Introducing Jason Steel, the face behind Negative Space: the newly appointed Partner and Knowledge Centre for Follow-Me B.V. across New Zealand and Australia. Steel is busy packing up his equipment, from a video shoot, into his car whilst chatting on Slack to Follow-Me, about his experience with Follow-Me and his excitement at being not only a Follow-Me user but the official Knowledge Centre for Follow-Me in New Zealand and Australia. An opportunity that is enabling him to share his passion for and experience with, other like-minded industry people looking for and using the right follow spot system.
Negative Space pride themselves on being a Production Design House that specialises in control and lighting design, using the latest technical gear to push boundaries giving each show a uniquely fresh look. Steel first came across Follow-Me in the early days of the Dutch follow spot company.
As LD on TV show, Dancing with the Stars, Steel had a problem and he needed a solution fast. The height and layout of the studio was restrictive for the positioning and use of traditional follow spots so he went searching for options. With a few options on the market, Steel made his decision to invest in Follow-Me based on two key points: the prompt, friendly and helpful reply from the staff at Follow-Me coupled with the user friendly solution that is Follow-Me. Both have proven to be a reliable and good choice for him since this first experience.
Steel’s usage of Follow-Me has continued to evolve alongside the products’ development from 2D to 3D and using the manual system with automated tracking elements. Steel confirms that his choice to invest in a Follow-Me tracking solution four years ago was the right one. Despite the 12 hour time difference the FM team “offers such good support and interest in my projects such as the SIX60 tour and AMA Awards 2020. Working with the team and product makes my daily work even more enjoyable”.
When asked the topical question “Does a pandemic restrict your potential to work?“ Steel smiled discussing the challenge of closed boarders, lockdowns, canceled gigs and sighting how during the last two years, he has had to really pull on his technical knowledge and product portfolio to insure shows can go on and his company, performers and family are safe. The travel restrictions placed on Australia and New Zealand have cut the people off in many ways from the rest of the world. On this note his latest venture is one he is really enjoying working on.
As Lighting Designer for SYNTHONY since 2019, Steel doesn’t want to allow New Zealands’ closed borders to disrupt his commitment to providing a dynamic lighting design and production for this show. SYNTHONY is currently presenting a live tour in Australia and Negative Space are once more providing the lighting design and control equipment for the tour. From his studio in Auckland, New Zealand Steel and his team are designing and will be operating the live show 2624km away in Melbourne, Australia.
Using a VPN link they developed, Negative Space enable Follow-Me 3D SIX, Disguise and the MA lighting desk allowing them to have complete control over the shows lighting and media; backing up the claim from SYNTHONY of a truly unique and immersive experience: “a celebration of the last 30 years of electronic dance music, backed by the full might of a large-scale full orchestra, directed by the precision of the conductor, spine-tingling vocalists and world-class DJs, accompanied by dynamic lighting and visual show”.
Reverting back to the topic of Follow-Me Partner and Knowledge Centre Steel is keen to establish that he has already been working to support and grow the Follow-Me network of users. From his Dry Hire department at Negative Space Follow-Me Systems are rented out complete with the customers show file preloaded on the Rack Server and a pdf explaining how to set the system up.
This is proven to be a successful venture for new to FM technicians and volunteers in for example churches, to use Follow-Me and elevate their productions to a high quality professional level without needing further technical support. For clients looking to invest in their own systems, Negative Space offers local or online demos and full trainings insuring that clients will feel as comfortable as he was when they chose to use Follow-Me 3D.
Negative Space are hoping to take Follow-Me on tour with the ETNZ Roadshow style tradeshow in the second half of 2022. This will give prospective clients across Auckland and Wellington the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the Follow-Me 3D manually operate system that also offers the ability to be used as a hybrid auto-tracking system. Fully scalable it offers tracking from 1 to 6 performers utilising unlimited moving head fixtures from a single system. Follow-Me 3D is fixture independent, being able to control any brand of moving light via Art-Net or sACN.
The beauty of touring with Follow-Me on both a professional tour and a commercial tour such as the ETNZ Roadshow is, in Steel’s words: “When in a touring situation FM is very easy to take. In each venue you simply and quickly update the Camera calibration, check fixture refinement and off you go!”
The Follow-Me Knowledge Centre at Negative Space is available across borders: booking and setting up online demos for those shopping for a follow-spot system. Steel believes his +15 years in the industry helps him understand the expectations from such a system and with his hands on experience he can support a trouble free experience for first time users. The Follow-Me team are very excited to announce this new Partnership and look forward to inviting new users from Australia and New Zealand into the Follow-Me family.
