little
bit of playing. The main thing that I was doing
when I could play with the lights was to
paint pictures around the venue. During the
runs I was doing some subtle but effective
cues like a slow dimmer chase with the 16
Syncro XL10s that I was using to create a ceiling
of light.
What type of issues came up onsite that
you didn't foresee?
The wind was the main factor. We had a
couple of 70-foot scaff towers blown over by
the wind. The crane had just finished placing
the trusses and Syncros on the top of
the towers when the wind just picked up
and pushed it over. No one was hurt; the last
guy had just gotten to the ground, but it was
eerie watching a couple of towers fall over.
Even the way that the track was laid out had
to be changed to accommodate the direction
of the wind. Other than that there were
just some last minute changes, a couple of
things that worked on paper that just didn't
quite work in reality. The TV people wanted
more light than we had on site so there were
some calls made to get some more snorkel
lifts and some Soft Suns trucked in from LA
at literally the last minute. Those ended up
getting hung at dawn the day of the show
just as I was finishing up the programming.
What did you learn from doing this event?
As far as the event itself is concerned
there was so much pre-production, that for
the size of the event it went very smoothly.
During pre-production I was doing some
things I had never done before like figuring
out how many footcandles a pod of 48 very
narrow PAR cans will produce on a 125-foot
snorkel lift 225 feet away from the track. Fortunately
this event has been going on for
the past several years in other countries so
I was able get some valuable information
from the Red Bull people about some previous
mistakes. They let me know right off of
the bat that in the past when they are not
in an existing arena that the lights haven't
been high enough and therefore not focused
where the riders are jumping. It was kind of
different while we were focusing keeping
in mind that the riders are actually flying
through the air 45 feet above the ground.
How did you get into lighting?
When I was a kid I loved going to concerts.
In high school I was involved with all
of the productions in the theatre. Since then
I knew that I wanted to something with music,
theatre, or the movies but I wasn't sure
what. There was a short time when I wanted
to be a sound guy, but I think that it was because
I liked to watch the LED VU meters on
my tape deck when I was a kid. When I was
in college I worked as a stagehand and the
local lighting company let me push the faders
for an opening act and that was it. From
that day on I have been a lighting guy. Most
of my experience is in the concert world. I
have put many years into doing local production
doing a different show on a daily
basis. I have done some work on movies, TV,
corporate events and even a little stint in
the install world doing some architectural
lighting design.
Who are some of your most recent
clients?
Olivia Newton-John and Michael Bolton
have been my two main touring clients
lately. I did just fill in for a couple of Devo
dates in Europe. When I am not on the road
I do quite a bit of local production work for
Midnight Lighting in Austin, Texas, some of
it standard 120k PAR can rigs and some of
it larger shows like this Red Bull event, and
a free concert that was in Austin last year
that had Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson
and a whole slew of other heavy hitters.
I like doing the local production thing for
the variety. I had a month recently where
I did The Mars Volta, B.B. King, Ice Cube,
Spoon, and the Bodeans. It's nice to have
the variety even if I'm not the LD on all of
the shows.
44 PLSN NOVEMBER 2008