Videos have been known to run through the minds of creatives. One did in Brent Clark’s, as he thought about crafting a lighting design for Sarah McLachlan on the 22-date USA leg of her Better Broken tour, which began July 1 at the First Bank Amphitheatre outside Nashville and runs through mid-August. Sarah is a great artist and collaborator, Clark said of the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter, whose influence on the course of music over the past three decades cannot be overstated.
I love lighting her shows; it allows me to paint and get into the mood of the songs. For this show, I had this video of curves in mind, continued Clark. It had everything being round and kinda soft but extremely tough. So, the idea started with how do I create an environment where things can be soft, but also have a toughness to them?
Ultimately, this vision led to a beautifully immersive design that is sweeping and elegant on one hand, but also clearly defined and assertive on the other, much like the multi-Grammy winning artist herself. A cardinal element of the design is an arch that runs across mid-stage, framing the video wall, which is sometimes partially obscured, adding a captivating element of mystery to the scene. Lighting fixtures line the stage and its neighboring flown truss structures, which appear, in Clark’s words to reach out and kind of hug the stage.
This effect is enhanced by Clark’s deft use of fog around the arch. I was just trying to frame Sarah in a different way, he said of this design element. I wanted to create a sense of depth, and the arch really helped me achieve it. Displaying content from the Ultimate Dream Machine, the video wall framed by the arch adds a fascinating ethereal element to the show, while contributing to the visual identify of each tune in the 20-song set.
Also playing a key role in Clark’s design are 14 CHAUVET Professional STRIKE Array 1 fixtures, which like the rest of the rig were supplied by Christie Lites. Positioned along inner truss circles and downstage, the fixtures, with their intense warm white light and tungsten-like red shift dimming, are ideal for the open embracive mood the designer was after. There are a lot of reasons I love the STRIKE fixtures for this tour, said Clark. I really appreciate the big circle look they have.
That,along with their brightness and color, temperature really compliment the design very well. The effect of these and every other fixture in the rig is enhanced by the way Clark set up his risers, angling them downward. I wanted the band to see everyone in the audience, explained Clark. The risers are off set for camera purposes. Given where the piano sits it gets hard to get a good clean shot of Sarah, so we played with the riser placement to give us the cleanest shots possible.
Clark then added another reason for the riser configuration. I wanted this design to draw everything back to the center of the video wall, he said. The idea was to create the feeling that you are falling into space. For fans of this generational star, that space is very special indeed. # # #
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