lightman02
Active Member
Beyonce will be preforming on the Today Show this morning. There is at least 12 Showpix setup for the performance, check it out!!
Automated Fixtures ShowPix On Today Show (Beyonce)
- Thread starterlightman02
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willbb123
Active Member
Direct Link to Video: msnbc.com Video Player
Cool. I've wanted to see how they looked in a concert setting.
Cool. I've wanted to see how they looked in a concert setting.
willbb123
Active Member
Check out the links on the left side. Most of the concerts have the show pics.
here is the All American Rejects - msnbc.com Video Player
They have a tent set up and people have umbrellas, It looks like its raining, and one of the showpics are clearly outside the tent.
here is the All American Rejects - msnbc.com Video Player
They have a tent set up and people have umbrellas, It looks like its raining, and one of the showpics are clearly outside the tent.
lightman02
Active Member
Yes, they were using the Showguns all the time and recently switched to the show and studio pix. You will most likely be seeing them for every NBC concert. American Rejects performed on Tuesday and Beyonce was today however there was a couple things about the rig I didn't like. One they had show pix on road cases all along the red carpet Beyonce made her entrance on, the part I didnt like is that the road case with the light on top of it were right in with the crowd with no barrier around them at all. You could see people hanging over then and I'm sure people got hit in the arms and possibly heads when the light moved without warning. Second I felt the animations were overused, the whole show seemed to just scroll the animations never any full color washes really. As far as the American Rejects with the rain, you are correct the back lights on the stands were in the rain but I guess cause they were mounted with bases up and head down then took their chances. They do cover them before the performance to help, but yes it is risky, I saw the same thing with the showguns and it was raining even harder.
I was bothered by the fact that the fixtures served no other purpose except as "eye candy" and actually distracted from the performers. The stage was lit perfectly for TV--not a single shadow in sight with probably twenty or more 6K HMI Fresnels out of camera range. The ShowPix were used as annoying scenery rather than useful illumination units. I know I'm old-fashioned and out-of-touch, but I don't recall the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, or Lena Zavaroni
needing such frivolities, but then again, they had talent and could actually sing.
To the question of where the fixtures came from, they were not rented from PRG, instead came from Main Light, which as far as I know, only has its office Wilmington. Which means someone went out of their way to get this many fixtures. Its all about eye candy my friends -- day time show in the middle of NYC, no fixtures will be able to give you any kind of drama or good aesthetic that could compete with the daylight without blowing out the HD cameras -- the best they can do is use something that spins around and looks cool to make us feel like we're at a concert. ND used on the fixtures because the threshold of the cameras can't deal with the brightness and harshness of the LEDs, even then ran at a considerably low level.
Info from posts on the LN by High End folks.
Info from posts on the LN by High End folks.
lightman02
Active Member
Yes, the showpix were not rented from PRG however the Showguns that they used to use were. As far the harshness of the LED's blowing out an HD camera that is not correct considering they used to use alot of showguns before the studio pix and no issues at all. It takes alot to damage a CCD based camera wether it's SD or HD I woudl assume there might be a flaring issue they would be refering too. I will see if I can get more info on the rig setup as I work with NBC but am currently not directly involved with the lighting apects (that may change soon). But as far as the eye candy thing, well it seems more like quick thrown together stuff but I think more sutle changes would look better.
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It's just personal preference, but I hate Arri Fresnels which they were using (granted they were HMI) but with the tungsten's, when they are dimmed after running at FL for a while they make a very annoying clicking sound as they cool. Had a bunch of those ruin a quiet section of a production earlier in the year... They were the only ones we could rent at the time. And they are also silver and blue... In my opinion, all lights used in theatre (especially in view of the audience) should be black.
So just out of curiocity, do these have any type of built in mosture barier, or were they basically taking a normal indoor fixture and hoping the rain didn't short it out before the show was over? And are these a tpe that they would have bben able to dry them off and get them back up in a couple of hours, or that would ahve required major work had the rain gotten in them.
wakkoroti
Active Member
Nah, welcome to big time showbiz where replacement and loss is built into the budget.
Derek how could you!
It was once you who corrected me for calling Mole Mauve red.
controlremoto
Member
I know just what you mean. Something about the blue spectrum of LEDs on video causes the video to blow out with blue. Looks pretty ****. I recently did a Stevie Wonder show at the UN and the TV truck guys were in my cans crying about the blues. I had them down to like 20%. But hey who needs blue? So over rated.
From what I understand its hard to get Video to conform to LEDs spectrum because there is no standard across manufactures. Particularly with concert type lights(non studio leds). This coupled with the fact that the spectrum curve of the blue has huge spikes in it makes the video engineers job hell.
Thats my 2 cents
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