Wizard of Oz Highlight reel

Here it is!  The project I worked so hard on earlier this summer, straining to teach myself more about Qlab and MIDI.  Made the best of a situation with very little gear, and I think we did some fine work as a result.  Special thanks to director John Regis for bringing me in and letting me loose, and to my student crew who did a fantastic job.

When I was first approached about doing this show, it was very vague and I was asked (by a third party) to come in and meet with the Lighting Designer. Before I got there, they then followed up with "you said you do sound...they need that, too." At my first meeting with John, I learned I WAS the Lighting Designer! But we hit it off so well, I was fine with overcommitting my talents to this show (Oz is a favorite).

So I needed to figure out how to run my lighting cues as well as my sound cues, without making myself crazy. Because John and I got on so well and riffed off each other, I ended up doing projection design as well. The only way I could do two of these things, never mind three, was to learn an integrated automation system like Qlab.

-brian

Teaching Special Effects Class

I was right.  What was supposed to be a short show run at Bankstreet School for Children has turned into a long show run, and then getting into all of the other shows that were happening at the end of the school year. After the Wizard of Oz, there was A Midsummer Night's Dream (with 5th graders!) and a series of student-written history plays, and a slew of concerts.  Lots of design time spent on the train, delivering them much more intricate work than they would normally have received.

On one of the last days of the semester, someone came up to me an said "You have worked in film, right?  You did really well with the kids here...want to teach a class in film special effects to our summer camp?  It starts next week."

This has been an exhausting but rewarding school semester, and looks like it will continue on just a little longer. Two hour commute into NYC is getting to me and I need a break, but we're leaving for vacation soon, so here we go! Speaking of breaks, this is how I spend my lunch - doing demos for class...

-brian