NEW YORK — For the live finale of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with at the American Museum of Natural History, LD Matt Ford relied upon a rig provided by VX Lighting and supplied by Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG). Ford used a PRG Virtuoso™ DX2 console for control and the PRG Bad Boy™ luminaire to highlight Donald Trump’s entrance, plus an additional 41 PRG VL6C+™ luminaires, among other gear.
Trump made his final decision at the end of both live and taped presentations, finally “hiring” Joan Rivers as the newest Celebrity Apprentice. The final boardroom was set up in the museum’s IMAX theatre with Trump entering from the back of the house.
“I put the Bad Boy at the back of the house in a doorway because Donald Trump made his entrance through the audience as opposed entering from the stage,” Ford said. “I needed a very strong, bright source that could really silhouette him. I think that without the Bad Boy it would have been underwhelming.
“With other lights I couldn’t go as wide on the zoom and it wouldn’t have been nearly as bright,” Ford added. “Having the intensity and the wide beam spread of the Bad Boy really made it the perfect choice. It worked great and it was completely reliable.”
PRG’s Bad Boy was also used on the recent Grammy Awards show and will help light the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest broadcasts. The Bad Boy produces 48,000 lumens with a zoom range of 8:1 (7° to 56°) and full-field 0 to 100 percent dimming.
PRG also touts Bad Boy’s precision movement, control over color, optical clarity and gobo changing with slow-speed control as well as fast bumps.
Ford also gave kudos to PRG for helping with last-minute changes for the finale. “PRG was great and very responsive. It was a very difficult setup since the entire lighting rig had to be a ground support system. The IMAX theatre did not have any rigging points or any place to hang motors. We had to make some last minute changes once we saw the set in relation to the lighting truss. We weren’t in a situation where we could do a lot of overtime, so it was critical that the gaffer get what he needed, when he needed it. What was nice was that PRG really rolled with the changes that we had to make on the fly, and they came through quickly with the last-minute orders.”
For more information, please visit www.prg.com.
