For those of you who love the technical elements behind what it takes to run Tool’s spectacular light and video show, look no further than the latest Production Insight article from PLSN (Production Lights & Staging news). It features extensive comment from the team including Lighting Designer/Director Mark “Junior†Jacobson, Video Designer/Director Breckinridge “Breck†Haggerty, and Laser Designer/Programmer/Operator Scott Wilson from Production Design International (PDI).
Here’s a snippet:
Jacobson doesn’t use any followspots for key lighting. “It’s more about the show,†states the designer. “We’ve got a singer that doesn’t like being lit all that much and they don’t move around that much. He’s got two performance areas, left and right of the drums up on the platform. We have only a portion of it that’s lit, so if he wants to be lit, he’s in it; if he doesn’t feel like it, he can back out of it. The key lights we’ve mostly been using are the [Martin] MAC Aura XIPs. They work really well and provide a good skin tone. Now, we’ve gone more towards a warm white for a key light. It used to be a lot of color, more psychedelic.â€
https://plsn.com/articles/production-insight/tool/
For those interested in the progression of Tool’s staging lighting, here are similar articles from 2014 and 2016