The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is considered to be one of the most spectacular and captivating television events in the world. There are few lighting professionals who have not got ESC on their gig bucket lists – including Joshua Cutts and Christopher Bolton, two of South Africa’s most eminent lighting designers.
ETECH spoke with both Cutts and Bolton about the fateful morning that they received the call to join the crew for the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at Israel’s Expo Tel Aviv in May.
THE EUROVISION EXPERIENCE
The Eurovision Song Contest is renowned for delivering a spectacular feast for the senses by consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible from a staging and production perspective. Production manager, Ola Melzig, used his significant international network to bring together some of the best technical talents from all over the world to ensure unsurpassed production standards at this year’s event.
Lighting for the 2019 edition was entrusted to Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay, two Israeli lighting designers who were able to combine their respective skills in the live, musical and television fields to deliver at the highest possible level. The dynamic team oversaw the operation of a lighting rig of truly gargantuan proportions, which comprised no less than 15 grandMA consoles, controlling 71,061 parameters and more than 2,500 light sources and LED Fixtures.
The show’s lighting design was based on a concept created by Florian Wieder, who wanted to create a scene recalling the Star of David – the symbol of the state of Israel. “There are about 1,600 fixtures for the main stage, alongside a further 200 for the green room. These fixtures are largely LED, a decision which prompted an in-depth study to provide the required balance, with a choice of colour temperature from 5000K to 5600K. This provides an output that is not too warm, tending slightly towards pink,” Najar explains.
Inside Expo Tel Aviv, the venue chosen for this year’s performances, a dedicated room was created for the pre-programming of the event. Here, lighting, video and broadcast crews spent a month simulating lighting and video cues, alongside camera movements, to further optimise timing once inside the venue itself.
The 406 Claypaky fixtures specified by Najar and Azulay, which included 66 Axcor 600, 152 Sharpy Wash, 116 Sharpy Plus and 72 Unico units, performed the lion’s share of the show’s lighting. In particular, the Sharpy Plus units provided some extraordinary spot-beam effects, which worked in combination with luminous triangles that covered the entire roof of the venue. In addition, the rig included more than 700 Ayrton fixtures, including 330 MagicBlade-R and 206 MagicBlade-FX, which were rigged on ladders at regular intervals across the massive back and side walls. These were interspersed with 100 Khamsin-TC profile fixtures which, together, were used to create a multitude of looks from subtle backdrops, to strong, colourful visuals and brilliant aerial effects. “There were more lights on the back wall than you would have on your average tour,” says Melzig, “and the power of the MagicBlades was truly a sight for sore eyes.”
CALLING IN THE TROOPS
With a lighting rig of this magnitude and complexity, it is not surprising that the production of ESC requires an army of technicians, and among those drafted in were South Africans Joshua Cutts and Christopher Bolton.
“Christopher and I have a fair number of international contracts over the past few years, and we have had the privilege to work with some very prominent designers and programmers during this time. When Ronan and Dakar decided that it would be in the best interests of the production to contract a few more programmers to expand the lighting team ahead of the finals, he contacted Marco Zucchinali of Claypaky, who placed our names among the list of possible candidates,” Cutts explains.
“Marco called me up one morning,” Cutts recalls, “and told me that there was a three-week gig available. My first response was to say that I was already committed and was not sure if it would be possible,” he says. “I then asked him ‘What’s the gig?’ And when he said it was Eurovision, I simply said ‘Hold on!’ and cleared my schedule.”
Cutts completed a telephone interview with Ronan and Dakar later that day, who then reviewed his show reel. “At 11 pm that evening, they called me back and asked if I could come to Tel Aviv the very next day. I had no idea what was in store for me – I think I was completely blown away that I was going to Eurovision, and it all felt a little surreal.”
AN INSPIRED LANDING
The Eurovision Song Contest includes contestants from 41 countries, who are whittled down to 26 delegations that battle it out during the final rounds of the show in front of a live audience of 7,500 people, while the live broadcast is watched by approximately 200 million fans worldwide.
“Eurovision is, without doubt, the largest production that I have ever worked on – the scale of it is quite mind-blowing,” Cutts points out. “When I first arrived at the venue, the scale of the production and sheer size of the rig was a little overwhelming. Ronan was, however, extremely understanding and encouraged me to spend the first day or two just taking it all in. It was a little like being at a lighting designer’s version of Disneyland!”
Once the work started in the lead-up to the first of the live shows, the lighting team decided to split up into teams, with one team working the day shift and another team working at night to capture notes taken from the rehearsals held during the day. “It was at this point that I gave Christopher a call and told him that he simply had to join me.”
Bolton explains: “I was working on a job in Saudi Arabia when Joshua called me and told me that I really needed to come to Eurovision. I realised that it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and therefore decided to get to Tel Aviv as quickly as I could.”
Over the next three weeks, Bolton and Cutts worked with an enormous team of technicians to oversee guest performances, as well as delegate rehearsals and the live shows. “The pace is absolutely gruelling,” Bolton points out. “There are only 24 hours in a day – and the amount of work that needed to be accomplished during those few weeks is mind-blowing,” says Bolton. “We had a half-hour rehearsal with each of the 42 delegates, with ten minutes between each rehearsal to take notes. We had four days of rehearsals and then everybody got a day off – except the lighting department, because that was our opportunity to come in and work on the rig. During show week, we had a day with two dress rehearsals, followed by a day with a dress rehearsal and then the show, and we continued at this pace for six days in a row.”
Despite the enormous pressure and unrelenting pace, Eurovision is renowned for being a remarkably slick production. “The secret to producing a show of this scale is the exceptionally high levels of collaboration and communication, and the unbelievable standards that are maintained by each technician on every team,” Bolton explains.
Cutts echoes these thoughts, stating that the production team determined a schedule, and every delegation and technical department adhered to the schedule without fault. “One of the coolest things for me is that you are a part of this massive machine that seems to move on its own momentum. There is a schedule that everybody follows, and – because of that – you become this single collective force, with the single objective of creating something truly exceptional. You don’t want to be the person that is responsible for holding up the whole production – which simply cannot afford to shut down for even a moment. So everybody brings their A-game, all of the time. It was both inspirational and humbling to be a part of.”
When asked what the highlight of the experience was, Cutts concludes by stating: “As South Africans, we sometimes underestimate ourselves. Working on a show like this has helped me to acknowledge that while we might work on a smaller scale and with fewer crew members, our technicians do work at international standards. Any one of the technical professionals that I work with in South Africa could have fitted in with the team at Eurovision – and that is both encouraging and something to be very proud of.”
Come experience the talent and professionalism of the SA lighting industry with Joshua Cutts and Christopher Bolton, who will be at The Black Box at MediaTech Africa from 17 to 19 July 2019.
