Timeless Designs

[McCready00]

What are the best lighting designs you have seen ?

I'll start with one of mine. Not the best one ever, but it inspired me to create this thread.

It's a really simple cue. Although, build for venues of that side, it makes it look so good. The moment you can see DG singing with the arms raised through the light, it is fantastic.

Splicd 02:55 to 03:40 Learning to fly - Pink Floyd (High Quality)



Brickman is problably, by far, my favorite lighting designer.

[CavezziMagnum]

One of my most enjoyable designs is Jimmy Barnett's of the Queen Rock Montreal. It is so simple yet it shows the impressive ability of what simple lighting can do.

On the other hand, it also does show that quantity is not the same as quality. Just because you have 5 rigs of 48 lights, plus more audience lighting shooting from under the drummer.

But I digress, either way, if you have not seen the Queen Rock Montreal concert on dvd, I recommend you go buy it and watch it NOW! It will rock your face off. Just watch the Bohemian Rhapsody song, you can probably find it online.

[McCready00]

I thought about buying it many times. I take your advices in consideration next time I go downtown.

[rwhealey]

I quite liked the Trans Siberian Orchestra- quite, um, excessive?

That reminds me- I gotta get tickets for this year's concert.

[Smurphy]

My favorite lighting design is a daft punk concert done with a giant pyramid. It was an amazing use of lighting instruments. Its on youtube to check out if you want.

[derekleffew]

I'll play devil's advocate. There's no such thing as a "Timeless Design." Tharon Musser's lighting for A Chorus Line was one of the greatest designs ever. But in 2006, Natasha Katz could not have simply hung the 1975 plot and executed the same cues. Technology changes, but more important, audience expectations change.

Brickman's 1994 lighting for Pulse is great, but one wonders why the fixtures on the light ring never strobe, until one realizes that the VL5 was a brand new incandescent fixture that did not have that capability.

Even the lighting for TSO may soon appear "dated," once every fixture in the rig becomes a DL.3 or DML-1200, or fixtures with capabilities we haven't even though of yet.

One more thing. Entertainment lighting is experiential, and exists only during the performance. Film and video cannot capture stage lighting accurately. Attend as many performances of all genres as you can.

[SteveB]

Originally Posted by McCready00

What are the best lighting designs you have seen ?

Derek has it correct, though I believe the intent of the OP is more along the lines of "What's been your favorite design - something that still sticks in your brain, even with the advances in technology".

That said, it would have to be the sunsets in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a late summer evening, when the summer storm clouds would start to break up, revealing spectacular sunsets.

Craig Miller, the LD at the opera in SF, used to take the apprentice lighting kids out on the back deck to watch. Nothing like seeing the real thing to gain inspiration. To me, this was timeless design, as not much has changed for thousands of years.

Steve B.

[quarterfront]

I'm pretty partial to Jules Fischer's work on the movie version of Chicago. Being on video I can watch it over and over again. Lots of good stuff there.

[CavezziMagnum]

[QUOTE=derekleffew;106325]I'll play devil's advocate. There's no such thing as a "Timeless Design." Tharon Musser's lighting for A Chorus Line was one of the greatest designs ever.

I totally agree Derek. It paved the way for the modern theatrical lighting concepts and how we program and execute lighting cues, not to mention changing the way people viewed Broadway and Musical Theater.

[Grog12]

Originally Posted by quarterfront

I'm pretty partial to Jules Fischer's work on the movie version of Chicago. Being on video I can watch it over and over again. Lots of good stuff there.

Funny as it was little more than a reworking/design of Ken Billington's original Broadway design.