Really excited to be working with new client SEIBO on a six-month US tour with a major European auto manufacturer. Among other audio/video/lighting support, we are doing a 360 degree projection in a dome. We're working with Vartan and Matt from VT Design to put guests in a completely immersive experience where they feel like they are flying down the road in this new car. Super cool, but even cooler is this new client. Really technically savvy, really talented and really kind. One of those relationships that feels like a perfect fit. We all need more of those right?!
Special mid-month Edition of the widely anticipated ShowPro Blog. It's time to talk about what time it is. It's time to understand that you can put solar panels on your building, take advantage of some tax credits, and pay for the freekin' thing in 6 years. Believe it! Here is a copy of our last electric bill - 20,000 square foot warehouse with 15 full time employees testing big, bright lights and LED walls, keeping their lunches cool in two refrigerators and powering up two electric cars for $82 a month. BELIEVE IT MAN, 'CAUSE IT'S REAL.
Who says you can't put a 50 foot wide screen in a small ballroom? Not Campos Creative, that's for sure. Eric and Lori included us in a prestigious X Prize event in a ballroom at the Terranea in Palos Verdes. Typically it would be a squeeze to get a couple of 9x16 foot screens in a room this size. But they worked the design and gave us some nice RP distance and we were able to create a stunning and functional backdrop to a very important conference about changing the world. Si Se Puede!, One big-blend at a time!
Kid's Choice seems to always make the Blog Grade - Maybe it's because it's SO COLORFUL! Who doesn't like color during sad times? One of our great friends from the early days, Chris Goldsmith designed this pageant (his brilliant words, not mine unfortunately). All the world's a video game, All the world's a piece of delicious candy. Matt Levesque rocked this oh-so-approrpiate lighting design. And Mark Matzkanin has become the wizard behind the curtain programming the underpants off of this one. Huge thanks to Jane and the gang at MTV for putting up with us for so long. And thanks for the photo Chris Goldsmith!
Our hearts broke when we got the news that our dear brother John Talley passed away on Tuesday. None of this makes sense - We need the good ones, and John was the absolute best. Please think of him and his family often. Life is fleeting - make the most of everything. Man this one hurts bad.
A rainy Oscar week yielded a beautiful Governor's Ball after the big event at the Dolby Theater. Our pals from Sequoia brought us along to provide audio systems for the giant ballroom and support for John Legend on the main stage. We had over 100 speakers in the air, providing perfect zone control over every section of the room. The goal was to hear the performances but also to schmooze, and I think we nailed it. Tighter security than at the White House - Ahh, the priorities of the Hollywood Elite...
David Shapiro asked us out to Magic Mountain to help support another crazed stunt by Skater/Madman Rob Dyrdek. This time Rob set a new world record for the longest BACKWARDS jump in a stock car. I think his team may have messed with the tranny/engine limiter a bit, but he managed to get going crazy fast, in reverse, then he hit a jump and sailed 65 feet, backwards, to sucessfully land on another ramp. Why Not?
Definitely the best looking one in the last couple of years, the 2014 Grammys did not disappoint on any level. The Afterparty was great, the MusicCares show was great (Steven Tyler posed for a shot with my boy!), the Legacy concert honoring songwriters was a blast, and this year the Academy added a broadcast tribute show for The Beatles. Shot on the Monday after the Grammys, this show will air at the exact hour 50 years to the day that The Beatles changed pop music in the US, by performing on the Ed Sullivan Show. Note the liberal use of Sharpies in this photo - We'll come up with something different next year, I promise, but these lights continue to rock us. Said it before, I'll say it again, Best Week of the Year!
Man another amazing collaboration with our friends from UGG. This was the 2014 Fall Sales Meeting (done in 2013 of course). The design inspiration for the new shoe/boot line was literature. So all of the designers gathered in Ojai to talk about what books influenced them as kids and adults. They then took direction from some of these books to create an incredible new line of footwear, and we took the inspiration to design a badass set. Michael and Courtney from Brodey Francis built us a hard set to die for, in to which we then embedded giant projection screens and 80" vertical displays to create virtual sets. Men's line was a masculine scotch-and-leather library. Women's was a romantic snowy afternoon set, and kids had oversized and stylized characters to play with. Big props to Radar LA for the perfect content. UGG my dear, I hope you never tire of hearing us tell you how much we love you.
Cool old-school projection gig in Las Vegas with our friends from Bourgeois Productions. This is an annual event that Ernie Els puts together to raise money for autism. Ben and the gang bring us up every year to light and sound and video the joint. This year Ben wanted to see a large projection to support the South African theme, but the gig is all about raising money, not spending it. So we were able to get the best of both worlds by using old-school finelight projectors to create this stylized backdrop to the event. David Corwin from Megavision did the projection design. Wild animals in Vegas - what a concept. Yes Nate and Waldo and Jose, I'm talking about you, bitches.
We promised you another look at Doug Aitken's Station to Station tour. Well, today's the last day of the month-long nomadic journey across this enchanted country. What can we say? Grueling hours and Gorgeous people and Galvanizing art and Garrulous fans. Picture yourself on a train in a station with a man with a whip and Beck singing songs. Ah, it's too hard to describe... OK picture yourself in a yurt in Santa Fe with a bed and a mirror ball and a lot of smoke. Oh forget it - just check out this great picture that Jose took somewhere between Pittsburgh and Chicago. Adam Rosen = genius. S2S crew from ShowPro = best road crew EVER. I gotta go.