In the early stages of the design process resident lighting designer Al McMillan expressed an interest in having an element of projection incorporated into the show. Originally, he had hoped to have five rear screens for the production, but space and staging requirements dictated otherwise. It was finally decided to go with one large rear screen with separate Act 1 and Act 2 positions, in addition to two front screens incorporated into the scenery. Once the screen details were finalized, McMillan approached Martin Canada about their new media server, Maxedia.
When faced with lighting over 75 different songs from such diverse artists as The Doors to Bobby Vinton, McMillan wanted to have more than his usual tricks to draw upon, and wanted a system that he could quickly learn while providing dynamic content. Paul Pelletier from Martin Canada came in for two days to get him up to speed with the Maxedia. McMillan commented, "It was a bit overwhelming at first as to how powerful Maxedia is - you are only limited by your imagination."
The selection of media McMillan utilizes varies from static photographs to abstract compositions: much of the system's stock images fit the material in the production. "Considering we were using the beta version of the software we had no problems whatsoever," McMillan stated.
What was also enjoyable for McMillan was that many of the images and compositions could be created without the lighting console. Stage West is an extremely busy venue, with over 475 performances per year gracing its stage. McMillan created much of the content while other shows were playing onstage, and then simply integrated the Maxedia content into California Dreaming while he was programming the lighting for the show.
(Lee Baldock)
