It was a celebration of talent at the fourth edition of the DStv Mzansi Viewers’ Choice Awards held at Time Square’s SunBet Arena in Tshwane after a two-year interval due to the pandemic. The event coincided with the lifting of all Covid-19 regulations in South Africa, allowing local celebrities and delegates to feel a sense of freedom as they togged up in fabulous attire to attend the polished broadcast event produced by Don’t Look Down with technical by AV Unlimited and Visual Frontier appointed for lighting design.
The DStv Mzansi Viewers’ Choice Awards honours those working in television, radio, music, sports and comedy, as voted by viewers living in South Africa. The show opened with a cameo appearance by Leanne Manas, was hosted by Lawrence Maleka and included performances by artists such as Tuks Senganga, Boohle, Pabi Cooper, Kamo Mphela and Zakes Bantwini.
“What I love about working alongside DLD is expanding the boundaries on every event,” said Guillaume Ducray, co-owner of AV Unlimited. “You do not grow as a person unless you are doing something different. When working on a production like this we know that we are going to push the envelope, and afterwards, look back and think, wow, we did this!”
It was an impressive rig with a solid team made up of some of the industry’s finest tech-savvy individuals – too many to mention – but including Joshua Cutts, Andre Siebrits and Renaldo van den Berg on lighting while Adriaan van der Walt headed the audio. The full lighting list included 112 Robe LEDForce 18 RGBW, 6 Robe BMFL Blades, 12 Robe BMFL WashBeam, 12 Robe BMFL Spots, 91 Robe Pointes, 27 Robe Spiiders, 6 Robe Strobe IP, 32 Robe LEDBeam 100, 24 Robe Robin 600 LEDWash, 2 RoboSpots and 27 James Thomas 4-Lite (Molefay). From Martin, the fixtures comprised 28 MAC Viper Profiles, 96 VDO Sceptron 10 and 48 Atomic Dot CLDs. The lighting was controlled on a grandMA2 system.
The secret to success is meticulous planning, ultimately eliminating any potential challenges. “If you want results, you need to plan, and if you want a show you need to rehearse,” Guillaume describes. “Every detail has to be looked at, drawing after drawing, and in the end, everyone knows what they have to do and can be more relaxed on show day.”
When it comes to the creative process, the experienced team from DLD involving Glenn van Loggerenberg, Anton Cloete, Tebogo Mogola, Philisa Bidi and Brendan Holtshousen run a tight ship. For lighting designer Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier, who has regularly worked with the company over the past fourteen years, it’s always a positive experience, perpetually motivating every cog in the wheel to strive for an excellent outcome.
“We start by discussing the basic concept and then it’s an intricate process, building our design and drawings that right from the start, consolidate with the graphic material supplied,” Joshua explains. “The lighting is influenced by DLD’s custom staging palettes, and all of the screen creative for this production was designed by Rob Rae. We have extensive meetings every week, the drawings are changed multiple times and then we tend to sculpt and lock it down. The creative team spend a week in the studio with the tracks and 3D rig where we build as much as we can.” Turning ideas into reality, AV Unlimited supplies the technical and crew, known to deliver a lean, slick and dynamic show.
The concept was to switch off all lights, a black canvas if you will, and then bring it to life with an abundance of beams and bright lights to create various energized spaces for the awards ceremony and entertainment acts.
“It was light driven show and was intense to programme,” admits Joshua, who worked alongside programmer Andre Siebrits on a grandMA2 system consisting of two light and one ultra-light. “We wanted to create banks of beams that came from different angles on the set, from left to right and from the roof shining down. We had a combination of 30 BMFL fixtures used as key lights, backlights and followspots. I used two RoboSpots, my ‘go-to’ for television spotlights. I have such a problem because there are not enough of them around!”
Josh adds, “I really enjoy working with Guillaume and his crew. He likes to get the pre-production just right, plans each show and every person on the team knows exactly what they are doing. The entire set-up was exceptionally professional, and we were on time. Guillaume is thorough in his preparations, and that’s what makes him stand out as a production manager.”
To work on a full-capacity live event just days after the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted was refreshing. “Everyone was positive and felt we were finally walking away from the pandemic,” Guillaume adds. “Funny enough, we had worked on the very same awards in 2020, just a day before the country was asked to start social distancing and it was noteworthy that it was now the first large event to open the industry for us again.”
The outcome was ecstatic, social media trending with images of the productions and a sense of achievement by a team who had built a relationship of trust and who still remembered how to put on an outstanding show.