Sets and environments were designed by Johnny Roxborough, and for Fisher Productions by Nigel Prabhavalkar. This involved large areas of the factory being draped off to create new and interesting spaces, with Vertigo supplying the rigging infrastructure needed to support the draped materials. In the reception area, where guests entered the factory, Vertigo assembled and flew an octagonal trussing mother grid to support the various metalwork, wood and pieces of carpentry that formed the temporary walls. When complete, it resembled a 25m diameter circle, fully draped around the perimeter with a scalloped-style material wall and a stretched ceiling. Directly above the tiered band platform in the middle, Vertigo flew an 8m circular lighting truss.
The dining area proved a more galvanising rigging equation. The 400 guests were seated at one 155m long dining table. Vertigo built a 155m long by 5.5m wide box truss to run above the table, suspended in the factory roof by 30 half tonne Lodestar hoists. From that, drape specialists Omega hung white cloths, creating a long white tunnel effect on the inside of the space. However one section of the drape ‘wall’ was composed from white sharkstooth gauze, it’s transparency revealed the latest sparkling, new production line machinery – atmospherically lit in with glowing hues and moody shafts of light.
To ensure lights could be rigged in the right places above the robots, Vertigo also hung two 55m trusses. The full production line itself was over 250m long, so only about 1/3 of it was revealed to the impressed diners. Additional scaffolding and metalwork was mounted above the white cloth of the dining room tunnel ceiling for PA and lighting (provided by Dobson Sound and Fisher Productions respectively). Vertigo’s team of eight riggers was headed by project manager Paddy Burnside.
