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Premiere Party for The Phantom of the Opera
London based production house GSP Ltd appointed Drapes specialist Blackout and sound specialists Canegreen Commercial to help realise the setting for the film premiere of The Phantom Of The Opera, staged at the National Hall, Olympia. The movie is an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s romantic stage musical ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’, and is now showing at cinemas nationwide.
Blackout’s project manager Chris Brain collaborated with GSP’s managing director Emma Gold and GSP’s appointed set designer to dress the venue to their exacting specifications.
The set designed by GSP recreated in minute detail an opulent theatrical environment in the film’s signatory red and black colours. To set the scene GSP sourced an eclectic mix of stunning props sourced both from the movie and GSP’s creative team. The stage was magnificently crowned by a 5 metre x 8 metre 25,000 crystal chandelier supplied by Swarovski. As a finishing touch 1,000 black edged red roses, supplied by Jayne Copperwaite, were suspended on fishing line to add to The Phantom ‘experience’.
The 20 stong Blackout team used 2,000 square metres of dark red velour to transform the venue’s stark blue walls into a richly ruby Phantomic domain. Skilfully suspended around the entire perimeter of The National Hall, this created a lavish and sophisticated effect.
Another 300 metres of red velour was adapted from Blackout’s extensive hire stock and deployed on the main stage. With much attention to detail, the Blackout team created tumbling swags of red velour trimmed in gold bullion fringe to frame the stage and set the scene and tone of the drama.
Blackout also dressed the main entrance in red velour tank trapping and contrasting black voile. Specific areas were masked with black wool serge which was also used to create the cloakroom and the on-site production management facilities.
GSP brought in Canegreen Commercial to manage the sound at the party. Having worked with their managing director Andrew Frengley on previous occasions they entrusted him to provide a pa to accommodate the varied performances.
Andrew explained: “The system required fairly complex design to seamlessly integrate performance elements at one end and across the hall with a central large disco/performance stage. We covered the area in front of the main stage with flown Meyer MILO line-arrays that carried the highly dynamic voices of Amici Forever as well as capturing the essential rhythmic aspects of an authentic flamenco performance.
“We also deployed a large number of Meyer UPA1-P’s arranged in a linear fashion across and down the hall, augmented by a circular array of Meyer MSL-2’s focused on the central raised stage with further hidden sub bass beneath. The system was time aligned to ensure smooth high quality coverage across all the various zones including bars and VIP areas whilst retaining focus at any performance point.
“Every aspect of this event was ‘so much more’ in terms of the levels of quality, professionalism and achievement. It was great working with the GSP team and the other suppliers to create an event that I categorically state is one of the best looking shows I have ever seen.”
Emma Gold, was delighted with the result. “Everyone worked brilliantly together. The team’s dedication and cooperation enabled us to make the project a huge success for our client,” she said.
28th January 2005
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