SFL on tour for Senbla film season
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“We supplied a 20m truss screen and our brand new 10m wide custom-built AV Stumpfl screen,” says SFL’s video and projects director, Craig Lawrence, who worked on the project alongside the company’s Sungho Jeong, Sam Wheeler, Paul Medley, Chris Gunner-Lucas, Adam Chisnall, Jack Roberts.
“The screen was built specially for these tours at the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is specific to film. Projection was done using our Barco UDX and HDX projectors. We also provided onstage monitoring for the conductors and players so they could see visual click along with timecode. Audio click track was also fed from our servers to the conductor and a number of the musicians. Playback was run from our new Watchout servers, which are ideal for the job, along with multi-track audio via Focusrite 18i20 preamps.”
Having worked on the tour for the past four years, SFL is adept at mitigating the inherent challenges of touring a full-size screen that is necessary to ensure audiences get the full cinematic experience.
“We need to have enough options to adapt to the different requirements of each venue, whilst keeping the amount of kit we transport to a minimum, which is important both from a cost and environmental impact viewpoint,” Lawrence continues. “Sightlines at each venue are also a big consideration; we work closely with the audio supplier and take in-house points, etc, into account to achieve the optimum position for the screen, whilst ensuring audio gets its fair share of real estate.”
“I have looked after the last two tours of Love Actually for Senbla and it is always a pleasure working with SFL and particularly Sam and Paul,” says Senbla tour manager Steve Porter, who together with production manager Cyril Thomas, was in charge of the season. “I was very happy when it was confirmed that they were on the tour this year.
“From the advancing all the way through, they are professional and thorough, ensuring that once on the road there are no issues, but any that do arise they are professional and quick to problem solve rather than think of anything as too big an issue.”
(Jim Evans)
