Elation lights 2019 College Football Awards
- Details
Justin Garrone and production design firm Innovative Show Design (ISD) have been involved in the show since 2012 and again produced the visuals for the 2019 edition, employing a setup that featured Elation Professional products.
This was Innovative Show Design’s eighth year doing the College Football Awards and fifth year since it moved to the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. ISD served as a one-stop-shop for ESPN for the production, handling every aspect of the show from the first truck’s arrival to the last truck’s departure. Not only did they create and manage all lighting, scenic and graphics, ISD handled complete fabrication and installation of the set and was also responsible for all logistics involved with the production inclusive of project management.
“As the years have progressed, one of the things I always enjoy is that this event is a type of one-off but because we do it every year we have the ability to go back and improve on it for the following year,” stated Justin Garrone of Innovative Show Design. Lighting supply for the event was by CYM Lighting Services of Thousand Palms, CA, a full service lighting production company that ISD has worked with for years.
The Awards show took place in a long yet narrow windowed room in the Hall of Fame, a turfed area scaled to nearly the size of half a football field and used by visitors to throw and kick footballs. It is a space Garonne says was never designed for a large amount of production but ISD and CYM found creative ways to hang fixtures and relied on multi-use lighting fixtures like the Elation Rayzor 760 wash LED luminaire.
“The most important task for the rig was to be functional and flexible for multi-point / multi source TV light,” he says. “Secondly, fixtures were strategically placed throughout the rig and venue to add beauty and sparkle to the camera shots enhancing the award show feel. All these lights played together to transform the cues to take on school colours for the winner cues. Lastly, we enhanced and illuminated the natural architecture of the venue to give it vibrancy as well as make it look larger on screen.”
ISD created custom “sparkle” effects using the Rayzor 760’s SparkLED technology. Garrone comments, “I was extremely impressed how we could add these effects on top of the primary duties of the light. The SparkLED effects added to the celebration of the win cues and added to the beauty of the camera shots when you could see the lens of the Rayzor 760 on camera.”
Lining the tunnel entrance and main staircase of the stage, the Rayzor 760s projected a team colour with the sparkle effect rotating around the fixtures. Garrone also created custom pixel chases for the team wins.
Used for main key lights both front and back, audience specials, as well as main key lights for talent standups were Elation Satura Profile LED movers while Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving heads provided beam lights for air effects and team win ballyhoos. Elation’s tiny ACL 360i single beam effect lights were incorporated as background beauty lights with SixPar 100 LED Par lights used for architectural lighting highlights. CuePix Panels were used to cap the end of trusses that were in camera shots. A large 60’ wide x 19.7’ tall LED wall covering the room’s glass windows was made up of 261 Elation EVLED 1024 SMD 20mm blow-through LED panels.
Garrone would like to take the opportunity to bring attention to Kevin and Colleen Swank of CYM Lighting. Not only are they truly dedicated to all ISD projects, they also share the same dedication to the AIDS/LifeCycle (ALC) charity event, whose aim is to reduce new HIV infections and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS. “From 31 May through 6 June, both will be riding their bikes with their Desert Roadrunners team 545 miles on a life-changing ride, not race, from San Francisco to Los Angeles to support and raise awareness to end the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. Information can be found at www.aidslifecycle.org.
(Jim Evans)
