CMU School of Drama


Sunday, September 07, 2008

Saying Goodbye To Beijing

LiveDesign: "After five months on-site in Beijing—other than one quick detour to light Signapore’s National Day Celebration on August 9— Australian LD Paul Collison is finally ready to head home to Sydney."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lighting the Olympics seems like every lighting designer's dream. THe budget must have been ridiculous esspeccially since there were no analog fixtures or dimmer racks. At the Vari Light session on Friday one of the speakers said that there were 800 VL3000s just for one area at the Olympics. I'm sure Collison must have a pretty impressive resume now I can't imagine anything that would be more important to light than the Olympics.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure he is going to sleep for a period between 3 and 4 straight. I cant imagine having such a large vision in my head. I would rather someone else set up a rig they think is fun and interesting, and then design around a pre-determined plot. At least there would be a starting point for my brain.

dmxwidget said...

To put on a priduction such as this is just moind boggling and seems almost impossible. But today with the magic of technology, it is all possible, and almost anything you can dream, you can do. It is crazy that they didn't have access to the space until just before the event. most times, it is nice to have time on your side, but this was just the opposite. Everybody wants a chance to work on the Olympics, but only a select few get the chance.

Anonymous said...

What this leads me to wonder is whether or not anyone (the Olympics committee, or whoever) actually had to pay to rent all of this equipment. That would cost a LOT of money. I have to assume that they did not pay to rent all of the equipment, and that the publicity each company got was enough of a payoff. I did not get to see the opening ceremony, but I'm sure the lighting was used to quite a good effect.

Anonymous said...

Reading the other comments... all I could think about was not the money that went into renting, not renting, buying the structures, etc. but what the prodcution staff must have gone through. Obviously this was directed towards lighting design, techinicians but I can not get over how rewarding doing this type of produciton would be! Like every lighting designers dream, it is also a stage/production managers dream!! I would love to be involved in simply the load in of this type of production (exspecially with 8 hours to do it). Just the visual perspective aspects would be almost to difficult to fathom.

Sarah Benedict said...

I can't imagine working on a show of this massiveness. Sadly, I only got to see the opening ceremonies but I truly think my jaw stayed open the entire time. As any designer or technician, you get to have your work displayed for BILLIONS of people. The opening and closing ceremonies are when art is catapulted to the same international stage and standards that everyone holds sports to. Earlier there was an article that discussed how fine arts used to be a category in the Olympics, with gold/silver/bronze prizes. I almost prefer the grandeur of the ceremonies to an art competition, that would probably never be aired in modern times. With the ceremonies you have countries competition over years to see who can out do the next - very similar to the World's Fair. The Eiffel tower was made for France's and then the Ferris Wheel was invented to top that in America at the following Fair. Can you imagine the spectacular that England is going to throw at us? Im so excited.

NorthSide said...

Jesus Christ, I cannot even imagine the pressure an LD for the Olypics must have. The whole world is going to see your design and you only have one chance to get it right. The fact that they only had eights hours to do turn overs sometimes must have been a stressful experience. Sure, Collision has done the Olympics before and it's obvsiously a big and prestigious contract, but I wonder how they guy takes in the pressure of pleasing host country and the Olympics comittee. Power to him.

MBerger said...

Putting aside the awe-inspiring rig and the design. I was most intrigued by one statement in the article that, there was not a single dimmer rack in the games. This surprised me on a few levels. First of all I have experienced the way that moving lights can sometimes, not cooperate, and was amazed that there was no conventional system. Even with the vast amount of console, and cable backups, ML's still can fail. Even though conventionals can fail as well, i haven't seen a rig made completely out of moving lights in a while. Moreover, I found it hard to believe there was not a single birdie or conventional fixture in the space. If there was not, I suppose it just goes to show where this industry is going.

Megan Spatz said...

This lighting design did for me what so few productions have been able to do successfully. It was so entrancing that I didn't even look at how the lights were rigged or how they technically worked, I just enjoyed the show! I feel like the design succeeding the most in just being enjoyable to watch.