3.06 - CONCERT LIGHTING DESIGN

1.) CONCERT LIGHTING3.06 - CONCERT LIGHTING DESIGN

It was in the 1960's that the relatively new field of concert (or entertainment) lighting design was born. In New York at the Filmore East and in California at the Filmore West, popular music moved into permanent venues and with that, a new style of presentation was born. the best known American concert lighting designers of the time was Chip Monk. At the Filmore, lighting operation literally consisted of the operator actually 'dancing' on a wall of autotransformer dimmers in time with the music.

Many early performances at the Filmore's, the Electric Circus and elsewhere throughout America, were backed by a 'light show'. A wide array of projection effects would bombard a large rear screen behind the performers, causing dynamic and ever changing patterns of light. Projections would often make political statements, be downright dirty or be totally psychedelic and far out.

Today concert lighting design has become a recognized speciality and many designers work in this field only. The basic principals of design still apply -it's just that the toys are bigger, and more expensive.

2.) CONCERT LIGHTING - TECHNIQUES

Entertainment lighting today has become tremendously exciting. This industry now uses 'automated' lighting fixtures almost exclusively. Conventional lighting fixtures are still used, however less and less often. The PAR 64 fixture is still very popular for concert lighting, as this fixture is efficient and relatively inexpensive. It is not uncommon to also incorporate; color changers, motion effects, image and background projection, video, display panels, strobes, blacklight, fog, pyro, chase lighting and other visual effects. The sky's the limit...uh...the budget's the limit.

Typically all equipment is DMX controlled from a central location. Concert lighting that uses automated fixtures depends very much on two important people - the Lighting Designer and the Programmer. The position of 'programmer' was born in the 1980's as automated fixtures became more and more capable (and complicated). A good programmer will know his equipment well and will be able to rapidly construct a number of different 'looks', based on the designer's basic criteria. A poor programmer offers little and is able to make a million dollars of equipment look like ten cents! Alternately a good programmer can produce amazing results with very little time and equipment.

Most concert performers also tour, so concert lighting must be extremely durable, well packaged, and suited to a rapid set-up and take-down. The portable 'flown' lighting truss was developed for this industry and is often used to suspend all lighting fixtures above the stage.