LONDON —British pop star Robbie Williams performed at London’s O2 Arena for three nights of concerts Nov 22-Nov 24. The final night was broadcast across England’s Sky1 network. PRG supplied the lighting package, including its Best Boy 4000 Spot luminaire, for Creative Director Willie Williams and Set Designer Mark Fisher. Williams brought in LD Allen Branton to consult on the lighting for the televised show.
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LONDON —British pop star Robbie Williams brought a high-octane production, Live at the O2, to the stage at London’s O2 Arena for three nights of concerts Nov 22-Nov 24. The one of the UK’s best-selling solo artists, Williams’ much anticipated return to performing full-set concerts was also a live television event, broadcast on the final night across England’s Sky1 network.
Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) provided the lighting package including its Best Boy 4000 Spot luminaire.
Creative Director Willie Williams and Set Designer Mark Fisher designed an in-the-round production that not only showcased the artist but also highlighted the energy of performing at the venue. The production had to work for both the live audience at the O2 and for the international television broadcast.
Williams asked LD Allen Branton to consult on the television lighting. Williams and Branton selected the PRG Best Boys as their keylight to accurately control the lighting, an important consideration for the in-the-round staging. The 40-plus lights allowed them to put the light exactly where they wanted it, due to the Best Boys’ precision shutters.
Branton, who has collaborated often with Williams, noted that they both were hyper-aware of the challenges of lighting a televised concert in-the-round.
“Willie and I spoke about the audience and what the augmentation for television should be; especially having to deal with an audience as background to virtually all cameras,” explained Branton. “One of the challenges is that you don’t always want to see all the audience and the architectural elements in all the shots. We knew that we would need a high output, shutterable light that allowed us accurate control to cut in to just the audience at the barricades and not show security or crew, as well as controlling spill. The Best Boy is a great light, which gave us the fine control that we needed and with it’s clever optics gave us far more output than I would have expected.”
“Also, I do appreciate having shutters and an iris in the same unit, not to mention the wonderful zoom range,” continued Branton. “With the Best Boy, we now have a true performance, high output automated ellipsoidal-style fixture. It has a clean field and stable color temperature, which can be easily altered using the color temp wheel.”
Williams said, “I enjoyed using the Best Boys for the Robbie Williams O2 shows as their brightness and intensity of color allowed us to paint the stage in many different ways. Being in the round meant that the stage surface itself was the most prominent set piece, so being able to change its appearance radically was extremely helpful. I enjoyed having new gobos and prism sets to play with; and the two-in-one moiré gobos were particularly useful.”
After the O2 shows, Robbie Williams’ Take the Crown Tour of the United Kingdom and Europe was announced for summer 2013.
