DaVinci Fusion demonstrated its production expertise and quick-change artistry when it provided all production services for the Concours d’Elegance Fashion Show and, the very next night, produced a gala dinner for 680 VIPs, participants, and judges at the 54th Annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, a world-class celebration of automotive design, craftsmanship, and history. This marked the 15th year of DaVinci Fusion’s participation in the Concours d’Elegance with company president Solomon Rosenzweig serving as show director.
Cars and Clothes Take the Runway
The early-evening fashion show that kicked off the Concours weekend, jointly sponsored by Hearst Magazines and Lexus USA, spotlighted clothes and accessories from Saks Fifth Avenue and the latest Lexus automobiles. The event, staged in a huge tent on the grounds of The Lodge at Pebble Beach Equestrian Center, drew an invited audience of 1,800.
DaVinci Fusion outfitted the tent with a stage flanked by a pair of 9’x12’ screens for image magnification and a 60’ runway that extended into the audience and terminated in a turntable. The company supplied a full production and mixing package for the two-camera show which featured Sony camera gear and Christie 5000-lumen projectors.
DaVinci Fusion rigged the tent with special-effects balls, confetti cannons, strobe effects units, and smoke. The tent was also rigged with a complete lighting package, MAC 500 and 600 moving lights formed the backbone of the system. A Flying Pig Systems Whole Hog® 2 console provided lighting control.
"Each year we like to introduce new technology to further enhance the event," Rosenzweig reports. "For this show we integrated the MAC 2000 computerized moving light, with Apollo super-resolution gobos."
The gobos helped create complete scene changes into the fashion show’s six segments. "This technique went miles to set the tone and mood of each segment and complement the music," he says, speaking of the projections.
For the automobile introduction, a 16’ white roll drop was raised to reveal a Lexus SC430 Pebble Beach Special Edition convertible. The vehicle was enhanced by a light display of computerized lighting effects.
From Fashion to Food…And Fast!
DaVinci Fusion next focused on transforming the huge tent into the elegant, atmospheric Smokey Joe’s Blue Note Café for the pre-Concours dinner catered by the Pebble Beach Company. To do so, the company altered the layout of the space, creating an elegant new decor and devising a lighting scheme that enhanced the cachet of the exclusive cafe.
"After the fashion show Friday evening, we removed the stage and turntable and added buffet tables and the sound system for Sista Monica [the entertainment for the dinner]," Rosenzweig says. "We changed the stage appointments to shimmery draperies to create an evocative background for the singer, washed the ceiling with blue musical notes in a play upon the name of the cafe, and gave the dance floor a full stage-lighting treatment."
DaVinci Fusion provided full turnkey event production to include the decor, linens, table decorations, lighting, sound, and entertainment for the dinner. DaVinci Fusion dressed the tables in zebra-, jaguar- and peacock feather-patterned linens accented by battery-operated lamps and floral arrangements. The company enhanced the "café under the stars" further with uplit palm trees and dramatic bouquets of flowers and peacock feathers that graced the buffet tables.
The gala dinner was sponsored by Chrysler and Jewelry By Gauthier: Wear Art with Far Niente Winery and Ketle One Vodka associate sponsors. In addition, DaVinci Fusion provided lighting for the sensational week-long 50th Anniversary of Ferrari display on the 3rd Fairway at Pebble Beach.