NORTH AMERICAN VISUALS CREW FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD
International Associate Lighting Designer - Nick Solyom Assistant Lighting Designer - Bailey Costa Assistant Lighting Designer - Imogen Wilson Production Electrician UK - Martin Chisnall Production Electrician - Lars Tilander UK Head of Lighting - Dave Treanor
scene , a dementor flies out over the audience , almost right to the front row of balcony . The precision and accuracy of the light following the flying demon reveals almost nothing , making the effect appear incredibly real . ( The amazingly smooth and discrete flying apparatus is courtesy of Las Vegas-based Flying By Foy ).
“ With LightStrike , we can do things where , say , if a set piece is on a revolve , we point a light at it that follows it around , but remains ‘ off ’ until it reaches a certain point , which means we can hide things until the exact moment we want it seen ,” says Scott Tusing , who is the U . S . -based moving light programmer who oversaw the lighting load-in and programming for the Toronto production . “ That is a really powerful tool . The calibration process is extensive . To do the full Potter calibration , we need eight to 12 hours . It ’ s very precise . If you ’ re tracking in three dimensions , you need to capture 27 points . So , for the tracking , it all comes back to flexibility in the space . For us , we use that to hide things . We can not only say ‘ follow this thing in three-dimensional space ,’ but we can say ‘ follow this thing in three-dimensional space but be 30 centimeters under it the whole time .’”
Continuing on about LightStrike and how
Moving Light Programmer - Scott Tusing Video Programmer US - Matthew Young Video Programmer CA - Sean Hooper Electrics Console Operator - Brent McLaughlin Deck Electrics - G . Stuart Baulch Followspots - Adrian Oosterman , Bryan Godwin , Brodie St . Pierre , Daniel Taylor
( L-R ) ACTORS SARAH AFFUL , GREGORY PREST , TRISH LINDSTROM , TREVOR WHITE & BRAD HODDER
it makes the show possible , Tusing adds :
“ By ingesting automation data , we can say , ‘ follow this thing ,’ but then if that thing doesn ’ t show up on stage , you won ’ t see the light following nothing . So , from an operator ’ s point of view , it actually makes it a lot simpler because there ’ s this built-in safety when something goes wrong ; we ’ ve already accounted for that . We simplify the process by removing that from the operator and letting them pay attention to what ’ s happening on stage , and deal with other things . They can focus on an actor being in the light or not in the light , an edge that isn ’ t right , and better maintain other aspects of the show . Because if they ’ re looking for every single thing , all the time , well that ’ s a lot to look at .’”
To pull off the many on-stage illusions in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , maintaining very sharp and precisely-placed edges to the light is absolutely critical .
“ Sharp edges are a very important thing ,” Tusing emphasizes , noting one particular scene as an example . It involves a wand duel between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy where the actors appear to pause , floating in mid-air . “ A scene like the duel , that sharp box is super important with the way it was lit . That is what makes the magic work . We have a whole
illusions department , but at the end of the day , the tricks don ’ t work if we light things that you ’ re not supposed to see .”
Going back to the original London production in 2016 , most of that show was using tungsten and arc lighting , but by the time Harry Potter and the Cursed Child reached Broadway in 2018 , most the lighting design was switched to LED . A big part of that was the release of the MAC Encore range of LED moving heads by Martin Professional .
“ We got the first 100 units off the conveyor belt for that . Suddenly , the show was nearly entirely LED . There were major changes there in Britain where we had to reprogram the entire show all over again to make it look the same ,” reveals Austin .
“ From the Encore series , we use a lot of the spots , and Neil had a development hand in that , too , which is great . It was also a massive upgrade from the London production , which relied heavily on [ ETC ] Revolutions , to go to an LED source , which is then easier to maintain . It ’ s a bit more expensive , but at the end of the day , if you ’ re not paying for lamp costs , you don ’ t have to deal with the maintenance . You send the guy around with a Swiffer and hopefully you ’ re good . The Encores are rock solid ,” adds Tusing . “ There ’ s a whole thing where if you swap a light that has this calibration done , you have to either redo the calibration , or use some other tools that existence inside of LightStrike to make sure it still works properly . Because the last thing you want to do is follow someone and reveal things you shouldn ’ t be revealing .”
Because of how much programming and calibration the show requires , Tusing notes that they very rarely swap fixtures or gear . This is unlike most other productions he ’ s been involved with , which do so much more regularly . “ That would change so much for the show that we just can ’ t do it . So , there ’ s a very limited fixture selection that we use , which saves a lot of prep work for me .”
When it comes to operating the show on a nightly basis , Tusing notes that there are nearly 1,300 cues , and there would be a lot more if they weren ’ t using automation tracking . It was essential that by the time he left Toronto , the local crew could maintain the show .
“ If there ’ s a problem in Harry Potter , you don ’ t try to solve the problem during the show . If an effect doesn ’ t work that ’ s triggered by us , you don ’ t try and solve the problem . You take a note of it and you deal with it later , because you ’ re already on to the next ,” Tusing says . “ We make extensive use of timecode and MIDI . Sometimes we combine the two . Sometimes there ’ s an operator pushing ‘ go ’ but we ’ re also taking MIDI cues at the same time . So , we try and make it pretty easy to run . But the first time anyone runs the show ,
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