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MICHAEL JACKSON Lighting
Design and Direction Video /
Film: This is every lighting designer’s dream: An artist with limitless imagination and a willingness to spend the money necessary to bring it to fruition. Michael has wonderful ideas. Kenny Ortega, the show’s director, and Michael Cotten, the art director, developed great visuals that utilized computerized video presentations, along with extensive scenic support. Where the Dangerous tour was Rock/Pop, the HIStory tour is Rock/Theater. The lighting hang is quite conventional in appearance --- six "electrics" (actually 2 - 80 foot and 4 - 60 foot trusses) arranged cross stage, with six vertical ladders of cross wash. However, the lighting fixtures are anything but conventional. We are currently utilizing (besides the 400+par cans and color changers) 2.5 KW Coemar Nats; 1.2 KW Coemar Nats; 2Kw xenon "z-scans"; 7KW xenon and 4KW xenon sources; and even 35 I-Beams arranged vertically on the back wall. Added to this are200 assorted Varilites and a couple dozen other automated fixtures. |
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My favorite story about Michael: During the "Dangerous" rehearsals he kept checking with me to see when the rear light wall was installed, so he could come down and see it. The wall contained 350 ACLs and 80 DataStrobes --- all facing straight out into the audience. Suffice it to say this wall later lit up Munich Stadium like daylite! Michael came down to look at the wall. We both sat on the apron edge --- approximately 40 feet from the wall. The lights were BRIGHT!!! He smiled, and said, "That’s nice. Now can I have that on the sides too?" And so it goes. Michael is a brilliant artist with a great feel for what works in front of 100,000 people. He loves visual "gags" and lighting effects. He loves "white" light. He is, as I said, every lighting designer’s dream |
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