Concerts content from Live Design: Unbreakable World Tour was conceived, created, and directed by Janet Jackson with Gil Duldulao as the creative director. The tour features production design by LeRoy Bennett and Cory FitzGerald of Seven Design Works. FitzGerald also designed and programmed the lighting, for which Upstaging supplied the equipment.
4 comments:
I’m not a huge fan of Janet Jackson, but the design for this show does look very cool. What I appreciate most about these drawings are that they show a different type of entertainment design than what I have learned up until this point at my time at CMU, concert design. It’s something that is so vastly different in style to theatrical design but at the same time it’s so easy to see how people in the SOD can branch out into that world. Many of the technical skills that we learn here are easily carried over, and a lot of the concepts in management and design are able to be used in that field of entertainment as well. Many graduates have taken advantage of that crossover potential, and it’s certainly something I’d like to keep in mind as I prepare to declare at the end of the semester. I’d love to see more of these articles, they’re great food for thought for those of us who are interested in the world of rock and roll design.
Articles like these, regardless of the site that they are on, tend to provide very little for people that aren't hip to the lighting lingo. Throwing up a plot just to give readers a sense of the designer is a cool idea for other lighting designers, but it makes me question what their ultimate goal is. Philosophical ramblings aside, the plot is very cool to look at if you can comprehend what is going on. Piecing together information based on a plot is one of the coolest things about lighting for me, and every time I look at a new plot I either discover a new fixture to look up or a new way to pair some lights together to grant a new effect. This plot is interesting because of the dynamic truss shapes, in that there are regular rows and then the diagonal lengths that are in opposition to them. This plot does seem best for arena venues, at which lights will be used to fill the entire space, which encompasses not only the stage but 18 thousand seats. The motor key is also crazy overwhelming to look at, but there isn't a whole lot to glean from it unless you already have background knowledge.
Oh look. Another light plot from a concert posted on Live Design. How exciting. Maybe this time they’ll throw in some context from the designer that explains the concept for the show and how they’re using all the fixtures on the plot. Maybe they’ll even have an interview with the designer. Oh boy, what if they have actual pictures and *gasp* video from the concert??? As the page loads, I can feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I close my eyes and reflect on all the times I have looked through concert plots without knowing what the designer is going for. But this time, I know it will be different. I know that Live Design has changed for the better. Here we go. I open my eyes. I quickly read the first paragraph. Just credits. Then comes the plot. A feeling of dread comes over me. I don’t lose all hope yet, though. I scroll down to the bottom of the article. Nothing. I am crushed. I sit at my desk, staring in disbelief. A tear wells up in my left eye, but I quickly blink to keep it at bay. I look over the drawings. I close my browser. I let out a long sigh and question my life choices.
I guess I don't persue Light Plots posted on Live Design nearly as often as Sam here, but yes I agree some context would be nice. It is a little pointless to try to glean big design concepts from looking at a bunch of lights. That being said, some pretty impressive 3D CAD here I think. Clean plot, very sexy perspective renders. I really like the blue render style that this draftsman had set up for his Iso views. I know drafting is not a hugely emphasized skill here at school. But man do I feel like a lot of students produce mediocre, confusing, ambiguous plates. There is no machismo to be gained by drawing something that is confusing and only can be understood after 3 conversations with the designer and 10 minutes staring at a mess of unannotated black lines. After my short stint in Crazy Scheme this semester, I totally felt like I was going to tear my hair out with the amount of sloppy confusing messes on a page the office was given. I feel if everybody just remembered so simple pointers, everything would be so much better. Stuff like.. what's the purpose of this plate, what information am I trying to convey, what geometry do I need to highlight and pull forward, does my layout look like crap, does this pass the graphic design amateur smell test. If you're good enough to be a creative designer, then you're good enough to visually present your ideas in a way that make sense. This plot on a Live Design is a great example of some plates that are complicated, but are easy to understand and visually appealing.
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