UK-Nick Gray from London-based creative visual design practice Renegade designed lighting for several London Fashion Week SS13 shows and events,including the main British Fashion Council(BFC)Courtyard space at Somerset House,Rocksander at the Savoy Ballroom and the high profile Future Young Contemporaries party at the Serpentine Gallery-a major highlight of the whole event.
Curated by high profile Club Silencio from Paris,the Future Young Contemporaries party featured a set by art rock band The Kills and was staged around the uber elegant water roofed 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Herzog du Meuron and Ai Wei Wei(who also designed the Beijing National stadium).
Working for production company Bacchus,Gray proposed an all-LED rig to be as power-friendly and eco-conscious as possible,but without compromising on any creativity.
He produced a concept and did a pre-light the week before,testing out how this would work as the afternoon morphed into dusk and then evening.
On the day,Gray and his crew came in,rigged the kit in a very short time window and went straight into the show.It all had to work first time.
"I wanted to blend the lighting in to the Pavilion structure's highly sculptural appearance and at the same time ensure that the space was practically lit to cover the band and audience simultaneously creating a special ambience."
A 32 by 12ft stage was constructed backing on to the Pavilion roof,and a ground supported roof built above the stage,allowing guests to see right through the stage and onto the disk of water denoting the Pavilion roof.
Gray positioned 12 Clay Paky Sharpies around the roof for back-lighting and eight Robe LEDWash 1200s around the front.Eight i-Pix BB7s also on the roof were used as an overhead wash,pointing directly down,and further BB7s on stands on the deck shot into the audience.
Left and right of the Pavilion were Steeldeck risers with eight GLP Spot One's LED Profiles and eight Robe LEDWash 600s,all used for mid-air effects.
Accentuating the Pavilion,Gray had 24 bespoke clamps made in the same flat steel-fabricated by London Engineering-that hooked over the edge of the roof and clamped together in pairs.This was a neat solution to provide positions for 20 GLP Impression RZ 120 Zooms around the perimeter which grazed across the top of the roof and also could be criss-crossed to create a scenic light backdrop to the stage.
Onstage were four Spot Ones and another eight RZ 120 Zooms specifically for the band.
Around the perimeter of the event space,30 x GDS wireless LED up-lighters were used to pick out the trees and foliage very effectively.
All the luminaires and lighting equipment was supplied by Colour Sound Experiment,and Renegade's Chamsys MQ200 console was used for control,operated by Matt Waterfield.
