LD Mac Chan was part of the team led by creative director Beatrice Chia who made
every Singaporean burst with pride on their 2016 National Day Parade (NDP) and
this year, for the first time, the event was staged at the new National Stadium.
With a live audience of 50,000, a TV audience of around 5 million plus a few more
million tuning in to the live internet stream … there was plenty of pressure on
everyone to deliver.
Chan needed to fill the vast space of the National Stadium with light and chose 500
of Robe’s powerful and versatile BMFL luminaires as the main moving lights – 400
BMFL Blades and 100 BMFL Spots – all rigged on trusses flown in the stadium roof
and supplied by leading Singapore rental company, Showtec Communications Pte.
Ltd.
The theme of this year’s NDP looked forward to the future and the next 50 years of
Singapore – having just celebrated the foundation and the first 50 years in 2015.
The 6 Act plus finale show lasted around 50 minutes and featured a narrative
journey from some of Singapore’s ancient historic myths to the establishment of the
island state, its development and success as a gleaming modern society that’s now
building for a big future.
This is the fifth NDP that Chan has lit, the last being in 2012. He additionally had the
experience of lighting the 2015 South East Asia Games’ Opening and Closing
Ceremonies in the same venue, so he knew exactly what was needed to light large
spectacular events there, and this one in particular.
The BMFL Blades were rigged on three layers of trussing running along the stadium
roof, both sides of the FOP, with the 100 x BMFL Spots located on four trusses, two
at each end of the stadium roof.
The BMFL Spots on the four end-trusses mainly illuminated the stage area, which
featured most of the acting, story-telling and ceremonial action played out by a cast
of several thousand.
Chan loves lighting NDP events because “they always unite a really imaginative and
lateral-thinking creative team who are great fun to work and spend time with’.
Joining Chan at FOH this year was his own talented team – Associate LD Michael
Chan and co-programmer Javier Tan. They undertook a lot of 3D pre-vis using Light
Converse this year, which really saved time in preparing the show, enabling them
to work more efficiently on site and not have to do any crazy overnight
programming sessions!
The NDP 2016 was another big success for Singapore that highlighted the natural
synergies between the creative and technical teams who worked so fluidly across
all the disciplines – video, audio, rigging, flying, lasers and pyro, choreography,
costumes and direction – to deliver another world class show.