Collaboration and Cooperation

Lenny Kravitz could be considered one of the most iconic rockstars of the past ten years. His personal style/choice of clothing and retro sound have set him apart from many of the musicians out there today. (for example: watch this video It is a few years old, but it still captures well some of Kravitz's persona) 

This article discusses not only the collaboration between artist and lighting designer but also between lighting designer and set designer. Steve Cohen( Billy Joel, John Mellencamp, Blake Shelton, and Reba) was the LD for this tour with Es Devlin(Kanye West/Jay-Z, Muse, Shakira, Take That) was in charge of set design. The two designers for this tour did not meet until rehearsals for the tour had begun, so all of their communication had to be done through email and phone calls. The job of these two designers was to create a melding of set pieces and lights that would capture Lenny Kravitz's persona and also help support the music that was being performed on a nightly basis. I would say they did a pretty great job.

Steve Cohen mentions that he usually designs both the sets and the lighting for the shows he is a part of, so I can imagine that it may have been difficult for him to give up control of this part of the show. But maybe not Cohen says, "It's one thing to say you're a collaborator, another thing altogether to actually collaborate, and I learned, once again, that the sum is greater than it's parts"

The set that was designed by Es Devlin is the triangle screen spanning across the stage. She designed it in such a way that it would look as if it was infinite and according to Cohen it is a simple trick, but thought it may be simple, it is a trick that he is not allowed to share. Es Devlin talked with Kravitz the most at the onset of the design. Kravitz talked to Devlin about a "black glass mountainous installation" he had seen in Paris. Over the course of three days of face to face communication Devlin tried to understand the vision and then was confined to emails and telephone calls as the design became full fleshed out. 

When Devlin's design was combined with Cohen's lights it created the perfect look of a mountain that was seemingly never ending. I would think that were the lights not placed the way they were, the illusion would not be as convincing, but, if the set were not designed in such a way to have an illusion available to be worked with, there would be no reason for specific light placement. 

The overall point that I'm gaining from this is how important vision and communication are. They go hand in hand. If someone has a grand vision, but no way to communicate with others it will fail. If someone is great at communicating but has no vision, they will have nothing to communicate. It is incredible to see what can happen when two creative minds pour their energy into a project and decide to put away personal opinions and instead decided "that the sum is greater than it's parts"

(As a side note, if you have not, I would highly suggest looking into Es Devlin's work. It has absolutely inspired me and made me think much more about set design.)

Bold As Love

When I began this blog I had every intention of writing about the moving truss that was used in the process of recording John Mayer's live DVD "Where the Light Is." What started as innocent research was quickly overtaken by reminiscing about the goodness that was/is The John Mayer Trio. Not only the trio in and of itself but the perfect symmetry of the stage that lead to a very well lit song. Prior to where this particular video begins we find each member of the band being highlighted by plain white light with some minimal crowd lighting as Mr. Mayer introduces the song. Not even two words into the song, the house lights dim completely leaving a spotlight and yellow wash backlight only on the main attraction. As the rest of the band comes in we see their spotlights dim up so that they are now included in the show. The dominant colors during the verses is yellow. It keeps the energy of the song up without being too overpowering. There are some minor reds and blues thrown in. With the blue being used to accent a small instrumental between the chorus and verse 2. After the second chorus Mayer launches into a solo which is accented by some minor dimming effects from the back of the stage and some sweeps of the lights across the audience. The most impressive part of the design here to me is what happens after the solo. Post solo the band bring things down a little bit. Perfectly on cue with a snare hit the lights go from yellows and red to purple and blue, bringing the mood down perfect for John to do a little talking. Going back into a solo after he's done talking we see more red introduced into the mix of purple and blue then once he begins singing again they bring up the bright yellow which was used throughout the first verses and choruses. Watching this performance really makes me think about how important the usage of colors is. Every color used here highlights the part of the song that it appears in perfectly. It makes sense. The listener/viewer is taken on a journey with the lights simply with the use of color and some minor dimming and sweeps. There are no major strobes or anything too flashy. A lot of the things that I notice in the video are things I wouldn't have necessarily thought about before having taken classes on lighting. But now that I have that knowledge all the choices that the lighting designer made here make perfect sense. For me this is just an almost perfect example of how lights and music can meld together so well. When they compliment each other it enhances the experience that much more. Biggest take away for me from this performance is, colors matter. Use them wisely. Know where the band is trying to take the audience and help them lead the way with light.

Girl Talk

This week will be yet another review/breakdown of a recent concert that I've seen. This past weekend I had a chance to see Girl Talk. Though most people would define Girl Talk as just a glorified DJ, he considers himself an electronic musician. His creates his music by combining samples of many different kinds of music. He does all of this with ease and combines the ultimate party mix. His music lends itself best to large music festivals though he is completely capable of touring on his own and drawing large crowds. The last few times I have seen him his production has gotten increasingly better with this weekend being some of the best production I've seen. Across the front of the stage he had three LED screens on the front of rolling tables. The middle table was where he stood and did his mixing. On top of the LED screens on stage left and stage right were an LED mover, I'm guessing the Martin 101 or 301, and a crowd flasher. (Not sure of the correct terminology for "crowd flasher") On the upstage edge were three more LED displays in deformed plus shapes. Underneath these displays were three high-powered strobes and two moving head lights. There were also LED movers on top of these displays. The LED displays were not used for IMAG but rather were used for some random animations. Some of the animations related directly back to the music and the samples being used but the majority of the time they were flashing random "Girl Talk" logos or just completely random pictures. Somehow amongst the randomness of the images though, they fit perfectly with the party atmosphere that was present at the show. One mystery about the show that I am trying to solve is how the Lighting Designer or Video Director is able to match up the animations that correlate to the show at the right time. Everything that Girl Talk does he mixes live so it seems improbable that the planned parts of the show are just lucky cue hits. Many of the lighting cues are tempo dependent and fall perfectly on drums hits etc. The answer could simply be that the "live mixing" is a facade and every minute of the show is planned to a tea, but I've seen him many times and each time the mixes have been don differently. It could be a usage of MIDI triggers of some sort or it could be just great planning. Whatever it may be, the show flow seamlessly between chaos and order. The balance between chaos and order is what makes the show work. Yes there is a high level of production. But at the same time it all feels like it's flying by the seat of its pants. If the show swayed too far on the side of production I think it would fail. If it was too chaotic it would also fail. Girl Talk seems to have found the perfect balance and continues to explore different lighting and video technologies that will enhance his show. In talking about finding the balance between chaos and order makes me think about my own programming and how important it is to be creative and smart with your lighting decisions. Too many effects and strobing could really fatigue your audience and turn them off to a show, but too little could disengage the audience and leave them bored. (photo courtesy of http://sunfest.com/blog/girl-talk/)

MUTEMATH at the House of Blues Orlando

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands MUTEMATH play at the House of Blues here in Orlando. In watching some interview with the band before seeing them they said that this was going to be one of the most production heavy tours that they had ever done and the concert did not disappoint. MUTEMATH is a four piece rock band that plays rock with an electronic edge that is all in a well seeded groove. The main attraction at the show was a set piece that sat behind the band that was used for the 3D projection mapping. The mapping wasn’t as advanced as I was hoping, but definitely added a lot to the show. It’s amazing how much more immersive a show can be when you add in a giant screen in the background of a band in addition to all of the lights. The projection sometimes acted as just a giant light. It was used for IMAG at times as well though. What I found most impressive was the integration of lighting and projection into the show. The screen, which was in a stair step shape leading up to a point and then back down from left to right, had an LED fixture on top of each “step” along the way. These fixtures were moving head lights so they could be pointed at the audience, used to highlight the individual band members or just pointed and moved to add excitement to the show. In addition to the fixtures along the screen there were also about six of the same fixtures stair stepped on road cases on either side of the stage. In a similar manner as the lights on the screen the fixtures on the sides were most often pointed in and used for strobing effects during drum break downs or other parts of the songs. The colors that the LEDs were able to produce were unbelievable. I feel confident in saying that these lights produced some of the richest hues that I’ve ever seen at a live show. When all of the LEDs were combined together either in motion or just in color it created a look for each song that really helped to visualize the music. I would go so far as to say that this show may have been one of the best lit shows I’ve ever seen. I've included a video of a short portion of the show. I apologize that my phone does not do the audio justice, however, even with the video muted I think you can get a good idea of the visual effects of the show.