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Old 03-04-2008, 03:37 PM   #1
davin
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Arrow Greg Shipley, lighting designer, talks about the SP Tour rigs...

http://news.etnow.com/etnews.nsf/0/c...3?OpenDocument

Bandit Lights Smashing Pumpkins’ World Tour

Born in the U.S., it is a tour that took stage in Europe, travelled America, and will continue through the Pacific, Central America and Costa Rica. Travelling for 11 months, the tour includes a minimum of six different lighting designs, all based around a central theme of triangles. No one has had more fun on this tour than lighting designer, Greg Shipley.
Currently the Smashing Pumpkins are on their third European run of this tour. The act decided to take some of the lighting equipment from Bandit America, which was seamlessly incorporated with Bandit UK’s power distribution and motor systems – thus allowing the current system to meet codes throughout Europe.
"Apart from making the logistics flow, it was a great opportunity to show how inter-continental cooperation offers the client ultimate continuity," says Bandit UK's Lester Cobrin, adding, "It has been a great pleasure for us here in the UK to work with Chris Gratton (production manager) and his team."
Greg Shipley has been working with the band since June 2007. In that time, the lighting design has undergone several metamorphoses. Each leg of the tour has presented itself with different challenges. The designs have ranged from new LED technology to traditional rock & roll lighting.
After some initial input from (lead singer) Billy Corgan, Shipley has been free to create new and interesting designs for each leg of the band's tour. After designing several plots, Shipley gets together with production manager, Chris Gratton to evaluate each creation for touring reality.
"It has been a great pleasure to work with Chris Gratton. He is one of the great touring production managers on the road today," comments Shipley. Together, Shipley and Gratton present each design to the band for final approval.
For the current European leg, Shipley created a more traditional rock design utilising 13 individually hung 15 ft sections of truss – each suspended on two motors – which make up six triangles arching over the stage.
The band thrives on having a very intimate, personal look on stage. To achieve this, the lighting consists of an upstage trim of a mere 12ft arching to a downstage trim of just 20ft. There are no followspots and a plethora of back and side lighting, which produces many dramatic moments. With no production video on this leg, lighting has the pleasure of being the star of the show.
The fixtures used on this tour are a combination of Coemar, Martin, and Vari*lite products. Moving lights ******* 24 Vari*Lite 3000 Spots and 30 Martin MAC 2000 Washes, which Shipley chose because he loves their brightness and durability.
Adding to the base moving package is the excitement of 10 Coemar iWash LEDs that create a layer of lighting just above the band's head, 37 Coemar Parlite LEDs, used not only as truss toners for creating varieties of color and flash, but also as up lighting of the artists – all complemented by 36 Martin Atomic Strobe 3000s with scrollers.
Shipley is a big fan of LED sources, and loves their speed and intensity. The power saving properties are also very important as many acts wish to set an example of energy conservation to their fans. Other permutations of the rig featured more LED fixtures and were video driven, but with this section of the tour, the main look is essentially back to a rock 'n' roll traditional style – metal and movement.
The console of choice for this tour is the Compulite Vector Red, including one active and one slaved spare. Shipley has been using the Compulite Vectors for over three years. "The desk is absolutely amazing. I have the ability to compress or expand my shows at will. With the great support one can get from Compulite, the sky is the limit for this console," states Shipley. The consoles are running via Ethernet. With Artnet running thru 2 D-Link boxes and a Compulite E-Port, the desks are in sync and either is able to instantaneously control the show.
Shipley, who also acts as lighting director, is joined on the tour by crew chief, Shawn Lear and techs Jackson Beck and Sam Morgan, who he says are, “just fantastic – I really can’t praise them enough – this is a great team effort.” Shipley also comments, “Working with Bandit UK has been an excellent experience.
Everything was meticulously prepped on both sides of the Atlantic, and the process of fitting the gear from the UK and US together went seamlessly from the first European show. Thank you to Chris Gratton for his support, guidance and expertise.”

 
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Old 03-04-2008, 04:23 PM   #2
Pizza Club
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Sweet. I love reading about the technical aspects of the tour.

I wonder why they went from those light bar wall thingies from Europe Leg I, to the triangle-UFO thingy, to a more traditional setup this leg. Could it have been a matter of who was paying for the tour?

 
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Old 03-04-2008, 04:45 PM   #3
Cool As Ice Cream
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they sure seem to love this chris gratton guy.
Quote:
"It has been a great pleasure for us here in the UK to work with Chris Gratton (production manager) and his team."

"It has been a great pleasure to work with Chris Gratton. He is one of the great touring production managers on the road today."

"Thank you to Chris Gratton for his support, guidance and expertise."
he sounds like the roy thomas baker of sp lighting.

 
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Old 03-04-2008, 05:05 PM   #4
davin
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lol.

 
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Old 03-04-2008, 08:21 PM   #5
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Nice find. Lighting contributes so much to photos of the shows, particularly the triangle business.

 
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Old 03-04-2008, 08:41 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davin View Post
http://news.etnow.com/etnews.nsf/0/c...3?OpenDocument

Bandit Lights Smashing Pumpkins’ World Tour

Shipley is a big fan of LED sources, and loves their speed and intensity.
Great read. LEDs are fab. I'm currently negotiating with a venue for clearance to use these instead of their standard setup.

 
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Old 03-04-2008, 08:49 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davin View Post
http://news.etnow.com/etnews.nsf/0/c...3?OpenDocument

Bandit Lights Smashing Pumpkins’ World Tour

No one has had more fun on this tour than lighting designer, Greg Shipley.
I don't doubt that.

 
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Old 03-05-2008, 01:28 AM   #8
JRiordan
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For concert techies, this thread about how they completely re-did the audio setup at the Fillmore in July 2007 was even more interesting.

 
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Old 03-05-2008, 01:45 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cool As Ice Cream View Post
they sure seem to love this chris gratton guy.

he sounds like the roy thomas baker of sp lighting.
LOL as well.
I was thinking the same thing myself.


It's cool to know they were indeed using the newest LED type technology though. I had wondered when I had seen the look and configuration.

 
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Old 03-05-2008, 02:12 AM   #10
T&T
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i wonder if the visual aspect is more complex/complicated then the sound setup....

it must be hell setting up Lighting when you've got to calculate for "camera crews"

 
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Old 03-05-2008, 10:20 AM   #11
IWishIWasBlank
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davin View Post
http://news.etnow.com/etnews.nsf/0/c...3?OpenDocument

Bandit Lights Smashing Pumpkins’ World Tour

The band thrives on having a very intimate, personal look on stage. To achieve this, the lighting consists of an upstage trim of a mere 12ft arching to a downstage trim of just 20ft. There are no followspots and a plethora of back and side lighting, which produces many dramatic moments. With no production video on this leg, lighting has the pleasure of being the star of the show.
I've never heard the terms "upstage" and "downstage." Can someone explain those?

And...

"With no production video on this leg..."

I should hope we got all the boots aud/vid we possibly could for whatever "leg" of the tour he's talking about. This is the third leg we're on now, correct? Europe-->America-->Europe Again?

Edit: Sounds like he's talking about *this* European leg?

 
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Old 03-05-2008, 10:40 AM   #12
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downstage is the front of the stage, upstage is the back

 
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Old 03-05-2008, 11:52 AM   #13
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yes Chris Gratton must be quite a catch

 
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Old 03-06-2008, 12:34 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IWishIWasBlank View Post
I've never heard the terms "upstage" and "downstage." Can someone explain those?
It's theatre terminology, and that is why the directions seem backwards to the audience. They are stage directions given to the performers from the perspective they have of the stage when they are up on it. Just imagine yourself on a stage, facing outwards towards the audience, being told where to move and it will make sense.

--------------------------------------Downstage (Jimmy)-------------------------------

Stage Right (Ginger).......................................... .........................Stage Left (Jeff)

---------------------------------------Upstage (Billy)----------------------------------

Last edited by stumpycat : 03-06-2008 at 12:41 AM.

 
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