TPI_March

TPi AWARDS 2009: The Production
Below: Arcstream’s lasers gave a different edge to this year’s ceremony.
ONE NIGHT
IN PARK LANE
BREWING IDEAS conﬁ rmed, and everything was in place to the 9th. A number of the evening’s audience
It was back in the autumn that the production deliver a proportion of the equipment into were already doing the same, including an
team ﬁ rst assembled to kick ideas around for storage over the preceding weekend, and American contingent who were attempting
the 2009 show design, with James Cobb of CA conduct the main load-in from 9am on Monday to bribe me with promises of Jack Daniel’s if I
Event Management Systems returning to head 9th, as the outgoing BAFTA post-awards dinner revealed top secret information about who was
the team as production manager. production ﬁ nally left the building. going to win that night. (I didn’t, incidentally.)
New to the fold was lighting designer Martin As James Cobb explained, however, Shortly before 10am, I swanned into the
Brennan of Spirit Design and Iron Maiden fame it wasn’t quite that simple. “Some of our production ofﬁ ce to ﬁ nd CA’s stage manager
whose ﬁ ne job of bringing The Great Room to suppliers, in their generosity, provided much Glen Smith, James Cobb and Local Crew’s boss
life would have made the BRIT-winning metal more equipment than we were expecting. So Jon ‘JD’ Davis having muted discussions about
giants’ mascot Eddie very proud! when a number of ﬂ ight cases arrived over the two crucial issues that ultimately resulted in a
Although it would be fair to say that a weekend and the venue management couldn’t three-to-four hour delay in the set-up schedule.
number of design elements were the result of ﬁ nd storage room for them, due to the BAFTA Although these problems were overcome as
team-wide discussions, it was Brennan who dinner, they were literally out on the street until the day progressed, the one major casualty was
informed the ﬁ nal design while Jonathan Perry we could ﬁ nd another solution. the stage rehearsal and technical run-through,
of Perry Scenic oversaw developments as set “We soon realised that there was going to originally intended to occur between 3pm and
consultant and a general ‘springboard’ for be far too much equipment for the truck space 5.30pm.
ideas. allocated to the load-out, but Del Roll at EST A brief band soundcheck was squeezed in
Of all the early, dismissed design concepts, saved the day. but we were literally ﬂ ying by the seat of our
the funniest had to be the idea of using “Del had already donated one artic that pants during the ceremony, and it’s a credit to
ramshackled towers of old domestic TV sets, was doing the pick-up rounds over the whole everyone involved that it went as smoothly as it
ﬁ tted with plasma screens. weekend, and at very short notice he extended did.
Although that idea ran for no more than this to two trucks for the Tuesday morning load-
a week, my partner was quick off the mark in out. He was an absolute gent and I can’t thank THE ENTRANCE
sourcing a bunch of TVs from Freecycle. Hence, him enough for his generous spirit!” Upon arrival at the entrance corridor that led to
my lounge has recently resembled Steptoe & There was deﬁ nitely an air of expectation The Great Room, guests were greeted by PSCo’s
Son’s backyard! in the foyer when I moved my bags from the installation of two long plasma strips, each
The design was ﬁ nalised by mid-January, nearby Thistle Hotel to check in at the more made up of ﬁ ve 42” MIS4220R bezelless plasma
by which point the pool of suppliers had been upmarket Grosvenor House on the morning of screens from the latest range of Inﬁ nite screens.
TPi MARCH 09 • 51
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