I was recently honored to be the production designer for a rewarding fundraiser gala, “The Game Changer Gala,” held in Seattle on November 9, 2018. The Game Changer Gala team, organized by Team Gleason and the Answer ALS Foundations, drew from our fundraising experience to produce a star-studded event that raised $3.3 million to help empower people who are living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) while also seeking a treatment or cure. Read Part One, including design process and technical details, here.
Show Summary
We decided to approach the design from the perspective of the guests by creating an axonometric diagram with storyboards that traveled from the point of arrival all the way through to the reception into the ballroom gala. The approach featured green-washed façade columns, and a large-scale projection that read, “Together. To Answer ALS.” across the Sheraton Arrival where the gala was held.
After entering the hotel, each guest walked the red carpet into the lobby featuring a custom designed photo backdrop wall to introduce the event’s mission statement and the organization’s work. At the end of the red carpet run, the guests were met by volunteers for the check-in procedure and received their live auction and seating numbers. Elevators took guests up to the second floor for the VIP Gala Reception where they were greeted by a green-lit elevator staircase tunnel with quotes projected by Nelson Mandela.
A large, triangular bar was placed between the hotel pillars to serve three sides while a smaller, satellite bar was placed between ballroom doors across from two, custom Microsoft displays. One display featured a hands-free drum set that allows musicians with ALS to play the drums using eye recognition technology and the other featured a robotic arm that Steve Gleason used previously to sign football jerseys using the same technology.
Throughout the reception area, there were highboys covered with green and silver spandex, a red carpet photo-op featuring the event logo and sponsors, and a lounge area with soft seating strategically placed for guests to use during the one hour reception.
We created custom content for every performance except Macklemore (whose team provided their own). I enlisted Charles Hellwig from CineArc to help with the content creation. Charles and I have collaborated over the past 15 years on several projects. Charles and I, along with Stephen Rehage and Clare Durrett formed a Content Committee to guide the creative direction for CineArc and developed over 40 custom looks to fulfill our goal of having zero gaps in projection content during the entire four-hour show.
Each speaker was introduced with a custom loop featuring their name, images, and video clips highlighting their achievements, and ‘GAME CHANGER’ text that scrolled over 150' of projection surfaces. The projection content changed to a dimmed “ribbon fill” featuring sequences of achievements and speech-related content to direct focus on the speaker and complement their talk.
Preservation Jazz Band delivered the opening act by marching out of one of the meeting rooms into the reception area to form a New Orleans-style second line parade, winding throughout the reception leading into the ballroom where the band took the stage. The large stage ribbon changed from a loop that featured Seattle, Technology, and ALS-servicing footage into a Preservation Hall Jazz band loop, highlighting the band’s logo upstage and scenes from their 50+ year history on the stage ribbon.
Mike McCready invited his artist friends to help him close the gala setlist. Sharing the stage with him was Pearl Jam band member Stone Gossard, Chad Smith, and Josh Klinghoffer from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Brandi Carlile, and twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth. The closing act featured two songs written by Steve Gleason, a rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain” by Josh Klinghoffer, and performances by Brandi Carlile.
A four-minute loop of their show content was created for the Lord Huron performance to play on both stage wings and upstage behind the band that featured a green emerald to highlight the band’s current touring logo design. When Judith Hill took the stage with the Greater Works Gospel Choir performing “This is Me,” from The Greatest Showman, we utilized a large panorama image that mapped over the entire projection “ribbon” and transformed the room into an old theater interior. I decided to place three patt 300 theater lights scattered at different heights to the left and right of the choir to enhance the old theater look and vibe.
To settle the crowd and get them seated at their tables, Judith Hill took the stage, bathed in a single spotlight on the piano. She opened the gala by singing Aretha Franklin’s famous rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come.” At the end of the song, the ribbon changed to an Aretha Franklin tribute, featuring images of her illustrious career and a memoriam card center stage highlighting her as a Game Changer of Music. Macklemore’s performance preceding the live auction segment energized guests to get up from their tables and take off their shoes to dance along to his four-song set!
Custom “power intro reels” were created for the live auction portion of the event, that featured each auction item’s assets and conveyed its vibe as they went on the auction block. For example, the Mardi Gras Experience, where the winning bidder will get to ride in the Krewe of Orpheus float during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the entire stage became a large video collage of footage showing people riding in the parade, scenes of the French Quarter during Mardi Gras, and various scenes of New Orleans. As Fred Northup initiated the auction, content in the background “ribbon fill” dimmed to focus guests on the IMAG windows that featured the auction assets. A local company based in Seattle, Worldfamous.Inc, stepped up and supported CineArc with the video production of the “power intro reels” as the production time frame for the custom content grew tight.
Game Changer Completion
The biggest challenge we faced with “The Game Changer Gala” was executing our design in the confines of a traditional hotel setting. We normally work outside or in large-scale arenas with nearly unlimited, high-capacity rigging points and ample space. For this event, we overcame the low ballroom ceiling height, limited rigging points, and a two-day window for install, programming, tech, and band rehearsals, which was very tight for the number of acts performing, but with careful planning, hard work, and dedication, the designs our team set out to accomplish were achieved. Everyone did a great job, and it was an honor to be part of a special event supporting such a worthy cause.
Stefan Beese is the owner of beesign, a production and entertainment design company in New Orleans, LA.
Gear
- 18 Elation Artiste Davinci
- 20 Elation 5R Extreme
- 34 Robe 150 LED beam
- 6 Robe Patt2013
- 8 GLP X4 Bar20
- 16 Chauvet Professional Ovation E160 LED
- 8 OmniSistem MX-200 2 Lite LED blinder
- 1 MA Lighting grandMA2 lighting console
- 1 Borderless aluminum frame system
- 1 SR Screen 53'x13' 689 sq. ft.
- 1 SL Screens 33'x13' 429 sq. ft. on track
- 1 Static SL Screen 23'x13' 299 sq. ft.
- 14 Panasonic PT-DZ21K HD Projector - 16:10
- 15 Panasonic ET-D75LE10 Zoom Projection Lens
- 8 Panasonic DZ21k Kit Projector Rigging – Single/Double
- 4 1000' Tactical Fiber Quad 3G Video Package (SMOpticon)
- 3 Panasonic Laser PT-RQ32K Projector
- 3 Panasonic ET-D75LE90/95 Fixed Projection Lens
- 1 Large Video Distro 250AMP (30AMP Twist)
- 2 Large Video Distro 200AMP (20AMP Twist)
- 1 2ME Carbonite Switching Package
- 2 Barco E2 Package
- 1 Barco EC-200 E2/S3 Control Panel
- 1 disguise Media Server Package (Main + Backup)
- 1 disguise Media Server Kit
- 16 Media Server - VFC - Quad DVI Card
- 1 DDR Playback - Apple Macbook Pro 15" Touchbar - Primary and Backup Package
- 2 AJA Ki-Pro Record Rack Package (2 rack units 4 Ki-StoreDrives)
- 2 Graphics - High Performance PC Laptop - Lenovo P51 - Primary and Backup Package
- 2 Panasonic AK-UC3000 4K 4 Camera Shader Kit
- 1 Fuji 12.5 - handheld
- 1 Fuji 20 handheld
- 2 Fuji 50 x 9.5 HD Camera Lens & Tripod Kit
- 1 Cartoni Omega Heavy Duty Tripod Dolly Wheels