The figure skating extravaganza features a roster of American Olympic medalists, including Nancy Kerrigan, Tara Lipinksi and Sarah Hughes as well as an international contingent, among them current world champion Miki Ando. The event, held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, comes on the heels of last year's figure skating tribute for which Methot handled production design.
Methot devised a circular motif for the show using three circular video screens and a circular main stage with clean, simple lines. He mounted a circular truss above the ice with 16 Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures suspended on it.
"At the beginning of the programme the truss was almost touching the ice. As the opening light show began, it rose up and shot light everywhere," he explains. "Then some fabric was released and hung from the truss, Kabuki-style, in the shape of icicles. The skaters interacted with the fabric and skated around it as the truss lifted and became a scenic element, another surface to play off the lighting like metallic chiffon."
The lighting designer positioned 12 more Sharpys on the ground to supplement 20 Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, which served as 'work horse' fixtures. "They were the main wash/template wash that really lit up the ice," he reports. "I wanted to find the brightest light with the most choice of templates and effects. The 1500s were fantastic - extremely bright, wonderfully crisp, accurate and very fast for a light that size."
Methot took advantage of the Dyna-Cue effect. "You tell a light that it's part of a group of ten lights, then it does some of the smarts that you would otherwise have to do on a console," he points out. "Thanks to the macro effect, we used some effects that we might not have otherwise thought to light."
(Jim Evans)
