“It’s the hardest show I do, but I love it because you’re working with the best of everybody,” Mark Grega of Strictly FX says of the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl XLIX half time show was a spectacular 12 minutes, and the show had quite a team: Produced by NFL’s Touchdown Entertainment, Ricky Kirshner was the executive producer. Veteran Super Bowl/Awards Lighting Designer Bob Barnhart was again on board (Barnhart is one of the many veterans, having lit last year’s Bruno Mars epic as well). Those two worked closely with two of the most creative minds in the business: Bruce Rodgers (production designer) and Baz Halpin (creative director). Hamish Hamilton was the director, and along with Strictly FX, production companies included PRG, VER and All Access Staging, among others. A battalion of talent put on the song and dance that was viewed by the largest audience in television history —114.4 million viewers, on average, up from the average viewership of 112.2 million for Super Bowl XLVIII featuring halftime show performer Bruno Mars.
In with a Roar
This year’s multi-dimensional halftime show started with the pageantry of Katy Perry riding in and singing “Roar” on a 14-foot tall, 24-foot long lion designed by the same Oregon-based artist who created puppets for Broadway’s The Lion King and who is a frequent collaborator with Cirque du Soleil.
“The lion was a manually-operated puppet created by Michael Curry,” Halpin says. Michael Curry Design, Curry’s company, also built the beast, which got down that runway via five animators and six pushers. “We spent approximately three months developing and designing the puppet with Michael and [production designer] Jeff Curry, along with help from production designer Bruce Rodgers.”
Halpin, the creative mind behind Perry’s 2014-2015 Prismatic sell-out tour, had pitched the lion idea to Katy Perry when they were brainstorming on how to open their show, and the team went to work on it despite the numerous restrictions involved doing something like that at a Super Bowl half time show. “Bruce’s input was invaluable,” he says. “Once Katy and I had finalized the set list and we knew we were starting with ‘Roar,’ it seemed logical to have a giant Lion that she would ride in on. The styling of the lion was gold mirrored and faceted because we wanted the first three songs styling to have an fashionable angular, fractal style to them to help tie the three songs together visually. We pulled many sculptural and couture references to develop the style and shape with Curry.”
Halpin says the first big challenge for him, Rodgers, and Hamish was coming up with the stage design. “It was the first priority, because we were essentially shooting something on the full length of the field and from multiple angles,” he explains. “This caused major problems for camera placement. We spent several weeks talking about that before I started any creative ideas. We just talked about movement from area to area and how we would deal with that. How long walking from one area to another would take, where would she face, what would the problems of backgrounds be, etc., etc.”
Halpin adapted the flying gag Perry did on her Prismatic world tour into the finale. To make it happen, however, they needed to solve a problem posted by the spider cam that was on a similar rigging system. “Finding a way to rig them both together was the major issue, but something that Flying by Foy, the show riggers, and our production manager, Jay Schmit, overcame.” (That was the only bit borrowed from Perry’s tour.)
Places, Everyone
All Access had its hands full handling fabrication, rentals, CAD, sales, project management, electro-mechanical, and more. It was their fifth Super Bowl.
“The main stage in the middle was 24 by 24-feet, with a stairway going down each side,” All Access’s Erik Eastland explains. Then there was the surrounding 150-by-120-foot ground cloth that came in four segments, with crewmembers in black holding it tight so those performing on it didn’t trip. Attached was a 40-foot long runway that went to the “Missy Stage” (for rapper Missy Elliot), which was 10 by 30 feet in size.
The visual design centered on video projection, which transformed the performance space with a stunning array of imagery and optical illusions. “We beveled all those spaces 30 degrees so that it all could take projection consistently and eliminate any dark lines,” Eastland says. They had to build the stage unusually low to take all the projection. VER provided the video blades.
It’s one thing to build it — it’s another to get it in place in in the time frame allotted for the performance. The stadium, although domed, has real grass, and to keep the grass playable, the entire field rolls out of the stadium for sun and fresh air. “Not only do we have to stay out of the way for that, we had to build special practice ramps for rehearsals when the field was outside,” Eastland says. “One thing you do when you start preparing for a show like this is to go to the site and really try to pull every problem out early on.”
They rehearsed to keep onsite hurdles to a minimum, and ran through the production twice a night on game week, with the last dress rehearsal taking place on the Friday night prior to the Sunday game. All Access had it timed so that their portion of setup was whittled down 6.5 minutes. They had a crew of six led by Tim Fallon Jr. and Roger Cabot. The rest of the crew, volunteer and otherwise, came from Touchdown Entertainment.
“We work for Touchdown Entertainment, and Bruce Rodgers has the final ‘yea’ or ‘nay,’” he says. “The artist brings in his or her creatives [in this case, led by Halpin].” Perry and Halpin etc. decide what they want to see, and then Touchdown/Rodgers figures out what’s feasible along with sculpting their vision into the show.
In executing that mind-boggling set up, the crew moving the set and stage on the ground get an assist from the lights. “The lights hit exactly where the carts need to be to make sure they are in the right spot,” Eastland says. “It’s so key because the projectors need to get focused.”
“Better Than I Had Hoped”
Halpin says when approaching the use of video, the goal was “simply” to create the largest Super Bowl projection mapping of all time. “We set out to have a variety of stages and performance areas all tied together by one visual canvas,” he says. “I brought Ben Nicholson on board to produce the visuals. We had worked together on the tour. I knew that I wanted ‘Dark Horse’ to be the projection mapping gag. It worked better than I had hoped.”
For Lightborne, it was their first trip to the Super Bowl ball, though they came on the wings of a strong relationship with Halpin and Perry, having provided content for her tour.
“Baz tossed out some initial ideas based on what we had done with Katy [on tour], and then asked for our input,” says Lightborne design director Chris Gliebe. “They wanted to stylize various looks, and from there we created some ideas.” Not surprising, there was a long list of people who needed to sign off on anything and everything, and he adds, “Katy had big input into every step.” Once approval was granted, the Lightborne team moved from concept to execution to motion tests, all before they were on-site.
“We created the 3D chess board and set pieces [for “Dark Horse”] in Maxon’s Cinema 4D and rendering using Octane Render, a non-based photo realistic renderer so real that you get feedback in real time on how things look,” says Neil Smith, senior designer.
“A lot of the ideas came directly from Bruce and Baz, including the LED floor in the middle,” adds J.T. Rooney, implementation director. “Once they decided that, Bruce designed the 3D files of the layout, and we were able to use Cinema 3D and 3D Designer to pre-visualize what it would look like in an oval shape.” Rooney says they were fortunate that they were able to pre-visualize as early as late November, as it allowed Perry and team to mock up a Los Angeles arena and start rehearsing. “Baz likes to rehearse a lot, so that when we all come, we come prepared, and by the time we arrived to the stadium, we were pretty set, and basically just needed to tweak a few things.”
Smith adds that it was fortunate to have it all pretty much worked out for the dancers, so when choreographer R.J. Durell did his job having this dancer go to this corner at this moment, those movements could be incorporated into the animation. Smith also says that the Octane Render was critical.
A New Jersey company called Main Gear creates custom PCs, usually for gaming. They were called on to build a special one for the Lightborne team that allowed them to run Octane on the fly, which required a staggering amount of power.
They used the new d3 Technologies 4×4 pro boxes that have just come out. These worked well with the 80 Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors used, which were hung from the ceiling of the stadium in two rows. “Another part that was so great about the d3 was that we were able to take our project from pre visualization to the end seamlessly, because it spoke the same language,” says implementation director J.T. Rooney. “From a content company perspective, it was nice there were no surprises [at the show].”
“It allows us to load in all the physical dimensions of a performance — venue, the stage, projection screens, props, set dressing — even virtual performers, and create the entire performance in three dimensions,” adds Lightborne producer Dan Bryant of the d3. “We embedded our content into the simulation, so that the team could ‘see’ the production ahead of arriving at the physical venue. It’s amazing and cutting-edge.”
In the stadium, the setup included eight d3 4x4s. Lighting director Jason Rudolph also used a grandMA2 console to control lighting and video elements including the glowing orbs, internally lit with wireless LEDs from Glow Motion Technologies. VER and PRG provided the video and lighting gear, much of it mounted on 16 mobile lighting carts that moved out to the field during halftime.
New Tools
Part of Barnhart’s design included the debut of 12 of GLP’s new X4 Bar 20 fixture, along with 16 GLP impression X4 XL fixtures. GLP US president Mark Ravenhill recalls his early conversations with the LD when he introduced the new X4 Bar 20, GLP’s new zooming and tilting batten unit. “Bob was looking for something new for the upstage portion of one of the stages — a low profile fixture that would add an extra dynamic,” he says.
“It was about two weeks before we loaded in when Mark made them available to me and showed me some videos,” Barnhart says. “This was certainly something new in terms of a strip light, particularly with the tilt option, and I knew it would enable us to produce some different effects. We had a good spot lined up for the Bar although we relocated the X4 XL’s to the band stages where we placed them on the risers to help outline the bands.”
There were also 140 Clay Paky Sharpys, 120 Clay Paky Mythos, and 94 new Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures sourced via A.C.T Lighting, Clay Paky’s North American distributor. “Sharpys are great for their white-hot beams,” says Barnhart. “They’re nice and small, too.” They were placed on the upstage side of the 400-level rail and the south end zone rail, and a few were mounted on a cart behind the lion puppet.
Barnhart adds that a challenge for him was that it was all a projection surface with a lot of dancers on it. The dancers had to be lit but not the surface. “I positioned the Mythos fixtures around the perimeter of the projection surface on giant rolling carts so I could light the dancers and fill the air with beams of light. I had custom gobos to use like shutters and cut off the field.”
The lighting setup also included 12 Ayrton MagicRing-R1 beam projection fixtures secured to the band carts, and 10 Ayrton NandoBeam-S6 beam/wash fixtures were rigged on a truss directly upstage of the “Lenny and Missy” stage. “I used the MagicRings on the band carts to give some energy and movement to the background,” Barnhart said, “while the NandoBeams were perfect in providing an additional layer of effects and eye candy.”
David Grill, one of the show’s lighting directors, says the lower power draw of newer fixtures streamlined the logistics of managing intensely bright light sources on the move. “We had 14 fixtures on a cart with only one power connection,” he says. “We don’t need to plug in three cables when we’re moving fast, and every second saved helps you.” Lighting director Pete Radice controlled the 1,340-plus channel moving light system.
“Firework”
For Strictly FX, this was their third Super Bowl show in a row. “It was a very different show from last year,” says Grega. “We had a 360° roof that was beautiful — and you couldn’t ask for a better song for a special effects firm to work with than one called ‘Firework,” he laughs.
Grega says they were brought to the table in October with an initial meeting with Kirshner, Hamilton and Barnhart, even before the musical act was chosen. “The first step is to tour the stadium, and start building the show physically — it’s very collaborative.”
What was new this year was using two High End Road Hog 4 consoles for all DMX control running in tandem, which is a pretty critical element as everything is on timecode. They brought in what he calls “Five Fingers of Death” (officially called TBF FiveMaster) to create the fingers of fire plus their own SFX Liquid Propane Urns for the massive flame effects behind Perry and guest artist Lenny Kravitz during their “Kiss a Girl” duet. SFX’s Custom Smoke Blade was incorporated into the stage to create a thin wall of smoke for the Elliott portion that made for an 8-foot high, ½-inch thick wall that not only made for a nice reveal, but also took projection and backlight.
“We also relied on the new Ultratec G3000 Mega Fog Burst that I nicknamed ‘Eruption Cannons’ for Co2-looking effects,” he says. “My challenge was to make things look like they were using Co2 but weren’t using Co2 — there’s not much humidity in Arizona in the winter, and the effect needed to be consistent every time. We also shot the entire field pyrotechnic display with FireOne and their incredible wireless firing system.”
Not everything they planned for made it to the show. For example, some geysers were going to be used during the Kravitz portion, but they were jettisoned when they got in the way of camera angles. “We wanted to use some lasers, but with all the video content going on, we realized that they would just get in the way. The video content looked so great nothing else was needed — sometimes something doesn’t need a gag.”
But as anyone who watched it knows, the second biggest realization is that this was a whole lot of work. (Number one would be, “don’t throw a pass when you’re a yard and goal.”)
“When the show is finally over, you’re absolutely empty, absolutely drained,” Grega says. “But you can’t rest because then you have to load out, and that sucks!”
2015 Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show
Design Team/Production Companies
Executive Producer: Ricky Kirshner
Production Designer: Bruce Rodgers
Lighting Designer: Bob Barnhart
Director: Hamish Hamilton
Creative Director for Katy Perry: Baz Halpin
Production Manager for Katy Perry: Jay Schmit
Lighting Directors: Pete Radice, David Grill, Jason Rudolph (video elements)
Lighting Co: PRG Los Angeles/Tony Ward
Sets/Staging: All Access Staging & Productions/Erik Eastland, Timothy Fallon, Jr., Roger Cabot
Puppet Design: Michael Curry Design
Video Co: VER
Custom PCs for Projection: Main Gear
Video Content: Lightborne/Chris Gliebe, J.T. Rooney, Neil Smith, Dan Bryant; Ben Nicholson
Pyro: Strictly FX/Mark Grega
Choreographer: R.J. Durell
Performer Flying: Flying by Foy
Confetti: Artistry in Motion
Wireless LED Elements: Glow Motion
Stadium Exterior Lighting: Dall Brown
Exterior Lighting Wireless Support: RC4 Wireless
NFL Production Co: Touchdown Entertainment
Gear (Partial List)
Halftime Show Lighting:
1 grandMA2 Light console
140 Clay Paky Sharpys
120 Clay Paky Mythos
94 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures
16 GLP impression X4 XL fixtures
12 GLP X4 Bar 20 LED fixtures
12 Ayrton MagicRing-R1 fixtures
10 Ayrton NandoBeam-S6 beam/wash fixtures
Exterior Lighting:
19 XL 8K Xenon moving lights (Syncrolite)
1 RC4Magic Series 3 system adapted for 900Hhz. (For more details, CLICK HERE.)
Video:
8 d3 Technologies 4x4pro media servers
80 Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors
600 Orbs with Glow Motion wireless LED elements
VER LED video blades
