NEW YORK – Kevin Mignone of KM Productions teamed up with Al Crawford and Arc 3 Designs to provide light, sound and video for Edible Schoolyard NYC’s fourth annual spring benefit. The setup featured an array of brands including Chauvet, Vari*Lite, GLP and D&B Audiotechnik that were used to create an event ambience that was reminiscent of an outdoor, lush garden.
More details from KM Productions (www.km-productions.com):
ESY NYC builds gardens and culinary classrooms in underserved areas to teach kids to grow, harvest, cook and love healthy food. For their spring benefit David Chang of Momofuku curated an incredible lineup of 25 world-renowned chefs who designed and prepared an intimate, four-course dinner for dinner guests. KM’s lighting and video was strategically integrated into Van Wyck & Van Wyck’s transformation of the venue into a whimsical gardenscape with layers of dip-dyed gauze fabric panels and lush hanging gardens of vines, gourds and vegetables. Al, as the Lighting Designer, used the ETC Source Four tungsten spotlights for “warm dapples of light on the linens, decor and walls” and brought a swirling texture to the hand painted panels with Vari*Lite VL3515s to “create intimacy mixed with a little whimsy.”
The benefit, which took place in Skylight at Moynihan Station, included a cocktail hour, seated dinner and after-party. “The cocktail and after party experience needed to be treated in a way that could give us transformative flexibility,” says Al. To do this KM relied on the Chauvet 330SR Spots and GLP Impression X4S units for both their remarkable colors and movement speed that could take place at the flip of a fader. The “soft, static natural tones for guest arrivals and cocktails could then transform the space with more saturated colors and large movements to create an after-party atmosphere once dinner concluded” added Kevin.
Kevin says of the historic post office “The benefit of a raw space is that it acts as your art board. You can do almost anything in a raw space since you are working with exactly as it is called, RAW space. Hang, light, project and create anything your client can imagine with very few restrictions.” Kevin and Al took full advantage bringing in Absen A3Pro Video walls, Vari*Lite 3515s, D&B Audiotechnik T series line array system in addition to Chauvet and GLP lights.
For the dinner portion, under a custom rigging solution designed specifically for Van Wyck & Van Wyck’s floral and vegetable chandeliers, the team positioned moving head lights and gobos over the tables. The placement of the lighting fixtures allowed guests to revel in the excitement of the dishes but Mignone notes “dinner lighting is critical during any event like this because the guests need to feel comfortable in the atmosphere to enjoy their dinner and socialize. We really try to create a feeling almost as if the lighting is coming from natural light or candle light.”
Kevin states of the experience “Edible Schoolyard has an incredible mission and we want to ensure that when guests attend their benefits, the experience is unparalleled. We always want our lighting and sound to contribute to the creation of this experience for them.”
