Gavin Wright from Artisan Lighting is a Sydney based owner-operator for live entertainment, film and TV shows.
What would you normally be doing this time of year?
Usually things are ramping up with various live sports event hostings from stadiums, the gaffer truck would go out on location doing various shoots, a few lighting rigs would be out in operation at a few different studios or venues. Perhaps a bit of “white glove” operating done here and there. One thing definitely missing is the good company and good choice “Sunday lunches” enjoyed with the A-team.
What’s a normal day for you at the moment?
Shuffling some deck chairs on the Titanic, the chairs pertaining to excess lighting equipment and the Titanic being the Supermassive Black Hole of warehousing I rent. The back wall hasn’t been seen in years and you could pour a glass of water in there and every drop would come gushing out. Also been very busy building off the grid in the Snowy Mountains.
Are you learning anything to improve your skills set?
Yes with life in lockdown heaps of new skills are being attained all the time, one skill is all about ratio, the more insulation you put into a shipping container, basically equals the more liveable it becomes. Taking a leaf out of Mad Max’s book by building a few road cases out of random bits of materials left lingering with intent around the warehouse, has all gone down a treat.
What bad habits have you slipped into?
Partly not wanting the lockdown to end so soon, I think they call that “Stockholm Syndrome”?
Doing activities that normally would be a super-indulgent luxury at this point and time in the year, it feels strangely good having the time to spend on your own special interests and projects.
How are you coping financially?
Luckily I had been planning to deal with my growth prior to lockdown, it is something I have had to deal with all before, so with the timing of the crisis, it highlighted those things needed to be accelerated. Drowning in gear and not debt is a bit of a silver lining.
The thing that was so scary is seeing overnight a few live entertainment businesses all which share neighbouring warehousing, shut up shop in utter despair, which is something that was quite shocking and won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
It is my larger competitors that I feel for, the ones that move this industry along at pace, I fear that it will take a very long time to get back to where things left off.
Bucking the trend though was a colleague who still managed to pull a 25 hour day during this lockdown.
When do you think live entertainment will return and in what format?
The last live audience job I had the pleasure of doing was a satellite gig for Fire Fight Australia Concert, I wonder if that will be the last big event of that kind this year? No doubt the red tape is going to be wrapped around all of us and strangle any hope of a viable live event industry for the short term, I feel until there is a vaccine available and it is taken up, the iceberg will still be dead ahead in the water.
Do you have any words of encouragement?
Re compromise, Re compromise, Re compromise. Not a real word but a coined catchphrase learnt the hard way by working in Asia. Production goes ahead fully agreed upon with black and white, then mysteriously when it comes to it, black and blue show up on the scene. Shrugging shoulders and re compromising, should be part of your strategy right now.
What makes you happy at the moment?
The possibility of backcountry snowboarding, I doubt the resorts will be open for locals or visitors this season, if they do that will be a bonus. Perhaps a glimpse at why I am getting used to the idea of Stockholm Syndrome, guilt-free mountain time, yes please.
Lockdown is a new series whereby tech personnel can share how they are coping in lockdown. If you’d like to participate, please answer these eight questions and send to cat@alia.com.au
