Daunte Kenner and DK Production Design LLC handled production design for a recent tour that provided audiences with an eclectic mix of comedy and music performances by an Oscar-winning actor, a Grammy-winning musician and a well-known stand-up comedian – all wrapped up in one person, Jamie Foxx. A key goal, Kenner noted, was to deliver "a solid visual show" while still keeping costs in check. Alan Thompson served as production manager, working with Kenner on a design that could work effectively in both theatres and arenas.
"Foxx wanted to recreate some of the same elements of the previous tour," said Kenner. "With the economy in its current state, he wanted to keep costs low in order to keep the ticket price low. So we gave him a similar design updated with the latest smart technologies that allowed us to slightly downsize our control crew – while still delivering a solid visual show."
Performance Lighting and Mainlight provided the lighting rig, with 18 Barco/High End System Studio Beams, 15 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures, 12 Vari*Lite VL3000 Profiles, four Barco/High End Systems Showguns and eight PixelRange PixelLine 1044s, all controlled by an Avolites Diamond 4 console.
Creative Technology and RGB Lights provided video gear, with Adam Dunaway of Dunaway Designs creating the video system concept and Warren Flynn serving as the operator of the system. The overall design deliberately hid production elements. Except for the set, constructed by Accurate Staging, most of the metallic objects were black.
"Because of budgetary limits, Kenner asked me to work out a video system idea where the media server would be used to display live camera feeds to the Flexi-Flex LED wall, one center I-Mag screen and two outboard projection screens, either independently or in unison," said Dunaway. "I was certain Flynn could handle the task of both video director and media server programming," he added.
"The system featured a Green Hippo Stage SDI primary media server with a fully tracking switchable backup system," Dunaway continued. "We used a Panasonic MX70 SDI switcher to route the static and roaming cameras into that Flynn would monitor and shade and balance from a compact multi-view monitoring system – also living beside the Chamsys Magic-Q lighting board. Flynn picked up the task quickly – communicating to the camera operators for camera shots he could then take to each of the separate display systems as live feed or mixed live video through the Hippo system."
"It was my pleasure to be part of such an innovative design," said Flynn. "The system made it very easy for me to program the media looks and custom video content through the Hippo media server and the Flexi-Flex. It was the first time I had used a Magic-Q console by Chamsys and found it to be dynamite in a small package. Creative Technologies made the video side a breeze and once we were up and running it was a fun show to run and it looked good."
DK Design noted that for the FlexiFlex LED product, the Jamie Foxx tour served as its touring debut, and the mesh-like screen also contributed to the goal of making a visual impact on a budget, blending seamlessly with anything behind it and serving as an effective medium-resolution video wall element.
