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Martin Castañon Makes Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival Shine with Chauvet Professional

USA – Mistakes happen. After all, we’re only human. But sometimes, these miscues lead to much better outcomes. History is full of examples, from the discovery of penicillin to pacemakers, to Play Doh, where great new things happened as a result of a ‘mistake’.

Martin Castañon can appreciate that. His design for the lighting rig at the 27th annual Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival, called for 12 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorised strobe-washes and 12 blinders. But instead, he got zero blinders and 18 Color Strike M fixtures. The net result was a light show that delivered even more punch and dynamic effects than he even imagined. 

“The rig was originally supposed to have the Color Strike Ms on the up and mid truss for a total of 12, blinders were specked out for the downstage,” recalled Castañon. “Somehow when the rig was built, we accidentally got the extra six strikes instead of the blinders. In the end it worked out beautifully as it tied the whole rig together. It was great having the horsepower to punch things up for the crowd, especially in colour, not to mention when riding the beams on them. It looked like the night turned today. I didn’t miss the blinders at all!

“I used the strikes mostly for eye candy effects and big moments of the performance,” continued Castañon. “They are great fixture to reveal during impacts. They also doubled as blinders for the crowd and strobes when needed.”

The potent output from his Color Strike M fixtures was instrumental in helping Castañon and his lead technicians (Martin Garcia Moises Parra and Elu Platon Elu) achieve a beautiful, harmonious balance between his lighting and the large centre stage video wall at the Santa Barbara Bowl amphitheatre.

“In order for lighting and video to ‘dance together,’ everything has to be the right intensity,” he explained. “This video wall can get so bright to the point where it can ruin the lighting look on stage. Our video wall ran between ten to 15-percent intensity in order to look adequate. It’s a team effort the video team works hard to get those great centred shots in order for us to add to them. Making sure you have your file ready with positions is key, especially when you’re running an act you’ve never seen before You can’t ever go wrong with the classic all-downstage centre positions.”

Underscoring the theme of the event, the traditional green, white and red representing the Mexican flag dominated the colour palette. However, Castañon also added his go-to blue. “I like the dark and mysterious look it gives the stage,” he elaborated. “It also plays very nice with other colours such as, whites, magentas, oranges, reds and other lighter shades of blue. It’s a great base colour to start a look and wash the crowd.”

Castañon relied on 16 Rogue R3X Wash fixtures, which like the rest of the rig were supplied by Darvik Productions of Ventura, CA, as his main colour source for the stage. He positioned eight of the washes on the upstage parked on the mariachi players to provide a very smooth backlight and make them pop. The four units on the mid-stage truss covered the backlight for the roaming vocalist and doubled as side kickers. The four remaining washes were used to side light the artist and add depth to the stage.

Also in the rig were six were six Rogue R2X Beam fixture, positioned on the downstage edge. “I used them mostly to make the moving effects seem bigger,” said Castañon. “We brought them out only for the most exciting parts of the tracks.”

Exciting parts? Given the enthusiasm level at this festival, there were plenty of those,  and that was no accident. 

26th September 2024

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