Lighting fighting with dinosaurs
- Details
Lending an air of excitement and authenticity to the proceedings was a dramatic John Garberson-designed lightshow that featured Chauvet Professional Maverick, Rogue and STRIKE fixtures, supplied by Creative BackStage.
“The idea was to create a fight night-like atmosphere at the event,” says Garberson. “We wanted to have some very punchy stage washing in the ring to build anticipation and convey intensity. I feel the lighting really helped the crowd get immersed in the action.”
Garberson and his team of lighting programmer Elliot Knight and L2 Jonathan Brekken arranged their fixtures on a 40’ x 40’ truss rig. Each leg of the truss had three spot fixtures, eight washes, two beams and two STRIKE 4 multi-formatted fixtures, which were used as blinders.
“The majority of fixtures we had were from Chauvet Professional,” says Garberson. “There were a total of 12 Maverick MK2 Spots, 24 Rogue R2 Washes and eight STRIKE 4 blinders.”
The throw distance of the Maverick and Rogue fixtures was essential to helping the lighting design work according to plan. “We had one dinosaur, the Tupandactylus, rigged with a zip line through the boxing ring,” says Garberson. “This meant we had to push the lighting fixtures up to 45’. This was a pretty big distance to get the kind of punch we wanted in the ring, but the R2 Washes did fine. Then we punched things up even more with the Mavericks.”
(Jim Evans)
