Appearing Online - October 21st

Rob will be appearing on-line as part of Martin Professional’s Learning Sessions series of on-line talks on Wednesday, October 21st.

Rob’s talk is entitled Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair, and explores the relationship between the Lighting Programmer and the Lighting Designer. As he explains, “the lighting programmer’s job is to translate a designer’s vision into the practicalities of console and lots. It is a relationship that is intimate, thrilling and unique - involving the programmer almost getting inside the designer’s head to understand their aim, while at the same time occupying a seat perfectly placed to watch the creation of unique live entertainment events.”

Rob’s work on both sides of this partnership, as lighting programmer for shows such as Les Misérables, Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, lighting designer for shows such as Giudizio Universale, and sometimes, as on Tree of Codes, filling both roles, gives him a unique perspective on this unique relationship.

The session takes place on Wednesday October 21st at 11am (US Central Time) / 5pm (UK time). You can sign up via the Martin/Harman website: [link].

Rob’s talk is just one of a great series of events organised by Martin. Details all of the events can be found here: [link].

Long-Range Socially Distanced Lighting

Rob was supposed to have spent some of this summer in Tokyo, working on the return of the Japanese production of Billy Elliot, returning for a season after its 2017 debut in the country.

Understandably, he is not there - but the production is moving ahead, having loaded in to the theatre this week, with technical rehearsals getting underway now.

However both Rob and lighting designer Rick Fisher are helping out with some ‘socially distanced’ lighting - distanced by 6000 miles!

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, it had been agreed to make some changes to update the lighting rig, with VL2600 LED fixtures replacing some of the previous TW1 and Revolution fixtures. Though the Japanese lighting team were familiar with the show having worked on the 2017 production, to give them the best possible start with the new lights Rob set up a mini-rig of the old lights next to the new lights in London. This allowed him to match the look of the new (in terms of colour, beam, edge and position) to the look of the old. At the same time, he created a virtual model of the rig in the Augment3D visualiser that is now built into the Eos-family consoles the show uses. The showfile was then transferred across to Tokyo, ready to go.

There is now a running communication between the Japanese lighting team led by Yuta Watanabe, via the wonderful interpreter Sonoko Ishii, swapping information, ideas, pictures, suggestions and reminders that it’s time to be done for the day and to adjourn for socially distanced drinks.

This remote lighting is alongside the remote work involved in getting the rest of the production on, which has seen rehearsals in Tokyo led by a director via Zoom from England and a choreographer via Zoom from Australia.

Billy Elliot opens in Tokyo at the end of September, playing a season there before moving to Osaka.

A Little Research Project

One advantage of lockdown has been time to get caught up on long-standing ‘background’ projects. For Rob that has meant the chance to complete the power study of Les Mis that he’s been carrying out gently in the background since the start of the year.

The project started with a question: how much power are we actually saving by moving our lighting to LED? This came partly out of the Save Stage Lighting campaign of a few years ago, trying to persuade the EU that while we wanted to keep the magic of tungsten light available to us we weren’t stuck on old technology and were actively moving to more efficient sources. And partly just out of curiosity: intuitively we know newer rigs are using less power than older ones, but exactly how much? We know that a new LED light uses less power than an equivalent tungsten light, but we also know it’s less bright, so we run it at a higher level. In show use, it doesn’t use as much less power as you’d think from just reading the label…

Fortunately Rob already had a tool in place to analyse this - the PowerTrack function in his FocusTrack show documentation software. What was harder to find was one show lit using older (tungsten, arc) equipment, then re-lit by the same designer to look the same using newer (LED) equipment. But a conversation with lighting designer Paule Constable suggested the new production of Les Misérables might provide such a case study, the rig having evolved over the years with, in the new London production, all of the tungsten lighting fixtures replaced with LED.

The Les Mis team were able to supply all of the data for three versions of the show. The result is an in-depth look at three versions of the show’s rig, with detailed comparisons of the moment-by-moment power use and then the overall energy use. The end result confirms we are now using less power than before. The surprise: not as much less as we might have hoped!

The article can be found in the current issue of LSi: [link]

ALD Academy Boot Camp

Rob is delighted to have been asked to be part of the A.LD Boot Camp, being organised by lighting designer Tim Deiling for the Association of Lighting Designers.

This week long intensive course, being run over Zoom, aims to cover all the skills necessary to support a lighting designer on a variety of projects, as an associate LD or assistant LD. The course is aimed at students, recent graduates and any young designers looking to increase their capabilities.

Tim has put together a panel of lighting professionals willing and able to share their knowledge. As well as Rob, speakers will include lighting designers Ken Billington and Hugh Vanstone, associates Rob Casey and Tim Reed, associate and programmer Andy Voller, associate and author of The Assistant Lighting Designer’s Toolkit Anne E. McMills, the National Theatre’s Head of Lighting Programming Dan Murfin, and John McKernon, the creator of Lightwright.

The course runs from July 20th to 25th, and is open to all - visit the website to register.

ALD Academy Boot Camp: [link]

Backstage Online - ABTT Theatre Show

In an alternate reality, the annual ABTT Theatre Show would have been taking place today and tomorrow (June 10th and 11th).

In this reality, the show has moved on-line, with a series of Webinars covering a full range of backstage subjects.

Rob will be part of the Association of Lighting Designers panel on the Future of Lighting, looking at the changes and challenges involved in using LED technology, this morning, June 10th, from 10am.

See you there?

ABTT Panels: [link]

Temporarily Closed: The Entertainment Industry In Lock-Down

Rob, and the other writers for LSi magazine, produced a piece about the immediate effects of coronavirus, the lock-down and the shut-down of the entertainment industry for the current issue of the magazine. It includes the shut-down experiences of and thoughts from many leading industry figures from lighting, sound, video design and more.

“In these strange and unusual times, it was great to hear, and to be able to share what others in the industry, peers and colleagues and friends, were going through. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a real sense that the world will survive, and we will bounce back - but also a keen sense that perhaps this pause was a good moment for a spot of reflection on the things that are really important,” Rob comments.

The current issue of LSi is available online now. [link]

ALD Coronavirus Financial Survival Guide

These are unprecedented times…

It feels like the world of entertainment has just, suddenly… stopped.

With nothing else to do, Rob has worked with the Association of Lighting Designers to prepare a “Financial Survival Guide” - a quick introduction to the help that those who now suddenly find themselves with no work can seek from the Government, whether they had a job, worked for themselves through a company, or were completely freelance.

The Guide is available now from the ALD Website: [link].

Given that things are changing rapidly, it will be updated regularly.

Be safe in these difficult times.

Congratulations, Team Amour

Congratulations to all involved in Amour, the highly acclaimed musical Rob lit last year at the Charing Cross Theatre: the show has been named Best New Musical at the 2020 Offies!

Covering all of the ‘off West End shows’ produced during the year, the awards also recognised the show’s designer, Adrian Gee, who won the Best Costume Design category.

Produced by Danielle Tarento, Amour was directed by Hannah Chissick, choreographed by Matthew Cole, designed by Adrian Gee, with lighting by Rob, sound design by Andrew Johnson and musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith.

Amour: [link]
Amour Gallery: [link]
Offices 2020: [link]

Photographer: Scott Rylander