Ford Rouge Factory Tour wins THEA Award for Outstanding Achievement

Manny was  thrilled when the folks at BRC Imagination Arts asked us to design the lighting for the  Manufacturing Innovation a 360 degree theater that is part of the Ford Rouge Factory Tour.  We were even more thrilled when we learned it won a THEA Award for Outstanding Achievement.   

The show was conceived to celebrate the launch of the new Ford 150 truck which is built at the Rouge Plant, Dearborn MI.   The audience experiences how the truck was designed and built through six screens that immerse the audience in a 360 degree experience.   The show uses projection mapping on the 150 to illustrate the journey the truck takes through the manufacturing process.   

We designed the lighting throughout the theater to wrap around the audience and immerse them in the experience of the show.   We lit the walls behind the screens as wrap around cyc and we embeded small puck lights in the floor in a grid.   We were then able to extend the canvas of the theater by using the floor and walls together in pixel map.   The effect is a fluid radiating wash of color across the theater in sync with the music and narrative beats of the show.   

A real highlight for us was conceiving the lighting for the manufacturing robots that are central to the show.   It seemed natural that instead of lighting the robots from above or below, the robots themselves should emit and glow with light.  This way no mater where in space their arms move they always are alive with light. 

NYX joins the team for Honda & Acura

This year Manny was invited by his client, Spinifix, to join the team for the Honda and Acura press conferences for the whole auto show season.  In each city NYX needs to support two shows in two different spaces so naturally Manny asked Brian to also join the team.   

While Manny serves as the designer for both brands up front on site for this year's The Los Angeles Auto Show, Brian was the designer for Honda and Manny was the designer for Acura.

For Honda this season, the design centers around a ever changing array of pixel mapped cubes.  For each city, the cubes are arranged in a different pattern and Manny creates a different pixel map for Spinifex and then they create the reveal video that stretches across not only the ultra wide screen video wall but also down onto the cubes as well. 

In Los Angeles, Honda revealed the New H-RV and the reveal video's creative was centered on a cubist/mindcraft look.  The lighting design continued the cubist theme with Magic Panels within the garage for the car that Brian cued to first appear as full cubes but as the reveal progressed those cubist patterns were deconstructed into smaller and smaller square patterns.

Acura debuted the new 2016 ILX and Spinifex wanted to work with volumetric light as design motive. The creative direction was to use light as architecture that could be reshaped through out the reveal.   In the auto show environment getting enough darkness to perceive this effect can be challenging so the team leaned heavily on sharpys who beams have enough energy to cut through the background noise of the auto show floor.

Detroit is up next and the team is hard at work getting ready.  Watch this space for the next update from the season.

Philly 4th of July Jam

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than with the awesome music of The Roots.  The Philly 4th of July Jam,  broadcast on VH1 and directed by Alex Coletti;, also featured Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, Jennifer Hudson and Aloe Blacc.  And fireworks, of course.

This was Abbey's fifth year lighting the show for producers GeeMirkin Production and ESM.

YouTube Onstage Live at the Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center presented a free concert featuring John Legend with inspiring acts who made their fame through YouTube: Lindsey Stirling, Les Twins, Playing for Change, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox, and Mike Relm.

The show was produced by Salli Frattini and  Sunset Lane Entertainment, and directed by John Gonzalez.  Abbey was happy to be asked to work with this great team again, and to have another opportunity to meld her lighting with the awesome video from Obscura Digital.

Xbox E3 2014

It was all games, games, and more games as Phil Spencer from Xbox too the stage at this years E3 Media Briefing.   Manny was asked again by our client, Zed Ink to be the Lighting Designer for the Media Briefing which was broadcast live on Spike TV.   This was Manny's 9th year lighting the project.

A major feature of this year's show was a design that brought the show more out into the audience.   Three satellite stages with scenic LED backing screens were place out onto the main floor of the Galen Arena.    Using the whole floor of the arena brought the presenters and the game demos closer to the audience and created a more intimate look on camera.

This year's set featured an ultra aspect ratio screen with track masking elements to close it down when needed.  This created many technical challenges.  We chose to solve them by attached integral lighting to the scenic elements so their lighting quality traveled with them as they moved.    It also allowed the programming of the show to be agnostic from the position of the scenic walls.   If the creative team chose to change the placement of a tracking cue it did not requite a refocus on our part

Erin Hearne Williams, Zed's Creative Director for the show also wanted to immerse the audience more into the show and have that be reflected on the broadcast.  She added LED bracelets from Pixmob that could be controlled as part of our lighting system.  This opened up a whole new world of visual effect that turned the audience into surrounding backdrop for so many of the camera shots seen at home.   

Evening Showcase

This year both Manny and Brian also designed the Xbox Showcase.   The location is always an iconic downtown venue.  This year was no exception and the event took place at the recently renovated Ace Theater.   Its rich architecture, painted in the brand colors of Xbox become a photogenic backdrop for debut of game play from so many of the new titles coming out this year.

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 10th Anniversary

Working for producer Original Media, Abbey was excited for the opportunity to work with director Sharif Hamza on the filming of three music video for Vogue, as a part of their CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 10th Anniversary Special

The three videos feature the artists Tori Kelly, MR MR and Aluna George, wearing the fashions of former CFDA Awards winners Rag and Bone, Band of Outsiders, and Alexander Wang.