On its
website, the Illusive Festival describes its mission as being “to create a
magical world away from reality to immerse yourself within.” The festival,
which takes places in the rolling fields outside the Northamptonshire town
of Corby, more than lived up to that goal in September with a mind-bending main
stage design by Simon Wallwork that featured a towering 14 meter (26.2’) high
by 8 meter (26.2’) wide robot that looked like it walked right out of a sci-fi
movie.
In the
belly of the gyrating robot was a DJ booth. Over each shoulder of the robot and
along its sides was an asymmetrically arranged collection of Rogue R1 FX-B
fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.
Lighting
designers Toby Lovegrove and Doug Alan Coppell, along with their team, used the
Rogue fixtures to shoot rapidly moving and rotating beams of brightly colored
light from behind the techno-beast in every direction. The varying shafts of
light from the Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures coordinated nicely with the lighting and
video images emanating directly from the robot, which was created using a Barco
HD20 Projector, MacBook Pro, APC-40 for MIDI Control, and running Resolume 5
that was distributed using Decimator Design MDHX and HD SDI.
“We went
with a sympathetic lighting design that didn\’t detract from the robot’s
projection,” said Lovegrove. “We didn’t decide on the final positioning of the
lights until we were on the site so we could achieve this balance.”
Controlled
with an Avolites Tiger Touch II with a mobile playback wing for extra faders,
the six Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures on the Illusive rig gave Lovegrove an endless
variety of looks to play off against the robot. “We didn’t have a lot of space
to position the lights between the large robot and the big top tent,” he said.
“So the Rogue’s compact size and ability to create so many looks was very
valuable. All the fixtures were positioned to look as if they were attached to
the robot as moving flashing and strobing appendages.
“This was
the first time I had used the Chauvet R1 FX-Bs, and so as the weekend went on I
continued to do more and more with them,” continued Lovegrove. “I used many
more of their built-in cell and movement macros to add a more dynamic feel to
the show. As far as their brightness is concerned, they more than held their
own against the 20K projector. Plus, their versatility made them the ideal
choice to fill all the areas where projection was not occurring.”
In
addition to the Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, the Illusive lighting rig, utilized
another CHAUVET Professional product, the STRIKE 4. The multi-formatted
warm white LED fixture was used in extended 12-channel mode, providing low
power strobing for audience lighting. “One of the issues we had the previous
year was that the lighting did not balance with the projection at all times,”
said the LD. “This year, we wanted to use fewer fixtures and use them in ways
that created a cohesive look. The STRIKE 4s were well-suited for this, because
they gave us a distinct warm white strobe even at a low output.”
Although
the brilliant stage design at Illusive provided festival-goers with a joyful
escape from reality, it was the product of really hard work and a determined
effort to overcome challenges. Due to the size of the set, there was a shortage
of traditional rigging points for lights inside the tent. However, the addition
of multiple outrigger arms allowed the design team to overcome this challenge.
“Of
course, the credit for this design going smoothly should go to the great team
involved,” said Lovegrove. “This begins with Simon Wallwork and the people at
Illusive, who came up with such interesting concepts. Secondly, Ed Metcalf and
the rest of the team at Cursor Collective really made the set come to life with
their original and visually stunning projection work and content creation. Doug
Coppell and Jesse Matthews supplied and installed the lighting with help from
Lewis O\’Callaghan, Beth Kinchin and Dan Pollock. Jesse Matthews and Fiend
Productions were also a big help. Anytime you see something this fantastic, you
know that a lot of people had to pull together.”
