Video director and XL crew chief was Ruary MacPhie and the medium of video played an important role in the show’s look, a creative collusion between Peter Barnes’ lighting and set design and Kim Gavin’s overall artistic direction. XL supplied four Sony D35 cameras for live camera playback - two in the pit on a track-and-dolly system, one at FOH and the fourth, hand-held onstage. Realtime show action captured by these was primarily beamed onto two soft screens either side of stage. The main onstage screen consisted of 40sq.m of Unitek 25mm pixel pitch LED, located upstage centre, supplied direct to the production by GL UK. It split to form an entrance/exit for the performers, and was rigged upstage of another ovular shaped soft screen, framed by and moulded into the set.
The XL Video team’s main challenge was the hectic first half when they were dealing with a tightly cued sequence featuring multiple play-ins from the hard drives, effects from the Magic DaVE digital video effects generator plus the live camera feeds. MacPhie mixed the visuals using a Grass Valley GVG 1200 mixer/switcher. Blink TV, the large screen entertainment specialists supplied onscreen material for the pre show and interval period.
(Ruth Rossington)
