Perhaps the shortest load-in and load-out ever are for the concert performed during halftime at the NFL Super Bowl each year, especially as the technical side of things is always complex. All Access was on the field at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ on Sunday, February 12, 2023 for the Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show. Live Design chats with Tommy Rose, All Access Halftime Staging Supervisor, about how they scored this year. The production design was once again by Super Bowl veteran Bruce Rodgers of Tribe (sketches and credits here), with lighting by Al Gurdon (plots and gear/credits).
Related content:
Go Behind The Build With All Access
Live Design: Please discuss the process—when you get the design from Bruce Rodgers and his team... then what happens?
Tommy Rose: Once we receive the creative design we start breaking the design apart into manageable pieces. We like to build each cart as big as possible to reduce the number of carts (and wheels) we have on the field, as preservation of the field is one of our highest priorities. Our desired cart size is 8’ wide by 24’ long. This fits through most tunnels, is easy to handle and also is an ideal size for shipping/trucking. Once we have the cart break up figured out, we then start designing how we are going to assemble/disassemble the carts on the field. We utilize a series of locators and a proprietary tongue and groove system to ensure that when we assemble on the field we have perfect connections and flush seams.
After the cart’s technical design is complete we move to fabrication. This includes any critical checks for other units that might be integrated into our carts like speakers, fog machines, and LED product. While all of the carts are being fabricated, we begin checking and prepping all of our “Turf Tires”. Each tire we use has the ability to be adjusted so during prep we have a large team of people going through each wheel and setting the correct heights, checking the tread, greasing the bearings as well as checking any other critical parts that might wear out over time.
Flash forward a couple weeks and now we are into the cladding/painting/finish stage. After all of the fabrication has been done on the carts we begin our test assembly. We check each carts connection from cart to cart to ensure that the product we deliver is up to our standards. We test assemble, adjust, reassemble, readjust and so on until we have reached our goal. Last step would be to pack it up and ship it onsite. Since we ship the carts as assembled as possible we are almost show ready once we get off the trucks. Then it is about having other departments integrate their units into our carts and then its ready for rehearsal.
LD: Please describe the carts and challenges for this year?
TR: This year we had a couple different style of carts. The eight main runway carts were 24’ long x 10’ wide x 10’ tall when they were in their “transport” positions. The challenging part of this design was once we got to our spot on the field each 24’ long cart had six hinged stair sections that had to be lowered into place and rest on the field, creating the runway section that you saw for the show. The five center carts were a bit longer (31’ long x 8’ wide x 6’ tall). On all of these carts there was a total of almost 4,000 feet of RGBW LED tape and almost 12,000 feet of wire. Each cart had electrical connections that had to be made once assembled on the field in order for the lighting designer to have control of the LED. Also, this year we had to manufacture a custom field access ramp to get the carts up onto field level due to the unique raised field tray system State Farm Stadium utilizes. The stadium does have house ramps but not large enough to support our stage carts and the people pushing them.
LD: What are the red set units painted or covered with exactly?
TR: We used over 57 gallons of “Wildfire Bright Red Luminescent paint” to achieve that color. We actually bought the manufacturer out of all their product on the east and west coast, and we used every last drop.
LD: How does it all come together...
TR: Things went together pretty well. We started rehearsing the assembly out on a practice field and once we got comfortable moving the carts around we moved into the stadium where we were able to practice on the field. However, the field was covered with a protective tarp which had its own challenges. It actually wasn’t until game day that we were able to roll out on to the field without any field protection measures in place. In the end, we got the set assembled in right around five minutes and off in a little less than that.
LD: What specific problems/solutions did you encounter and solve?
TR: One of the biggest challenges we faced this year was that the stage was so long. All assembled, we were over 234’ long. The challenge with this is that because we start building from the center out, if we were just a degree off on our first couple of carts then the end of the runway could potentially be in the wrong place. Having flown elements of the show interact with the ground elements meant we had to be spot on. The flown elements were installed weeks before the game and only went up and down so they didn’t need to obsess over placement as much as we did. We overcame this challenge with good old hard work and dedication to the job. We have a great crew of seasoned veterans to help make this happen. But in the end it’s all about practice practice practice.
Watch All Access put the set together here.
All Access Super Bowl LVII Halftime Team Credits:
MANUFACTURING DESIGN: ERIK EASTLAND
STAGING SUPERVISOR: TOMMY ROSE
HEAD CARPENTER: ROGER CABOT
ELECTRO-MECHANICAL DESIGN: DAVID AGAR
ELECTRO-MECHANICAL LEAD: TALUS JARVIS
ELECTRO-MECHANICAL TECHNICIAN: ZACK EASTLAND
AUTOMATION / FABRICATION LEAD: FIDEL GARZA
LOGISTICS: JOEY BRENNAN
IATSE: LOCALS 1, 33 & 336
STAGE TECHNICIANS / FABRICATORS: JULIO ROCHA; JESUS ARROYO VENTURA
STAGE TECHNICIANS: RENE AVILA; MICKY DYMOND; ARTURO MARTINEZ; RYAN TREBON: KENDALL WILLIAMS
REHEARSAL STAGE TECHNICIANS: JAMIE LUCIO; JESUS AYALA
More Live Design Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Coverage