The tour's "Big Bang" name says it all. So does its tag line The Creation of Color. Asking the big question, "How did colour come to be?" the tour is built around a story line of the world's colour being imperilled only to be rescued by the vibrancy and energy of the crowd. This narrative plays out on the tour's Paint Factory stage, where a massive three-section video wall created with Chauvet Professional MVP 18 LED Video Wall Panels plays a key role in the telling of this epoch-like tale.
"This tour is quite different," said Dan Bouchard, production director of Life in Color. "The Big Bang theme isn't an abstract concept that's conveyed with lighting and set design, it's a real storyline that's told on the Paint Factory stage. The MVP video walls aren't just there for eye candy and breakout images; they're scenic elements that are part of the story."
Bouchard explains that LIC is using an Alpha Channel file on the show's media servers to block outside content from being displayed on large sections of the LED video wall. "We masked out large sections of the wall from the content created by VJs on stage," he said. "Instead of showing the outside content, these sections display our own custom created and ever changing images that support our storyline. So you had the moving fixtures going and the VJ content going, but throughout the entire production our video wall focuses attention on our unfolding story."
A total of 150 Chauvet MVP panels were used on the Life in Color set, about evenly distributed among a centre video wall and a wall on each wing of the stage. Bouchard praised the output and versatility of the panels. "We had a massive array of moving lights, but the Chauvet panels more than held their own," he said. "In fact, we turned the brightness of the panels down to make the lights visible. The clarity and reliability of the panels were essential because we were using them in an unusual way as story elements, so the images had to flow seamlessly."
The show also used a collection of 40 Chauvet Professional COLORado Batten 144 Tour linear fixtures in creative ways.
(Jim Evans)
