Academy Award winning director Bong Joon Ho tells interviewers that his latest film, Mickey 17 a futuristic dystopian tale about an intrepid journey made by “expendable” beings to colonize a distant ice planet, is, at its core, an exploration into the “human condition.” Fascinated by his gripping work, critics infer different meanings from the film’s message, which is, at turns, serious and comic, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind about the “condition” of the large crowd of humans who attended the film’s premiere at Leicester Square – it was pure joy.
Really, there was no way it could have been anything else. Fans got to see Bong and the Mickey 17’s nattily dressed stars Robert Pattinson and Naomi Ackie in an elegant setting, not to mention a parade of “drones” from the film marching down the red carpet, while also enjoying lively video clips shown on a 32m long structure featuring 160 active CHAUVET Profession REM 3IP LED panels.
Created by Limited Edition Event Design, the gala evening immersed fans in a celebratory atmosphere worthy of a major premiere, in addition to conveying an engaging sense of the film itself. Milton Keynes-based IPS, supplied and installed the premiere’s video panels as well as its lighting kit, which included 14 Color STRIKE M fixtures, positioned in pairs at the bottom of each of the seven light towers that interspliced the video wall. Each of the screens along the red-carpet walkway wall measured 2.5m wide by 4m high. The custom content they displayed was played back via a media server.
Lighting designer Richard Godin skillfully ran the lighting and video on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium Console to create the evening’s engaging atmosphere. His well-timed strobes and colour effects that matched the film’s imagery contributed to the overall sense of excitement that marked the affair.
As is the case with any event that takes place in Leicester Square, the Mickey 17 premiere had its share of challenges. Load-in and tear down schedules had to be arranged carefully to meet time and space restrictions. And the structure for the video panels had to be constructed to account for the sloping surface of the area. Project Manager James Mason and LED Technician Dan Ainsley from IPS were more than up to the task of meeting these challenges, leading a dedicated team of colleagues, they helped the premiere come off without a hitch, ensuring that the “human condition” on this London evening was indeed a happy one.
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