Robe boxes clever for Triller Fight Club
- Details
Embracing the pro boxing league, live music performances plus celebrities and social media personalities, the first Triller Fight Club event was staged at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The four-hour broadcast was conceived by multiple Oscar-nominated Alex Kavanaugh and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Bert Marcus.
Star power on the entertainment stage included Justin Bieber, The Black Keys, Doja Cat, Saweetie, Diplo and Major Lazer who punctuated the various boxing bouts with short festival-style sets, together with the first appearance of Snoop Dogg’s new supergroup Mt. Westmore, featuring Ice Cube, Too $hort, and E-40. The rapper was also in fine voice as one of the main fight commentators.
The event was staged behind closed doors due to Covid regulations. One hundred lucky ‘golden ticket’ holders got to experience the live show, chosen via promotional contests on the Triller app.
Tom was invited to create an epic high-octane production lighting design by music stage director Alex Kolb. “It was absolutely fantastic being there – like being at a big rock concert,” stated Tom. “It was just the tonic that all of us involved needed.”
He and Alex have worked together on other major TV productions over the years and for this, Alex specifically wanted Tom to capture the potent cocktail of boxing, music, and VIP elements with an epic cinematic aesthetic that he has injected into other large-scale events.
Tom also worked closely with artistic directors Mike Hess and Juliana Jaramillo and they all together with Alex Kolb devised the massive 500ft wide by 200ft deep scaffolding set structure for the performance segments, complete with passages, stairs, walkways, corners, etc., which surrounded and integrated the boxing ring and stage, setting a stylistic tone for the show.
Lights were rigged all over the structure. With 2,000 plus in total, they were literally everywhere it was physically possible to get a fixture, with yet more hung on a series of overhead trusses flown around the venue.
The show – boxing and entertainment – was livestreamed, so all the camera angles had to be covered for key lighting.
The lighting rig was supplied by PRG – together with the video elements – and featured 250 x Robe Pointes, 44 x LEDWash 1200s, 41 x Spiider LED washes and 20 x Robe BMFL Spots.
A grandMA2 system was used for lighting control, and Tom’s talented FOH team on lighting included regular programmers Mike Appel (who also operated), Jess Baker and Josh Beard and lighting director Mark Klopper. The DOP was Rick Segal, the two best boys were Terry Smith and Rob Russell and PRG lighting techs Luke Lewis and Luke Pritchard were also an integral part of the crew.
Tim Donovan was lighting director for the Boxing Ring Stage, Tony Caporale was the media server operator and the account executive from PRG was Anthony ‘Looch’ Ciampa.
