When I'm not out on tour I always like picking up extra work when I am free. A lot of times I am usually filling in an LD gig for a colleague here and there but it almost always requires me to leave town for the job. Which I…

                              Black Jacket Symphony at the Workplay Theatre in Birmingham, AL

            There are several factors that make where I live and what I do, a prime location in central Florida. I can say I work for the largest entertainment company, I can say I work at a really old music hall, but the thing I like to say the most is I know a TON of Lighting Designers. I probably know at least 50 sprinkled all over central Florida. That makes it fun for me…

    I have this client who's a great guy. He hires me to design sets and lights and I have nothing but love for the guy. But his clients have a problem. They will call him about a project that is 6 months away, and ask him to produce pretty renderings of what they will do with the set and lights each year. So he does his gig, which means calling me to produce the lovely art. Which I am glad to oblige. But not at this exact moment.

     I'm always booked on stuff so I have to find a…

I've worked shows and been to venues where there have been 2 lighting consoles.  It always makes me go hmmmm...  I'm not talking about a console and a back-up; I'm talking about 2 consoles controlling the lights.  I've seen numerous setups, for example: one for moving lights and one for conventionals, one for lighting and one for video, one for dance floor and one for architectural lighting, one for the opening act and one for the main act.  

Last weekend I was in Albuquerque,…

Referencing is a great way for a team of designers/associates/assistants to work on one project..

To be specific, Vectorworks allows the sharing and referencing of symbols, So, for example, if one assistant is drafting the venue, even in progress, that model can be saved as a symbol and then the symbol can be referenced into other documents. As the referenced symbols are edited, instances placed in other files are updated.

So, as a practical example, one team member can model…