OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – Gearhouse South Africa supplied lighting, sound, rigging, AV, stage, set and crew for the 2010 KORA All Africa Music Awards staged at the Palais de Sport in this West African city. The executive producer, Ernest Adjovi, was committed to meet the logistical demands of bringing KORA outside of South Africa for the first time. The show was directed for TV by Clive Morris and distributed via CFI (Canal France International) across Africa, France and parts of the U.S. via 100 TV channels. The live audience included 3,000 guests. David Bloch was stage director.
The Gearhouse team of 28 was project-managed by Eyal Yehezkely and Bill Lawford. The two have worked on many other international pan African projects for the company, but this was the first one in Burkina Faso. They collaborated closely with Clive Morris and Jennifer Mostert from TV production company, Clive Morris Productions (CMP) and Victoria Nkong from the KORA team, who produced the show, with local generator and forklift companies.
The 65 tonnes of production equipment was air-freighted out of South Africa in a Boeing 747-200 cargo plane. As the deal was a sales package to KORA, at the end of the show, it went into storage in Burkina Faso.
The 2010 KORA Awards show was presented by Anita Erskine from Ghana and Steve Facia and Alpha Ouedrougo from Burkina Faso. The overall creative brief was to produce a televisual extravaganza that looked good on screen and live.
Gearhouse's Kurt du Preez designed the lighting. The rig was hung on a series of trusses over the stage and audience that were constructed in various shapes and lengths so they could follow the domed shape of the venue. This and the rigging requirements of all other departments were co-ordinated by head rigger, Johan Moolman.
Over 100 moving lights were used – a mix of High End StudioColor and StudioSpot 575s – and these were dotted all over the rig and on the deck of the set, complemented by a large PAR can rig. The PARs provided general stage and audience washes, while the moving fixtures were used for effects, beam-work, set texturing, specials and keylighting.
The back truss included some vertical drop-down sections for additional lighting positions that boosted the dynamics and depth of the rig. The main overhead truss was positioned so the main set steps below could be easily lit.
Du Preez programmed and operated the show using a Martin Professional Maxxys console, which was also running a Maxedia media server. This was loaded up with the nominee playback packages and show graphics created and supplied by CMP. These were relayed to two 16-by-12 side screens flanking the stage. Two Panasonic 5700 projectors fed each of these screens.
In addition to the VT elements, Du Preez chose various ambient video clips from the Maxedia's onboard library that were integrated into different visual looks for specific sections of the show and presentations.
One of the technical challenges for the lighting team – which applied to all departments – was that the gear had to be extra-thoroughly prepped, as Burkina Faso is not readily accessible for the sending of replacements. As it was a sale, additional attention was also paid to supplying a good stock of spares for KORA.
The 39-meter-wide by 18-meter-deep set was designed by Dewet Meyer and built by Gearhouse's set company SDS in four days, a project overseen by Craig Pretorius.
A major feature of the set was a pair of 5.5-meter-wide tracking doors upstage center that were used for entrances and exits, flanked by flat walls that were 5 meters wide and 6 meters high, covered in PVC print. On either side of the stage were walls with convex and concave curves, measuring 7.5 meters high and 11.7 meters wide.
The doors were moved manually on two tracks with custom machined wheels. Although each door weighed about 650 Kgs, they were engineered to each be moved by one person.
With the time constraints on site, the set had to be built in such a way that it could be erected very quickly. SDS also had to keep in mind that the entire set had to fit into an aircraft and then go into storage containers for future use after the show.
The entire set and stage was comprised of multiple curves and SDS made use of its versatile CNC machine to keep build time to a minimum.
Once built, the entire set was clad in printed PVC fabric, amounting to over 1,000 square metres.
CMP supplied local broadcaster RGB (Radiodiffusion et television du Burkina) with a live feed of the show and sourced ENG camera rigs, a giraffe crane and crew from them. South Africa-based Dimension TV supplied the OB unit and CMP also joined forces with 25 local dancers and a choreographer, six local makeup artists and six local production assistants.
Nigerian R&B duo P Square were crowned African Artiste of the Year. The 11 other KORA 2010 Award winners included Becca (Best African Prospect), Wadada (Best Reggae Artiste).
Eyal Yehezkely and Bill Lawford congratulated all involved on helping towards the smooth running of the technical operation. "We had a good, devoted and skilled team, all of whom wanted nothing but the best."
"It's thanks to Mr. Adjovi and the tireless work of the KORA team led by Victoria Nkong we enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of this landmark event," they added.
For more information, please visit www.gearhouse.co.za
