Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge compete for an Oscar
Australian DOP's Andrew Lesnie, Lord of the Rings, and Don McAlpine, Moulin Rouge, have both been nominated for an Oscar to reward their remarkable achievements in cinematography.
Both DOP's were nominated at the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) and BAFTA (British Film and Television Awards) awards but were beaten in both cases by the Amercian cinematographer Roger Deakins for The Man Who Wasn't There.
To read in depth articles on the cinematography of these films, click on the links below:
Lord of the Rings
Moulin Rouge
The Man Who Wasn't There

silverchair at the Big Day Out
One of the headline acts at this year's Big Day Out concerts was silverchair. Their lighting designer Hugh Taranto used the shows to try out some ideas for their forthcoming world tour. As silverchair's shows will mostly begin in daylight, his design was intended to 'compete' with the sunlight using a range of high powered lights enhanced by a generous use of smoke. This lighting was attached to five LSD Hex Pods hung behind the band during the changeover. These pods were prerigged before the changeover and then wheeled into position and lifted into the rig by means of individual chain motors. All cables were dropped from the pods to the ground with the exception of the midstage pods, whose cables were routed so they do not drop into Silverchair's stage equipment. The rear and midstage pods were raked down at 30 degrees toward the band. In addition to the pods six floor lamps were required on the downstage edge of stage. silverchair provided six custom ring lights which attach to the bands backline. These were prerigged onto the backline before changeover and required 6 x 110v /10A dimming circuits to power them. silverchair required the use of three front of house long throw followspots and operators for their set.
silverchair also used a custom backdrop that was revealed during the show.
Equipment was supplied by Bytecraft.
Equipment list:
5 LSD style Hex Pods
30 Vari*lite Vl*5
10 DWE 8-liter
50 Chrome Par64 (stubbie)- VNSP
6 Par64 (MFL) floor
6 110v circuits on stage + 1x 9ft TV stand for the back ring
2 (additional) F100 foggers + fans
3 longthrow FOH followspots & operators
rigging, distro and cabling as required.
softgoods
1 40' x 24' Black Drape on Kabuki Pipe
2 12' x 2' Black Borders for risers.
1 24' x 2' Black Borders for drum riser.

Check out Hugh Taranto's website:
http://www.heff-t.com

Download a movie of the set design (1,783kb)

Wiggles On Tour


Phaseshift Productions supplied lighting systems for the 2001 Wiggles Tour. Designed by Alex Saad, the equipment list included 1 x Avolites Sapphire 2000 lighting desk, 12 x Mac 500's, 18 x Mac 600's, 8 x Mac 300's, 8 x Mac 250's, 8 x X-Spot's, 4 x Kolorado 2.5kw CMY Floods, 48 x Par 64 cans, 6 x 8-lites and scrollers, 5 x Performer followspots (in chairs) and heaps of rigging, drapes and cables.

Rumba!



Rumba took place at Melbourne's Colonial Stadium on November 17th followed by a Sydney Rumba at Stadium Australia a week later. Lighting designer was Jeff Pavey with a crew from Bytecraft including: Trent O'Conner, Andy Cowan, Don McGregor, Fergal O'Sullivan and Dion Weeks.
Equipment from Bytecraft included the following: 6 High End Studio Spot, 20 PC Beams, 44 Cyberlight Turbo, 30 ETC Source IV Par, 340 Chrome Par 64, 20 Strand S/L 600w, 14 Dataflash AF1000 DMX strobes, 8 Lycian Starklite HMI1200, 4 Colourset scrollers, 30 Wybron Par64 scrollers, 5 Wybron 8 lite scrollers, 6 Ireos 7Kw for audience lighting, 2 F100 smoke machines, and 4 DF50 diffusion foggers. Control was by a Whole Hog II + a wing board as well as a Jands Event 48ch console.



www.bytecraftentertainment.com

Powderfinger / Something for Kate
Australian band Powderfinger are currently touring the country with their New Suburban Fables 2001 Australian national tour. The gigs are a sell out with soul sista Fluent JB behind the decks and Something For Kate warming the stage.
Lighting Designer is Jason Boyd with Trent O'Connor operating and Graham Jelly as Crew Chief. Bytecraft Entertainment supplied the lighting equipment and crew.
Equipment list
17 x High End Studio Color
6 x High End Technobeam
2 x High End X.spot (3 x Gobo wheels)
11 x Vari*lite VL6B4 x Vari*lite VL4
20 x Vari*lite VL5
14 x ACL Beacon
10 x ETC Source 4 19°
13 x 8-way Molefay
5 x 2-way Molefay
9 x Colorset Scrollers for 8-way Molefay
6 x MR16 "Birdie" Parcans
8 x Terrastrobe
2 x White Lightning Strobe
1 x Whole Hog II & wing

www.bytecraftentertainment.com

Schusters supply Channel 9 for Grand Final Footy Show
Production company Schusters Lighting is based on the Gold Coast and owned by Leon Schuster. In a matter of a few years they have grown to be a major force in lighting hire. Already supplying gear to 90% of the movies shot in Queensland, Schusters has quietly being making it's presence known in both television and production work.
"We do all of the Channel 9 Sydney outside broadcast work as well as supplying their studio packages," said Steve Albert, Schusters' Production Manager. "We're also currently doing the Hi-5 tour and recently we finished Big Brother, for which I was the LD. We also do a lot of corporate events, film premieres and lighting up buildings.
"However, we have actually held back because I've seen too many companies grow too big too soon and then fall down. We want long term contracts and the only way to do that is to supply a consistent quality of service. Last year we grew about 27%, the same the year before. We're content sitting in the middle behind the big two!"
With all of their gear out on shows Schusters is currently a 'lighting broker' hiring from Chameleon and Bytecraft.
"We get the fixtures that the client wants not necessarily selling them an inventory of what we have in stock," explained Steve.
Channel 9 recently held the grand final edition of The Footy Show (NRL) in Sydney's SuperDome. Channel 9 Lighting Supervisor Andrew Veitch specified the following:

Chameleon light Symphony in the Park
Sydney Symphony went west for the Orchestra's first ever outdoor performance in Parramatta Park on Saturday 8 September. Made possible only by the enthusiastic commitment of Presenting Partners Holden, Australia's icon automotive company, and EnergyAustralia, this was an exciting new and long-awaited venture.
Symphony under the Stars offered a similar experience to the hugely popular Symphony in the Domain concert co-presented by the Sydney Festival - which attracts more than 100,000 people each year.
Lighting the Symphony were Chameleon with a standard analogue rig best suited for an orchestra - 96 Par 64 mfl, 24 fresnel 2K, 4 Altman Shakespeare 20 degree, and 1 PC 1200w. Pip Robinson ran the show.
www.chameleon-touring.com.au

Frontier Lighting at the Roebuck Bay Hotel
Throughout the coldest months of the year, the beaches are still busy, suntans continue to burn, and beer is flowing freely at the Roebuck Bay Hotel in Broome, Western Australia. The "Roey" (as the locals call it) isn't your usual country pub.
Lighting designer Jared Hawke and Ryan Varley (in picture on right) of Frontier Lighting in Perth, Western Australia, were approached to install, operate and maintain sound and lighting at the hotel’s new outdoor beer garden, The Oasis. The Oasis contains seven fully grown coconut palms, an outdoor performance stage, plus a large paved dance floor and grassy areas.
Within the complex, a large 15m (49.5 feet) high sloping roof faces one edge of the garden. To facilitate lighting looks, the roof was painted white. One large length of truss extended along the front of the stage, while two shorter sections were placed toward the back of the garden. Each section of truss was raised 7m (23 feet) in the air.
The smaller sections held two High End Systems Technobeam® luminaires and a large Flame light each, while the stage truss held eight Technobeams and a band-rig. Seven EC-2™ architectural wash luminaires were installed to light each palm tree, creating some spectacular visual effects. Says Hawke, “While installing the EC-2 fixtures, it came to our knowledge that the units could not be addressed without using Fixture Talkback -- without Handshake for Palm, or a WholeHog® II, we were unable to address the fixtures! Luckily, thanks to the tremendous support from High End Systems Singapore, Handshake was sent out to us immediately. Within 15 minutes of Handshake’s arrival, we had all the fixtures addressed correctly, ready to program.”
As the venue is used for many different purposes, the lighting system adjusts the mood of the Oasis to suit the function in place -- be it a rock concert or outdoor wedding reception.
www.frontierlighting.com.au

Selecon Pacific for the West End
In its West End debut, Selecon's unique 80volt Pacific is being used to show Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins in the best possible light in Cameron Mackintosh's new production of My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. After an initial run at the National Theatre, the show, lit by top lighting designer, David Hersey, has transferred to the much larger stage at Drury Lane. With an output equivalent to a 2.5kW light, the Pacific provides the effect of sunlight streaming through the four large windows of the professor's study.
Bryan Raven, general manager of White Light who supplied all the lighting for the show, explains. "The phone call came half way through the focus period of the West End transfer of the acclaimed National Theatre production of My Fair Lady. It was lighting designer David Hersey: did White Light have anything brighter than a 750W Source Four available? Hersey was focusing the 'opening curtain' toplight window gobos for the show: four lanterns fitted with DHA's new YoYo+ indexing gobo yoyo and glass window gobos. On cue, the yoyos are used to slide gobos with a curtain edge profile across the glass window gobo, creating the effect of curtains being opened. With the lighting rig for the Drury Lane version of the show consisting largely of 750W Source Fours, the effect somehow just wasn't cutting through. But the requirements were slightly more complicated than just a brighter lantern: any replacement also had to offer a cool gate in order to protect the yoyo and gobos from heat damage."
White Light arranged a series of demonstrations, and Selecon's European market manager, Mike Goldberg, brought in one of the lower-voltage 1200W Pacifics. The unit proved to be the ideal solution, and White Light purchased four 80v Selecon Pacifics. DHA adapted the YoYo+s to fit the new lanterns, which also have Wybron colour scrollers mounted to them to allow the creation of different coloured light through the show.
www.seleconlight.com