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© Kjetil Tefke. Instagram @kjetiltefke. Postgirobygget perform at Norway’s Treungen Festival.

Since then, they have embarked on an annual summer tour, performing at festivals and venues in front of audiences ranging from 2000 to 18,000 people. The band is often rightly dubbed Norway's summer band!

Postgirobygget’s 28-date Summer 2023 tour began in May and will continue through until September, with set and lighting design by Petter Nilssen of LiteNordic, MDG’s exclusive distributor for Norway. Nilssen chose a single MDG Me2 fog generator as his source of fog and haze for the duration of the tour, complete with MDG’s digital theFAN™, both of which were neatly and conveniently housed with fluid and gas bottles in an MDG Vertical Flight Case as an instant ‘plug-in-and-play’ solution.

“I always chose to tour with an MDG machine,” states Nilssen. “I believe if you take your own lighting rig on tour, it's equally as important to bring your own fog/haze machines. It's crucial to me that the show looks consistent everywhere, and there's often a shortage of fog at both local concerts and festivals. Without a good haze/fog machine, the lighting setup you bring won't work optimally every time.

© Kjetil Tefke. Instagram @kjetiltefke. Postgirobygget perform at Norway’s Treungen Festival.

“For example, there are certain sections of the current show, often during guitar solos, where I remove all front light, lower the overhead, and use only 6 MAC Ultra lights positioned on the ground as backlight in a very wide zoom. In such cases, it's crucial to have a lot of fog on the stage to create an interplay between light, fog, and shadows.”

Nilssen was careful to install power and DMX on either side of the stage, as well as in the centre, so the Me2’s Vertical Flight Case can be moved easily as needed, or to counter significant changes in wind directions. “Since the Me2 uses the same neutral fluid as MDG’s ATMe machine, it has an extremely long hang time. So usually, I keep theFAN™ at 100% all the time, and the Me2 machine running continuously at its lowest output. This way, I can evenly spread the fog as a ‘haze’ across the entire stage,” explains Nilssen. “At other times there might be sections in the set that require more fog for dramatic reasons. In those cases, I naturally increase the fog for shorter periods to achieve the desired effect.”

Nilssen is very happy with the results he has achieved with the Me2 fog generator and the responses he has received on tour: “The Me2 machine has proved itself an excellent, truly outstanding device and has shown the technicians I work with what an awesome range the Me family is. There isn't a single machine that can produce such a fine and thick haze with such a long hang time as it does - except maybe its larger counterparts. I'm extremely satisfied with its performance and its fluid and gas consumption. We've completed 17 concerts, and during those shows, I haven't yet used up a 4 x 4 litre box of fluid. Furthermore, I'm still on my second CO2 tank!”
Equipment supplier for the Postgirobygget Summer 2023 tour is Norwegian rental company, Spectre.

© Kjetil Tefke. Instagram @kjetiltefke. Postgirobygget perform at Norway’s Treungen Festival.

© Kjetil Tefke. Instagram @kjetiltefke. Postgirobygget perform at Norway’s Treungen Festival.

Originally located in old industrial buildings, the sold-out events have grown rapidly in size, and the organisation recently adopted the 8000-capacity RTM Stage at Rotterdam Ahoy as the newest addition to the Rotterdam Rave territory. As a purpose-built venue, the RTM Stage needed to prove its worth as a genuine ‘rave cave’ with plenty of underground vibes.

© Peitsman - Mitchell Dobbelstein

Helping bring about this transformation at the Rotterdam Rave Kick-Off 2023 event in February was Peitsman Licht en Geluid BV which supplied two MDG ATMe haze generators to Stöd for show designer, Joël Lemmerling, and lighting designer, Guy van Noorden.

Peitsman’s project leader for the event, Patrick Botterman, explains: “There was some scepticism amongst the rave goers that the venue would not be ‘underground’ enough, so it was Rotterdam Rave’s mission to prove to the public that they could achieve the right atmosphere for a fantastic evening.”

“It was important that we made the party goers feel like participants, not viewers, to really give them that immersive party experience,” adds show designer, Joël Lemmerling. To this end, Guy van Noorden designed an overhead set based around a number of aerial cubes and a tremendous lighting rig suspended above the public on over 800m of truss, and focused the lighting on the audience rather than the performers and DJs on stage.

© Peitsman - Mitchell Dobbelstein

As the hall was filled with beams of light and laser effects, the overhead cubes were outlined with white LED strips that added another dimension to their shape. These helped define the geometric shape within the haze, emphasising and enhancing the ethereal, dream-like appearance as they hung suspended and isolated above the audience.

This was made possible by the smooth, wide-reaching haze which filled every part of the hall from the two MDG ATMe haze generators. These were sited in backstage left and right positions and, with the aid of two fans, were all that were needed to fill the massive, 60+m long RTM hall. “We turned the ATMes on a couple of hours before the event kicked off and simply left them to it,” says Botterman. “They were really economical on fluid and the CO₂ management was very simple. The result was a smooth, even haze throughout the whole hall which lasted until the early hours of the morning and proved the perfect foil to Stöd’s lighting.”

Peitsman has worked with Rotterdam Rave on its previous events at the Onderzeebootloods old submarine dry dock, and is the preferred supplier for all events at the Ahoy RTM Stage. “We work with ATMe generators a lot and find they are easily able to handle these large spaces,” says Botterman. “Even in the ZiggoDome (Amsterdam’s 17,000 capacity venue) we only need three ATMe generators.

“We were very excited at the opportunity to bring these to realise Stöd’s big party vision for the Rotterdam Rave Kick-Off 2023 - the first of the festival events for us and their first at the Ahoy RTM Stage…and with the audience partying until 7am, they obviously achieved their goal!”

© Peitsman - Mitchell Dobbelstein

© Peitsman - Mitchell Dobbelstein

SwanLake © Mikki Kunttu

MDG: Your work life covers many aspects as a lighting, set and video content designer and programmer. Can you give us an outline of what your work entails?

In everything I do, lighting is very central. I’m very much drawn to manipulating the three-dimensional space and I love exploring with lighting, video and sets. A big part of it is simply looking at the emptiness of a space with curious eyes and trying to find its potential. I guess I would always aim to blur the lines between sets, lighting and video as I think they are one and the same.

Using a console and programming has always been a quite natural part of it all as I could not see myself doing this without being able to program creatively myself. I think that way the technical aspect does not get in my way.

MDG: What route have you taken to get here?

It is a very common story…I started out playing guitar in bands as a teenager, then found myself working in the local theatre and completely fell in love with the spirit of the ensemble and with the whole theatre vibe. Then I studied lighting and sound for a few years before getting introduced to contemporary dance. Dance led me eventually to ballet and opera, and at the same time I also started to do some live TV shows and also worked for some bands. That path later took me to opportunities like the Eurovision Song Contest.

MDG: Last year you celebrated your 50th birthday and your 30-year (to date!) career with a weekend of productions at Finland’s prestigious Tampere Hall. How did that feel?

Yes, it actually was a week of productions which included Lucid Dreams, a retrospective photo exhibition, the Light & Shadow international seminar, a concert performance of The Planets with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and A Night of Light gala evening with performers from all around the world. I think the week really displayed what I enjoy the most: how totally incredible it is to get to know and to get to work with the most amazing people. We are all like-minded nomads and I love everything we do. Creative life is such a blessing. I could not ask for more.

MDG: What are the signatures of your lighting style?

I guess I would always try to look at the big picture, so I’m maybe doing less in the way of effects and more in the way of focusing on the main visual image of a show. It’s somehow minimalistic, but executed in a grand way!

The Planets, Tampere Hall © Ralph Larmann

MDG: You use a lot of haze, fog and low fog in your designs – what do you look for in this aspect?

I tend to say if there is one thing my whole career is based on, it is haze. And MDG is a pretty serious player in that field.

Haze enables the three-dimensional manipulation of the performance space. Most often it is simply thought of as a way to bring out the beams, but at best I think it is way more - it is about visual dynamics and definition. Haze gives great possibilities to work in visual layers and to add some mystery as well.

MDG: How does MDG fit into this, and why do you like to work with MDG? I think you know the whole MDG range very well!

MDG has been the industry leader in all things haze and fog since I can remember. I most often describe MDG gear as the most important equipment on the show.

MDG: What tours and shows have you designed and taken MDG with you?

It would be way easier to list the shows when I did not work with MDG! Those would be the shows when no stage haze / fog was used. Any other show, which might be at least 90% of my productions, always used MDG.

Apocalyptica © Mikki Kunttu

MDG: Which have been your favourite shows to work on and why?

I’m so lucky to have many, many favourite projects in my bag of memories, that choosing a couple is not an easy task at all. But I would have to mention the whole 30-year collaboration with choreographer Tero Saarinen, a couple of Cirque du Soleil productions, the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, all productions with the amazing Boston Ballet, the ongoing production design for Wagner’s Ring Cycle for the Finnish National Opera, many productions with the Finnish National Ballet, The Snow Queen ice ballet and, of course, the cherry on the cake is Swan Lake for the Royal Danish Ballet back in 2015.

There is one common thing in all of these productions that ties them together and that’s the great people I have had the privilege of working with. I remember these productions firstly because of the people I met, the friends I made, and only secondly by the result of the stage production.

MDG: What does the future hold for you?

Well, I’m working on the 3rd part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Siegfried, for the Finnish National Opera. We are opening at the end of March. There’s also a new collaboration with Tero Saarinen being planned. And I’m very much hoping for The Snow Queen ice ballet to tour in the future as it is such a special production.

In a wider picture the future holds designs for ballet, contemporary dance, opera, drama theatre, concerts and so on.

Die Walküre 2022 © Mikki Kunttu

From left to right: Nicolas Duhamel, Paula Poroliseanu and Martin Michaud

RM Multimedia was founded in 2007 by Marco Bartolini, Ermanno Tontini and Paula Poroliseanu all of whom brought many years of industry experience to the company. Based in Cattolica (Rimini), RM Multimedia exclusively distributes many top brands of entertainment technology across the Italian market. Its 20-strong team is united by the same desire and ability to enhance the company's philosophy of providing the best quality service to each and every client.
RM Multimedia is present throughout the country with the support of a network of 10 trained commercial agents who support local customers at every stage of the sales process. Added to this is the undisputed quality of the brands, making RM Multimedia a point of reference in the Italian market.

“Having the opportunity to distribute MDG in Italy is for us an honour and a new challenge,” says Paula Poroliseanu. “We are extremely happy and positive about this great new start.”

“We are so very happy to welcome RM Multimedia into the MDG Family as our new distributor for Italy,” says Nicolas Duhamel, MDG Marketing Director and European Business Development. “RM Multimedia has been distributing high quality brands for many years. They are known in Italy for their seriousness and the support of their customers in their projects. MDG's line of atmospheric effects products will be a perfect match. We are looking forward to an excellent future together.”

The RM Multimedia team
   

RM Multimedia can be contacted at:
Address: Via Nino Rota n.3 - 47841 Cattolica (Rimini)
Tel: +39 (0)541 833103
Email: info@rmmultimedia.it
Web: www.rmmultimedia.it
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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rm-multimedia

Il Divo perform Hallelujah in honour of Carlos Marin © Jakub Janecki

Il Divo, the multi-national vocal quartet, have had the same line up for the past 18 years until, sadly, founder member, Carlos Marín, passed away from Covid last December. The group had been part-way through their Motown-themed tour, For Once in My Life, and, after much heart-searching and encouragement from their fans, decided to continue the tour and rearrange it to honour their long-term friend.

The reconfigured tour, renamed Greatest Hits Tour, began in February and will continue until December – a total of 105 international dates in 2022 - with more to come in 2023.

In tribute to their friend, the group dedicates a song Hallelujah each night to Marín, during which time the remaining members sing ‘with’ him, and the stage is filled with a generous amount of low fog supplied by the ICE FOG Q HP.

“The moment when IL DIVO sing with Carlos one last time is such an instrumental part of the show that it is important we can guarantee a good result with that effect every night,” says tour and production manager, Philip Marfleet. "We chose the ICE FOG Q HP after the US leg of the tour where we had used a variety of rental machines from different manufacturers according to equipment availability. But these gave variable performances and the majority of generators couldn’t give us a consistent, satisfactory result in the way the ICEFOG Q HP could and SILENT".

On returning to Europe, it made sense for the tour to travel with its own fog generator and Marfleet purchased the ICE FOG Q HP from White Light which was able to turn the order around and ship it to Madrid in just 3 days.

“We were so happy to have been able to help Il Divo get the MDG machine they needed on a fast turnaround with the help from Matt Wiseman of MDG UK and to ship it in time for their first European date at the end of June,’ says White Light’s Business Development Manager, Jonathan Haynes.

“Having experienced so many low fog generators by then, we chose the ICE FOG Q HP because of its speed and its ability to go from nothing to a full stage very quickly,” explains Marfleet. “This means we are able to get the effect in place right from the start of the song instead of having to build it slowly, and it dissipates quickly afterwards so that it has gone by the time the lights are restored after the song’s closing blackout.

Il Divo perform Hallelujah in honour of Carlos Marin © Jakub Janecki

“The ICE FOG Q HP is also super-quiet, which is extremely important as, for most venues on the tour, the machine is actually on stage just a few metres behind the orchestra with no drapes between them to shield any noise.”

White Light supplied the ICE FOG Q HP with a 2-channel DMX controller which enables the generator to be controlled directly from the lighting console. However, it is also possible to control it locally which stage management chooses to do in some venues. “We can set a long delay before the gas comes on and use the ICE FOG at its lowest setting, then the stage manager can just switch it on at the start of the song and off at the end - it’s that simple,” says Marfleet. “The gas is sourced locally at each venue and has presented no issues at all, and the fluid consumption is minimal.”

The ICE FOG Q HP’s rolling flight case has proved very useful for moving the generator daily on and off festival stages and into the back of a truck for the next show. “From dusty Spanish fields to cobbled town squares, it takes all we can throw at it, and we’ve had some really good effects from it outdoors during our summer dates in Europe,” says Marfleet. “Wind is always an interesting factor of course, but on a still night it looks beautiful!”

Il Divo Greatest Hits Tour begins another leg of its European tour with dates in the UK, Norway and Spain in December, before heading for more dates across the USA and the rest of the world next year.

Petter Nilssen, who already knows our products very well will be in charge of the brand for his country. Welcome to the MDG family, LiteNordic, and welcome back, Petter!

From left to right: Martin Michaud, Petter Nielssen, Espen Bechmann, Nicolas Duhamel
     

Photos © Manfred H. Vogel | Lighting Design © Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil

Throughout its history, Genesis has built a reputation for pushing boundaries with its show designs. The visual impact is a crucial, signature part of the band’s shows and a feature that Greil and Woodroffe were keen to maintain. Their show and lighting design incorporated homages to the band’s history, reflecting looks from past tours, whilst simultaneously bringing the visuals into the 21st century to create an unforgettable experience for the audiences.

“It’s very important to have even haze for a show because we rely on it so much to show the beams and the lighting,” says Greil. “theONE has been one of my favourite haze/fog products for years. We’ve used it for Adele, Phil Collins, Rammstein, etc. It is especially good for its haze. There is not really a comparable product out there at all that can create an even haze - or even a real haze - that’s not just a version of smoke or fog.

“theONE™ is also good from a touring perspective because the combination of having both a fog machine and a haze machine in one means you can basically leave one product at home as you can get two effects from one unit.”

Photos © Manfred H. Vogel | Lighting Design © Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil

Another very interesting fact post-COVID: “The treatment of atmospherics is especially interesting in our day and age since the arrival of COVID-19 because arenas worldwide have changed their protocols in relation to air extraction and circulation in the buildings, which brings with it its own extra challenges,” explains Greil.

“For example, with Phil Collins, we toured 3 MDG theONE™s for our haze set up. We went to all the normal arenas and with those three machines running at a low level, we were able to create a good and even haze in every arena worldwide.

“Now on the Genesis tour, we have 5 theONE™s - 2 upstage, 2 downstage each side and 1 front-of-house - to create an even haze around the venue, and we have to drive them hard, running five machines nearly at full for the whole show just to maintain that even haze. This is because venues now switch the air extraction to double the normal rate to get rid of the potential virus and germs. It’s healthier of course, but it also sucks out everything you pump into those arenas. With any smaller, lesser machines it would be hard to maintain a decent level of haze.”

Genesis The Last Domino? tour resumed in September 2021 in the UK before travelling to the US mid-West and East Coast. The four-times rescheduled London dates finally took place on 24-26 March at The O2.
   

Photos © Manfred H. Vogel | Lighting Design © Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil

Credits:
Show Director and Creative Director: Patrick Woodroffe / Woodroffe Bassett Design
Co Lighting Designer: Roland Greil & Patrick Woodroffe for Woodroffe Bassett Design
Lighting Director & Co Designer: Roland Greil
Lighting Programmer: Marc Brunkhardt
Technical Integration and Design: Jeremy Lloyd/Wonderworks
Supplier: Neg Earth

After an 18-month enforced break, the tour resumed last summer with the band visiting many of North America's largest outdoor amphitheatres playing to 15,000 – 30,000 capacity crowds.

Rehearsals for the 8-week tour, which was in support of the band’s seventh studio album, Jordi, started in late July with the first show slated for 10th August 2021 at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn Washington. The final date took place in October at the Concord Pavilion, Concord California.

Maroon 5 performance. Photo: © Steve Jennings

Jenkins chose theONE™ for both its versatility and powerful output capabilities: “We specifically needed a hefty, high-output unit for the outdoor amphitheatre shows. And theONE’s ability to produce both haze and fog is a great feature for touring. We kept the haze mode constantly running and used the fog mode frequently throughout the shows.”

Producing both fog and haze from a single generator, theONE™ is capable of generating 308 hours of haze or 20 hours of fog. It is specifically designed to give maximum, non-stop hours of haze/fog, and automatically refills its internal fluid reservoir from an external 20L (5.3 US gallons) container of MDG neutral fluid as required, so is perfect for filling those big venues.

The controllable output provided ideal coverage to accentuate the multitude of beam looks, strobes, lasers and heavy colour saturation that were a signature of Jenkins’ design during Maroon 5's high energy songs, and equally perfect for the gentler colours used on the slower tempos, all in all, brilliantly visualizing the post-apocalyptic theme of the revamped show.

Maroon 5 performance. Photo: © Steve Jennings

theONE™ generators travelled in their specifically designed touring cradles which made deployment and transportation a breeze: “We used them upstage left and right and with those touring cradles they simply rolled-in and rolled-out! Easy!”

Exceeding PLASA rigging standards, theONE’s touring cradle is designed for rigging, rolling and stacking and sized to fit standard trucks and containers. They are built to withstand the rigours of touring and contain everything that's needed in a single, transportable unit: theONE, its fan, a convenient tool drawer, MDG’s own 20L (5.3 US gallon) fluid container and, uniquely, all known sizes of 9kg (20lb) CO2 or N2 gas bottles.

Jenkins added, “the MDG units are really tour friendly – we carried a spare unit just in case, but normally used this when visiting larger venues or when the wind was crazy! Because the units create such a fine haze and atmosphere, I try to spec them for most of the shows that I do – it's honestly a fantastic product.”

theONE™ generators were supplied for the tour by Upstaging with support from account rep, John Huddleston. The tour’s production manager was Alan Hornall and its crew chief was Michael Green.

Carols at the Royal Albert Hall - LD Richard Rhys Thomas © Dan Street

The truly iconic venue, which hosts over 390 shows a year including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, awards ceremonies, charity performances and banquets, many of which are televised, is now fully equipped with 4 MDG ATMe haze generators, supplied by TSL.

The RAH lighting team initially invested in two of the industry-leading ATMe generators in July 2019 before adding another two in November of the same year. The ATMe haze generators are in almost constant and exclusive use with two freestanding machines located on stage and two permanently installed in custom flight cases on the stage edges at circle level.

“Good haze is particularly important at the Royal Albert Hall,” explains RAH lighting designer, Richard Rhys Thomas. “When lighting a concert there is no scenery, and often little or no video, so the lighting becomes the scenery. It forms an important part of the overall look, so you need good haze to show the beams from the roof to ground level.”

The procurement of MDG generators had been on the RAH’s agenda for some years following consultation with Matt Wiseman at MDG UK. “As we built up our lighting service with new fixtures, we realised the thing we were lacking was good quality haze,” he explains. “We had an amazing rig, but if you can’t see the beams, it doesn’t matter how good the lights are!”

Mount Batten Festival of Music © Courtesy of Crown Copyright

The team was also getting comments from incoming lighting designers about how the haze distribution was affected by the auditorium’s antiquated air cooling system which pumped in fresh air from beneath the arena and stalls. “This meant the haze on stage got pushed upwards, so we would get a nice haze in the roof but not on stage where you need it!” says Thomas. “We had to do something!”

Like most public buildings worldwide, the Royal Albert Hall did not escape closure during lockdown but this dark time was turned to advantage, enabling the acceleration of a programme to install additional airflow units. “With the new system, cool air now also gets pumped in from above, so this helps us achieve a nice smooth, even coverage of haze, but it is largely due to the MDG machines and their particle size and type of fluid which has made it all come together in such a nice way,” states Thomas. “MDG haze is so fine that you really don’t see it until you put strong beams through it, which is how it should be.”

With the RAH’s previous haze machines, complaints about the ‘clouds of smoke’ and the smell were all too common: “If the source of the haze is very visible, the perception of it is raised which tends to generate a psychosomatic response that can affect the comfort of the audience and the artists,” explains Thomas. “Since we’ve had the ATMe generators, we have no ‘clouds of smoke’ and no negative comments!”

The new ATMe generators are operated from the lighting console and have proved very efficient in terms of fluid use. “We found we don’t need to run them very high at all to get a nice even coverage. And if we need a bit more, we can simply push them up a bit and they fill the (very large!) space very quickly. We run a careful management programme to keep their fluid supply topped up and they are all sited in positions where the bottles can be easily changed during a show without interruption.”

Thomas is also impressed with the quietness and reliability of the MDG generators: “They run very quietly which is very important for a lot of our shows, both in the auditorium where they are quite close to audience, and also on stage where they are close to orchestras, microphones, television cameras, etc.

“We are very happy to have finally got our MDG haze machines. I’ve lit many shows here now and can remember when you just didn’t know if you were going to have good haze or not. It could be cloudy or up in the air – there was no certainty to it and no guarantee. It was very disappointing to put so much work into a design for it not to be realised to its full effect. Now we can guarantee good results and it is very satisfying to know we have that level of quality there at all times.”

© Joan Marcus - Opening Night: October 3, 2021 at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th St).

The British musical, with book, music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, is a vibrant, modern retelling of the story of Henry VIII’s six wives, presented as a pop contest.

The show’s signature style is very much that of a rock concert, utilising an abundance of beam effects to take the place of set changes, which simultaneously give a different look and identity to each of the queens.

To achieve this, Deiling needed a good, clean haze as a canvas on which to highlight this motif. The fine white particles of MDG ATMOSPHERE haze proved exactly what was needed, delivering a beautiful base layer of haze that defined the beams clearly without any adverse effects on the dynamic performances of the singers.

MDG ATMOSPHERE haze generators have been the industry standard for many years and are a stalwart of Broadway theatre where they have long been approved for use by Equity.

© Joan Marcus - Opening Night: October 3, 2021 at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th St).

“We began by using generic water based hazers to save money (all our original, humble, “fringe” budget could supply),” says Deiling, “but as the show developed it became clear that the haze in many ways was the scenic design. For the lighting to provide lots of different ‘architecture’ throughout the night, the haze had to be perfect, fine, and constant. MDG was the only way to go.”

The ATMOSPHERE haze generators are Broadway favourites not only for their performance, but for their ease of use and reliability as well, as associate lighting designer, Tim Reed, can testify: “The show runs for 90 minutes, and while we sometimes run generators on a cycle according to the quantity of haze required, for this show we simply turned the ATMOSPHEREs on at the start and off at the end, leaving them to produce a fine haze throughout. They really are the most reliable of machines, requiring little maintenance and with an economical use of fluid. The resident technicians are very happy with them.”

SIX transferred from its inaugural run in London’s West End (delayed initially by COVID-19) to open on Broadway on 3 October, where its run is open-ended. It is also due to tour the US in 2022, when, as Deiling states, “we will definitely be using MDG!”

The MDG ATMOSPHERE generators were supplied for the Broadway run by PRG USA.

In this, the first in the series, MDG talks to award-winning French lighting designer, Pierre Claude, whose many credits include world tours with Gesaffelstein, The Strokes and Phoenix, and the ARTE Concert Festival 2020. Here he talks to MDG about his career and inspirations.

Pierre Claude © Matt West / ARTE Concert Festival, Paris © Pierre Lapin

MDG: The term lighting designer covers many aspects, what does your job entail?

Claude: I mainly work with indie bands so am very involved in their scenography. As a lighting director and designer, I’m involved in all the processes of a tour from design to programming - including timecode, art direction, visuals, and technical management - and of course I am on the road!

MDG: What route have you taken to get here?

Claude: I’ve wanted to be a lighting designer since I was young. At 14 years old, I went to a PA store with a friend to get his gear fixed. While I was there, I visited the showroom which was equipped with master / slave scanners playing a show – and it was love at first sight!

I studied industrial automation at high school and, at weekends, did various event jobs in my town. My first job as a lighting designer was at the age of 18, in a holiday club for two years. I then went to work in Paris’s legendary Le Queen nightclub on the Champs Elysees where I stayed for five years. The club was incredibly well-equipped with the latest technologies for the time: nine hours a day behind the lighting desk hosting the best DJs in the world during the early 2000s was a great education! However, continually working nights is destructive in the long-term, so I turned to events for five years, and finally reached my goal of working in live music in 2013 after meeting a duo of very talented designers, Franz & Fritz.

Gesaffelstein at Intersect, Las Vegas © Michael Drummond

MDG: This association led to your lighting Gesaffelstein's Requiem Tour which earned you the LDI 2020 Design Achievement Award for Club Lighting. Congratulations on this great achievement! Tell us more about your design process for the tour?

Claude: Gesaffelstein is very important to me and our careers have followed similar paths since we started together in European clubs and festivals. His Aleph Tour in 2015 was my first ‘big' tour working with Franz and Fritz which reached a climax at a packed Coachella Festival that year.

Gesaffelstein’s second tour, Requiem, in 2019 was eagerly awaited, his brutal and dark style and hyper-minimalist, violent aestheticism generating much talk.

Three of us worked on the Requiem show design: Mike Lévy (Gesaffelstein), Matthias Leullier, the show producer and very talented set designer, and I. We had a big budget for this new show, which began on Coachella's outdoor stage, the same place we had left off in 2015.
Inspired by Anish Kapoor, and designed to complement the dark atmosphere of Gesaffelstein’s music, the set was coated in Vantablack, a blacker-than-black paint that absorbs almost all the light. The set had no hard edges to reflect light and gave the illusion of a black hole. We then found ourselves working back-to-front, lighting a set so that it appeared not to exist, instead of highlighting it – that’s really unusual!

The design also included the latest video and automation system, but I kept their use as simple as possible, using only solid colours or gradients on the LED screens and almost entirely white light in the show lighting.
The effect was to make the technology and the set ‘disappear’, drawing the audience’s attention away from the distracting technology that surround festival stages and into the music. It was an expensive set up and something that we would usually want to show off, but instead, we wanted the audience to lose their minds… which was a certain bet!

I want to thank LDI, the judging team, the voters and the industry for recognising the challenge. I am extremely honoured!

MDG: What are the signatures of your lighting style?

Claude: Less is more! Minimalism is important to me, but also the music synchronization. I'm not here to prove something and show off trending technologies. I'm here to highlight a band that presents their music – that’s the most important!

Basically, and my crew will attest to this, I'm adamant about precision during the load in: we constantly tweak and adapt each lantern to ensure we rig the design as perfectly as possible, in a clean and simple way with perfect symmetry. I create basic rigs, which I program without unnecessary movements, without gobos, and using monochromatic colour schemes, so all the energy is focused on the music, and only triggered by complex intensities which have been carefully considered in the programming.

By contrast, there will always be a song mid-set that’s the complete opposite to the rest of the show, with exaggerated movements or colour, yet which makes sense within this chosen song. The contrast serves to give the audience more awareness of the minimalism chosen for the rest of the show.

It makes me happy that young people who have had a blast all day at an EDM festival, full of light and special effects, will be able to appreciate a different style of show and maybe focus more on the music.

MDG: You use a lot of haze in your designs, both on stage and in the audience - what differences are there in designing for different artist genres, and types of venue/festivals?

Claude: I mainly work with two kinds of artist who are total opposites of one another.
With indie rock bands, I know the audiences want to see them play, so my approach is going to be more for background, atmospheric lighting which doesn’t take the lead.
In this environment, the stage is very busy with musicians, equipment and energy, so the fog and haze needs to be homogeneous and present on stage in just enough quantity to give depth.

For the electronic music artists, I work in a more volumetric way where the artist is the centerpiece, surrounded by a much more elaborate universe. Fog is the essential element in creating this universe - thick or fine, on stage, but also front-of-house to prolong the volumetric aspect of the beams out into the audience.

For indoor venues I can use some of the fog from front-of-house to achieve perfect homogeneity. But in festival environments it is more of a fight against the elements, both on stage and front-of-house, where we have to do the best we can depending on the wind. It’s a constant battle, but that's the game!

MDG: How does MDG fit into this scenario, and why do you like to work with MDG fog and haze generators?

Claude: I like to compare lighting to painting, white canvas to smoke. The blank canvas will eventually be filled with paint, but if the canvas is of poor quality or has holes in it, the result will be bad. In the art of lighting, a beautiful fog is our blank canvas; if it is of such good quality that we forget about it, then it's perfect. Fog is there to sublimate the light, not to take the lead. MDG gives us this perfect quality – a homogeneous haze, that is fine and controllable and not too heavy, which allows us to express ourselves - our perfect blank canvas!

The Strokes © Jessica Saval

MDG: What tours and shows have you designed using MDG products?

Claude: Before the pandemic I was on tour with Gesaffelstein and The Strokes, and I had just finished touring with Phoenix a few months before the pandemic hit. Gesaffelstein’s show at Ultra Miami was cancelled, as was the summer tour in the US and a date at the Paris Arena in September.

I should have started the Boys Noize and SebastiAn tours in 2020 - SebastiAn’ tour was already programmed - but COVID closures led me, like many of us, to work on livestreams instead. I found I really liked this new aspect! I’ve worked remotely on Future Islands’ livestream, designed the ARTE festival in Paris with headliners, Sébastien Tellier, Yelle et Lous and The Yakuza, and I am currently working on a special livestream for Brodinski.

MDG accompanied me on all of these projects. While I am very flexible about the lighting fixtures offered by vendors - I understand the difficulty of constantly investing in high-end products under pressure from designers – I still ask for MDG as much as possible for the fog! It is the best haze on the market and easy for our techs to use and maintain on tour.

MDG: Which were your favourite shows and why?

Claude: My top moment was when I got the chance to work on the Phoenix World Tour from 2017 to 2019. This was an incredible technical challenge, involving a mirror that weighed several tons suspended above the band’s heads, tilted at 45 degrees. It was an amazing visual experience, as well as posing huge logistical constraints to replicate this all over the world, from small American clubs to the biggest global festivals. It was also a favourite because, for me, Phoenix are the best band ever, incredibly kind and passionate, just like their crew.

Other recent shows which have amazed me were The 1975 by Tobias Rylander, The XX by Michael Straun, Tame Impala by Rob Sinclair and Marilyn Manson by Nico Riot. All are perfect, from the music and lighting, right through to the set design. In all these shows the fog is extremely important and well managed. Agreed, all these tours have big budgets, but that doesn't take away the talent!

Phoenix at Shaky Knees, Atlanta © Alive coverage / Phoenix © Fujifilmgirl

MDG: What does the future hold for you?

Claude: It depends on the what happens with Covid of course, but I'm quite optimistic, and we all want concerts back! I may work on more livestreams because I really liked the new challenge, and the working conditions are better than a festival! But there is nothing better than the energy of the crowd during a live show. It has never occurred to me to change jobs. Lighting is my passion and I hope bands will always be there to give me the opportunity to continue expressing myself. There is still so much to do!

“Our clients trust us to specify the right products and we know that MDG produces the best haze for the television market,” says Nick Edwards, managing director of Version 2.

Edwards has 25 years of dedicated television lighting experience, having held technical, commercial and management positions at PRG, Panalux and Aurora, after his training at the flagship training facility in BBC Wood Norton, prior to founding Version 2 in 2016. This experience puts him in a strong position when it comes to choosing the best products for his clients, many of whom have worked with him for years and trust his technical know-how.

MDG ATMe's beautiful televisual haze on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing © Strictly Come Dancing, BBC Studios. Lighting director, David Bishop

“All our equipment investments have been rigorously researched and tested, plus we have had years of experience with many manufacturers’ products, so we have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t,” he says. “This allows us to make better decisions on our capital expenditure and only invest in the best products for our market. In effect we are testing and processing on behalf of the client so they can be confident in our recommendations.”

Good haze is one of the most critical ingredients to a show, particularly for television. “Primetime television programmes are broadcast to millions of viewers and demand a highly polished result. A fine balance is needed between deploying enough haze to achieve the desired beam read on camera, yet not so much as to cause ‘noise’ or graininess in the image. To get this wrong can really spoil a good show and ultimately lead to complaints from the broadcaster!

“This can be difficult to achieve in live broadcast, and you cannot rely on guesswork. But MDG ATMe hazers give an extremely high level of control over the haze output allowing levels to be adjusted easily and accurately from the lighting desk. This amount of control gives lighting directors a lot of confidence in MDG and we find they are the only manufacturer whose hazers are specified by name!”

Precise control is not the only quality for which MDG was selected however: “There are many features which make the ATMe ideal for film and television studios,” continues Edwards. “They are whisper-quiet so we can leave them on during filming and broadcast and no-one – least of all the sound guys - will know. The haze has a decent hang time but a quick dissipation too. They are renowned for their lack of residue which keeps the venues, the rental companies, and the lighting directors happy. We are happy because it means less maintenance for the inside of the moving lights and other technology, and the lighting directors are happy because there is no residue on the lens to affect the output of the lighting rig, which is an especially important consideration on long-running shows.”

Strictly Lighting Team - Tom Young, Darren Lovell, David Bishop (LD), Matt Lee © John O'Brien

Studio technicians also like the new ATMe as they are easy to use and, like all MDG machines, reliable. “The last thing a technician wants is the stress of a haze machine breaking down just before or during a show! We’ve also found the use of CO2 can cause a little mystique and anxiety for some, but not now. The ATMe dispels any perceived complexity by handling all the CO2 processing inside the machine in a failsafe process. Any technician just has to connect power and DMX for a dependable, plug-and-play system, made even more convenient by the bespoke rolling flight case which is ideal in the fast turnaround studios for productions like The Jonathan Ross Show.”

Version 2 has also employed its ATMe generators on shows across the BBC, Sky and ITV networks, including blockbusters like Family Fortunes, Sky Arts Late Show, Don’t Hate the Playaz and BBC’s top-rating show, Strictly Come Dancing, (lighting director David Bishop), where ATMe generators are sited in a permanent ‘set standing’ install on the George Lucas Stage at Elstree Studios.

“MDG has always produced the leading machines and sets a really high benchmark,” concludes Edwards. “The ATMe is right at the high end of performance and undoubtedly provides the finest haze on the market, with all the added advantages of control and reliability. This is why we have invested in it and why technicians and designers love them.”

More information on Version 2 can be found at www.v2lights.co.uk/