I just got roped in by a presenter to do the lighting designer for a rock band fest ultra last minute. The truss is going up tonight, tomorrow is hang and focus, and day after the fest starts. I haven't met the company they have hired to provide the lights, all I've been told is that the equipment list is: 80 paars 6 moving head spots (with around 8 different gobos) 6 moving head washes 1 follow spot And the console is an Avolite Pearl 2004. My background is dance lighting, for small stages with conventional lights; I've worked with one or two moving lights as specials before, but nothing on the scale that a rock show requires. I've been frantically youtubing all the bands to try to get a sense of their music (since I don't have a set list or anything), as well as googling to find any tips about rock concert dos and don'ts. There will be programmer attached with the company providing the equipment, so luckily I don't need to learn a new console. There's isn't any time earmarked for light tech; and its outdoors so the only time to play with lights will be at night, whenever hang and focus is over. I'd love any advise about what my priorities should be. I haven't done much busking, so even things that seem obvious would be useful to hear. Thanks!
Rock Show Lighting in 12 hours
- Thread starterdeepavali
- Start date
jxgriffi
Active Member
PLSN | The Ultimate Punt Page
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I've used Nook's layout for about 9 years whenever I come across a job that has little programming time and want the most bang for the buck. It will become so ingrained it will be like second nature. It is VERY powerful if setup properly. I've run many a show with this and NOTHING else programmed.
Read it...learn it...live it!
I've used Nook's layout for about 9 years whenever I come across a job that has little programming time and want the most bang for the buck. It will become so ingrained it will be like second nature. It is VERY powerful if setup properly. I've run many a show with this and NOTHING else programmed.
bishopthomas
Well-Known Member
This is pretty much what I do (Pearl, movers, and LED's rather than pars for rock shows I know nothing about). Do you have a say in where the lights go? Is it a typical DS/US truss setup or something more interesting? Can you use haze? What size stage? These are all questions that would effect the design so I won't even try to assume before there's more information given. As for the console, have the programmer set up a DS N/C wash on the first playback. This will be your easy to find front lighting fader. I would probably patch the conventionals in color groups to handles in order to save on playbacks, but if you need separation for chases and such then you'll want to save the different colors to playbacks.
I like to record moving lights by channel for the most part; it's helpful to have a ML wash dimmer playback as well as a ML spot dimmer one. Record shapes by channel (pan/tilt) and in Mode 2 (this can be changed after pressing "Memory," just before selecting the playback). This will allow speed control as you bring the fader up. I like odd/even circle and pan and tilt saws the best, but there's some good stuff in the shape generator. If you're using palettes for colors on the wash ML's you can fade into them by simply pressing a number (in seconds) before selecting the palette. Of course, you'll need to be in program mode (I always run shows from program) or run takeover. This works for most attributes such as pan/tilt (sweep the ML's over the crowd by fading from an on stage position to an "all up" position over a set amount of time), frost filter, etc.
Well, there are some console pointers. Let us know a little more about the setup if you need placement suggestions.
I like to record moving lights by channel for the most part; it's helpful to have a ML wash dimmer playback as well as a ML spot dimmer one. Record shapes by channel (pan/tilt) and in Mode 2 (this can be changed after pressing "Memory," just before selecting the playback). This will allow speed control as you bring the fader up. I like odd/even circle and pan and tilt saws the best, but there's some good stuff in the shape generator. If you're using palettes for colors on the wash ML's you can fade into them by simply pressing a number (in seconds) before selecting the palette. Of course, you'll need to be in program mode (I always run shows from program) or run takeover. This works for most attributes such as pan/tilt (sweep the ML's over the crowd by fading from an on stage position to an "all up" position over a set amount of time), frost filter, etc.
Well, there are some console pointers. Let us know a little more about the setup if you need placement suggestions.
JD
Well-Known Member
PLSN | The Ultimate Punt Page
Read it...learn it...live it!
I've used Nook's layout for about 9 years whenever I come across a job that has little programming time and want the most bang for the buck. It will become so ingrained it will be like second nature. It is VERY powerful if setup properly. I've run many a show with this and NOTHING else programmed.
Wow.. Sounds like we all kind of do the same thing when stuck in a "Improvise Concert" position! The bigger trick is pulling together spot cues when you have no idea what's about to happen on stage. Usually, I try to contact the bands and ask if they have someone knowledgeable about their show, then hand the headset to them and let them cue away! About 8 out of 10 times, that works pretty well
(Outside of the nasty looks the spot ops give me after the show...)
"ahhh.. Joe's going to do a solo now...." -click- "Who's Joe?"
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Thanks for those replies! We were there till 2am just finishing focus, thanks to our gels and a dimmer pack not arriving (we're still waiting on one more dimmer pack), so its going to be a real fly by the seat of your pants gig. The board op is really good, and knows his ****, so I'm going to work collaboratively with him. Let's see how today's show goes, and after that I might be back with more questions about how to instantly guess what the performer is going to do and make the moving lights match the music!
Gern
Active Member
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