This is the first time a show of this nature has been granted permission to take place in the Piazza San Marco, a world heritage site and home to thousands of pigeons. The audience was joined by the film's star 'voice-over talent' including Will Smith, Robert de Niro and Angelina Jolie, along with the film's producers and directors. In addition to the 500 VIPs, approximately 5,500 local guests also enjoyed the evening - free - courtesy of tickets distributed via a local newspaper lottery.
Production manager Andy Peat and production assistant Bryony Wells co-ordinated the show's rigging, lighting, audio, staging, scaffolding, power and trucking logistics, which including 52 technical crew, 40 local crew and 14 45ft trucks' worth of equipment drawn from various corners of Europe. Technical contractors included Summit Steel (rigging), Essential Lighting (lighting), Britannia Row (audio), Aggreko (power), Blitz Video (cameras/PPU), EST (trucking) and Limelite SRL from Rome, who supplied all scaffolding and scenery.
The film itself was projected onto a huge custom-built 26 x 14m matt-white Harkness Hall screen, supported by the world's largest inflatable outdoor screen structure - designed and engineered by German company, Airscreen. The entire structure measured 30 x 20m, is made from a customized fabric-reinforced PVC and can be inflated in 15 minutes with two small air pumps. Weighing just 1500kg, and ballasted by 48 tonnes of water, the screen frame structure can withstand wind speeds of up to 35km.p.h.
The movie was stored on an Avika hard drive and projected via a doubled-up pair of Barco DP100 projectors using DLP Cinema technology, supplied directly from Barco's HQ in Belgium, tech'd by Dirk de Weerdt. The projectors sat in an air-conditioned room 10.5m off the ground at the top of the projection tower.
A three-camera PPU supplied by Blitz Video was used for pre-show IMAG, directed by Rob Fender and engineered by Mick Jones. This was beamed onto the screen, along with Shark Tale trailer footage and video visuals from the M-Box digital media server run from the lighting desk.
Shark Tale's soundtrack was broadcast via FM radio to headsets, given to guests on arrival and offering a choice between Italian and English soundtracks. Thus the only audio element emanating from the large Turbosound PA during the film was sub-bass.
The sound system, also used for a pre and post show presentations and speeches - was designed by Derrick Zieba and supplied by Britannia Row. Zieba mixed using a Yamaha DM2000. The PA - consisting of left and right front stacks with three delays each side of the square - was also engineered to act as a full audio back-up system in case of blips with the radio broadcast, although in practice it wasn't needed, as the broadcast ran like clockwork.
Lighting designer Manny Treeson worked closely with programmer/ operator Christian Hibbard. Using 80 Martin MAC 2000 washes, eight MAC 2000 profiles and eight Ireos Pro Space Cannon searchlights, the lighting scheme included the tasteful illumination of the Piazza San Marco's famous architectural features, including the Campanile tower. Hibbard operated the show using a Virtuoso VX console. London-based Essential Lighting, whose crew chief was Simon Dunnell, supplied all lighting equipment.
Summit Steel supplied the vast quantities of rigging required to transform the Piazza into an auditorium. This included building the main left and right PA wings - four legged ground s
