City Theatrical Talks with Eastern Lighting Design's Matt Gordon and Mick Smith
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A Conversation With MATT GORDON & MICK SMITH Nexstar Media Group’s “NewsNation” on WGN America in Chicago, Illinois Set Design: Clickspring Design | Lighting Design: Eastern Lighting Design | Lighting Package: Barbizon Fabrication: Chicago Scenic Studios, Inc.; Showman Fabricators | Display Technology: AOTO BACKGROUND Eastern Lighting Design is a leading international design firm specializing in broadcast, location, and special events lighting. With a keen eye on the latest technology and industry trends, lighting designers and entrepreneurs Matt Gordon and Mick Smith have taken the industry by storm, designing innovative news studios in Dubai, Chicago, Beijing, and everywhere in between. City Theatrical talked with the team about the design and technology that has gone into some of the projects of this budding company’s past, present, and future, in this designer interview. Q&A: York at Purchase, which had a really great a story through lighting. If you flip through conservatory for theatre arts and film. At the television channels, you know what you’re City Theatrical (CTI): How did you get time, it had the highest turnout for Broadway looking at without stopping to read the guide. started in the world of professional lighting designers of any school in the country. Lighting helps you easily identify the content lighting design? Initially, that’s where I was headed. and aesthetic you’re looking for. Matt Gordon (Matt): For me, lighting really I graduated Purchase, and did a lot of theatre. Mick Smith (Mick): Funny enough, my story is the only thing I’ve ever done. I started I landed on one Broadway show as an is almost identical to Matt’s. I ran a followspot running followspots for high school musicals assistant. I realized it wasn’t what I wanted in high school, because a friend was in the during my sophomore year, and immediately to do, and kind of stumbled into television in drama program at school, and I wanted to fell in love. I pretty much forced my local 2006 and stayed there. I had discovered this help out. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and a community theatre in Massachusetts to give other world of artistic lighting design outside lot of larger tours were coming came through me a job however they could, and they did. I of theatre. at that time. When Phantom came through, was obsessed. I decided I didn’t want to do I snuck off to talk to the Front of House anything that wasn’t lighting. When I tell people I work in broadcast Engineer, and he took me backstage showing television, they think I just turn the lights on the stagecraft that blew my mind. That was I studied at the State University of New for TV… but it’s always been about telling the spark for me. MATT GORDON MICK SMITH Company: Eastern Lighting Design Company: Eastern Lighting Design Role: Owner/Principal Designer Role: Vice President of Design Location: New York, NY Location: Los Angeles, CA Experience: 19 years Experience: 24 years Recent Recent Projects: Beijing Meteorology Projects: NewsNation on WGN Studio; BBC News Studio America, The Tonight in Washington, D.C. Show in Austin, TX Page 1 of 4 I then studied at the University of Arizona, and received a BFA in Theatre Design. Here’s the fun part – a friend of mine had moved to “When Phantom came through, I snuck New York to work at City Theatrical. So Gary Fails gave me my first job in New York after off to talk to the Front of House Engineer, graduating, as a Research Associate, working with new products, which at the time was the and he took me backstage showing the EFX Plus2™ and the AutoYoke®, our big push. stagecraft that blew my mind. That was While I was at City Theatrical, Jules Fisher the spark for me.” - Mick Smith + Peggy Eisenhauer, Paul Gallo, and all of these great designers would have custom products that they came to Gary for. I had the paperwork and portfolio with me. That Mick mentioned his work in NYC, and I had opportunity to leave the Bronx, and go into was when I started to do TV lighting as an also worked in NYC at the same time. He had the theatre, and have a peak into that world. Assistant. It was never a thing we even actually interviewed me to work as a freelance I learned a lot. I was very energized to work touched on at school. I immediately found it project-based Assistant at NYC Lites. That’s in theatre, and soon found my way into that very interesting. initially where we met, then we went on to world. work together for years. CTI: When/how did Eastern Lighting My first Broadway show was Saturday Night Design come to be? So I reached out to Mick, told him about the Fever, with Andy Bridge and Vivian Leone. project in DC, which was going to be at the I started as the Moving Light Assistant. I Matt: The company was formed in 2017. I same time as I would be in Dubai. Thankfully, met other people, like Philip Rosenberg was working a full time design job for another he said he would help. First, he came in on a and Paul Miller, tremendous talents in the TV design firm in NYC. I decided it was time freelance basis, and things started to string industry. From there, I got into Rocky Horror to go off on my own. Honestly I had no idea together pretty quickly. We asked him to come Picture Show, with Paul Gallo. Then went what the plan was… sort of just jumped aboard full time. The rest is history. straight into lighting The Producers, as Peter without thinking. I just knew I wanted it to be a Kaczorowski’s Assistant, then Associate, and company, with a brand, and a team. Mick: It’s been a fun ride, and we’ve been got to travel with the show around the world. fortunate. Before we had Eastern Lighting It was fun, and I feel incredibly lucky for the We got really lucky right out of the gate with Design, we had our own histories, and connections I had made early on. some big projects. In the first year, we had contacts, which has helped us generate some a new studio installation in Dubai. Part way new independent work. At around that same time, I saw an ad for through the pre-production process, they New York City Lites, needing drafting help. threw in a second studio in Washington, D.C., CTI: What’s the typical day in the life of a I answered it, and carried my Broadway which would happen simultaneously. lighting designer at your design firm like? “Our goal is crafting some- thing that’s clean and stimulating, that makes you want to stay on that channel.” - Mick Smith Nexstar Media Group’s “NewsNation” on WGN America in Chicago, Illinois Page 2 of 4 “We want to hire people who are going to be the best for the job, but also good people at the end of the day.” - Matt Gordon Beijing Meterological Bureau in Beijing, China Mick: Wake up. Drink coffee. Design projects. use in working together to get the best was to be able to broadcast from anywhere in Walk the dog. Repeat. creative results? the building. There are lots of windows, and that meant the sun would be an issue. And Matt: Depends on the day. If we’re in Mick: It depends on the size and scope of the the timeline was excruciatingly short – less production for a project, we’re on site. project. Some projects include a lot – multiple than a year, and working concurrently with the Depending on the project, we could be studios, different locations, lots of crossover construction of the building. spending huge amounts of time away from work. We try to crack open what the scope of home. Mick, how long was our last project in something is going to be, and from there try to We designed the full lighting control system Dubai? plan out the best way forward. as well as the lighting; really anything that involved lighting. We were able to turn Mick: Six weeks at a stretch. So much of it has to do with bandwidth. We’ve it around quickly, and get the budgets known each other for such a long time, and approved. Then Mick and I, as well as Matt: When there are projects happening, the shorthand that comes along with that is additional members of our team, flew out, that is life. It can be all consuming. The silver invaluable. and walked into one of the heaviest working lining is the people you work with - most of construction sites we’ve worked on. which have become our friends. Especially Matt: Exactly. I think, Mick, in a lot of with long out of town projects, we want to hire ways, you and I share very similar design Mick: The scope of our end of the project was people who are going to be the best for the approaches. Even a lot of the same supposed to last six weeks. We walked into job, but also good people at the end of the aesthetics. That makes the tag-teaming of the facility what felt like six months early, and day. When you’re stuck in Beijing or Dubai, projects really easy, whether it’s splitting up tried to start lighting. that’s your life – the people you work with are studios, or if one of us can’t be somewhere, the people you’re with all day, every day.