PHOTO : DALE MACMILLAN , @ DALEMPHOTO
COLIN MOORE AT AN MA LIGHTING GRANDMA3 LIGHT
white light comes up from the grated decks , it gives him super powers ; he just kind of explodes .”
That goes back to one of the central ideas behind this series of performances – that without the high-impact audio of a typical concert , they ’ d have to up the ante on the visual side to make sure that Kissel , the band , and crowd could generate and reciprocate some energy and excitement .
“ We were trying to create this incredible , high-end , full-of-energy visual presentation for the show ,” Moore asserts , noting that only one of the four daily shows was actually in darkness . “ Of course , there are ways to do daytime lighting effectively , and I think we hit that and didn ’ t have to sacrifice any energy . At night , the show is more intense , but the daytime performances still had great looks and a lot of that energy we were after , both onstage and in the lot .”
He had a pretty good handle on what was going on in the lot throughout each show as that ’ s where his FOH position was anchored . Driving the rig was an MA Lighting grandMA3 Light alongside two XL NPUs at FOH , an MA3 Compact XT as a tech console , and a second pre-viz MA3 Light in the onsite production trailer .
“ Because of our parameters – I believe
this show was 22 universes – we had a pair of NPUs to try out , and those performed flawlessly as well ,” he says . “ The MA platform is just rock solid and really the industry standard .”
Moore notes they were running MA2 software for familiarity ’ s sake but wanted to take advantage of the newer hardware . He notes that the shows ’ dimmer tech and lighting crew chief , Brendan Horne , created a page within the software so they could communicate via text between the networked hardware , so if there was an issue in a given fixture and it needed to be reset , for example , the request would get discreet but immediate attention .
“ The gear ’ s all been working really hard , travelling and being out in some inclement weather ,” Moore says after the initial 14 shows in three cities , “ but we ’ ve been really happy with how everything has performed and what we ’ ve been able to deliver .”
By all accounts , between the first Edmonton show at noon on Saturday , June 13 th through the final notes of a Saturday night performance in Saskatoon two weeks later , there were virtually no hiccups – at least from a technical perspective , as they did get thrown a curveball from mother nature for the final two of the eight Edmonton shows .
A total downpour hit the site for the 7 p . m . Sunday performance , complete with thunder and lightning . “ Everyone ’ s in their cars , so we at least knew our crowd was safe and didn ’ t have to clear the site ,” Moore
PHOTO : BEN DARTNELL , @ ITSDARTY
20 | Fall
2020