UK-based, globally acclaimed artist-designer Es Devlin, in the role of Dr. Dre's halftime show creative director, designed the set for the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show on Sunday, February 13, 2022 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. She created an on-field version of Dr. Dre's hometown of Compton, CA to create 'The Neighborhood,' with local landmarks and a map of the town on the field. The production team for the show included Roc Nation's halftime show creative director and production design Bruce Rodgers of Tribe, Inc, as well as lighting designer Al Gurdon and video designer/screens producer Drew Findley. Additional creative input came by way of David Free, creative director for Kendrick Lamar and choreographer Fatima Robinson.
"The choreography and stage direction was by the legendary choreographer and director Fatima Robinson. Many of the central ideas of the show were co-conceived with Dave Free—Kendrick’s close creative collaborator. Bruce Rogers is the veteran Super Bowl production designer who masterminded the design to be able to appear within eight minutes and disappear within six minutes —an immense challenge requiring military precision and crew choreography," says Devlin."The set up is in fact a show in its own right: We noticed very few of the audience leaving their seats: all stayed to watch the intricately staged crew performance. The work is filmed by the world’s leading live cinematographer Hamish Hamilton and lit by Al Gurdon. The costume designer is Lila Nikole. The producer is Jesse Collins and his co-producer Dionne Harmon along with Desiree Perez CEO of Roc Nation."
As Devlin notes, "At the start of the project, Dave Free introduced us to his Compton school friend Tremeal, who took us on a tour last year. With Tremeal’s guidance we began to get a sense of the complexity of this city, whose spacious tree lined streets were home from 1949-1950 to George HW Bush and his then four- year old son George W Bush, where in 1969 Douglas Dollarhide became the first Afro-American mayor of Compton and of any metropolitan American city, and his successor Doris Davis became the first female black mayor of a metropolitan American city in 1973.
Compton has produced an exceptional number of leading figures in politics, sports and music— countless NFL and NBA players, Venus and Serena Williams as well as Dr Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Charm LaDonna, and many more. Many of them continue to return to Compton and work within the communities there: Dre is funding a performing arts centre at the new Compton High School, Kendrick is funding a music programme at the Centennial High School which he and Dre attended, Venus and Serena Williams have founded the Yetunde Price Resource centre in memory of their sister."
Referencing Charles and Ray Eames’ famous Powers of Ten film, Devlin added a map of Compton on the field. The halftime intro film zooms into planet Earth, into the night-lit streets of LA, into Compton," she explains. "The map of Compton courses through the record producer’s hand as it hovers over the dials and switches on the 48-track recording desk which rises with Dre up into the new SoFi Stadium, the rows of lights within the audience echo the rows of dials and sliders on the recording desk. Dre plays the stadium like he plays his recording desk–transposing lived experience from a very specific place, into music, which reaches and touches a global audience."
Es Devlin Studio Credits:
Lead Associate Designers: Gonzalo Padilla and Benjamin Lucraft
Associate Designers: Matteo Mastrandrea, Robert Macintyre
Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show: Es Devlin Scores Big, Part One
Live Design's coverage of this year's Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show is sponsored by All Access.