Special lighting by North American Theatre Technology for a Lea McIntosh event. (SooPhotography.com)
I interviewed Natti Pierce-Thomson of North American Theatre Technology about the importance of lighting for an event. NATT is doing the lighting for this year’s Gentry Gala. The group really know their stuff! You provide lighting designs for theater, events and businesses – what do all three have in common when it comes to lighting solutions?
“I consider myself a designer, so I use my theatrical lighting experience to enhance, decorate, and theme with light. Regardless of the application, the sole purpose of lighting is the selective illumination of an area. There’s certainly a functional aspect to it, because people need to be able to see, but what they see and how they see it is what lighting design is all about.”
My sense is that lighting can make or break an event or wedding – is that true?
“Lighting can have an amazing impact on an event even in its simplest form. A basic ballroom with overhead can lights may make a reception feel like a marketing conference instead of a celebration. Event lighting has flexibility in regards to colors and intensity, and it can completely transform an event or location. Sometimes I have clients that want to “hide” something in a venue. They may think a wall is ugly, because it is plain stucco or stone, and they want to “cover it up” with drapery. But with the right kind of up light or splash of texture, what was once an eyesore is now a focal point. Lighting has the greatest impact on setting the mood and experience for any event.”
What are the mistakes people tend to make?
“Lighting is not a DIY industry. It takes a professional to install lighting safely, and it takes a designer to install it with the greatest impact. A party rental or DJ company may provide a few pink lights to go with another part of their package; however, what if the wedding colors are blue and silver? What if the couple wants it to be dimmer later in the evening for dancing? As a lighting design company, we creatively work within our client’s budgets to design with the biggest impact. It’s important that the lighting selections achieve the desired effect, and stay on task and on budget. All of our designs meet or exceed the recommendations for the National Electrical Code and Industry Standards. It’s seamless as far as our clients are concerned, to them it’s beautiful, and to us it’s safe AND beautiful.”
What are some of the most memorable lighting designs you’ve created?
“I love the challenge of creating something that is inspired by a theme. I designed the lighting for a Paypal Holiday event with the movie ‘The Matrix’ as the theme. My client wanted as many elements from the movie to be used throughout the event, especially the digital rain. I designed custom patterns with columns of OCR font letters and lighting animation devices to project the digital rain throughout the event. I was also able to re-create the distortion of the flying bullets with just lighting. The guests arrived in slick black raincoats, received their sunglasses at the door, and were immediately emerged in the Matrix environment.
I had a couple approach me about projecting different images on the walls to represent different parts of their wedding ceremony. I designed an atmospheric, fully color changing mural of an ocean scene with mountains as the background. As the guests arrived, the mural was dark in rich midnight blue colors, and the lighting in the room and on the couple reflected the same hues. As the ceremony started the sun slowly began to rise, and the mural changed from a soft lavender, to a rich magenta, then warm ambers, and finally after ten different color changes representing the sunrise the final look of the mural for the announcement of man and wife had a beautiful blue sky above the mountains, puffy white clouds floating by and the ocean’s surface was shimmering. It was truly one of my favorite designs, and was featured on an episode of A Wedding Story.”
How do clients respond when you flip the switch?
“I love exceeding my client’s expectations. Clients get a sneak peek of their designs when we do their demo in my Design Center in San Jose. We go through shapes and colors, but until they see the entire room of their venue lit up and transformed they don’t really know what to expect. I’ve seen brides get teary eyed, or have a huge grin and run up and hug me, but my favorite response was a bride, who happened to be a comedienne, walked into the ballroom for a peek before the guests entered, and shouted using profanity as adjectives as to just how amazing it was. Over and over, this beautiful bride in a stunning gown was cursing in glee at the top of her lungs.”
We’re so excited that you are going to be doing the lighting for this year’s Gentry Gala – can you give us a sneak peek at some of your ideas?
“LEDs will be used to enhance the architecture in some of the rooms. An arch may seem common place in a hotel, but our lighting will have a stunning impact as we highlight the features of this beautiful venue throughout the event. Our company is looking forward to lighting the Gentry Gala.”
Natti Pierce-Thomson,
Senior Lighting Designer, ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician
North American Theatre Technology Incorporated
408.799.4347
Lighting of the Lea McIntosh's Rose Canopy. (SooPhotography.com)
