Live Design's fourth annual 31 Days Of Plots features one production per day during the month of December 2021, highlighting a different lighting design, from across theatre, concert tours, corporate events, live for broadcast, and more, as we wind down 2021 and head toward the new year.
What better way than to close 31 Days Of Plots 2021 on December 31 with the plots and story of the lighting for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with host Ryan Seacrest and lighting designer Lee Rose, as this annual broadcast celebrates its 50th anniversary. "The first was shot on board The Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor for New Year’s Rockin Eve 1972," explains the principal of Lee Rose Designs. We shot at Warner Brothers Studios on Stage 23 this year. We also used Stage 28 for pre-programming and as additional support space. This was the 10th year with the same basic set, although it has been tweaked and the screens product has also changed over the years. The show which is pre-recorded always presents challenges both in booking artists to appear and scheduling the shoot days. In recent years we have averaged 24-34 musical performances by from nine to 15 artists." The show is broadcast on ABC, and this year marks the 37th time Rose has lit this holiday extravaganza: "My first was NYRE 1985, shot at the world famous Coconut Grove in the Abassador Hotel."
Rose also point out that, "since NYRE 2004, when screens were added to the show, I ended up in charge of the screens as well. It came about when the production designer at that time brought in a model for a meeting with the producers. The model had large oval holes all over it. The producer asked “What goes in the holes?” to which the production designer answered “Screens.” Then the producer asked “What goes on then screens?” and the production designer answered “Lee will put something up on them. Maybe gobos.” Well gobos weren’t going to cut it and voila I’m a screens designer. Back then very few artists had much in the way of content so we had to create almost all of it ourselves. Thankfully Martin Phillips and I have been doing that since the very first year with screens and he was there again with me this year," says the LD.
"The Mythos 2 were the workhorse fixture as they are the profile fixtures on both performance stages. Although I would have preferred to get the Icon Edge fixtures I had last year back but we got stuck due to an availability issue," Rose explains. "I was very impressed with the Ayrton Diablos. Also to save PRG from having to sub-rent (and break my budget) the Magic Panels I tested and swapped to the Magic Panel FX fixtures. They provided another layer of programming options with their zoom ability that the regular Magic Panels do not have."
"Today of course the challenge is actually getting the content as most artists now have “creative directors,” who all have ideas on what to do with the performances. The challenge is the actual delivery, clearing the content for broadcast and sync’ing the content with the performance in the limited time we get for each artist," notes Rose.
"With the show that airs on New Year’s Eve running from 8:00pm until 2:00am, with a break at 11:00pm for local news, the challenge for me is to keep from having any one color too dominant in the LA Party performances," Rose says. "That’s where the cue sheet is helpful to keep from getting too much blue or magenta in the show. Also helps me to integrate the lighting and screens content while still maintaining a flow to the whole 5½ hours of show."
Lighting and video gear list:
4 PRG 676 Control Console
5 PRG Best Boy Ground Control Operator Station
16 PRG Best Boy HP
8 PRG Best Boy HP (Ground Control)
124 Claypaky Mythos 2
31 Ayrton Diablo Profile
13 PRG Icon Beam
85 GLP Impression X4
21 Color Kinetics iWhite Blast TRX
28 Color Kinetics iWhite Blast TRX 28
64 Ayrton Magic Panel FX 64
53 Robe Robin 1200
87 Martin Rush Par 2 Zoom with clamps
38 Martin Rush Par 2 Zoom
28 TMB Solaris Fare Q+ (on floor)
2 High End Systems Full Boar Hog4
6 High End/Barco Catalyst Media Server
172 ROE CB5 Video Tiles 600mm x 1200mm
4 ROE CB5 Video Tiles 600mm x 600mm
2 PRG M-Box Media Server
177 Martin Sceptron 1 meter
Credits:
Lighting Designer: Lee Rose
Asst. Lighting Designer: Cameron Pieratt
Lighting Director (Programmer): Andy O'Reilly
Media Director (Programer): Martin Philiips
Media Creator/Producer: Nicholas Militello
Chief Lighting Technician: Tony Ward
Asst. Chief Lighting Tech: Jason Seagrove
Asst. Chief Lighting Tech 2: Keith Berkes
Chief PRG Light Tech: Steve Oleniczak
Lead PRG Tech: Jeff Geiser
PRG Tech: Daniel Vargas
To see more 31 Days Of Plots, click here