Professional Lighting & Production - Summer 2019 | Page 24

“He’ll hit you up at 2 a.m. and ask if you want to grab a burger,
or he’ll be working on new music and give me a call to come here
what he’s up to so we can start brainstorming some visuals.”
Much of the collaboration following the initial dinner meeting
was done remotely, though, as Moore had travelled to Berlin to
continue working with Ridha.
“At one point, I was working with our laser programmer, and it
was the evening [in L.A.], so around 4 a.m. in Berlin. Sonny called
me on FaceTime from the studio with Alex, and so we were point-
ing the phone at the phosphor screen to show them some basic
looks and they were telling us what they liked, what they didn’t,
and that helped us take it further.”
Risueño says that working with some of these relatively limit-
ed and dated tools presented some challenges for the Production
Club team, considering they usually take advantage of state-of-
the-art technologies in their designs.
“To go from big, beautiful 3D visuals to now working with
lasers with smaller sample sizes and less points you can use and
the format of the software… That was tough for us sometimes,”
he admits. “It’s people used to working in [Maxon] Cinema 4D
and [SideFX] Houdini that are now getting tutorials in [Pangolin]
Beyond to figure out how laser designs work.”
After the overall design had been approved, Moore and Ridha
came to L.A. for three days of rehearsals, checking out all of the
looks and then deciding which ones would fit which songs.
Normally, those rehearsals would be pretty formal and profes-
sional affairs; however, in fitting with the punk rock attitude sur-
rounding the show, this time, they set everything up in Skrillex’s
house.
“We moved all the furniture, installed a 40 by 50-ft. cyc canvas
Laser Focus
6 x Kvant Spectrum 20 Diode Laser Projectors (Upstage Graphics)
4 x Kvant Spectrum 20 Diode Laser Projectors (Aerial Effects)
24 | Summer 2019
in the living room, and had four laser units going,” he explains. “I
think we all had a lot of fun with it.”
The show made its premiere when Dog Blood took over the main-
stage on the second night of Buku in New Orleans and, judging by
the reaction of those in attendance and those who’ve managed to
catch some footage online, made quite an impression.
“Basically, we went super hard at Buku,” Risueño says with an
audible smile. “That was the first Dog Blood show of this era and
we wanted to make an impact.”
Ultimately, the design for the Buku main stage included: six
Kvant Spectrum 20 diode laser projectors on the upstage truss to
create the graphics on the canvas; four additional Spectrum 20
units on the downstage truss for aerial effects; and four Lightline
Lasertechnik Excellent Burner 3-W RGB projectors, also on the
downstage truss, as audience scanners.
Additionally, in keeping with the warm, analog feel of the
lasers, the design incorporated some Elation Cuepix Blinder WW4s
and Martin Atomic strobes on the laser towers.
“The design is pretty bare-bones,” Risueño admits, “but that
was always the idea. And it’s nice because with the lasers and a few
strobes, we could easily adapt that for the different festival packages.”
They also tapped into the house lighting and video systems,
though used them remarkably sparingly, covering the upstage
LED wall with their canvas and using the IMAG screens on the
wings of the stage with intentionally dated-looking effects on the
footage.
“Again, we wanted to avoid the RGBW lights, so we leaned
on the fixtures more conducive to rock and roll,” Risueño puts in.
“Alex and Sonny didn’t want to fake that style at all; they wanted
4 x Lightline Lasertechnik Excellent Burner 3-W RGB Laser Projectors
(Audience Scan)
Pangolin Laser Systems Beyond Ultimate Laser & Multimedia
Control Software