Lighting designer Christopher Bolton from Keystone Productions used 180 Robe fixtures for the “feel good” Ghoema Music Awards staged at the Joburg Theatre. Photos courtesy credit Antony Cousens
The Ghoema Awards recognises exceptional achievement in the Afrikaans Music Industry in South Africa. Chris was appointed by Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier to light and programme the awards for their client, Idea Candy, a creative production company. As the show was recorded for Kyknet, a South African television channel, Chris worked closely with Stage Director Barry Pretorius and Camera Director Eugene Naidoo.
The Joburg Theatre has stage lifts and trucks, which provides for enhanced creativity from the set designers point of view. This in turns creates more opportunities for a lighting designer. By clever use of the flying facilities and other stage mechanics interesting scene changes took place. The upbeat performance by artists such as Elvis Blue, Steve Hofmeyr, and Karlien van Jaarsveld, was enhanced with a fabulous lighting display.
The Robe rig included 8 x Robe BMFL Blades, 24 x Pointes, 12 x Robin 800 LEDWash, 12 x Robin 600 LEDWash, 12 x Robin 1000 LEDBeam, 21 x Robin 100 LEDBeam, 22 x Robin MMX Spots and 70 x Robe LEDForce 18 RGBW Parcans. Control was on the MA platform with 2 x grandMA2 light consoles, 1 x MA2 NPU and 1 x MA VPU for pixel mapping. An MDG theOne was used for the haze effects.
The BMFLs has become Chris’ standard wash light. “Both Joshua Cutts and I won’t do any show without the Robe BMFLs,” said Chris. “ Six BMFL Blades were used for FOH while a further two were used on either side of the stage to light up presenters standing within a box set.
“The Pointes are one of my favourite lighting fixtures and I’ll always find a place for them on shows,” said Chris. Pointes were placed on Prolyte totems for striking beam work. The 100 LEDBeams were also positioned on totems at the back of the stage.
For gobo work ad back lighting, the MMX were positioned on the overhead bars. Robin 800 LEDWash and Robin 600 LEDWash were also hung on these bars.
With the show incorporating some 20 Proltye totems on stage, LEDForce 18s were used to light the trussing from within.
It was the first time that Chris had worked with the Robin 1000 LEDBeams. “They were fantastic, a very versatile fixture,” he said. The units were placed at the back of the stage for punchy, tight beams.
For close to a year, Chris has worked on the MA Lighting platform. “Once again the show was time coded to the hilt,” he grins. “I’m loving it, it has jelled with me now and I can’t imagine doing things any other way.” With so much to do in a very little time frame, Chris programmed alongside his assistant, Jade Manicom.
