News

XL Video makes Progress with Take That

Posted on 15/08/2011

Those who witnessed any of Take That’s phenomenal The Circus Live shows in 2009 may well have assumed that the grown-up boy band had hit their touring peak. Not so.

The biggest tour to date by the UK pop superstars and the first to feature Robbie Williams since 1995, this summer’s Progress Live played to over 1.8 million fans during its 35-date run in stadiums across Europe, including eight record-breaking, sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium that grossed £38 million. Take that, indeed.

For XL Video, the tour was a continuation of a long-running relationship with the band, their production director Chris Vaughan of The Production Office (TPO) and camera director Matt Askem. Sadly, it also marked the last tour for XL’s project manager, Des Fallon, who passed away suddenly during the rehearsal period at Cardington Hangars in Bedfordshire.

Progress Live saw XL deploy 200m2 of the latest Pixled FX11 outdoor LED screens to form two large triangular upstage surfaces — the major element of the show’s visuality. Purchased by XL especially for the tour, these screens were built into a series of special frames, designed by XL and fabricated by Tait Technologies. Each of them were angled at 5.9° along one side to add a curvature when bolted together. These flanked the ‘Big Man’ scenic piece positioned upstage centre.

XL’s vast experience and knowledge of touring large quantities of LED screens was challenged yet again to design a compact, fast-access dolly system in which to pack and transport the entire screen. This impressive feat of engineering resulted in 10 dollies and a system that could assembled in one hour, and then broken down in 15 minutes at the end of a show.
“It’s absolutely super-efficient and everyone’s highly impressed,” stated Stuart Heaney, who headed a crew of 12 and had previously worked on Take That’s The Circus Live tour.

Operated by Richard Shipman, the video playback system comprised of three UVA d3 servers that were used to store and play back all the screen content material produced by Sam Pattinson at Treatment Visual Productions. This was triggered by a combination of timecode and manual cues.

Shipman said of the d3: “It’s not just a media server; it’s a pre-visualiser and the set and the venues exist as 3D CAD drawings in the x, y and z axes. You import this data into the d3 and it creates an object file that you can view from any angle in 3D. So you can pinpoint any seat in the house and show the promoter what that member of the audience will see from that position.”

Sam Pattinson at Treatment Visual Productions has built a healthy rapport with Kim Gavin over the two previous Take That tours as well as numerous other projects. As such, Gavin’s confidence led him to hire Pattinson once again to manage the content creation, using a range of highly talented graphic artists and animators.
“Kim’s a very trusting client who encourages you take the lead once he has established his overall vision,” said Pattinson. “The band are also fantastic to work for — once you agree on an idea they really see it through. This makes for a great creative environment, which gets the best out of the film makers.”

Pattinson also reserved praise for XL Video’s major contribution to Progress Live. “The XL crew was outstanding; their efforts and expertise are of immense help to us and often unsung,” he said. “Working with Richard Shipman is always more than reassuring and having the eye of Matt Askem is an extremely valuable asset in understanding how the screen content balances with the I-Mag.”
Askem directed 10 Sony HXC cameras — six were fitted with x86 long lenses; four of them were positioned out in the field, with two on studio pedestals at the end of the B-stage. The next two, with standard lenses, were on a track and dolly either side of the main stage’s 50ft thrust, and the remaining two hand-helds with wide angle lenses were free to roam wherever required.

Askem directed the cameras from a GV Kayak DD mixer/switcher, and had two multi-viewers running on large plasma screens enabling quick and convenient viewing of all the cameras and TX feeds.

XL Video also supplied a full CCTV set-up under the control of show caller Ben Leach. Cameras watched the back and under-stage technical areas where a complex system of hydraulic and electrical movement animated the set pieces. There was also a camera showing a wide shot from FOH.

All of these feeds were distributed to various points around the stage, enabling crew to gain real-time visual information and ensure that certain areas were kept clear and safe during the movement cues.
The biggest challenge for the XL team was fitting in around all the other departments during the tightly scheduled load-ins, as everything was assembled like a giant jigsaw.

Progress Live was designed by Es Devlin in collaboration with Kim Gavin and lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe. The official DVD of the tour, which ended in Munich at the end of July, will be released on November 21 2011.

Take That website