This year lighting designer Linus MacDonald stepped up the show's look with Clay Paky Scenius moving head spotlights.
The Kinsmen Foundation is a Canadian non-profit organization that assists Saskatchewan people to acquire special needs equipment and access to medical treatment. The telethon was staged at Conexus Arts Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan; the production alternates between Regina and Saskatoon annually.
Linus MacDonald marked his fifth consecutive turn as lighting designer for Telemiracle, which continues to increase its production values year to year. "This time we had new Sony cameras and the fabulous Scenius fixtures," he notes. "The show has taken giant steps from a lighting standpoint. You need good lighting to make good pictures; now, viewers tune in and the show jumps out at them."
"Every 10 minutes there was a live performance, so we needed a lot of different looks," says lighting director Slobodan Marin who has teamed with MacDonald on three previous telethons. "We rehearsed the first hour of the show then everything else was on the fly. It was non-stop from one performance to another."
MacDonald first saw Scenius when Andrew Beck, general manager of A.C.T Lighting Canada, demo'd the new lights in Calgary. "Andrew and I go way back," he says. "I asked about the availability of Scenius fixtures for our big 40th anniversary show. And we've just been blown away by them."
MacDonald and Marin centred the six Scenius spots over the mid-stage area on the fly rail where they were rigged to move to different heights and angles. "For some rock 'n roll bands we flew the lights half-way so they'd be down and in- your-face for another kind of look," MacDonald explains.
Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, adds, "Our fixtures work as well on television as they do for live events. This was an impressive programme and we were glad to be a part of it."
(Jim Evans)
