The initial creative idea was sparked from the production team's lighting director Ben Fox, who suggested the need for light from within the stage and catwalk runway. The Light inside the runway would follow the models as they made their way down the catwalk and the light inside the stage area would be used to fill a space imaginatively.
Freelance lighting designer Paul Devine, who has worked with the lighting and set design on the Clothes Show for the past 12 years, was called in, and his wealth of experience contributed greatly to the practical side of the design concept. Devine recommended the use of Pulsar's ChromaRange after working with the LED fixtures in the past, and decided to use the ChromaPanels and ChromaHeart MR16 fittings for this particular project.
'We had to work around the fact that the stage and runway was custom-made and that the light fittings would have to work in around that," says Devine. "I phoned Snowy Johnson of Pulsar to discuss the practicalities of turning the choreographer's ideas into a reality and we both agreed that Pulsar's ChromaPanel 600s would be the best product to install into the runway."
A total of 132 panels were used, with three rows of 44 lengths paving the length of the catwalk. This enabled Fox to create colourful effects, which were easily altered within each themed section of the show. The Panels were also easily programmed to react to the beat of the music, chase the models' footsteps down the catwalk and colour-dance randomly during parts of the show. Pulsar reports that the designers, models and audience all loved the solution.
(Lee Baldock)
