“La Fête Nationale” – celebrated in Quebec since 1834 – is a very large, high-profile event comparable in pomp and pageantry to America’s Fourth of July. Held over two days, it culminates in two televised “Grand Spectacles”. The first is held in Quebec City on June 23rd and the second on June 24th in Montreal. Lüz Studio was mandated for the global production of the 2015 edition of the Grand Spectacle’s live broadcast in Montreal: video, lighting and stage design. The outdoor show took place at Place-des-Festivals in the heart of Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles, located in the city’s downtown core where crowds of up to 30,000 people can gather. This outdoor show is televised live on ICI Radio-Canada, the country’s national French-language broadcaster, and watched by over 2 million, approximately one quarter of Québec’s population.
Despite the event’s massive popularity, the producers were looking to refresh its image to reach out to a younger audience. To achieve this, Lüz Studio came up with a stage design composed mainly of video screens to create visual worlds specific to each performance and ensure the art design contributed to a strong and contemporary graphic identity. The stage design included 40 X 8mm video tiles (Solotech SL PRO 8), 80 X 15 mm video tiles (Everbrighten BR15) and 4 X 20k video projectors (Christie) used for the relay screens installed a little further afield on the site. Video content was also projected on an adjacent building with eight 22K-J Christie Roadster projectors. The decision to rely heavily on video had a substantial impact on the overall budget and resulted in a more streamlined development process for the overall stage design. To make up for it, the team developed a stage décor that tactically incorporated the event’s traditional blue and white color scheme. 22K-J Christie Roadster projectors. The decision to rely heavily on video had a substantial impact on the overall budget and resulted in a more streamlined development process for the overall stage design. To make up for it, the team developed a stage décor that tactically incorporated the event’s traditional blue and white color scheme.
The outdoor stage (a SAM555 model, 115' wide including side wings) was dressed with more than 2500 sq. ft of acoustic custom-printed meshing. The design was tailored to decorate the risers and steps while a 16 sq. ft. vinyl sticker was used on the middle of the stage to maximize the cameras’ bird’s eye view angle.
For the lighting design, we opted for variety - through harmonized effects that better showcased the video content. Many VariLite moving lights were used to achieve this, as well as beam fixtures (Chauvet LEGEND 230SR), strobes (Martin Atomic 3000), LEDs (Elation ELAR 180) and tungsten lightstrips (Solotech KR10), among others. We also incorporated the built-in lighting of the surrounding building to create a more complete and immersive experience for the crowd as well as enhancing the overall tv shot.
The challenges were many. On the one hand, the location itself imposed many constraints. Used for other festivals both before and after the Fête Nationale event, it was necessary to coordinate the equipment list to optimize the installation time, which allowed less than two days. The live broadcast and the outdoor nature of the event also required a thorough needs analysis and a large amount of flexibility. For the visual component, the major challenge was creating a graphic esthetic that was current, yet incorporated the national symbol, the ubiquitous fleur-de-lis. While the event’s graphic identity showcased the symbol, the massive presence of video screens allowed us to change the tone during musical numbers through alternating dynamic content.
Overall, the Lüz Studio team not only fulfilled its mandate with pride, but also produced a lively, contemporary and festive event worthy of its rich tradition for spectators and viewers alike.
Design Team:
- Production : Comité de la Fête nationale du Québec à Montréal
- Production Manager : Nathalie Gervais
- Director : Pierre Séguin
- Visual Design: Lüz Studio
- Lighting Director: Matthieu Larivée
- Lighting Programmer: David Rondeau & Vincent Lavoie
- Video Director : Sébastien Lépine & Sébastien Deschênes
- Video Engineer : Jonas Libon
- Set Designer : Jonas Libon & Emilie Fortier
Equipment List:
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA2 Fullsize
- 1 MA Lighting grandMA2 Light
- 20 VariLite VL3500 SPOT
- 24 VariLite VL3000 SPOT
- 8 VariLite VL3500 WASH
- 13 VariLite VL2500 WASH
- 6 VariLite VLX
- 30 Chauvet LEGEND 230SR
- 16 Martin Atomic 3000
- 72 Elation PAR ELAR 108 RGBW
- 130 Colorkinetic ColorBlast12
- 15 Solotech KR10 (sunstrip)
- 4 Molefay 8
- 16 Molefay 4
- 16 Molefay 2
- 12 Altman Fresnel 300w
- 16 HUI
- 4 ETC Source 4 Leko 750w
- 2 MDG The One
- 2 TMB Pro Fan
- 2 MDG MAX 3000
- 1 Arkaos MediaMaster
- 1 Modul-8
- 80 Everbrighten BR15
- 40 Solotech SLPro8