Got the extraordinary opportunity last night to see the annual screening of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan in Hollywood. It has the distinction of not only being the very theater where the film premiere was held back in 1993, but the El Capitan is also the very first theater built for ‘talkies.’ Fortunately, that very first sound system has long since been replaced with something state-of-the art, and Disney (the current owners) have lovingly restored the theater to its glory days.

While I’ve made the annual screening at the El Capitan a few times when I lived in Los Angeles, BlakOpal had never been, so we took the timing of our trip as a sign that we should remedy the situation. In addition to just seeing the film in such a great location, they go the extra mile and put some of the art and set pieces on display - since we’re both arty design nuts, this was even better than seeing one of our favorites on the big screen. Yes, the photo above is the actual model of the iconic cemetary - it’s more than 9 feet wide and richly detailed. Below are a few of the concept sketches from the early stages of production.

Tags: Nightmare Before XMas, Screening, El Capitan, Design

Had a wonderful time at the U2 concert last night in Pasadena. Despite some 100,000 people (the biggest crowd in the venue’s long history, as well as the fastest sell-out), the remarkable stage design made the whole night feel very, very intimate.

The stage design amazes me to no end. Tens of thousands of parts, all custom-made to an exacting specification, yet looking at the pieces closely you’d think they’d picked them up at the local Home Depot. I snapped the pic above before the show got started, I love the strange symmetry offered by the speaker stacks, stretched fabric, and transformational LED screen. That’s right, transformational - it actually moves and changes shape at various points throughout the show.

Adding to the excitement of the show (beyond one of the greatest live bands in the world, a gaggle of celebrities in the audience, and a crowd of 100,000 screaming fans) was the live filming. The concert was broadcast to over 10 million people around the world on YouTube, and will be released on DVD sometime in the near future. A very beautiful day indeed - if you look carefully, you can probably see BlakOpal and I in the crowd ;-)

Tags: U2, Rose Bowl, Design