You’ve never seen country music performances quite like these. Then, again, you’ve never seen a country music award show quite like this, either. The fourth annual American Country Awards (ACA) gala, telecast live from Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Event Center Dec. 10, 2013, pushed the envelope in many, if not all, directions.
Country Jam
The fast-paced evening, emceed by NASCAR’s popular Danica Patrick and the towering multi-million-platinum recording country artist Trace Adkins, was jam-packed with eye-popping sights and sophisticated sounds.
Brad Paisley, winner of the Video Visionary Award, ripped a passionate guitar solo for a lively version of “Mona Lisa” amid crisscrossing light and laser beams; LeAnn Rimes’ performed a tear-provoking tribute to Patsy Cline for a segment broadcast largely in black and white; and Danica revealed some leg while donning an iconic Jubilee! showgirl outfit complete with feathered headdress. The racy dark-haired beauty, flanked by curvy, statuesque burlesque dancers, finished the number and poked fun at her own figure as the hulking and skulking Adkins sat backstage wearing similar showgirl attire and singing “I Feel Pretty” to a wardrobe mirror. It all added up to one helluva night.
Clearly the hosts, performers, presenters, even script writers were the stars of this awards show, and (it should go without saying that) lighting and set designers, various producers and technical directors worked to ensure that this was the case. But through the application of sleek and open designs and even some serious firepower, the night’s successful lighting and stage looks both enhanced and subtly framed the entire live presentation.
Belt Buckle Motif
“The ACAs is the newest entry in the country-awards-show genre,” says production designer Steve Bass, “so there’s a little bit more room for playfulness. We try to focus on a more country rock and also a country icon aesthetic. When I started in the industry, the country genre was still recovering from the cliché idea of hay bales and wagon wheels. When approaching a show like the ACAs, we try to let the design pay homage to the history and legacy of country music without stagnating it or looking backwards.”
Bass and lighting designer Tom Kenny — both veterans of the awards show genre — have been working together on the ACAs since its inception. The set design for the 2013 ACAs pivoted on a strong central image — Galaxia Electronics’ “see-through” 9mm WinVision video display panels with a custom steel frame of brushed aluminum resembling the pointed shape of a belt buckle. Slightly ornate and terrifically bold, the “Belt Buckle” was the perfect design for an awards show honoring a musical style whose tradition is steeped heartfelt songs and Western/cowboy motifs.
“Every show I design, I endeavor to create a look that’s as distinctive as possible or unique in some way, so that we can see a progression of thought over the years,” says Bass.
Designing for TV
The trick with such events, of course, is not only designing for attendees in the hall, but also keeping in mind the millions of viewers at home watching the program via broadcast network television. It’s the common ground between the two sensibilities that makes for a successful design.
“Every camera angle paints a different picture,” says LD Kenny, who’s worked the VMAs, CMTs and Teen Choice Awards and estimates he designs 25 shows around the globe annually. “In a song that’s four minutes long, you may have 50 different ‘pictures.’”
Setting base looks and spending time with the artists during sound check and camera-checks help add pieces to the visual puzzle. “It’s like a theater show,” says Kenny. “You have a dress rehearsal, and you then tweak. The difference is, you have a few weeks to prepare for a theatrical production, whereas for an awards show, it’s only a few days.”
A “plethora of lighting units, hundreds of moving fixtures,” says Kenny, gave him “a great combination and ability to present theatrical and powerful looks for TV.” The trap, says Kenny, is operating under the assumption that lighting fixtures that look good “to the eye” are appropriate for broadcast television. “Vari*Lite has given me some stuff over the years, just to be a kind of guinea pig.”
The LD exhibited a considerable amount of restraint for the television broadcast, although he admits that having as many lighting instruments as possible at his disposal wasn’t exactly such a bad thing. He casually rattled off the many disparate fixtures, he had in his arsenal for the ACAs — Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash FX for “fabulous aerial graphics and for actually lighting people,” VL3515 LT spots for “sharp beams and picking a person out at 300 feet,” Robe Pointes for their “gorgeous beams and gobos with powerful effects” and so on. (Control was handled by lighting programmer/director Felix Peralta, who was running two grandMA2 consoles, side by side, for the event.)
“A lot of designers would use only one brand or particular fixture, but I use 15 to 20 different types of fixtures that can give me different looks,” says Kenny. “It’s like making a cake.”
“The most critical thing in designing the ACAs is keeping in mind that it’s a live show,” says Bass, who has worked in tandem with Kenny for years on shows such as The Grammys and Oscars. “You really design on three levels: One is establishing a wide shot, which is the visual identity for the program; the second is making sure that you keep content in or scenery in places that are critical for the primary camera shot; the last is that you provide media or screens to deliver stories or music videos that appropriately communicate the artist’s message to the audience.”
Although Bass worked closely with the director as well as the executive and creative producers to arrive at an uncluttered overall look for the show, he maintains that, as a production designer, the event’s producers “look to me to make the first step in the process, to recommend a new visual identity.” He adds, “I look at the set through the lens of the television camera and make sure that when we’re in ‘close up,’ everything is reading appropriately, or, if things need to be adjusted, I make those recommendations, and we change it.”
The set features a “halo” trussing design, with truss fingers jutting from it — a pattern that was partially mirrored by semicircular lighting trussing arranged below it. Together with the stage-spanning LED video bands, the truss design dovetailed nicely with the central “Belt Buckle” theme and provided a visual framework for television.
“You have a lot of direct shots on the lead singer and a lot of low-angle cross-shots that are [filmed] upwards, right and left, at 45° angles,” says Bass. “You need to make sure you have coverage for these types of camera angles. Having a circular shape or a half circular banding works really well to protect you, to give you coverage in those really critical spots.”
“I have to say, as well, that I’m known for thinking up a look a second or two beforehand,” says Kenny, “because I can anticipate and react to camera angles. You just learn how to be fast and surround yourself with very quick and competent people.”
“Every time you switch a camera, there has to be something happening on stage,” says Bass. “There’s a predictability in anticipating how the director will choose to shoot a musical performance. You have to anticipate that and make sure you’re covered.”
‘X’ Marks the Spot
In years past, Bass had focused the set around iconic design patterns, such as a star (which was created from trussing “that became a 45° angle proscenium portal, and people performed inside this star,” says Bass) and a guitar-shaped border for the centralized video screen. “The ACAs are a large-scale arena show, and like many shows today, we have a limited budget,” says Bass. “My goal is to create the most spectacular and distinctive environment we can … to energize the space to assist in the creation of the looks and energy for the musical performances.”
For the most recent ACAs, the Belt Buckle-framed video screen; chevron-shaped video imagery and trussing structures piercing the inner circle of the “halo”; dual rear projection and large I-MAG screens (located stage left and right); a pair of slightly curved upstage LED video panels running behind the Belt Buckle (featuring a top layer of 24 semi-transparent Martin LCs, one meter wide by two meters tall, and two rows of Chauvet Nexus 4×4 LED panels underneath them, forming a “belt”) “connected the stage to the fans in the audience,” says Bass.
See-through LED walkways, which scrolled out from the main stage and virtually placed fans in the middle of the performance action, were supported by steel-framed decking with plywood tops and positioned nearly seven inches below a Plexiglas “ceiling.” “Placing the Martin LC panels under clear rental decks provided an economical solution to having video in the floor,” says art director Kristen Merlino, who worked over 100 shows with Steve Bass by her estimates.
The walkway and, indeed, the entire set appeared open, elegant and visually alluring. “That’s exactly the idea,” adds Bass. “We wanted it big, spectacular and fun without having a ton of LED rental gear. Plus, a lot of times artists are bringing in content they’re using on their tour and, as I’d said, they want to ensure that these visuals are communicating effectively to the audience. We try to use media to explode energy off those source screens … in part by using nonstandard LED units, such as the walkway panels, that fill the space well, but do not demand a lot of density.”
Without overtaking the musical performances or the performers, video, set and lighting worked well together all night, oftentimes commenting on and completing each other’s look while reinforcing both the subtle chevron and “X” patterns permeating the entire production. “Video and lighting work as one,” says Kenny. “We discuss programming prior to the show so that all of the designs for the event appear as one big, happy look.”
Making it Functional
Form follows function for awards shows such as the ACAs. A successful design must be more than visually stunning: it should also be easily navigable by presenters, performers and crewmembers alike.
“You need to make sure you approach the design in a systematic way that is going to function smoothly, and that the technical changeovers in the set, and the way the show actually runs, doesn’t somehow impact the musical performance,” says Bass. “A lot of times if the set is smartly designed it’s also difficult to get things on and off the stage, or people on and off the stage. Turntables are used largely for festivals, but they can destroy some of the depth that you have in scenery. Typically, you have separate ‘On’ and ‘Off’ entrances, so you can strike a band and move the next band on at the same time.”
Many of the logistical and technical issues involving the actual setup fell to art director Merlino to solve. “On a project such as this, I take the design renderings and break the elements down into parts that can be built and efficiently loaded in,” says Merlino.
Star-studded awards ceremonies can quickly turn into nightmares if inventive visuals trump logistics. “This was a show about establishing one big look that had to be as flexible as possible to service as many different needs as possible,” says Bass. “End of story.”
American Country Awards (ACAs)
Lighting Designer: Tom Kenny
Lighting Director/Programmer: Felix Peralta
Lighting Director: Bryan Klunder
Gaffer: Brian Freidin
Best Boy: Kenny Gritton
Assistants: Bill Lehmkuhl, Randy Reese, Mark Nead
Nexus Tech: Blair Korbel
Set Designer: Steve Bass
Art Director: Kristen Merlino
Gear
2 MA Lighting grandMA2 Full consoles
140 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash fixtures
50 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spots
20 Vari*Lite VL3515 LT fixtures
24 Vari*Lite VLX fixtures
130 Clay Paky Sharpys
50 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes
100 Robe Robin Pointes
36 Robe 600 LEDWash fixtures
24 Robe 1200 LEDWash fixtures
100 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4×4 fixtures
24 Martin MAC Auras
16 Martin MAC IIIs
24 Martin MAC Vipers
36 Martin MAC Wash fixtures
24 Martin Atomic strobes
24 Solaris LED strobes
80 Color Kinetics TRX ColorBlasts
36 Color Kinetics iW fixtures
36 PARs
6 Lycian truss mount folowspots
8 Lycian 1295 4K followspots
