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Clay Paky with Ben Hur at the Stade de France
Nearly 50 years after the film Ben Hur, starring Charlton Heston and winner of 11 Oscars, the epic story of the Jewish Prince waas brought back to life in France with a spectacular show at the Stade de France in Paris over five evenings in late September. The World Cup stadium hosted 400 actors and extras who recreated the naval battle, the gladiatorial combats and the famous chariot race.
The main challenge for lighting designers Christian Bréan and Jacques Rouveyrollis was to cover the 11,000 m2 plus of surface area of the stadium - which was for the occasion without the traditional grass and covered in compacted red clay.
“The lighting for this mega-spectacular required detailed study of the placing of the projectors around the entire oval that roofs the Stade de France,” said the lighting designers. “Many technical lighting calculations had already been made at the start; we had to visualise right from then the effect that we wanted to achieve, also as moving and installing a lot of projectors at a height of 40 metres is certainly not an easy undertaking! We had to plan the combined action of all the projectors, remembering that the light beam of each projector had to cover an average distance of 80 metres. It needed at least a year’s work to plan and implement the lighting design.”
The installation of the entire lighting system in the vast stadium was carried out by Procon who, together with the Belgian Blue Squares Company, supplied 180 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200 projectors. The choice of Alpha Spot HPE 1200 projectors was made after precise tests and preliminary objective comparative assessments were carried out on the huge pitch.
First and foremost a 1200W product with great lighting power, and able to cover the whole surface in a uniform way, was indicated. Bréan and Rouveyrollis performed countless lighting and optics tests on various projectors and the Alpha Spot HPE 1200 emerged as the ideal tool for the purpose.
Next a product was sought that had the special dynamic and creative effects essential for some scenes of the show, for example in the scene with the ship the area becomes an enormous blue sea with waves in motion. “We achieved the desired effect by combining several overlapped gobos, as well as the prisms and rotation of the animation disc. It was certainly useful to be able to have so many graphic solutions in one projector. It really must be said that the effects section of the Alpha Spot HPE 1200 is truly rich.”
Christian and Jacques created a work of mediation between the style and the expectations of the director Robert Hossein, who has great cinema and television experience, and their own background in lighting theatrical and live events. This was a show that combined many types of spectacle and in which even the huge audience of the Stade de France was involved in interacting to become part of the event.
The few decorative scenic elements were a typical feature of the show. The majority of the scenography was created through light and colour, elements that allow an evocation of the hot desert atmospheres, the pale mauve harshness of rocky mountains and the scarlet colours of the Arab quarters. Light was also used to fulfil the basic task of directing the public, lighting them, and then leading them inside the arena.
The tonality of the colour obtained was the meld between the light beam from the projectors and the reddish color of the earth of the stadium. “We had to implement a programme of colours very much “on sight”, as the original colour never corresponded to that actually obtained on the ground,” said Bréan.
“Another factor to consider”, he continued, “was that in the theatre colour forms the background, or in any case is mainly used on vertical walls perpendicular to the stage floor, while here the colour was directly on the ground. In other words, the scene is the surface of the arena itself. Also the ground lighting had to be balanced in a way that is visible and homogenous from every line of sight. Making a mistake in a combination of colours or diffusion of light would have been seen immediately by any spectator inside the stadium. My work has been greatly helped by the Alpha Spot HPE 1200 projectors that, although subjected to constant stress, showed great reliability and versatility in use.”
The show was judged a great success by both critics and public - and there were full houses every day. As well as the 400 actors, 150 technicians were employed on the production which took a year to come to fruition.
18th October 2006
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