MagicPanel in the frame for Shania Twain
- Details
Creative director and lighting designer Rob Sinclair, and lighting director Michael Straun were specific in what they needed to achieve the stunning visuals for this show which are based around five large, automated LED video cubes with dancer platforms placed on top.
Sinclair stated, “Shania wanted a fast-paced show where the appearance of the stage and people constantly changed, with the band, the video cubes and the dancers in constant motion. We needed to find some square-faced lights to complement the square video cubes, and the MagicPanels were the perfect answer.”
In total, Sinclair used 100 MagicPanel-602 fixtures, creatively setting them into five overhead pods each with 20 units arranged in a 5 x 4 configuration. The pods fit with the LED cubes, hanging behind and above each of them on automated winches. The video cubes variously carry singers, dancers, the drummer and other band members and can be deployed at different heights throughout the show to add to the overall spectacle. The MagicPanel pods also move up and down and can be angled into different formations so no two songs have the same arrangement of cubes and pods throughout the show.
Sinclair and Straun are joined on the tour by production manager Joel Eriksson, lighting programmer Andre Petrus and crew chief Mike Hosp. The Ayrton MagicPanel-602 fixtures were supplied for the US leg of the tour by Upstaging Inc, with Neg Earth Lights looking after the UK and PRG supplementing requirements in Australia.
Shania Now is Twain’s fourth concert tour in support of her fifth studio album Now. The final leg across Australia and New Zealand commences at the end of this month and concludes in Dunedin on 22 December.
(Jim Evans)
