Lighting designer Larry Foote rented 24 of the Chauvet Professional LED panels from 4Wall Entertainment for his Farr tour rig. Drawing on the versatility of his pixel mapped Nexus units, Foote has been able to create an impressive variety of looks for his client, while still meeting the objective of keeping his rig simple and flexible.
"We're playing a lot of festivals and venues of very different sizes, so I wanted a rig that could be set up fast and was also space efficient," said Foote, who is serving as the tour director for Tyler Farr in addition to being the star's lighting designer. "I also wanted a tall rig that conveyed a powerful image."
Given these criteria, Foote built his rig on set carts. Although they offer many advantages, the carts have also presented the LD with challenges. "Designing around the set carts was the most difficult part of the process," he said. "Sometimes when I've thought of something cool, I'd wind up being disappointed when it turned out that the carts were too small."
Drawing on the versatility of the Nexus panels, Foote has been able to overcome these limitations. "I thought of a lot of different ideas with the Nexus panels, which really wasn't too hard since there are so many different things you can do with them," he said.
"By using the panels as a wash and blinder, creating monochromatic arrays with them, and varying their intensity level, I'm getting a range of looks that keep the show interesting. I'm also bitmapping the Nexus through the grandMA2 Light to get some cool chase sequences. Bitmapping a grid like this gives me what I'm looking for -- and it's super fun!"
(Jim Evans)