Monday Musings: Jeff Ravitz

Next week at this time, I will be in Las Vegas for my 32nd annual LDI. Some of the people on the staff aren’t even that old! But back in 1988, when Pat MacKay launched LDI, one of the first rock and roll lighting designers I met was Jeff Ravitz. There we were in Dallas, TX, and Pat had organized a little dinner with a few designers, including Jeff, at Baby Routh, an informal spinoff of Routh Street Café, the original restaurant that launched the career of iconic Dallas chef Stephan Pyles—Pat has a nose for new places by star chefs. Jeff and I have both acquired new spouses since then, and Jeff moved from Moody Ravitz to Virtual Terrain and now Intensity Advisors as his life and career have morphed.

Over the years, we have worked together on many projects for Live Design and LDI. These include the Television Lighting Master Classes, which launched back in 2012 at USC in LA. Those classes came hot on the heels of our Concert Lighting Master Classes, launched in 2010, with Jeff serving as creative consultant for both, not to mention his ongoing role as lighting designer for Bruce Springsteen’s concert tours for more than three decades. We were lucky enough one year that Bruce was playing down the road from USC in Anaheim, so we rented a few buses, piled everyone on, and Jeff gave us a fantastic pre-show tour of the lighting, with everyone on stage, and of course, we were in for a treat with a four-hour songfest by The Boss. I also went to Mexico City with Jeff in 2016 as part of our first collaboration with sound:check Xpo, where he was our featured speaker.

This year, I called upon his expertise to line up an A List of television lighting designers to do solo LiveTalks in our new Live For Broadcast Pavilion on the LDI2019 show floor. Jeff rose to the occasion, as always, and not only provided the best in the biz but also took the lead in designing the lighting rig, working with Brian Edwards of PRG, lead sponsor for the gear in the pavilion.

The list of sessions in the Live For Broadcast Pavilion is as follows:

  • Jeff Ravitz: Keynote: An Introduction To The Weekend's Sessions
    • Friday, November 22, 11:30am - 12:00pm
  • A One-On-One with Lighting Designer Oscar Dominguez
    • Friday, November 22, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
  • Josh Hutchings: Lighting A Network Game Show
    • Friday, November 22, 3:15pm - 4:15pm
  • Michael Berger: Lighting The Boston Pops Fourth of July…and more
    • Saturday, November 23, 11:30am - 12:30pm
  • Bob Barnhart: Tackling A Super Bowl Halftime Show
    • Saturday, November 23, 12:45pm - 1:45pm
  • David Mann: Lighting the E! Network Studios & Red Carpets
    • Saturday, November 23, 2:45pm - 3:45pm
  • Tiffany Keys: Diversified Programming for Television
    • Saturday, November 23, 4:00pm - 5:00pm

And if that weren’t enough, Jeff has also chaired the Live For Broadcast judges’ panel for the KOI-USA Awards this year and last. It’s amazing he actually gets any work done!