Olivia Sebesky designed the projections for James Taylor’s recent tour, which continues into 2022. Collaborating with creative/lighting designer Nick Whitehouse and production designer Josh Zangen, Sebesky's images illustrate the narratives in Taylor’s songs. Live Design chats with her about the tour.
Live Design: What is the overall design concept for the show? What was the brief from James Taylor?
Olivia Sebesky: The overall design centers around the concept of James playing a concert inside a beautiful forest. This story is told through scenery, video, and lighting. The stage right side of the set features a giant scenic tree trunk that grows up and out into the sky. The foliage is all created by animation on the LED wall behind the tree, and a cluster of kinetic LED lights built to look like leaves float up and down and change color to match the scene. Additionally, the show begins with a floating projection silk that tapers up from the deck to feel like a long, winding, road flowing into the distance. On this surface, we feature a projection montage of James Taylor’s fans, which tells the story of how James Taylor’s music can bring people together from all over the world, and how healing music has been during the pandemic. The show begins with a flourish of projection and sound design to magically reveal James on stage in a single spotlight, strumming the first few notes on his guitar. Each song has its own visual narrative, supported by animation and lights. A few of these visuals include animated timelapses of the magical forest from fall to winter, a nostalgic collage of postcards, family photos and memories of James’s life on the road, blooming magnolias, and a smoky dusky sky. The entire show was conceived by our brilliant director, Amy Tinkham. She worked with James for weeks to come up with a story and concept that would really speak to his life and journey as an artist.
LD: Can you talk about the video design from two angles: The gear used and content creation...how and what??
OS: The video design was built in both 2D and 3D using After Effects and Cinema 4D. I used 3d elements to build the forest, which allowed me to create really beautiful effects with lighting and shadow. All of the animations built for the sky, the clouds, and the time lapses were composited in 2d and manipulated in After Effects. In terms of gear, the rear 9mm LED wall has a relatively low pixel count, which gave me a lot more flexibility in terms of render time. We hung a Barco Projector on it’s side to achieve the projection throw onto the silk. LED and projector supplied by PRG. Video kinetic leaves and scenic tree were fabricated by TAIT.
LD: How did you collaborate with the production design and lighting designer (Nick Whitehouse?)... in terms of color, intensity, convergence, etc.
OS: I have had the privilege of collaborating with Nick Whitehouse (creative director) and Josh Zangen (production designer) for many years. Fortunately this allows for a great deal of shorthand, and we often find ourselves making visual choices simultaneously in response to the others that really just work. It’s pretty unusual for us to strongly disagree on design choices. Everything we do is in service of making James look amazing, and to serve the music. With that goal in mind, the most beautiful and cohesive choices for the stage picture come naturally.
LD: Any challenges of working in the pandemic environment?
OS: For most of the team (including road crew, catering, management, and design) this was the first show back since March 2020. So I think we all felt a bit rusty and we had to rebuild that trust and bond that was once so fluid. Most of the challenges had to do with logistics in materials and gear - we can no longer rely on the speed of delivery and production that we used to. Aside from that, James Taylor’s team was fantastic on Covid safety and really made sure everyone stayed safe. Everyone wore n95 masks during the entirely of tech and continue to do so during performances.
LD: What do you like best about your work on this show, it looks great!
OS:Through this design, I believe we were able to create a level of physical depth on stage that is rare in concert design. We are so often limited to only virtual depth that can be created through the motion graphics on the LED wall. In this scenario, we had so many levels—the LED wall, the hanging foliage borders, and the sculptural tree, the kinetic lights , the projection silk, and the lighting design. It felt much more like designing a theater production, which was a really special return to my roots as a designer.
The creative team with James Taylor, photo by Ellen Kusman.
