LD Jerry Appelt at the RSH Gold Gala Awards 1999

April 12, 1999

In cooperation with TV station ZDF, the show had both an international and local flavor and featured some of the year’s most successful acts such as Culture Beat, Guildo Horn, Lighthouse Family, Jennifer Page, Scorpions, DJ Bobo and many more. A Gold Chart Attack Party, also broadcast by ZDF, followed the next day.

Procon supplied the lighting and this was Procon lighting designer Jerry Appelt’s seventh year designing the lighting for the event, one of the largest award shows of its kind in Europe. "Because this is the first awards show of the year you have a chance to set the tone for the rest of the year as far as lighting and lighting design are concerned," he said.

"Other TV shows look to this show to see what’s new and to see what we’ve added as far as lighting and effects. Therefore, with this event, we want to present a show with some impressive and new looks. For example, this year the video screen is new, and I’m a little bit bored with square trusses so we’ve changed that design a bit as well. I’ve split it up into pods and a star design which is quite different.

"My design is defined by my mix of fixtures. I started as a moving light operator and my designs are very moving light based and this works very well. I like the possibilities I have with moving lights. I don’t have to decide on too much prior to the production because I’m able to react with the moving light much more effectively than if it was a nonmoving fixture.

"I like to have my downstage spots in front of the stage such as we have here with the Martin MAC 500s. It’s a kind of trademark for me. They can also act as a light curtain from that position. I use the MAC 600s as generic colorwash from the top but I have a lot of them under the set as well. I also have some under the risers. It’s a very nice effect with random scrubs and with color fades."

"Since our major viewers are the TV audience we do the show for the monitors, for TV," he states. "The mixture of front lighting vs back lighting is important when the program is for TV and this is something that has changed a bit with the advent of digital technology. There are some colors which work better than others on TV. And with fog which is always cutting the intensity of the front spots, there are some colors that cut through the fog well and others that don’t, so you have to keep this in mind as well.

Jerry has become one of the premiere lighting desingers in the industry by staying innovative. He likes to keep up-to-date on the newest lighting fixtures on the market. "I look forward to some of the new lighting products coming out like the new MAC 300," he states. "Because the MAC 600 is too powerful for certain aspects, I sometimes need a light that has a lower intensity than the 500 and 600s. Most of the time I have to dim the 600 but if I have a smaller fixture it will give me more opportunity with the design."

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