After 142 shows, Pink’s The Truth About Love world tour concluded Jan. 31 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The tour received rave reviews as it traveled to 16 countries and, as ranked by Billboard, became the third highest-grossing tour of 2013. In support of her sixth album of the same name, Pink once again teamed up with show director Baz Halpin of Silent House.
“The whole feel of the show is loosely based around a crazy game show as she is trying to find out the truth about love,” Halpin says. “We have a sort of MC for the show that links the different sections together. There is the dark side of love, the lustful sexy side, the playful fun side, the painful, etc. — each of the five acts of the show has a different style.”
A Multi-Faceted Show
Halpin, who is also the lighting designer and co-production designer with fellow Silent House designer Chris Nyfield, wanted to create a look that allowed the visual styles to change throughout the show. “She is multi-faceted — she is a rock star, a pop star, a dancer, and an aerialist,” says Halpin. “She’s not one thing, so the design needed to be incredibly flexible.” The finish on the asymmetric set was a pewter color, and almost all the set pieces had internal LED lights.
By employing LED tape, Halpin and Nyfield could make the set look however they wanted. “I am very happy with the finish of the set,” states Halpin. “We have the floor of the stage painted to look like an ash wood deck. And then we have a thrust that comes off at a curve from one side of the stage, it curves back around center, so we were able to create a standing room area that makes it have more of a club vibe. We also have lifts and trapdoors that she uses throughout the show. Overall the set has a nice cohesive look but it is not so constraining that you can’t change the feel for the different scenes.” An example of this was the risers of the staircase, which incorporate RGB LEDs to color the white polycarbonate fascia.
Tait created the scenic and staging elements and to address the time constraints of the tour schedule, an identical, leapfrogging mainstage was replicated for the European leg. The mainstage was made of Tait’s Mag Deck, and multiple lifts were built into the mainstage. There are two downstage toaster lifts that could move at 17 feet per second, sufficient to launch a performer into the air. Also downstage was a prop lift, and a center portal. Upstage there were two curved doors that were operated manually for performer entrances. A surprise element was incorporated into the heart-shaped B-stage, which featured a hidden pool filled with glitter. During the performance, Pink was lowered below the stage surface via a swing and then quickly lifted and spun around, sending glitter fluttering out across the audience.
Multiple Flying Rigs
The show itself was not very prop-heavy, but it did have multiple aerial apparatuses for the five different aerial numbers in the show. “She has done flying for a long time — not the kind of thing that just anyone can do,” describes Halpin. “Because of her aerial abilities, we wanted to create Vegas-quality apparatus; stuff that had not been seen on touring shows before. Two of the flying rigs are custom-made by a company that does the custom work for Cirque, and two of them are more traditional silk apparatus. The fifth one is for the 3D flying, where she can move all around the arena.”
The design also included a custom banner light box with LED lighting effects, which illuminated the words, The Truth About Love. The light box was built into the surround structure and suspended above the stage. One of the main scenic elements is a custom heart-shaped video screen surround with a scenic finish that was used to frame the LED panels. A foam fleur-de-lys positioned on top of the video screen could be easily detached when the tour was in lower trim venues. Tait also fabricated four custom scenic surrounds for the flying LED screens that were positioned alongside the heart-shaped element. All of the screen surrounds employ LED tape to wash the fascias in color. All of the video hardware was provided by provided by Creative Technology (CT).
Halpin explains the use of multiple video screens in the design. “You always take the scale of the tour into account, and I didn’t want to have one big video wall at the back, but I did want to have a lot of LED surfaces so I could have as many different visual looks as possible. We have four rectangles on the floor and four flying picture frame screens on tracking winches flying through the air. There is also a main screen behind the heart-shaped surround and another screen that is behind the set of doors upstage center.” All of the LED screens were 7mm resolution, and the content was created by Geodezik. The content used varies from section to section in the show and even song to song. It used a combination of shot footage and digital media.
Small “Windows,” Big Canvas
“What is really cool about having all those screens is being able to lower the ceiling in,” notes Halpin, “and when you have the content set up in a certain way, when you are looking at a big image, you can create the content so that moves enough so that you brain will fill in the blank spaces, so it looks like a full screen. We have a clever little system where there are so many screens and they can move through the canvas of the image. If you imagine the image being a big sort of 4:3 piece and the screens being kind of stencils, or magnifying glasses, so as the screens move up or down it moves over the image, it is a pretty cool effect. There is feedback between the motors and the Control Freak System and the Mboxes.”
Halpin knew they needed accurate imagery mapping, so he worked with Control Freak Systems (CFS). Dirk Sanders, who led the systems design effort for CFS, explained, “We provided some of our standard solutions, like our CFS Encore Bridge solution as well as custom solutions that Baz and Stuart [White, CFS senior solutions developer] worked on together. We created a custom live effects server that could affect the I-Mag feed, add distortion and time delay. We also used PRG Mbox EXtreme for our media servers for this tour.” Halpin referred to the use of the camera effects, stating, “We use the I-Mag on the LED screens and through the CFS system we can put any camera up on any screen. With the camera effects we can make the I-Mag more art-like Art-Mag, I guess.”
CFS worked with the automation company, Stage Technologies, on being able to track the automated screens. “Stage Technologies main software guy wrote software that would work with our system. We used DMX going into the Mbox to track the screens in real-time,” Sanders continues. “It allowed us to create various looks that were all coordinated and connected. We used both PRG’s Projected and Tracking Modes in the Mbox as well as its MultiScreen Gobo function.”
Sanders felt that it was tricky to automate the video with the screens — to get the system all calibrated and to be able to be flexible on tour when required. “Production really gave us the time to dig in and explore the possibilities,” explains Sanders. “We worked with Art-Net to allow us to build in scaling factors. Since we used real-world references, we could scale it to fit in a venue where we had low trim, but still keep the integrity of the tracking pieces. It all worked out very smoothly. We also had a good collaboration with Geodezik, who created the content.”
The Visual Team
“Baz wears many hats covering all aspects on this tour, including the design and the performance,” Sanders concludes. “He was great to work with throughout. Chris Nyfield headed up the scenic side, and Bryan Barancik was the lighting programmer. Josh Levin from CFS was screens director on the tour, and he programmed the video on the Martin M1 console. The M1 was great to work with, and Josh is great with it. Martin provided excellent support for our team.” Halpin was equally happy working with CFS, saying “CFS is great at handling any kind of complex video needs; they have really cornered the market on that.
Since there were so many screens and so much screen automation as well as the flying/automation trusses and the trusses holding up the set pieces, Halpin decided to utilize the existing trusses for those elements for the general stage lighting. He points out, “All of the set pieces self-illuminate, so we didn’t need a huge amount of lighting to light the set. We do have a whole bunch of [PRG] Best Boys; they are really the utility workhorses. We made custom brackets for the video screens so they could hold [Clay Paky] Sharpys and [GLP impression] X4s built into them. We made a drape that goes behind the main screen, we have cyc that is lit, and we have a gauze drape in front of that which has a sort of filigree on the front of it. We made this custom truss — this sort of 6-inch truss that is clad in sort of gray aluminum cladding that makes it look like it is part of the drape, and we have Sharpys, which are also silver, on that truss. It has six curved arms that move out and make it look like part of the drape behind it. That gives us a great sense of depth.”
Halpin uses 40 Chromlech Elidy LED units on the downstage truss as audience blinders and for dynamic effects. “I also have GLP X4 fixtures,” notes Halpin. “They are great for lighting dancers; they have great beam effects. We have a bunch of [Philips Vari-Lite] VL3500 FX on either side on truss. They do a lot of the side lighting, hit the staircase and light any of the elements that don’t have dedicated illumination. Really though, the majority of the dynamic lights that flash with the music, as opposed to the lights lighting people, are attached to set pieces in some way. For example, the video screens double as a lighting truss — the truss that has the winches for the screens have some lights on them as well.”
The lighting package was provided by PRG. For control, Bryan Barancik, the associate lighting designer and programmer, used the Martin Maxxyz M1 console.
As the critically acclaimed Truth About Love tour wrapped up, it again reflected Halpin’s skill at bringing a team together to produce a show that effectively reflects the artist’s music and personality. He comments on the secret to his success. “I think that if you have a great production team and quality people who know what they are doing and everyone is willing to make it work; then it does all work.”
P!NK — The Truth about Love Tour
Crew
Show Director: Baz Halpin/Silent House
Production Manager: Richard Young
Production Designer: Baz Halpin, Chris Nyfield/Silent House
Lighting Design: Baz Halpin, Chris Nyfield
Associate LD/Programmer: Bryan Barancik
Programmer/Lighting Director: Steve “Six” Schwind
Lighting Company: PRG (Mickey Curbishley)
Lighting Crew: Ian Tucker (crew chief), Tom Bider, Ty Brooks, Jason Fugitt, Craig MacDonald, Mike Merle
Video Content: Gabriel Coutu-Dumont, Olivier Goulet/Geodezik
Video Control Systems: Dirk Sanders, Jason Levin/Control Freak Systems
Video Director: Larn Poland
Camera Director: Deb Collins
Special Effects: David Banks/Quantum Special Effects
Acrobatics/Flying Automation: Stage Technologies
Rigging: Gabe Wood, Michael Pettit, Chris Clark, Archie Chan
Gear
Lighting (from PRG):
2 Martin M1 consoles (16 universes/main & backup)
1 Martin MIDI Module
2 Martin M-Sync SMPTE-USB
5 PRG Series 400 power and data distribution racks
3 PRG Series 400 Node Plus units
4 PRG Series 400 Ethernet switches
1 ETC Sensor 24×2.4kW dimmer pack
33 PRG Best Boys
46 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX
72 Clay Paky Sharpy, Black
35 Clay Paky Sharpy, Silver
54 Chroma-Q Color Force 12 LED Battens
44 Chromlech Elidy
47 GLP impression X4
10 GLP impression 120 RZ
38 SGM XC-5 LED color strobes
2 Lycian M2 2.5kW HMI Followspots
6 Reel FX DF-50 Diffusion Hazers
5 hazebase Base Highpower Fog Machines
4 Ultratec Versa Fans
19 PRG BAT truss 15”x24,” 10’ black
7 PRG BAT truss 15”x30,” 10’ black
17 PRG BAT truss 15”x30,” 8’ black
2 PRG BAT truss 15”x30,” 5’ black
9 PRG BAT truss 15” vertical hinge kits
2 PRG truss grapple caster plates
6 PRG pickup bars, 30”
Set Design/Automation (from Tait)
1 Heart-shaped video display made with displayLED digiLED MC7 LED Modules (20’ high)
4 Moving picture-frame video displays made with displayLED digiLED MC7?LED Modules
1 LED-lit banner light box with The Truth About Love text
1 Heart-shaped B-stage with glitter pool
2 Tait toaster lifts for mainstage
Video Equipment (from Creative Technology)
displayLED digiLED MC7 LED Modules
1 Grass Valley Kayak 2.5 ME Vision Mixer
6 Hand-held & Fixed Cameras
Video Control (from Control Freak Systems)
1 Martin M1 console
Barco Encore presentation switchers
2 PRG Mbox EXtreme media servers
1 Control Freak Systems Encore Bridge
1 Control Freak Systems Live FX server
More Pink Truth About Love tour photos by Steve Jennings at www.plsn.me/Pink2013Extras
