Tag Archive: VL1100AS

1. It’s All or Nothing for White Light in West End

   22 February 2018 10:11 Comments Off on It’s All or Nothing for White Light in West End

   All or Nothing – The Mod Musical follows the rise and fall of the Small Faces; a band who encapsulated the mod era. The home-grown musical features a range of the band’s classic hits, including Itchycoo Park, Lazy Sunday and, of course, All or Nothing. Following its initial run at The Vaults in 2016, followed by a sell-out UK tour, the show opened last week at London’s Arts Theatre. Having supplied the show since its very first production, White Light has been called upon once again to provide the West End run.

   The Lighting Designer for All or Nothing is Peter Small, who has worked on the show since it first opened in 2016. He comments: “It’s fair to say the show has definitely grown and changed over time; so much so that it’s now a completely different production than the one seen at The Vaults. Every time we’ve remounted it for an extension or a new tour, we’ve always taken the opportunity to improve and refine our work; with the West End transfer being the biggest and loudest version yet”.

   As with every version of the show, Peter’s brief remained the same for the West End run: to be true to the music and the era in which it’s set. He explains: “This isn’t a rock show. Rather, it’s an equal balance between the ‘straight acting’ scenes alongside the music and dance sequences. For the acting scenes, we carefully choose the lighting depending on how we wanted each location to look (given the scenery doesn’t change). When we moved to a new location, we would either lead with a practical or an effect in order for the audience to identify with that location.

   He adds: “It’s the same for the music numbers. Each number has a very specific look that is not used again elsewhere. I also wanted to use the lighting to try and show the progression in the band’s career. For instance, in the early performances, there are some cheap-looking colour wheels. For the next phases, there is a mirror ball until it eventually leads to a full-blown concert. It’s about layering up the effects as we move through the tracks”.

   As the show entered the Arts Theatre, this obviously meant there had to be some additions to the previous rig. Peter explains: “Back in The Vaults, we had about 50 generics and very few moving lights. Today, we have a rig of 72 moving lights, 58 scrollers and over 114 generics – so it’s a slight increase! For a show like this, I looked to draw on equipment that I knew I could fully rely on. This included the GLP XBar 20s, ETC Revolution IM/SMs, VL1000TS, VL1100AS, VL3000Q, MAC 700, Robe Mini Me, Chroma-Q ColorForce 72 and, of course, a healthy dose of ETC Source Fours and Par Cans”.

   With the previous show closing at the Arts on the Saturday evening and All or Nothing opening the following Tuesday, this meant there was a very limited load-in time. Peter comments: “This wasn’t a straight remount of last year’s tour as we’d added additional effects and sequences, so the overall lighting plan needed completely updating. Although we had limited time in the space, I’d thankfully invested in the Capture software so was able to pre-viz a large majority of work ahead of time with my programmer Tom Davis; something that paid in dividends”.

   All or Nothing will run at the Arts Theatre until 11^th March. It was announced yesterday that it would continue its stay in the West End by transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre from 28^th March to 2^nd June.

   Having been nominated for two OffWestEnd Lighting Design Awards in the past month alone, All or Nothing marks Peter’s West End debut. He comments: “There is a certain level of expectation when you’re working in the West End for obvious reasons. Thankfully, I had a great team behind me which included Adam Squire, Tom Davis, Abbi Fearnley, Liam Cleary, Alex Gooding and Elliot Roberts who were nothing short of incredible throughout the entire production process. I always want to say thanks to Louise Hambley, Bryan Raven and everyone else at WL without whom this project wouldn’t have been possible”.

   Photos courtesy of Phil Weedon.

2. White Light Goes to the Desert with Priscilla at ArtsEd

   14 February 2018 12:23 Comments Off on White Light Goes to the Desert with Priscilla at ArtsEd

   As part of its Third Year BA Musical Theatre Students Showcase, ArtsEd recently produced a brand-new production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Taking place in the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre, the show tells the story of drag queens Tick and Adam, and trans woman, Bernadette, as they embark on a road trip through the Australian outback. The show was lit by Nic Farman and White Light provided the lighting equipment.

   Priscilla Queen of the Desert is based on the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and won an Olivier on its West End debut. Nic comments: “I had never seen Priscilla before which I think worked in my favour as I was able to approach it with a fresh pair of eyes”. Priscilla is renowned for being a glitzy and loud show; something Nic was asked to embrace for his design. He explains: “My brief was to be as bright and colourful as possible! Something I really had to consider was the use of projection in the show. PJ McEvoy, the set and projection designer, had created this large bus to sit centre stage which he then transformed with video. Making that projection have a visual impact was very important and this required close collaboration between the two of us to ensure the video and lighting created a cohesive stage picture”.

   In order to achieve this, Nic approached WL and worked closely with WL’s Business Development Manager Jonathan Haynes and WL’s Hire and Sales Coordinator Jim Dewhirst to select his exacting fixtures. He comments: “The show called for plenty of colour and texture from the lighting. I spec’d a number of Martin MAC 700 Profiles and Washes. The Profiles provided good beams in the air and gobo work on the show floor, whereas the Washes allowed me to wash the stage with saturated colour.

   He adds: “Overhead, we had the VL1100AS which I chose for their shuttering. It was important to control the light within the space so that I didn’t wash out the projection surfaces and the VL1100s gave me that ability. We also had a number of Pixel Line 1044s to light the cyc. With bold, saturated colours being so important, the 1044s had ample output for our relatively small cyc. Also key in my design were the ETC Lustrs which cross lit the space and allowed me to light the choreography with a rich colour palette”.

   With the production being so reliant on the use of projection, this mean that Nic had to be very exact with how he lit certain scenes. He comments: “It was all about retaining that balance between projection and the action on stage. I ended up with a lot of cues which had subtle lifts and drops at opportune moments to keep the balance right. It was also a very big show to tech in a relatively short period of time so I was grateful to have such a brilliant team at ArtsEd who facilitated everything”.

   The production ran from 2^nd – 10^th February and allowed the students the opportunity to perform in a large-scale show before graduating.

   Nic states: “This was a great show to work on with a great bunch of creatives. I am also very grateful to WL for being so supportive and allowing me to achieve everything I wanted with the show”.

   Jonathan adds: “We recently supported Nic with his West End debut, The Toxic Avenger, so it’s great he’s able to call upon our services for a completely different production. Ultimately, we want to ensure that we work closely with lighting designers on any project and provide them with the best service possible”.

   Photos courtesy of Robert Workman.