COLOGNE — There is beauty in balance. This guiding principle of art and design was very much on the minds of Udo Rath and the team at Qube Motion GmbH when they set out to light a two-day DVD recording show for the iconic Kölschpop band CatBallou at Cologne’s Lanxess Arena.
The concept for this show’s set was characterized by a powerful linear structure, and though this was clearly a compelling look, Rath and his colleagues realized that it would have to be balanced by a contrasting design element. With this in mind, they added 60 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens to round out their stage.
“We wanted to bring something organic into the otherwise very linear set – without losing that linear structure,” explained Rath. “That is how we decided to go with the PXL Curve. Their arrangement allowed us to create a wide variety of looks. One that stood out was the wave look – it gave the impression of bending the light.”
Qube Motion, which has been designing CatBallou’s shows for eight years, created a colorful mix for this event that was done in conjunction with the band’s 25th anniversary. While there was a strong blue-magenta tone throughout much of the show, the overall design featured a vibrantly colorful mix to match the glowing nature of the band’s music.
In addition to balancing linear and curved forms, the Qube Motion team endowed their design with greater depth by changing levels of light and shadows. “We worked a lot with dynamics, tailored to each individual song,” explained Rath. “Some songs started with very minimal looks, just backlighting — and then grew into a big picture. Others came in strong and colorful right from the first beat. Our goal was to translate the emotions and feelings of the songs into light, giving the music a visual ‘outfit.’”
As part of this design vision, Rath also relied on silhouettes at different points in the show. “Beautiful silhouette effects were created thanks to the tight beam angle and pixel zoom of the battens,” he said. “We were able to create a curtain of light instead of total blackness, essentially forming a wall of light with the PXL Curves, behind which the artists were no longer visible.
“I think the PXL Curve really is a great fixture in general,” continued Rath. “It allows you to create entirely new looks. It has enough punch to deliver a proper beam even as a single unit. I also really appreciated the clever mounting system – the notches made it super easy for the techs to hang the fixtures so seamlessly that you couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.”
The latter point was especially important in this project, given its short set up time. Rath and his team: Head Lighting Technician: Ingo Rath; white light operator, Fabian Schmidt; follow-me specialist Daniel Blum; and Five Entertainment) had to work within a very tight schedule.
“There was no setup day for this single show,” said Rath. “We had only nine hours for the entire setup, so the design process had to focus not only on creativity but also on feasibility within that short timeframe.”
In the end, though, Rath and his team were more than up to the challenge. Working closely together, they created a design that was varied, compelling… and of course, beautifully balanced.
