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Production
Profile A
rabid audience of visually oriented music-lovers has pushed Tool to the
forefront of today’s concert scene. Now headlining their first full
scale arena tour, the band integrates its own, Tool-designed visuals
with an iconoclastic stage setup. The result? A mesmerizing musical
experience winning new fans nightly. Guitarist Adam Jones and video
director Camella Grace design the show’s integral projections, but all
members of the egalitarian four-piece provide input. The innovative
stage setup reflects that fact: minimally lit lead singer Maynard James
Keenan is stationed stage right opposite drummer Danny Carey, while
bassist Justin Chancellor and guitarist Adam Jones range downstage in
front of them.
LD Mark “Junior” Jacobson and lighting
and projection systems provider, Camarillo, California’s Delicate
Productions, have enjoyed a long-term relationship with Tool; that
ongoing familiarity facilitated this year’s look and the systems
required to run it. According to Gus Thomson and Smoother Smyth of
Delicate, the company’s involvement with visuals dates back to its
beginnings in 1977 providing sound, lighting and video for Supertramp.
These days Delicate delivers sound, lighting and visual systems for both
corporate projects and concert tours; their long string of touring
credits includes Split Enz, INXS, Rage Against the Machine, Jane’s
Addiction, Yanni, Limp Bizkit, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Crystal
Method and The Smashing Pumpkins, among others. Four years ago Steve
Gilbard came on board to develop the video side of the business. It was
Delicate programmer Breck Haggerty, video TD Danny Whetstone and Gilbard
who got down with Tool to develop the proprietary digital video system
being used to run projections for 2001’s Fall Tour.
“It’s a very three-dimensional show that
really draws the audience into the video content,” explains Smyth.
“Adam Jones, the guitarist, produces the videos, which have always
been a main focus of their shows, and a lot of the lighting has to work
carefully intertwined with video. It’s very dynamic; like snapping
back and forth between watching TV and being in the venue.”
“What they’re using now provides
sophisticated, rapidly accessible video, all stored digitally, and
triggered or “played”— forward, backward, effects, etc. — -with
the digital keyboard console,” adds Thomson.
Delicate’s proprietary digital keyboard
console and software system, dubbed NEV, has been in development for
several years, with Tool’s principal members intimately involved.
Tool’s configuration consists of a NEV-RTM video user keyboard, a
NEV-RTB video system controller and two controller backups, along with
four video digital server channels, two console control processors and
an integrated video switcher. Onstage, a black scrim backs a white cyc
and projections are onto two main 18x24 screens along with three smaller
surfaces.
“Because the specifications for the show
change, we created a flexible arrangement,” states Gilbard. “A large
amount of the video is controlled from a traditional keyboard, where
Camella, the director, actually plays the videos as you would a
polyphonic synth. She has complete control over speed, stop-action,
strobing, and motion--forward and reverse of multiple streams at the
same time--with the ability to create on the fly. Although on this tour
they’re using multiple copies of about four hours of source video, the
current system has the capacity to deliver over 22 hours of broadcast
quality digital video, all digitized and on line at all times.”
According to Gilbard, the rack mounted NEV
system has proven most roadworthy, and can be “packed and ready to go
in the truck in about five minutes.” Projection equipment includes,
for the main screen: four Vistagraphx-Roadie-X10 DLP digital Hi-Def
video projectors, and four VG LCD remote control units. Singer Keenan
performs in front of a 7.5’x10’ screen with projections by another
Roadie DLP HD and an XP30 XVGA HD 3000 lumen projector. Two Vistagraphx-Roadie
projectors also shoot down onto the floor around Jones and Chancellor
from 40 feet overhead.
Besides the numerous challenges inherent in
combining video with stage lighting, LD Jacobson is charged with the
additional task of keeping Keenan, basically, in the dark. “He needs
to get into a certain headspace and he finds light distracting,”
explains Jacobson. “He doesn’t want it flashing in his eyes. The
video screen behind him works with the imagery on the main screen,
making him a silhouette. We’ve worked out an ultraviolet light that
he’s OK with--an Altman UV that’s dimmable--off to his left on the
floor, and sometimes he’ll wear white face makeup or clothing with
white stripes so you can see him a bit. We also have a little red cyc
light on the other side of him, with a super dark Lee–789 Blood
Red–and there are two songs where I get to use that on him.”
Jacobson’s rig is relatively compact:
approximately 60 moving lights. The only conventionals are four PAR cans
that, for security reasons, are focussed on the front of stage
barricade, set to glow at 10 percent when the stage goes dark. A Whole
Hog II with an expander wing runs the show; in addition a spare Hog is
set up for use by the opening act. “It’s a nice little luxury,”
Jacobson notes. “When I’m doing the focus during the day they can
come in and mess around with timing.”
Instruments consist mainly of High End
Systems product: 10 Turbo Cyberlights, 20 Studio Colors, 24 Studio Beams
and four Studio Spots. Also in use are six Coemar CF7s, six Thomas
8-Lite units with Wybron “Studio Colors have always been really good
for this band,” says Jacobson. “Because you can get a lot out of
them. You can do strobing, they make a good wash, they’re quiet,
dependable, and really low profile. We also use a lot of Turbo
Cyberlights, which are a favorite of the guitar player.” Jacobson
especially appreciates the ability to create unusual visuals with the
Turbo Cyberlights by experimenting with gobo rotations and other
manipulations. “We’ve figured out how to do precision rotation of
gobos one optical step at a time or to have patterns change focus based
on the moving image hex points!”
“In a lot of ways my job is
‘not-lighting’-- making sure things are dark enough,” he laughs.
“Light is by nature almost the enemy of video, so mostly you just have
to stay out of video’s way. I can’t do anything too bright--not that
the band would want it anyway, as they’re into a dark, moody look.”
More power in video projection also helps the
relationship between video and lights. “The last few years we’ve
been blessed with major changes in technology that give us the power to
function in the same arena as lighting,” says Gilbard. “Very early
on we embraced the Roadie DLP projectors from Christie and are one of
the largest owners in the Western U.S. They help us create a punchy
situation and to conquer the size issues; for Tool we are projecting an
upstage image that totals 48 feet wide with no problem. We’re also
fortunate to have many deeply rooted relationships with manufacturers.
We have a direct line of communication to their development and
programming staffs who have made changes to software and design based on
issues we’ve discovered. It’s heartening to see that manufacturers
no longer view those of us doing this kind of thing in the entertainment
industry as a lunatic fringe–now they see us as a core part of their
business and take a lot of interest in making things happen for us.”
“A band like Tool really sees their
on-stage video as another visual-lighting instrument,” concludes
Gilbard, “It’s great working with them because they’re very
demanding but they’re also extremely willing to experiment. The music
is the priority, but the whole experience is the objective. Lighting and
video are melding together and that’s a trend that’s going to
continue.” Author: Maureen
Droney
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