#they're irreplaceable

[arnault]

there are just so many ways to say "i love you"

[opshizt]

zoro and sanji according to the lastest op magazine:

[possamble]

realizing im kind of a weirdo about laios and marcille

[cakesmelons]

Also bonus doodle just for u Melon ;3

(Melons edit, not part of og submission: I ran out of room in tags, BUT ty ty ty ty I loved this sm 💕💕💕💘💘💘)

[quasi-normalcy]

.

[vilevampire]

I've never received so much psychic damage from reading something in a fic as I have today reading a paragraph referring to f1t as p4c's "best friend and most trusted companion" with no mention to m1ke at all

[thehealingplum]

Grief is. Hard. I think people don't understand it until they end up having to go through it themselves. The world feels totally different when you lose someone.

[frequency-7]

i lost my moitie lace gloves on world goth day at local bar 💀💀💀i went back last night for karaoke and asked if anyone turned it in & the bartender said they throw away stuff like that... im hoping its a finders keepers situation bc thrown in the trash is Much Worse

[solemntitty]

it's really funny to me that the only two light cones i have that are semi good for blade right now (something irreplacable, the moles welcome you) both have children laughing on them

[timegears-moved]

augh. the scene where hero comforts partner while overlooking the stockade. dies

[idubildino]

a.c.e's new mv was so cuuuuute I just want to shove it in everyone's faces fr

[dreamings-free]

This month Steve Jennings looks at Louis Tomlinson’s Faith in the Future world tour and spoke with Production Designer, Programmer, and Director Tom Taylor of Tanck.co about his design. Taylor, along with Tanck.co partner Francis Clegg, added a video element to support the larger venues on this run.

By: Steve Jennings (Photos and Text) Wide Focus - August 11, 2023

English singer-songwriter and former One Direction band member Louis Tomlinson is back out on the road in support of his second album, Faith in the Future. For his second world tour, he’s playing to an ever-growing audience—the crowd I witnessed could not get enough of him as evident from the adoring fans singing along to every word he sang. We spoke to Production Designer, Programmer, and Director Tom Taylor of TANCK about the tour.

Designer Tom Taylor started working on the current tour as the new album’s promo materials and aesthetics came to light. Taylor says it’s a more rugged and asymmetrical look than they’ve gone for before, meant to mirror a sort of dive bar aesthetic rather than a beautiful arena production. “This reflects the music off the latest album, which has a more grungy feel to it. There are touches in there such as the light boxes (loosely resembling the fluorescent lights of a nightclub toilet), and our custom camera housing (a hollowed out old VHS camcorder with a Marshall 4K camera inside) that bring it back to a more intimate venue feel than the true scale of the places we’re playing across the world.”

Taylor notes the show itself has definitely progressed and he would say feels more like a ‘show’ than a ‘gig‘ now; it has a start, middle, and end, with themes and segues to connect them throughout. “The video content is more to set a mood for the songs. We’re trying to stay away from anything too literal and obvious. This extends to the lighting programming as well where we largely refrain from hitting everything on the beat, fully ‘perfect’ timecoded hits throughout the rig. Hopefully the end result is that in those moments where we do go crazy with programming and rhythm, it’s much more interesting and stands out in the set.”

Since 2020, Taylor has worked with Francis Clegg on production design. They had worked together for about five years prior to that and have a complimentary skill set. “We’ve accelerated quite rapidly, taking on a design assistant in Jamie Lawrence and soon to have another member of the team joining,” Taylor says. “Whilst one of us is the company face to each artist or client, we work together 50/50 on every project behind the scenes. James Washer [Lighting Programmer] is often the first name on the team sheet when we pick up a show like this one… he just gets it; is a great programmer and time saving resource who knows how to interpret when I say something like ‘can the lights be a little more aggressive.’ Francis (Clegg) is also a fantastic programmer, so I was able to work alongside James in the rehearsals to finesse the previz programming.”

Although he’s on a MA Lighting grandMA3 surface, Taylor runs the show on MA2 software. The reason for that is because this tour goes everywhere in the world, and he knows he can get an MA2 anywhere without having to lug around small form consoles himself. Taylor much prefers to take a USB stick through an airport. “We are running a lot of things through the desk—lighting, video, camera switching, and automation. The MA makes this easier to deal with and the fixture cloning system is excellent, so I know I’m going to get a good replica of the show no matter what fixtures I get thrown wherever we go.”

The venue sizes this time around sort of called for a video element to be added, Taylor says. “The focus of the show is, of course, Louis, so plenty of close-up camera work to amplify his emotion. These are treated with overlays and masks created by [content creators] Two Suns and ourselves, with 3D animation work coming from Boxcat Studio. The whole system is run on a Resolume server. Camera switching is done from the MA console via Open Control, which sends OSC messages to the ATEM switcher, which ultimately sends it to the capture cards. This way we eliminate a touring video director (sorry!) and save a bunch of truck space on outboard equipment. The system works extremely well.”

Colour Sound Experiment out of London is the tour lighting, video, and rigging company. “We use them for a large portion of our shows. It’s very useful dealing with just one company who ‘do it all’ but also don’t cut any corners or scrimp to get the job done. The equipment is well maintained with a good selection of inventory to choose from.” Taylor says it probably took them about three iterations to get to the point they’re at now, keeping ideas from the previous versions until they got somewhere they were all happy with. “It was a bit of a process, but a great payoff. I should probably thank Louis and his Manager, Matt Vines, for their patience in putting it all together. There are a lot of (literally) moving parts to the stage with winches, light boxes, light bulbs, and our shuttering set piece at the back. Ultimately the show is dynamic and exciting, but all the elements sit nicely together as well.” Taylor was a bit unsure on using the GLP X4 Bars across the back because of the brightness difference to GLP’s FR10, for example, but they are exactly the right brightness for this gig without being overpowering, he says. “My absolute favorite moment of the show, where we have some crazy iridescent hyper color animation, is driven by the Ayrton Huracans… amazing lights, just don’t try to pick one up by yourself, they’re beasts!”

Tomlinson was really involved in the design of this one, and also much more open to trying new things and delivering a narrative through the show, adds Taylor. “Matt Vines should have a shout out for his contribution to the ‘ideas factory’ and being a great sounding board as we developed the show. PM Craig Sherwood has been incredible as always, never asking ‘why’ we want to make it look like a derelict bathroom, just making it happen. Finally, the tour’s secret weapon, technical maestro Sam Kenyon, who is quite literally irreplaceable, has been an excellent resource for actually delivering the show in the real world day after day.”

Production Team

Tour Manager: Tom Allen Production Manager: Craig Sherwood Production Design, Programmer & Director: Tom Taylor & Francis Clegg, TANCK Lighting Programmer: James Washer Lighting Crew Chief: James Box Lighting Techs: Rick Carr, Amy Barnett Stage Manager: Torin Arnold Technical Manager: Sam Kenyon Video Crew Chief: Dave Mallandain Video Programmer: Jack Fone Video Techs: Tim Curwen, Braden Pettigrew Camera Operators: Mark Lawrence, Braden Pettigrew, Tim Curwen Rigger: Mark Lawrence

Vendors

Lighting/Video/Rigging: Colour Sound Experiment/Acc. Rep. Haydn Cruishank LED Trim: LED Creative Custom Light Housings: OX Event House Set Construction: Hangman UK Video Content: Two Suns Creative, Boxcat Studio, TANCK SFX: BPM SFX

Gear

Lighting 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size 19 Ayrton Eurus Profile 6 Ayrton Huracan LT Profile 5 Claypaky Mini-B 12 Robe Spiider 72 GLP X4 Bar 20 16 GLP JDC Line 1000 10 GLP JDC1 Strobe 12 CHAUVET STRIKE Array 4 2 Chroma-Q Color Force II 12 16 Elumen8 COB PAR Endura 10 LEDJ Spectra Q15 3 Robe BMFL RoboSpot

Video 2 Resolume Server 23 Custom LED Trim 6 Video Screens, 2.5m x 2.5m 7 Marshall 503 Camera 3 Panasonic UE70 PTZ Camera 2 Blackmagic Design URSA G2 Camera

► audio version of the article available at the source

[heatwa-ves]

thinking about the similarities between knights and peaky...

[beeseverywhen]

Still makes me so mad that the hospital stole my teeth when I was too out of it from the anesthesia to fight them on it. I grew those! Just because they turned on me and I needed them out of my body, doesn't mean I didn't want to keep them.

[crazykuroneko]

They don't make lyrics, songs, and groups like this anymore

I miss my depressed, dystopian, pro-democracy, rebellious children 🥲

[rxttenfish]

tbh no one can convince me that, if miranda got everything she wanted, fully and properly respected as a princess and complete rule over a kingdom or more, that she wouldn’t be absolutely miserable.