The 9.5m high by 9m wide Pixled F-15 screen was specified by the tour's show's production designer Paul Normandale, who together with Lighting Director Glen Johnson and XL Video, started working with Blunt in 2005. This fourth world tour is by far the largest to date in terms of production.
The idea was that the onstage video should be curved at the back and offer the appearance at times that he's walking on it, and also be visible through the risers - which reflect the lunar landing pods. The overall vibe was to bring a spacey 'horizon' look to the video content, very much in the style and spirit of the 1970's moon landings.
Having a curved at-the-bottom screen also gives a different visual perspective to all those in the banked seats of an arena.
XL's project managers Phil Mercer and Steve Ackein, Normandale and Johnson worked hard to get the artistic requirements in on budget, "Great work from XL" comments Johnson.
He and Mercer then worked on creating an ingenious solution for the straight and curved elements to be optimised for touring and deployed onstage as straightforwardly and rapidly as possible - particularly with summer festivals in mind.
In this scenario, the main back part of the screen can be pre-rigged during the overnight changeover and flown off motors as per standard, while the bottom section with the curve - is assembled in the changeover immediately before Blunt takes to the stage. It is then wheeled in to place on five special supporting dollies, and the two elements are joined together.
On Blunt's own-shows, this practical quick-build technique is also a great asset to the video crew of four and the process of constructing the entire screen takes around three hours.
The F-15 is mounted in touring frames and packs away into bespoke transportation dollies - where the requirement was that these fitted into an 8 ft. row in the back of the truck. Together with the curve support elements, these were fabricated by XL in Belgium.
The camera package comprises of three Sony HXC-100s, two robo-cams and a Kayak mixer, with Mark Cruickshank directing. Two Barco 12K projectors are feeding left and right 16 x 9 ft side IMAG screens.
(Jim Evans)
