Tom BetGeorge is a music teacher by day, but at night he’s a light-show Jedi. The California man has engineered a Christmas light display set perfectly to John Williams’ iconic Star Wars score. It was featured on ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight, a TV show that needs no explanation. Watch it below:
Make fun of it if you want, but it takes some skill and creativity to sync the lights up with the music like that. And the lightsaber battle (which starts at 1:26) is clever. At the very least, BetGeorge put an enormous amount of effort into it. Here’s how he says he put the whole thing together:
I sequenced the show using LOR, mixed the music/sound effects with Digital Performer, and filmed it using a 35′ lift at 3am. I built all the props using wood, metal, acrylic and corrugated plastic. The guitar is 17′, the piano is 19′ and the drums are standard. About 12,500 channels running around 100,000 lights.
BetGeorge says he made sure the light beams don’t shine into flight paths or other people’s windows. He says his neighbors in Newark, California, are supportive because he uses the display to raise money for the poor and homeless. That said, the show runs on a loop from 6pm to 10pm almost every night. Let’s see how long his neighbors can bear that.
He also set the same display to “Let It Go” from Frozen. (Yes, that giant piano is playing real notes.):