Steve Cohen and Bob Bonniol collaborated on the production design for Blake Shelton’s “Back to the Honky Tonk” tour. They built a virtual video environment that worked as an extension of the physical set design using Unreal Engine. “We had created Blake’s honky-tonk. The idea was utilizing this video screen to be an extension of that environment,” said Cohen. “It was like you really couldn’t tell where the physical ended and the virtual began,” Bonniol added. “Working on Unreal was so nimble and so fast, and I was able to bring elements together so quickly; to light them and plot camera moves through them…we had 13 days of rehearsal, but because we were moving so fast, that allowed us to basically take three complete, thoughtful passes at the show, which is unheard of in concert work.”
From Designer Insight by Michael S. Eddy, PLSN, April 2023, page 30
