SAMA 2012

21 May 2012

It was the biggest set Dream Sets had ever built with the most lighting and AV. The 18th Annual MTN SA Music Awards, held at Sun City, looked simply phenomenal.

“Robert Hoey was the set designer,” explained Sean Hoey, partner at Dream Sets. “It was his vision and creation; he spent so many hours over several days at his drawing table, that the chair he was sitting on eventually broke!”

Their brief by the client Vertical Limit Productions (VLP) was for Robert to design his dream set, one he had always wanted to design, without any limitations and as they put it, “something organic”. Robert’s imagination took flight!

“On the morning of the pitch, Robert arrived at 9am and showed me the design before meeting with the client,” remembers Sean. Looking at it, Sean turned to his brother and said, “You’re mad.”

But the careful lines, the curves and complete breakaway from the conventional, made Robert’s design very different. The client loved it!

In all honesty, Sean thought that it would take three million Rand, if not four, to build this creation. Then he ran into Jeremy Doveton-Helps from Inflate Africa. Sean put a question to Jeremy, “Can you think out of the box?” In regards to the sheer scale of the structure Inflate Africa had never done anything like it.

“It’s the faith we put in other people,” said Sean. “We’d never seen it before or seen it working, and then it arrived at Sun City on the back of a bakkie.”

The wonderful inflatable mounted from the roof looked futuristic, a bit of Dr Zeus mixed with Sci-Fi.

Robert Hoey knew the structure would light well and his request to Lighting Designer, Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier was, “Please light my set beautifully.” Said Joshua, “I remember my first meeting with Dream Sets. My heart rate must have doubled.”

The clock ticking was a constant reminder that time was not on their side. “Our crew, 54 people, just worked and never complained,” said Leanne Bancroft from Dream Sets. The little things mean a lot when you are working 12 days straight like ensuring the crew had meals, refreshments and comfortable accommodation. The support team from VLP were incredibly helpful with all the arrangements.

Another challenge was the rigging. For the first time ever, Dream Sets hired a huge 20m boomlift to reach into the realms of the Superbowl’s roof structure. Thomas Peters was the head rigger and head of power, a mammoth task. Other companies who helped to get the gig ready and working on time included MGG Productions, AV Unlimited and Audio Logic. Without this amazing team and their invaluable efforts we could not have pulled this off.

Prior to the gig, LD Joshua Cutts sat for hours trying to use straight trusses for the gig. “Then I decided to make everything curved and to raise the trussing by 2meters. It didn’t make complete lighting sense, but with precise placement of fixtures, it worked.”

Joshua, in awe, says he has no idea how Robert came up with the set, which filled the Superbowl and had endless elements which the television crew could pick up on.

It took four to five days to rig the lighting equipment and at least two days to program. “I did all programming on site,” said Joshua. While essentially it’s an awards ceremony with 11 performances, the size made it spectacular to work on. Joshua used 15 universes for the first time in his life. He programmed on Dream Sets MA full size with two MA Command Wings running at full for back-up.

“Just the scale of it, to be in control of such a huge lighting rig, and then to have a team running all day and all night, was a highlight for me,” said Joshua.

While Dream Sets worked on SAMA, their magnificent skeleton crew kept their workshop running, simultaneously working on other events including the Nokia Qwerty Gig Rig, Disney Avengers Activation, City Press’ 30th anniversary celebration, Villa Rosa, Big Brother, SAB Dinaledi and Visa Olympics. It was no small feat.

We asked Sean Hoey a question, “When you started the company five years ago, did you ever imagine Dream Sets would do so well and do such impressive gigs?” His answer was simple, “Not in our wildest dreams, it has been an amazing ride and we still have so much to look forward to”.