Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier relishes creative challenges, so being asked to design lighting and set for his first beauty pageant – Miss South Africa 2014 at Sun City Superbowl – ticked a few boxes and presented some aesthetic challenges. – Which were a long way away from the more familiar territory of lighting a music concert or show!
Joshua was initially asked on-board for this year’s event by Glenn Van Loggerenberg and Anton Cloete from Don’t Look Down Productions, who were contracted by Sun International to produce the event. They asked Joshua to assist with the design and visual concepts, and Johannesburg-based AV Unlimited to deliver the full technical production package.
The brief for all was to bring a fresh and vibrant feel to the classic beauty pageant model, and specifically to give it a more contemporary edge than previous Miss SA shows.
Josh sat down with the Don’t Look Down Team and AV Unlimited’s Project Manager Guillaume Ducray. “It was a very collaborative process,’ explains Joshua adding that this was also: “A very satisfying way to work,’ as they all brought different ideas, outlooks and experience to the table.
They decided to put projection right at the core of the visual design to provide a dynamic and highly versatile medium to could help transform the stage as the show unfolded. A 30-metre wide by 7-metre high projection surface was split into three sections – a central one at 10 metres wide flanked by two 9-metre wide wings. These three flat surfaces were surrounded by scenic “shards’ above.
The video content commissioned from Motion Cult was 2D, but mapped across the screens and the scenic pieces it had a real 3D effect and the two different surfaces became fused so seamlessly into one environment that a whole new layer of spatial dimension was added to the space.
The projection also enabled the creation of simple but dramatic changes in the backdrop and mood for the three live entertainment sections that interspersed the different parts of the pageant.
In front of the screen was the stage which housed a 13-piece orchestra and a large central staircase. The stairs were skeletal and so LED screens were placed behind to fill any dark spaces at the back.
There was also a 12-metre runway emanating from the stage into the audience – the front part of which comprised 600 seated VIP dinner guests, and behind them, another 2 000 general public in the tiered seating.
The video content was loaded onto two Coolux Pandora’s Box media servers and programmed and run by Martin Slabbert.
The projection hardware was specified by Guillaume, comprising three Barco 20Ks and three 14Ks, which were run as three doubled-up pairs – one feeding each section of screen.
Once the parameters of the projection were established, Josh started thinking about lights.
The key was to get a nice soft, even wash across the main stage that would cover all 12 contestants when they were all onstage even when spread out. With that as a base state, he needed to make the flesh tones look beautiful, glowing and natural on stage and on camera with have minimal shadows, especially on the faces – a tricky task requiring lots of precision and fine-tuning of his general stage wash lights.
Once that was established he could overlay colours to add secondary hues and more spectacle to the different sections of the show which were couture, swimwear, evening dress and the finale – “ascension’ moment – leading up to the crowning of the winner.
Several over-stage trusses were installed. The upstage ones were populated with Clay Paky Sharpies which were used for tight beam-work and effects above the screens and reaching down across the stage.
The trusses directly above the stage were rigged with Robe ROBIN LEDWash 1200s to form the base of the contestant key wash. He used 12 Vari*Lite VLXs on the front truss to subtly wash the stage and also illuminate the audience, together with a selection of PAR cans.
Other moving lights used for general stage colouring and washing included Martin MAC 700 profiles and MAC 101 LED washes.
Josh programmed and ran all the lighting from his grandMA2 light console with and OnPC wing for backup. MA has been his control platform of choice for some time for its sheer power and flexibility.
The grandMA2 was also used to trigger the Pandora’s Boxes playing back the video cues, and in addition to this, the media servers were also running multi-track audio including the stereo backing tracks, the click, SMPTE timecode for the lighting and vocal cues for the orchestra, so the MA2 was essentially running the whole show!
The final sequence – the crowning – saw some slick choreography with the dancers and video footage interacting. The video had the shards exploding and splitting apart, then re-forming into the Miss SA logo behind the winner’s throne with the dancers pretending that they were manipulating and shaping the video.
This received a great reaction and was one of a number of intelligent visual flourishes bringing the new, imaginative live staging edge to the show that the producers were looking for.
