The exterior of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in down town Los Angeles was awash in colour and patterns recently for the LA Philharmonic’s Annual Gala. In concert with the energy of music director Gustavo Dudamel, lighting designer Raymond Thompson (Images by Lighting) created vibrant colour and pattern combinations using Martin MAC III Profile luminaires to give the iconic concert hall a glowing effect.
Thompson’s lighting rig, supplied and operated by Kinetic Lighting of Los Angeles, consisted entirely of new luminaries including the MAC III Profile, LED sources, and other automated lights. Thompson sought a rig that featured LED, but also needed a luminaire that could handle the long throw distance and challenging surface of the building and turned to the MAC III.
Thompson comments, “We had to project colour and patterns from the east side of Grand Ave, across the street, onto the east facing façade of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. In addition to the distance, the surface of the building is highly reflective and curved. Output was critical. The MAC III Profile layered pattern projection on top of the colour wash and were used to add a colour layer to the other fixtures.”
Lighting fixtures were mounted on lifts that were spaced down the east side of Grand Ave with the MAC III effects an integral part of each scene. The rig was programmed by Dave Mollner.
“The output of the MAC III was very impressive,” Thompson says. “They also have a great selection of stock patterns. The gobo rotation, which we programmed at one of the slowest settings, was smooth and that is really important when dealing with such a projection throw.”
According to David Rosen of Kinetic Lighting, each MAC III worked perfectly out of the flight case with no problems. “The fixtures performed according to plan with no performance issues,” he says. “The colours blended really well with the other automated lights so some scenes were entirely colour wash while other scenes had patterns layered on top of colour.”
Producer: Gai Glass Event Production
Lighting Designer: Raymond Thompson, Images By Lighting
Lighting Programmer: Dave Mollner
Lighting Supplier: Kinetic Lighting
Photos: Kinetic Lighting
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