The show's design and set concept is a non-stop, high-octane narrative set in a classic 1980s arcade games machine, which was the brainchild of artistic director Paul Caslin. He's known both bands for around 10 years and has a background in video and filmic art, so visuals and moving image were always going to be prominent in the aesthetic, which also includes snippets inspired by renowned cult movies of the 1980s and 1990s like Wayne's World, Back To The Future, The Mighty Ducks - the formative era in which they all grew up.
Production North is handling all the technical co-ordination. The creative team working alongside Caslin includes Stuart Merser from Vis-A-Vis Video, who is both the video director and Catalyst operator, and lighting designer Vince Foster ... all contributing to the fun, craziness and adrenalized thrill of the show.
Unique elements include a giant sized fully-working and playable version of a classic games console which is part of the stage set.
The show is completely full-on from the moment McBusted launch into "Air Guitar at the top of the set, from where the performance memorably rocks-out, steamrollering through their many hits with the band giving it absolutely 200 per cent right to the final chord of Year 3000.
With the arcade machine design and Caslin's desire for a retro look but using the latest technology, they needed a large upstage video screen, so XL - project managed by Phil Mercer, and tour production manager Iain Whitehead specified 350 tiles of Pixled F-12 LED product (arranged as a 25 tile wide by 14 deep surface).
Above that is an 'active banner' of Pixled F-12 making up the header of the machine - which is utilised for various complimentary graphics and very often song titles.
The selection of vibrant playback content was all commissioned by Caslin and produced by Blink TV as pixel-perfect material. It was then programmed onto Stuart Merser's own Catalyst V5 media server, running on the latest Mac Pro hardware, which is handling all the playback material.
XL Video is supplying four Sony HXC-100 cameras and a BlackMagic 2ME ATEM switcher on which Stuart is cutting the mix - a neat, lightweight piece of kit with inbuilt multi-viewer screens - which he really likes.
Stuart emphasises the importance of having skilled camera operators as a key to getting a great mix, especially on a busy show like this where he's challenged to cover six super-animated band members, who, apart from drummer Harry Judd, don't remain in one position for more than a nanosecond.
As well as it being a great creative working environment for Stuart and his video team, there is a big upbeat vibe on the tour generally as the success and popularity of the McBusted collaboration looks set to continue for some time!
The many challenges have included getting the vintage games console 16-bit graphics working to best quality on the big screen for a specific part of the show, which engaged Stuart, Engineer Matt Vassallo and the Catalyst for a couple of days!
The stage set console is fully playable - the buttons are triggered by IR beams and the joysticks are micro-switch controlled, all wired back to a classic games console. The audio feed from the console is played out through the PA while the video feed goes to the big screen.
(Jim Evans)
