Her imaginative starting point for this tour was 82 panels of 6ft x 2 ft polycarbonate 'Polygal' greenhouse/conservatory glazing material, manufactured by Pentaglass. This is double-walled and has a honeycomb cell structure which both reflects and refracts the light. The panels are lit from front, rear and the floor, creating an upstage wall of textured lighting. The panels are extremely lightweight and tough, and are suspended on a series of catenary wires devised by Bandit Lites in the US at the start of the tour. Other 'specials' include 51 Color Kinetics iColor Accent low voltage exterior architectural tube fittings - a combination of 4ft and 8ft lengths. These are also suspended on catenaries of varying lengths, Bandit customised their hanging brackets allowing them to also be rigged on catenary wires, which allows them to dangle randomly above the stage. Bandit also built flightcases for the CK tubes and the Pentaglass panels, and wrote a fixture personality for the iColors so they could be controlled by Sasic via the Hog II console.
The third effect is a Starstrobe curtain, made from 30 American DJ Flash Ropes - strings containing tiny star-strobes. They are hung upstage of the panels, and one of their effects is to create a TV static look on the panels as they sparkle away. The rig then consists of HES Studio Colors, Vari*Lite VL3000 Washes, Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, Martin Atomic strobes with scrollers, 5k fresnels with Wybron colour changers, Source Four profiles with 19° lenses, two-lite Molefays, Lycian M2 truss spots and a Lycian 1290 FOH spot.
These are arranged across four trusses and the floor. Sasic uses her Hog II console with an extender wing, and makes full use of its Effects Engine, particularly in creating the looks and chases on the CK fittings. When devising the show, Sasic worked closely with Michael Stipe, who has lots of visual ideas himself, and is very articulate and specific about expressing them.
This is the first time that R.E.M. has ever carried touring video, and XL Video was the supplier, with project manager Des Fallon. The band and Sasic particularly wanted to avoid a 'conventional IMAG' look, while still providing an enhancement for those at the back of the arenas. Video director Blue Leach first mixed a show for R.E.M. when they headlined the 2003 Move Festival in Manchester. It was a magical moment, explains Leach, when the chemistry came together through improvisation and just totally 'hit the spot', with him producing a fabulous camera cut. He and R.E.M.'s management kept in touch after this with a view to getting him onboard as and when they decided to use live video production.
Leach and Sasic worked closely to produce the idea of a portrait format stage, 'crowned' with a strip of video screen at the top. This consists of 14 panels of Lighthouse LV102 LED SuperScreen. With just the one screen, they also wanted the choice of outputting multiple cameras in any permutation, or just a single camera if they wished. Fallon asked video control guru Richard Turner onboard to design, engineer and programme a system that allowed this flexibility. Using a combination of Dataton Trax, two Magic DaVE digital Video effects machines and an Apple I-Book laptop for create an intuitive and easy-to-use selection and playback system, Leach can have up to eight cameras appearing simultaneously across the screen. One of the DaVE's is also used to produce a variety of very cool camera 'looks'.
