TPI_March

ON THE ROAD: AC/DC
Below: The train’s support structure.
GOING LOCO IN HITCHIN
Patrick Woodroffe worked with onedotzero
to create a Manga-themed, tongue-in-cheek
introduction that sees a runaway loco crash
and then suddenly emerge in all its steaming
‘real life’ glory as the screen parts and the band
appropriately kick into ‘Rock’n’Roll Train’.
Sam Pattinson of onedotzero explained:
“Patrick approached us with a script for the
opening sequence. He referenced the Willie
Williams-designed Manga girl from the Rolling
Hertfordshire-based Brilliant Stages supported by a reinforced section of Stones’ Licks tour which Patrick had directed.
designed and manufactured the the main stage. This stage section has I’d commissioned animator Murray John to do
infrastructure for the spectacular been designed as a rolling support to be the Stones piece for ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ and
focal point of the Black Ice tour — the integrated with the main stage, enabling wanted to stick with the same animation team
Rock’n’Roll Train. the train to be built remotely from the for the AC/DC intro.
Conceived by Stuﬁsh’s Jeremy Lloyd main stage and then rolled into place, “The storyline was about manic and devilish
and Mark Fisher, in collaboration with thus aiding construction time and space Angus, hell bent on crashing a train into a town.
sculptor Jacqui Pyle, this ‘life size’ in tight venue halls. As the train tears through the desert at night,
steam locomotive is self-supported and To assemble, the panel support two super groupies ambush him and attempt to
powered by crew alone, and needs to be structure consists of a four-tiered truss stop the train before it crashes.
hidden upstage at the top of the show arrangement to facilitate building the “We started off by designing the characters
before moving 4.5m downstage to slew locomotive from the venue ﬂoor. These and worked out how the piece would work
round into its ﬁnal position between two are raised by hoists as each layer of without dialogue and how we’d co-ordinate the
video walls and over a walkway. panels is added, ﬁnishing off with an climax of the animation and the introduction of
Various effects needed to be aluminium ‘cow-catcher’ and distressed, the life size train prop on stage, on which the
incorporated into the design, including ‘broken’ aluminium rails and ﬁbreglass real Angus was originally going to ride. Patrick
lighting, pyro, smoke, CO
2
, headlights, a sleepers cantilevered under the train helped smooth this transition with blinders and
brass bell and deployable, light-up devil assembly. pyro.
horns, not to mention concealing — and Still on hoists, the train is then tilted “Fellow animators James Thompson and
later supporting — the inﬂatable ‘Rosie’. to its 23° show position, and attached to Barney Wewlett were brought in to create the
The complete centrepiece, as always, the central turret, after which the hoists 3D environments and colour the artwork. We
has been designed for touring needs with are detached, leaving the 10m wide, then commissioned Ian Dalsemer at LA sound
all parts ﬁtting into 10’ long, 8’ high, 44” 8.35m tall (6.7m of which is visible above studio, The Elements, to create the crucial
carts for trucking and upper deck air- stage) behemoth freestanding. soundtrack which he mixed through the tour
freight. Surprisingly, at a total of 6000kg, PA.”
Stuﬁsh enhanced the dimensional the locomotive can be pushed up and All of onedotzero’s work was carried out
effect by adding an exaggerated downstage by only two stagehands and over eight weeks at its London studio, whilst
perspective to the design, a maquette of takes just three people to rotate it to its keeping Opie and Woodroffe updated. The ﬁnal
which was made before being handed show position. result was a fast moving 2.5 minute animation
over to Brilliant Stages to work on the Brilliant’s general manager Tony that starts the show with a bang!
full-size fabrication. Bowern commented: “We enjoy the For the most part, however, it’s a live I-Mag
Rob Edkins’ team at 2D3D created the challenges which this kind of project show that relies on six Sony cameras — four
strong, lightweight panels of the loco’s brings. Richard Hartman as project co- manned and two remote-controlled Robocams
skin from thin-sectioned GRP, which the ordinator and head carpenter Mo Hale that mainly focus on Phil Rudd on drums but
ever-strong CAD team at Brilliant Stages have been great to work with. We have also regularly pan out to the crowd and pick up
had to marry, along with the other worked successfully with Stuﬁsh on a Angus Young’s animated antics, such as his strip
effects, to a suitable rolling and slewing number of projects over the years and on ‘The Jack’.
sub-structure. always look forward to the next creation The exceptions to I-Mag include ﬂashes of
The sub-structure is based around a they will bring!” AC/DC logos and a retro compilation of album
1500kg, 2.9m x 1.5m x 1.8m high steel www.brilliantstages.com covers for ‘Let There Be Rock’, assembled by
base turret with two cantilever arms, www.stuﬁsh.com Jeff Claire who consulted on the general style of
the video cut, which Duque pilots from a Ross
46 • TPi MARCH 09
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