Lighting Designer David Agress approached this year's Radio City Christmas Spectacular with a specific problem in mind: how to maintain the artistic integrity of his lighting design for a show when there were multiple companies touring that same production simultaneously. A second BIG objective for his design team was to cut the load-in time at each move. Agress, working with programmer Paul Turner, turned to three separate building blocks and put them together in pre-production to accomplish both goals - the Prelite Studios in New York, XYZ positioning on Whole Hog II and WYSIWYG.
They began their work with the show file from the 2001 production. Two focus grids had been constructed, which the team called a Map. The first focus grid was built on the downstage 20' of the deck, with 4' centers stage left to right and 3' centers downstage to upstage. The second grid was further upstage, with the left to right on 5' centers and downstage to upstage on 4' centers. Each of the 96 moving lights in the rig needed to be included in each of the 95 focus points provided by the grid.
In 2001, refocusing each light in each focus point (96 lights x 95 focus points) took about 16 hours. It was critical to the team to reduce this time. Also, because separate programmers were individually modifying the preset data, each show had the potential for looking different - for example, if one programmer used a flip command when another one did not. Agress and Turner wanted to remove this variable to assure each production maintained the original look of the design.
The first step in the process was to convert the positional information for the moving lights from pan and tilt data to XYZ. The moving light rig consisted of 47 Martin MAC 2000 profiles, 51 High End Systems Studio Color 575s, 10 High End Studio Spot CMY 575s and 5 Coemar Panorama Cycs.
Turner commented "We used the Prelite Studio and WYG to convert the standard Map to an XYZ Map. I think that the Prelite Studio is an excellent tool for building an XYZ Map or even a traditional grid for any show. You have the ability to be SO exact in your focusing, which is crucial when using XYZ positioning. This past spring, I did an XYZ show when I had to build the Map in the theatre. It was hard to be really exact in that environment, which caused problems in production. It is much more precise to use visualization software."
Prelite's Rodd McLaughlin explained something of the process the studio used. "We get the light plot and as many of the scenic CAD drawings as possible. Each project varies in the amount of detail the show needs for previsualization. Patrick Fahey's beautiful set design for the Christmas Spectacular is extremely detailed, with a lot of filigree work, many scenic elements that incorporate practicals, and elaborate textures everywhere. Most of it wasn't needed for their Prelite sessions, because it didn't matter for the Map focus. What the design team did need was extremely accurate placement of the prosceniums, legs, and borders for each of their venues. We drafted the stage and proscenium of each theatre individually, then imported the set and light plot, adjusting positions to match each venue's line sets and altering trim heights as necessary."
Prelite Principal Kim Grethen added: "The focus grid we created for the Map consisted of 95 points, which were pinpoint small. Those points were the centers of 6? spheres, which we nicknamed 'grapefruits.' In wireframe views, the points were the targets for creating the focuses, and in shaded views, the grapefruits provided a decent surface to see the beam on.
"Paul Turner's focuses were extremely precise, and 'stick beams' - where a single line represents the center of the beam - were the perfect tool for getting that specificity in the focuses. When it was time to check his work in a shaded view, where stick beams don't show up, a problem arose. The Studio Color beam spread was so wide it picked up more than one grapefruit at a time. The solution was to put a virtual pin spot gobo into the color wheel of the Studio Color. In the virtual world, the image produced is sharp edged, and it did the trick.
"Paul used another technique that substantially increased the accuracy of his pre-programming. He worked primarily in a Quad View, which allowed him to see the stage from four different vantage points simultaneously, with the ability to zoom in and out." Kim noted: "This is physically impossible to do anywhere but in a virtual environment, but it made all the difference in the precision of the focus, and sped up the process."
Because in XYZ programming individual and manual updating of each focus point isn't required, it is much easier for the design team to maintain the look of the show consistently from company to company. The Hog programmers who would actually assume responsibility for the show for the Cleveland, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Dallas companies were brought in during the first technical rehearsals to learn the show and how the show files were constructed and were to be maintained. In addition to the Map focus points, there were also about 70 scenery focuses and 70 special focuses that were built.
Using the Prelite Studio for preproduction also allowed the design team to compare video tapes of the 2001 production to the 3D visualization for 2002.
Agress commented: "When we finished the XYZ Map focus at the first venue and punched through the show, it was obvious to everyone that the time spent at Prelite had paid off. The carpenters had more stage time, there were no overnighters, and the director got the cast on stage sooner. It is my hope to convert our other Christmas Spectaculars into XYZ, even though they were not originally built on a Map focus. Our experience at Prelite gives us the confidence to try."
They began their work with the show file from the 2001 production. Two focus grids had been constructed, which the team called a Map. The first focus grid was built on the downstage 20' of the deck, with 4' centers stage left to right and 3' centers downstage to upstage. The second grid was further upstage, with the left to right on 5' centers and downstage to upstage on 4' centers. Each of the 96 moving lights in the rig needed to be included in each of the 95 focus points provided by the grid.
In 2001, refocusing each light in each focus point (96 lights x 95 focus points) took about 16 hours. It was critical to the team to reduce this time. Also, because separate programmers were individually modifying the preset data, each show had the potential for looking different - for example, if one programmer used a flip command when another one did not. Agress and Turner wanted to remove this variable to assure each production maintained the original look of the design.
The first step in the process was to convert the positional information for the moving lights from pan and tilt data to XYZ. The moving light rig consisted of 47 Martin MAC 2000 profiles, 51 High End Systems Studio Color 575s, 10 High End Studio Spot CMY 575s and 5 Coemar Panorama Cycs.
Turner commented "We used the Prelite Studio and WYG to convert the standard Map to an XYZ Map. I think that the Prelite Studio is an excellent tool for building an XYZ Map or even a traditional grid for any show. You have the ability to be SO exact in your focusing, which is crucial when using XYZ positioning. This past spring, I did an XYZ show when I had to build the Map in the theatre. It was hard to be really exact in that environment, which caused problems in production. It is much more precise to use visualization software."
Prelite's Rodd McLaughlin explained something of the process the studio used. "We get the light plot and as many of the scenic CAD drawings as possible. Each project varies in the amount of detail the show needs for previsualization. Patrick Fahey's beautiful set design for the Christmas Spectacular is extremely detailed, with a lot of filigree work, many scenic elements that incorporate practicals, and elaborate textures everywhere. Most of it wasn't needed for their Prelite sessions, because it didn't matter for the Map focus. What the design team did need was extremely accurate placement of the prosceniums, legs, and borders for each of their venues. We drafted the stage and proscenium of each theatre individually, then imported the set and light plot, adjusting positions to match each venue's line sets and altering trim heights as necessary."
Prelite Principal Kim Grethen added: "The focus grid we created for the Map consisted of 95 points, which were pinpoint small. Those points were the centers of 6? spheres, which we nicknamed 'grapefruits.' In wireframe views, the points were the targets for creating the focuses, and in shaded views, the grapefruits provided a decent surface to see the beam on.
"Paul Turner's focuses were extremely precise, and 'stick beams' - where a single line represents the center of the beam - were the perfect tool for getting that specificity in the focuses. When it was time to check his work in a shaded view, where stick beams don't show up, a problem arose. The Studio Color beam spread was so wide it picked up more than one grapefruit at a time. The solution was to put a virtual pin spot gobo into the color wheel of the Studio Color. In the virtual world, the image produced is sharp edged, and it did the trick.
"Paul used another technique that substantially increased the accuracy of his pre-programming. He worked primarily in a Quad View, which allowed him to see the stage from four different vantage points simultaneously, with the ability to zoom in and out." Kim noted: "This is physically impossible to do anywhere but in a virtual environment, but it made all the difference in the precision of the focus, and sped up the process."
Because in XYZ programming individual and manual updating of each focus point isn't required, it is much easier for the design team to maintain the look of the show consistently from company to company. The Hog programmers who would actually assume responsibility for the show for the Cleveland, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Dallas companies were brought in during the first technical rehearsals to learn the show and how the show files were constructed and were to be maintained. In addition to the Map focus points, there were also about 70 scenery focuses and 70 special focuses that were built.
Using the Prelite Studio for preproduction also allowed the design team to compare video tapes of the 2001 production to the 3D visualization for 2002.
Agress commented: "When we finished the XYZ Map focus at the first venue and punched through the show, it was obvious to everyone that the time spent at Prelite had paid off. The carpenters had more stage time, there were no overnighters, and the director got the cast on stage sooner. It is my hope to convert our other Christmas Spectaculars into XYZ, even though they were not originally built on a Map focus. Our experience at Prelite gives us the confidence to try."
