Mavericks Rock the Vote in Brooklyn
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Although the sheer size of this colossus was impressive, its true impact as a design element went far beyond its physical dimensions. “It was one of my favourite looks,” says Dierson, owner of The Activity, who served as production designer for the event. “Sure, it was massive, but that was just the beginning. The chandelier looked great on camera, and it gave us this very powerful element of versatility.”
Hung exclusively on the chandelier, the Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures in Dierson’s rig were trimmed at heights ranging from 52 to 65ft over the stage. From these lofty positions, they created an array of colourful looks and contributed to the overall audience lighting, which played extremely well on camera.
“Even running in one of their basic modes, the Mavericks provided a ton of flexibility and effects when we needed them,” says Dierson. “We used them to create a vast number of different looks - and that’s ultimately what you need when you have 28 artists performing back-to-back.”
As for those artists, they represented a diverse range of musical genres. Produced by Diversified Production Services, the event, which raised money for voter enrollment, featured stars like Alicia Keys, Lil Uzi Vert, Ty Dollar $ign, French Montana, and Farruko.
Dierson’s show, which included over 400 fixtures, kept the entire arena flowing with the richly varied musical mix. “This project has a magnitude not normally seen in production,” he said. “The concept of the show’s flow is that you have a large number of stars from TIDAL’s playlist moving through the stage. This means that you’re dealing with extremely fast changeovers along with all these different genres of music. So, the overall lighting rig needed to be varied and layered enough to go from being very big and energetic, to being able to pull down into stark and intimate looks.”
(Jim Evans)
