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P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S Jay-Z and Eminem Home and Home Visuals Prepared in Prelite Studios Eminem performs in Detroit during the four-stop tour. Patrick Dierson and Daniel Boland relied on Prelite Studios for design support and previsualization. NEW YORK and DETROIT — Home and Home, the joint tour featuring Jay-Z and Eminem, only included four dates in the artists’ respective hometowns (New York and Detroit). But it was still essential that Patrick Dierson, lighting designer for the tour, and Daniel Boland, show designer for Eminem, create a full complement of lighting looks for both artists and video content for Eminem. Both designers called upon bicoastal Prelite Studios to get a head start and maximize their creative time in an offline environment. Dierson and Boland are longtime clients of Prelite, which helps lighting designers and programmers use emerging technologies to previsualize lighting and video elements for productions. “Prelite has saved my bacon on more than one occasion,” Dierson said. “For the Home and Home Tour there would have been no way the production was able to rent out Comerica Park or Yankee Stadium for the time it took to make the show sweet. So it was amazing to have Prelite’s technology at our disposal.” About a week before the band arrived, Rodd McLaughlin set up a Prelite system running Vision software and Autodesk 3ds Max along with grandMA lighting control consoles at New York’s SIR Studios. “That enabled us to do all the previz in the studio adjacent to where the band rehearses,” Dierson said. “I was able to get updates in realtime from the band when they came in, and we had the Pro Tools engineer, monitor engineer and Front of House engineer all in the same room, too. It was a very cohesive environment to work in, with obvious benefits to the workflow.” He found Prelite especially helpful for “musicians who tend to ‘see’ with their ears. They could walk into our room and see the previz on the giant screen, and I’d tell them, ‘This is what I’ll be doing when you play.’ They immediately got it. Even more mutual respect was built up during this process because the band saw how much effort we put into the show and how much we need each other to deliver a great show.” Dierson also partnered with Drew Findley, Jay-Z’s screen director, and Dirk Sanders, his video director, who managed all the rapper’s video content with their own system to create a “very cohesive” approach to Jay-Z’s performance. Dierson noted that he remembers what it’s like to sit in the cheap seats, and he used that recollection to the concertgoers’ advantage when designing show lighting. “I like to use Prelite to fly to the cheapest seats in the house and make certain those people get a really interesting concert experience,” he said. “I’m very cognizant of what it’s like to be up there, and I always try to design something within the show that can get out to them. For this show we had towers of audience lights that could extend the stage look to the back of the house. The gobos, templates and washes were equally powerful there as in the front row.” He hadn’t intended to use moving trusses for Jay-Z’s portion of the show, but discovered that there were “a handful of moments” where he wanted to deploy them. “Prelite let me drop in various moving trusses, play around and see what were the most interesting moves with a touch of a button,” he noted. “It was fantastic.” NEWS On the West Coast, Daniel Boland worked quite differently with Prelite. Tom Thompson shipped a Prelite system to Boland’s home office in Altadena, CA, where it worked in tandem with a pair of grandMAs and a rack of media servers. Boland programmed Eminem’s lighting on one console while Matt Shimamoto programmed the video content on another. “I felt the real theme of the show for Eminem was his recovery from his addiction to drugs and alcohol. It was his comeback tour,” Boland said. “I wanted a bold look — everything was bigger and brighter, with more powerful instruments. In fact, it was the first time I had used certain fixtures that Patrick had spec’d for the rig, like the Chromlech Jarags that rim the eyeball-shaped screens on stage. And I had never used PRG Bad Boys in a stadium context, so it was a matter of getting them to punch out. “It was great to mock up the rig and sit comfortably in my office and program any time I felt the inspiration. And I wasn’t wasting people’s time while I was creating color palettes and focus palettes on the new fixtures.” Boland also noted that he could “configure the moving trusses that Patrick designed so they weren’t in the way of the images on Eminem’s screen,” and added that, “working with Ben Johnson, who created Eminem’s video content, we used the previz software to take snapshots of the screens and email them to the rigger physically moving the trusses so he could configure the trusses to not get in the way of the images. When we arrived in Detroit, the trusses were already programmed — an added bonus I didn’t expect.” 2010 NOVEMBER PLSN 11
INTERNATIONAL NEWS P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S LD for Indochine Fills Stade de France with Moving Light Olivier Payen used Martin fixtures to frame the five screens in the stadium. SAINT-DENIS, France — Olivier Payen, lighting designer for veteran French rockers Indochine, faced a challenge when lighting the band’s tour stop at the Stade de France earlier this year. Indochine was celebrating 30 years with the tour that ran from Oct. 2009 to Sept. 2010, and the 80,000-capacity Stade de France was filled with fans of the rock group. The lighting rig needed to fill the stadium with light, yet work with the five 16:9 video screens occupying the north curve of the stadium — a total area of 720 square meters. Payen, who had also lit Indochine’s previous Alice&June tour, opted for a design that used fixtures to surround the screens in order to break up and soften their severity and help them blend in with their surroundings. Rental company Arpège recommended Martin Professional’s new MAC 2000 Beam XB fixture, and supplied these along with a number of other Martin fixtures used on stage, both rigged and on the floor. Six MAC 2000 Beam XBs were placed on each side of the stage to complement the screen design, and had enough power to project effectively in front of the bright video screens. To fill the stadium across the audience for the various camera angles, Payen used 36 additional MAC 2000 Beam XBs. “I wanted to create some wash light effects among the audience,” he said. “Mission accomplished.” He also credited the affordability of the upgrade kit. Thomas Dechandon of Concept K, the tour’s console operator, also said he was “hugely impressed” with the fixture’s output, calling it calling it “perfect for stages of this size and for open-air use. “The MAC 2000 Beam XB beams made it easy to draw in the smoke, even though it was still very light,” Dechandon added, also crediting the fixture for versatility. “You still get the effects of the gobos, but you also keep the option of making the beam burst out using the honeycomb lens to obtain a true wash light.” Along with the 32 MAC 2000 Wash XBs and 36 Atomic 3000 strobes, 22 MAC III Profiles were used. Payen had chosen them for their “wide range of options” and effects. Sixteen of The fixtures also lit the crowd from high above. the MAC III Profiles were positioned above the central screen to add texture to the stage, to create special effects across the audience when the lead singer encouraged them to join in and to create aerial drawings above the stage. The other six MAC IIIs were installed on towers on both sides of the stage and used to create a color wash, or for special effect on the artists. PSI Supplies Moving Lights, LED Gear for BBC Proms In the Park Belfast Challenges included tight security at the mansion, an official residence. EDINBURGH, Scotland — More than 100 Edinburgh Fringe Festival venues used Zero 88 for lighting control and dimming, with gear provided by Zero 88 dealers including Black Light, Northern Light, Stage Electrics, Hawthorn, HSL and Stage Lighting Services. Products in use varied from the Level 6 DMX through to the ORB and ORB XF professional theatre consoles. The largest presence of Zero 88 products this year was once again at the Pleasance venues, which used 23 Zero 88 control desks and 56 Betapack dimmers (including generation 1, 2 and 3 varieties). The smallest venues at the Pleasance feature just six ways of dimming and a Juggler console, while the largest, the Pleasance Grand, included an ORB and 34 Martin Mac 700 moving lights. Chief electrician Dom Knight sad he chose the Zero 88s based upon their versatility and flexibility. “It was a logical choice to stick with Zero 88 for this year’s festival,” Knight said. “The support that Zero 88 give to the Pleasance has been invaluable to the success of this years fringe.” The presence of Zero 88 at the Pleasance extends back nearly a decade and is a relationship managed by Blacklight’s business development manager Phil Haldene. Zero 88 now provides on-site support throughout the festival period at the Pleasances’ venues and the multitude of other venues across the city. Blacklight’s crew has also been busy at the Pleasance during the year. A new Chilli dimmer installation was added to Pleasance One before the festival, featuring 96 channels of Chilli 2410i dimming together with house light controls from a Chilli 410HF. This was cited as a muchneeded upgrade to the venue, which is run throughout the year by Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA). The Blacklight team and EUSA LX chief Dave Moffatt specified the install. For the festival, this installation was BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Production Services Ireland (PSI) supplied moving lights, LED surfaces, rigging and crew for the BBC Northern Ireland Proms In The Park event, staged at Hillsborough Castle, an 18th century mansion and the official residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. PSI worked with BBC Northern Ireland’s lighting department to fulfill the vision of LDs John Gallagher and Philip Brines. The Ulster Orchestra, The Priests, flautist Brian Finnegan, violinist Alexandra Soumm and Duke Special all performed. PSI shoehorned its 16-meter-by-13-meter box truss atop Star Events’ 18-by-13-meter stage, and because the design required its depth to be slightly greater than that of the roof, the whole construction was cantilevered by 75cm at the front. PSI also provided oval supplemented with a pre-release ORB XF console from Zero 88. The venue did not experience any problems with the prototype console throughout the run of the fringe. “I specified Chilli’s for the Pleasance Theatre, as I know they’re reliable, solid dimmers,” said Moffat. “The rest of the year, this venue is operated by students who need kit that just works.” Stage Electrics’ rental department was also busy specifying at lease 25 Zero 88 consoles into venues this year, including Jesters for the Gilded Balloon and a number of Leap Frog 48s, Jester MLs and Jester TLXtras for the Underbelly and Assembly venues. The Zero 88 team also provided support and training for these venues, working alongside the Stage Electrics’ support team led by head of technical and hire Adrian Searle. truss and drop arms to fill visual gaps. To supplement BBC’s moving and conventional light fixtures, PSI provided with 12 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, Chroma-Q Color- Block LED battens, ColorWeb 250 and two Lycian 2.5K followspots, which the company acquired for the project. Content for the ColorWeb and Color- Blocks was stored on two Hippotizer media servers from PSI — a Hippo Express and a Hippo Stage. Gallagher made custom content for the event to run through these, which were triggered via his Compulite Vector Green lighting console. The PSI crew included Sean Pagel, Joe Byrne and Brian Crowe. They worked four BBC crew members and two others helping with the load-in and load-out. Most Edinburgh Fringe Venues Rely on Zero 88 for Lighting Control An appearance by Comedy Reserve at Pleasance Beyond. Photo courtesy of Andrew Hebblethwaite 12 PLSN NOVEMBER 2010
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