PwL Delivers Stunning Show Design for Clouseau posted: 04/01/2017
Belgian superstar rockers Clouseau ended the year and start 2017 on a high note with a large-scale version of their Clouseau Danst' tour concept, staged over four sold-out nights in December and January at the 20,000 capacity Antwerps Sportpaleis. Painting with Light delivered another spectacular show design encompassing lighting, video, stage, set and automation ... plus DMX controlled wristbands worn by the audience each night.
Utilizing some cool new audio-linked software from Notch and several other fresh ideas to keep the visuals pumping at the same pace as the band, the show-stopping performance delivered 34 stomping Clouseau hits and favourites, old and new, with impressive style.
In the true spirit of this year's album Clouseau Danst (Clouseau Dances), charismatic lead singer Koen Wauters added an array of dance steps to the repertoire of things at which he excels, which include singing, entertaining, TV presenting, mentoring, rally driving and being adored by Clouseau fans from all generations!
Concept creation
Painting with Light's own highly talented team was led by Luc Peumans, with lighting programmer and operator Paco Mispelters, head of video content Michael Al-Far, d3 programmer Jo Pauly and associate media programmer & video content coordinator Katleen Selleslagh who also called the Sportpaleis shows' eight follow spots.
Clouseau stage these blockbusting shows every two years. The last one, in 2014, was Clouseau Centraal' with the stage running lengthways down the middle of the arena. One of the starting points for the current one was that they wanted an end-on stage.
The other directive from the band - which started in the late 1980s - was that the heartbeat of dance' should permeate all aspects of the show.
They wanted to create an atmosphere that would engulf and engage the entire room and everyone it. Basically, we needed to create an immersive clubbing experience in an arena stated Luc, and then beyond that, it was left to our collective imaginations to produce technical and production concepts that would stun and amaze!
The band hired Ish Ait Hamou, one of the best known and most successful choreographers in Belgium, to assist in directing the show. For the first time, a Clouseau gig featured an 8-person dance troupe strutting their stuff during four songs and Koen and his brother, lead guitarist Kris, engaged in a dance battle in the second half, thrilling fans all quite a radical departure from former shows.
When the Painting with Light team received the proposed song running order, Luc and Michael sat down and mood-boarded the entire set, which was also the first time they had taken this approach for a large scale rock spectacular.
They discussed at length how the lighting, video and flexible stage layout - with various elements automated by WIcreations - would work as one fluid bigger picture' over an epic three hour performance, together with the band and their choreography.
Once the process was running, the move away from devising a linear technical narrative for the show was an obvious and very satisfying collective way to work says Luc.
They also decided at this point to base the video playback content on graphic material which could be animated to create new and funky effects. To this end, Painting with Light also invested in new Notch software, a platform they had been considering for some time, initially to use as a grading tool for live camera feeds.
As the show aesthetic evolved, the Painting with Light team and live camera director Hans Pannecoucke (although he allows us lazy English to use the slightly more pronounceable version of Pancake') decided that four sub-mixes (for the live cameras) would be sent into the primary d3 4x4pro media server from Hans' PPU.
As more was learned about Notch - and after attending a special training session in Germany - they decided to harness the power of its real-time rendering and audio-connectivity to define detailed layers of graphical content which could have movement and other effects triggered by multiple audio inputs.
It created a succession of graphic special effects that flowed and grooved to the music, a rhythmic animation twist to an already vibrant and diverse array of video graphics.
This was picked up live by the audience, effectively harmonising the whole room and creating those immersive feelings so fundamental to the concept and vibe of Clouseau Danst'.
It was a fantastic opportunity to be experimental and although it involved a few creative risks, once Michael, Luc and the team could see the potential results there was no turning back!
The storyboarding reached a certain stage where the type and style of digital graphics started to be defined, at which point Michael commissioned three video artists to assist with core content production - Aitor Biedma together with Maarten Francq and Batr Wincuers from Mojuice.
Extensive use of the d3's visualisation facilities was made during the work-in-progress period which enabled all - including the band - to see how the live' integration between graphics and Hans' IMAG mix would work. Practically, this meant ensuring there were appropriate windows and spaces in the material running across the LED surfaces.
The result of all this very intense work was a distinctive visual style from mixing the two raw elements of IMAG and graphics that retained an organic and spontaneous feel that fed into the pulse of the dance music.
Adding to the already strong connection between band and fans, 20,000 RGB wrist bands were distributed to the audience each night, which were DMX controlled and running through the lighting desk. Luc has been wanting to do this for about 15 years, when it was outrageously expensive,
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PwL Delivers Stunning Show Design for Clouseau posted: 04/01/2017 
