USA - The unveiling of the new Mercedes G-Class all electric wagon – produced by Team X - at Franklin Canyon Park in Beverly Hills featured a performance by Travis Scott. The Grammy-winning, platinum artist was driven out in the new Mercedes on a platform that appeared to be floating in the lake.
Seth Bernstein, who led the lighting team, used 68 Chauvet Professional Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes supplied by Volt Lites. He described what went into making this memorable experience a reality: “This was an impressive accomplishment. Scuba divers built an elevated stage in the park’s decommissioned reservoir. This presented immense challenges, as we didn’t want to distract from the beauty of the environment with excessively visible fixtures or positions.
“Also, the audience walked in during the last hour of daylight, so we wanted to keep the rig discrete so people would be highly surprised by all the show elements. Since this was the world premiere of the all-Electric G Wagon, lighting the vehicle reveal was a huge focal point for the show planning. Niklas Bildstein Zaar and his team at Sub Global in Berlin, our talented creative directors, chose a piece by lighting artist Boris Acket called Sunrise For Sleepers which consists of a simulated sunrise in an indoor environment.
“Boris and I collaborated on adapting this idea in the canyon setting, using a 24,000-Watt Tungsten Fresnel fixture on a 55’ techno-crane,” continued Bernstein. “As the car drove out, the ‘sun’ appeared to rise over the lake. The amount of technical planning and blind luck that went into making this happen was staggering. Boris was a pleasure to work with. Killswitch Rigging and Volt Lites put their heads together to mount and power the huge fixture on the crane and StrictlyFX provided all the atmosphere to render the sunrise and hide the techno arm and base.”
With the exception of a few selectively employed keys lights, Bernstein relied exclusively on colour washes and strobes from his Color STRIKE M fixtures, along with laser effects. “The creative direction called for a huge amount of atmosphere, which needed to be colour toned for each song,” he explained. “Because we were using these very pure and bold Laser effects, I wanted to be careful about using any fixtures that would create visible beams that would clash. The Color STRIKE Ms had that perfect brightness and colour range, but also didn’t distract the Lasers.”
The high output Color STRIKE M fixtures were used to create a variety of colour washes that played off brilliantly against the shadows and dark spaces. “Red was a huge element of the show, due to the artist material and the way that red makes water look other-worldly,” said Bernstein. “Cyan, amber and the white centre cell of this fixture also played very prominently in the colour choices.
“We had no timecode and no artist rehearsal,” said Bernstein. “So, a huge credit goes to the programmers Joe Watrach on lights and Nick Meyer on lasers, as well as our pre vis model builders at Earlybird. We also couldn’t have done this without Blue Revolver, our lead fabricator, and the Mercedes team, including Clair Global, ST. ROBO, and Bullitt Productions.”
