Die Another Day Premiere at Royal Albert Hall

November 18th witnessed one of London´s biggest ever movie premieres, the release of the twentieth James Bond film, Die Another Day.

Launched with a pomp and circumstance befitting the English Royal Family (indeed, even Queen Elizabeth II couldn’t stay away), the world premiere took place amid the elegant surroundings of London’s Royal Albert Hall, which was spectacularly illuminated for the occasion.

LD Atkinson transforms Albert Hall into ice palace
Lighting Designer for the event was David Atkinson of David Atkinson Lighting Design Limited, a top designer with a wide breadth of experience and more than 20 years of international experience in touring, event and architectural lighting design. 
 
Inspired by the Icelandic hideout of Gustav Graves, the villain in Die Another Day, the extraordinary challenge given Atkinson by 20th Century Fox was to transform the Royal Albert Hall into an ice palace.

Having faced this type of situation before, Atkinson decided that the best way to ‘freeze’ the Albert Hall was by creating intense layers of light. To do this he used the new MAC 2000 Wash light along with other color wash luminaires. Water ripple effects as well as drifting graphic imagery were projected across the various surfaces by the MAC 2000 Profile while some 54 giant polycarbonate icicles, hung from the front of the building, were highlighted in Congo blue. MAC 2000 Profiles were also used to project 007 logos onto the building.

“We wanted to create a cool blue feeling to stay in line with the theme,” stated Atkinson. “The challenge was to turn a red brick building blue. There is no doubt that the electric blue wash from the lights dramatically altered the appearance of the building. It really did look ice like. The result was a very even distribution of light right across the building, which along with the 54 giant polycarbonate icicles, achieved exactly the effect 20th Century Fox required.” MAC 2000 Profiles were also used inside the hall for logo projection onto large screens.

Also lights red carpet arrivals
Atkinson also covered red carpet royal presentations and star arrivals. And with at least 70 TV crews and dozens of press photographers on hand from all over the world, he had to keep the TV audience in mind as well. “The event wasn’t lit solely for the live audience,” he adds, “we had to take into account the TV audience as well, not to mention the press and photographers. This was a huge TV event with a global audience. It was really an epic night.” 

20th Century Fox chose Atkinson because of his renowned reputation for working with architectural lighting in both live and permanent architectural situations. He also has considerable film and television lighting experience, which add to his versatility.

Essential Lighting, Andy Peat Associates and Fulcrum collaboration
Martin Luback of Essential Lighting supplied all Martin equipment while the dressing outside the venue was masterminded and production managed by Andy Peat and Bryon Wells of Andy Peat Associates.
 
The installation was carried out by creative lighting design specialists Fulcrum, under the expert eye of Project Manager Richard Cross. “Because of the limited time frame, we had a crew of 30 to rig the three 12 metre lighting towers,” said Cross. “Each was powered by generators paired for back up. We then positioned around 130 automated luminaries on the towers, chosen because we could focus them from the ground, saving us a great deal of precious time.”

Despite the lack of time available, Cross and his highly skilled crew were finished by 4 pm, ensuring that everything was in place for the 5.30 pm press call.

As well as being attended by H.M. the Queen, the guest list for the Premiere read like a Who’s Who of the movie world all of whom were treated not only to another great Bond Movie, but also stunning lighting courtesy of David Atkinson and Fulcrum.