Dustin L. Derry
I am a freelance lighting designer and master electrician in the Chicago theatre industry. I attended National-Louis University from 1997-2001 as a technical theatre major with a focus in lighting design. I have been working professionally in the industry since 1998 and have been involved in hundreds of shows since. I have a variety of technical skills including but definately not limited to Lighting Design, console programming, moving light programming and repair, stage management, technical direction, and I can even run sound or build a set when occasion calls for it, although these definately are NOT my forte. I have been working as the Master Electrican for the North Shore Center for Performing Arts in Skokie for almost 8 years. That experience has gotten me quite used to working under lots of pressure, very little time, and with little or no rehearsal. If you need a show put up and looking good NOW, I am your guy.
I have a very no-nonsense philosophy when it comes to design and getting a show up and running. While my designs tend to be simple, the results are often pleasing to the eyes and efficient to get up and running. I don't muck about with extranious FX and gadgets unless I KNOW they work before I hit the venue and I am very quick to cut things that stand in the way of putting on a solid production efficiently. This, however, is not to say I don't think outside the box. I just know, all to well, that there is a time and place for experimentation and in the venue on load-in day is NOT one of them. A little bit of research and pre-planing goes a LONG way when trying to work in a time-crunch.
As of late, I have been experimenting with different virtual rendering techniques and will be able to provide my client with full show virtual animations within the year. For my drafting I use Vectorworks 2008 with Renderworks and 3d StudionMAX to build virtual scale models and then port the 3d models into Espvision for rendering for client previews and pre-cueing with actual consoles(to save time the venue). If you need a show rendered, let me know, I will make sure the software is available to us and get moving ASAP.
As for gear and consoles... Well, I am now the proud owner of a PC-based lighting console with touchscreen programming. Currently I am using Chamsys' MagicQ PC system with a Panasonic Toughbook with internal touchscreen and an External touchscreen for programming with 2 Enttec Artnet DMX boxes and an Enttec USBPro for output. The good news is I put this sytem through its first full bore trial run in December of 2007 and it passed with flying colors. Since then I have used the console on dozens of shows all with astounding results. With this system I can confidently compete with a WholeHog console for robustness, ease of FX creation, and total show control(this inclused working with DMX based projectors and media servers). If there is a technology that you need to use that I don't know intimately, I will gain the require knowledge and efficiency usually within a day or two of home expirmentation.
If you have any questions or want to hire me to light a show for you, feel free to drop me a line. If I cannot take the job, I know someone who can.
Regards,
'D'
(312)498-2317