4
PREPRODUCTION

Before you can sit down and start a light plot, even for a play, you need to know the physical criteria f the location. For the concert lighting designer, there are some added twists. It is impractical to look over floor plans for the 40 or more facilities in which the artist will perform on a tour. But, because facilities will vary in width, height, and power availability, it is difficult to design without this information. Where do you get your facts? Usually it is the road manager or, possibly on a large tour, the production manager.

The chances are slim that a city-by-city, hall-by-hall, in-person survey will be possible a month or two before the show hits the road; the schedule usually arrives a week or less before the first show, if then. So, we must deal in broader classifications—that is, theatres, arenas, college gyms, outdoor festivals, racetracks, etc.

A checklist of the basic information required includes:

1. Type of halls to be played (theatre, arena, outdoor)
2. Budget (per show or weekly and what it must cover)
3. Artist'sr equirements
4. Stage limitations
5. Crewing
6. Opening acts
7. Prep time available (before tour and on the road)
8. Rehearsal time available (before tour with luminaires)
9. Contract rider, as it existed on the last tour (see Chapter 3)

TYPE OF HALLS

If the manager can at least narrow it down to the type of halls to be booked, you have the most important piece of information; however, this will be clear to you only after you have played a variety of buildings. You must use your own judgment in limiting your staging, basing it on general categories such as theatre or arena, knowing full well that variability from structure to structure is great even within these groups. The types of performance spaces artists play range from arenas to clubs, rodeos, college basketball arenas, and glass field houses, and anything in between.

Some reference books are available. Also, Pollstar is a weekly publication available online that provides reviews of concerts, tour schedules (Figure 4.1), and many annual directories such as artist management (Figure 4.2) and venue information. Unfortunately, the number of other publications in this area has dwindled over the past years, leaving Pollstar alone in this category of magazines today (Figure 4.3).

One organization that can be helpful, the International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM), which used to be called the International Association of Auditorium Managers, provides a number o annual guides to venues. It provides probably the most complete listing of stadiums, auditoriums, arenas, and theatres, but these listings are designed primarily to provide hall and facility contacts for ticket sales, catering, and building services. While lacking detailed technical data, they do give hall type, floor or stage size, seating capacity, and other general details, as well as names and telephone contacts at the venues. In truth, almost all venues now post

plans, facility technical data, and contact information online. If you know the name of the facility, with a little effort you can get a head start on gathering information, but the annual directory makes easy comparisons possible.

The IAAM also operates a sister organization in Europe the provides similar venue information. Other activities of the IAAM center around their mission statement: “To educate, advocate for, and inspire public assembly venue professionals, worldwide.” To that end, the group offers a number of courses leading to certifications in such areas as risk management, emergency planning, and venue safety and security, in addition to certifying facilities executives. The IAAM does this both in the United States and through the European Academy for Venue Management (EAVM) run out of Innsbruck, Austria.

Legitimate theatres offer a degree of uniformity, because Broadway road companies for plays and musicals are most often booked here, but this uniformity is limited to some 30 or 40 theatres across the country. A concert tour plays everything from an old movie house to a symphony hall and it is still called a theatre tour. A theatre tour for a rock band could go from the Capital Theatre (an old movie house) in Passaic, New Jersey, to the Minneapolis Symphony Hall (no overhead pipes), to the Arie Crown Theatre in Chicago (very deep stage with excellent grid system), to the Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. (a domed stage with no grid), to Pine Knob Music Center outside Detroit (another covered stage with open-air lawn seating). This is why trusses and other structures are trouped by concert artists even when doing a theatre tour.

When we talk about arena tours, we can expect even less in the way of theatrical facilities—that is, pipes and stage. Arenas are for the most part simply large airplane hangars with seating.

The newest trend is for a hybrid between theatre and nontraditional concert hall. Nokia has built two such state-of-the-art facilities in New York and Los Angeles. They are truly unique and incorporate trusses that slide to different positions up and down stage instead of fixed pipes. There is talk that they will be building more of these around the country.

If you are working at a facility and want to get updated information regarding the technical rider or plans of an artist, it is now quite easy to track a show that is coming to your facility via the artist's website. Their Internet sites can be used by stage managers, production managers, designers, and technicians. Another way to stay up to date is by logging on to the sites of some of the facilities where the artist has just performed. The technicians or stage manager will be able to add very specific information that may not appear on the rider. This can be the most useful information you get. Ideally, the artist's lighting designer or stage manager maintains an active website to keep everyone aware of any changes in the tour technical issues or band requirements. Certainly if they are on tour and you are the housemen, contact them via e-mail and ask questions.

At a few exceptionally well-equipped theatres around the country, the house staff cannot understand why we do not use their luminaires and counterweight systems. What they do not understand is that the elements of timing, consistency, and repeatability are the keys to a good concert. A theatre production usually rehearses in each new town, so there is time to make adjustments in hanging positions, focus, and dimmer levels. A touring concert has less than 12 hours from load-in to curtain. The concert designer, as well as the artist, must be assured of what will be seen during the performance.

BUDGET

A few elite designers refuse to let budget restrictions encumber their creativity. They prefer to obtain as much information as available and prepare the design the way they believe it should look. They then present it to the artist and try to convince management that the idea is worth any expense.

Maybe I am too much of a realist, but I like knowing at least the approximate budget. Designers who develop the budget after the design is submitted are, on the whole, the name designers. They have sold themselves with the understanding that they will have a blank check. Let us consider the other 99.5% of us who must justify our cost to management.

It is wise to ask for a budget when you first talk about the project. More likely than not, you will receive blank looks because a budget has not even been considered, or they will throw it back to you in an attempt to see if you will give them figures lower than they paid last time. One way to obtain a rough figure is to give a range per show and observe the manager's reaction. This is not to say that, if you return with a terrific idea that will cost more than the budget, you will not be able to talk them into using it. The budget should simply be a median point to be used as a guide; you can come in under budget or even over budget if you feel it is worth the effort (see Chapter 3).

ARTIST'S REQUIREMENTS

The initial meeting should be with the artist. The only way to get a feeling for how an artist wants to look is by meeting the artist, not the artist's management (see Chapters 23 to 25). You will be creating something that will affect the artist's performance significantly, and you must be in tune with the artist's desires. Concerns such as stage movement and placement of band equipment must be discussed.

One of my first clients was Billy Preston, who was often called the fifth Beatle. I was called in at the last minute to do his tour. At the time I only met his road manager, not Billy. The road manager assured me he had been with the artist so long that he knew his every move and requirement. The first show looked like I had designed the lighting for folksinger Joan Baez rather than the high-energy pop music he performed.

A rapport with the artist must be established. Confidence in you as another creative person who wants to make the artist appear in the best light (no pun) is essential. It is the theatrical equivalent to the theatre designer's relationship with the director. The artist or band's will is paramount in the development of the ideas process. It is the one thing that you can count on that will actually help you to separate one design from the next. The challenge is to foster a relationship that will build trust in you as a person and as a designer with solid ideas. This can be accomplished with the way that you present yourself and your ideas and how you communicate with the artist, which must be unassuming and respectful.

STAGE LIMITATIONS

Many physical limitations must be considered in the mounting of the show. Ask yourself questions such as the following: Is a backdrop being used that must be lit? In arenas, will there be seating in the rear? In outdoor shows, will the wind factor preclude backdrops and some scenic devices? What are the sight-lines and width of the stage? Dan Wohleen, now managing director of the Maricopa Country Center, remembers when “an artist had changed from rear to front projection after the tour started and had not informed us. I lost 800 seats to the change and it came out of the artist's pocket.” In another case, the booking agent had sold the act with 270-degree seating availability to the promoters. When Dan got the rider, it was quite clear that there would only be 120-degree seating available. Dan contacted the tour production manager and was told that “someone” had not informed the booker of the change. Luckily, this was discovered before seats went on sale.

What do you do when the band shows up and says it has decided to let someone videotape the performance? Ignore for a moment the additional costs this will incur, but what about that “little” 5-foot platform they will need to place a camera dead center in the expensive seats? That happened to Dan: “It wiped out 120 seats. People were mad at the house, not the band.”

Because you cannot control the performance spaces in so many locations, the design must anticipate physical staging problems before they develop. Once on the road, you must meet the day-to-day problems that arise. Time is a constant devil, so preplanning and giving some forethought to possible solutions to every conceivable staging problem are essential. As an old college professor told me, “You plan for the worst, expect the unexpected, and you'll get something in between.”

CREWING

Will you hire the crew personally or be contracting a lighting company for personnel and equipment? How many technicians will be traveling on the lighting crew? How much time is available for setup? How many local stagehands will there be to help out? If required, are riggers to be provided by the promoter or are you taking a head rigger or a full rigging crew with you on tour?

Good, efficient crewing is vital. You can design the most spectacular show in the world, but it will be for naught if it is not ready by 8:00 p.m. Remember that time is the unrelenting demon of touring. A touring lighting crew of two technicians is average, one for dimming and one for truss supervision; three or four can be found on large shows, with a moving luminaire technician specialist as part of the crew to keep them operational. They usually handle the lighting setup with the assistance of four to six local stagehands. However, a large number of special effects will take time to set up and can slow things down, as do heavy scenic elements. By 1997, moving luminaires had evolved from being a novelty to being the main element in many touring lighting rigs. As the PAR-64 luminaire became the signature luminaire in early concert design, the moving luminaire took on the status of king of the hill; however, this wonderfully versatile luminaire carries with it a great deal of baggage. A member of the lighting crew must be a trained maintenance technician. These units are far from bulletproof, even when following the manufacturer's instructions for how they must be operated under road conditions. Weather (e.g., heat and rain) can damage moving luminaires. They are the true temperamental stars of the lighting galaxy. Another factor is that artists or their managers may have the mistaken impression that they make life easier for the designer, when in fact it takes longer to program all of the individual attributes for each luminaire. The lighting consoles also becomeexponentially more complicated to operate.

Who handles the road supervision and repair of the set, scrims, drapery, and such? A road carpenter is still rare on a rock & roll tour. As the designer, you are likely be responsible for all of these elements. That is not to say that you personally will have to take hammer and nail to a broken flat, but you will probably need to make sure everything is kept in working order.

OPENING ACTS

The opening act is often slighted. Opening acts are at the bottom of the food chain most of the time, and little consideration is usually given to their needs for stage space or lighting. The headline band's equipment technicians usually refuse to move one piece of their stage gear. This is often out of spite, because it was done to them before they became headliners. But, it is a fact of the business that you must deal with the issue.

Opening acts with the same management company as the headliner will probably receive more consideration, but not always. Stars' egos can be enormous, and artists quickly forget how it was when they were starting out themselves. Do not take for granted that the opening act will be given carte blanche to add special lighting even if they pay for it. In fact, do not agree to allow any equipment to be added to your rig until you have had it cleared with management in writing. If the opening act is permitted anything, you may still want to place restrictions on the extent to which they can utilize your design.

There is a tendency to package a single opening act with the tour. In theatre, we look at the show and how its parts are integrated into the whole. In concert touring, 99% of the time we design for one element of the show only. Keep in mind whom you work for, and do not try to be a good guy to the other artists; you could lose your job for that effort. You might be surprised to learn which artists are vindictive and downright nasty to opening acts even if they were themselves opening acts not too long ago. It is payback time in their minds, somehow, and you can get caught in the middle if you are not careful.

PREP TIME

The first consideration in prep is the time allotted to design and physically put the equipment together, check it out, and be ready to rehearse and hit the road. If you are going to use one of the companies in the business of supplying tour lighting, the time required can be cut to a couple of weeks, or in a pinch much less, because they have much of the equipment already packaged and can prepare it quickly. A substantial delay occurs when the trussing must be fabricated. If time is tight, do yourself a favor by checking out truss plans that can be accomplished with in-stock units. The company may have special pieces that you can adopt or designs you may not have considered. Also, remember that how busy the shop is will be a determining factor in preparation time and very possibly cost.

The second area to consider for preparation is the time allocated each day to load-in and be ready for the sound check. A show that requires a long time to load-in, hang lights, and focus must be planned well in advance so the promoter can provide adequate assistance. Local stagehands and access to the hall must be arranged for as many hours as it will take to accomplish all these things. Planning takes on even more importance with mega-tours such as Madonna, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, and Bon Jovi, for which the load-in could take two to three days.

Ability to judge the setup time is an acquired skill. You can consult with the lighting company in the early stages to discuss your concepts and let them give you their ideas as to crew requirements and setup time. It takes time to move equipment and personnel from one city to the next. A show that is booked with 600-mile jumps in between will never make a 9:00 a.m. stage call. Figure on an hour of driving time per 50 miles of travel, but areas of the country where superhighways are not the rule will lower the speed, as will travel through large cities to get to venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York City. The time of year (e.g., winter in the Midwest) is also a factor. Unfortunately, booking agents are notorious for their complete lack of consideration on this point.

All the innovations that have come along— especially previsualization software such as WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”), a three-dimensional (3-D), real-time programming tool (see Chapter 19) that allows a designer to create cues and record them on the touring lighting console in addition to printing out color snapshots of looks to use as a storyboard—can be very helpful and a real time saver when it comes to the number of days necessary to set up the rig. There are also proprietary visualization programs that come with several computer lighting consoles. While this is discussed in detail later, it is also a big factor in scheduling rehearsals and the space and length of time necessary to set up the rig.

REHEARSAL TIME

Most top acts produce a full production and approach their tours as if they were theatrical shows. The more rehearsal time available, the tighter the first show; however, a long rehearsal with luminaires is rare. The availability of large stages and the very high cost to the artist of a lengthy full rehearsal place limitations on this phase of the preparation. Here is where your preplanning and ability to make quick decisions are put to the test. Rock bands are not actors who know how to freeze while a lighting look is being set and then pick up the action again. They will play through the song and possibly repeat it, if they wish, but I cannot stress enough that a true rehearsal such as theatre companies enjoy is nonexistent for a touring rock show.

Jeff Ravitz has a system where he has an assistant keep time. He allocates a certain number of minutes to each song. When the time is up, it's up, and he moves on to another song. If he doesn't keep strict time, the tour may open with great lights for the first three songs and then a dark stage. Computer-based lighting consoles, largely due to the reliance on moving luminaires, take time to program a cue, not like the old manual boards where you could bring up channels easily without recording the cue (in other words, “wing it”). Jeff tries to at least build the shell of each song before the tour hits the first city. “I often go into the first city with only a basic look and the absolutely necessary cues within the song, then over the next day or two I fill in the holes. There just isn't enough time allotted by the management anymore. They think it's magic!” (See Chapter 6.)

TIMING

Timing is the key to efficient production of a concert tour. Most problems during setup grow to become major disasters, not because of faulty equipment or damage that cannot be repaired, but because you only have 15 minutes to an hour to fix it. As if that is not bad enough, you usually find yourself in a strange town, often close to or after 5:00 p.m. Time is your biggest enemy. Effective handling of your setup time will give you more time to discover problems and, when needed, to get parts and make repairs in time for the show.

VARIETY OF VENUES AND ARTISTIC STYLES

A career in concert lighting does not limit you to one type of music. A great -ety of artistic styles is being performed in concert venues throughout the country each day, with over 600 musical artists and bands on the road at any one time. The peak seasons are April to May, July to August, and October to November. If you take a closer look at these 600-plus tours, you'll find that only 6 to 8 of them are superstars, and only a couple are mega-tours at any one time. About 40 of these acts comprise the extra large tours, and about 50 to 100 use touring lights and sound. Another 150 to 200 are just getting a foothold and may take out a designer and rent equipment locally or regionally. Another 30 or 40 are casino circuit acts playing Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City, and a large number of Indian gaming establishments have attracted name artists in recent years with large paychecks. This group of venues can allow for some very creative design decisions, so do not brush them off. Many of the facilities are extremely well equipped, and they are always looking for something new. The rest of the touring acts are playing as opening acts or simply cannot afford or do not care about lights and sound.

The range of places that are used for performances is vast and can create not only frightening challenges for the designer but also wonderful opportunities. Once the preliminary areas are covered—type of hall, budget, artist's needs, staging, crew, opening act, prep time, and rehearsal—you can sit down, listen to the music, and start to rough out a light plot. The frustration created by designing before you know most of this information can be utterly debilitating. Learn as many facts as possible and be positive in your concepts but be prepared for changes. That is a known: There will be changes!