Pepsi scored a hit among TV viewers and on social networks this year with its Grammy Halftime Show commercial, which aired Jan. 26 for a full 2-minute, 36-seconds halfway through the Grammy Awards telecast on CBS. Despite the spot’s length, it was crammed with a mash-up from the worlds of sports and entertainment. The production company, Holmes Defender of the Faith, with McG as director, worked with Ramsey Nickell, director of photography and LD Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting, which provided lighting, video and staging for the spot.
Time Crunch
Roberts received the call from Nickell on Christmas Eve that there was something big in the works, and to be ready. The first meeting to start sketching ideas for the staging, lighting and video took place Dec. 27. The Grammy telecast was less than a month later — Jan. 26, and Visions would need to complete the massive project within a 10-day span.
Because the commercial would need to create visuals on the scale of the Grammy Awards themselves — but of course with far less lead time and with a much more conservative budget — every minute would count. The Visions team got straight to work constructing and preparing the set and gear for the commercial-load in at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on Jan. 3.
On Jan. 2, with everything loaded and ready, Visions was got another call. The director would like a second stage to be added, for a separate EDM-style performance area complete with lighting and a flown-in LED DJ booth equipped with lasers and cryo jets, all in front of a 20 by 40 (WxH) LED screen. Visions added the EDM extras within 24 hours.
“I’ve got to say that our team did great rolling with the creative elements of this job,” said Roberts. “It was like, you want that? Sure, we can do that.”
Lighting
The lighting for the job was designed to multi-task. “We needed a lot of flash and camera candy for the concert show look, but it also needed to be right for filming — no additional television lighting was brought in,” said Brandon Dunning, manager of automation at Visions and lighting programmer on the shoot. “The entire rig was intelligent, without a single dimmer.”
For the “candy” shots, Visions provided 40 Chauvet Nexus 4 x 4 fixtures, 78 Elation Platinum Beam 5R and Platinum Beam Extremes, 36 Ayrton Magic Panel 602 fixtures, 30 25 Light Matrix fixtures. The rig also included 78 Elation Opti Tri and Q A Pars to backlight the stairs and tone the truss.
The Magic Panels were in a 6 x 6 grid that was raked on an angle over the middle of the stage. The Elation Platinum Beam 5R fixtures were used on the floor, on six ladder frames in between the LED screens and on four trusses flanking the Magic Panel grid.
For the stage wash and specials, Visions used a combination of 18 Martin MAC 301s, 24 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash fixtures and 16 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spots. All lighting was controlled by a grandMA2 Full console with three NPUs and 22 universes of DMX.
Video
For video on the Main Stage, Visions provided three 15-by-28-foot (WxH) 6mm VisionTec LED Screens. Each was fed by an ArKaos MediaMaster Pro driven by a grandMA 2 Full console. Content being shot at a different set at the LA Sports Arena, was edited on site as well, and brought to the Visions team for immediate playback.
“The ArKaos had no problem with the multiple outputs or the multiple layers of high resolution content,” said Roberts. “I am also really proud of how well the VisionTec 15mm flexible screen and wrap-around DJ booth performed for the EDM portion of the commercial.”
Visions brought in V-Squared Labs with Touch Designer Software and custom content used to create the EDM segment featuring NFL players Matthew Stafford and Michael Oher. And since no EDM stage would be complete without lasers, the design team turned to Lasertainment for an assist. “They have these amazingly small, full-color lasers that are really beautiful and put out an incredible beam of color,” Roberts said.
“One of the funniest parts about the shooting, for me, was when production asked if they could use the 20-foot-wide by 40-foot-high 15mm screen for the auxiliary EDM shots as a teleprompter for the main stage speakers and performers,” laughed Roberts. “Why not, they paid for it — the world’s largest teleprompter! It worked great.”
Staging
As for staging elements, the main stage for the mock awards show was 80 by 52 feet, with multiple height levels on top and a semi-tractor trailer full of LED backlit plexi-front staircases painted white and custom built in just five days.
“We were lucky to have access to a friend’s CNC machine to cut out the parts we needed in time enough to complete the job,” said Roberts. The entire stage was finished with high-gloss white Marlite to give it the clean awards look.
The first 24 feet of the stage also needed to be built with an extra heavy duty capacity as the production would be driving a real Monster Truck on to it.
“We accomplished this by adding an extra sheet of ¾ plywood under the Marlite and put an extra leg and screw jack every 4 feet along with the Staging Dimensions understructure, and it held up great. I have to say that I did hold my breath when we used the Gradall to crane the truck on to the stage!” With the extra care taken to support the truck, there was less than 1 inch of deflection, he noted.
The EDM DJ booth was built on a 12-foot-diameter circle stage deck with 12’ x 12” circle truss supporting it. Visions built a custom speed rail frame to mount the VisionTec 15mm tiles around the circle. The booth was then rigged to four high-speed inverted 1-ton motors, giving it the ability to rise up and down.
Special Effects
For Special Effects, the director wanted to have a big reveal for the large LED Screen on the main stage after the Terry Bradshaw performance. A large red, white and blue kabuki curtain was fabricated, and Visions set up an 80-foot-wide kabuki drop.
“We rigged the kabuki on 40 FPM high speed motors so we could quickly reset the kabuki between takes,” said Roberts. “We reset that kabuki and fired it off 20 times to get the shot just perfect.”
Visions also provided the cryo jets for the EDM DJ booth along with the confetti and cannons. “We fabricated 200 pounds of silver Mylar for the shoot, which we thought was a lot,” laughed Roberts, “but not when you are shooting the same sequence for hours. We were sweeping it up and reloading the same confetti back in the cannons. I have to say that is the first time in 20 years that I have done that!”
Along with Roberts and Dunning, the Visions team included Colin Johnson, Master Electrician; Nathan Jones, CAD Drafting; Gilbert Baghramian, Renderings; Rick Prather, Rafa Avila, Shaun Grout and Aldo Parenti, electricians; Michael Hosanna, Max Chang and Arturo Perez, video programmers; Canin Campbell, Jairo Ortiz, Rudy Carbajal and Braedy Benjamins, video techs; Daniel Baca and Dave DeClark, staging supervisors; and Greg Kearney, lasers.
