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Triller Fight Club

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Pyrotecnico heats up Justin Bieber. Photo by Looch

Tom Kenny Lights Thrilling Combo of PPV Boxing and Music

Tom Kenny’s phone was blowing up. Positive buzz after the Triller Fight Club event in Atlanta was knocking him out with tons of texts, while he was already off to Los Angeles as lighting designer for the Global Citizen Vax Live concert (See related article, this issue, page 22). Before the taped broadcast aired, he was in a field in Tennessee lighting Bonnaroo “on a huge high from blowing the place away.” And now, among other projects, he’s preparing the plot for June 9’s CMT Music Awards in Nashville.

Kenny gets excited when a producer gives him carte blanche to run with his ideas, as was the case with Triller Fight Club. The concept was new: a reinvention of the old school boxing match by mixing in creative visuals, celebrity commentators and concerts. Triller is the entertainment platform. Rapper Snoop Dogg is behind the Fight Club idea, and the two partnered. When he got the call to do the production design and lighting design for this April 17 pay-per-view project, Kenny was thrilled.

Production Designer Tom Kenny and his friend. Photo by Looch

The first of the 2021 Triller Fight Club experiences took place on the field of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The four-hour broadcast featured boxing bouts along with performances by Justin Bieber, The Black Keys, Doja Cat, Saweetie, Diplo, Major Lazer, and the premiere of Snoop Dogg’s new group, Mount Westmore.

Kenny was told to approach this “as a retro high-energy film shoot with lots of inspiration.” Emmy-winning filmmaker Bert Marcus and executive producer Malea Rose were overseeing the creative cinematic style vision. Director of photography Rick Siegel would also help carry it out via his cameras and angles. “Our main producer comes from Oscar-nominated projects, so there was a high level of expectations, but also a cinematic approach to everything,” Kenny says. “This was an incredibly fast moving show, and with the help of some great artist camps, we were able to create wild and chaotic looks.”

He had high expectations about his lighting team, too. “Because of the pandemic, we had the best in lighting crews with years of experience and talent,” he says. Pointing out the four LDs working with him — Michael Appel, Tim Donavan, Jess Baker and Josh Beard — he adds, “We had one big cohesive lighting vibe. We were under the gun a few times, but with the beautiful cameras we had, it was a dream to light.”

Emcee Snoop Dogg takes the mic. Photo by Looch

The “Overall Vibe”

Industry friend Laura Frank introduced Emmy-winning LD Michael Appel to Tom Kenny in 2004, and the two have worked together on many prestigious events since then. But even Appel admits this show was different. Success depended on creating the “overall vibe” that would translate to the viewing audience.

“It had the feeling of what Tom was going for: that 1970s smoke filled arena look, the old school boxing feel,” Appel describes. “Even though it was incredibly modern, we created that feel, that vibe. It was a combination of things, [even] referencing the early look of Saturday Night Live.” Brought on as lighting director and main programmer, Appel says achieving the desired looks was “incredibly complex,” with a 3D design involving huge amounts of scaffolding and lights.

The two structures of stage scaffolding on the field each had their own purpose. Stage 2, the Justin Bieber Stage, was a typical concert stage setup used exclusively for Bieber’s and The Black Keys’ performances. It had its own devoted team. Mark Klopper was the lighting director for this stage, while Josh Beard, who works with the Chainsmokers, was the main programmer.

The other structure was the reinvented boxing ring. Scaffolding surrounded it on three sides, with the Ring Stage attached to it for all the other artists. Tim Donovan was lighting director for this stage.

Appel worked with Matt Geasey of Clear All Visuals, who was the draftsperson for the project, and gaffer Kevin Cassidy to ensure they could “all talk the same language” about how the rig was arranged and controlled.

“It was a challenge determining how each scaffolding pod would be laid out and how lights would be arranged. There were a lot of lights. We had to figure out the best way to organize them, how to channel the show,” Appel explains. “How Kevin laid out the data was very straight ahead. They were able to isolate scaffolding pods. From a channeling standpoint, we took a top-down, left-right approach so each system across each bay controlled five pods of lighting. That’s how we handled the programming.”

Fighters in the ring getting ready to duke it out. Photo by Looch

Production Power Punches

PRG provided all the lighting for this robust action. The scaffolding was uplit using Solaris Flares. Robe Pointes served as the main beam for big ballyhoos, while Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes shot through the scaffolding like searchlights. The DJ booth in the upstage featured GLP X4 Bar 20s and X4 Bar 10s and a wall of JDC1 hybrid strobes.

On the Ring Stage’s fascia of the scaffolding were Chroma-Q Color Force II LED battens as the main light pointing outward. Each stage used four PRG GroundControl followspots, using the same followspot operators for both stages.

Elation Professional Cuepix Blinder WW4 were positioned behind the commentators and around the boxing match as the featured practical. “It is the LED version of the 4-banger molefay, a nice tungsten relief against all the color that we had,” Appel says.

The biggest challenge was lighting the boxers. Triller replaced the traditional white ring mat with a black logo mat on the floor. “Having a black ring with no white light bounce off the floor into faces was a real challenge,” Appel says. “Having to come up with a focus for the ring light was a major concern.”

By working on the grandMA console in 3D mode, prior to seeing the rig hung physically, they could experiment with camera angles that could get light in the boxers’ faces and on the outside of the ring. “That was a thing Tom was constantly talking about. We wanted to see the eyes, especially when boxers put their heads down,” Appel explains. “You want to see what the action is, but you don’t want to turn it into a daytime talk show. It was all about getting light on the boxers, getting the old school lighting look and seeing their expressions.”

Appel likes Tom’s idea of having the performance stage face the boxing ring, allowing them to use the whole rig as a massive out-of-focus background beyond the set. “It was a neat two-purpose design.”

Jose Alcantar was the playback engineer for Pro Tools for the show. He got the tracks from the artists so everybody on the show was working on the same timecode. They could all work offline and do their programming, and he handled the playback on show day. “Most of the performances were time coded,” Appel notes. “That was a big help, especially with the big dynamic hits. We were able to get those lighting looks right on the money.”

Appel gives kudos to a second programmer, Jess Baker. “She was great — she ran key light for the dancers and performances. She was always getting cool focuses for the board. It was great to have Jess there to share the workload.”

Members of Snoop Dogg’s new group, Mount Westmore, take their seats. Photo by Looch

Knockout Content

Tony Caporale was situated at the 50-yard sideline of the stadium, in between both stages. “I was really proud of this setup,” the media server programmer says. The boxing ring and performance stage screens were controlled by a main and tracking backup for both the grandMA2 consoles and Green Hippo v4 Boreal+ Media Servers.

“The performance stage was integrated into the rest of the set, so I needed total control of everything in case the TV truck or the show creators wanted something specific in any given space of the set,” he says. “Whenever the performances happened, all the focus shifted on that particular stage so the next fight could get set. I spent days laying out the console and media server to comfortably cruise between TV and performance parts of the show.”

Caporale chose the grandMA2 and the Green Hippo Boreal+ media servers, having used them together for 10 years now. “For an event of this size,” he explains, “you go with what you know best and what can proficiently get you the results you need.”

Each of the artists’ creative teams submitted content and tracks for time-coding purposes so they could sync everything properly. Justin Casey handled content for Mount Westmore. Stu Dingley and Ben Melman handled Saweetie’s visuals. Studio Moross created the animations for the boxing ring for fighter entrances, logos, main event hype and winner animations.

“We received content directly from the show creator Bert Marcus and his Triller team to play on the screens, and Echo Entertainment had helped put together footage for the TV broadcast as well,” Caporale says. “I was even taking program Live Input from the Truck to the Media Server and activating it on the video wall above the commentator booth so that the winning fighters could watch replays with the announcer after the fight.”

Thrilled with being involved, he adds, “It was a breath of fresh air to see so many people working!”

Pyro, Lasers, Fog and Flames

Special atmospheric effects contributed to the overall vibe. With an arsenal of pyro, lasers, cold fog, flames and CO2, Pyrotecnico added punch and drama in the appropriate spots on the stages, on various levels in the scaffolding and in the ring. As Justin Bieber’s usual provider, Pyrotecnico collaborated directly with the artist for his artist effects. For all the other artists, Pyrotecnico provided 3D renderings allowing the creative teams to preview what special effects would happen in the songs. VP of live events Rocco Vitale enjoyed working with the unusual event and thought the structure “took to the flames and pyro in unique places.”

Going the Distance

“The best part for me was the incredible pace and speed it all worked, and my team just went with the punches, to coin a phrase,” Kenny reflects. “In between acts, the fabulous director of photography Rick Siegel and I checked in with each other with new ideas while the matches were going on. The producers wanted an open-minded, and as they are mainly feature film folks, they were stunned by how fast everything came about.” He adds, “The stage designs and rig were as big as any tour or massive awards shows I’ve done, and they let me do my thing. Everyone worked in tandem to be creative and have fun.”

The fun continues as Kenny’s still in between rounds. Triller Fight Club’s TV competition series, So You Think You Can Fight, goes into production in Miami in June, and he’s set for two more Triller Fight Club PPV events. He’s got this clinched. 

For more information, visit trillerfightclub.com, prg.com, and Showtime, this issue, page 11.

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