Duran Duran Goes BigLite

Jonathan S. Goldstein, lighting designer at StarLight Visual Inc., just finished working with English pop band Duran Duran for some mid-June dates at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Wanting to incorporate big, stadium-like looks in the design, he turned to the high powered xenon BigLite 4.5 manufactured by ZAP Technology and distributed exclusively in North America by Martin Professional, Inc.

Jonathan served as Lighting Designer/Director for the two-day event: the first day a private event and the second a sold out public show.

Due to venue scheduling, StarLight only had one day to load in for the first show. “This had a tremendous impact on designing the lighting for two days of shows,” Jonathan explains. “I had to pack a large amount of punch and wow into the rig but keep it simple enough so the crew could expedite the build. Having a fixture that is not only as fast and feature packed as the rest of the fixtures in my design but also has a 4.5K lamp was extremely important. Being able to have a very broad zoom along with CMY colors and frost pushed the envelope beyond their inherent brightness.”

The show was previsualized onsite using StarLight Visual’s new mobile suite called MPV1. In speaking with the band and their production manager on what they were interested in seeing design-wise, Jonathan was told that it must have an arena/stadium feel for the bigger bolder songs and a very intimate feel for the more laid back tunes.

“Using the BigLites on the ground upstage of the band’s set gave me the ability to not only do amazing aerial FX with tight beams but also spread the beams wide and focus them directly through all the band gear, making a very beautiful natural breakup of the light through the haze.”

Jonathan mentions that the band and management were extremely happy with the look. He praises the BigLites’ 4.5K power, yoke speed, CMY/beam shaping and “terrific” zoom. “The BigLites were fast enough for me to incorporate into my musical bumps and moving FX which was a tremendous look.”

Jonathan had recently used the BigLites outdoors at Giant’s Stadium in New Jersey for a two-day festival that he designed. “The BigLites were on and abused by the weather for four days and I never had a problem,” he states. Festival headliners My Chemical Romance are currently carrying six BigLites on their tour (LD Ethan Weber). “I was told that they are performing great day in and out and their tech said they are very easy to fix.” The festival’s other headliner, Linkin Park, was able to use the BigLites for the first time (LD AJ Penn).

Besides the BigLites the Duran Duran rig included 32 MAC 2000 Profiles, 24 MAC 2000 Washes, 10 MAC 2000 Performances and 10 Atomic 3000 strobes.

Duran Duran's next CD 'Red Carpet Massacre' is due for release in October.

Event Producer: Whiteleaf Entertainment
Producer: Barry Weisblatt
Production Manager: Neil Ryan
Production Assistant: Jonathan Baden
Duran Duran Production Manager: Jason Danter
Lighting Designer: Jonathan Goldstein/www.starlightvisual.com
Master Electrician: Mike “Finn” Finnochiaro
1st Electrician: Russ Kytel
BigLite Tech: “Scuba” Steve
Lighting Vendor: BML/Blackbird Inc.