CHICAGO — When Mowalla Productions was looking to give their client Southern Comfort a new look for their underCOVER concert tour, they contacted UV/FX. The 2009 10-city tour featuring Polyphonic Spree, The Hold Steady, and Ghostland Observatory. For a brand-oriented look with “wow” factor, Whitney Fitzpatrick, Allison Knapp, and Jim Dorroh of Mowalla Productions got a flexible and lightweight scenic solution with two scenes incorporated into one piece of UV/FX soft good scenery.
UV/FX brought in scenic designer Jon Craine to collaborate on the piece, which uses ultraviolet sensitive materials for the changing visual effect. Craine, a frequent collaborator with UVFX, worked with Southern Comfort and Mowalla on a series of soft goods, including a 15-foot-by-20-foot backdrop and two sets of 15-foot-high downstage legs.
Despite a short schedule, Craine provided a series of concept artwork based on the brand’s art direction. Southern Comfort was looking for an image that was inspired by modern rock poster art yet was still true to the brand’s identity.
Craine eventually hit on the concept of a Southern Comfort-inspired city infused with music. Craine used the recognizable Southern Comfort bottle (which he wasn’t allowed to alter) as the central unifying compositional device around which the city grew.
The imagery was applied to a central backdrop and modified for application to the downstage legs, which had to be designed so they could be rigged either horizontally or vertically depending upon the venue.
The scenery was produced by UV/FX artist Rhett Butler using the company’s clear, ultraviolet-sensitive scenic paints. Completely transparent under regular colored stage lighting, the colorful paints emerged under the UV glow.
For more information, please visit www.uvfx.com.
