My favorite shot of Natalie George from last night and a bit more detailed info on our lighting stuff that I was too tired to write last night:
Basically, I have bought/cobbled together a small handful of inexpensive lights that can function as presets. In order to complete our system and give us some flexibility, all we need is two flat panel and four pin spot lights that all run on a DMX system, plus a basic lighting board and cables. This will let us have capacities like spot work and dimming that we don’t have with our current equipment. Some of this is newer technology so Natalie is going to look for equipment that fits the specs we need but maybe doesn’t cost the earth.
We need to raise approximately 4K to complete our lighting setup and have Natalie work with and train us. As you can see from these photos, she was able to do in a short time, even within our current equipment limitations, what I could never figure out on my own. So that along with stage surface improvement is our next DSP goal!
The big part is that we have access to a master lighting designer who can mentor and teach us how to run our own stuff since it will be fairly simple once we have it in house, and that she get paid fairly for her professional time to work with and train us. Part of the DSP ethos is to build and rebuild the businesses of artists in the performing world who got gutted by the pandemic. We have successfully rebuilt one business so far and are working on getting online to help the other artists who work with us regain visibility and teaching and mentoring opportunities.
In addition to being my favorite lighting designer in Austin, Natalie also lights events. You can find her under Natalie George Productions on Instagram and Facebook. We are very fortunate that she wants to work with us and we look forward to building our own in house system so that we can be self sufficient and produce lots of shows for all y’all to enjoy.