History isn’t made every day, but it sure was on Sunday February 11. Not only did it mark the first Super Bowl played in Las Vegas, and a major step forward for the football dynasty of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, it was also the largest audience ever to watch the game on a Spanish language television network. Over two and a quarter million viewers tuned in to Univision’s Super Bowl broadcast to watch the Chiefs top the San Francisco 49ers. To mark the occasion the popular Spanish language network staged a lively pre-game celebration at Caesars Palace at the center of the festivities was a performance by the multi-award-winning Puerto Rican rapper and singer Myke Towers, which was broadcast on “Televisa,” Univision’s Sports Special for the Super Bowl.
Pumping up the energy level around the performance for the live audience and TV viewers was a production design by Rene Garcia of Absolute Lighting Designs that featured over 75 CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by 4Wall Entertainment. Working with programmer Chris Fernandez and camera director, Michell Lorens, Garcia created a captivating flow of stunning looks for the event, which took place in the fountain area of Caesars Palace at the entrance to the resort. His design moved seamlessly with the flow of the show, starting with when Myke Towers and the dancers began their performance in a car and worked their way up to the stages.
Flanking the star and his dancers as they approached the stage was a series of COLORado PXL Bar 16 fixtures that lined the red-carpet runway. “These fixtures worked wonders,” said Garcia. “They were ideal for our jib and steady cam shots.” Anchoring the rig were 46 Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures. Garcia and his team positioned the powerful RGBW moving lights on two separate sets, using 24 of them on the covered stage’s grid, while the rest were positioned on truss units that were arranged around the stage riser for the cameras.
“We chose the MK3 for its wide lens and the amazing eye candy effects we were able to get out of these units for mesmerizing looks,” said Garcia. “Being that this started at two in the afternoon, we had a substantial amount of sunlight still, so we depended on the MK3 Washes, Pixel Bar 16’s and R2 Washes to highlight and create the needed looks.”
Garcia and his team accounted for the TV cameras, based on the director’s camera placement input and the desired looks they wanted to create. They spent one prep day at 4Wall’s facility, followed by two setup and rehearsal camera blocking days, and one shoot day.” In the end, the final result was well worth the effort. “I really loved seeing the wide shots that showed all the fixtures,” said Garcia. Viewers who tuned into the program undoubtably felt the same. For them, this part of an historic Super Bowl Sunday was a pure winner.
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