Frame 05-06

‘The reason

these stages

exist is to

enable the

band to

transmit

the largest

possible

presence’

been shot under optimal conditions and the
images used in the press package. Nowadays,
the very first person who walks into the
stadium takes a picture.
The emphasis is moving away from
thinking in terms of a ‘big moment’ that will
define how the concert is perceived visually.
People sometimes turn up eight hours before
the show and take pictures when there is no
band present and little to no content. Our
work still needs to look good under those
conditions, so we endeavour to make sure
something design-related is going on even
before the artists are on stage. This has led to
decisions like painting sets in colour, because
colour looks better in daylight than the
customary black-painted steel.
Composition and silhouette have
also become increasingly important, whereas
previously they didn’t matter, because once it
got dark and the lights came on, the audience
focused on a fantastically bright video screen
and beautiful light beams cutting through the
night. During the day, none of that works in
your favour, so we need to concentrate on
form and volume. Stage design is becoming
increasingly architectural.

What does that look like in practice? Some
artists go for simplicity, an example being
the Rolling Stones’ No Filter tour. The four
distinctive monoliths could be easily read
in daylight, and so could the 18-m-wide
cantilever that extended some 12 m over the
band. The composition included only three
elements: the monoliths, the cantilever and

the stage set itself. For the design of OTR II,

we opted for one very large screen, but we

worked closely on the proportions of that

screen to make sure the width-height ratio

worked visually, even when the lights were

switched off.

Of the many new technologies available and

in the making, which might be transforma-

tive to your industry over the next decade?

I think AR is going to be the most impactful

• the superimposition of a digital world onto
  physical reality – because it so completely
  blurs the latter. My belief is that, as tribal peo-
  ple, we will always want to congregate around
  our preferred experiences. That’s the entire
  basis of the concert business. Why else would
  you want to stand in a wet, soggy, muddy
  field for hours on end to watch your favourite
  band perform? It’s about sharing the moment
  with others who have similar interests. I think
  the desire to assemble is an important part of
  considering how any future technology will
  affect our industry.
  If the way we employ technology
  becomes isolating, if it separates rather than
  connects, I don’t believe it has a chance of
  surviving. But if it enhances the concert
  experience – immersing you in a completely
  different environment than the one actually
  in front of you, as with AR – and allows you
  to share it with the person next to you, then
  I think it will be a very powerful force. ●
  stufish.com

While the design for the OTR II tour

employed plenty of advanced technology, it

did so only in order to enhance the artists’

desired levels of emotion and immersion.

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FRAME LAB 155