PSL supplied four 20ft x 15ft projection screens to fulfil the specification of video director Julian Hogg, using the new Christie Roadster S+20K DLP projectors to provide a mix of pin-sharp graphics, Madness' own material created by Tim Fleming of Plastic Pictures and live footage, generated by PSL's eight-camera PPU, all using Sony cameras.
"With the stage itself rotating, we had to have more cameras than usual to provide front coverage," explained Hogg, doing his first show in the O2 Arena. "This was an unusual show for Madness as it was set in-the-round. We were flying our screens nearly 50ft in the air, above the lighting grid and below the PA, sitting in between rather than having first choice of position."
For the biggest show of the Madness tour, Julian Hogg and VJ Mark Scarret were housed underneath a bleacher, not the ideal position for the men in charge of the show's visuals. "Spatially, it was quite difficult to see where the musicians were and what they were doing, but we were pretty grooved by the last dates of the tour," says Hogg.
"When we started, there were a lot of opinions flying about, but by the third or fourth show, we had got what everyone wanted. The artistic concept is less about the players, more about their image. They don't like seeing themselves on screen, and would prefer to see visuals of the whole band rather than individuals. The Madness trademark is of course the whole crew mucking about on stage so we aim to pick that up on the cameras, and the rest of the time, it is mostly graphics. We set a look for each tune, which is prepared in advance but very loose in terms of what we do, then we develop it as we go along. It's a busy show for us, real seat-of-the-pants stuff."
(Jim Evans)
