All in the family

So when you're an LD, even one transitioning into the architecture world, you usually have precious little opportunity to bring your skills forth to your family and friends. Well I got my chance Thanksgiving weekend. My father chaired the Annual St. Andrew Avellino Dinner Dance an annual fundraiser for the parish where I grew up. Between the hometown connections and my father's dedication I was destined to be involved somehow. Then couple it with the new venue. The Great Hall, at the New York Hall of Science and I knew even on a shoestring budget, we could make the space a room for an elegant affair. Take a look at these photos, I hope you agree.

Now leaving Crown Point

Hey all,

So the Crown point festival is long over. It has taken me a full two
weeks to recover from the draining process the festival was. In the
end it was 40 straight days going to the Abrons Art Center from the
beginning of load in to the end of strike. I couldn't be happier to
regain my daily life. And simply work my job with Tirschwell and
company.

Dispatch from the Crown Point Festiva

Hey all,

So I know I've been incredibly remiss in my blogging lately. You see
my life has been wholly swallowed by the Crown Point festival. I will
attempt to encapsulate the entire insanity that has been the festival.

The ambitious and tight schedule we set out for in tech proved to be
both a blessing and a curse. It got us through our goals as far as
tech went. But at the same time we found ourselves getting cut short
by the relentless schedule. This proved to be incredibly problematic.
Only our shortest shows got to actually run in the space before they
opened for the public. All else, well they were forced to having a
show completely teched but never run in real time in the space. Some
shows didn't get fully teched at all.

James Bedell
917-225-9183

Crown Point Rolls on

Hello All,

So I am a terrible blogger. It has been forever since my last post. I have good excuses however....my real job with Tirschwell and Co. has been extremely busy lately. If that weren't enough my little production company Lively Arts Productions hosted a presentation of it's musical Ethan Frome this week...read up on that at here.

So what about Crown Point? Well through some diligent research I've found a ROBE rep named Dave Middleton who put me in touch with Chris Reagan of BML Blackbird here in the tri-state area. We are working to hammer out an affordable package.

Set his against the background that we are 17 days from load-in. I've had design meetings with every show and I've had full-fledge production meetings with many of them. I now have the chance to set pen to paper on the plot and move things forward.

The newest storm clouds on the horizon. Our labor budget is minimal for the show. The plan was to supplement the labor force with unpaid or low-paid interns and PA's. That staff has yet to materialize. So now its time to hit the websites recruiting load-in and tech help on the electrics side. Students willing to work for the opportunity to learn.

Know Anybody?

Gear and Crossing Over

Moving from Entertainment Lighting to Architectural has been an interesting transition. One of the things that you have to get used to almost immediately is what decisions become so important on the Architectural side, are hardly after thoughts on the theatrical side. In Architecture, details matter, really matter. From the lamp-type, to shielding and lensing right down to the color and shape on the flange, the level of detail in selection is incredibly important to pleasing your design team and clients.

Sometimes a project lends itself to more theatricality. For a nightclub project my office is working on, I got to pull out an old favorite tool of mine. The product is called NEOFLEX, I was first exposed to it on the set of Inside the Actor's Studio, lighting designer Jeff Burns used a continuous run of it to underlight the talent-platform. Needing a similar effect in the club I was able to pull it from the back of my mind, and it in all likely hood will end up accenting our club.

Of course that's not the only ghost of my lighting past that is making it into the night club. To light a performance stage some of the structural/decorative elements of the room, we are turning to an LED Wash Light solution. This one, I have used before in theatrical applications and on photo shoots. The SPECTRA PAR, by Altman lighting, is going to get employed in a more permanent way on this job.

This is the crossing over of entertainment and architectural lighting. And knowing enough about the tools that make them different and the same. When thinking about lighting the stage, I remembered back to the results I got with the Spectra lighting people....

It seemed like the right idea.

Crown Point, Gearing Up-Pairing Down

Gear selection is a problem. The budget for Crown Point is tight. Here's the situation. The space has a lighting stock of about 50 Source Four fixtures ranging from 36 to 19 degree. They also carry 30 PAR 64's all WFL. There are 36 dimmers in this antique space. These have varying, large capacities, and are re-patched using a patch bay with sliders.

That system would be entirely adequate, if not for my needing to light a new musical act every night and create a comprehensive lighting design. For budgetary and, thankfully, artistic reasons I have really tied whatever lighting elements I pull in for environmental design to the music element. I think in the scope of the festival they share the same space for an audience member, they both represent living art the audience gets to actively participate in; whereas film, and to a much lesser extent theatre are more passive mediums. Thus the design for the environment and music need to be more alive, more personal, and more organic. To me this takes the design to a place where the entire theatre can change it's depth and form, but we can also choose to focus on individual musicians or points of interest on the stage or in the house.

There is simply not enough room in the budget for an LED and a Moving light solution. To level with everyone, my total gear budget for Crown Point is $3500, for a five week period. 4wall entertainment gave me an excellent quote on a dream package that is still about $3000 over what I can afford, before perishables.

I am going to try and pair down, it looks like renting additional dimming is out of the question and its going to be a PA’s job to run the re-patch for every play. Budget and toys are really all about resources and if we lack funding in one place we can make up for it with man-power. I hope we have lots of man-power.

Macbeth

When not ruminating on producing decisions, in my copious spare time I create lighting for theatre. ShakespeareNYC's production of Macbeth is currently running at The Beckett theater of NY's theatrerow. Despite a challenging production calendar, the show is up and looking pretty good. I wanted to share some images I have taken by Fight Choreographer and photographer, Al Foote.

Macbeth is one of my favorite plays in Shakespeare's cannon. Lighting can be created purely based on character point of view. And from there you can drive from a visual library of your own choosing. Lady Macbeth's drive to power and manipulation of her husband. Macbeth's desire to rule and his hubris, these are discussed intimately by the characters, and they can be displayed in the visual arc of the show.

As always for ShakespeareNYC, Macbeth was directed by Beverly Bullock. Her allowance for visual freedom and her fearless direction to me (it can be very dark), drove me to create a visual field of saturated color and deep contrast. While I would never call myself a designer based on subtlety, Macbeth allows for even more visual freedom. Brandon Giles set is a stark, blank canvas of floating material and black frames shaped in a flowing arc. This gave ultimate opportunity for freedom and creativity from scene to scene.



Here's some of that work.