More details from d3 Technologies (www.d3technologies.com):
Massive Attack
Long-time triphop favorites Massive Attack drew in the crowds at the Other Stage on Glastonbury’s final day, Sunday June 29, as part of their European tour, which started in Bulgaria mid-June.
Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja teamed up with London-based creative studio Artisan to create the stage design and visuals for their show. Bringing some of their most famous tracks on stage, the band was assisted throughout their set with famed collaborators Horace Andy, whose songs included “Angel,” Martina Topley-Bird (songs included “Teardrop”) and Deborah Miller (songs included “Unfinished Sympathy”).
“For this tour we wanted to create an evolution of our previous work with Massive Attack and incorporate some elements from the show we created with them and Adam Curtis last year,” said Ben Kreukniet from Artisan about the stage design. “Keeping the clean information-based aesthetic of the previous tours but looking at how we could bring more narrative and imagery into the show. We also used different types of lasers to add a structural, almost architectural element to the set, whilst still making sure the design was flexible enough to accommodate smaller stages.”
Specializing in technically innovative, dynamic spatial design for live performances, Artisan was established by the founders of United Visual Artists, who originally created d3 and have worked with Massive Attack for the past ten years.
Artisan opted for six LED panels, placed behind the band, which showed abstract content, numbers, and political statements, as well as illustrative imagery. The six panels, placed in two horizontal rows, were automated to rotate, enabling entirely different looks at different points in the show. Says Ben: “All panels could rotate like horizontal blinds, allowing us to reconfigure them to be used as a light source for the stage, or to reveal additional light sources behind. For most of the performance though, they would face the audience and present messages varying from quotes from Guantanamo Bay prisoners to more abstract representations of information.”
In addition, 160 red DMX laser diodes mounted in two rows on the lighting truss created a cage of light around the band during during “Safe From Harm” and “Future Proof,” almost forming a light barrier between the band and the audience. Songs “Battlebox” and “Jupiter” saw heavy use of three separately mounted RGB laser scanners, drawing rectangular shapes on stage in front of the band. The content and automation of the LED panels as well as both the laser scanners and laser diodes were controlled by d3, with a custom module written to control the laser scanners. All previsualization and sequencing was done in advance in d3 as well, allowing for changes right up until show time.
Credits:
Client: Artisan
Production Manager: Icarus Wilson-Wright
Show design: Robert del Naja and Artisan in collaboration
with Icarus Wilson-Wright
Technical design, d3 Project set-up and
d3 operation: Artisan / Icarus Wilson-Wright
Custom d3 modules: Artisan
Equipment:
2 d3 4U v2.5 (of which 1x understudy)
6 7.5mm RoeLED MC7
1 Pangolin laser control
32 Laser arrays from ER Productions
3 RGB laser scanner
Kasabian
One of the most talked about performances of the festival, Kasabian closed the Pyramid Stage on the same Sunday, energising the crowd with a robust set of hits that all fans knew by heart. For their visuals, the band opted for a huge LED screen at the back of the stage, revealing a series of words and coloured abstract video content throughout the show.
Building up anticipation prior to the band starting their set, the wall counted down to 00:00 in pink hues before white drapes rolled in left, right, and over the top of the wall to close it in and create a white “stage within a stage.” Aitor Throup, Kasabian’s Creative Director in charge of content and stage design, matched the visuals perfectly with the look of the band’s latest album 48:13.
Although slightly scaled down from their massive homecoming show in Leicester for 50,000 people, where the LED wall measured 21m x 10.8m, the Glastonbury stage still could added the visual punch that suits the music. Gilbert Roper, d3 Operator for the Kasabian tour, says: “It was a fairly straightforward design that we feed mapped in d3. The whole show is running on timecode. We used 9mm WinVision, which gave the show a strong look. d3 was particularly useful in terms of the previsualisation: it really enabled me to show the designer what the show would look like ahead of the typically short build-up time. The stage simulator can bring a level of confidence to clients who – naturally – are very engaged with what what the end result will look like.”
Going off to the next gig with a splash, the last song of Kasabian’s set saw the introduction of live camera capture. Says Gilbert: “We had two camera men filming the crowd, feeding images to an interactive module developed by Andreas Muller. The output of this was captured by d3. Using this software, we could easily add visual elements to the crowd and work with individual faces to the beat. That worked well.” Project management was done by Alex Leinster from Chaos Visuals, who also supplied the main and understudy d3 4U v2.5 machines for show. Says Gilbert: “It was great working with Alex as Chaos supply extremely well prepped racks and excellent back up and support, leaving me free to concentrate on the show.”
Credits:
Client: Kasabian
Content Design & Stage Design: Aitor Throup
Project Manager: Alex Leinster from Chaos Visual
Productions
d3 Project set-up and d3 operation: Gilbert Roper
d3 System Supplier: Chaos Visual Productions
Equipment:
2 d3 4U v2.5 (of which 1x understudy)
1 LED wall WinVision 9mm
