"Rock and Roll Lighting Designer"

14 years in the business has culminated into this?

I got home from tour on a Sunday with no real plans for the week. I had a couple of days on the books, not hard ones, but at least some work to keep the money flow coming in.

But on Tuesday, I got a call to do "some programming" for commercial shoot coming up that weekend. At first I didn't think it was a big deal. I get last minute calls all the time. But this one had more going to it than I thought.

Long story short it turned into cranking out a lighting design, bidding, approving, and then getting gear and personnel for the shoot in 2 days.

The gig? A new video game called, "Band Hero". A game on the same lines as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but this time with modern songs. Featured in the commercial, Taylor Swift.

As a matter of fact, the commercial is already available on YouTube. Check it out.
Everything was shot with green screen. Taylor wasn't even there on the same day as the band. Amazing what they do now days with filming. In the picture, they are filming the close ups of the band members. Behind them, you can see the green screen and all that pink lighting, that's me.

I don't know if this is how they do it all the time for commercials. But man, I need more lead time than a call on a Tuesday for a load in on a Friday. After speaking with the production designer who hired me, turns out they had a meeting on Tuesday and the director (Brett Ratner, if that name rings a bell for anyone) asked who's doing the "rock and roll lighting" and he (the production designer) looked at the director of photography and gaffer who looked back with just as blank faces. So everyone knew from the beginning they were going to need "rock and roll lighting" but no one took responsibility for it.

Ah well, it was work. And money rolling in is always nice. Not to mention, now I can make a link on my website to YouTube where everyone can now see my work. If I ever update my website.

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