DUBLIN, GA – In last few years, the people of this city on the banks of the Oconee River have had much to celebrate. New businesses popped up all over its picturesque downtown and giant corporations like Best Buy and Perry Ellis have opened multi-million-dollar distribution centers in its surrounding industrial parks. Small wonder, then, that the local chamber of commerce built its annual gala around the theme of “Into the Future.”
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Playing on this concept, John Berret of Quest Sound & Productions LLC energized the event with celestial space exploration images that would have been right at home in a Star Wars style movie. Aiding him in this endeavor was a collection of CHAUVET Professional Rogue and COLORado fixtures.
“We wanted to create the look of a Sci-Fi movie that makes people feel excited about the future,” said Berret, who ran his lights with a ChamSys PC Wing and Extra Wing. “This was the kind of mood that the client wanted to convey, with deeply saturated colors combined in ways that suggested deep space.”
Drawing on the independently controlled 8-facet prism of the eight Rogue R1 Beam fixtures in his rig, Berret created the impression of laser beams shooting across the room from multiple directions. This, combined with the spacey orbital patterns on the stage’s backdrop, which were washed in saturated colors by the eight COLORado Tri IP and 16 CHAUVET DJ EZLink Par-Q4 fixtures in his rig, set a distinct intergalactic tone in the room.
Also adding to the shooting star effect were the tight and intensely bright beams from two Rogue R3 Spot fixtures. Positioned on risers stage left and stage right, the two 300W LED fixtures were used to create bright crossing patterns of light beams.
While the colorful lighting created suggestive symbolism, more explicit imagery was provided by the videos of space shuttle lift-offs shown on two projector screens, one stage left and one stage right. Berret added a compelling dramatic element to this panorama with help from a pair of CHAUVET DJ Geyser RGB atmospherics.
“I positioned the Geysers by the two main projection screens, and every time there was a space flight, we released plumes of fog accented with reddish/orange colors that suggested a real flight,” he said. “This, along with some coordinated colors from the COLORado Tri IPs created some engaging imagery.
“There was a level of fantasy involved in our design,” continued Berret. “The atmosphere at the event was really upbeat, so people wanted to feel good and have fun. At the end of the evening, the people from the chamber told us how happy they were with the overall effect we created, which made us feel good.”
The allegories that impressed the Chamber of Commerce officials and enlivened their gala were reminiscent of the metaphorical creations of another Dubliner, James Joyce. Although the early 20th century literary giant lived in Dublin, Ireland, some 3,900 miles from Georgia, he was aware of his hometown’s American counterpart. He even mentioned the US city in the opening pages of his seminal work Finnegans Wake. If he had witnessed John Berret’s lighting design, the great writer undoubtably would have given him props for its rich imagery.
