"I used color here to differentiate between the oppressive heat of the desert, represented by the downlight pool, and the sky. Psychologically I wanted to show how this intense, unbearable heat pushes the pilot down into the ground, which is in contrast to the aerialist shots that lift him up. The two colors that are in the desert scenes are R22, a color I use a lot-it's a nice, rich, reddish amber that did the job for this part of the scene. To highlight the puppet as he crawled from one pool of light to another in the sequence I used R03, which a much, much less saturated version of the same thing."

"This sequence illustrates the metaphor of flight. The aerialists, who personify flight, were a very important part of the show, and I worked very hard to differentiate their world from The Pilot's world in the desert. They're mostly lit from the sides, and the light from the high sides is R68. The mid sides, at about head height where they're swinging, are R67. I wanted to keep this scene cool all around. One way that you use color to lift the performer up is to have the warmer or lighter color coming from below, because that's something that only happens in nature when the person is higher than the light source."

"This sequence uses the same R68 from up high, but it’s not as bright. I wanted the feeling of them above the desert, as if the sunlight was bouncing off the sand onto them. It's another one of those things that you only see when the person is very, very high or his shoes are on fire. The R68 from above is there as a balance, because as you get high the light from above becomes dimmer."

"Toward the end of this piece, after The Pilot had been rescued, there was celebration. A sunrise happened, which I did with R02 and R68; R80 on the backdrop. I'm very big on Rosco R68. I also use R22 and R37 a lot. I used gobos here, as well. Specifically, Rosco 77721 Breakup (Small) to reinforce the sense of 'altitude'. The performers moving through the dappled light heightened the feeling of speed and flight."