Two grandMA full size consoles and four MA NSPs were specified by Lighting Designer Steve Nolan for the BBC’s “Let’s Dance For Comic Relief” live TV shows – the first time grandMA has been used on a fully live BBC entertainment show. The four shows were all shot in Studio 2 at Ealing Studios, West London, UK, and were an integral part of the high profile 2009 Comic Relief campaign.
Nolan specs grandMA for all his major TV shows of this nature, and states, “It’s a fantastic console – and ideal for all the crossover work I do like this which involves the combination of a TV production with live entertainment onstage”.
The grandMAs (the second one running in full tracking backup mode for the show) were programmed by Tim Routledge. He comments, “For a show like this when things are constantly changing and evolving right up till the time we go live on air, it’s been essential to have the two consoles. This has allowed gaffer Simon Baker to work on tasks like updating the patch and other technical matters, while Steve and I have continued programming the show on the other.”
The console was controlling a serious amount of lighting kit. The fixture count included 65 x Vari*Lite VL6Cs and 65 x VL5s, 12 x VL 000s, 8 x VL2000 Washes, 12 x VL1000s, 20 x Atomic strobes with colour scrollers, 257 x Pulsar ChromaStrips ensconced in various set panels, 50 Chroma-Q Color Block LED fixtures, 190 sections of Schnick-Schnack LED screen, 30 PixelPARs, 34 2-lite blinders and some ETC Source Fours.
All of this, together with the consoles, was supplied by PRG.
Large LE (Light Entertainment) shows also require literally hundreds of different effects to be created very quickly, and so the grandMA’s effects engine was a huge asset. Routledge reckons it’s the “fastest” with which he’s ever worked.
For Nolan, the grandMA’s ‘Inhibits’ (group masters) are one of the most powerful and critical features – allowing the editing out of certain channels or lights – and ideal for working on-the-fly as is the nature of live TV.
The “Let’s Dance For Comic Relief” series was produced by Whizzkid Entertainment, hosted by Claudia Winkelman and Steve Jones and ran over four weeks. Each show featured six celebrity dance acts – solos, duets or ensembles – and two music acts which filled in during the voting periods.
All dance pieces required their own individual lighting ambience in keeping with the original style, a process that saw the recreation of dance classics from Saturday Night Fever and High School Musical to pop favourites such as Baby One More Time (Britney Spears) and Thriller (Michael Jackson).
The contestants worked with choreographers to master their moving and grooving, and with stylists to represent their dance icon’s look before taking to the floor in front of the live studio audience and a panel of experts. The six finalists were chosen by the public. A spectacular final dance-off on Red Nose Day weekend resulted in comedian Robert Webb being crowned Dance For Comic Relief Champion with a show-stopping rendition of “What A Feeling” from Flashdance. Proceeds from the voting will go to Comic Relief.
Steve Nolan has also used grandMA on other recent projects including the 2009 BAFTAs at the Royal Opera House and the 2009 NME Awards at Brixton Academy, both also programmed by Routledge.
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