American Idol Finale
PRG’s Bad Boy turns in a winning performance at American Idol finale.
The Challenge: With a limited amount of time, duplicate an existing lighting plot in at a second venue for a live televised event.
The Solution: When lighting designer Kieran Healy needed to move the live two-night, season eight finale of American Idol from their usual soundstage to the 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, he knew it would be a challenge. The seventeen camera show required a look that balanced both live and television audiences, and the time from load-in to air was extremely limited.
“One of the beauties of working with PRG on this project was that they were able to duplicate the equipment that I had at the soundstage, plus augment it, for the finale design,” said Healy. The production had only five days between the last shows at the soundstage and the first show at the Nokia.
For the star-studded event on FOX television Healy created a stunning design to showcase the two finalists and musical superstars including Cyndi Lauper, Santana, Black Eyed Peas, Jason Mraz, Queen Latifah, Rod Stewart, Keith Urban, Kiss and Queen. Healy—who likes to keep his keylight at a fairly low level, using mostly followspots—creates most of his big looks from his backlights, which this year included PRG Bad Boy® luminaires. “They are a different kind of light than the Syncrolite’s soft-edge wash unit, which had previously been the brightest light in the air,” said Healy. “I wanted a hard-edge unit that would stand up to the Syncro and the Bad Boy was a perfect choice. The optics on the Bad Boys are absolutely incredible, you can go from a very, very thin shaft of light to an enormous beam. One light can wash the entire stage. So with their superior optics, the idea was to use the Bad Boys to stand out against the Syncrolite washes and then to use all their horsepower with gobos.”
Healy, who has had a long relationship with PRG, said, “PRG, as always, was superb. And I couldn’t have done it without my Lighting Directors—George Harvey and Joshua Hutchings (who also programmed the show), Matt McAdam who controlled the media servers, and Lynn Costa was our Board Operator. PRG’s crack crew was led by Steve Olenicjak and our Local 33 crew was headed by Darran Webb.”
The Emmy Award-winning American Idol is created and executive-produced by Simon Fuller, founder of 19 Entertainment. The series is executive-produced by Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO, FremantleMedia North America, Inc.; and Ken Warwick, Executive Producer, FremantleMedia North America, Inc.