USA - When the monster is shocked to life in the current Broadway production of Young Frankenstein, no effect is spared in Peter Kaczorowski's lighting design. The stage visuals are achieved by a creative combination of projection, conventional and moving lights, with the elaborate automated rig controlled by an ETC Eos system.

Young Frankenstein's extensive light plot is based around a mix of 120 Mac 2000s - including performances, profiles and some washes. "Eos is great for handling a large rig like this," says Josh Weitzman, moving light programmer for the production. "It has new tools that help you manage that size of rig and work really quickly."

The opening scene features dramatic flashes of lightning, which involve the use of both projection and lighting. "With projection," explains Weitzman, "you can't change the colour temperature of the lightning bolt; you're limited to the tone the image is. So we layered the moving lights on top of the video projection. That gave us a great deal more control - in intensity of colour, in terms of strobing. I could make the light linger beyond the image without having to re-render the whole video."

(Jim Evans)


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