Creative Productions, one of Australia’s leading lighting and video rental companies, has just moved into a new purpose-built 3,000m2 HQ, warehouse and office space in Molendinar on Australia’s Gold Coast. Part of an impressive growth trajectory that started when Dave Jackson founded the company in 2012.
They have also just purchased 50 Robe MegaPointes to add to their reared substantial stock of Robe moving lights, totalling over 250!
Jackson has been in the industry since the late 1980s and is well respected as both a lighting designer and an entrepreneur. Although Creative Productions in its current format was never supposed to be “a big thing”, their first big gig was supplying lighting to rock gods Metallica at the 2013 Soundwave Festival. It seems that Jackson’s industry reputation for delivering excellent service, cool technology and fantastic crew and expertise.
Creative Productions’ investment in Robe, started around three and a half years ago and has accelerated in the last two years. The inventory now includes BMFL Spots, Blades and WashBeams, Spiider LED wash beams and Spikies – soon to be joined by the MegaPointes in time for an already busy looking winter season.
The newest sales – most of the BMFLs, all the Spiiders and Spikies and now the MegaPointes – have been delivered by Jands, Robe’s distributor since mid-2017. Jackson has enjoyed a great working relationship with Jands – who also distributes a host of other premium products – dating back many years.
Jackson and the Creative team have also recently been joined full-time by one of Australia’s industry mavericks, Jeff Pavey, who brings multiple skills, his huge personality and a fund of knowledge to this already vibrant equation where he is an account handler, technical production manager and production designer.
Jackson explains that when Creative Productions made the first Robe moving light investments in 2016, Robe was not always present on band and festival riders – a scenario that has dramatically changed now.
At that time, he also wasn’t looking to change brands, he just wanted a fantastic high-powered moving light and looked at all the options, which culminated in a shootout.
They narrowed it down to two products, Robe’s BMFL and a competitor light, and after a lot of consideration, Jackson decided that the BMFL would be the best choice!
It’s a decision he’s not regretted – particularly now as increasing quantities of Robe fixtures have become available across the Australian rental market and so Robe requirements for larger tours can more easily be met.
He cites the recent Eminem tour as a good example of this, where LD Daniel Boland was very happy with 80 MegaPointes plus other Robes which made up his “dream rig” of all Robe moving lights for the Australian tour! Creative’s Spikies were also sent to the New Zealand dates.
The new MegaPointes will be for stock as well as some imminent festivals like Splendour in the Grass 2019, a music and arts festival set in the picturesque North Byron Parklands for which Creative provides lighting and video production for all stages together with floor packages for around 70% of the artists.
Creative is the lighting supplier for The Fortitude live music venue in Brisbane and are currently considering putting Robe in there. They also supplied Robe movers for the Red and Black main stages at the 2019 Download Festival in Sydney and Melbourne with Pavey as production designer with MPH Australia supplying more Robe for the Avalanche and Dogstooth stages.
“It’s the reliability” states Jackson when asked about Robe’s strong points. He recalls that of their initial batch of 16 BMFL spots which have worked constantly, in three and a half years they have probably only had a couple of issues.
Creative Productions works extensively in the rental, staging and touring sectors which are their specialist areas, and Jackson notes that the Australian live events and festival season – despite many challenges – is now all year round and seems to be getting busier.
He is also a working lighting designer. This is another fact attracting business, as clients feel comfortable that both Jackson and Pavey are out there at the sharp end of the industry – Pavey is currently on tour with Australian boyband Human Nature and a bunch of Robes – and they see how the business is focused on ensuring a gold-standard service for artists, LDs and production managers.
Jackson has just finished a world tour with Liverpool rockers The Wombats – whose biggest UK tour to date featured a string of arena shows finishing with a showstopper at London’s SSE Wembley Arena – all supporting their acclaimed Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life album campaign.
Jackson commissioned and compiled all the video content for the tour. Full production for the UK leg – sound, lighting and video – was delivered by Liverpool based Adlib. The band are now scheduled to play key European festivals throughout the summer including Glastonbury.
Touring and lighting shows is still what Jackson loves most about the industry, and now with the impressive new HQ, more investment planned and Pavey onboard to share some of the client liaison and production duties, ‘lying low’ is not in the narrative and Creative Productions are really ready to rock!