Provides Peace of Mind Amid High-Amp Video World for Live Broadcast Music Awards Shows
Whether it’s The Country Music Awards (CMAs), iHeartRadio Music Awards, The American Music Awards (AMAs) or countless others, the trick is to grab the audience’s attention and keep it, with dynamic and creative visuals to go with the tunes. That’s a big challenge, and although there may be rehearsals in preparation, just imagine the added pressure when it goes LIVE and there are no second chances.
These days, major productions are creating stunning images that involve complicated visuals and even more complex technology that call for expertise, logistical resourcefulness and a steady hand.
That’s where the folks behind Lux Machina come in. Founded by Zach Alexander (a workflow expert, dedicated to the big picture, from pre-viz and problem solving to logistics and execution) and Philip Galler (a tech geek extraordinaire, with ample experience in high-end media servers, automated lighting, LED and projection systems), Lux Machina makes sense of the latest technology, software and support solutions that lighting designers and screens producers count on to wow audiences.
For Lux Machina, no two jobs are the same. And it’s their versatility and diverse experience that sets them apart. For some shows, they work with the lighting designers to convey the look of the stage via video playback and monitoring on set pieces, always at the ready to perform a delicate image-layering dance with the broadcast truck.
The AMAs
But for musical acts, it is often a more complex collaboration requiring Lux Machina to add the right tools backed up with quick thinking, a clear head, and the ability to follow the beat. Their work on the most recent AMAs, staged last fall at the Microsoft Theater (formerly Nokia) in Los Angeles, is a case in point.
“Music events can be tricky, and there were over 14 acts for this show,” says Alexander. “Songs have complex stories to tell, and musicians love to tell them in ways they feel are emotionally right in the moment. Things change from beat to beat, and musical acts don’t crystalize until we are in rehearsal. While the lighting design team at 22 Degrees was responsible for the overall lighting design of the show, they looked to us to provide a toolset to accomplish the artist’s requests. Our response is never ‘No,’ but instead we make sure to have the right tool standing by, the moment it is needed.”
For the AMAs, Lux Machina was supplied with the set designer’s drawings for several performances — Green Day’s “Bang Bang,” Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj’s “Side To Side” and Shawn Mendes’ “Treat You Better/Mercy.” They worked with their tech department to incorporate each performance’s specific video and lighting needs into the broadcast playback system.
While many performers provide a timecoded track that is locked to the music track playing in their ear, Green Day’s “Bang Bang” performance was totally live. Alexander explains, “They never play to track. The content for the screens was one long montage of flashy imagery, made to look aesthetically cool.” But when the band yelled, “Bang Bang,” they wanted the words to flash on the screen over the video. While the rehearsal was a tamer version of the song, Green Day changed it up during the live performance. “We have to know all the songs well enough,” adds Phil Galler, who was programming. “The skill is to get the timing right.”
Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj’s performance of “Side to Side” exemplified Lux Machina’s ability to creatively maximize today’s technology. “The performance featured a production gag with waves projected on the sand,” explains Alexander. Production needed to mask off the area where Ariana Grande stood, because they didn’t want to project the waves on her.
“We generated a mask live because there was no easy way to bake it into the content and still be able to tweak it in real time during rehearsals,” says Galler. “During the show, we had minutes to make final adjustments and confirm the mask was in place. We nailed it during the commercial break, just as the stage was rolled onto the set.”
Shawn Mendes’ staging is always creative. During the AMAs, for his “Treat You Better/Mercy” number, the idea was to have an LED floor — with mirrored walls. Sounds great — but how do you make it work? Galler recalls, “It could have been a risky concept because mirrors reflect, and you never know what they will capture. Programming isn’t always cut and dry — especially with such a complex creative concept. With our software, we rotated the placement of the content in relation to the LED floor to get it where the creative team desired.” In the end, Shawn Mendes stood on an LED floor, with the mirrored walls reflecting the floor without shadows.
iHeartRadio Music Awards
For Mendes’ performance of “Mercy” at the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards, held at the Forum in Los Angeles on March 5, the main challenge came from above, explains Zach Alexander. “We had been brought in as part of the Luminous FX team by Laura Frank to engineer the media server package and provide technical support.
The lofty concept for that performance featured a large moon hanging from the ceiling. Just two days before load-in, the giant sphere was inflated and hung by a single line. The team had a heart-pounding two-hour window to map it for projection and work out the details as it bobbed in the air. The balloon was then taken down and deflated as the crew reset for the next act. The next time we saw it was during dress rehearsal. The team had a few minutes to tweak the projectors prior to the performance before it was taken down again before being hung one final time in the commercial break before the live performance. Then, there he was, singing under that giant blue moon, as we breathed a sigh of relief.”
Performers constantly come up with creative concepts that they think are a “piece of cake” to create. But when it comes to bringing these visuals alive, it takes a lot of cool thinking under pressure.
“Think of us as a little like Photoshop or After Effects,” says Alexander. “The broadcast truck provides the backbone, and we ‘Photoshop’ a little of this over here and a little over there. At the end of the day, it’s one video playback system with different technical elements. It’s less about what we can change but how many elements we can create to program to change at once. We’re kind of the new kid media server — where we look at the old broadcast playback challenges and find solutions with new technology,” he continues. “We are proud to say that we design systems in such a way that, more often than not, the answer to a designer’s question of ‘Can we do this?’ is ‘Yes, and here’s how we can take it a step further if you want.’”
For more information on Lux Machina, go to www.luxmc.com.