Call it the inevitability of the event world: Sooner or later, everything gets bigger and flashier. Stage design is no exception. As the necessity to stay fresh and innovative mounts in the industry, designers are using new materials and strategies to keep costs low, while incorporating advanced video technology, unique stage shapes, and futuristic props to keep seen-it-all crowds interested. In Los Angeles—the moviemaking capital of the world—innovations in staging are especially evident.
One trend that started a few years ago and shows no signs of waning is building a cutout design into a stage that allows audience members to get closer to the performers and to be part of the show. Filling the cutout with a screaming crowd—usually cast by the producers—is now de rigueur at award shows and other big televised events. "It's part of an ongoing attempt to engage the audience ever more through stage designs," says John McGraw of L.A.-based Planview Inc., who primarily works on concert tours in addition to corporate events. For Madonna's current Re-Invention tour, McGraw designed pits to the right and left of the stage, with 18-inch-high platform flooring built in to raise the crowd. "While the audience was once as far as 15 feet back, this is an effective way to get them loser to the action," he says.
L.A.-based Bourgeois Productions' design team has also been creating dramatic effects with elaborate flooring, like water sandwiched between a subfloor and a clear Plexiglas layer on top. "There can be a whole design and experience going on beneath the crowd, not just in front of them," says Bourgeois' Ken Campbell.
Similarly, Richard Cadena, editor in chief of trade paper Pro Lights and Staging News (PLSN), calls Roy Bennett's recent stage design for the Dixie Chicks a "masterpiece." "[LED-based displays] under the Plexiglas floor provided a canvas for color and effects the likes of which have never been seen before—it was the first time a video floor was used in a concert," he says. "There was a narrow ribbon of a stage made of thousands of LED modules that were fed video to complement the changing lighting."
In addition to using new materials for design and impact, stage designers are seeking them out for practicality and cost cutting. "We've seen a shift toward 100 percent aluminum construction, as the price gap between aluminum and steel is becoming much narrower," B&R Scenery president Brian Sullivan says. "Aluminum used to be three to four times more expensive than its steel counterpart, but now it's lighter, more affordable, and makes much more sense all around." And the metals look similar, so the cost cutting isn't affecting the look.
As another way to save money, Torrance, California-based All Access Staging & Productions vice president Bob Hughes reports that many of his clients are renting—rather than buying—the basic structural components of their stages, and augmenting them with custom pieces that suit their needs. "It saves them money—and the task of housing and maintaining it," he says. Industry vets also report shrinking, streamlined stage crews.
As technology gets more sophisticated, stage designers must accommodate the soaring expectations of a savvier audience that is accustomed to the omnipresence of video projections. "We have observed an enormous trend in incorporating video technology such as plasma screens, LED, and projection into stage design, almost to the point where guests expect to see large-format video at every event," says Live Design Studio's C. Jamie Carr. Stage designers now feel obligated to provide video projections—even though, as McGraw points out, video feed often distracts guests from the live action, and sometimes amounts to nothing more inventive than music videos the audience could watch at home on MTV.
Nonetheless, projection technology is continually evolving. With multiple projectors and a computer software program, images can now be projected without distortion even on curvy, concave, or convex panels, and multiple images can be clearly focused on a single panel. "We are able to be more flexible in the stage design because of these advances in technology. It gives us a lot of freedom to design creatively," says National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences director of production and process management Branden Chapman. For next year's Grammy-related events, Chapman is looking into new technologies like projection surfaces that inflate in an instant and seem to disappear when not in use.
PLSN's Cadena is eyeing developments in organic light-emitting diodes—or OLEDs—as the next big thing in staging effects. OLEDs are display devices that are brighter, thinner, and lighter, use less power, offer higher contrast, and are cheaper to manufacture than LCDs. "When OLEDs are perfected, we'll see wholesale video 'cloth' that will be designed into sets and programmed for drastic scene changes," Cadena says. "We're seeing just the tips of the iceberg right now in video effects."
—Alesandra Dubin
Photos by Steve Jennings.
One trend that started a few years ago and shows no signs of waning is building a cutout design into a stage that allows audience members to get closer to the performers and to be part of the show. Filling the cutout with a screaming crowd—usually cast by the producers—is now de rigueur at award shows and other big televised events. "It's part of an ongoing attempt to engage the audience ever more through stage designs," says John McGraw of L.A.-based Planview Inc., who primarily works on concert tours in addition to corporate events. For Madonna's current Re-Invention tour, McGraw designed pits to the right and left of the stage, with 18-inch-high platform flooring built in to raise the crowd. "While the audience was once as far as 15 feet back, this is an effective way to get them loser to the action," he says.
L.A.-based Bourgeois Productions' design team has also been creating dramatic effects with elaborate flooring, like water sandwiched between a subfloor and a clear Plexiglas layer on top. "There can be a whole design and experience going on beneath the crowd, not just in front of them," says Bourgeois' Ken Campbell.
Similarly, Richard Cadena, editor in chief of trade paper Pro Lights and Staging News (PLSN), calls Roy Bennett's recent stage design for the Dixie Chicks a "masterpiece." "[LED-based displays] under the Plexiglas floor provided a canvas for color and effects the likes of which have never been seen before—it was the first time a video floor was used in a concert," he says. "There was a narrow ribbon of a stage made of thousands of LED modules that were fed video to complement the changing lighting."
In addition to using new materials for design and impact, stage designers are seeking them out for practicality and cost cutting. "We've seen a shift toward 100 percent aluminum construction, as the price gap between aluminum and steel is becoming much narrower," B&R Scenery president Brian Sullivan says. "Aluminum used to be three to four times more expensive than its steel counterpart, but now it's lighter, more affordable, and makes much more sense all around." And the metals look similar, so the cost cutting isn't affecting the look.
As another way to save money, Torrance, California-based All Access Staging & Productions vice president Bob Hughes reports that many of his clients are renting—rather than buying—the basic structural components of their stages, and augmenting them with custom pieces that suit their needs. "It saves them money—and the task of housing and maintaining it," he says. Industry vets also report shrinking, streamlined stage crews.
As technology gets more sophisticated, stage designers must accommodate the soaring expectations of a savvier audience that is accustomed to the omnipresence of video projections. "We have observed an enormous trend in incorporating video technology such as plasma screens, LED, and projection into stage design, almost to the point where guests expect to see large-format video at every event," says Live Design Studio's C. Jamie Carr. Stage designers now feel obligated to provide video projections—even though, as McGraw points out, video feed often distracts guests from the live action, and sometimes amounts to nothing more inventive than music videos the audience could watch at home on MTV.
Nonetheless, projection technology is continually evolving. With multiple projectors and a computer software program, images can now be projected without distortion even on curvy, concave, or convex panels, and multiple images can be clearly focused on a single panel. "We are able to be more flexible in the stage design because of these advances in technology. It gives us a lot of freedom to design creatively," says National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences director of production and process management Branden Chapman. For next year's Grammy-related events, Chapman is looking into new technologies like projection surfaces that inflate in an instant and seem to disappear when not in use.
PLSN's Cadena is eyeing developments in organic light-emitting diodes—or OLEDs—as the next big thing in staging effects. OLEDs are display devices that are brighter, thinner, and lighter, use less power, offer higher contrast, and are cheaper to manufacture than LCDs. "When OLEDs are perfected, we'll see wholesale video 'cloth' that will be designed into sets and programmed for drastic scene changes," Cadena says. "We're seeing just the tips of the iceberg right now in video effects."
—Alesandra Dubin
Photos by Steve Jennings.