If We Build It, They Will Come

Brian Livesay is a production designer, an avid reader, an artist, a baker, a father and part owner of the state's largest lighting house, located here in Tucker. “You could say we own a lighting company by accident,” said Livesay from behind his desk. After a stroll through his warehouse on South Royal Atlanta Drive, we settled in his office to discuss his business, Radish Lighting. “It's pretty empty right now,” he said, looking around; “all our big guns are rented out.” 

Radish Lighting houses and leases the industry's most advanced lighting and grip equipment to make productions on any scale a possibility in the metro Atlanta area.

Livesay, whose partner is Walter Glover, Jr., explained their origins.

“Our journey into the lighting business was in some ways an accident, and in some ways a natural progression of both [our] careers – though anybody would have been hard pressed to convince me that I’d be running a lighting business and living in Tucker three or four years ago," Glover said. "Walter is a second generation lighting designer and director of photography. His father is a legend in the TV business, and Walter literally grew up on set, pulling cable and moving lights," he added.

Livesay told Patch that he had been a production designer for 17 years and worked closely with lighting designers on many shows during that time. "Being that both Walter and I are key members of a production creative team, we are tasked with the overall look and feel of a show," he said. "Two large pieces of that puzzle are the set and the lighting, so I guess we’ve never not been involved with production lighting.”

Radish Lighting has been operating in Tucker since 2009. The company name and logo originated from a night of brainstorming over libations, searching for a brand that would be off-the-wall and recognizable – an almost whimsical, magenta radish does the trick. “We've built the entire business since beginning here,” Livesay said.

How did the largest lighting house in Georgia find its way to our small town?

Livesay explains: “Walter and I had rather varied and independent career paths up until about four years ago, when we were both hired to do a show in Abu Dhabi, the largest of the United Arab Emirates, right next door to Dubai. The first Middle East International Film Festival. I was, you guessed it, the production designer, and Walter was the lighting designer. We met very briefly at the show's dance rehearsal in Los Angeles before having our first real conversation in the airport lounge at LAX on our way to Abu Dhabi. It was sometime during the first week or so that we were there that Walter and I broached the subject of putting together a business (in Abu Dhabi) to service the explosively growing entertainment market in the Emirates. From these initial conversations, we developed a plan, found investors and started the ball rolling with every intention of opening a shop in Dubai.”

After Livesay and Glover returned from Abu Dhabi, however, they were approached about designing the Mo'Nique Show, soon to be shot in Atlanta. “We had the opportunity to do not only what we do as designers, but we also provided the lighting for the show. Once this show was booked and underway, we re-purposed the investment and brought all the equipment to Atlanta,” he said.

Atlanta is now a hub for the shooting of television shows and films. When asked why, Livesay replied: “Well, production in Atlanta specifically, and Georgia generally, is definitely booming thanks in large part to the Film Tax Incentive program that the state has in place right now.

The business side [as opposed to the creative, content side] requires large amounts of money to be spent – some would say gambled – making the program, show, concert or whatever. No matter how large or small the scope of the program, there is a budget, and it is almost always smaller than you’d like. From a bottom line perspective, doing business in states that have higher tax incentives or rebates directly affects the viability of a production, and right now, Georgia has one of the highest and simplest tax incentive programs in the U.S. It's why production is booming here. If the tax incentive goes away, so do 95% of all of the films and TV shows shot here.”

The talent in Atlanta, according to Livesay, is on par with other major production areas, but it's the tax incentive that “makes the difference,” he notes. To maintain the growth of the industry in the area, infrastructure must be built and bolstered.

He provided the example of Transformers 3. Atlanta simply couldn't provide the manpower, money and material to support such a large scale movie, thus our city was passed over. With a stronger, more established infrastructure, bigger productions would be able to find their place in Atlanta.

It's an “if you build it they will come...kinda thing,” said Livesay. And Radish Lighting is certainly doing its part to build it.

Livesay lives locally with his wife and new son, and Glover is working to move his family to Georgia from California, hopefully this summer. You can see their many accomplishments by perusing both Livesay and Glover's IMDB pages, and learn more about Radish Lighting from their website.

Livesay concluded: “Finding the warehouse in Tucker was the end of a long search around the greater Atlanta area for appropriate digs that we could reasonably and affordably call home. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find a good home base. We love Tucker and have no intention of going anywhere.”