Production News
Vari*Lite fills the void for Le Grand Cirque
Posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009
Last year the Sydney Opera House hosted Le Grand Cirque which turned out to be the highest grossing show they had ever had. Seen by millions of people around the world, Le Grand Cirque is a jaw-dropping visual feast of breathtaking acrobatics, spellbinding contortionists, soaring aerial performers and whiteknuckle stunts.
UK-based Storm Lighting was re-invited to design the lighting for the return tour which ran this January at the Opera House. Like the acts on stage, the lighting design makes an exuberant demonstration of its own power and presence. Elaborate costumes and reflective stage apparatus come alive in a vivid and everchanging array of colours.
The design was by Pete Kramer with guidance from an old colleague of his Gavin Norris, now a full time production manager for the opera house.
The show was a tricky feat due to the high rig trim height and weight loading restrictions of the listed building. Fortunately, for the first time, Pete had Vari*Lite luminaires in his rig and he was blown away by their brightness.
“In this situation, with the high trim height, I think the Vari-Lites were definitely the best fixtures for the job,” he remarked. “We really needed the VL3000s for their brightness and throw, but also due to the restrictions on the roof, we could use fewer of them. I’ve found the Vari-Lites to be good all round fixtures.”
Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the lighting, including fifteen VL3000 spots, fifteen VL2000 spots and twenty-eight VL2500 wash luminaires.
“The VL2000 spots do all of the grunt work whilst the VL3000 do all of the tricks,” said Pete. “The VLL2500 washes supply all the colour washes.”
A few of the Opera House’s own VL1000 fixtures were also deployed.
www.jands.com.au
Delivering the tension of unnoticeable change
Posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
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Artistic director and choreographer Lemi Ponifasio founded MAU in 1995. MAU is an ensemble of artists taking its name from the non-violent Samoan independence movement Mau, meaning testimony or revolution. Mau offered sustained resistance to colonisation, first by the Germans, then Britain and New Zealand. The work of MAU reflects this keen social perspective, an awareness of history and a critical eye on our own times. Ponifasio collaborates with contemporary and traditional artists, refugees, and marae and Pacific Island communities reviving local-oriented arts, thought and narratives that have been silenced or excluded. In Ponifasio¹s words, “It is a dance or theatre that is mau, truly contemporary, that deals with the life as we experience it, a theatre of where we find ourselves planning our future”.
With bold vision and without ingratiation to western aesthetics or South Pacific clichés, Ponifasio’s minimalist choreography and staging radically reassesses the divisions between disciplines of dance, theatre, ceremony, visual arts and daily life. His often-controversial stage world is inhabited by humans, birds, gods, demi gods, oratory, chants, animals, ancestors, stone and song. The work challenges theatrical parameters of time and space; the searing imagery is enacted by a talented and dedicated ensemble of highly disciplined, cultivated artists from across the Pacific region, their movements, reduced and sacral in space of light and shadow.
Lighting designer, Helen Todd has worked with Ponifasio since 1993 and here she discusses her part in two recent productions: Tempest and Requiem.
“With Tempest, I began with imagining shadows and black spaces as this work deals with disappearing people, individuals and cultures. I wanted stark and arresting contrasts, and I wanted to make the spaces appear and disappear seamlessly and magically, just as it happens in the political realities we are dealing with in our world today.
The work Requiem requires a sacred space, for ceremony and remembrance. It requires an edge of darkness that inspires prayer, or reflection on inflicted loss of life. I try to define territorial zones that shift us, hovering between reverence and fear, where humans and even angels should tread only tenderly.
In both these works I have chosen to use the Selecon 575W MSR Zoomspot fitted with the Pacific Dowser mechanical dimmer which we take with us when we tour. I rely on the subtle and minutely accurate dimming action of these dowsers in order to engage the audience without drawing attention to what they are seeing, but rather the tension of unnoticeable change. The hot-strike lamps allow me to focus and check plotting without losing precious time, and of course interchangeable lenses are perfect if you care for absolute accuracy in your plot. For touring I am delighted to find that increasingly these beautiful instruments are available in Europe and of course in the US.”
MAU tours internationally appearing at venues and festivals which include the Lincoln Center NYC, Vienna Festival, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Holland Festival, Venice Biennale, London International Theatre Festival, Theatre Der Welt, Adelaide Festival and the Prague Quadrennial.
“angel” photo from Tempest courtesy of Lemi Ponifasio
All Requiem photography by Richard Termine.
www.seleconlight.com
GHD Ball Fantasy Wonderland
Posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Western Australia’s leading rental company, Clifton Productions Perth, has employed Robe moving lights and LED products from iLED and SDV to create a ‘Fantasy Wonderland’.
The event, designed by Kate Wilson Events for Global Engineering Giant, GHD, was a ball held for over 1000 of the companies staff. The star lit ceiling spanned across the 14.5 x 12.5m dance floor. The set featured a huge tree trunk beneath a star lit sky made up of 6 x iLED Star drapes. The inside of the trunk was lit by 8 x SDV Par64 LED Par Cans, and also housed the DJ.
Lighting Designer Michael Wood, added 8 x Robe 1200 AT ColorSpots and 8 x Robe 1200 EAT ColorWashes. They were positioned off each corner of the space illuminating the room providing table and room wash, as well as dance floor effect lighting as the night progressed.
Ed Matthews, Managing Director of Clifton Productions Perth says of the products supplied by Australian Distributor ULA, “the lights performed flawlessly” going on to say that “our client was extremely happy with the overall effect”.
www.ulagroup.com
Bytecraft Sensation
Posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009
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Bytecraft Entertainment had a busy festive holiday period providing lighting equipment and LED screens for Sensation White, held at the Telstra Dome on New Years Eve. Heralded as the largest indoor dance party in the world, the aim by Dutch producers ID&T was to set a new standard for Dance Party events held in Australia.
As the first event allowed to rig from the roof of the Telstra Dome and with a soccer game held in the venue on the same day as the load in and a second soccer game held the day after the load out the restrictions placed on the event by the Telstra Dome meant that Project Manager Paul Rigby much of the pre-production working with the Australian Production Supervisor James Klein and the team from Sensation in Holland, Production Director Marcel Elbertse, Head Rigger Rien Engelbertink, Lighting Supervisor Bob van Bree and Production Manager Joris Joosen to ensure that Sensation’s creative brief was satisfied and also that the Telstra Dome roof would hold the 40 Tonnes of lighting and LED installed while ensuring that the venue grass surface would still be alive after the event despite the amount of boom lift moves and equipment moves taking place on the field.
The Bytecraft Entertainment team spent 3 days loading in the 12 Semi trailers worth of lighting and LED, followed by a day of programming. The event was held on New Years Eve followed immediately by the Load Out starting as soon as the venue was clear of punters.
Using the same methodology as their previous stadium gigs Bytecraft ran 3 lighting crews plus an LED crew working on the field in addition to a “Boneyard” crew working in the car park who distributed the equipment to the relevant crews working on the field.
“Given that the soccer games reduced the load in from the 5 days taken in Holland to 3 days required in Australia and the load out was one day here not three that they need in Holland, we did really well to get the show in and out on time” comments Paul. “The show went off without a hitch and the Dutch production team who were here for the show were really happy with our approach to the event, our ability to meet to the strict schedule meant the lighting operators had a full 24 hours of programming prior to the show which was fantastic” added Paul.
Crew Chiefs were: Don McGregor, Fergal O’Sullivan’ Sean ‘Motley” Hackett, Andrew Holmes, Rod Beaumont and Rohan Harrison
Lighting Equipment used was: 2 x Hog 3, w/ full size wing and mini wing, 10 x DP2000, 80 x VL3000 Spot, 72 x Mac 2000 Profile, 14 x Mac 2000 Performance, 44 x VL2500 Spot, 20 x Mac 2000 Wash, 40 x Cyberlight Turbo, 48 x Atomic Strobe w/ Scroller, 8 x DF50, 8 x F100 Smoke Machine, 2 x MDG 3000, 20 x Colorblaze 72, 60 x Colorblast 12, 64 x JB VaryLED, 50 x Source 4 Pars, 64 x Pinspots, 8 x P64 MFL, 6 x MR16, 4 x 1k Fresnel, 1 x Quadpack.
Rigging Equipment used was: 80 x 8’ Black 500mm Box Truss, 26 x 3m Chrome Total Fab Truss, 64 x 8’ A Type Truss, 4 x 3m 300mm Ali Box Truss, 4 x 2m 300mm Ali Box Truss, 4 x 12m Circle, 8 x 3.5m Circle. 110 x 60’ 1 Ton Chain Motor, 24 x 80’ 1 Ton Chain Motor, 32 x 100’ ½ Ton Chain Motor, 16 x 30m 1 Ton GIS Motor, 4 x 2T 30m GIS Motor, 28 x Liftket Hoist w/ Kinesys Control. Steel Top and Bottom Riggging for 214 Points (38m Roof)
www.byteent.com.au
Federation Square turns Blue
Posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
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For the whole of December Melbourne’s Federation Square was brilliantly lit up in a sea of blue courtesy of Microhire, the Square’s inhouse AV specialists. Come New Year’s Eve the blue was replaced by a kaleidoscope of colours to match the party atmosphere. The idea was to attract patrons to the Square without doing something obviously festive.
Twelve Studio Due CityColor 2500 fixtures were used for broad, sweeping washes over the building as well as twenty Pro Shop Honeycomb 72 LED fixtures. Microhire has been so impressed by the Honeycombs they now have close on forty in their inventory.
“The Honeycombs have a great output and I like their strength,” commented Guy McGregor, general manager for Microhire Victoria. “They put out a nice constant colour and the pricing of them is fair. Personally I really like the fact that they’re a long-lasting item built very well for the rental industry. As they’re so robust they can be forever out making us money!”
Paul Nicolaou, Show Technology’s Victorian branch manager worked closely with Guy to ensure the success of the project testing several fixtures along the way. Also used were a heap of LED pars.
“We had no choice but to use the CityColors but the rest of the lighting we chose to use LED as a Growing Green initiative,” explained Guy. “We linked the LED’s together via a wireless DMX transmitter / receiver so for NYE we could then plug in the MA Lighting grandMA console and away we go.”
Guy has been a longtime supporter of Show Technology describing their technical support as fabulous.
“There was actually an oversight and some of the Honeycombs weren’t rated for outdoors,” he divulged. “Although the Show Technology guys were scheduled to go on break when the mistake became apparent, they were there in no time to fix the problem. I know I can call Paul at any time and it won’t be a problem. The support is incredible and the guys are fantastic.”
www.showtech.com.au
Avolites D4 on tour with Alicia Keys
Posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
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Alicia Keys kicked off her “As I Am” sold out world tour in Australia early December 2008, with an eye-catching lighting design by VisualLight (Nick Whitehouse & Bryan Leitch) touring with production services of Bytecraft Entertainment.
An Avolites Diamond 4 console was specified for the full world wide tour. All lighting fixtures were controlled from the D4 console, the choice of both Whitehouse and Leitch, “We all chose the D4 on this Tour because we know it’s a great desk and also because the tour will be visiting certain territories and using local production, so we needed a reliable console where it was easy to exchange the fixtures and update, because we are using a variety of different moving lights in the different countries we are touring to” confirms Whitehouse.
Experienced Lighting Director Chris Steel of Avolites was the lighting operator for the European and Australian leg of the tour. The show is run using the D4’s Cue List system, which also gives the latitude to use the instant access facilities of the desk for the improvisational moments of the show. The ‘live’ access capability is the kind of feature that Avolites are world famous for – hand on and fast operation for live performances.
Chris’s Cue Lists is arranged on the first set of 8 Masters faders on the bottom left-hand side of the console, and the generics including key-lights, Moles, etc., on the second. Then on the playbacks at the top of the desk, he has positioned his ‘busking’ section of instant access cues on individual faders.
The show is a narrative charting Keys’ musical journey, which is conveyed very effectively by video links. The performance is divided into distinct sections, and presented with a classy and stylish flourish, embracing a myriad of different styles and musical genres.
The main overhead lighting is rigged onto 3 straight trusses going from back to front, with 2 wing trusses off the side of the stage to the edge of the audience. These contain 36 Vari*Lite 3000 Spots, 30 Vari*Lite 3500 Washes and 14 ColorKinetics ColorBlast 12 LED units.
Twelve Source 4 profiles were used on the mid and front truss for key-lighting the band. On the mid truss there was a kabuki drape to hide the band for a reveal at the start of the show, and this also left the mid and front truss for support bands to utilize for their shows. All the visible trusses are toned by the ColorBlast 12 LED fixtures, producing tasty rich glowing effects. Supporting acts were Australian group LowRider and American Idol winner Jordan Sparks.
Chris says, “My next tour using the D4 is Il Divo starting in Europe in February 2009. It’s great to see designers specifying the D4 on these large shows. I love using the D4 myself as it’s extremely easy to use, reliable, and it’s easy to change things live if you need to.”
www.ulagroup.com
Martin MAC2000’s are Gold
Posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009
Shane Warne the Musical bills itself as a new breed of Aussie music theatre that smokes, drinks, carries a few extra kilos and still brings home the Ashes. Whatever the description, the show is packing in the punters at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre and is proving to be a great success.
Written and composed by Eddie Perfect, who plays the part of Shane Warne, the production is directed by Neil Armfield with sets by Brian Thomson and lighting by Damien Cooper. Production Management for the show is by Trafficlight whilst Chameleon Touring Systems has supplied the lighting.
The lighting includes six snazzy gold Martin MAC2000 Performances and two gold MAC2000 wash, 13 x MAC2000 Performance, 21 x Martin TW1, 3 x MAC2000 wash, over 100 x Source 4, 36 x Par 64 NSP, 4 x Par 63 MFL, 10 x MR16, 14 x 500w QI, 2 x UV fresnel, 2 x UV flood, 3 x Martin Atomic strobe, 4 x Molefay Duet, 8 x ACL bars and 2 x Robert Juliat Aramis 2.5K HMI. Set electrics include 7 x Cyberlight Turbo, 2 x AF1000 fans for ventilation of cyber lights, 1400 x Festoon, 4 x Star cloth Colour Changing LEDS. Control is a MA Lighting grandMA.
The team of Neil Armfield, Brian Thomson, and Damien Cooper also did the highly successful Keating! the Musical but whereas Keating! was the little show that could, Shane Warne is a big brash rock set with 1400 festoons, cyberlights in the floor, and side lighting towers dressed to look like trophies with gold Martin MAC2000 Performers on top.
“Brian and I had talked about prop trophies on top of these side lighting towers and I suggested using gold moving lights” explained Damien Cooper. “I had seen some MAC700’s that Tony Davies at Chameleon had painted white. It was a beautiful automotive paint job. So we now have Toyota gold Mac2000 Performers and Washes!
“I am a big fan of the MAC2000 Performers; the FX wheel is such a great tool for creating movement on stage. Also in the rig are Martin TW1’s with their beautiful incandescent fragile light. The Martin Atomic 3000’s with scrollers get a huge workout.”
The grandMA controlling the show is very ably programmed by Martin Robert.
“He set the console up in XYZ thus allowing us to trackball all the TW1’s onto Eddie for Shine like Shane, a song where I wanted Eddie ten times brighter than everyone else on stage,” added Damien. “There are over 500 cues called by Diana Hume the stage manager.
“It really was a great show to work on. We were looked after superbly by Luke Cuthbertson of Chameleon Touring Systems as well as Kent Johnston and Hugh Carlton.”
www.showtech.com.au
EI’s Martin Atomic Scrollers debut on Tegan & Sara
Posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009
Canadian singer-songwriters and identical twins Tegan & Sara are an indie song-writing duo with a large following in Australia. Entertainment Installations recently supplied the lighting for their sold out show at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney.
The show was the debut gig for Entertainment Installations newest acquisition of Martin Atomic Scrollers. Jarred Hawke operated the lighting rig that consisted of twelve Martin MAC700, eight MAC250 Wash, four Atomic strobes, four Atomic Scrollers, a Unique Hazer, and four 4 Liters.
”We decided to purchase the Atomic Scrollers after having seen them on several tour riders for upcoming tours,” commented Neale Mace, managing director of Entertainment Installations. “We first used them on a dance music event and we were very happy with their ease-of-use and the effect they created.
For Tegan & Sarah the Atomic Scrollers were actually on the lighting spec.
“They are an exceptional effect and Jarred used them for some great “bang” effects as well as some subtle looks,” added Neale. “They certainly add another dimension to the already impressive Atomic Strobe.
“We own a number of Martin Atomic strobes and I can see us purchasing more units and adding more Atomic Colors to them as they are a great addition to our lighting hire inventory.”
www.showtech.com.au
Anolis creates the Perfect Reception
Posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009
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Anolis LED has been a hit again for Northern Territory Darwin based Top End Sounds. Top End Sounds has a large Anolis inventory, and is constantly used on Top End Sound’s event productions.
A local Darwin beach became the venue for a wedding recently. Managing Director Colin West says “We were approached by the Darwin Sailing Club to build a 30 metre long marquee as a reception venue for a recent wedding they were to host”.
Continuing Colin says “The marquee actually looks like it belongs there, however there was a bare space with rocks and sand and we built the marquee from scratch. Everyone was amazed at how good the marquee looked and loved the transition from day to sunset”.
Colin selected to use Anolis ArcLine LED strip lighting in each bay of the draped roof to give the marquee a warm feeling setting the mood for the evening. “Anolis was a good choice for many reasons”, Colin says, “Its advantage is it emits no heat, has really high output and is extremely easy to use. Anolis was a key part of the spectacular look which wowed the clients on their very special occasion”.
www.ulagroup.com
Vuepix help turn on the Christmas lights
Posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
Clifton Productions Perth has recently been involved in the City of Perth’s ‘Turning on the Christmas Lights’ to celebrate the official beginning of the City of Perth’s Festival of Christmas.
The Lord Mayor of Perth, Model Megan Gale and ABC1’s host Elliot Spencer were just a few invited to celebrate the City of Perth’s ‘Enchantment of Christmas’ for children and their families.
Clifton Productions Perth has recently taken delivery of over 70 Vuepix P25 LED Screens. Managing Director Ed Matthews said “we chose to invest in Vuepix Screens for their light weight and affordability for our clients, as opposed to hiring an alternative more expensive High Resolution LED Display.”
The Vuepix screens were used to create a backdrop and as video displays. Ed states, ‘We initially planned to only run vision effects through the screen however the screens performed so well we decided to run the cameras live on the screen too.” Also used were 12 iLED x Colorbank 54’s around the truss’s arch to give the audience an engaging visual effect using RGB led.
Ed chose 12 x Robe 1200 ColorSpot EAT’s and 8 x Robe ColorWash 1200 EAT’s for their high output. ‘We tried to achieve the look of snow falling projecting on the Post Office Building utilising Christmas colours of red, green and blue. Robe’s are always impressive and we are always happy with their reliability.” said Ed.
Continuing Ed says, ‘We are entering in to our busiest time of year now. Since using Vuepix for the very first time at the City of Perth’s Turning on of the Christmas Lights – we have picked up another 2 jobs because Vuepix had everyone talking!”.
www.ulagroup.com
BCL’s LED Pro Tri-colour PAR 64 solve a Carols dilemma
Posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
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For the third year in a row Brisbane Concert Lighting has supplied, installed and designed a stunning light show for the IGA Lord Mayor’s Carols in the City. Presented by City Tabernacle Baptist Church, and screened by the Channel 9 network, the event is held on the Brisbane River Stage in the city’s Botanical Gardens.
The elaborate stage set features several frosted perspex panels which BCL wanted to back light with LED fixtures but as the show is televised the fixtures they already had were unsuitable due to flickering. Then they came across the new Pro Shop LED Pro Tri-colour PAR 64 with ‘tri-colour’ technology, meaning that each LED contains a red, green and blue chip; colour is mixed before it leaves the fitting, creating highly saturated colours free of chromatic shadowing that is evident on standard RGB units.
Further to that the LED software that controls the dimming has high refresh rates ensuring that the output will not flicker on screens in television applications.
“The Tri-colour LED PARs are great because they have no colour fringing, so the shadowing is smooth and there’s no tri-chromatic separation,” said Sam Walter of BCL. “And the fact that they don’t flicker on camera is great. They’re extremely bright and great for cutting through the large amount of white colour wash required on stage for the cameras.”
A rig of Martin MACs – 6 x MAC2000, 12 x MAC600, 4 x MAC550, 12 x MAC250 Wash – are used to front light the stage. Also in the rig were 96 x Kupo PAR 64.
“The MACs saturate the set with colour from the front so we get a nice two-tone colour separation through the perspex from the front lighting,” said Sam. “The MAC2000’s supply all of the gobo animation over the set.”
This year BCL sub-hired a couple of Robert Juliat Aramis 2.5k follow spots for the gig and Sam was mightily impressed by them.
“It’s the first time we’ve used them and we were very, very impressed,” he said. “From an operators point of view they are built fantastically; everything is so smooth, the dimming is realistic and the light out put is really punchy. Last year we used Xebex follow spots and they tapered off a bit once all of the white wash came on so we were asked to find something that could cut right through and the Robert Juliat Aramis’ certainly did that!”
www.showtech.com.au
Jands Vista joins the Circus
Posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
For fifty years the Great Moscow Circus has been thrilling audiences with acts of sensational skill and agility. Featuring over fifty International performers, from Russia, Brazil, Mongolia, and Australasia, the Circus is again touring the country with a new production.
Brian Anslow, a lecturer in Technical Production at WAAPA, designed and programmed the lighting for this latest show trusting in a Jands Vista i3 for control.
“I recommended that the Circus buys a Jands Vista i3 as I think it is fantastic!’ remarked Brian. “I really think it’s the next step forward in technology. We’ve had one at WAAPA for the past two years and I think the whole control system is very innovative; the whole idea of it, the visual reference … everything.”
When asked which features Brian favours on the Vista i3 he bluntly replies all of them!
“I do like the fact that you can put in a track and choreograph it,” he adds. “Rather than having a CD player where you press play, have a listen and then go program a bit, you can marry all that together so you can program whilst you’re listening. That allows you huge amounts of accuracy.”
Brian pre-programmed the opening of the Great Moscow Circus on his laptop with another screen connected to it so he could run both Vista and WYSIWYG with the audio track in Vista.
“It allowed me to pre-program everything,” he said. “I just like that whole technological advancement whereby you can pre-program on your computer, take your USB, stuff it in a desk elsewhere and away you go.”
Containers for the set up of the Circus were flying in to the opening in Queensland from all over the world but unfortunately the container holding the custom truss and moving lights was held up by customs. This meant that Brian didn’t receive the truss and moving lights until 2.15pm on the afternoon of the opening night!
Brian had also never seen any of the acts only a few bits of DVD footage and, due to the late arrival of the last container, a proper rehearsal was not possible.
By the time everything was set up, plugged in and turned on there was only ten minutes until doors and although Brian had the show pre-programmed in WYSIWIG he decided to run the Vista on the fly.
“I had to use a different LED par can fixture in WYSIWIG than what we had in the tent so when I cloned in the new fixtures I didn’t really have time to test them so I opted to run the show live,” he explained. “However, it was fantastic and it was easy to busk the whole thing. Afterwards, during the after show party, I ran all of the pre-programmed stuff and it all worked perfectly. I guess I hadn’t quite been confident enough, maybe in myself, to jump in and run it having never seen it run before.”
Brian had pro-grammed the show on his laptop along with a Jands S1 not receiving his Vista i3 until the day of the show opening.
“Jands actually lent us one as our paper work hadn’t been processed,” said Brian. “We had sixty LED par cans and eight Martin MAC2000 fixtures – if I‘d been using any other desk I wouldn’t have been able to get it together in time. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to run any other desk live like I did the Vista i3. I reckon that I can program a show four times faster on a Vista i3 than any other desk I’ve ever used.”
Gareth Simmonds is operating the show on tour and by all accounts is delighted and comfortable with the Jands Vista i3. Gareth helped with all of the pre preparation and programming and continues to refine the show as it evolves.
www.jands.com.au
Busy Phase for Phaseshift
Posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008
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Phaseshift Productions have had a busy November with gear and crew going out with Italian mega-star Zucchero, Kenny Rogers, Devo, Franti and Bill Bailey. Naturally Show Technology gear was at the centre of all these lighting rigs
The Zucchero show had three trusses holding 20 x Martin MAC600, 9 x MAC500, 6 x Martin Atomic Strobes, 8 x bars of ACL, and 2 bars of 6 MFL’s.
Kenny Rogers toured with two rigs; the A rig utilized 17 x Martin MAC2000, 120 x pars. 3 x 8 light, 8 x profiles and a MA Lighting grandMA control console while B rig used 17 x MAC700 profiles, 12 x MAC700 wash, 120 x pars, 3 x 8 light and 8 x profiles, again controlled by a grandMA.
Kenny’s LD was Jeff Metter with the Phaseshift touring crew consisting of Crew Chief Jeremy Nolan and for the A rig system Owen Lugg and Lachie Sinclair and the B rig system Michael Corbett and Alex Saad.
Alex Saad stepped in as lighting designer for those crazy guys from Devo using 16 x 240v MFLs, 9 x Martin MAC700 wash, 5 x Martin atomic strobes and 5 x 8lite with scrollers. Jeremy Nolan toured as system technician.
Comedian Bill Bailey also made the most of Alex Saad’s abilities using him as LD for his nationwide tour. Lights consisted of 6 x Martin MAC600’s, 26 x MAC500’s and 6 x LED pars and once again, Jeremy Nolan was system technician.
Lighting designer Nick Elvin used a Phaseshift rig and crew for a Franti tour including 12 x Martin MAC700 washes, 6 x MAC500s, 4 x 8 lights with scrollers, and a Martin Atomic Strobe. Phaseshift crew was John Bamford and Mathew Spiker.
www.showtech.com.au
Novatech on the road with Noiseworks
Posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008
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Australian Rock Legends Noiseworks are busy touring the country with all audio and lighting production, as well as crew, supplied by Novatech Productions.
One of the main issues that Novatech’s Michael Roberts, lighting designer and operator for the tour, had to consider was power.
“As we are playing mainly RSL clubs I had to design something that would be able to work off what these venues can supply in the way of power,” began Michael. “It’s usually just one 3 phase outlet and that’s incorporating house rigs as well. Consequently I introduced twenty-five Pro Shop LED DMX Strips to the show which add a modern-day edge to the show. They’re easy to install, power up and run data for. I really like using the LED strips in fact we have three on the floor that we designed stands for which really makes life easy.”
In terms of lighting, the band wanted a rock’n’roll show and apparently the LED lighting was a bit of a shock to them being used to banks of par cans.
“The band is happy with the results and Jon Stevens, with his theatre background, can be quite particular,” commented Michael. “He really knows what he wants which is good.”
At each venue Michael integrates the house rig with his own which is no mean feat.
“That has been the main problem as you just don’t know what to expect,” he said. “Most venues have been great but there have been places where, for example, there’s been nowhere to rig anything. It’s been a challenge.”
One reliable constant on the road with Michael are eight Martin MAC250 Entour moving profile lights for effects and four Martin MAC600 moving wash lights for front wash. Four Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes and four Kupo 4 Way Strip Audience Molefays complete the rig.
www.showtech.com.au
NRL Grand Final Footy Show
Posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008
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The footy season has finished with the Channel 9 guys once again staging a magnificent production at the Sydney Entertainment Centre for the NRL Grand Final Footy Show.
The lighting was designed by Andrew Veitch and Stuart Anderson with Paul Collison taking care of the visuals on the thirty-four Martin LC Panels via an ArKaos media server.
The LC Panels were arranged in strips either side of the central video screen thus helping to expand the performance area. All video used on the stage was run by three ArKaos front of house.
Paul used all the standard holding graphics on the main LED screen, such as logos for the footy teams, and for the LC Panels dove into his wide supply of stock footage from around the world.
“I was very happy with the way the LC Panels turned out and I really liked the way they framed the stage,” said Paul. “There were absolutely no problems – the new software worked a treat and was easy to use so we’re happy with it and I’m looking forward to seeing it on the market soon.”
Andrew Veitch explained why he chose to use so many LC Panels.
“To put a set into a venue as large as the SEC you’d need a set with six metre high walls and things like that so it’s actually cheaper for us to use LC Panels and get a look that we want to do as opposed to getting a set designer to design and build a set that is destroyed at the end of the show.
“We decided to place ladders in between the strips of LC Panels to break up the LED visuals with lighting and I think it came up well.”
The main lighting rig consisted of forty-eight Martin MAC2000 wash, thirty-four MAC700 profile and some Vari-lites. On the ladders were some of the twenty-four GLP Impressions used on the show as well as MAC700’s. The rest of the Impressions were used on the floor.
“The Impressions were great,” said Andrew. “They really kick and are fantastic for television. Their colour snaps are fantastic.”
More LED was used in the form of twenty-four Pulsar ChromaBanks and sixteen Martin StageBars situated around the back of the audience.
“The StageBars gave a really nice wash over the audience and worked out very well,” said Andrew. “I also had twelve Studio Due CS4 fixtures for audience lighting. Most of the ChromaBanks were placed up in the grid and were used mainly for the music segments although there were a few on the main stage too.”
During the show Andrew controlled the moving lights out front with a couple of MA Lighting grandMA consoles whilst Stuart took care of the analogue lighting from the OB truck.
“We put a lighting console in the OB truck which is a good concept as it meant Stuart was sitting next to the CTV guys and it’s a good way to operate,” remarked Andrew. “Instead of having to communicate via talkback you can discuss things and get nice pictures happening
“It all went extremely smoothly, it was fantastic and I was really happy.”
www.showtech.com.au
Cats in Korea
Posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, one of the world’s most loved musicals has toured the world constantly since it’s premiere in London’s West End in 1981. The musical has enjoyed particular success in South Korea, where local producers recently teamed up with the Really Useful Company Asia Pacific to produce an all new version of the famous show after several recent tours of the country by the world-touring English production.
Mandylights designers Richard Neville and Greg Yates came on board as associate designers to David Hersey’s original legendary design, and were given the brief to create a new interpretation of the design that would be spectacular but still remain true to original look and feel of the show. Before putting pen to paper, Richard and Greg researched the lighting designs almost every past production of the musical, even watching videos from the original 1981 London and 1985 German productions to trace the evolution of the design and find out how to successfully recreate as much of the original magic as possible. Later in the process, armed with dozens of new ideas, the pair flew to New York to meet David Hersey himself to discuss the show’s design. The final product was a design that compliments the raw sexual, circular choreography and direction of the musical, with careful programming that follows almost every musical and movement change throughout the show.
With a very short production period inside the theatre, Mandylights recreated the entire venue, set design and lighting rig in ESP Vision inside their Sydney studio, and programmed around 80% of the show offline with outstanding accuracy. Upon arriving in the Charlotte Theatre in Seoul, it only took two weeks to bump in and have all the lighting programming ready for the show.
New elements in the design include a few dozen specially made LED fittings that are built into the junkyard set which add depth and highlight different parts of the set throughout the show. The most spectacular component of the design, however, is definitely the custom truss structure that the bulk of the rig hangs from – two giant arcs of truss that encircle the Cats Light Ring and Heavyside Layer Pod – two integral pieces of automation that the musical is famous for. The circular nature of the show is seen in the choreography, direction and set design, so Richard and Greg thought it only natural to continue the theme into the lighting rigging and programming as well.
Richard and Greg both designed and programmed the show, which effectively gave the production the knowledge and enthusiasm of two designers and two programmers – an unusual bonus for the producers even for a professional production. On top of this, the staff of Mandylights back in Sydney greatly assisted with the production’s visualisation while the company as a whole negotiated directly with the equipment supplier for the tour to arrange all the specifics of the design and installation.
Richard, Greg and the rest of the Mandylights team are thrilled to continue their involvement with the Korean production team, Seol and Co. and the Really Useful Company which has already spanned several years and many productions.
The new production of Cats opened in Seoul on September 19, and will tour Korea over the next year.
Equipment List: 28 x Martin Mac2000 Profile (all with custom gobos), 26 x Vari*Lite VL2500 Wash, 3 x Martin Atomic Strobe, 164 x ETC Source 4 Profiles (varying beam angles), 72 x Par64 (varying sizes), 12 x Police Beacons, 40 x Eggstrobes, 24 x Custom Made LED Blocks, 2 x Martin QFX Fibre Units, 2 x Animation Wheels, 360m of custom made and dipped festoon looms, 32 x Coloram Scrollers, 2 x MDG Ice Fog Units, 4 x Antari Dry Ice Low Foggers, 4 x Antari Haze Machines
Control: 1 x GrandMA Full Size Console, 1 x GrandMA Light (backup), 2 x GrandMA NSP
www.mandylights.com
Coemar De Sisti supply Opera Australia with custom LED solution
Posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
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Coemar De Sisti Australia was contacted by Colin Alexander from Opera Australia regarding a lighting feature required for the upcoming production of Don Giovanni. The feature included hundreds of 300mm short fluorescents that they needed to be DMX controllable. Through some investigation they found a fluorescent fixture but had reservations about its suitability and the daunting control side to consider which was going to involve hundreds of dimmer channels.
Colin met with Peter Kemp Managing Director of Coemar De Sisti and they discussed the possibility of a custom led solution. Peter proposed a led strip with a diffused lens, built-in direct DMX control, requiring only an external 24v supply. At first Colin was sceptical of the idea, however Peter arranged for some handmade samples to be made with varying number of leds (as Opera Australia had a strict budget they needed to adhere to).
Colin was shown the samples and very impressed with the results and pricing, he felt it was the perfect solution to their problem. Colin had a few minor changes required to the sample such as the mounting system, blackout of part of the fixtures and end caps. These changes were made accordingly and a final handmade sample submitted to Colin for the final approval.
One feature that utilises the led is known as “the clock” which replicated the old style multi segment digital clock and each segment is one led strip. Coemar De Sisti prepared detailed wiring schematics for the layouts which included all the inter-connecting cables for both 24v supply and DMX to assist Opera Australia when installing the systems. After everything was settled with samples etc for the project, Opera Australia requested Coemar De Sisti supply a complete system of led strips and cabling system and manufacture began.
In April this year Coemar De Sisti supplied the complete system to Opera Australia, and installation began. Colin is extremely pleased with the end results and recently raved about the products “I am so happy with the Custom LED fixture that Coemar supplied and for the level of commitment and service that we received from Peter and his team. Peter and his team worked hard to supply us with the right product for our 1m x 4m ‘Clock’ in our production of Don Giovanni. The LED clock had two forms. Act 1 when it was the Clock, it consisted of 121 x Custom LED fittings and then during interval the whole piece was re-hung vertically and an extra piece added to increase the quantity of LEDs to 151 and it became the ‘Statue’ Peter worked with myself and Lighting Designer – Nick Schlieper a year out from the opening night, showing us various options of LED fitting and power/control systems. When we first used the ‘Clock’ in the Opera House, it brought out quite a few ooh’s & aah’s from the creative team and crew… not always the easiest audience!”
As we frequently have clients with a demand for such a diverse range of custom made led products, Peter travels at least once a month to China to work closely with the factory on required samples. This gives us the opportunity to offer our clients a tailored made product providing them with exactly what they need.
This is an example of just what Coemar De Sisti can offer in the way of customised led projects to meet a particular requirement and particular price, once again another very happy Coemar De Sisti client!
www.cdaust.com.au
Martin LC Panels behind the Pussycat Dolls
Posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008
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Ford Live! is a yearly cocktail party run by Ford Australia which raises funds through ticket sales for the National Breast Cancer Foundation to be used to fund breast cancer research. This year, the Pussycat Dolls, the group who everyone wishes their girlfriend was hot like, and Amy Pearson performed at Melbourne’s QBH club.
Alex Saad was called upon to turn everything pink changing the venues’ existing exterior lighting pink as well as the inhouse lighting. For the performances on an extended club stage, Alex hired in twelve Martin MAC700 profiles and eight MAC250 Entours from Phaseshift Productions and eight Martin LC Panels from Group Production Services.
“I absolutely love using the MAC700’s.” stated Alex. “They’re a versatile lamp, not too heavy, have great rotating gobos, the colours in the colour slots are good with correction in it for when you want to use them for television ……. pretty much a good little workhorse!”
Alex used the MAC250 Entours to the side of the stage whilst the LC Panels formed the backdrop.
“I’ve used the LC Panels quite a bit recently and they’re fantastic,” he said “People are always coming up to me and asking me what their pitch is. Usually they think it must be 10 or 16 mm and when I say it’s 40 mm they’re always surprised at how good and bright they are. In fact, they’re really too bright in a club situation; I had to turn them down to 30% – 40%.”
Other than the one Pussycat Dolls logo, no content was supplied by the band and the only brief Alex received was to make the show ‘bright and flashy’.
“I always ask the question is there anything they don’t want,” said Alex. “And the reply was no, just make it bright and flashy with a bit of a ballyhoo at the beginning.”
Just a couple of days earlier, the Dolls performed an outdoor show in the plaza for Sunrise and again Martin LC Panels were used as a backdrop. This time, the Panels were supplied by Entertainment Installations with Bryce Mace at the controls.
www.showtech.com.au
Lighting the ARIA’s
Posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
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The Annual ARIA Awards held at ACER arena is one of the country’s biggest events. Lighting this extravaganza is no mean feat with over 10,000 people in the room and 16 television cameras capturing the event which was aired live on the TEN network. Auditoria’s Ian Anderson took on the Lighting Design/Director role this year. Paul Collison was the Associate designer and Graham Anderson called followspots and sunguns. One of the biggest challenges that any music awards night is making all acts look different on the same set. The ARIA’s had 8 acts all with very different styles from Presets to Pink to Gurrumul. The use of “extras” on top of the base system helped differ the looks. Moving trusses, LED and the old 5k Fresnel all had a go! Matt Hanson who was the LD for the Presets event brought the green laser back!
“The show went off without a hitch” says Ian. “The system was well looked after by Brad Gander and all the crew from Chameleon.”
One element that Ian was keen to use on this event was the Kinesys hoist control system.
“The initial use for the 6 hoists on 3 trusses was for Faker. It enabled us to get the trusses in just above the band and move them around on cue which adds a whole new visual effect. We also ended up using them for angling trusses to suit different stages and even to get a VL3500 in the right spot to light Andy as he hung in the middle of the lighting rig!”
Chameleon was the lighting supplier.
Lighting: 800ft x truss, 116 x Chain Hoists, 6 x Kinesys Hoists and Control, 5 x 24way Hoist Controllers, 33 x 5k Fresnel, 16 x 80v Selecon Pacifics, 84 x Source 4 Pars, 256 x VNSP Pars (Sam Sparro), 6 x 48way dimmers (Sam Sparro), 8 x Redheads, 2 x Blondes, 3 x Sunguns, 16 x Studio Due CS4 (Pink), 12 x Pulsar Chromabanks (Veronicas), 8 x LED Pars (Faker), 8 x Zipstrips, 20 x 8 light Molefay, 20 x Duets, 32 x VL3000 Spots, 30 x VL3500 Wash, 10 x VL2000 Spots (set), 10 x VL2000 Wash (set), 30 x Martin TW1, 30 x VL500 Wash, 7 x Highend Showguns, 30 x MAC 2000 Wash (audience), 20 x MAC 2000 Spots (audience), 30 x Palco 5, 24 x Martin Stagebars (set), 6 x Followspots (house), 6 x Hazers, 4 x Fans, 4 x Foggers, 30 x Martin Atomic Strobes inc colour changers, 3 x grandma consoles, 8 x NSP Nodes.
www.auditoria.com.au
The Bangles shine with Victor
Posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
The 80’s just wouldn’t have been the same without The Bangles. Hits like Eternal Flame, Walk Like an Eygptian and Manic Monday continue to be played on radio stations across the world and are sung along to in Karaoke bars with all the giddy joy and effervesance that the Princesses of Pop brought to the masses of music fans back in the 80s.
Despite a traumatic break-up in the ‘89 and just over a decade in hiatus, The Bangles are back and they are bigger than ever. 2003 saw the release of Doll Revolution, which received rave reviews by fans and critics alike, and the girls have been touring the world ever since.
A highly successful tour of Australia has just wrapped with Entertainment Installations supplying full production and crew for the girls at their Canberra Royal Theatre gig (pictured) as well as lighting for the Sydney Enmore gig. The rig included eight MAC700 profile, six MAC250 Wash, two Studio Due CS4, three Molefay 4 Liters, eight MAC TW-1 and a Look Solutions Unique Hazer. Also in the inventory was Entertainment Installations latest acquisition – two Robert Juliat Victor follow spots.
“We were looking for some more powerful follow spots to use when our existing 1200w HMI spots were not enough,” said Neale Mace, managing director of EI. “After a bit of investigation and discussion with James at Show Technology, we decided to try out the Robert Juliat Victor models.
“Our initial demo was a gig where the throw to the stage was about 50m and we used one Victor compared against one of our 1200 HMI follow spots. The 1800 MSR Victor easily out-performed the 1200HMI spots.”
Neale further describes the Victor follow spots as light in weight, easy to use, possessing excellent on-board dimming and he loved the fact that they arrived with a bunch of useful accessories including a T-shirt and gloves!
“We decided to purchase two2 units and have since used them on several shows with great results,” he commented. “They seem to “tick all the boxes” for a great follow spot – light weight, simple to operate, very punchy, great dimming and they just “feel nice” to use.”
www.showtech.com.au
IC the LC’s on the Footy
Posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
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The AFL Footy Show Grand Final edition has always been a big project. When designer Rohan Thornton decided to use Martin LC Panels he knew he would need quite a few and so he turned to Resolution X to supply the seventy-two panels required.
Behind the stage fifty-six panels were used to create a wall 28m wide and 4m high. This included a centre section that would fly to create a stage entrance. Above the stage, eight panels made the centre of the diamond at 4m x 4m. Another eight single panels were out-rigged of truss around the diamond. This three-tiered design gave great depth to the stage.
Rohan ran the system with four Hippotizers along with a Spyder supplied from Massteknik. The Hippotizers ran all of the media while the Spyder distributed it over the screen. This allowed the LC’s to carry both media server footage and live content.
“It was an outstanding success,” reported Rohan. “We as an industry are one step closer to being ‘Lighting/Visual’.”
To assemble this system ResX drew not only on their own stock but also freighted panels from other suppliers around the country.
“It was a logistical challenge as not only did we have to build this massive system but we had to get the panels straight back out again to other projects – such is the demand to use the LC’s” said Tim Hall.
www.resolutionx.com.au
VariLite and ETC Make a “Wicked” Theatre Combination
Posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008
It seems that Melbourne is awash with world famous musicals at the moment, with crowds flocking to see Guys and Dolls, Wicked and Spamalot. And what do these three productions have in common apart from rave reviews? They all rely on the winning combination of ETC analogue lighting and Vari*Lite moving lights to produce their stunning lighting designs.
The Regent Theatre is playing host to Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, which is fabulously lit by Kenneth Possner. It utilizes 12 x Vari*Lite 3000Q Spots, 17 x Vari*Lite 3000 Spots, 32 x Vari*Lite 2500 Spots, 26 x Vari*Lite 2500 Washs and a whopping 278 ETC Source 4 fixtures.
The Princess Theatre is home to Guys and Dolls which was originally lit by Howard Harrison and his associate James Whiteside. The rig contains 10 x VL3500Q Spots, 4 x VL3000 Q Washs, 3 x VL2000 Spots, 8 x VL2000 Washs and 69 ETC Source 4 fixtures. Added to that are six ETC Revolution fixtures.
Over at Her Majesty’s Theatre Spamalot, originally designed by Hugh Vanstone, was using 15 x VL3000 Q Spots, 10 x VL2500 Spots, 14 x VL2500 Washs, 18 x VL500s and heaps of Source 4 fixtures.
What else do these productions have in common apart from amazing lighting and lighting products? The talented Hugh Hamilton! Hugh worked as Production Electrician on Spamalot and Wicked as well as Associate Lighting Designer on Guys and Dolls. And Hugh just loves his Vari-Lites.
“Vari-Lites have the best output and their zoom is absolutely amazing,” he commented. “They go from 60˚ to narrow with a single fixture. Their brightness, even field, easy maintenance means that theatre designers are always specifying Vari-Lites. The VL3000s are particularly bright and the new VL2500 washes and spot are great with their new dimmer modules – the glass enables a much better fade than with solid metal blades.
“I think at the moment Vari-Lites are definitely the new unit on the block and there’s a lot of money being invested in them. Meanwhile their competition’s products are getting older and so everyone is buying Vari-Lites.”
Hugh describes the ETC Source 4 fixture as the workhorse for theatre lighting in Australia. For the first time, Hugh is also using the ETC MultiPARs on Wicked and he describes them as having a lot of output.
“They’re a handy batten,” he said. “As for the Source 4, there’s really no other profile competitor in the industry that can match the reputation of it. I found the Revolutions very entertaining. They’re reliable and their inter-changeable pieces are great. I used the shutter kit on Priscilla and the twin rotating wheels on Guys and Dolls – the way you can drop in and out modules is neat. They’re also the same colour temperature as the rest of the Source 4 rig which is good.”
www.jands.com.au
VuePix adds versatility to Olympic Broadcast
Posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Channel Seven’s recent coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games has been viewed by over 17 million Australians, outpacing all other Olympic Games and other major events over the past five decades. Beijing 2008 was the first time the event has been broadcast in HD, with Channel Seven broadcasting over 17 hours a day of 1080i coverage.
The Broadcast was hosted from the Channel Seven studio of the International Broadcast Centre in Beijing. The Channel Seven Production was designed by accomplished Australian Designer Mal Nichols, where elements of the set were designed to maximize the limited space that the studio occupied in the Broadcast Centre. Mal wanted flexibility in lighting effects incorporated into the design, and so the lighting rig included a 20 panel VuePix LED Video Screen, 50 iLED Color Tubes, and 70 iLED ColorBank 54’s, supplied by Clifton Productions – who also constructed the set.
Mal Nichols states that the goal of the lighting in the television production was to “create atmosphere, and increase options and flexibility” in a very small environment. This was the key motivation behind incorporating the VuePix screen, as the versatility of the screen allowed various content to be relayed to the audience – including live to air feeds and computer generated graphics. It was also imperative that the screen had brilliant resolution, so as to ensure that the quality was maintained for 7’s HD broadcast. Mal states “the resolution was of surprisingly quality for a 6mm, and there was no strobing through the screen”, which was essential for a flicker free broadcast.
This impressive screen was VuePix’s P6 RGB SMD 3in1indoor model. The P6 is a high resolution (6 mm) display with a calibrated brightness of 1000cd/m2 and a pixel density of 10, 000 pixels/ m2 to deliver unrivaled light output, and incomparable color depth and uniformity, best suited for broadcast conditions. The content was powered by a multi-format image processor that accepted Channel 7’s HD SDI signal and digitally scaled it to 1024 x 768 (to fit the format of the screen) with ease. This signal was then sent through the VuePix’s video processor, which can accept a wide range of incoming signals: S-Video, composite, DVI and VGA. The screen was configured via the VuePix LED Studio software.
James Pavey of Clifton Productions supports the screen by stating “it looked good and went together easily”. He goes further to say “there were many positive comments from crew and guests on the set”. The VuePix range of leading LED video screens for indoor and outdoor use is distributed exclusively in Australia by the ULA Group.
www.ulagroup.com
Martin LC Panels in fashion
Posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008
The David Jones Summer Collection was launched in Melbourne and Sydney recently with a fabulous lighting design by Hugh Taranto that incorporated Martin LC Panels into the flooring The venue in Sydney was the Royal Hall of Industries whilst in Melbourne it was the Town Hall.
The David Jones event team was keen to utilize a video effect and initially they looked at a variety of video screens and such options. But problems arose with how the screens would be supported, their weight plus cooling difficulties. However the Martin LC Panels were perfect in shape and size to fit into the standard staging fixture plus they were light and very easy to install into the design.
The stage consisted of a thirty-metre, Perspex catwalk made out of Staging Rentals new LE deck, and the look continued to the back of the stage almost as if the catwalk was climbing the wall for six metres. The large screens on either side, supplied by TDC, displayed the main imagery with the catwalk used for colour and textured that complimented.
A total of thirty-one LC Panels, supplied by Cairellie, were used in Sydney with twenty in Melbourne where the catwalk was shorter. The media fed through them was supplied by the David Jones creative team headed by Mike Mizrahi.
“The LC Panels give you so much more creative freedom as a lighting designer,” said Hugh. “They were perfect for this job as it meant that the light was coming from a much larger source than a small point source as even without running media content, they provide a great colour wash. It meant that the top lighting wasn’t influencing it too much.
The LC Panels are a great product for what the client was after and more cost effective than using some of the other LED screen options they were initially looking at. The way they could be implemented into the catwalk really met their creative needs.”
The rig lighting was mostly Source IV pars with barn doors for the catwalk as well as Source IV profiles for audience lighting. Martin MAC700’s were used in the pre-show and after-show area as well as some LED fixtures. These were all supplied by Bytecraft.
www.showtech.com.au
Avolites Diamond 4 Elite goes Bollywood!
Posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
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An Avolites Diamond 4 Elite console is currently touring Australia with the theatrical dance spectacular, The Merchants of Bollywood. Hitting Australian shores after its sell out international tour in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Geneva, The Merchants of Bollywood have landed at the Gold Coast’s Jupiters Casino for a 16 week run.
The Merchants of Bollywood extravaganza charts the history of the world’s largest and most prolific film industry, and a dynasty of stars that have lit its way over generations. This fictional story, based on real life, reveals to Western audiences the workings of cinema and the part it plays in the heart and soul of Indian society in an extraordinary evening of music and dance.
UK based lighting designer, Benedick Miller, has worked on The Merchants of Bollywood since December, taking over from original LD Liz Berry, and has completely reworked the programming on the road. Miller has been in the industry for over 25 years and has used a variety of Avo control throughout his career, from the Pearl Sapphire way back to the QM500 – which he wishes they still made!
He operates The Merchants mix of theatre elements and pure Bollywood Rock’n’Roll very much hands on, with 500 button presses per show – not including all the preloaded chases! Miller states “The Diamond 4 is a workhorse” and claims that the desk is especially suited to creating the big, bold, and colorful looks which are essential for The Merchants musical numbers.
The D4 is controlling a combination of fixtures from Martin, High End, Robe, and Le Maitre. The gear for the Gold Coast production is a combination of items from Jupiters Casino’s inventory and also items supplied from Chameleon Touring Systems Brisbane, including the Diamond 4.
From a design perspective, Miller has two distinct elements within the production that he must program for. The first is the standard theatre sections of the show, which involve direct delivery of dialogue to the audience. During these sections the emphasis of the lighting is on the actors, and the look is clean and simple.
The more dynamic parts of the show are during the musical numbers which involve a lot of movement and color. Miller has spent considerable time studying traditional Bollywood movies, to create authentic looks and has come up with a combination of big bold patterns and strong powerful colors. He also paid particular attention to the costuming, taking costume changes as cues for the lighting, so as to enhance and compliment this essential element of the production.
www.ulagroup.com