A recent anniversary (and dog wedding) ceremony in Boca Raton, Florida, used a colorful lighting design by Brent Schmidt of B Productions that featured 60 CHAUVET DJ LED fixtures.
Schmidt, whose business is based in Cleveland, came to Florida with his longtime client, renowned TV magician Rick Smith, who performed at the reception. Schmidt created a colorful lightscape on the club’s grounds with 24 Freedom Par Quad-4 and 16 Freedom H1 uplights, while also transforming the reception area with stage and dancefloor lighting from SlimPAR, COLORband, Wash FX and Intimidator fixtures.
“This was clearly a fun event, but it also had its challenges, because of all the varied roles lighting had to play,” said Schmidt. “We needed to create lighting changes for each festivity. There was one scene for the ceremony, then multiple scenes for the Rick Smith magic show, the band, and solo artists. We didn’t treat this like any other event we’ve done in the past. Since we were working with a band, solo artist, magician and a wedding ceremony, we needed to have a very broad look for each thing that took place on stage.”
To illustrate his point, Schmidt notes that he used the four Intimidator Hybrid 140SR and two Intimidator Spot 375Z IRCmoving fixtures in his rig to create a variety of specials during the entertainment portion of the event. “There were a great many different specials we created with the Intimidators to keep the stage looking fresh for each act,” he said. “We used them to spot the solo artist playing the piano, project gobos on the back wall during the magic show and create ballyhoos throughout the evening.”
Complementing the specials on stage was the colorful background lighting created with four COLORband T3 USB fixtures. “The wall behind the stage had a very interesting beveled surface, which we accented with the COLORbands,” said Schmidt. “We coordinated this light with the colorful stage washing we got from our SlimPAR fixtures.”
Schmidt also had to ensure that his outdoor lighting rig was flexible.
“One of the most fun things we did at this event was change the positioning of the lighting outside,” he said. “When guests walked into the club, we lit the columns leading to the entrance to convey a sense of excitement. Then when guests left, we had the columns lit up from the other side. In the lobby we placed two wash FX 2 units on totems to light up the paper looking chandelier in purple to pull in the theme of the event.”
Emblematic of the rig’s versatility were its 16 Freedom H1 fixtures. The battery-powered uplights were used to light the entrance columns outdoors and for pin spotting the dance floor during the reception. Similarly, the 24 Freedom Par Quad-4 units in the rig were used to uplight walls in the ballroom and to provide hints of color for the palm trees in the dinner space by the pool.
