Another weekend is upon us... Labor Day weekend in fact, but a lot of our entertainment industry friends don't have any labor to celebrate. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but when Congress comes back on Tuesday, September 8, they will face more negotiations around the RESTART Act, PUA, and FPUC. If you don't know what that means, please go to www.WeMakeEvents.org and find out, then click the letter to send to Congress and let your voice be heard. As I said on Facebook, every play, musical, opera, concert, and festival you want to see in the future depends on it. In the meantime, looks like a quiet few days in terms of online training as it's a holiday weekend, so recharge your batteries, catch up on all these podcasts, and when I come back with a Forecast for Tuesday, we can look forward to more new options for the next week or so. Happy Labor Day weekend!
Podcasts (new):
• in 1 : The Podcast: See Lighting Foundation—Immigrant Designer Roundtable: Cory Pattak and ‘Changing the Landscape’ producer Alan Edwards chat with Cha See, Rodrigo Muñoz, Yee Eun Nam, and Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene about the difficulties non-citizens are facing including the inability to collect unemployment, the rules surrounding work visas that prevent them from seeking out other work which could lead to possible deportation, and how this administration’s callous and hostile behavior towards immigrants has affected their lives. Listen Here.
• Artistic Finance: Ethan Steimel interviews costume designer Cynthia Winstead, who discusses finances throughout her career as a costume designer and professor, and how scholarships and endowments work. Listen Here.
• Chris Lose LD-At-Large: Relationships Know No Borders: With Martin Kelly account executive at Christie Lites Toronto: A look at the hidden politics of lighting, how we can help each other during isolation... and more. Listen Here.
Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:
• September 8: Live Design Virtual Master Classes: Lighting: Three sessions focus on various angles of lighting: GDTF & MVR, a look at his innovative new technology and the bi-directional exchange of data developed by Vectorworks, Robe, and MA Lighting as an open standard for the entertainment industry. Plus a look at 2021 updates, with Matt Geasy of Clear All Visuals; LED Color Mixing, Color Temperature, and Light Quality, with Kevin Lawson of UVLD; Designing Immersive Lighting: The design and technical challenges of creating compelling immersive lighting for visual storytelling, using Pip’s Island, an interactive kid's experience, as the quintessential example. Speakers include: Al Crawford, Roya Abab, Zakaria Al-Alami, Manuel DaSilva, and Nicholas Palatella. Free; sponsored by ETC. Register Here.
Harman/Martin Professional Training Sessions:
1) September 8 @ 9pm Central: Lighting for Houses of Worship: Touring, Multi-Location and Large Campus with Jarrad Donovan: Harman senior business development manager Nathan Fleming will interview JD about his extensive experience working in houses of worship. Register Here.
2) September 10 @ 12pm Central: Speaker Cable and Power Cable Basics: Connections, Cable & Repair with Fedj (Jeff) Sylvanus: The basics of NL4 and NL8 speaker cables and connectors, troubleshooting and repair as well as manufacturing new cables. This will also touch base on American 110 volt power connectors and cable, Edison, Powercon, 3 pin 4 pin and 5 pin twistlock connectors.
• September 9 @ 2pm Eastern: Bill Sapsis Rigging Sessions: The Fly Rail: Danger Will Robinson. It’s probably the most dangerous place in the theatre. A look at why, and how to make it safer. Register Here.
#WeMakeEvents #RedAlertRESTART
• RedAlert LIVE The four-hour live stream of the #RedAlertRESTART event on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. Hosted by lighting designer Christian Jackson, with live feeds and video from across the country plus Trinidad & Tobago. Watch Here.
• Artistic Finance: Ethan Steimel interviews lighting designer Dennis Size, vice president of design at LDG, a major television lighting company based in New York City, to discuss how LDG has weathered the COVID pandemic so far and discuss the RESTART Act to provide financial assistance to live event businesses and to #ExtendPUA for unemployed workers. Listen Here.And Charles Ford, who discusses his role as the Chicago regional director of the #RedAlertRESTART event coming up on Tuesday, September 1. Listen Here. And lighting designer Sammy Ross about live event workers during the time of COVID-19 and why the federal RESTART act is necessary. Listen Here.
• LIGHT TALK: The Lumen Brothers welcome new Lumen Sistah Ellen Lampert-Gréaux to the family. Today, the family welcomes Stephanie Freed and Brad Nelms to talk about this week's RED ALERT plans. Join Ellen, Stephanie, Brad, Steve, Stan, and David as they pontificate about: The horrible financial challenges our friends and colleagues are facing; Big plans for big cities; The genesis of the project; The Restart Act; #WeMakeEvents; Legislative challenges; Press coverage; Save Our Stages; The issues with unemployment insurance; 1099's; PUA and FPUC; People want to work; Arguments against ignorant comments; Manufacturers and production support shops' challenges; Celebrity PSA's; Event structure; Live feed; The future of #WeMakeEvents and RED ALERT; and How we can all help. Listen Here.
• LD At Large: Chris Lose interviews Vickie Claiborne, training manager Americas at disguise and regional director for WeMakeEvents and Andrew Gumper, owner and president AG Production Services and national committee for WeMakeEvents, to discuss what we can do to show support and solidarity for our brothers and sisters out of work. Nationwide, we can light it up red on Sept. 1st from 9pm-midnight. We can take a photo and share it far and wide on social media with the hashtags #wemakeevents and #redalertrestart. We can send emails to our local representatives. We can reach out to our fellow artists, production professionals and friends and make sure that they are doing well. Listen Here.
• Michael Strickland of Bandit Lites on CNBC Squawk Box...Watch Here.
• Geezers Of Gear Podcast: Brad Nelms joins Marcel Fairbarin to discuss something they started to help our industry be heard, and to help promote and push for addition funding by way of the RESTART Act. They had no idea how quickly and how large this movement would become. On this episode, they talk about how they did it, the growth and expectations, and maybe even what you can expect in the future. Listen Here.
• in 1: The Podcast: Cory Pattak interviews Brad Nelms, director of #WeMakeEvents North America about the #RedAlert Day of Action on September 1st to raise awareness for the RESTART Act currently sitting in Congress, which would help out businesses facing economic hardship from the COVID crisis as well as push for badly needed Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). Listen Here.
• Artistic Finance: Ethan Steimel interviews Michael Strickland, founder of Bandit Lites, as he talks about the congressional RESTART Act to provide financial assistance to live event businesses affected by COVID-19 and #ExtendPUA unemployment benefits .Listen Here. And an interview with lighting designer Sammy Ross about the predicament of live event workers during the time of COVID-19. Listen Here:
For Your Viewing Enjoyment:
• Jazz At The Philharmonie: Charlie Parker: Birds With Strings: Filmed in Paris's famed Philharmonie concert hall, this 2019 concert reinterprets Charlie Parker's classic jazz album Birds with Strings. New arrangements and compositions by Cristophe dal Sasso breathe new life into the 1950 album, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988. Part of ALL ARTS' celebration of Charlie Parker's 100th birthday in August 2020. Watch Here.
• The Metropolitan Opera Nightly Streams: Week 25 of operas from The Met archives. Watch Here.
• The historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre, located near Denver, Colorao, is teaming up with Verizon-backed company Visible for "Red Rocks Unpaused," a digital music festival taking place Sept. 1-3. The free event, which fans can access via Twitter's live event page or VisiblexRedRocks.com, will feature live performances from artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. The event goes beyond the typical livestreamed concert, though: Audience chat messages will be displayed on the faces of the Red Rocks for artists to see and react to, audiences will help set off pyrotechnics (virtually, of course), viewers can vote for encore songs, and audience polling will help control the light show. Watch Here.
• Cirque du Soleil: Behind The Curtain Of Kooza: A 60-minute special about this wonderful bigtop production with sets by Stephane Roy, lighting by Martin Lebreque, and costumes by Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt. Watch Here.
• Mark Morris Dance Company: Choreographer Mark Morris’s signature work comes to television for the first time on PBS, hosted by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris garnered international fame for this piece, set to George Frideric Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with poetry by Milton. This performance was filmed July 2014 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain. Watch Here.
• Twilight: Los Angeles: Anna Deavere Smith's powerful one-woman theater piece about the 1991 Rodney King beating, the violent aftermath of the 1992 verdict, and the lasting impact of the L.A. riots on America's conscience. Award-winning director Marc Levin weaves Smith's stage performance with news footage and interviews to create a portrait of rage, sorrow, loss, and battered hope. Watch Here.
• Broadway Bares: Zoom In: Don't miss the first online version of Broadway Bares, the signature sensational striptease produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Although this year’s in-person 30th anniversary celebration, originally set for June 21, was postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual evening will live on digitally through this streamed sizzling striptease featuring NYC’s hottest dancers. Watch Here.
An Important Conversation:
• Live Design and USITT co-hosted "A Conversation On Diversity And Anti-Racism In Entertainment Design," 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 Here.
Training & Webcasts When You Want:
The Creative Quarantine Sessions: John Iacovelli: Join Alexander Whittenberg as he interviews award-winning theatre/film/TV scenic designer John Iacovelli. Watch Here.
• History In The Making: Steve Terry In Conversation With Dave Cunningham and Gordon Pearlman... A time machine talk about the advent of computer-controlled lighting consoles. Watch Here.
• Elation Professional Online Learning Center: Provides lighting professionals with easy-to-access learning options, the new resource site is full of free educational and training material. Watch Here.
• The Elation Hour: A series of interviews with leading designers from film/TV, theatre, concerts, corporate events, festivals, and more... Watch here.
• Scott Parker: A lot of training videos to choose from, from his Stage Seminars to a book review of Richard Pilbrow's Stage Lighting Design. Watch Here and Here (Stage Seminars)
• 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.
• 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.
Podcasts:
• Shackles, Burlap, and Lies: Vice-president of Entertainment Project Services, LLC Joe Champelli shares his journey through entertainment rigging and automation with stories from his first job installing the Pirate Show at Treasure Island in Las Vegas to his current position working with clients such as large theme parks in Anaheim California. We also discuss his involvement with submitting the original request to the ESTA Technical Standards Program to create the Performer Flying Systems standard, ANSI E1.43-2016. Listen Here.
• USITT Podcast: TECHnically Speaking: Clint C. Clarke has worn many professional hats so far in his career – from working in arenas, to the wireless team for Barack Obama’s inauguration, Clint now calls the Most Magical Place on Earth his home as he works as the audio designer for Disney Parks Live Entertainment. Listen Here.
• Artistic Finance Podcast: Steve Woods, one of The Lumen Brothers who is usually heard on the podcast Light Talk, about his journey from being an on-the-road lighting designer to becoming a professor of lighting design. Listen Here.
• Signal To Noise Podcast: Episode 61 delves deep into the art of theatrical sound design with guests Jason Crystal (associate sound designer, Hamilton, The Cher Show) and Elisheba Ittoop (sound designer, The Edge of Night, A Raisin In the Sun, Testmatch). The conversation with co-hosts Michael Lawrence and Willa Snow explores how technical tools help achieve artistic goals, and comparing and contrasting sound design for musicals and straight plays. Listen Here.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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