17 minute read
DAVID GUETTA: UNITED AT HOME
FRENCH SUPERSTAR DJ AND DUBAI RESIDENT PERFORMS TO FANS WORLDWIDE FROM THE HELIPAD OF THE ICONIC BURJ AL ARAB.
David Guetta is not a man who does things by half measures. With the global pandemic putting a halt to his world tour, the awardwinning DJ has devised an alternative way to keep his fans entertained and raise muchneeded funds for charity in the process. The resulting project, United At Home, has seen Guetta put on spectacular performances from Miami, New York, a New Year’s Eve show from the Louvre, Paris, and now Dubai’s Burj Al Arab.
“In these difficult times, we hope to bring comfort, joy, and support through the power of music and emotions,” the DJ commented. “We have supported many charities and helped make a real difference in people’s lives during the pandemic. We continue in this direction today, benefiting UNICEF and Dubai Cares.”
As was the case for Guetta’s previous performances, the entire Dubai show was streamed free of charge on the DJ’s official YouTube channel, with viewers encouraged to make a donation to charities tackling the impact of COVID-19 on children’s education.
The opportunity for the Dubai show arose as a result of two separate projects that shared similar DNA. At the same time that Guetta was forging ahead with United At Home; Dubai Tourism was busy creating its Sounds of the City series, which highlighted various locations around Dubai using musical performances from a range of top local artists. As a Dubai resident, when the chance came about for Guetta to bring United At Home to one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, it was an opportunity too perfect to miss.
“When David offered us the chance to work with him again in Dubai, we didn’t think twice,” revealed Show Director, Romain Pissenem of High Scream. “Dubai is an amazing place and the Burj Al Arab helipad is an absolutely incredible location for a show.”
A long-time member of Guetta’s creative team, Pissenem was a central figure in the design and conception of the show, while Dubai Tourism called upon Create Production to produce the show on the ground. “Our role as producers was to bring everything together – from logistics, to arranging the suppliers,” explained Create Production’s Dia Hassan.
Create appointed a number of trusted contractors to help fulfil the ambitious project, including primary technical supplier, 3DB, which, in turn, brought in LED floor partner, Rave Audio Visual, and laser partner, LaserFX. Create Production also appointed CHOPPERSHOT to handle the drone work, ARRI for the remote camera system and Gecko Middle East to oversee safety on the helipad.
In all, more than 80 creative professionals contributed to the production, including: Show Director, Romain Pissenem; Lighting Designer, Ian Tomlinson of High Scream; Lighting Director, James Betts-Gray of High Scream; Video Director, James Codes; Video Content, Sugo Design / High Scream; Laser Operator, Dennis Klipp; DJ Camera Operator, Toby Vogel; Production Manager, Richard ‘Avo’ Atherton; Logistics, Suzie Shorten; Broadcast Director, Remco Evers; and Live Director, Job Robbers.
‘ALL ABOUT THE ANGLES’ With the show confirmed, Pissenem and his colleagues at High Scream set about the process of putting together a bespoke design that would make the best use of the incredible setting. “The best ideas are the ones that you have in two
25 - 27 May 2021
www.productionfutures.co.uk
High Scream’s Romain Pissenem.
minutes,” Pissenem told TPMEA, describing his design inspirations. “The helipad is basically a big circle up in the sky, so all I had to do was reflect that with the design.”
The fact that there was no in-person audience presented Pissenem with an opportunity to include an element he had been trying to incorporate into his designs for a long time. “I always wanted to put an LED screen on the floor – I tried to work out a way to do it on some of our previous live shows, but it wouldn’t have worked because 90% of the people at the venue wouldn’t see it,” he explained. However, with this production utilising camera drones that filmed the action from above, it was the perfect chance to deploy the LED floor.
At the start of the show, an image of the helipad’s floor was displayed on the LED, creating the illusion that there was no screen at all. “Then, as the show kicks in, the LED comes to life and you see all the cool effects start to happen,” Pissenem described. Among the most striking looks that the LED floor was used for were 3D effects, which gave the impression that Guetta was standing in a vortex, or that the floor was crumbling away beneath him.
“These effects rely completely on the angle of the camera,” he explained. “The camera had to be at exactly 45° to get the right shot and create the illusion; it’s all about the angles.”
The circular LED floor was surrounded by rings of lighting fixtures and lasers. “It is actually a very simple setup, but it’s compact and powerful and you can create so much impactful content with relatively few fixtures,” the Show Director explained. “When you have a location like this, it really doesn’t take too much to make it look absolutely incredible.”
The biggest issue that most livestreams face is that it is so much harder to keep the audience engaged when they are watching from home, often surrounded by distractions and without the benefit of seeing and hearing the show in the flesh. “If you’re watching a show in an arena or a stadium, you’re completely surrounded by the ambience – it’s a physical experience as well as visual and auditory,” Pissenem reflected. “With livestreaming, you have to work extremely hard to keep up the energy and capture people’s attention,” he added. “You have to have very strong content and great programming to ensure that people aren’t going to switch off. At the same time, you don’t want to be too stroboscopic. You need moments of downtime where you see the artist and the surroundings. So, it’s a balancing act.”
According to Pissenem, while the streamed nature of the show presented his team with greater creative freedom, if the production was to be enjoyed by the at-home audience to its full potential, all the elements had to work together seamlessly. “It’s something that I never really considered before we started doing livestreams,”
he commented. “If we design a show, we have certain effects being cued at certain times to create special moments. However, if the TV director gets the timing wrong even slightly, that magic moment is missed. That is why it is so important to work with the right people – like Remco Evers and Job Robbers from NOMOBO – who understand the show,” he added. “They were outstanding as usual.”
When it came to operating lights and lasers, timecode was not an option. “David never plays the same set twice, so everything has to be operated live,” Pissenem revealed. “Even if that makes our lives a bit more difficult, I really love that. This is where our team really comes into its own; they never miss a beat.”
As was to be expected when working on a helipad on top of a luxury hotel, the production presented its fair share of challenges. “A big part of the design was the cage of light, with beams crossing over each other, and smoke is really necessary for that look to be effective,” Pissenem explained. However, at 250m, even the slightest wisp of wind is enough to disperse a lot of smoke. “It was a huge challenge,” he reflected. “All we could do was try to monitor the wind direction and use a hell of a lot of smoke!”
And the wind wasn’t the only challenge. “Getting all the equipment up to the helipad was not an easy task,” he recalled. “In the past, I remember complaining at some arenas because we weren’t able to bring the trucks close enough to the door during load-in. Well, after this, I won’t complain any more!”
That said, the Show Director was full of praise for the Dubai-based suppliers as well as the hotel team. “Everyone we worked with in Dubai was fantastic,” he commented. “They were incredibly accommodating, which made the project extremely enjoyable to work on.”
This latest offering was one of many alternative projects that High Scream has worked on since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – a fact that Pissenem is grateful for. “To go from 90% live shows in our business to what we have today would have been unthinkable before, but we’ve taken on aspects of streaming, XR and VR, which allows us to continue working throughout this time. It’s basically the same job, but we’re trying to entertain people at home instead of in a crowd,” he stated. “Of course, I hope that we can come back to live shows again soon, but it’s been an interesting journey so far.”
‘A TEAM EFFORT’ As well as being another feather in the High Scream cap, the show was also a significant undertaking for Dubai-based Create Production, adding to its growing list of projects with Dubai Tourism. “We feel proud to have been able to contribute to this incredible project,” Hassan told TPMEA. “The level of professionalism and teamwork that everyone displayed was amazing. It was a real team effort.”
With Create handling the logistics of the project, there were plenty of challenges for
Hassan and his team to consider – the most limiting of which was the helipad’s strict weight restriction of just six tonnes.
“Initially, everybody had grand ideas about the whole helipad being covered in LED and hundreds of moving heads and lasers,” he recalled. “However, once we found out about the weight limit, we had to change our approach and make sure that everything we put up there would be giving us the biggest output possible.”
Create worked closely with the project’s primary technical supplier, 3DB, in order to design a setup that would have the required visual effect while remaining within the weight limit. “To have LEDs covering the entire helipad, we would have needed to use 13 tonnes worth of LED alone,” revealed 3DB Senior Project Manager, Matt Dale. “So, it was all about reaching a happy medium.” A total of 69 sq m of Absen 4.88mm LED was used to form a circle in the centre of the helipad. “Rave Audio Visual provided the LED floor. It’s a great and extremely hardwearing product, which is topped with Perspex and rated so that you can drive a car over it,” Dale commented.
“We relied a lot on the LED floor,” Hassan added. “David’s team was amazing at putting together some really visually striking content that went onto the screen.”
With the floor in place, the team was left with a limited weight allowance for lighting and lasers, which meant “lightweight but punchy” was very much the order of the day. To that end, the lighting rig comprised: 32 Robe Robin Pointes, 24 Claypaky Axcor Profile 400s, two Claypaky A.leda K10 B-EYEs, 16 Ayrton MAGICBLADE-FXs, and four Vari-Lite VL2600 Profiles. Control came from an MA Lighting grandMA2 full size. “It was a case of finding the right balance and, thankfully, everyone was very co-operative and willing to work together to achieve the best result,” Dale said of the fixture choices.
Since there was no live audience in attendance, there was no need to take up precious weight allowance with a large PA. “Audio was the smallest aspect of the delivery,” Dale commented, describing the d&b audiotechnik system, which comprised two M4s, one D12 amplifier and four Ci80s. A DiGiCo S21 console was used for control, while Guetta used two Pioneer DJM-900NXS2 mixers and five CDJ-3000 multi-players. A further six Mackie SRM150 monitors were deployed, while microphones comprised four Shure SM58s and Guetta’s own Sennheiser G4 with e945 capsule.
Aside from weight concerns, the other major limitation of the helipad was that only eight crewmembers were allowed on there at once.
Create Production’s, Dia Hassan.
“Organising time slots for each department to go onto the helipad was a project on its own,” Hassan commented, adding that everyone who was on the helipad had to be attached to a harness at all times. “Gecko Middle East came in to oversee the safety side of things,” he said. “They did a fantastic job.”
As well as highlighting Guetta’s spectacular performance, a key element of the production was to showcase the Burj Al Arab.
“We really wanted to show off the Burj Al Arab in a way that not many people have seen it before,” Hassan commented. “Some of the overhead shots show the building from a perspective that not even people who live in Dubai have seen before. It looked almost like a UFO at times.” When it came to cameras, the aim was to have as few people as possible on the helipad, so Create opted for two ARRI ALEXA Mini and two ARRI AMIRA cameras mounted on various remote-controlled Blackcam Systems tracks. “We wanted to use the latest technology, some of which was not available in Dubai,” Hassan said of the decision to fly in the ARRI team. “The motorised track system was built into a semicircle specifically for the helipad, which allowed us to do most of the filming remotely.”
Of course, there was one thing that nobody on the team could control. “The biggest fear for everyone was the weather,” Dale stated. “When we arrived on the first morning of load-in, we were met with incredibly foggy conditions that made it impossible to work for the first three hours. We also had extreme humidity on the programming night – the helipad was becoming almost like a paddling pool.”
Thankfully, the team was able to pull the time back and everything was in place for the planned show day, with the following day also in hand as a back-up in case of any issues. “Then we got a message to tell us that high winds were forecast for the day after, so tonight was our only shot at it,” he recalled. “That certainly focused minds!” Of course, the team pulled together and
the show went off without a hitch. “The drive and determination of Dubai Tourism, Burj Al Arab and Create Production were vital to making this show a success,” Dale reflected. “There was a real collaboration with Romain and the High Scream team throughout the whole design process, and the end result speaks for itself.”
‘NEW PERSPECTIVES’ Lasers always play an important role in any David Guetta production, and the Burj Al Arab show was no exception. LaserFX provided a total of 16 30W lasers, as well as Lasergraph DSP software and 520m of iLDA cables.
Oliver Yates, Head of Laser Department at LaserFX, was on site throughout the build and show night alongside Arran Hopkins and David Luzon. He explained to TPMEA how the job came about. “As soon as we saw the job spec, even without being told who the artist was, we had a pretty good idea that it would be David Guetta,” he revealed, explaining that it was the Lasergraph DSP software that was the giveaway.
Having worked with Pissenem for six months in Ibiza, Yates was pleased to get the chance to link up with him and the High Scream team again. “Romain is always a pleasure to work with,” he commented. “It was the perfect job to come back to after a quiet period.”
Yates explained how, much like with the video element of the show, it was unusual to have lasers pointing directly upwards into the sky. “On a normal stadium or stage show, the lasers would be positioned to beam outwards. However, for this production, the creative wanted them pointing upwards, so we had some custom brackets made to facilitate this,” he commented.
Once all 16 lasers were in position, minor adjustments were made manually, rather than in the software as would happen typically. “This was because we didn’t want to lose any angle through the software,” he added.
After gaining clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority, the show was good to go. “As soon as we saw the drone shot from above, we knew that we had cracked it,” Yates recalled. “Everybody cheered because we could see that vision being played out in front of our eyes. It was a spectacular production.”
Elsewhere in the special effects department, Hassan revealed that a 3D drone show with 300 drones flying in formation above the Burj Al Arab was considered initially, before the team settled instead on a firework show. “We wanted to create something new that not many people have seen on livestream shows before, so we decided to have the camera drones fly through the fireworks,” he recalled. “It’s all about finding new perspectives.” Pissenem added: “That has to be one of my favourite shots; it looks incredible.”
To get these new filming perspectives, Create once again turned to aerial filming specialist, CHOPPERSHOOT. “We’ve worked with them on many projects, including commercials for Audi and Emirates Airlines,” Hassan revealed. “We love their creativity when it comes to solutions around drones and, of course, they have got one of the most daring drone pilots in the region. He’s got some serious confidence.”
Talking of confidence, according to Hassan, that was the single most important factor when it came to picking their suppliers for the project. “It was vital to make sure that every single team that was involved in this project was someone who we could trust,” he stated. “We didn’t have time to micromanage or constantly oversee everything that was going on because the project was moving at such pace. That meant we probably
overinvested a little bit in those teams, but it was worth it to make sure that we had the right people in place.”
Reflecting on the project, Hassan was proud of what the team was able to achieve. “So many elements had to come together in such a short period of time to ensure that the show was a success. It was great to work with such competent and professional technical teams who always kept the creative integrity of the project in place,” he said. “The energy levels I saw from everyone involved in this show were the closest thing I’ve felt to being at a concert or festival since the pandemic. It shows that we can still experience music in a magical way without having the dangers that a big crowd would bring. Even though we can’t come together how we used to at the moment, the industry doesn’t have to stop completely.”
The Burj Al Arab helipad has been the unconventional location for many an eye-catching event over the years – from the Roger Federer versus Andre Agassi tennis match and Anthony Joshua’s Sky Fight, to stunts from the Red Bull Racing F1 team and Red Bull X-Fighter Danny Torres – however, in terms of sheer production value, David Guetta’s United At Home was in a different league. “Our job is to entertain people,” Pissenem concluded. “We will never replace live shows but, for the time being, sadly, people can’t come into venues. So, if they can’t come to us, then we need to go to them.” Photos: High Scream www.high-scream.com www.createproductiondxb.com www.3db-dxb.com www.laserfx.ae
SATEL LITE
MODULAR LASER SYSTEM
(r)evolution
Every once in a while, something comes along that tears up the rulebook and revolutionises an industry. This is one of those moments: the Satellite Modular Laser System from the Visionaries of the display industry – Digital Projection.
SATEL LITE
MODULAR LASER SYSTEM
1996
3,000 lumens 60 kg
2003
16,000 lumens 113 kg
2016
27,000 lumens 132 kg
2020
> 40,000 lumens < 40 kg
