Bob Barnhart On Lighting The Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show

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“We start long before the artist is picked, as the NFL wants information about lighting positions, which we deal with in the summer, and the artist is usually picked in the fall,” explains Bob Barnhart, lighting designer from Full Flood in Los Angeles, who lit the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show on February 1, 2015. “We look to see what the stadium can offer the artist creatively. This year’s event was ultimately more like an opening ceremony than a concert. The NFL dictated that we would be at the end of the field, like it was for Tom Petty in 2008, not in the center,” adds Barnhart, who finds that this configuration makes it a little more difficult to make it a symmetrical show. “We are also very close to the goal posts, and had to make sure all the Lenny Kravitz pyro didn’t burn them down.”
 
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In seeking the primary lighting positions, Barnhart, with help from Stage Rigging Inc, utilized the Brunel Trusses at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which are two large I-beam trusses that parallel the sidelines. “These were ideal for lights and projectors over the audience and the field, as there was really only one ‘balcony’ rail we could hang a moving light on,” says the LD, who notes that the lights hung there were primarily used for band lighting and audience lighting, as well as some back lighting for certain of the stages on the field. 
 
Additional lighting positions arrived on rolling ground-supported truss: Of the 27 carts rolled out onto the field in preparation for the show, 17 were lighting carts. “With 210 lights on the field, that’s the most we’ve ever tried to plug in before the show, and they had to be plugged in during the show’s eight-minute set up, which is really in the last three minutes as the carts arrive in their final position” says Barnhart, who adds that the crew did a great job: “They got it plugged in faster than any halftime I have been involved in before, which is incredible because we only made it once in rehearsals, by 15 seconds, and on Sunday, they did it with 45 seconds to spare and we were at 100%.” The prior record for number of lights on the field was just over a hundred lights for Beyoncé’s Super Bowl show in 2013.
 
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“Once we knew it was Katy Perry, the creative team flew up to San Jose where she was on tour, and we met with her and her team,” notes Barnhart. “She and Baz Halpin already had some of the creative worked out. We presented what could be done in that building and what an eight-minute load in restricts us to. She had the idea of entering on a large animal—Michael Curry’s custom-made lion—and flying out at the end, a few guest artists.” The show ultimately had a lot going on, from the lion to the 600 orbs from GloMotion held by 600 teenage dancers and run by the show’s MA Lighting grandMA console, and programmed by Jason Rudolph, and also controlling projection for the show. “At first the orbs had content, such as the Pepsi logo,” Barnhart points out, “then we used them as lighting instruments.” Pete Radice ran the PRG V676 console for the lighting fixtures.
 
To light Katy Perry astride her lion, Brite Box Flame Long Throw #LT3000 follow spots were used as the lighting team didn’t have time to track automated lighting. “The lion had so many faceted angles, we used eight follow spots from every angle, to keep it from looking dark, and followspots for Katy as well,” says Barnhart, who needed specific followspots that could provide 50’ candles from the far corners of the field, or a 700’ throw. He likes the Brite Box Flames as they are incredibly small and bright.
 

Lighting Katy

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On the upstage rail, 90 Clay Paky Sharpys and 48 TMB Solaris strobes provided background effects, while at the 200-level handrail, 200 Chroma Q Color Blocks added background tempo upstage and added activity to the LED finger lights in the audience. “Everybody had a white one, and then a red or blue one, and were told to play with them for sparkle and points of light dancing in the background,” notes Barnhart.
 
The lighting had to cover Katy Perry going from end zone to end zone twice. “From the opening in the north end zone atop a lion, to the south end zone to meet up with Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliot, then with the help of Flying By Foy, back to the north end zone, an amazing feat in the middle of a Super Bowl, with an open roof,” Barnhart adds.
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“The primary challenge walking into the project,” admits the LD, “is a lady wants to look good from beginning to end, and yet she’s all over the field and facing so many different directions. It’s the Super Bowl so I don’t get every angle or physical position I would want. From the lion to a projection surface, then onto an LED stage, so we need to change the key light system when she turns downstage, then over to Lenny where they’re now looking 180 off the opening, then dancing with sharks and beach balls and palm trees, then an entirely different key light system for Missy Elliot because we couldn’t have any light hit the floor or we would blow out the projection. Then she is flying around the entire stadium looking in every direction.” Barnhart again used followspots when Perry was flying.
 
For the dancing-sharks number, a long-throw soft light system was used, as Barnhart explains: “I wanted to light the beach scenes in such a way that you did not see follow spot ‘rings,’ which would have been all over the trees and sharks. In addition, I wanted to avoid shadows from all the characters on the stage.” As a result, he used the Philips Vari-Lite VL 3500 spots system, hung on the 400 level on the rail on the downstage side, with additional Sharpys hung on a truss above the LED screen to continue the upstage rail at the 400 level as closely as possible.
 
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In terms of color, “There was a lot of it,” quips Barnhart, whose palette was totally different from last year when Bruno Mars was lit in an array of warm colors. “This year could be bolder and brighter, with golds and reds for the lion; then a blue background for the silver chess pieces on a black and white chess board for “Dark Horse,” for the sharks and trees there were a lot of bright colors, with Lenny Kravitz almost all white, Missy Elliot sort of Technicolor, fireworks in blue so the pyro and Katy’s dress stood out,” says Barnhart. “The well-placed pyro started with a burst behind the lion, then flame effects with Lenny, and a lot of pyro at the end. Strictly FX did a great job with the pyro. We would love more but it might leave too much smoke for the third quarter.”
 

For additional information on the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show, check out our full Project In Focus.