Playing to enthusiastic reviews and audiences, it's the first year that Genk based Painting With Light has produced a fully comprehensive creative concept encompassing all the disciplines - lighting, set and video - one of many strengths enabled by Luc and his talented team of associates.
This scenario allowed Luc to maintain a complete visual harmony for the work, and also gave the scope to design several new and bespoke lighting elements including wireless controlled LED soles that clamp to the base of the stakes.
Says Luc, "With Passion being partly autobiographical in relation to the ambition and perfectionism driving professional ice skaters, there were plenty of possibilities. We worked very closely with show director Bart Colby-Doerfler on developing a very personal aesthetic to present this piece".
They started on the practical front, by designing a (pre-rig) trussing mother grid flown above the ice that provides key positions for all the main lighting and AV kit.
This includes the six Barco HD projectors - two 26Ks feeding the projection surfaces at one end of the space comprising six rotating projection panels framed by a 3D shaped theatre portal - with four 20Ks projecting down onto the ice.
The 'end' projections cover a surface area of 21 metres wide by 8 metres high made up of six rotating DMX controlled screens and the images provide narrative support and locational information. A double row of custom LED lines frames the set portals, a little bit of trickery making it appear like one solid piece of scenery at times. These are individually pixel controlled for additional dynamics.
Painting With Light commissioned and created all the show's video content. On the back wall this includes documentary style footage of the skaters as children imagining their dreams and later on training as their careers unfold. This is all mapped onto the portal and the screens and programmed onto one of their Coolux Pandora's Box media servers by Painting With Light's Katherine Selleslagh.
With a large 40 x 20 area of ice and a fast moving cast to illuminate, lighting was crucial, and the challenge was finding a balance between mood and effects, ensuring the skaters had enough practical light in which to perform safely and that the projections onto the ice were well lit yet remained bold and well defined.
Five Chicago-style 'dance bars' complete with red and gold velvet draping are dropped in for one scene via a set of Wahlberg DMX-controlled winches of which there are 24 in total on the production.
The LED chandelier is rigged in the centre of the grid and was fabricated by Inventdesign from Amsterdam. Over 200 x 1 metre long DiGidot LED tubes make up its diamond shaped constellation.
The LED module for the skates was designed in house, 3D printed then fitted with six integral RGB LEDs and three hi-powered white LEDs. Each one clamps to the bottom of the skate in a few seconds. The 72 individual skates (36 pairs) are individually DMX controlled from the grandMA2 lighting desk that was programmed by Paco Mispelters.
The main ice 'stage' lighting is based on multiple profile and beam fixtures, for which Luc and Paco spec'd 47 x Martin MAC III Performance units, 30 Martin Rush Beam MH3s, and a further four MAC IIIs for follow spots.
The Rush Beams are used for numerous mid-air effects and eye-candy, while for colour and washes over the ice, there are 33 x MAC 700 Washes and 24 x MAC Aura LED washes with top-hats, all supplied by Focus from Amsterdam.
(Jim Evans)
