Less Than A Week Till Super Saturday in NYC and Save $50 on Registration!

The count down has begun, there are only 5, yes 5 days left until Super Saturday. No, it is not some huge blowout sale happening in New York City.  I am talking about the Stage Seminars, Stage Lighting Super Saturday.  Here is more about Super Saturday.

A dozen theater lighting professionals will speak and about 20 industry lighting manufacturers will on hand and have technical personnel and equipment to demonstrate. The tentative program includes inspiration, fixtures, color, consoles, moving lights, trouble shooting, CAD, Virtual Magic Sheet & LightWright, paperwork, and other subjects. Starting at 8:00 am on Saturday, January 22, 2011, the sixth-annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday all-day seminar will take place at the conveniently located Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City located across from New York City’s Lincoln Center.

Sounds like fun right?  You’ll find me there!  I am so excited!  You should be too.  On top of a day of lighting glory and education, the organizers of Super Saturday have a special offer for you.  Scott Parker offered a discount code to the readers of iSquint to attend and save on Super Saturday.  The code USE to save you $25 off the registration price… Now, you can save $50! It’s easy, use the code iSquintVIP when you register. What are you waiting for?!  Go register for Super Saturday now! I can’t wait to see you there!

You can learn more about Super Saturday by visiting www.stageseminars.com.

Remote Control Battery Lighting Session Added to Super Saturday

Stage Lighting Super Saturday adds a new session “Remote Control Battery Lighting” to its all day lighting workshop. James Smith will speak about how remote control makes it easy to put lamps, motors, solenoids, and much more, anywhere in a show without visible wires. Scott Parker says “This session provides insight and assistance with wireless techniques, batteries, charging and charge cycles. Jim will be joining our faculty that includes legendary designers Ken Billington and Richard Pilbrow.”

This popular annual seminar is designed for everyone involved in stage, architectural, or entertainment lighting. The sessions are not too basic nor too advanced. Sonny Sonnenfeld adds, “Everyone who attends will benefit. The intense all day seminar will be led by theatre lighting professionals leading sessions about inspiration, training, product, and just doing it.”

A dozen theater lighting professionals will speak and about 20 industry lighting manufacturers will on hand and have technical personnel and equipment to demonstrate. The tentative program includes inspiration, fixtures, color, consoles, moving lights, trouble shooting, CAD, Virtual Magic Sheet & LightWright, paperwork, and other subjects. Starting at 8:00 am on Saturday, January 22, 2011, the sixth-annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday all-day seminar will take place at the conveniently located Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City located across from New York City’s Lincoln Center.

For more information, visit www.stageseminars.com. DON’T FORGET, you can save $25 off the cost of registering by using the VIP Code iSquintVIP during the registration process.  Hope to see you there!

Events: Super Saturday – Save Even MORE on Registration

Are you on the right coast?  Drop all your plans January 22nd and head to New York, IT’S SUPER SATURDAY! No, it is not the Super Bowl, or the Super Heavy Weight Fight of the Year, it’s the Saturday when Lighting Designers, Professionals and enthuses come together to talk, share, learn and celebrate the best art form in the entertainment industry, Lighting.

Meet theater professionals and network with like career people. It will be 10 hours of hard work, fun, and a great learning experience. The workshop is geared towards anyone interested in stage/theatrical type lighting including lighting designers, technicians, electricians, set designers, sound designers, architectural professionals, church lighting directors, teachers and students at all levels, etc.

If you register before the end of the year, 12/31/2010, you will be saving $50 off the price of registration.  But wait, it get’s better. Scott Parker, the organizer of Super Saturday has offered something special to the readers of iSquint.  Save an ADDITIONAL $25 off the cost of registration with the code “iSquintVIP”.   Now if you register before the end of the year, not only do you save $50 by registering early, but with the code, you save an ADDITIONAL $25 dollars for a total cost of registering early.

Now, if you register after the new year, you can still use the code above to save $25 dollars off the cost of registering!  A huge thank you to Mr. Parker for his generosity!  If you get to Super Saturday, make sure to find Mr. Parker and say thanks!

Now what are you waiting for… GO REGISTER!  You can learn more about Super Saturday by visiting www.stageseminars.com.

Richard Pilbrow Joins Super Saturday Faculty, January 22, 2011

Richard Pilbrow, internationally known lighting designer, has agreed to speak at the Sixth annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday seminars. Richard is passionate about the advancement of computer technology that allows lighting designers to free themselves from that same technology. He will discuss his recent use of the Apple iPad during a production of “Evening Primrose.” Pilbrow’s credits include “A Tale of Two Cities”, “Our Town”,  “The Life”, “Show Boat”, Broadway; ”The Sleeping Beauty” American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera; “The Magic Flute” LA Opera; many UK National Theatre Company and West End productions. Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Theatre Projects Consultants for 1200 projects in 70 countries. Author of “Stage Lighting” an international teaching text and “Stage Lighting Design” published in 1997. In 2010 Live Design voted Richard “one of the 50 most powerful people in the entertainment technology industry.”

This popular annual seminar is designed for everyone involved in stage, architectural, or entertainment lighting. The sessions are not too basic nor too advanced. Everyone who attends will benefit. The intense all day seminar will be led by theatre lighting professionals leading sessions about inspiration, training, product, and just doing it.

A dozen theater lighting professionals will speak and about 20 industry lighting manufacturers will on hand and have technical personnel and equipment to demonstrate. The tentative program includes inspiration, fixtures, color, consoles, moving lights, trouble shooting, CAD, Virtual Magic Sheet & LightWright, paperwork, and other subjects. Starting at 8:00 am on Saturday, January 22, 2011, the sixth-annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday all-day seminar will take place at the conveniently located Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City located across from New York City’s Lincoln Center.

For more information, please visit www.stageseminars.com or contact Scott Parker at super2011@stageseminars.com, 1-866-832-4390.

Ken Billington Joins SUPER Saturday, January 22,2011

Ken Billington, award-winning lighting designer, has agreed to provide the keynote inspirational session at the Sixth annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday seminars. Billington says, “I am always happy to speak at any stage lighting educational seminar. I think that the Stage Lighting Super Saturday seminar is one of the best.”

Sonny Sonnenfeld says, “The program is designed to educate beginners and new professionals who seek additional training. It will be 10 hours of hard work, fun, and a great learning experience.” This popular annual seminar is designed for everyone involved in stage, architectural, or entertainment lighting. The sessions are not too basic nor too advanced. Everyone who attends will benefit. The intense all day seminar will be led by theatre lighting professionals leading sessions about inspiration, training, product, and just doing it.

Scott Parker adds, “A dozen theater lighting professionals will speak and about 20 industry lighting manufacturers will on hand and have technical personnel and equipment to demonstrate.”
The tentative program includes inspiration, stage lighting 101, fixtures, color, consoles, moving lights, trouble shooting, paperwork, and other subjects. Starting at 8:00 am on Saturday, January 22, 2011, the sixth-annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday all-day seminar will take place at the conveniently located Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City located across from New York City’s Lincoln Center.

For more information, please visit www.stageseminars.com.

Photos: Broadway Lighting Master Classes 2010

I trust everyone had a nice long and restful memorial day weekend!  I would say mine was nice and long, but no where near restful as it was a weekend filled with work. Last week, was the Broadway Lighting Master Classes in New York City.  You may have heard me mention this a couple of times already, well, I have more for you.

If you attended the BLMC, you may have seen me there, I was the geek at the head of the class taking notes, photos and in awe.  I had an amazing time at the classes.  First, it was awesome to talk about theory of lighting and leave all of the technology out of it for a bit and get back to the meaning and art of lighting, so inspiring!

On top of attending some great sessions by leading Broadway lighting designers, I also got a chance to mingle with other attendees and talk even more about lighting.  Normally when I talk about lighting, the conversation ultimately ends up talking about technology and new products.  This was not the case for most of my time at the BLMC. Other attendees and I talked about the arts and science of lighting or about what we just learned in a particular session.  I still get goose bumps thinking about some of the wonderful talks I had with other attendees!  I did get a chance to talk with almost all of the manufacturers at the showcase during lunch breaks and witnessed a couple of new products making their way to the market.  I’ll be writing more about those products in a bit.

One session that I do have to point out is Don Holder’s LEDs vs Tungsten.  Mr. Holder setup two scenes that were identical. Stage left was lite by tungsten sources and the stage right lite by all LED fixtures.  The goal of Mr. Holder’s session was not to convince you either way about what type of fixture to use, but to compare them to each other and see how closely they can match.  Mr. Holder created the scenes first with the tungsten sources and then tried to match the levels, looks and colors with LED fixtures. It was pretty impressive how closely they matched. Will we be seeing a show in the near future entirely lite by LEDs?  Maybe, the goal of the session was for you to see what they can do and find the correct fixture for your situation whether that be an LED or tungsten source.

Overall, I had an incredible time at the Broadway Lighting Master Classes last week!  A huge thank you is in order to Live Design for inviting me!  I would highly recommend the BLMC to anyone that wants to listen and learn more about lighting design for Broadway and increasing their understanding of lighting design.

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Lighting in New York City – It’s More Beautiful Then You Think

Before I go on about the Broadway Lighting Master Classes, I wanted to share something that all of you have inspired me to do. It has been a very long time since I have taken out the camera and just started shooting.  With all of the work and amazing photos that everyone has shared either here, on flickr, or on your own site or other sites, you have all gotten me fired up in me about my picture taking. You have encourage me to capture moments and feelings with photography and I thank each and everyone of you!

I want to share a couple of photos that I had taken the afternoon before the Broadway Lighting Master Classes in New York City as I hope to help inspire and encourage you and others to capture your own moments.  As my father would say, I arrived in New York City at the “Golden Hour” for photography, the late afternoon around 5:30pm.  After checking into the NYU dorm where I was stay, I was eager to hit the streets and see some of my favorite sections of the city.  With the Camera in tow, I headed down Broadway to SoHo to visit one of the many Apple Stores in NYC. Along the way, I witnessed some of the most amazing lighting in the city that I have ever seen.

Now, when people mention the lights of New York City, most times they are referencing the manufactured lighting of Time Square or advertisement bill boards or video displays all around the city.  That is not what I mean, I mean the natural beauty the afternoon sun produces reflecting, refracting and penetrating the urban jungle that is NYC.

From the images below, you may get a sense of what I mean. A simply stunning white faced building 3/4 in shadow might seem unappealing to the unimaginative, but to me, it shows a city putting an end to the day like a dock worker taking off his hard hat at the end of the day.  How about the simple shape of the apple logo cut out of a piece of metal and hung on a brick wall.  Of course I get excited seeing that simple shape as it means I have arrived at the SoHo Apple Store, but take a second look.  Look at the distorted shape of the Apple logo in shadow and light, something so simple taken out of normal representation and given a new look.

I found myself looking at the Apple sign for a bit before I went into the store.  Not because I was in awe of being at yet another Apple store, but I wanted to watch the shadow of the Apple sign move with the setting of the sun to create a sun dial of sorts. And yes, the power of the Apple store did eventually get to me and I had to go inside and I am glad I did.  Not because I wanted to see any of the new MacBooks or sit in on a apple session, the power of the architecture and simplicity of design that is found in every apple store.  I have seen photos of the SoHo store before and have wanted to visit for a long time.  The use of glass and light are just amazing.  Beams of light come flowing in from the sky light and fill the store with natural beauty.  One thing that I am every curious about is the wooden water town visible just outside of the skylight.  Seen just right, you see old world technology meeting new, now is that intentional or just a happy mistake? I’ll have to quiz Steve Jobs when I finally meet him some day!

Of all the images that I took that day, I am only showing a fraction of what I took. I feel that these are some of the best ones taken, but there are a couple that I am keeping to myself. Not that I am protecting my images or hiding anything from you, it’s just that these couple of images mean something special to me. I feel that photography has the ability to capture a lot of things, feelings, emotions, events, memories and so forth.  There comes a time when you capture a moment in time and it does something to you, it means something special.  A couple of photos did that for me that day. Now will I lock them up and never show anyone? Heck no! But at the moment, I want to keep these very meaningful images to myself, sorry. ;)

I normally don’t feel right unless I have left you with something.  Whether that is news about products or information about events or maybe a bit of advice. So hear is the helpful hint to you, always carry a camera.  That is it, plain and simple.  Now, let me clarify that a bit, you don’t need to carry around your precious DSLR or expensive camera, that is, unless you want to. Carry around something that has the ability to capture a moment that means something to you.  Keep a simple point-n-click camera in your pocket or use your iPhone/smart phones camera, capture the moment.  I have taken many photos with my iPhone over the last three years and while the images may not look to exciting or mean anything to you, each image on my iPhone has the ability to take me back to that moment in time and remind me of why I took it. I encourage you to do the same, who knows, you might just like it!

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Get a Front Row Seat on Broadway Everytime – Theatre For One

If you have been to Times Square in New York City, you may be accustomed to seeing such crazy things as a cowboy in underwear playing a guitar and Criss Angel stuck in an glass cube filled with cement. Some pretty strange and crazy things got on in that city and I love it!

I got a pretty unique email from a good friend, Michael Eddy about a new “theatre” coming to Times Square, Theatre For One. It is a “Unique Performance Space to Offer Private Theatre Experience in Times Square”. Acclaimed Broadway set designer Christine Jones designed and produced a four foot by nine foot portable theatre with one performer playing to one audience member.

What has me interested about this project is the tech spec’s about the “performance space”. From the Press Release:

Theatre for One may be very small, but it is fully operational with computer controlled lights and sound, stage and audience doors and solid sliding “curtain” in a proscenium to start and end the performances.  A stage manager runs the show while a house manager guides the guests into the red velvet interior which includes an actual peep booth seat.

Theatre For One opens it door on May 14, 2010 and goes to May 23, 2010 in Times Square. There are no tickets, Theatre For One is available to anyone on a first-come, first-served basis.  I just wish that the show would be extended by a couple of days.  It closes the day before I head up to New York for the BLMC! :( you can follow all of the happenings of Theatre For One on their web site, www.theatreforone.com or on their twitter feed, @TheatreForOne.

Thanks Michael!

Apollo Design Big City Bash in the Big Apple

Apollo Design continues their Big City Bash events with another Bash announced for next month in the Big Apple, New York City.  If you have not seen any of the latest products from Apollo Design and you live or work any where near the city, you might want to stop by and say hi.

O Thursday, February 11, 2010, Apollo will be at the DoubleTree in Times Square demonstrating some of their products.  More from Apollo Design:

Please join us for hands-on demonstrations of Apollo’s complete lineup of entertainment lighting products, including the exciting new Spotlight Architectural Fixtures, Multiform LEDs, and Smart Color PRO scroller. Combined with our color filters, clean laser produced gobos, and numerous other lighting effect accessories, Apollo now offers even more solutions for your 2010 lighting projects.

When: Thursday, February 11, 2010 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Finger Food/Beverages, including beer & wine after 4 p.m., will be provided.

Where: DoubleTree @ Times Square

Corner of 47th Street & 7th Avenue

New York, NY10036

Room: The Hudson Room, 6th Floor

RSVP for the Apollo Design Big City Bash New York.