Faced with various lighting obstacles, Colina would need a suitable lighting package to help him succeed, so he called upon Atomic Lighting who provided him with a rig full of Vari*Lite automated luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.
"When I received the initial set design in April 2011, I looked it over and immediately knew that we would have a few challenges with how the set was laid out," says Colina. "I called the set designer (Jorge Dominquez) to see how we could accommodate lighting fixtures into some of the more difficult spaces in the set, but I was mostly concerned about the air space above the set.
"The design called for steel beams hanging straight-forward towards the audience. They were designed to be ceiling pieces and in the past I have known these types of structures to cause a big challenge to the lighting. Not only did we have the beams to deal with, there were also arches in the air that would run parallel to the set, plus LED Panels that would hang from the arches. With all these pieces hanging in the air, the space was becoming quite full and finding lighting angles would prove very difficult."
After approaching the set designer with his concerns during follow-up production meetings, a few of the arches were removed to make additional room for lighting, but since the set design had already been approved, the majority of them were left hanging, along with their LED panels. Since he uses a 3D programme to design his lighting plots, Colina felt comfortable that he could simulate any obstacles that may be in his path and adjust his lighting placements accordingly. But with so many obstacles in the air, he had his work cut out for him.
"This is the main reason I love working with 3D design programmes. With the set design dropped into the program, I can see if I need to adjust my placements. If I know what a light can do, I can visualize the beams path and immediately see any obstacles. The actual design of this plot took about one week and then I sent the renderings over to the set designer and art director (Anthony Bishop) so that they could see the direction the lighting would go."
Colina concludes: "I choose Vari*Lite luminaires because of their dependability and the complete set of characteristics that each fixture has to offer. There are so many varieties that you can easily pick the perfect fixture to overcome each challenge. While the brightness and the colours are amazing, for me it's being able to choose the ideal fixture for each task that truly makes Vari*Lite luminaires the industry leader."
(Jim Evans)
