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Cocker’s Still Running the World with Martin’s Maxedia
When the award winning team at ElectricFly Productions took on the task of designing the UK and European leg of Jarvis Cocker’s new tour, they turned to Maxedia as the digital media server for the job. Using the artwork on Cocker’s latest album ‘Jarvis’ as the foundation for the stage design, Nick Jevons created a rig, rich in LEDs and deep in novelty. Most of the early design was created on Martin Show Designer, back in the ElectricFly studios. This was then manipulated and pixel mapped using Maxedia.
“As we did all the programming in the office, when I got out on site it was all there, I just had to tweak it a bit.” And tweak it he did on the first night of the tour when the venue turned out to be slightly smaller than what he had been briefed to believe.
“When we got it up and running at the first venue of the tour, we realised it was too tight a fit, so by using the Maxedia I was able to do some quick pixel mapping and reconfigured the graphics in just ten minutes. The show still had the same feel and it still had the same movement and textures, which was great.”
The Maxedia’s graphic user interface is no stranger to Nick who has employed its features on several prior occasions, most notably the BBC’s One Big Weekend. It was his son Jake however, who was at the wheels this time as the Maxedia operator. “You are up and running fast and, as it’s hands-on programming, you can get a show within minutes,” he said.
“I used a DMX splitter, which meant that I could take over control of the i-Pix LED fixtures and control them via my Pearl Expert console for those spontaneous stabs, and then drop them back onto Maxedia without problem.”
Maxedia’s comprehensive content library has also meant that all the visual extras of the show were already there for the taking. “Apart from a few things such as the arrow, which I took from the album cover, I haven’t needed to put my own content in. I’m just using the standard Maxedia content which I then tweak a little to make it the way I want.”
And the results spoke for themselves with an innovative tone to match the wonderfully eccentric performance of Jarvis. Maxedia’s pixel mapping meant that the brilliant background visuals and light show worked in unison, seamlessly marrying light, LED and video together.
Jake Jevons concluded: “It’s extremely easy to pixel map and very user friendly.”
The Jarvis Cocker tour continues with the US leg beginning next month in New York.
20th April 2007
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