Renegade's Nick Gray once again created a collection of different lighting designs to compliment and emphasise the individuality of each show.
It was the fourth consecutive season for Gray lighting the BFC Tent, constructed in the grounds of Somerset House, one of London's most historically significant landmarks. The design was based on a single central truss, flanked by two off centre trusses and a flown, raked front-of-house grid.
For strong cross lighting onto the back wall/entrance, and for producing dramatic silhouette effects he positioned 12 Svobodas - to deliver a very bright quasi-parallel light beam/curtain effect at the top of the runway.
The overhead lighting consisted of 140 ETC Source Four profiles with a variety of different lenses, and the seats were lit with Bambino fresnels. The whole lighting aesthetic and raison d'Ωtre was to depart from a purely tungsten 'classic' rig and match the more natural and organic look of the tent this year which featured a wooden floor.
Gray also specified some 10K projectors for producing 'specials' on a cyc for selected shows, and all lighting was run from a grandMA console, operated by Paulus van Heijkant. The lighting crew chief was Ben Howells and the equipment for the tent was supplied by award winning London based rental company, Neg Earth.
Gray's brief also included the lighting of several other LFW areas within the BFC Tent and Somerset House, including the Reception. Here he chose eight of the new Moll Richardson silver 5K Sky Pans, utilised to create a general wash as well as to look cool and interesting in their own right with their massive, intriguing 'dish' appearance. They were accompanied by 30 chrome PAR lights, all hung on two trusses installed in the roof.
In the BFC Lounge area, Gray went for a synergous but different look, sourcing a quantity of orange 50cm Tom Dixon fluorescent globes and eight classic MacLamp angle poise lamps in gold, red and yellow. The idea was to produce a clean, clear timelessly stylish environment with the lighting fixtures forming the scenery as much as they were used as practical lightsources. All these bespoke fixtures were supplied by Shok London.
The back-of-house and hair-and-makeup areas were lit with truss mounted Codas and PAR cans, and in the Canon Centre, several bars of Source Four PARs provided working light for the press and media.
In the Portico Rooms, the main Somerset House presentation space, Gray had Shok London supply a bespoke powder-coated white scaffolding system, complete with a set of silver studio PAR cans and barn doors, plus a Hog iPC laptop for control.
For the Registration Area in the Siemens Hall he specified another white scaff system from Shok London, complete with chrome PARs and chrome Deco PARs - which formed an architecturally stunning rig to highlight the fabulous internal features and create a light, airy and pleasant space.
(Jim Evans)
