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Paul Guthrie embraces classic look with Elation’s Fuze Wash 500 Fresnel

Soft field light has long been delivered through classic Fresnel fixtures, but with the industry’s shift to LED technology, designers have sometimes found themselves missing the vintage look that Fresnels brought to the stage. When it comes to achieving that more poignant feel, lighting designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie often turns to Elation’s Fuze Wash 500.

“I love that the Fuze Wash 500 has a Fresnel lens, which is a look I’ve really missed since the shift to LED wash fixtures”, Guthrie shares. “I love having a homogenized soft light look right at the source which feels mildly nostalgic.” In 2025, he used the Fuze series fixture on three high-profile productions: Finneas’ “For Cryin’ Out Loud!” tour (February-July 2025), Kelly Clarkson’s Studio Sessions Residency (June 2025 through 2026), and Nine Inch Nails’ “Peel It Back” tour (May-October 2025).

The designer says the fixtures provided similar aesthetics for the three projects although their application and placement varied. For Finneas, supplied by Volt (North America) and Neg Earth (Europe), he mounted the fixtures on floor stands with barn doors to emulate film and TV-style side and backlight. “We wrote sequences that incorporated the barn doors’ movement - opened or rotated - to add a different dynamic to the songs, as well as a physical element on stage”, he explains.

On Kelly Clarkson, 28 Fuze Wash 500s supplied by Majestic Productions were built into an overhead slotted ceiling set piece to look like can or downlights. “They provided a soft base for the stage but doubled as beam fixtures in some songs”, says Guthrie.

For Nine Inch Nails, the designer deployed 54 Fuze Wash 500s, supplied by Upstaging (North America) and Neg Earth (Europe), built into carts that make an upstage element for a wall of light reveal. The lights serve multiple roles - from architectural illumination to emulating par cans and tungsten fixtures, and, as Guthrie puts it, to “just plain old destroy everyone’s face in some songs”.

(Photos: Elation/Andi Elloway Studio LLC)

www.elationlighting.com

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