23
MASTER DESIGNERS

In the second edition of this book, three designers showed projects, plans, and equipment lists and discussed how their projects came together. This is almost more important than actually drawing a light plot. The hardest part for many designers is dealing with the client, the performance spaces, and the artist's demands that affect the design. With this edition, my prophecy that touring equipment would be used for all theatrical applications of entertainment lighting (didn't think about architecture back then) has come true. Just since the second edition went into print, moving luminaires have played a key role in lightingBroadway musicals.

You could say that two of the designers featured in this chapter are presenting traditional concert designs while the other two are bringing something unique to the book. Paul Dexter has added the title of set designer to his credentials, a unique position that only a few lighting designers have assumed. Andi Watson is known for his breakthrough green tour featuring LED lighting, and Richard Pilbrow is a famed Broadway designer and founder of Theatre Projects, Inc. Andi's project, along with that of Jeff Ravitz, who was also featured in the last edition of this book, still represent classic tour models, albeit with differing equipment and structural designs. Richard, though, brings us all the way to Broadway with his latest project, “A Tale of Two Cities.” while it may have a short life, for me it is one of the most exciting visual shows to appear on Broadway. He has utilized a massive “concert lighting” approach that he will explain shortly. Each designer has taken his own route, to be sure, and that is what makes this business so exciting—the complete diversity of what we can do. What follows are the designers explaining their projects and answering questions about their work. In the next chapter, they discuss the business in more general terms.

PAUL DEXTER: THE HEAVEN AND HELL TOUR

The Heaven and Hell (H&H) stage set was born after a trip to Stanford University and seeing their chapel for the first time. First of all, it is magnificent. The stained glass windows were mounted in arched window frames. After scouring the planet for inspiration, who knew that it would come in this way? The centerpiece and the catalyst for the H&H set became three window frame arches, but without the stained glass for projection surfaces; the three arches were suspended and capable of rising completely out of view or being lowered to perfect viewing height. A DL2 (digital light) was dedicated to each arch and the images passed through a custom gobo to control projection light in the shape of the arch.

The band's image is dark, medieval, and known for Celtic crosses. The rest of the set developed from the central window frames and extended into castle ruins—22-foot-tall broken arch doorways using realistic stone façade ideal for breakup patterns and saturated colors. To add further to the overall and illusive dimension, each arch was hinged for an 18-foot-tall medieval castle door, complete with the detail of distressed wood and decorated iron bars. Floor lighting was used directly under the arches and doors. The extreme angles accentuated the rough textures by creating eerie shadows.

The 55-foot-wide backdrop, painted the exact colors and sizes taken from samples of the castle stone used for the arch ruins, was simply a large 24-foot-tall stone wall. The soft material backdrop was used as one big projection surface for graphic movie imagery, violent fire, and ghostly figures. Two 7-foot-tall arch holes were cut in the soft muslin, offstage right and left, for lightweight window frame arches, each with the famous Celtic cross in the center. These window frames mounted to the backdrop itself. Behind, a moving light was focused to project through the cross windows, creating an effect similar to shafts of sunlight. Eight evenly spaced holes 16 feet from the stage floor were cut in a horizontal line across the center of the backdrop. These small holes were covered with diffused material and painted over. In medieval times, slits in the castle walls would have been used to shoot their weapons at the enemy below, but in this instance LED lights were positioned behind each hole, adding one more layer of contrasting light to the stage set, color, and imagery downstage.

Onstage, it was important to camouflage the necessary audio gear. Two 7-foot-tall stone pillars were positioned on either side of the 6-foot-tall by 12-foot-wide wall of speakers. A 6-foot-tall iron gate closed the gap between the pillars in front of the guitar cabinets. There were enough surfaces on the gates to accept LED floor lighting but not enough to impede sound. Surrounding the drum riser were realistic circular stone steps and a 2-1/2-foot high riser for the lead singer, complete with stone painted mesh material in front, with LED floor lighting coming through it from behind. The large scenic elements and varying sizes of the projection surfaces left myriad options for new and different looks throughout the 90-minute to 2-hour performance.

About Paul Dexter

Paul Dexter (Figure 23.1) began lighting in Los Angeles in 1970 when he was 16 years old. He turned 42 Hawaiian pineapple cans into lights and operated them with variacs and crude double-pole switches. At 18, he was asked to tour with Elvis! A colorful history of worldwide concert touring

ensued as the lighting designer and stage set designer worked with the likes of Rick James, Motley Crue, Dio, Triumph, Ozzy Osbourne, and Elton John.

From 1973 to 1990, Paul's interests diversified into film and video, and he served as the lighting designer and director for seven long-form concert DVDs and several MTV 1980s rotation videos. He was the lighting designer for Fuji TV's live 1990 studio broadcasts from London to Japan with artists such as Paul McCartney and Rod Stewart and for a live broadcast by the European cable channel Sky TV of Elton John, Live from Verona, in addition to being the lighting designer and director for the 2001 movie Rock Star.

Notable exhibits include lighting design with renowned artist Hiro Yamagata for an amazing and much lauded $3M art installation in New York City and for Sci-Fi Channel's Comic Con Exhibit, for which he was awarded the 2005 Gold Award by Exhibitor Magazine.

An entrepreneur and industry magazine author, Paul cofounded the film/media project “Road Cases” in 2004, which documents road stories from some of our industry's most amusing characters, and he was the executive producer for Road Cases Shorts, an interstitial program developed for a major cable television network in 2008.

Paul is president of his own design firm, Masterworks Design, Inc. His recent activities include touring the world with REO Speedwagon as production and lighting designer, in addition to serving as production designer for the Heaven and Hell tour and as architectural lighting designer for Activision Motion Capture Studios in Los Angeles. Paul continues to produce new multimedia projects for his “Road Cases” project.

The design Paul discusses in this chapter is the lighting for the Heaven and Hell tour featuring Ronnie James Dio (formerly with Black Sabbath). This is a tour of classic, head-banger hard-driving rock & roll music but with the latest scenic elements added. Paul was the designer of both the set and the lighting. Figure 23.2, Figure 23.3, and Figure 23.4 are production shots of the tour. Figure 23.5 shows the light plot. A new and very useful program is free from Google on-line. This figure shows a line 3-D drawing of the set using Google Sketch Up. The light plot is shown in Figure 23.6, and Figure 23.7 are photorealistic pictures of the set using an advanced (not free) Google Sketch Up program. Figure 23.8 shows the equipment list for the tour. In this case, Paul has used Sketch Up to start his basic set design, but it can also be used to draw the light plot, as there are plug-in modules for both band equipment as well as trusses and lighting fixtures.

QUESTIONS

Q. Who actually hired you?

Heaven and Hell are managed by three managers. It is a unique situation. Because the band members all have separate careers, the three principal members have their own managers. The short answer is that I was hired through a consensus of the three managers and the band.

Q. How many designs had you done for this client in the past?

This group started playing together in the late 1960s as Black Sabbath. I was the lighting designer for two tours for Ozzy Osbourne after he left Sabbath from 1981 to 1983. As fate works in mysterious ways, I went straight to Dio in 1983 right after he left Sabbath, and I stayed for five world tours. Working with Dio merged into an opportunity to design the stage set and lighting for Black Sabbath featuring Ronnie James Dio in 1992 for a comeback record and tour. Fast forward to 2007, and Heaven and Hell formed in name only to record a new CD and tour—same band, different name. I have done

years of designs for this client, but in different circumstances.

Q. Was there a budget?

Yes, but I was never given one. I asked for a figure, too. The management team replied with, “Let's see what you come up with.” To me, that did not mean free financial rein with an open checkbook, but more of invitation to develop a self-governing plan. It also meant, too, that whatever I came up with, it would have to be a knock-out design. That

way, I could be confident that some leeway would be granted instead of trying to justify every penny.

Q. What was the type of venue for the production (theatres, arenas, stadiums)?

This tour and the live production were primarily designed for arenas, but as the show moved around the world it needed to accommodate every type of stage between European festivals and smaller venues, too, like the Pearl in Las Vegas. Needless to say, the whole production had to be cut considerably for that show.

Q. How many dates?

Nearly one year's worth, from January until mid-November.

Q. Who was involved in the initial creative meeting?

I showed my early concept to one of the managers to get some reaction artistically and to see if I was heading down the right financial track. I wasn't looking for a touchdown at that meeting, but I did get a first down.

Q. Was the artist directly involved in the design process?

Absolutely! One of the biggest thrills for me as a designer is to garner all the help and input that I can from the artist, no matter who I am involved with. They have to be comfortable on stage with their surroundings, and if I can facilitate that it is all part of a good design. Lead singer Ronnie James Dio has been much more involved in live theatrics than Tony Iommi or Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice, and I always work out his drum solos and riser setup well in advance. His drum solos are like a production within a production! While members have contributing ideas, Ronnie and I have been creating sets and lighting effects together for many years. He has always been there for me to bounce new ideas off as well as develop the cueing many shows into the tour. During the design process for the Heaven and Hell Tour, I made sure that Ronnie had an opportunity to share his ideas, and I integrated those changes in the evolving plans. I also sent updated PDF drawings to help Tony and Geezer to understand the stage set direction. It was a good thing because there was a concern for the position of Tony's guitar cabinets. They were elevated and he needed them to be on the carpet, so I had to change the layout to accommodate his unique sound. That change inadvertently compelled me to come up with a new façade idea for the cabinets, which has become one of the signature looks of the band.

Q. Was a set or staging already proposed before you became involved in the lighting design?

Fortunately for me, I was the stage set designer and the lighting designer on this tour, so I was the one proposing the stage design! I might as well tell you now that the reason that I took an interest in stage design and began to act on it early on in my career was twofold. The first reason was because I was hired as a lighting designer and not considered enough to be told that there was a set. It only took one time for me to build the lighting system for a tour rehearsal one day and show up the next day with a full set built on stage. What's this? I had no idea! I didn't have enough lights to cover it, and it was too late to get more. That was before the advent of moving lights, where you could cover multiple positions. After that, I started asking questions about staging before rehearsals started. Second, when I asked managers to meet the set designer prior to a tour, it was usually to see a scale replica model. By the time I was involved, though, the build process had started and it was too late to add any additional lighting in the set—a thought that many early rock & roll stage designers didn't consider. For me, adding lighting and electronic controlled effects in the set adds another layer to the overall stage picture. Set lighting in touring is fairly common now, but it wasn't always that way.

Q. Were other creative people brought in later?

Yes. I like to rely on all the help I can get. As production designer, you can easily spread yourself too thin—a likely prospect that I try to avoid. First the stage set: The builder was selected for the tour because they had proprietary material that I wanted. It looked like real castle stone. It was dimensional, lightweight but durable and roadworthy. The added surprise bonus was that their service went way beyond providing material and building a stage set to specification. They essentially became my partner during the build process, contributing creatively as well as engineering a cohesive set, all from the early beginnings of conceptual drawings. With regard to video content and lighting, there were hundreds of cues for both the LD and the projectionist/operator. It is important for me to allow the LD and associated operators to make the show their own, so their new ideas and suggestions for improvements were welcomed during the creative process and added to the show.

Q. Who was the lighting contractor, and did you have any say in the choice?

There has been a long-standing association with Nick Jackson, formally of Light and Sound Design and now Production Resource Group (PRG). He has been the lighting account rep since the early Black Sabbath tours, which has been a trusted professional and personal relationship. Needless to say, PRG was a shoo-in for the Heaven and Hell tour. Let me explain that, as a designer, I like to stay relatively impartial to the choice of lighting companies. I may have a favorite, but my job is to submit a plot to the companies bidding for the tour, which generally give three choices to the management. When it comes to choosing lighting companies, I let the managers make the calls. I will stay available to field technical questions that may help the potential vendors understand the requirements better and help the managers understand the quotation variances. The reason that I say that is because, in my years of doing this job, I have been accused of things that I am not devious enough to think of myself. It was all because one lighting company was selected over another one and I was put in the unsolicited position of being responsible for that decision. I just have to shrug my shoulders and move on—whatever! On smaller scale tours, you don't find competition so tightly controlled. It is like any other business, though—the more money and higher caliber of tour, the more political and competitive.

Q. What was the timeline from first meeting through to your first show?

I attended a lunch meeting with one of the managers in Studio City, California, in July and the first date of the tour was the following January. It was plenty of time to have conceptual design meetings, develop new ideas, select materials, and line up vendors.

Q. How does this timeline compare to your other clients?

For me, it is never a cut-and-dry timeline formula to develop live productions. I had a reasonable amount of time to design Heaven and Hell and the end results clearly benefited from that. But, most of the time I don't always get that time luxury. My work has been, by choice, very diverse and comparatively unequal to Heaven and Hell timelines. Oftentimes, the challenge is figuring it all out with less time and fewer resources.

Q. Was your first concept the one settled on?

Yes, it was. I don't think that anyone expected for me to come up with what I did, so they were probably shocked into reluctantly saying, yes, we'll have that. I found out later, though, that when the managers drafted the initial business plan for the tour, all that was included for the stage set budget was a drum riser and a backdrop. It ended up that a 53-foot truck was needed to haul the set.

Q. How much time did you have with the lighting rig in place before the artist arrived?

There was only one day to rig/hang the lights and one day to build the set. We started programming that second night, and the band showed up at noon the next day. Let me tell you that this band plays on volume setting 11! It was impossible to get anything done when they were in the room, which was between 12 noon and 8 p.m. Consequently, our only window to program was from 9 p.m. until 6 to 7 a.m. What a glamorous life we lead!

Q. How many days did you rehearse with the artist before opening?

There weren't any rehearsals to speak of, more like piecemeal, working out parts, like the opening, backdrop reveals, and coordinating projection cues. The total amount of days in the rehearsal studio was four, and at the end of the fourth day we were still programming while the stage set was being struck and packed. Cases were piling up on all sides of us, but we still kept going. Our first show was in Canada, and fortunately we loaded in one day prior to show day, so we had just enough time to at least feel comfortable that we had a cohesive show to present—a very close call.

Q. Do you use an assistant? How many people were involved in the drafting?

An assistant is a luxury reserved for other lighting designers. I am more of a blue-collar lighting designer, so I still do all my own drawings and I love it. It's because drawing prompts me to address nuts and bolts problems and evolve a design with a first-hand understanding of the scale and relativity between stage set and lighting. For example, the Heaven and Hell set used the lighting truss as a subgrid for some of the set pieces, so I was able to accurately determine where set points needed to be. The truss structure was designed to accommodate that. If an assistant prepared my drawings, I probably wouldn't recognize all of the fine distinctions with the same depth that I do. Drawing exercises and pushes me to full completion of ideas and gives me a chance to work out all the practicalities, rigging, trim height, and positions. When I arrive onsite, there ren't too many questions that I can't answer.

Q. What program do you use to prepare the lighting drawings?

I use a Vector Works program. I find the logic in Vector easy to grasp. Having started with stencils and vellum and drawing everything by hand, I have a real appreciation for drafting with a computer software program. It is simply click and drag.

Q. Do you do any preproduction visualization programming to save time in rehearsal with the artist?

This method is not something that I have spent enough time with to personally perfect. I know it works, and I have used it, but not under the best of circumstances. However, it does not preclude having to visit and edit cues when on site. Perception always changes with physical pieces versus looking at a computer graphic of those pieces. Certainly, with larger moving light systems, previsualization is a time saver because of the head start that can be made with organizing the lights in terms of setting up palettes, groups, and focus positions. Call me old fashioned, but I still like the process of building scenes and looking at cue changes in real time.

Q. In production mode, who calls the show, and how many board operators does it take?

In my experience, the lighting director operates the console and calls the follow spots. For this production, I wrote cues and passed out script books to the lighting director and the projectionist/ board operator—so there were two operators on this particular tour. To get things started I traveled on the road for the first 10 days. I helped set up, worked through some of the inherent growing pains of a new production, and during the show stayed on headset. I was very involved at first, calling the spots and cueing everything else, but I slowly weaned off my involvement.

Q. What were some of the nightmares, problems, things that didn't go as planned?

Every new production has problems, but this one was void of any real nightmares. The learning curve was painful for some of the road crew, just getting used to new ideas and working out priority and order. There were two 16-foot-high gothic doors that turned out to be heavier than we thought, so of course having to deal with the doors on a daily basis caused some crew grumbling, but a new rigging method was soon worked out. For the most part, this set was large pieces, so assembly was not that complicated.

Q. Anything you want to add that would help other designers understand production at this level?

Yes. There are other crew members, too, besides lighting. It is easy to become buried in your work because there is so much to do on a large production causing you, not intentionally, to forget that others are under demands to complete their work, too. After all, lighting and rigging are first in, then there is focus, testing the haze and floor lighting. After the show, the lighting is the last to go in the truck. Let's face it; it is usually more concentrated hours than most of the road crew. While it seems that your life is harder than everyone else's, try to listen and understand the rest of the crew's situation and they will care (even though they don't show it that well sometimes) about yours. Managing your position with a larger production is a concerted effort, and it is easier when the rest of the crew are communicating and interacting with each other positively.

Q. Anything you want to add that you feel will be of interest to the readers?

We are in a business that does not require formal education to enter. There are no lighting MBAs or PhDs. There are certification programs available, but they are discretionary, not mandatory. All it takes to be in lighting is to have a wrench in your pocket and a good attitude and to hang out with the right people—and you will soon get jobs. The touring industry is welcoming to anyone but has an unwritten way to qualify people and that is coping with the road lifestyle. You are either meant to be able to cope with the lifestyle or not. If you are not, it is okay and you will move on to a job inside or outside of the industry that will be more suitable for you—it isn't for everybody. If it is for you, what will help you rise above the trials that are dealt you on the road, tests that your road comrades will dish out, and even broken relationships at home it will likely cause will be the endless passion for what you do. It will be genuine. Those who are on tour around you will be of like minds with the same work ethos, and nothing else is quite like the fulfillment you will feel. This will keep you active in your work, both mentally and physically, and you'll like it! Subsequently, it will be a very organic way to grow in the business—you do what you love to do and the higher positions and money will follow.

The caveat is that, while there is opportunity to grow and climb quickly to higher positions, grow and gather experience before accepting a position that you may not be qualified for. For example, there are a lot of self-professed lighting designers out there working with unearned titles who have very little to offer creatively or are technically inept. It is not always their fault. Many have won the position by default because (maybe) the company needed a designer and nobody else was available. But, once a person is thrown into a position by default, after the gig is over you can't consider yourself, after working on a couple of shows, to be a bona fide lighting designer. Not only do you need to be technically adept in concert lighting, staging, and effects, but you also need to have some understanding of musical structure. You also should practice and develop your communication skills in order to work well with others. It takes years of practice and experiences.

For me, it is an integrity issue. Compare a lighting designer to a captain in the military. What if the captain had bought his stripes at the local uniform store and sewed them on his jacket, but he did not go through the proper protocol or suffer through a few wars to gain enough experience to really call himself a captain? That would be like a self-proclaimed lighting designer touting his name in business circles but offering very little in the way of substance. Could you put others at risk without proper experience? Yes! Our business does not have policing for this type of conduct so it is up to you to know when you are ready to accept more responsibility. All it will take is to have patience and do it better today than you did yesterday. That way, you will grow naturally to achieve your goals and not through false pretenses.

RICHARD PILBROW: “A TALE OF TWO CITIES,” A BROADWAY MUSICAL

How does a veteran Broadway lighting designer get involved with a writer, director, and producers who have never done a Broadway show and not come out screaming? First, it takes the class of a man like Richard Pilbrow who quipped that he was surprised that anybody knew he was still alive. Well, master scenic designer Tony Walton did, and when he had the opportunity to suggest Richard he did. “Richard is always on the cusp of what's happening, much more so than any of his younger allies. The difficulty is luring him into it, so I always try to come up with something that's impossible to light. He moans quite a bit, but he really relishes the challenge,” said Walton.¹ The two had worked most recently on a 2003 revival of “Our Town.”

Tony had already designed six scaffold structures, 25 feet tall, that would move and reconfigure throughout the performance with one or two repeats. Added to Richard's orders were that no wires go to the units, so they were internally lit via battery-powered lights on 86 channels of DMX wireless receivers. The rest of the rig allowed for a lot of ETC Source Fours and 62 moving luminaires. In addition, 98 LED Color Blaze units along with a number of other diverse lighting units make this production a true cross-blend of concert lighting and Broadway tradition.

Richard has said that one of the most exciting things the moving luminaires provided was the ability to change focus when the director decided to move any or all of the six modules. Without stopping the rehearsal, he could refocus one or more of the VL1000 spots positioned in the front of the house from the consoles. All in all, he only had 4-1/2 hours to write 350 cues using 1000 control channels. The combination of lighting was stunning and garnered rave reviews, even if the show did not have a long run. Richard, as you will read later, is no stranger to moving luminaires, and this production allowed the technology developed in concert touring to highlight his talent. Figure 23.9, Figure 23.10, and Figure 23.11 are production photos from the Broadway production. Figure 23.12 is the light plot, Figure 23.13 is the equipment list, and Figure 23.14 is the crew list.

About Richard Pilbrow

Richard Pilbrow (Figure 23.15) is one of the world's leading theatre consultants and a pioneer stage lighting designer. He is also an author and a theatre, film, and television producer. He has been responsible for many innovations in stage lighting, theatre architectural design, and technology. Richard was a pioneer of modern stage lighting in the United Kingdom. He was the first British lighting designer to design the lighting for a Broadway musical (“Zorba”). His Broadway credits include “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Our Town” (starring Paul Newman), “The Life,” Hal Prince's revival of “Show Boat,” “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead,” and “The Rothchilds.” In 2008, he was lighting designer for “The Sleeping Beauty” for the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House.

In 1957, Richard founded Theatre Projects as a lighting design and rental company in London. Under his leadership, the company has grown to be an international theatre design-consulting firm with over 1000 projects in 60 countries. Fifty years later, as the founder and chairman emeritus of Theatre Projects Consultants, Richard is still consulting on some of the most significant arts projects in the world, including three major performing arts centers in the United States: the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City.

Published in 1970, his book Stage Lighting, with a foreword by Lord Olivier, became an international teaching text. A second book, Stage Lighting Design: The Art, the Craft, the Life, with a foreword by Hal Prince, was published in 1997 (reprinted in 2008). In 2003, Richard coauthored (with Patricia MacKay) The Walt Disney Concert Hall—The Backstage Story.

In 2005, Richard was honored as Lighting Designer of the Year by Lighting Dimensions magazine. In December 2005, in the premier edition of Live Design, he was named as one of the ten visionaries among designers and artists who were the most influential people in the world of visual design for live events.

His project is the bold and beautiful Broadway production of “A Tale of Two Cities” at the 1200-seat Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, which premiered in July of 2008.

QUESTIONS

Q Who actually hired you?

Don Frantz, General Manager, Town Square Productions. Recommended by Tony Walton, Scenic Designer.

Q. How many designs had you done for this client in the past?

None.

Q. Was there a budget?

Yes.

Q. What was the type of venue for the production (theatres, arenas, stadiums)?

Broadway theatre: tryout at the Asolo Playhouse in Sarasota, Florida; performance at Hirschfeld Theatre in New York City.

Q. How many dates?

Florida tryout, November 2007; Broadway, July to October 2008.

Q. Who was involved in the initial creative meeting?

Scenic designer Tony Walton, director Warren Carlyle, and costume designer David Zinn.

Q. Was a set or staging already proposed before you became involved in the lighting design?

The concept of the setting was evolved prior to my coming on board. Previous attempts to get the show on Broadway had taken place over a 5-year period. The set consisted of a series of back-and front-lit cloths that depicted general locations (London, Paris, etc.) and six two-story-tall steel towers that formed up to 40 different configurations. Towers were dressed with properties and set dressing to represent different homes, bars, courtrooms, prisons, etc. They, and beautiful period-inspired costumes, were lit to form a series of strongly characterized locations and times of day and seasons of the year for the fast-moving story in a dramatic manner.

Q. Were other creative people brought in later?

Gregg Meeh for special effects.

Q. Who was the lighting contractor, and did you have any say in the choice?

PRG, New York. My recommendation in part because of their stock of DHA Pitching Light Curtains.

Q. What was the timeline from first meeting through to first show?

Tryout at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, FL, June 1987 to November 1987; Broadway run from February 1988 to July 1988 production and September opening.

Q. How does this timeline compare to your other clients?

Often similar.

Q. Was your first concept the one settled on?

In principle, yes. There was never a discussion with the producer or director as to what equipment I would use. My design came out of the needs of the fast-moving plot and scenic/lighting concept—my decision.

Q. If not, was the reason financial constraints or another consideration?

Budget was reasonable: $90,000 for preparation and $14,900 weekly.

Q. How much time did you have with the lighting rig in place before the artists arrived?

Broadway load-in, July 14; focus, August 1 and 2; first tech with actors, August 4 to 13; dress

rehearsal, August 14 to 18, with previews August 19 to September 17. The show opened September 19. The load-in electrics crew averaged 13 plus 2 effects plus 6 sound crew. Apart from hanging the rig they had to wire 90 channels of remote-controlled MR16s in the wagons that could only be done onstage after they'd been erected. Focusing conventional took a couple of days. All programming was done during tech except for three short morning sessions during late tech for programming “tidy-up.” Total about 4 to 5 hours. 350 cues with about 1300 channels, including effects. Essentially, programming was the fast part thanks to WYSIWYG and Virtual Magic Sheet. We only very seldom had to ask actors to wait for us through rehearsals.

Q. How many days did you rehearse with the artists before opening?

First tech with actors, August 4 to first preview, August 19. Actors and crew moved the two-story units, so these changes had to be plotted and rehearsed. First preview, August 19 to opening night September 18.

Q. Do you use an assistant? How many people were involved in drafting?

Associate—Michael Gottlieb (drafting, technical supervision); assistants—Kathleen Dobbin (moving light program plotting) and Graham Kindred (follow spot plotting). Jay Scott was my associate on the Sarasota tryout but was not available for the Broadway run because of a

prior commitment on the Beijing Olympics. He led with technical planning and set the eclectics drawings and specifications in Sarasota. In addition, he was the liaison with Michael to get him up to speed to take over the show in New York.

Q. What program do you use to prepare the lighting drawings?

Vector Works.

Q. Do you do any preproduction visualization programming to save time in rehearsal with the artist?

WYSIWYG and Virtual Magic Sheet.

Q. In production mode, who calls the show, and how many board operators does it take?

The stage manager calls show. Other crew include one master electrician (Michael Ward), one house chief electrician, one board operator, four follow spots (two front and two FOH high-side positions); during production and technical rehearsals, one lighting programmer (Robert Bell).

Q. What were some of the nightmares, problems, things that didn't go as planned?

No nightmares, challenges. Mainly pressures of a production with continually moving three-dimensional scenery moved by cast and crew into over 40 different configurations.

Q. Anything you want to add that would help other designers understand production at this level?

Key was very open communication between the director and design team and detailed preparatory work. Actual lighting preparation time without performers was about 4 hours for over 350 cues.

Q. Anything you want to add that you feel will be of interest to the readers?

A very complex and fast-moving production with numerous moving lights, principally employed as multiple specials to light into often moving, double-story scenic towers. Use of WYSIWYG and Virtual Magic Sheet enormously speeded up the process of handling over 1400 channels (including effects). Great design team, excellent electrics crew, and very cooperative stage crew organized by Chris Smith.

ANDI WATSON: RADIOHEAD IN RAINBOWS TOUR

At first, the experienced concert-goer might not detect the major change in lighting that is about to be presented in this current Radiohead tour: green. Not just the color, though; the tour is green in the sense of the lighting presenting a small carbon footprint. That was accomplished by using all LED lighting units to illuminate the stage, band, and audience. One of the reasons for this concept coming to life is that the group's lead singer is a member of the environmental group called Friends of the Earth. The production manager, Richard Young, is also involved to the point of contributing to a report on the tour, which showed that fans actually produce the vast majority of the carbon footprint.²

What could the band do to help? The logical starting point was the massive lighting rig. However, we can't forget about the miles and miles that the trucks carrying all the touring equipment pile up. That was figured at almost 40% of the band's portion of the carbon consumed. So, even though the lighting turned out not to be a major offender, it was an area whose footprint might be reduced. On the 2003 tour, the lighting required 900 amps per phase, or 2700 amps of power. When Andi Watson and the creative/technical team were able to lower that figure to 135 amps per phase, or 405 amps of power—less than 15% of the power consumed formerly. Andi described the show's look in a PLSN article as “a 3-D video display with very low resolution, with 12 pixels horizontally, 288 pixels vertically, and six panels deep.”³ The tubes are laid out in such a way if an audience member moves a few feet left or right the images will be totally different. “It is a very subjective user experience,” Andi said.

The more traditional lighting on the band was provided by iPIX's BB7s. They are petal-shaped luminaires in a 7-cell, homogenized, 10-degree RGB light source. Andi believes that he was able to achieve matching colors because the LEDs matched better than multiples of most incandescent sources. All in all, 65,000 individual LED components illuminated the stage and projections, a singular achievement for a concert tour thus far. Figures 23.16 through 23.18 demonstrate the mass of LED luminaires used on this unique tour. Figure 23.19 is a 3D view of the lighting. Figure 23.20 shows one page of the light plot, and Figure 23.21 shows an equipment list, most of which was purchased by the band. Figure 23.22 lists the lighting crew.

About Andi Watson

Andi Watson (Figure 23.23) was born in a small village in the English countryside, and after leaving school he moved to Brighton to study Engineering at Sussex University. In his free time, he was involved in local concert promotion and worked at many shows, both as a stage hand and later as a lighting technician and board operator. After leaving Sussex University in 1985 with an honors degree in electrical and electronic engineering and computer science, he worked for a local lighting company doing pretty much everything from driving vans to designing computer memory lighting desks. In 1987, after answering an advertisement in the Guardian newspaper, he was offered a job at Samuelson's in London as a Vari* Lite technician working initially on VL1 systems. Within 8 weeks of his starting work, the Series 200 system was released and he found himself working directly for Vari* Lite on tour operating the first shows in Europe with VL2 luminaires. After working for 4 years at Vari* Lite and programming and operating world tours for bands such as INXS, The Cure, and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as numerous television shows, awards ceremonies, corporate launches, and raves, he left to pursue a career as an independent designer. Since leaving Vari* Lite in 1990, Andi has worked for numerous bands designing, programming, and operating systems ranging from small showcases in clubs to stadium tours. Clients include Radiohead, Dido, Counting Crows, Oasis, The Cult, Skunk Anansie, Zazie, Rapael, and many others.

Andi is fascinated by synesthesia and the way we absorb and attempt to understand visual information on both conscious and unconscious levels. In the last few years, the majority of his work has been as production designer/creative director, designing the set, lighting,

and video elements of live performances. Especially since the introduction of DMX-controlled media servers, he has used video as an integral part of his designs, making use of both prerendered content and, more often, live cameras and visual data manipulated in real time. On recent tours, he has worked closely with software and hardware designers to push the scope of visual manipulation and control technology to blur the boundaries between rock concerts and installation art.

QUESTIONS

Q. Who actually hired you?

I have been the band's designer since 1994 and have always been employed directly by the band.

Q. How many designs had you done for this client in the past?

I have worked for Radiohead since before the elease of their second album (The Bends) and have designed all their tours since 1994. while each tour has had its own look and feel, some of the tours have had more than one design. This has largely been due to the band's choice of venues for different legs of the tour.

Q. Was there a budget?

There is always a budget, isn't there? while I would love to imagine there are tours with truly literally unlimited budgets, I find it hard to believe they actually exist. Maybe they do, in which case I really think the designers who find themselves in that situation need to be a little more imaginative! Personally, I always approach a design on the basis that the budget should not adversely affect what I would like to do artistically, while appreciating that it is inevitable that at some point it will. Just like gravity, it is something that ultimately cannot be avoided but which maybe it is better to ignore while coming up with initial design ideas. To me, it seems counter productive to start the design process by thinking of all the things you can't do as opposed to exploring all the things you dream of doing.

Q. What was the type of venue for the production (theatres, arenas, stadiums)?

The tour began in U.S. sheds [amphitheatres] and up to now we have played many of those as well as a number of parks, festivals, sports grounds, two big indoor arenas, and a theatre in Tokyo. Audiences have ranged from over 80,000 down to 2500.

Q. How many dates?

So far we have played about 50 shows, with another 10 scheduled for South America next year.

Q. Who was involved in the initial creative meeting?

Radiohead are an unusual client for me in the sense that prior to presenting my design ideas I did not have a traditionally creative meeting with

the band and management. Initially, I had spoken with the band's management regarding the band's wishes to make the tour have as little negative environmental impact as possible and had spoken with Richard Young, Radiohead's production manager, about the rather unusual scenario that we were involved in, with not air-freighting anything but the absolute minimum of band instruments. On the basis of this and knowing the expected venue range I then created the design concept. One of the huge implications of the band's desire to avoid air freight was that all intercontinental shipping was to be by sea container, and due to this it had been decided that we would actually use two complete identical systems for the tour, one initially based in North America and one in Europe. This meant that for any components not available locally we would have to create two sets, one for each system. Since, for various reasons, a decision was subsequently made for production to buy all the LED fixtures used on the tour as well as commission the complete associated custom hardware, this meant that we had to buy and build two complete sets of everything, obviously with both practical and financial implications.

Q. Was the artist directly involved in the design process?

I am very fortunate with Radiohead in that I have worked with them on a number of tours now and am allowed a huge amount of freedom in the design process. That is not to say that they would not tell me if there was anything they didn't like, but more that I think over a period of time we have developed and built up a visual language for their music which they trust me to apply to each album. As a result and also due to recording commitments, on this tour the artist's initial involvement was rather unusually limited to a series of e-mail exchanges. Having said that, of course nothing was signed off until all the band had seen the design proposal and were happy with it. I would never want to consider designing a production that didn't directly involve the artist in its conception, since I feel it is my job to create the environment in which they perform, and the best placed people out of anyone to help me understand how I can create that are the performers themselves.

Q. Was a set or staging already proposed before you became involved in the lighting design?

I am lucky enough to be the production designer for the tour so any “set” falls within my remit along with the lighting and video, etc.

Q. Were other creative people brought in later?

I had been fortunate to collaborate on several previous productions with Richard Bleasdale, the creator of Catalyst software, and at an early stage in my design process I had a series of meetings with him to try to figure out how to control and bring to life the LED array I wanted to build. It is always very interesting to work with Richard, and after I had explained the physical structure I wanted to create and what I wanted to do with it on an artistic level, he went away and very cleverly developed a way for me to do that. At around the same time, I was also having meetings with Chris Ewington from iPIX about the development of a high-power LED fixture that would be usable as a beam light. In addition, from very early on, Keith Owen and Dave Smith from Specialz were involved, along with production manager Richard Young, in the practical side of the design from the Versa Tube deployment system, to transportation requirements, electrical, and signal distro, etc., etc.

Q. Who was the lighting contractor, and did you have any say in the choice?

The lighting supply contacts were John Bahnick at Upstaging in Chicago and Dave Ridgeway at Neg Earth in London. I think both Richard and I were very happy with this combination, and I feel that if either of us had been unhappy then a different choice would have been likely. Of course, the tour went out to bid, but this design was incredibly unusual in that due to a number of reasons the production bought a huge amount of the equipment involved. This meant that the lighting supply company's equipment list was minimal considering the size of the tour but obviously still as vital. On the recommendation of Richard Young, I went to see the V9 video screen and by doing so the choice of Nocturne as the video supply company was instantly decided.

Q. What was the timeline from first meeting through to first show?

I had my initial discussions with management, band, and production in late November 2007 and had preliminary meetings with Richard Bleasdale and later Richard Young in December 2007. In early January, there were a series of meetings involving myself, Richard Young, and Specialz as to how we could physically manufacture the system. At the same time, there were a series of comparative tests of various linear LED fixtures and LED screens and also meetings with iPIX regarding the development of what was to become the BB7 fixture. Concurrent to this were tests of the custom control software being written by Richard Bleasdale. This all culminated in a meeting at the end of January 2008 with the band and management at which I presented design drawings, a 3D CAD model, and also a demonstration of the array control software which resulted in the band approving the design. By the end of February, the choice of all the fixtures and the LED screen had been determined, the hardware had been developed, and the production of the iPIX fixtures had been given the go-ahead. In mid-March, the equipment from the U.K. that was to comprise the U.S. system was loaded onto sea containers for shipping to the U.S., and at the same time a V9 screen system was shipped in a container from the states to the U.K. in preparation for rehearsals which began in Bray Studios outside London in the second week of April 2008. The 3-week rehearsal period was split between 1 week of build, 1 week of programming, and 1 week of band rehearsals. Toward the end of the rehearsal period, Blaine Dracup, one of the lighting crew, flew to Chicago to check the prep for the U.S. system that had to leave Upstaging in Chicago (before the end of our London rehearsal period) in time to be in Florida ready for our first show there. There were 2 production days to correct any issues with the U.S. system in Florida before the first show.

Q. How does this timeline compare to your other clients?

It varies greatly from one tour to the next. Radiohead have traditionally not given a huge amount of notice of going on tour while some of my other clients discuss their tours with me over a year in advance. Often I find that the eventual complexity of a tour has no bearing on how much time you are given to design and develop the system.

Q. Was your first concept the one settled on?

Conceptually, yes, although there were several changes to the actual hardware of the system throughout the design process. My original concept was to have the 3D video screen comprised of vertical LED strips and to only utilize LED light sources in the design. This remained intact throughout and by my choice was extended to also include the main horizontal video screen and in fact even backstage work lights and dressing room lighting. Thanks to Specialz, the original LED strip deployment method was simplified drastically which solved my one major design concern.

Q. How much time did you have with the lighting rig in place before the artist arrived?

We spent just under 2 weeks with the system before the band arrived. Of this, a week was spent completing the build, making improvements, finalizing the way we were going to use the camera system, determining camera placement, modifying the control software for the Versa Tube array, adapting the manipulation methodology for the live camera feeds, and experimenting with the system. The remaining week was spent programming.

Q. How many days did you rehearse with the artist before opening?

The band rehearsed for 4 days, although in that time we only did one sample run through which was on the last day. Radiohead have always wanted the freedom to change the set list on a nightly basis and for this tour my “short list” of songs numbered about 65, which is a huge number to program! The band also has multiple stage positions and plays multiple instruments. To make things just that little bit more challenging, the songs can be played (especially at the beginning of a tour) in any position in the set list, meaning that the song that was played last in the set one night can become the opening song the next. This obviously means that it is very hard to create a visual journey throughout the show in the usual way and also means that every single song has to be visually unique. As a result, the programming schedule was incredibly intense!

Q. Do you use an assistant? How many people were involved in drafting?

I create all my own drawings and 3D renderings.

Q. What program do you use to prepare the lighting drawings?

I use Vector Works Spotlight on a MacPro in my office and on a MacBook Pro away from it. Other critical software I use, apart, of course, from Richard's custom version of Catalyst, is Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro for video editing, Motion for motion graphics creation, and Compressor for outputting video content).

Q. Do you do any preproduction visualization programming to save time in rehearsal with the artist?

In this particular case, I did not use any since there were no moving lights at all, and I felt that for the purposes of demonstrating the concept my Vector Works renders were explanatory enough when combined with demo'ing the custom version of catalyst on my MacBook Pro. For actual programming, no preproduction visualization software came close to being able to represent the Versa Tube array, and the video manipulation was easier seen on a computer directly. Out of every tour I have designed, this one was perhaps the hardest one to imagine exactly in my head and it surpassed every hope I had for how it would look.

Q. In production mode, who calls the show and how many board operators does it take?

During the Radiohead show, I effectively call the show and run all the lighting and video via the grand MA. In addition, Andy Beller, my crew chief and Kinesys operator, triggers all the motor cues, and there are three camera operators at the side of the stage controlling the six remote pan/ tilt/zoom cameras. Nick Barton is in charge of the master spreadsheet detailing all camera allocations for each song and cues within those. All the motor and camera moves were blocked and documented during rehearsals, although Radiohead are a true live band and no song is ever exactly the same as the night before so I call adjustments to camera shots, smoke levels, etc., throughout the show. My crew is absolutely amazing, incredibly dedicated, and professional and is able to cue themselves nearly all of the time.

Q. What were some of the nightmares, problems, things that didn't go as planned?

I think the only real major difficulties we had were at some of the European festivals where the stages were not really very friendly to the design, either because of their structure or because of the design of the rig already in them. Most of the festivals we played were very, very helpful and accommodating, but a couple were a little difficult. Outside of Europe, a lot of the festival appearances have actually been at events built around the production, so everyone has been really helpful. The only other slight disaster was in Milan, when one of our custom “set” carts containing two of the “Quins” (the upstage flying frames each containing five BB7 fixtures) somehow ended up disappearing off the edge of the stage. Fortunately, no one was injured, and amazingly apart from some seriously bent bits of metal the crew managed to get it all working again for the next show.

Q. Anything you want to add that would help other designers understand production at this level?

I think that one of the great successes of this tour from a production level was the return on all the work we did in planning how to make the system tourable, usable, and as crew friendly as possible. The band and management were very supportive of us doing things the “right” way, and we spent a considerable amount of money on custom metalwork, carts, flight cases, spares, etc., so the show was as easy to build as possible and all the equipment traveled safely and with as little possibility of it being damaged. This can only happen by a team of people getting together and sharing ideas and experience and wanting to make the show the best it can be for both the audience, the band and the crew.

Q. Anything you want to add that you feel will be of interest to the readers?

The tour generated a large amount of interest and press due to it being considered the first major world tour to be completely LED based (as mentioned above, even the desk lights and dressing room lighting were LED!). We were using brand-new technology alongside only slightly more tried and trusted elements and managed to cut the power consumption by a staggering amount for a design that worked in stadiums. On the previous comparable tour, we were pulling over 900A per phase at 230V for lighting and video. On the In Rainbows tour, the entire lighting and video system was pulling 135A per phase, which is incredible. As LED sources become cheaper and even more efficient, hopefully we will be able to cut down drastically on the amount of power we use when putting on shows, whether in clubs or stadiums.

JEFF RAVITZ: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND MAGIC TOUR (2007–2008)

Bruce was back with the E Street Band after his 2005 solo tour, Devils and Dust, for this 2007–2008 tour in support of the new album Magic. Jeff quotes one reviewer as saying, “This is classic rock-concert lighting with a theatrical twist; note how Ravitz uses high sidelighting to carve the singer out in “Gypsy Biker.” As with most Springsteen concerts in arenas, there is no backdrop so there can be 360-degree seating for the sell-out crowds he still attracts. For this tour, Tait Towers constructed a brushed aluminum set that had a horizontal runway elevated above the drummer so Bruce could get close to the audience behind the stage.

Jeff is known for his clean and often subtle lighting, but when flash is called for he ranks among the best. He creates his looks by employing every conceivable light fixture from searchlights to 3-inch Fresnels in every color temperature; however, Jeff still relies heavily on a company he has worked from almost from their inception, Morpheus Lights. This tour also relied more heavily on high-definition I-MAG video than in the past, and Jeff worked directly with Bruce extensively reviewing tapes to make sure The Boss liked the way he looked. Figures 23.24 through 23.26 are production shots during the recent tour. Figure 23.27 shows the light plot, Figure 23.28 is an equipment list, and Figure 23.29 lists the lighting crew.

ABOUT JEFF RAVITZ

Jeff Ravitz (Figure 23.30) was awarded a primetime Emmy for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band from NYC on HBO and was previously nominated for Cher … Live at the Mirage. He has also received two regional Emmys for his designs of Los Angeles area programs. Jeff has designed lighting for concert tours, live televised spectaculars, awards shows, comedy specials, themed entertainment attractions, corporate meetings, newsrooms, studio-based television productions, retail establishments, and private residences. Notable work includes designs and television specials for many of the world's most recognized artists, such as Bruce Springsteen, Shania Twain, Ringo Starr, Styx, Usher, Rush, Roger Waters, Beyoncé, Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett, Boz Scaggs, Willie Nelson, and Steely Dan. Comedy specials include those of Bill Maher, Wanda Sykes, Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, Roseanne Barr, Ron White, and Henry Rollins.

Born in New York, raised in New Jersey, and theatrically trained at Northwestern University, Jeff made the transition to concert design when the industry was just developing and is considered to be a pioneer and groundbreaking figure in the field.

In 1991, he teamed with James Moody to create Moody/Ravitz Design Partners, Inc. The new firm concentrated on the design of high-profile world concert tours and broadcast television shows, such as Entertainment Tonight, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy!, as well as several awards shows, talk shows, and concert specials. In 1995, with Moody and new partners Dawn Hollingsworth and Lisa Passamonte Green, the firm made a serious entry into architectural lighting. The new firm, Visual

Terrain, Inc., has been recognized as one of the most diverse and skilled design firms in the industry.

An active member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, United Scenic Artists, International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600, as a director of photography), and the Illuminating Engineering Society, Jeff now specializes in all types of live entertainment being captured for television.

QUESTIONS

Q. Who actually hired you?

The tour director, George Travis, hired me over 20 years ago, after someone on the tour had recommended me.

Q. How many designs had you done for this client in the past?

Prior to this design, I have created eight designs for Bruce, including two solo acoustic tours and one with the Seeger Sessions Band.

Q. Was there a budget?

No, there's never been a stated budget for the Bruce tour, although I'm sure George has one in mind.

Q. What was the type of venue for the production (theatres, arenas, stadiums)?

This tour started in arenas and went into stadiums in Europe and the U.S. in the summertime.

Q. How many dates?

The tour did about 100 shows.

Q. Who was involved in the initial creative meeting?

It began with me and George initially and quickly involved Peter Daniel, the video vendor, since video had the potential to play a big part in this design.

Q. Was the artist directly involved in the design process?

No, Bruce was finishing the album and was not primarily involved. Our goal was to create some ideas for Bruce to comment on or, better yet, prepare a real-life mockup demo for Bruce to see—which is the best way for him to truly get an idea of what we're proposing. That is what happened, and in fact Bruce liked some aspects but mostly was cold on the concept, which guided our next steps with more clarity.

Q. Was a set or staging already proposed before you became involved in the lighting design?

No, although George did throw out some ideas he had in mind. Scenery is always an organic, committee process on a Bruce tour, between George, myself, and the production manager. I often take the reins initially to do a layout and start putting things on paper for our group to comment on. I do that because I can't really design much until I know more about the scenery—which for a Bruce

tour is rarely more than a platform arrangement. So I'm usually in a fever to develop any semblance of a set so I can start the lighting design. I'll knock off several drawings in 3D and send them around to everyone. George Stipanovich, the production manager, then jumps in and starts to work on the drawing from a size and spacing point of view.

Q. Were other creative people brought in later?

George wanted Bruce to see what we were thinking about, but we know Bruce does not

relate to the computer-style renderings I produce. I'm not a set designer perse, and my rendering skills are limited. So, I brought in an illustrator to handpaint large-format renderings from my 3D versions. George also has a local friend who does pencil sketches, and he took the same 3D versions and redrew them in that style so Bruce could get his head into one version or another. Bruce had a few, not very helpful comments, so we really didn't know much more than before.

At this point, we were getting close to rehearsals and we still didn't have many answers or a set in construction. George Travis had to make a decision, so we took the skeleton shape of our initial stage drawings, sans true riser fronts, which could give the show its own unique look. As has happened on every Bruce tour, the set really came together in rehearsals, which last about 3 weeks, thankfully. On my first tour, Born in the USA, we decided what we wanted scenically during production rehearsals, and then at the first show the production manager, Bob Thrasher, personally welded the entire thing together in the 2 days of setup we had before opening night. That's how it went, tour after tour. So, this one was true to form.

Once we got to rehearsals, temporarily using an old stage from a previous tour while the new stage was still under the knife at Tait Towers, we were at least all together. Our tour carpenter, Aaron Cass, is a whiz. He's got a solution for every creative challenge; he quickly understands what we're trying to accomplish and translates it into practical construction and touring terms, and he's creative in his own right. He also will not accept second best. As a result, a lot can happen in a short time during rehearsals, and the show begins to take shape rapidly. This is still frustrating for me, because I've got a lot on my mind at this point in rehearsals and I really, really wish the set were further along so I could … light it! But, alas, the mystery and wonder of the Springsteen alchemy have something to do with his last-minute race to the finish line.

We also brought in an old friend of mine, Bruce Rodgers, a talented and top-tier set designer. We wanted big ideas from Rogers, which is his strong suit. We also wanted him to help us with great scenic finishes for the riser façades. In the past, our fascias have been very homemade and looked it—fencing and other Home Depot materials. We made the best of it, but I really wanted this stage to have a quality appearance, while still retaining the funky Springsteen-esque look of the back streets. The album had a more finished sound than the previous few records—why couldn't the set follow suit, in order to give me a fun playground of surfaces and dimensional edges to light? Between me pushing for those light-friendly elements, Bruce Rodgers giving us some experienced input, Aaron communicating it to the set shop (and then ultimately going there to supervise), and George T. and George S. telling us if we could afford it and truck it, we ultimately had the best set ever for a Bruce/E Street Band tour, in my opinion.

Q. Who was the lighting contractor, and did you have any say in the choice?

This tour has had the same lighting equipment contractor since 1988, and I did participate in that original decision. Our previous contractor, Tait Towers, had sold off its lighting division, and at this time in history automated lighting was becoming somewhat de rigueur. I had just used Morpheus Lights on a John Mellencamp tour, with great success. Morpheus had a system that allowed for all the moving lights to store in the trusses for travel, so the setup was quite fast and we were able to have a system that was almost exclusively automated. Bruce's shows were legendary in length, and the automation allowed for incredible variety throughout the show—not necessarily with visible movement. The tour director liked the concept, so Morpheus got the tour and has been with us since.

Q. What was the timeline from first meeting through to first show?

The first talks began in March of 2007 and the tour opened in October of that year: March 2007—George Travis calls to discuss an idea he has about a customized pan/tilt fixture utilizing LED technology. Conversations begin between me, Paul Weller of Morpheus, and Peter Daniel of Pete's Big TVs, the video supplier.

April and May 2007—Continue discussions and research into available technology and equipment.

June 2007—Meet Peter Daniel at Info Comm Convention in Anaheim to research screen and yoke technology. Begin first staging and scenic development. Research new follow spots. This tour has traditionally flown a follow spot bridge to maintain consistent follow spot angles and intensities from venue to venue. I wanted to upgrade the old Lycian Starklight spots we had been using in favor of a more adjustable follow spot. Juliat spotlight demo, Lycian spotlight demo, and Selecon spotlight demo. Handpainted scenic renderings created from 3D CAD drawings for presentation to Bruce. Tests and prep at Pete's Big TVs shop in Delaware for LED demo and mockup. Communication with audio vendor (Audio Analysts USA) regarding PA configuration to coordinate possible conflicts with lighting positions. First truss layout drawings begun; first-draft scenic and truss configuration drawings sent to tour director. Demo of Element Labs' Kelvin BRICK for possible use as uplight.

July 2007—Hippotizer media server demo at my office. We had initially wanted to integrate video into the set elements for this tour, and the Hippotizer was being considered as the engine to drive the video content. Scenic concepts becoming more defined. Band risers will be rounded in shape, inspiring and confirming ideas for curved trussing. Revised riser drawings are created to reflect rounded fronts. Other themed elements are introduced. Revised lighting truss configuration to reflect curved design are sent to Morpheus for feedback. Instead of fabricating a curved truss, Morpheus suggests an angled spacer between standard truss sections to create a curved shape, which offered more flexibility to vary truss lengths and greater truck packing efficiency. Engineering begins on angled spacer; these spacers will be under great stress in the rigging process and must be designed to withstand the maximum load. Begin industrywide search for lighting crew chief to replace previously departed one.

August 2007—At my suggestion, a full production team and vendor meeting/think tank takes place in Phoenix (most central location for all involved). All drawings are shared, equipment is demonstrated, more questions are raised, and some decisions are made. Continued evolution of light plot and scenic elements. Interface with tour lighting director and programmer. Riggers begin evaluating overall rigging plan. Complex overhead cable management design takes shape. Build of lighting system begins at Morpheus. Build of scenic elements, known at this time, begins at Tait Towers. Receive prerelease copy of new album. Listen to music and create detailed music and cue breakdowns as a guide for programming and for the tour LD and board operators running the show.

September 2007—Load-in to rehearsals in Asbury Park, NJ. Bruce begins to take an active interest in scenic elements. Onsite mock-ups of proposed riser fascias, colors, and other scenic choices are conducted for Bruce and us, and final decisions are made. New drawings are generated and final set construction commences. Daily band rehearsals. Notate onstage positions, movement, and nuances. Update musical notations to reflect actual live arrangements. Focus lights. Experiment with colors, gobos, focuses, movement. Run cues that have been programmed. Continue programming after band leaves. Ongoing system setup. Ongoing evaluation and resolution of production efficiencies and deficiencies. Load-out of rehearsal hall and move show to Continental Airlines Arena for final, arena-sized rehearsal with full lighting, PA, and video systems. Full setup of production. Determination by tour audio engineer that previously approved front-of-house lighting truss will, in fact, obstruct PA in a detrimental way. Entire curved-truss element of front-of-house truss is rebuilt onsite to be straight. Other curved trusses are retained, as designed. Dismantle entire front-of-house trussing and cabling. Redesign position of each light on truss in an attempt to retain carefully studied angles to light each band member. Rehang and recable entire truss. Lose 6 hours of valuable rehearsal and programming time. Continue focusing, programming, and rehearsing. Perform private rehearsal benefit to test show on live audience. Load-out of Continental Airlines Arena. Load-in to first stop on tour, Hartford Civic Arena, Hartford, CT. One day of setup and final tweaks. Opening night … on the road.

Q. How does this timeline compare to your other clients?

This far exceeds the pretour and rehearsal time I get for any other tour clients. For most others, we get a few weeks to a month or so of design and prep, and 1 to 7 days of production rehearsals.

Q. Was your first concept the one settled on?

Yes, the curved truss concept was one I had been toying with in my mind since the previous tour, and it was approved. At production rehearsals, it was altered a bit for logistical reasons, but the main components remained throughout the tour.

Q. If not, was the reason financial constraints or another consideration?

An idea that everyone supported, endorsed, and signed-off on was ultimately determined to be a problem for good audio coverage.

Q. How much time did you have with the lighting rig in place before the artist arrived?

We set up the lighting system at the rehearsal hall. It took two days to get things up and working, in the roughest sense, before the first band rehearsal. The band would come in around 9:00 a.m. daily. That's early for rock & rollers, but the drummer in the band works for a network talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien, and he needed to be at the studio by late afternoon. That put us into a daytime schedule for band rehearsals. We could start programming by 5:00 p.m., and if we were making good headway we could be out of there around 1:00 a.m. to get some rest before the next day's rehearsal. Still, a long day, nd if rehearsals had been only for a few days, we would have been forced to work a much more grueling schedule.

Q. How many days did you rehearse with the artist before opening?

We probably got around 14 days of rehearsal with the band. That's a generous amount, although I've heard of others that rehearse twice that, and this band has done more in the past. A great deal of this time is spent going through the oldest songs in the repertoire and trying them out for viability in the show. A large percentage of those songs never see the light of day, so that time, for me, doesn't result in as much progress as when we are rehearsing songs that we know are going onto the set list. On the Born in the USA tour, I counted 150 songs that were played over the course of the 18-month run. There are more, now. So, 14 days can get used up very fast.

Q. Do you use an assistant? How many people were involved in drafting?

Yes, I have an assistant who works with me throughout the design process. For this tour, Kristie helped me do a lot of the research we were conducting into new equipment and technologies. She also helped me draft. With CAD drafting, I will usually start messing around with ideas myself on my own computer. I may do a rough, unfinished plot on my own before I turn it over to her. At one point I want her to be the keeper of all the paperwork so updates or requests for documents can go through her for greater efficiency. I sent her to a class on advanced computer rendering, too, so she can really help when we need to generate those kinds of drawings.

Then, she accompanied me to rehearsals along with one other assistant, Dave Mann. Both of them have been with me on previous Bruce projects, and they know the drill. The cue book for this tour, as you can imagine from my description of rehearsals, is enormous. Old songs need to have their written breakdowns and cue sheets updated, and new songs need to be added to the book. We created a cue book for the tour LD, Todd Ricci; the moving light operator, John Hoffman; and for ourselves. The actual programmer, Jason Badger, who left shortly after the tour opened, didn't get a book. He was completely on his computer and the grand MA console. Nevertheless, it was hundreds of pages, times three. And there were a lot of corrections and updates over the course of the rehearsals and the first few shows, so Kristie and Dave were completely crazed and busy the entire time with paperwork and helping me keep track of everything during focus and programming.

Q. What program do you use to prepare the lighting drawings?

I use Vector Works Spotlight with Render Works, which I just upgraded to version 2009.

Q. Do you do any preproduction visualization programming to save time in rehearsal with the artist?

On this tour, we didn't know enough about the show going into initial production rehearsals to benefit from pre-viz. However, when we made the transition to outdoor stadium shows, we knew we would only have a couple of days of setup, and most of that would be taken up with the job of simply getting the enlarged system in and working just in time for opening night in Dublin, Ireland. So, we availed ourselves of an ESP Vision studio in Los Angeles to make sure all the new lights were prefocused, colored, and cued into the show as much as possible. We sent the studio a 3D file of our stage, set, and lighting system. I do everything in 3D from the very beginning so I can really study the angles and also to have different views ready to send to the tour manager or others during the design process, so that part was already pretty close to what the studio needed.

The pre-viz for Dublin worked like a dream. We had almost no time onsite with the actual lighting system to really play around and program, so when we turned it on and tested our studio-generated cues, all we had to do was tweak the focus a bit for that particular stadium (since we created a generic stadium in 3D for the pre-viz sessions).

Q. In production mode, who calls the show and how many board operators does it take?

Our tour LD called the spot cues for 12 follow spots and operated a console that controlled all the conventional dimmers as well as the dousers for some of the searchlights. Our dimmed fixtures were still automated lights, but they had tungsten lamps, and we liked the response we got when they were controlled more manually, old-fashioned, rock & roll style.

A second operator worked the grand MA full-size automated console that controlled all moving lights positions, color, gobos, and intensities. The two operators had 4-inch-thick books of all the musical material we knew about that could possibly be played during a show, all arranged alphabetically. When the set list was delivered to the console platform minutes before the house lights went down, the two operators scrambled to pull those songs from the book and arrange them in the right order. Todd jotted down the conventional console memory page number for each song in big red numerals onto his set list so he could advance to that song quickly at the end of the previous song. Since the show order changed nightly, there was no good way to get this more preset and organized.

During the show, we had a dedicated intercom station backstage to someone who stayed close to Bruce's guitar technician. If an unplanned song got thrown in (all the time), the guitar tech was the first to know because Bruce would need the correct guitar for that song. Then, our backstage spy relayed the new song change to front-of-house and the two board ops ripped through the cue book, which was sitting close by on a side table, to find that song's cue sheet and music breakdown. Some songs may not have been played in a while and the music breakdown, showing details of verses, choruses, and solos, helped the two operators find their place quickly.

I would love to decrease the paper and put all this onto computer screens for them, but with the quick changes that occur, we haven't found a good way to access the right song as fast as flipping through the cue book, which is marked and divided better than a New York phone book!

Q. What were some of the nightmares, problems, things that didn't go as planned?

Three things I can think of: The first is the aforementioned crazy set list situation. Some nights Bruce didn't follow the set list at all so the boys were flying around all night trying to get their consoles to the right songs, cues. Sometimes Bruce fooled everyone, band and crew alike, when nobody could hear the “audible” he called out in the darkness between songs, so the first note of an impromptu song change could have been an enormous train wreck with everyone playing—orlighting —adiffe rentnum ber!

The second major thing that happened on this tour was the initial approval and acceptance by every department of the curved front-of-house trusses, which also were our front follow spot positions. The two trusses were separated by some open space that had been designed to accommodate a center sound cluster, which never actually happened. The two curves created a graceful arc shape and were very wide. They tied in the visual theme of the curved trussing onstage perfectly and the entire lighting system had mass and scale to fill the void of an arena space. Everyone had the opportunity to see the position of these trusses in all the 3D views we showed them on paper and via computer files. However, in the band rehearsal hall, there wasn't sufficient space to assemble them completely, so when they were first put together, for real, in our second phase of rehearsals in an arena, the audio people felt they encroached on sound space to the point of altering the direct path of sound to certain parts of the arena. Sound rules on a Bruce tour, so our crew had to stop everything they were doing to dismantle the front trusses and reconfigure them to be a shorter, single, straight truss. A shorter curved truss was not going to work for many reasons. But, all the angles for each light had been carefully planned based on the shape, size, and position of the two curved trusses. Every light needed to be repositioned on the truss, which meant the beautifully arranged and measured cable harnesses had to be rebuilt. For speed, this was not done as carefully as it had been in the shop, so the tour traveled with a very messy setup for quite a while until a tour break allowed for a more thorough rebuild of the harnesses.

Finally, one issue that got very serious was the video I-MAG. When Bruce first used I-MAG, reluctantly, 24 years ago, it was simply to allow people very far from the stage to see him better. It was a live show and had been designed with no regard for television propriety, when the I-MAG came into our lives, and nobody really cared about perfect color temperature or angles. Now, all these years later, it had become very important to design the lighting with television in mind. It was stressed to me that skin tones needed to look natural, and the balance of foreground to background had to be right, all with attention to good dramatic lighting appropriate to each moment as we would normally do. I have spent the last third of my career specializing in television lighting, with a great deal of it for concert broadcasts, so this was not an alien task to me. However, this show was not predictable, neither in its show fl ow nor its stage blocking, so accidents and unplanned moments often occurred when two people got into the same light for a few seconds, causing temporary overexposures, or a colored show light got onto someone's face. This turned out to be a subject of much discussion, consternation, and redesign despite enormous care being taken to approach this show as seriously from a television standpoint as any television special, or live rock show might.

Q. Anything you want to add that would help other designers understand production at this level?

The evolution of touring production is continuing to grow towards the integration of lighting, video and scenic elements. The lighting designer already has become the lighting producer, conducting, if you will, the operations of several board operators and cue callers. Programmers have become strong designers and contributors to the overall cuing process, and there might be two or three programmers on one show, plus a video programmer. The lighting designer oversees all of these, makes macro decisions and although always involved in every decision, may allow the micro decisions to be handled largely by others on the design organizational flow-chart. This is the only way to get through this process, because it's simply gotten so huge.

Q. Anything you want to add that you feel will be of interest to the readers?

The importance of video art and technology cannot be minimized. Digital lighting fixtures that are actually projectors in a pan and tilt yoke will be the luminaires of the future, eliminating metal and glass gobos and the color mixing systems we use today. These fixtures will naturally prompt the desire to have more complex video content created.

Video scenery, using high- and low-resolution screens, projectors, and LED fixtures and components that are themselves scenic and lighting elements all in one, will become more and more affordable and will become integrated into the smallest of shows. The lighting designer often is charged with the responsibility to create the content and operate it simultaneously with the lighting cues. However, this will continue to become even a more separate area of expertise, with the lighting designer being responsible for the overall visual presentation and managing other designers, lighting and art directors, and content creators.

Lighting designers who have not been trained or gotten experience with proper video lighting will need to acquire these skills, as I-MAG becomes more and more like a broadcast TV experience. The expectation will be to design live shows so they look great onstage to the live audience but will also make visual sense onscreen. There is a fine line to be walked, here, and all designers must begin to approach show design with this in mind.

In designing the Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Magic tour, we kept all these considerations in mind. Even though a Bruce show emphasizes the band performance and strives to never overtake it with production elements, we attempted to keep pace with contemporary technology and aesthetics and bring a large-scale, exciting production to the fans, all the while remembering that our job is to make sure the focus is on Bruce and the band at all times.

1 David Barbour, “Do You Believe in Magic?,” Lighting & Sound America, January 2008.

2 Claire Stentiford. Ecological Footprint & Carbon Audit of Radiohead North American Tours, 2003 & 2006 (Oxford: Best Foot Forward, Ltd., 2007), pp. 1–36.

3 Arden Ash. “Green, from Radiohead to Toe,” Production, Lights, and Staging News, October 2008.