Robe Pointes help launch BMW 7 in Shanghai
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He used 52 circular shaped Kinetic Lights mirror disks which worked in conjunction with 42 synchronised Robe Pointe moving lights plus one MegaPointe to stun the 500 VIP guests in the majestic former industrial environment of the West Bund Art Centre, Shanghai.
Christopher was commissioned by show producers China Kingway for whom he’d previously delivered the initial Mirror Mirror in 2018 as a stand-alone segment making up Apologue 2047/2, a work directed by Chinese film director and former cinematographer Zhang Yimou.
This time, the show was directed by Mr Bao, CEO of China Kingway assisted by LuLu He and also featured a special electronic soundscape by composer Kanding Ray, combined with a live performance by famous Chinese sheng player Wu Tong. The sheng is a traditional Chinese mouth-blown free reed vertical pipe wind instrument.
Christopher was delighted to look at ways he could adapt Mirror Mirror to meet this brief and work in this dynamically different context.
The show needed to highlight the styling and proportions of the cars and create a great ambience and anticipation for the reveal, so they developed a series of three-dimensional tableaus that would interplay with artefacts from automotive environments - like streets, landscapes, architecture and nature.
The 52 mirrors - each controlled by three custom Kinetic Lights winches – were arranged in a 7x7 grid over the stage with the Pointes rigged in three rows of seven fixtures - 21 a side - on stage left and right of the presentation area.
Unlike previous shows, in this setup they had a completely symmetric and square shaped arrangement that was designed to fit the wider-angle shape of a presentation that was focussed on the cars.
The installation covered a surface area of 400sq.m with a volumetric height of 8m.
The 42 Pointes and single MegaPointe were used to create the 3D light tableaus in different sections of the show.
Kinetic Lights' own bespoke KLC Software was used to animate, control and safety check the whole system and all elements involved, which allowed super-fast calibration of the moving lights and mirrors on the motorised winches, all in one control environment.
(Jim Evans)
