chris varrin - lighting design

Lighting Dimensions - October 1998
Spotlight - Chris Varrin, Concert LD

by Catherine McHugh

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Chris Varrin did not become intrigued by lighting through the magic of theatre. Nor did he set out to be a musician and end up settling for running lights. Ever since he built his first lighting system with a high school friend, "I always intended to be a lighting designer," Varrin says. "As soon as we had the system, we started working with the local bands in town."

While at Rensselaer Polytechnic in Troy, NY, Varrin pursued both mechanical and electrical engineering degrees, but continued to light bands. "I eventually realized that with my personality I wasn't going to be an engineer for a living, so I went on the road."

Varrin quickly got a job as an electrician at Atlanta based R. A. Roth (now Lighting Technologies) and worked his way up. Before long, he was on his first tour, as lighting crew chief for a 1986 Stevie Ray show with LD Mark Miller. "To be 20 years old and doing that right off the bat was cool."

The most important skill Varrin picked up from Miller was how to call spotlights. "I'd been calling spots for years on my own, but I had just taught myself, and this was the first time I heard someone who was really excellent at it. I based my spot calling technique on his."

As young men do, Varrin headed west a few years later, and continued to work as a crew chief for the now-defunct lighting division of San Francisco-based Nocturne. "I'd been doing a lot of opening act LD work ever since I started touring, then the Doobie Brother's LD had to leave the tour. I took over, and that lasted for few years. That led to Lynyrd Skynyrd, which I'd also been doing as a crew chief for Nocturne."John Lobel (now a vice president at Light & Sound Design), whom Varrin had met at Nocturne, recommended him for a Joe Satriani tour. This is his eighth year with the guitar virtuoso. "My work with Joe has been the cornerstone of my career," Varrin says. "That was the luckiest break. It's a fun tour to be on, because I'm a fan of it musically, but it's also fantastic music to light, because he's so wide open to interpretation. It's not a big tour, or even a high profile one - half the people in the business don't even know who he is - but you couldn't ask for anything better."

Lobel remembers that when Satriani needed an LD, he couldn't think of anyone better than Varrin to handle the job. "Chris has a rare combination of talent, ability and poise." he says.

Varrin has learned to create a big rock look for Satriani on what is normally a tight lighting budget. "The size of the rig turned into a running joke the first year, and since then the 'less is more' concept has become a trademark," Varrin says. "We have more to spend than we used to, but if I had to characterize my style, one of the key features is maximum efficiency in size, truck space, and economics. The smallest rig we had out had 10 icons, four Washlights and four Molefays - but I got a lot of great looks out of it."

Because he has a limited number of luminaires, Varrin relies on moving lights, lighting only a free-form Santana tour without them. "With them, you can get 10 times more show, with less fixtures, for the same amount of money. Plus, it's more interesting."

While Varrin had just under 40 moving lights on Satriani's G3 tour, a typical system featured 16 to 20. "People are sometimes amazed at what the show looks like compared to what they see on the rig beforehand", he says. "With this music you can really get away with that. I'm fortunate that he plays a consistent set every night, and the arrangements don't change, so I know exactly what's going to happen at every moment - which allows me to program it precisely. With a small system, you're constantly using 80 or 90% of the lights all the time, so it has to be thought out well ahead of time, or else you get stuck in a corner. That's certainly not a universal approach but it works great for him."

Varrin also does his best to design a rig that can be built and torn down every day. "I try not to design anything that's stupid for the crew to set up," Varrin says. "I didn't step into this without going through all that first."

Varrin has also been in demand as an Icon operator and programmer for other tours, corporate events, and TV specials. Varrin designed the lighting for the Inner Strength Climbing Gym in Fort Collins, CO, in 1994 and for the Ibex Sport Climbing facility in Bonner Springs, KS, a year later. "I'm leaning toward architectural lighting but I can't say I'm pursuing it formally," Varrin says. "It lacks that gratification you get during a show - that moment when you're running it from the middle of the audience at the console, and everything clicks and gels all at the same time, and you get into the flow of it."

Varrin is currently out again on Satriani's Crystal Planet tour. Still, the LD knows full well that the road doesn't go on forever. "There are certainly other area I'd like to get into," he says. "But for now, I'm hesitant to give that feeling up."

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Dataton News & Views, Volume 10
Innovative Solution Syncs Rock Show

Rock guitarist Joe Satriani's 1998 Crystal Planet tour hit the road carrying video projection for the first time. In the live concerts, hundreds of lighting cues are executed in real time by Chris Varrin, Satriani's LD since 1990. "I wanted to integrate video control from the lighting desk too," says Varrin. "That would mean absolutely precise timing between the lighting and video systems,and, as all the video was prerecorded, remove the necessity of a full-time video director."
Varrin opted to use an Icon desk from Light & Sound Design as the main controller for both video and lighting. The Icon desk outputs DMX protocol which is them converted to MIDI and sent to the Dataton system. Video tasks are triggered from Dataton TRAX. On the Icon desk, the video control DMX channels were programmed directly into the cues along with the rest of the lighting system to ensure perfect sync during the show.
The Dataton system controlled two Sony CRV laserdisc players and two Snell & Wilcox Magic DaVE DVE/switchers. A Sony Beta SP tape deck and two Barco 9100 projectors rounded out the video system. The Barcos were placed downstage, forty feet apart, with the projection surface an eight foot diameter inflatable white sphere located off center upstage. The overlapping images, carefully chosen by Varrin, wrapped around all visible surfaces on the sphere providing a seamless image.
Video hardware was provided by PSL, LTD. and TRAX programming expertise by Bill Bower. After five days of programming both lighting and video at London's Three Mills Island Studios, the tour kicked off in Dublin, Ireland. Chris Varrin reports: "The control system worked perfectly. In fact, Satriani, myself and everyone involved were so pleased with the results that we plan on using the production again for the fall tour in the US.

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Lighting Dimensions, September 1994
News - Rock Lighting

by William Weathersby, Jr.

Colorado-based lighting designer and board operator Chris Varrin is well-versed in the techniques of rock and roll lighting for performers including The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Santana, and the Grateful Dead. For his first architectural lighting assignment, Varrin was asked to illuminate, well, rock.

The Inner Strength Climbing Gym in Fort Collins, CO, about 60 miles north of Denver, is one of a new generation of rock climbing practice facilities that hope to attract a broader audience of amateur enthusiasts. "Sport climbing in gyms is a fairly new industry," Varrin says. "Facilities that have opened in the past have usually been built in warehouse-type spaces by serious climbers for climbers, and were not intended as mainstream attractions. Aesthetics really were never an issue. At Inner Strength," he continues," we wanted to upgrade the look of a climbing space with a variety of rock features and dramatic lighting."

A design team led by Steve Jones of Pinnacle Group International, Inner Strength's owner, has created a 4,000 sq.ft. landscape of artificial boulders, drops, and cliffs. The gym has walls ranging from nearly vertical to severely overhanging, with heights of 28' to 32'. Climbing walls are constructed of engineered wood framing covered with exterior grade plywood and metal lath. A cement-based stucco has been troweled and sculpted to provide a realistic, three-dimensional rock texture. For a good landing surface, flooring consists of a 6 to 8" layer of pea gravel. Enhancing visibility and attracting attention at its suburban shopping area site are large plate glass windows spanning the facade. Clerestory windows and skylights flood the space with sunlight during the day.

"With the lighting, we wanted to create a polished presentation," Varrin says. "There was a lot of surface to light, and the main situation to avoid was the 'vertical parking lot look' shared by many gyms. Some facilities are typically lighted with a harsh variety of mercury vapor, sodium and fluorescent fixtures-- usually for reasons of convenience and low cost," Varrin points out. " Here the wall surface is a mottled light gray and while not entirely monotone, it can get rather dull over thousands of square feet. But it makes for a wonderfully huge canvas on which to mix the lighting. I used a combination of fixtures - PAR-38s, PAR-64s, and ellipsoidal reflectors - to give a sense of highlighting and change as one moves around the gym.

"PAR-38s are the lead fixtures in the space," the LD says. "They're really economical, plus the electrical subcontractor could do most of the installation." The PAR-38s provide the base wash for most of the climbing walls, which are dotted with color-coded markings that indicate the level of difficulties of various climbing routes. Since there are approximately 20 rope stations with climbers situated about every 5 or 7' along the wall, the PAR-38s create a consistent, comfortable level of light. Varrin added a layer of PAR-64s to deliver accents along sculptural features such as wall indentations.

For the lead wall, which tends to be used by the most advanced climbers, Varrin specified four patterned 6 x 12 ellipsoidal reflectors working without base lighting underneath. "The lead wall is overhanging and arches out into the room," he says. "The patterns are intentionally out of focus to set that wall apart from the surrounding climbing walls." The gobo has a smooth rounded breakup that plays off the mottled surface of the wall.

Another focal point of the space is a climbing boulder near the entrance to the facility. "The side of the boulder is visible from the street, and sort of draws you into the gym when you enter," Varrin says. "The boulder is sharply overhanging but only about 12' high, so it's almost like lighting a sculpture. Bouldering is almost a sub-sport," says Varrin, a climber himself. "You're working in very difficult technical problems, but in a very tight space." Here Varrin used four 6 x 9 ellipsoidal reflectors outfitted with gobos for a spiky-breakup pattern.

Inner Strength will play host to national climbing competitions, such as the recently held Tour De Pump, so Varrin selected fixtures that would not hinder film and video recording. All instruments have color temperature ratings of approximately 3200°K. Dimmers were not cost-effective enough for the budget, so Varrin placed his equipment on eight circuits on a circuit breaker panel. The equipment budget was $3,000, not including fluorescent fixtures set behind the walls for maintenance.

Having recently worked on The Eagles' Hell Freezes Over reunion tour as an Icon operator, Varrin hopes to design the lighting for a second Inner Strength facility planned for Kansas City. Lighting a rock climbing gym may be worlds away from lighting a rock concert, but the LD says he looks forward to focusing on more boulders in the future. "Being a climber myself, it's nice to help create an inviting workout space that has a fresh, interesting edge."

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