It's Thursday and who knows what's happening in Washington, D.C. this week. Will the Democrats and Republicans come to an agreement about extending the $600 unemployment or will another plan be put into effect? No matter what happens, those of you who are still spending the day online, there are a lot of things to do on Thursday, July 30, 2020, so check it out and figure out the best options to keep you busy!
Training & Webcasts:
• July 30 @ 11am Central: Harman Professional Learning Sessions: Tips for Mixing for Houses of Worship with Jim Yakabuski: From checking the tonal balance of the sound system to building a solid foundation with drums and bass, this webinar will provide a time-tested fundamental approach to mixing in a house of worship environment. Register Here.
• July 30 @ 1pm Eastern: Ahead Of The Curve: From video games to content creation, XR environments to VR experiences, live events to fixed installations. Unreal engine provides the tool sets you need to succeed and create worlds without limitations. Geoff Platt interviews Patrick Wambold from Epic Games to discuss the endless possibilities of what you can create and do within Unreal Engine. Now is the time to put your creative thinking caps on, and bring your questions to the table for one of the most advanced real time rendering solutions available. Watch Here.
• July 30 @ 4pm Eastern: USITT: Returning to the University Rehearsal Room: The Stage Manager and the Production Process: Many universities are returning to in-person classes, and Theatre departments are moving back to in-person rehearsals. What is the stage manager's responsibility in the rehearsal room, and how does the SM team keep themselves safe while taking care of the production? How do the traditional job tasks of stage management translate to these nontraditional times? When, how and to whom should the student stage manager ask for help? Join a panel of Stage Management Faculty to discuss how the process can be productive and, more importantly, safe. Free for USITT members; $10 for non-members. Register Here.
• July 30 @ 5pm Eastern: Wingspace Virtual Workshop: Leading with Values with Beehive Dramaturgy: As designers, how can we ensure that our core values inform the work we make and the kind of artist we would like to be?Join the co-founders of Beehive Dramaturgy Studio (Natasha Sinha, Jeremy Stoller, and Molly Marinik) for a two-hour session on articulating your personal values, integrating them into your professional website, and creating work that remains in line with our value systems. We will walk through examples of this, then brainstorm how best to articulate your own values and goals, and work through how to manifest that into how you talk about yourself as a designer. Register Here.
Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:
• Tuesday, August 4 @ 11am Central: Martin Professional Learning Sessions: From Idea to Output - The Development Process of a Moving Light with Brad Schiller (Harman lighting expert). New lighting fixtures don’t just magically appear on the market. Learn about the product development cycle and how an idea transforms into a fixture in a lighting rig. This session will provide insight into how new lights are developed. Register Here.
• Tuesday, August 4 @ 3:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse: Bridle Math: This session will highlight the role that Bridle Math plays in all entertainment industry work. • Understand what a bridle is and the reasons they are used • Break down the forces involved in a bridle rig • Calculate loads on bridle components and on the building using several different methods • Review available digital resources for bridle calculations Students should plan to have a calculator that does squares and square roots handy for this class. Instructor: Brian Phillips. Register Here.
• Wednesday, August 5 @ 3:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse: Forces And Loads: This class is a review of some basic concepts from physics that affect rigging work. • Review Newton’s laws of motion and examine what they mean for rigging • Consider the types of forces that can be applied to a rig and what those situations look like • Learn how to visualize the forces in a system and then communicate that information to others • Calculate loads across a beam, such as a batten or a truss • Review mechanical advantage with pulleys Instructor: Jon Shimon. Register Here.
• Wednesday, August 5 @ 7pm Central: Harman Professional Learning Sessions: History of Audio Technology with Peter Moses. This engaging and fast-paced webinar will explore the stories behind many important pieces of audio technology, from analog microphones to digital signal processing and digital audio protocols. Register Here.
• Monday, August 10 @ 7pm Eastern: USITT: Props Paperwork: Using off-the-Shelf Software to Manage Show Files: Explore, examine, and demystify some lesser-known features of MS Office and Google Software. Creating forms, sheets, labels, work orders, and show books all from a single source is the focus. The goal is to limit keystrokes and data entry and focus on information manipulation. Presented by Larry Heyman. FREE for USITT members; $10 for non-members. Register Here.
An Important Conversation:
• Live Design and USITT co-hosted "A Conversation On Diversity And Anti-Racism In Entertainment Design," on Friday, July 10, 2020. Moderated by David Stewart, production manager for Disney Parks Live Entertainment, and an important voice in the ongoing quest to increase diversity in our industry, the full panel for this important discussion includes lighting designers Rachael Blackwell, Porsche McGovern, and Xavier Pierce, lighting/projection designer Roma Flowers, lighting designer/event coordinator Ebony Madry, and production manager Lawrence Bennett. Watch Below.
Special Events Coming Up:
• Themed Entertainment Creative Workshop Series: Sponsored by The Bezark Company. This is an unprecedented, multi-disciplinary, accelerated workshop series developed and led by some of the best minds in Themed Entertainment. Details Here.
• August 1 @ 9:30pm Eastern: Broadway Bares: Zoom In, the first-ever streamed edition of the frisky striptease spectacular, with favorite moments and numbers from Broadway Bares, as well as all-new, socially distanced performances from some of NYC's hottest dancers. As Bares creator Jerry Mitchell says, "You've got to Zoom In because it's sure to make your laptop tingle and your cell phone vibrate!" Zoom In Here.
For Your Viewing Enjoyment:
• July 30: Metropolitan Opera Nightly Stream: Verdi's Il Trovatore. Production by Sir David McVicar; sets by Charles Edwards' costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel; lighting by Jennifer Tipton. Recorded April 30, 2011. Watch Here.
• July 30 @ 7pm Eastern: Jacob's Pillow Virtual Festival: Royal Danish Ballet: Highlights from their 2018 Pillow performance including excerpts from A Folk Tale (pas de sept), La Sylphide (pas de deux), Kermesse in Bruges (1st act, pas de deux), Giselle (2nd Act), and Napoli (pas de six and tarantella) .RSVP Here.
• Disney's Tangled: A musical adaptation of the animated film, Tangled, cerated for Disney cruise ships that tells the story of Rapunzel. The creative team includes Tony Award-winning costume designer Paloma Young, master puppet designer Michael Curry, set designer Bradley Kaye, lighting designer Japhy Weideman, projection designer Aaron Rhyne, and sound designer Cricket S. Myers. Watch Here
Plus: A look at the sets designs for Tangled.
Watch Anytime:
• The Elation Hour: A series of interviews with leading designers from film/TV, theatre, concerts, corporate events, festivals, and more... Watch here.
• Lighting designer Mike Woods: Online training videos. Watch Here.
• Ross Video: Ross Live | 2020: A weekly series of presentations, podcasts, and product launches designed to highlight best practices across a range of live production environments. Watch Here.
• MA Lighting grandMA3 onPC command wing XT: A new member of its grandMA3 onPC solutions range: the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT. With the grandMA3 onPC software pre-installed on a built-in MA motherboard, the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT offers MA3 power with onPC flexibility– just add up to four touchscreen monitors, and it's ready to go! Watch Here.
• Special Events Services: The Gray Room Sessions: Rig includes Elation DTW Bar 1000 variable white LED battens, Elation Cuepix Blinder WW2 lights with warm white 3,200K COB LED, and ADJ Z100 3K LED PAR. Watch Here.
• GLP 10 Out Of 10 With Tom Campbell: This is the extended 10 Out Of 10 interview featuring revolutionary LD Tom Campbell, who has extensive portfolio including The Hunna, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Zeds Dead, John Grant, and Bullet For My Valentine and many more!. Watch Here.
• Elation Virtual At Home Demos: Overview of the key features and unique benefits of some of Elation’s newest lighting products, a demonstration that gives lighting pros an opportunity to assess if a luminaire is right for their needs. Products showcased include the Fuze Spot™, Fuze Pendant™, Fuze Profile™, Fuze SFX™, Smarty Max™, Artiste Van Gogh™, Artiste Monet™, Dartz 360™, CW Profile HP™ and WW Profile HP™ ellipsoidals, along with the Magma Prime™ hazer from Magmatic atmospheric effects. Watch Here.
• Strand Lighting: Theatre Systems Design Basics. Presented by Bobby Harrell. Watch Here.
• frame.work videos are now online, a conference for video professionals. Watch Here.
• 4Wall Entertainment: Archives for Sunday Roundtables and Thursday Tales From The Road. Watch Here.
• ETC Story Q&A with Tom Littrell: thoughts from Outreach and Training Specialist Tom Littrell on LEDs. Read Here.
• Unreal Interactive Demo. Watch Here.
• Opera America – live streams.
• ETC On Headset: The Billington Files
• TDF Stages, list of streaming performances updated daily.
• Scott Parker: A lot of training videos to choose from. Watch Here.
Podcasts:
• Light Talk With The Lumen Brothers: Caribbean Dreaming: The Lumen Brothers welcome their good friend and LiveDesignOnline guru and LDI creative director, Ellen Lampert-Greaux. Join Brackley, David, Ellen, Stan, and Steve as they discuss: Cruising around Tierra del Fuego in the Light Talk Catamaran; Letter from Campbell (our youngest fan); A meal for Toffee; Ellen's octopus story; The history of LDI; Steve reveals the secret password for LDI; The Earthquake at the Infomart; The Donner Party on their way to LDI Reno; The Hall of Fog; Blowing up cars in Reno; BAM years; Living as an ExPat; Ellen's detour; Organizing how to run a film festival without a cinema; "Octopus on a Stick"; Ellen's views on the future of the Entertainment Industry; and Expanding revenue streams in a post Covid world. Listen Here.
• In 1 Podcast: Changing the Landscape – Episode 2: It’s Not That We Don’t Exist: Perception of the Unknown: In this episode, the first of two parts, Steve Jones, former director of production at the Apollo Theatre in New York City, sits down with LD Alan C. Edwards to tell us where he came from. Beginning with his origins in Flint, Michigan where he started taking part in theatre activities in grade school, Steve started taking theatre seriously after a sports injury sidelined him for the remainder of his college career. He walks us through his experiences in applying for grad schools, leaving Flint, MI, and his first big-time job in New York City at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Listen Here.
• Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast: Leadership Under Covid: Kevin Poyck just had his legs under him as CEO and president of Signify’s Americas Market Group when the outbreak threw his business into chaos. He shares his thoughts on virtual offices, managing at a distance, and the shape of post-pandemic normalcy. What really brought him to our show today was a recent study at Boston University that confirmed how effective a new Signify UVC lamp really is, which leads to a vintage Philips UV disinfection manual and the modern rush for germicidal lamps. It’s time for us all to turn a page as we proceed out of our current crisis. Listen Here.
• Technically Speaking, USITT Podcast: Featuring 2020 Barbizon Lighting Company Jonathan Resnick Lighting Award winner, Jasmine Lesane, a lighting designer & director dedicated to realizing visions through innovative design solutions, and a recent grad of Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama. Listen Here.
• LD At Large With Chris Lose: Recent episodes include Michael Berger, Seth Robinson, and Rob Koenig. Listen Here.
• The Evolution of Special Effects With John Canning of Digital Domain: Tyler Gates and Sophia Moshasha catch up with John Canning, executive producer at Digital Domain, to talk about how animation and special effects in media production have evolved to become higher quality, less costly, and easier to achieve with immersive technology. Listen Here.
Industry Resources:
• USITT Women In Theatre Network