This year’s Grammy
Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles proved to be another triumph for
GLP.
The
ceremony, which is produced by NARAS & AEG Ehrlich Ventures LLC, recognizes the best recordings, compositions and
artists, and took place within a lighting design undertaken
by locally-based Full Flood Inc, a collective of award-winning LD’s. TV
lighting designers were Robert Dickinson and Noah Mitz.
Inventory was
supplied by PRG’s Los Angeles office and included vast quantities of GLP’s new
generation fixtures including X4 atoms and X4 Bar 20’s. These were used
in performances by both Bruno Mars and Beyoncé.
Full Flood also
specified 20 pieces of impression X1 into custom
‘beacon’ housings designed by lighting director Mike Berger for the performance
by A Tribe Called Quest. “By using the X1’s inside a domed housing we created a
much brighter and more versatile fixture while still referencing the police
beacon look desired by the creative team,” says Dickinson.
Beyoncé delivered a
stunning nine-minute performance celebrating her latest pregnancy. Her LD Cory
FitzGerald worked directly with the Full Flood camp and the Grammys’ production
team, both in order to coordinate the offsite pre-build, and integrate it
within the show rig onsite.
Set on floor carts
in two rows, multiples of X4 Bar 20’s created the main ‘wall
of light’ without being seen, he confirmed. “This formed a scenic element of
smoke and light as a backdrop for [Beyoncé’s] performance, as well as
accentuating the musicality, with the complexity that the fixture offers.
“The fixtures not
only created a beautiful background but at the same time were able to punch
through and hit the music when needed.”
In summary he said,
“The X4 Bars were essential to the look.
They are incredibly versatile and easy to work with. In fact, they are becoming
a work-horse in the industry and can really do so many jobs at once.”
However, it was the
use of the X4 atoms with Bruno Mars that really
caught the eye. The set was backed and constructed with more than 340 pieces of
the fixture, which now houses an upgraded 30W light source.
This saw a rare
collaboration between three of America’s finest, with Roy Bennett designing the
set, Cory FitzGerald the lighting, and Brian Jenkins masterminding the
programming.
Jenkins explained
how the interactivity between the three men worked to create an overall
dynamic. “Cory was bouncing between the Beyoncé and Bruno performances and
needed some extra man power to make sure Bruno was buttoned up,” he explained.
“Since I work with Cory often, we’ve become efficient on how we like to
approach programming, the overall aesthetic, lighting accents and hits, and so
on.”
Having first seen
and tested the X4 atoms at last October’s LDI Show, this had provided the first
opportunity to fire them up in anger. “The three of us are fans of the GLP
products and we’ve been waiting to implement the atoms on the right project,” he
said. “Of course we couldn’t just do 30… 340-plus sounded much better!”
And their faith was
fully justified. “With the crazy set change times, it’s crucial to have a
reliable fixture because there is no time to troubleshoot — and these just
worked!”
The other helpful
feature was the interlocking modules, he added. “These set carts bounce up and
down ramps and are handled by forklifts — so having the ability to keep most of
the atoms locked together kept the look
we wanted and saved time on refocusing before show time.”
And once set up
they certainly delivered. “The colour set was nice, the zoom feature was useful
and fun and provided nice eye candy for the camera.”
Full
Flood’s lighting team also included lighting
directors Andy O’Reilly (Programmer), Patrick Boozer
(Programmer), Ryan Tanker (Programmer), Michael Berger and Madigan Stehly.
Assistant Lighting Directors were Charles Dabezies and Will Gossett. The gaffer
was Robby Lindsay, and PRG was represented by Jason Trowbridge (Lead Tech), and
Tony Ward, Travis Snyder and Jeff Javier (Account Leads), among others.
Hosted by James Corden, the show was broadcast live
through the CBS network and is estimated to have been seen by a total of 26.05 million viewers.
