Glasto 2010 - Lighting and the Next Gen...

[Smiffy]

Now we are back on track guys!

 

Some interesting responses, and I'll try and add my thoughts as I read through.

 

Although I did not particularly enjoy the music, I watched it, and was quite interested by how they highlighted parts of the band and singers, but it did heavily rely on the visuals behind. At times I felt although static colour washes, they were more effective as they were trying to tell almost a story with their music, and create the atmosphere, instead of some groups which are all about hyping up the crowd and getting the largest reaction possible.

 

Gorrilaz (sp?) have always been a Video Driven act, the nature of the main 'artistes' being Cartoon Charachters kind of forces that issue. Lec Croft or Dave Byars are/were/is (delete as apropriate) Gorrilaz LD('s) and they are known for being quite good at what they do. I think a very theatrical approach was taken to the lighting of their Glasto gig. As far as getting a reaction from a crowd, my favourite part of any show is the very first cue, which always without fail demonstrates the power of light. That cue is of course the dropping of the audience lighting. There's something quite special about being able to make 20,000 people scream in unison just by pulling down a fader Thereafter, yes there is a hope that what you do resonates with the audience in some way, although generally I suspect that they would be screaming their lungs out at the Acts regardless of whether the LD does a good job or not. Good lighting is there to create the right atmosphere and mood, and so with that comes the screaming raucousnes.

 

I know a local festival that has no lighting apart from a couple of flood for sight security and to light the bands, and you can visibly see how more relaxed and 'un-involved' crowds become to the performance.

 

And that is what all lighting designers aim to do. Whether Theatrical, Musical, Concert, TV, or even Themed Environment, the aim is to involve the audience in the action, and at the same time try to match their visual expectations.

 

While we're still sort of on the subject of the Gorrilaz, I too didn't like the lighting very much. Now this may have been because it didn't translate well through TV, but mostly I suspect that it just was the opposite of my own design sensibilities. It's not what I would have done.

 

It is also worth bearing in mind though that the Gorrilaz were a late addition to the slot after U2 had to cancel, and so a number of factors may have worked against them such as the lack of available kit in that period, the LD might not even have been available, limited time to pre-program in a WYG suite or something, and so on. It could well even be that the client was limiting the LD to certain things. 'Only Washes' for example. I've had a client demand only white light in the past, believe me this can be limiting. On other occasions where clients have been so specific on their lighting requirements, I've found it very difficult to overcome the limitations that they imposed and get creative. Sometimes though, as an LD you will just have a bad gig, made worse of course when it's being televised and you get some smart arsed LD like me picking through the wreckage without an opportunity to defend yourself.

 

The drummer on the riser however, was a little disappointing; whenever he bounced up (which he seemed to do a lot while drumming!), the top of his head was cut off. I would have thought it'd be better to create a beam that's too wide, than too narrow for a gig like that, where anything can happen.

 

It's always a difficult thing to get right. It was better later on in the gig and I think they put a spot on him. One of the great difficulties of festivals is that you often find that you are doing your focus in the daylight. With the headline you tend to do it the night before, and so it may be that the fixture dropped during the day, or the riser wasn't quite as far upstage as it had been during the focus. Often with a generic focus at a festival it's a hit-it-and-hope sort of deal. You also get very used to focussing by looking straight up the beam (always bring sunglasses!)

 

I'm intrigued by some of those movers, though; they look like they have a ring of light around the main lens...quite what it's used for, I don't know, unless it's purpose is just to look pretty!

 

Those are the show-guns I alluded to earlier. The LED's are quite punchy, but for the most part they are there to make the fixture look pretty, and a bit different. I love em (now)

 

Also; I do wish audience members would clap in time!

 

Tell me about it! If you ever move into lighting for Concerts, one of the earliest and most important skills to master is an ability to filter out the audiences piss-poor sense of rhythm and timing!

 

I would have probably just stuck in some massive flashes from the whole rig on the very prominent chords, but the subtle approach I thought was much more effective in building up the tension until the first guitar riff began, and it's something I'd probably use in future.

 

I'm really glad that you saw something that you wouldn't normally do, decided that you liked it, and decided that you would probably try something similar. That statement has made the thread worthwhile to me, and harks back to my statement earlier in the thread that it's important to look at others work and consider other ways of doing things.

 

I didn't really enjoy the lasers in 'Stars' - I thought they looked a bit disco-ey, as if they were stuck on preset style chases and didn't really add to the music at all.

 

I've never been a fan of lasers, but they also don't ever look that great on TV without a sh1t hot vision engineer. It's a similar deal to flickering TV Screens on camera. All to do with scan rates. I could see the intent behind the lasers though, and I do think that for a live audience they were probably more effective than for those of us watching on telly.

 

Another thing that stood out for me was the way that the LD wasn't afraid to light the audience a fair bit with moving light which I thought was very good as it engaged the audience more as well as exciting them and made it less of a performance to the crowd but more of a two way thing (not sure if any of that makes much sense and apologies if it doesn't).

 

Another effect which was impressive was the way that there would often be a fast chase of 'white' light on stage followed by flooding the audience with a more natural yellow light. I thought this was very effective and mimiced the music well.

 

All I will say is that Molefays are a Concert LD's best friend (if somewhat overused, and yes I am guilty of the occasional mole-fest).

 

Finally the simple colour pallete mentioned before also interested me in the way that only a few colours (primarily red's and blue's) were used. This kept part of the design simple allowing the designer to be more creative with his/her movement of the light and yet for it still not to become overwhelming.

 

I like simple palettes. It's all too easy to end up with what looks vaguely like and explosion at a dichroics factory. Sometimes its appropriate to hit the rainbow spread, but not often! B-)

 

Apologies for writing in a slightly essay style - GCSE's finished a while back but I still haven't got out of the habbit

 

If you're planning on a career in lighting, don't break the habit. You'll be needing to do more of it than you think! :)

 

 

Any more for any more?

 

Cheers

 

 

Smiffy

[Brian]

I've never been a fan of lasers, but they also don't ever look that great on TV without a sh1t hot vision engineer.

As an (ex-)TV type I'll also add that lasers are one of those effects that really only work when viewed from the correct place. We tend to like our cameras raised up and looking down at the stage if only to keep the sea of heads out of shot. Lasers are usually designed to look good for the audience which inevitably means being looked up at, complete with dark sky as a background, as they scan over the audience's head.

 

The addition of TV to any event poses all sorts of interesting challenges.

 

 

I like simple palettes. It's all too easy to end up with what looks vaguely like and explosion at a dichroics factory.

People might like to look at this...

...it's Groove Armada over on the John Peel stage.

 

It's a very good example of a limited palette. The song is lit almost entirely in three shades of blue plus open-white. The result is a very clean look which, coupled with what I think is a visually interesting looking rig, gives an end result at least as good as those over on the Pyramid.

[James Remo]

The John Peel stage was a very well designed house rig, I believe Cate Carter designed again, to which Jonny Gaskell from Renegade Design added a small floor package for for the Groove Armada headline slot. The smaller stages should not be thought of as poorer siblings of the Pyramid / Other / Jazz World (West Holts as called this year) as often more thought and care is put into a stage where you yourself are flashing lamps for longer periods, as opposed to bands Ld's bringing in their own show and hacking it to fit the house rig.

As for us being highly self critical, I find it hard to watch the video Brian posted, as to me it shows an issue I didn't have time to fix in the changeover. You wont spot it, the audience didn't spot it, and I'm not going to say what it was. It really "chauved me out" though. :)

[Smiffy]

I Liked the design of the Peel Stage. A tough room I would imagine, given that I would suspect a number of the acts that perform in there wouldn't necessarily have their own LD's (or am I way off the mark and it's just gigs here in the sandpit where the LD doesn't always come out?).

 

Couldn't see anything obviously wrong there though James, although I know not a lot about anything that C*****t (am I right? :D ) Make....

 

Always liked Jonny Gaskell's stuff. Met him about 10 years ago I think down at Avo in London.

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

[James Remo]

Couldn't comment on the rest of the acts on the JP stage, as I came in with GA's floor package.

I've played in the sandpit with the acts I tour with, but as a "wrangler of specials" and "inflatables enthusiast" rather than LD. I prefer the stage end of the snake.

Smiffy, you are off the mark I'm afraid. Floor package was Robe movers, Ipix BB7's and Chromalech Jarags, no c*****t units to be seen. Still not telling!

 

In terms of lighting and video integration, I feel that there has been a "Kid in a sweetshop" mentality in the past few years. Personally I'm getting bored of looking at unmixed LED's, be that video or light source. The Ipix BB range are great and in heavy use because they offer properly mixed colours, with no colour shadowing. I'll echo the thoughts of one TV lampy friend of mine, in that you shouldn't need RGBA or RGBW led sources to cover up poor mixing of colours. The receptors in your eyes are only RGB, and your brain does a really good job of putting these three together. Now if only companies can take their RGB sources and mix them well before they chuck light out of their fixtures.... A la what Chris and the Ipix team are doing

[OllieH]

+1 Smiffy for posting this thread; it reinstates what lighting really is, an art form. I'm only 16 and the limitations of my experience mean that I don't have as much a technical appreciation of lighting but more a creative one. The frequency of a colour in the visual spectrum in regard to the intensity of light is neither here nor there to me; if it looks good and is thoughtful of the music, it appeals to me. This is something which will reflect in my comments.

 

I watched Muse - Hysteria and my comments judge this track alone. I thought the colour scheme was well considered. Although it may seem obvious the sort of colours one may go for given the beat and nature of this song, I thought the tones of reds/amber/yellows really delivered on the song's meaning, as they defiantly broke up the night's sky. I loved the transition of the colours in the opening sequence from open white light to amber and then to red, which worked well as the hysteria of the guitar riff grew ever stronger. The white light used periodically, and often in contrast with the stark red, made sense considering the elemental drum beats. The other thing which struck me, as Smiffy commented, was how fantastically video was used; not once did it seem out of place with often erratic light sequences and the colour changes (white to red and vice versa) in the video meant that it worked in unison with the rest of the lighting design.

 

With regard to the actual sequencing of lighting, didn't it escalate fabulously? The slow melodic fades and colour changes of the first 30 seconds were then confined to nothingness, as the audience waited in anticipation. It seemed to me as though it had been planned carefully; symbolic colour lighting introduced the track and, for ten seconds, it went to almost pitch black. Then, 50 seconds in, quick sequences of flashing white light build with the guitar riff until the introduction's climax. This ingenious sequencing gave the full effect of the Showguns and the red/white chases. I also loved the variation in the speeds of the chases. It was not either fast or slow; it had a range of values, which made the lighting design even more aberrant and thus it was meaningful in respect of the song. Ollie did a great job of picking exactly the right beats on which to initiate the chases, short, sharp but loud and assertive drum beats; the irrationality of the lighting design would have only worked if the chases were used with a 'less is more' mindset.

 

Timing was spot on; however, as the design was so complex and animated, I am sure there were parts which were not how they were supposed to be/slightly improvised. In general, I have to say the design looked well-rounded and exhaustive so, if any errors were made, they took little away from the goodness of the design.

 

What would I have done differently? I think the scales were tipping a little too much towards the chorus; it's my belief that a lot of effort and ingenuity was put into the chorus, whereas the verses lacked that zest which the rest of the design had to offer. I always think the best designs offer something totally different in the chorus to what they offer in the verses. The verses are usually subtle and understated, so that one can pay more attention to the vocals and the lyrics. The chorus, on the other hand, serves to arouse the audience and capture the exuberance of the performance. You could argue that this was done purposefully but my argument is that the verses didn't act in contrast - they were just plain. Furthermore, I thought the design lacked a bit of thought as to the positioning of certain effects. The movers often found themselves in a typically upright position and, in some of the chases, I'd have liked to see them pointing at 45 degree angles opposite each other to give an even more deviant effect. I also said earlier that the chases worked because they were large and obtrusive in themselves but not so in respect of the overall design. They worked well because they were used at the right moments and not all the time; however, I think they could have conveyed greater effect if used even more infrequently.