Creative directors of production design company Okulus, Louis Oliver and James Scott, turned to Ayrton once again when creating an adaptable lighting design which could be modified to suit all of the venues in the European tour dates. The designers chose the clean lines and angular appearance of Ayrton MagicBlade-R and MagicPanel-R fixtures to illuminate Halsey's performance at Brixton Academy in February which formed a key part of a flexible system that could be easily adapted for the whole European leg of the tour.
"Halsey gave us only one key item of direction, that she wanted a set based on 'V' shapes," says Oliver. "We continued that visual element through the whole environment, starting with a V-shaped stage, three V-shaped upstage ramps, a V-shaped video screen backdrop and the whole topped off by an inverted V-shaped lighting truss arrangement which was angled forward at 45°."
The lighting trusses were formed of three pairs of angled arms that sweep upstage, on which were rigged 36 MagicPanel-R units, grouped into multiple banks of three. The truss arms were also outrigged with 30 MagicBlade-R fixtures, which were evenly distributed along their length to outline the 'V' structure.
"We used the MagicPanels and the MagicBlades both as block light sources and for pixel effects purposes," explains Scott. The MagicBlade-R units were used to accentuate the shape of the V trusses with their unique configuration of in-line LEDs, and to create mid-air patterns using individual emitters. "We used the MagicBlade-R's 360° infinite pan feature on one number, Hurricane, where we programmed a slow infinite pan with a slow dimmer effect to create an almost tornado-like swirling effect.
"We used the MagicPanels in a rather different manner, effectively treating them as textural washlights with the capability of producing a lot of interesting patterns. We ran simple dimmer chases across the face of the panels during some numbers, or programming them as two groups with the inner and outer cells used to create different shapes, treating them as two different fixtures. We also pixel mapped the panels direct from the console, making use of MagicPanel's 5 x 5 grid configuration to create patterns."
"We used all the Ayrton fixtures in the most extended mode which gave us complete control over every feature of the units, and access to all that these fixtures can do," adds Oliver. "We prefer to do this rather than falling back on built-in effects as it allows us to develop our ideas with great precision."
Scott and Oliver also chose to use the MagicPanel-R fixtures to light the audience. The show was programmed and time-coded on a GrandMA2 which was operated during the show by Mike Sheck.
The Ayrton fixtures and all lighting equipment was supplied by Neg Earth, overseen by Amanda Liu and lighting crew boss Neil Johnson, for the European leg of Halsey's tour which culminated in Paris in March.
(Jim Evans)
