Lighting, especially in the hands of an artful designer can work wonders making even the very ordinary look extraordinary. Gil Perron has conjured up such magic more than a few times in his career.
On the other hand, there are those happy occasions when a designer has the opportunity to use lighting to accent the beauty of things that are already breathtakingly gorgeous in their own right. Perron is experienced with that too — most recently when he lit the Luc Poirrier Ferrari collection and the Performance Zone at the Montreal International Auto Show with 232 CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by LSM.
Valued at over $61 million, the Ferrari collection featured some 35 vehicles, dating back to 1962 up to the present, including the iconic Monza SP2, the LaFerrari Aperta, and the legendary Enzo, as well as breakthrough models like the 296 GTS, SF90 Spider, and F8 Spider. Lighting such automotive gems might seem like a dream project (which indeed it was!), but it was not without its challenges.
“Having cars ranging from shiny canary yellow to satin anthracite black right next to each other required some adjustment in actual physical positions of instruments,” said Perron, who credits his programmer Helene St-Pierre with helping him meet this challenge. “Helene showed extreme patience, as I can be a bit obsessive when it comes to focus and color balances! All in all, this involved 12 hours of focusing — and it was worth every minute!”
Perron relied on 88 Maverick Force 3 Profiles to light the Ferraris, spreading the fixtures out across six 120-foot trusses. “Obviously, the massive output of these fixture was essential, as was the Maverick’s flexibility. We lit the brighter colored cars with two fixtures, while the darker ones, especially the anthracite carbon ones got three, and in some cases four, lights. I was aiming for 250Fc on each car which was easily attained and quite largely surpassed. Getting 350Fc was not even a challenge on 35-foot throws.”
At the Performance Zone, Perron used 144 COLORado Quad Par fixtures to light a collection of specialty vehicles. “This was a huge challenge because this room had no rigging, low ceilings and a requirement for very spotted elements,” he said. “With each car being so colorful, the team did minor adjustment to the white base formula I had created in order to augment the actual car color. It was a very long process, but the results were impressive. That Par is awesome!”
Although Perron and his team excelled in every phase of this enjoyable project, there was one thing that came close to stumping him: selecting the one automobile that was most fun to light. “Well…I’m not a very knowledgeable about cars,” he admitted. “But who can resist a Ferrari 328 GTB!” Automotive enthusiasts universally praise that vehicle, which was sold in the 1980s, for its reliability and functionality — attributes shared by the rig that helped Perron work his magic at Quebec’s legendary auto show.
