All Access lead technical designer Joey Brennan describes the unique process of halftime show staging, and reveals how the team pulled off that huge stage lift for the Super Bowl LVI Pepsi Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angles on Sunday, February 13, 2022. The cast featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar.
What’s your title at All Access, and how did you come to work at All Access?
Joey Brennan: My official title is “technical design and development manager,” and I manage our technical design, or CAD, team. I went to undergrad for technical theater and worked in live theater for about 15 years. I also have a master’s degree in technical design and production.
After seeing the Katy Perry halftime show in 2015, I wanted to know what companies had made that show happen, so I searched online. I saw a couple names listed, one being All Access, and I applied right then.
How does the process start when working on a project like the Super Bowl Halftime Show?
JB: First, we get the set of design packages from Bruce Rodgers (Tribe, Inc.), the production designer. From there, we peel away the topmost layer and figure out everything underneath. We look at support structures, any electrical pass-throughs needed for integrating lights or video, and any automation involved – we start to figure out all the technical questions.
Next, we put it into a CAD drafting program and come up with every piece of material, cut length, dimension, bolt hole, bolt size. Everything gets detailed on paper and sent to the fabrication floor where the other departments start piecing things together. It’s very much a collaborative effort. We work with electromechanical, special projects, fabrication, the project manager, and the sales team.
What is unique about halftime shows from a technical designer’s perspective?
JB: The easy answer is the size of the show and the speed at which the show happens. And I don’t mean the actual performance. I’m talking the process of designing it, building it, and shipping it. It’s all done on a very compressed schedule.
The other thing that’s different for the technical design department is that it’s one of the only shows where we have everybody working on it at the same time. Generally, we will assign one show per CAD person, and that designer will handle all the drafting, whether it’s a rental job, a custom fabrication job, or both, and create (and then release) the drawings for that project. Super Bowl halftime shows are so large and complex that every single person in the technical design department is drafting various elements simultaneously. Because of that, there’s a lot more coordination that needs to happen.
We also work closely with a third-party engineering firm, Hopper Engineering Associates, that reviews each drawing in whatever state the Super Bowl is happening that year. There’s a lot of coordination involved to make sure they’re being given documents on time to meet our deadlines. They have an entertainment-specific department that is fantastic and can respond quickly as changes and revisions come up through both the technical and artistic design process.
What was unique about this year’s halftime show?
JB: This year, we had the advantage of the stadium being about 15 miles from our main office and fabrication shop. This allowed us to keep the on-field units as larger assemblies and ship in fewer pieces. This helped our fabrication and design process by not having to design in as many shipping breaks but presented its own logistical challenge in getting these large units from our shop to rehearsals and then moved again down into the stadium. We were able to work with a specialty trucking company to move these large pieces safely around town without giving away any secrets of the show.
There were some complexities and enormity to the structures this year; they were some of the biggest units we have ever done. We stared at it for a while wondering how we were going to pull it off. But then we broke it down into smaller, manageable pieces and problems, worked out the details, and made it all happen. This is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a technical designer. I’d say we tend to enjoy that puzzle work and the gratification of seeing our work move from the computer screen to real life.
This year was a hugely collaborative design. It involved constant coordination with project management, fabrication, CAD, the sales team, and the crafts people on the floor doing the hard work of cutting, machining, carpentry, welding, and more. The technical designers work closely and document revisions, and come up with the fine tuning as things change.
What stage elements had the most puzzle work this year?
JB: Dr. Dre’s recording studio set stands out. It was essentially two carts that joined to form one elevator in a timing sequence. The two elevators were synced and timed to move together but operated as independent units because everything had to first fit on a truck and then through the stadium entrance tunnel onto the field. A single unit would have been too large to do either.
Our design process for Dr. Dre’s studio set started with technology we already knew to keep the underlying principles simple as we don’t have time to reinvent the wheel. We did consider several new ideas using different products and new technologies to see how we could get the speed, weight, and delivery timeline that we needed. A lot of credit goes to our electromechanical team and special projects fabricators; their wizardry was able to help put it all together beautifully.
It’s not the only automated effect in the show this year. We also had a star lift for Eminem’s reveal and an explosion effect where pieces of the courthouse/jail broke away. That one also took some experimenting to test and refine as ideas evolved and we came up with a reliable system.
What was unique about the lifts used in the studio set?
JB: The studio set used a chain-driven lift system. There were two lifts on the downstage and upstage carts. The downstage cart was particularly tricky. It was an elevator built into a system that only had a left side and a right side. The downstage edge was completely open for the camera, and the upstage edge was completely open to the upstage cart.
Normally when we design a lift of this kind, we’ll have a four-poster system where we can pick it up with the four corners and tie the tops of those corners together on all four sides. We couldn’t do that with this lift because the designers wanted the ceiling to be open to the audience in the stadium; figuring out how to support those lifting walls and columns and keeping it on a completely electric system was tricky. We were able to synchronize everything both mechanically and electronically. Of course, we have backups, safety, and redundancy built into everything and worked with our engineering partner early on to confirm specs and safety.
What was your favorite part of this year’s set?
JB: I worked closely on Snoop Dogg’s House, so it took the cake for me. Also, the Club scene; it had so much video product integrated and mirrored flooring that it was a little bit different than the other elements. There was a lot of realism that went into the Tam’s Burgers and Barber Shop set pieces; they looked like they were picked off the street and dropped onto the field.
Any last thoughts?
JB: I reminded my CAD team recently that in the last six years or so, millions of people have watched the Super Bowl halftime show, but roughly only a dozen of us have ever drawn anything on the field for the All Access parts of the show, which is one of the biggest entertainment shows on the planet. This might not help with the stress level, but it’s a cool thing to keep in mind! And it’s certainly something that All Access does well, takes pride in, and has been doing for a long time (12 years).
One final thought is that we’re currently hiring more people to join our technical design team in LA, so spread the word!