Amishplumber
Active Member
Hey all,
I was just over on Reddit talking about the lighting design for some of the songs in the Grammys this year. Thought the design was really impressive for some of them. Would love to get a discussion going if anyone is interested in sharing their thoughts. Mainly the lighting, but projection and set too. I wish there was a general design forum.... Below is what I wrote on Reddit. Cleaned it up a bit so it follows the rules...
Okay. Just went online and watched some of the performances. Not going to watch all of them. You'd have to pay me to watch some Kesha or have to listen to a country song. The songs I'm actually interested in:
Daft Punk
Loved the recording studio set they rolled on, especially the ceiling. Great combo of practical downlights with all those LED wash units poking through in between. Having a ceiling on it made it super intimate. Also that EL wire must have cost a fortune to install.
Loved the strong front diagonal followspot on Pharell for the beginning. Usually they just blast a followspot on someone straight on from the front for TV stuff and they look very bland. This strong key from the side was much more a look you'd see in a music video or film. Love me some crossover stuff like that. Light a stage show like a movie, or light a movie like a stage show and you've got me excited.
Also thought the cueing was superb. Great build up throughout the song. Started small with lots of dark areas on stage and a narrow color palette, ended using the whole huge ass space along with literally the entire rainbow. Maybe the rainbow look was a little much, but if there is anyone who can pull of a primary color rainbow chase, it would be Daft Punk.
Also, there were some wonderful little cues that added the extra touch for me. Loved how when they changed colors on the EL wire in the set they would bump to white for a beat and then to the new color. Great punctuation. Also, if you look right at the way end of the video, the huge video walls behind them had a sunset look going on thats basically straight from the album art on the single for "Get Lucky." Loved that it wasn't exactly the album art. That would have been easy and too visually busy. Just pulling out the sunset made it much more cohesive to the whole.
Basically the LD did a great job of matching the lighting to Daft Punk. They're classy, minimalist, and make strong moves. The lighting did the same.
Macklemore
Thought the lighting design was bland actually. Boring directionality and they tried to do this whole NC thing, but it just worked way better for Lorde (more on that later). The wedding was awesome but I didn't need Madonna all up in my Macklemore. What was awesome was the projection design. The white on black church background was subtle and classy and didn't take up a ton of visual space. With it so minimalist it really felt like a set and not a video backdrop. It also subtly changed throughout the song with small flourishes on it being drawn and redrawn. Filling it in with color was also really cool at the end. Maybe its a thing at the Grammys this year to have your song cues start with NC and end in a rainbow? Maybe we already saw this with Daft Punk? Maybe I don't care and love it anyway.
Lorde
I shamelessly love her music despite her being a little 17 year old know it all. Yes, she has no perspective on life yet. Yes, she sings about problems privileged teenagers have in the burbs. But god damn do I love her minimalist aesthetic and voice. Lighting backed it wonderfully. Narrow color palette just using shades of white, love it. Her aesthetic is basically that. Also, the asymmetry of it killed me in the best of ways. 3/4 back diagonal filled in with a warm footlight? SIGN ME UP. Its airy, its dark, its mysterious, but yet stays intimate. Its like sitting at a warm nice campfire in a cold forest. Yes I just went there.
The projections were well executed, but I'm not that sold on the content. What is this stone statue thing? Is that from her personal aesthetic, or did a designer pick that? Her video for the song is much more about human connections. I think something more in the aesthetic of her Royals video would have added a nice human counterpoint to the cold HUGEness of the rest of the design. Maybe a statue in a cold bleak city square instead of this gothy thing. The TV noise below was nice though, I think that fits her. Cueing kicked ass. Love the big warm wall of light that would come up behind her, but I'm also a sucker for that in basically any context.
Imagine Dragons + Kendrick
Whoever programmed this should be proud. Layer on layer of effect. The yellow profile beams through the haze that wiggle as they pan!!! If had to program that on an Eos I would stab someone. I hope this was run on grandma (anyone know the answer to that?). Loved it for the technical skill, but also it was so nice and hectic. The first time it happened I thought for a split second that they were rocking out SO HARD that the truss was shaking. And you know what, THATS EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME THINK! Thats cool.
Also the LEDs on pipe behind them. Cool idea, not anything new, but well executed. The cool part was the melding of lighting, set and projection that happened. They extended the set by projecting a video version of the same LED panel setup up on the screens behind them. Now thats cohesive design. Lighting, projection AND set all worked together for that one. Also, a ton of pixel mapping at the end on those panels. Just try and visualize all those bits of instruction flying down the ethernet.
Alright, I think I can shut up now. Thanks for your time. Carry on. Happy to get in a discussion with anyone about this.
I was just over on Reddit talking about the lighting design for some of the songs in the Grammys this year. Thought the design was really impressive for some of them. Would love to get a discussion going if anyone is interested in sharing their thoughts. Mainly the lighting, but projection and set too. I wish there was a general design forum.... Below is what I wrote on Reddit. Cleaned it up a bit so it follows the rules...
Okay. Just went online and watched some of the performances. Not going to watch all of them. You'd have to pay me to watch some Kesha or have to listen to a country song. The songs I'm actually interested in:
Daft Punk
Loved the recording studio set they rolled on, especially the ceiling. Great combo of practical downlights with all those LED wash units poking through in between. Having a ceiling on it made it super intimate. Also that EL wire must have cost a fortune to install.
Loved the strong front diagonal followspot on Pharell for the beginning. Usually they just blast a followspot on someone straight on from the front for TV stuff and they look very bland. This strong key from the side was much more a look you'd see in a music video or film. Love me some crossover stuff like that. Light a stage show like a movie, or light a movie like a stage show and you've got me excited.
Also thought the cueing was superb. Great build up throughout the song. Started small with lots of dark areas on stage and a narrow color palette, ended using the whole huge ass space along with literally the entire rainbow. Maybe the rainbow look was a little much, but if there is anyone who can pull of a primary color rainbow chase, it would be Daft Punk.
Also, there were some wonderful little cues that added the extra touch for me. Loved how when they changed colors on the EL wire in the set they would bump to white for a beat and then to the new color. Great punctuation. Also, if you look right at the way end of the video, the huge video walls behind them had a sunset look going on thats basically straight from the album art on the single for "Get Lucky." Loved that it wasn't exactly the album art. That would have been easy and too visually busy. Just pulling out the sunset made it much more cohesive to the whole.
Basically the LD did a great job of matching the lighting to Daft Punk. They're classy, minimalist, and make strong moves. The lighting did the same.
Macklemore
Thought the lighting design was bland actually. Boring directionality and they tried to do this whole NC thing, but it just worked way better for Lorde (more on that later). The wedding was awesome but I didn't need Madonna all up in my Macklemore. What was awesome was the projection design. The white on black church background was subtle and classy and didn't take up a ton of visual space. With it so minimalist it really felt like a set and not a video backdrop. It also subtly changed throughout the song with small flourishes on it being drawn and redrawn. Filling it in with color was also really cool at the end. Maybe its a thing at the Grammys this year to have your song cues start with NC and end in a rainbow? Maybe we already saw this with Daft Punk? Maybe I don't care and love it anyway.
Lorde
I shamelessly love her music despite her being a little 17 year old know it all. Yes, she has no perspective on life yet. Yes, she sings about problems privileged teenagers have in the burbs. But god damn do I love her minimalist aesthetic and voice. Lighting backed it wonderfully. Narrow color palette just using shades of white, love it. Her aesthetic is basically that. Also, the asymmetry of it killed me in the best of ways. 3/4 back diagonal filled in with a warm footlight? SIGN ME UP. Its airy, its dark, its mysterious, but yet stays intimate. Its like sitting at a warm nice campfire in a cold forest. Yes I just went there.
The projections were well executed, but I'm not that sold on the content. What is this stone statue thing? Is that from her personal aesthetic, or did a designer pick that? Her video for the song is much more about human connections. I think something more in the aesthetic of her Royals video would have added a nice human counterpoint to the cold HUGEness of the rest of the design. Maybe a statue in a cold bleak city square instead of this gothy thing. The TV noise below was nice though, I think that fits her. Cueing kicked ass. Love the big warm wall of light that would come up behind her, but I'm also a sucker for that in basically any context.
Imagine Dragons + Kendrick
Whoever programmed this should be proud. Layer on layer of effect. The yellow profile beams through the haze that wiggle as they pan!!! If had to program that on an Eos I would stab someone. I hope this was run on grandma (anyone know the answer to that?). Loved it for the technical skill, but also it was so nice and hectic. The first time it happened I thought for a split second that they were rocking out SO HARD that the truss was shaking. And you know what, THATS EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME THINK! Thats cool.
Also the LEDs on pipe behind them. Cool idea, not anything new, but well executed. The cool part was the melding of lighting, set and projection that happened. They extended the set by projecting a video version of the same LED panel setup up on the screens behind them. Now thats cohesive design. Lighting, projection AND set all worked together for that one. Also, a ton of pixel mapping at the end on those panels. Just try and visualize all those bits of instruction flying down the ethernet.
Alright, I think I can shut up now. Thanks for your time. Carry on. Happy to get in a discussion with anyone about this.
