Spiderman Lighting a Marvel

Jean-Pierre Willson (JP) of Unfazed Productions was contracted to design a show for the Children´s Holiday Festival Programme at Canal Walk Shopping Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The theme for the event was Spider World featuring Marvel Comics’ Spiderman. A bevy of Martin gear was used for the Spider get-together, which included circus acts, aerial performances, balancing and escape acts, clown juggling, and a flame finale.

Besides design responsibilities, JP looked after the technical lighting and operated most of the shows, assisted by Moses Mooi. He used some 16 MAC 500 profile spots, 12 MAC 600 washlights, 3 MAC 2000 Profile, 8 RoboScan Pro 918 scanners, 14 RoboColor Pro 400s and conventional luminaires on the show. A pair of Jem ZR 24/7 hazers and Jem ZR33 Hi Mass smoke machines kept the atmosphere adequately thick with haze for beam visibility and overall atmosphere generation. Control was via a 2048 channel Martin LightJockey.

Some of the lights were situated on a 12-meter circle truss flown 7meters above ground level but the balance of the lighting was placed around the stage towards the audience for effect lighting. The 40-minute show was held 3 times a day for 3 weeks with all profits going to charity.

“Feature-wise I love the MAC 2000, and MAC 600 combination,” comments JP. “Also the speed of the mirror of the 918 is still impressive. LightJockey was used to control the rig and was programmed and operated by myself. The show was programmed in a theatre stack so that the operators could run the show easily. Specials were also assigned to the keyboard. The best thing for me is that if someone has a problem with the system, and I am not there, I can still guide them through via phone.

“All our lights have been maintained and serviced in-house by Tom Smith and Brent Thompson and most of them have worked for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 years. Some of the lights have reached 14,000hrs! I don´t know of many other lights that could have stood the pace that these have. Because they are not in a rental situation, the lights still look brand new and perform all tasks that are programmed.”

The show was conceived by Fred Abramse and the Canal Walk Marketing and Promotion team. All equipment and crew was supplied by Canal Walk Shopping Centre and Unfazed Productions through Martin’s South African representative Electrosonic. Installation was by Electrosonic.