Robe builds layers for Perpetuum Jazzile
- Details
Grga works full time with Event Lighting, one of Slovenia’s leading rental specialists and the show’s lighting equipment provider.
Grga integrated LED and video into his proposal for the stage and production design. It was at the first production meeting that he suggested having the singers on the three different levels, which everyone liked, so they went with it. “I wanted to make a statement, and the idea was that the full profile of all 44 singers could be seen rather than just the front row and everyone else squeezed in behind with only their heads showing.”
Up in the roof of the Arena Stolzice, the Event Lighting crew installed seven straight trusses for lighting positions. Ladders were used from the side trusses to get lights into exactly the right low positions for beaming across the stage.
The Robe count comprised 28 x Spiiders, 16 x MegaPointes,16 x Pointes 12 x BMFL Blades, 48 x LEDBeam 100s and 24 x LEDBeam 150s, distributed all over the trusses.
The Spiiders were used as ‘all-rounders’ for top, back and front light.
The BMFL Blades were on one of the front trusses for key lighting. The shutters enabled them to pick out singers for solos and he programmed some highly effective blade chase that looked uber-cool resembling a barcode scanning effect for a couple of the numbers. The Pointes were used as the traditional effect light.
Eight MegaPointes were on the floor with the other eight on the deck of the top (third) layer of set. They were used for precision looks, some of which were time coded to be in unison with clapping and other sonic moments in the singing.
“The aerial looks from the MegaPointes were just what I needed for dramatic punctuations,” explains Grga.
Other lights on the rig included 12 x LED strobes, 40 x Sunstrips and eight 4-lite blinders.
Grga’s multi-layered approach to the architecture and the lighting enabled him to keep the looks dynamic and dramatic for the intense two-and-a-half-hour performance, which ran straight through with no break or interval. He programmed and ran the show on a Hog 4 console, provided, together with all the lighting kit, by Event Lighting.
(Jim Evans)
