Based on the popularity of Live Design's 31 Days Of Plots in December each year, we have decided to present Plot Of The Week, with a light plot (or plots) per week until December 2023, when the next 31 Days Of Plots begins.
Rapper, freestyler, and actor WOS, real name Valentín Oliva, is a rising star in Argentina, winning six Gardel Awards and garnering four nominations at the Latin Grammy Awards in the last two years. In October 2022, designers Mauro Pujia and Felix Sainz teamed up last October to design the artist's stadium shows.
Both have been in the industry for more than a decade, with Sainz's strengths in technical production and set design and Pujia's background in lighting design and art direction, making a successful partnership.
The two shared lighting plots, images, and their process with Live Design
Live design: WOS is very much an up-and-coming artist, have you worked for him before?
Mauro Pujia & Felix Sainz:
Felix has been working with WOS to produce and design live shows since 2019, with Martin Borini, an important character in the design scene in Argentina with a long career both nationally and internationally, who today continues to be one of the most important figures in our country in the live shows and the lighting design of the stages and artistic installations.
(Plots made with Vectorworks)
LD: Can you layout the scope of the project?
MP & FS: Between the pre-production and the live rehearsals, the process of preparing for two shows of this size at the 30,000-seat Argentino Juniors stadium required about six months. In the initial phase, we worked closely with two other designers: Manuel Aguilera and Maximiliano Marrone to conceptualize our ideas and draft renders, plots and program the show.
We work closely with La Casa de al Lado production house, who produced a film of the show. (Below)
LD: What was behind your fixture choices?
MP & FS: The early stages of our renders featured a lot of curved surfaces, so for the set design, Felix first developed a sleek design compromising two main parts: “The Pill,” which is a mobile curved central structure, and a 12m tall LED Backwall with specialized cutting curves on the top. Later he added a (13m wide x 11m depth) custom stage deck with different heights to continue enforcing the curved motif. Felix chose the Claypaky K20 for its big LED lighting source and curved shape to coexist with the bottom rig of ‘The Pill’. Having the chance to program pixel by pixel helped a lot when building looks and cues for the show.
The GLP impression X4 Bar 20 was fundamental both in the floor and sides to generate pixeled looks and emphasize the size of the design, creating a frame around the stage.
On the control side we used MA Lighting, the go-to for Manuel Aguilera, our lighting programmer. The setup was a GrandMA2 full size as main console and a GrandMA2 Light as a backup. In terms of lighting, we were pretty familiar with most of the rig. The addition of strobes with tilt was something new to us that we want to keep on experimenting with.
LD: Do you have a favorite fixture?
MP & FS: We tend to choose LED solutions over classic moving lights. We not only love the aesthetics of LED bars and strobes, but also how they work with LED screens and the possibility to use pixel by pixel. Some of our go-to fixtures are: GLP Impression Bars, Robe Spiider, Claypaky A.leda K10 and K20.
LD: What was the band looking for in this design?
MP & FS: While building this show, one of the main conditions was moving the band around the stage by transforming different looks during the night. This allowed us to build a script with different dynamics and automation changes mainly focused on ‘The Pill’, the LED Backwall closing and opening to reveal artists behind it, and the moveable stage decks for the musicians.
For the screen content, we wanted to have minimal motion graphics so we called Rudo CO, a very talented local artist, to help us achieve that. But we wanted the show to be dynamic too, so we alternate with gradients, textures, and a 16 camera CCTV to let the fans watch the artist on screen too.
LD: What was the main challenge on this production?
MP & FS: Working on a solid communication with all the departments involved in ‘The Pill’: lighting, video, rigging, automation, CCTV and RF. I worked on the development of a complete plot book to show every technical and artistic aspect of every challenge we had on this production.
WOS also felt challenged by finding the balance between the artistic and tech development for each moment of the show. The automation technology allowed us to vary the stage and its elements position having to adapt the cues and the rig to this unconventional set with different structures moving across songs. We also put a lot of work and attention into safety. We wanted both the artistic and the tech teams to be okay with everything happening around ‘The Pill’.
LD: Is there a particular part of the design that you are most proud of?
MP & FS: Having WOS on top of "The Pill” was the pick of the show. The CCTV team achieved great shots on this variety of automation cues that we are proud of. We also worked around the idea of surprising the audience by discovering the artist at top of the set piece.
LD: What's up next?
MP & FS: Locally, we are now in that season of receiving and pitching different projects for the upcoming year. In the long term we also starting to discuss ideas for the next big WOS tour.
Gear
- 44 CLAYPAKY MYTHOS
- 56 CLAYPAKY SHARPY PLUS
- 56 CLAYPAKY ALEDA B-EYE K20
- 40 GLP IMPRESSION X4 BAR 20
- 04 ROBE BMFL WASHBEAM
- 45 LEDBAR RGBW GENERIC
- 20 ROBE COLOR STROBE
- 46 NEO STORMER 1200 IP
- 08 PROTON RGBW GENERIC
- 16 MOLEFAYS 2LAMP LINEAL
- 24 MOLEFAY 4LMAP
- 16 MOLEFAY 8LAMP
- 14 CHAUVET NEXUS 4X4
- 06 HAZE MACHINES
- 05 FOG MACHINES
- 12 FANS
- 02 ROBERT JULIAT ARAMIS