Reggae superstar Jah Prayzah celebrated his 33rd birthday with a “Lockdown Birthday Bash” in Harare, Zimbabwe that was livestreamed on the social media platforms of Nash and ZBC TV.
The birthday show’s studio stage was not endowed with a great deal of space, and no fans were present during the livestream broadcasts. Fueling the mix of music and dance was a bright, colorful, and fast-moving lightshow by Nicholas “Nicky” Sintara of Epic Sets that featured four Intimidator Hybrid 140SR moving fixtures flown on upstage truss, as well as a Hurricane Haze 4D fog machine from CHAUVET DJ.
Designing his show with the limitations of the livestream format in mind, Sintara kept his looks tight for viewing on small mobile screens. At the same time, however, he relied on bright, intense light with plenty of slashing crossing patterns and vivid gobos to create a larger impression in keeping with Jah Prayzah’s stature throughout Africa and the rest of the world.
Rich upbeat colors were also critical to conveying the mood of the music. Sintara delivered this by relying on his Intimidator units to wash the stage in rainbow-like palettes. During the more high-energy portions of the show, he turned the 140-watt moving fixtures lose as spots and had them crisscross the stage with brilliant shafts of light.
Since dancing was an integral part of this show, Sintara relied on the Intimidator fixtures’ dual gobo wheels to create an architecture of geometric patterns on the stage floor that accentuated the movements of the performers.
Sintara positioned his Hurricane 4D fogger on the upstage deck with its fan set high. This setting allowed Sintara to increase the sense of depth on the small stage by creating an engaging backdrop without having fog spill over to distract from the performances.
“My client requested a simple stage setup, since this was a studio environment,” said Sintara. “Yet, I wanted to create epic looks considering the status and dynamic nature of the artists on stage. I couldn’t have a great number of fixture in the rig, so I had to be sure to use those that could do a great number of different things.”
The idea of mixing a wide array of looks in his show not only kept it visually interesting for two hours, according to Sintara, it also increased the impact it had on audiences.
