James Blunt Television Shoot a ‘Beautiful Experience’

On May 10th James Blunt’s highly acclaimed world tour took him to the Hard Rock Live arena in Hollywood, Florida. The British artist’s tour sees him playing beneath a MAC rig of MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC 700 Profiles and MAC 250 Washes with lighting design by Paul Normandale.

The Hard Rock Live show was a noteworthy stop on the tour in that it was filmed for a PBS special to be broadcast later in the year. To aid in the broadcast lighting, LD Tom Kenny (The Who, Page and Plant, David Bowie) was called on to share his expertise in television lighting. For the Hard Rock Live show production was handled by local company Beachsound and Lighting Inc.

“I’ve been using MAC 2K profiles and washes - both the 500 and 600 range and the 250s and 300s - for quite awhile now,” Tom commented. “I find their color temperature and focusing superb for the type of TV lighting I do.” For the Hard Rock show Tom also had MAC 2000 Washes at his disposal.

“I chose MAC fixtures for the James Blunt PBS special purely because of their reliability on large TV shoots I’ve done in the past. It also helped that Paul Normandale and Glen Johnson had specified a MAC rig for the tour so I gladly used my usual MAC wash and profile package.

“The vendor, Beachsound, supplied a gorgeous working system. I’ve found the washlight and the profile ability to cover a large area with few lights a Godsend for all my shows. I have a format now for arenas and stadiums and this fell into place at the Hard Rock arena. I’m not a flash and trash LD so the gobos and beautiful colors that Glen and Paul used in their design fell in with my graphic and saturated color looks throughout the shoot. It all turned out well and all I can say is that with the helpful advice from the tour’s LD it was a very BEAUTIFUL experience!”

Lighting Designer: Paul Normandale
Lighting Designer (Broadcast): Tom Kenny
Lighting Director: Glen Johnson
Crew Chief: Johnny G.
Local supply: Beachsound and Lighting Inc. (Andre Serafini)