Phish

Abbey was invited by Chris Kuroda to collaborate on a co-design for the current Phish tour - An amazing opportunity to work together on design for this legendary band and their incredible live performances.  The goal creatively for introducing and incorporating a video element into the Phish touring show was that the lighting and video function as parts of one visual system.  

The production design for the show consists of a clean, simple architectural environment created by the video screen surfaces.  A low semi circular video wall encloses the band and defines their performance space.  During the first set a slim, stage wide, rectangle of video screen hangs above the stage;  echoing the minimal, linear array of the floor LED.  The lighting for set one is trimmed low, close to the screens, creating an intimate environment.

At the start of the second set the flown screens pull apart and and deconstruct into an array of irregularly spaced individual tiles.  The lighting positions travel out at the same time, opening up the shape of both systems; enlarging the scale of the performance environment and creating a flow of areas of negative space.  

In the first parts of the show the video content is more spare, and minimal, often filling the entire area of the screens in overlapping, shifting planes of color - to establish the architecture of the set, cleanly present the band in the performance environment, and introduce the visual element of the screens into the show.  In the later parts of the show both the physical environment and the content evolve to be looser, more broken up, less flat, and more active.  The images travel more across the screens; sometimes distorting and redefine the shape and space. 
The content design takes advantage of the Roe Hybrid tiles, which provide both a medium and a high resolution surface in one plane.

Lighting and video are operated completely improvisational by Chris from one console.  The video content was created by Abigail and Dan Scully.  The incredible expanding screen was provided and design engineered by Tait Towers.

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. 

David Byrne's Contemporary Color

Contemporary Color was a one of a kind show.

Ten color guard teams (an arena floor full of rifle and flag tossing acrobatics)— matched with ten amazing musicians, orchestrated by David Byrne. Each artist—Nelly Furtado, How To Dress Well, Devonté Hynes, Zola Jesus, Nico Muhly + Ira Glass, St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, Lucius, Ad-Rock + Money Mark, and Byrne himself—collaborated with an individual color guard team to create a live original soundtrack, paired to dazzling lockstep routines that fill the arena with movement and color; rifles and flags soaring in the air.

Conceived by David Byrne, the shows took place at Air Canada in Toronto and the Barclay Center in Brooklyn; and were the subject of a documentary film by the Ross Brothers.

Abigail was thrilled to be the lighting designer on this unusual project, and to get the opportunity to work with David Byrne on his extraordinary vision.

Commissioned by BAM and Laminate Festival Toronto
With support from WGI Sport of the Arts

See press and images of the show here:
Rolling Stone
Consequence of Sound

NSX Launches at North American International Auto Show

The Acura NSX was just revealed to the world and we were thrilled to be a part of the team.  

The NSX was unquestionable one of the stars of the show.  The highly anticipated nature of the car raised the stakes for the reveal.  

Our client, Spinifex, wanted to create a moment for the reveal that blended video with immersive effects within the space of the booth surrounding the audience with the reveal.    To achieve this they asked us to create lighting and special effect cues all through out the video that proceeded the live driving of the NSX on to the turntable.   The result was more then 150 lighting cues within the two and half minutes of the reveal that all was synced to the video.

When it came time for the NSX to appear the choice was made to create a dramatic entrance from underneath the press riser.  After emerging from under the press riser the NSX rolled down a long runway, much like a fashion catwalk, on its way to the turntable.  It created many unique first photos of this new super car.  

Spinifex also designed into the video lighting beams that mimic the beam quality of a Sharpy and then we designed the reveal lighting to match the angle and color these beams from the video.  Just another way in which we seamlessly blended the creative content with the physical reveal.

The end result was blending of all the elements that Acura and Spinifex wanted.

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.