Roland Greil and his team did the full lighting design, creation of the previz environments/ files, programming, and ultimate delivery of the lighting for the Opening Ceremony of the 2023 AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Asian Cup on January 12, 2024 in Doha, Qatar. Live Design chats with the designer about his involvement and the challenges of such a project.
Live Design: What was your scope of work on the Asian Cup in Doha?
Roland Greil: I was hired by Katara Studios, the executive producer of the Asian Cup Opening Ceremony to deliver the lighting design for this complex and special major event production. The scope included the full lighting design, creation of the previz environments/ files, programming and ultimately delivering the lighting part for this show together with my team.
LD: Please talk about the look of the lighting — movement, color, choice of fixtures — how big was the rig?
RG: To start with: Considering the scale of the production and the nature of a fully broadcast stadium ceremony show, the overall size of the rig, with 698 moving lights and further 170 LED units, was considerably reasonable. Initial idea behind the overall design was to create a very theatrical design, which is also flexible enough to deliver big ceremony looks and tick off all boxes in terms of a 360-degree live-for-broadcast show. These parameters, together with all the needs from a more technical stand point, such as throw distances and available lighting positions, defined the specified kit. Together with the production’s technical director Shannon Gobell we achieved to create a versatile rig, that ticked all the boxes and gave us a great toolbox to create the lighting for this show. As said above the over all approach down the road was to create a very theatrical lighting, which perfectly creates the picture frame for the beautiful designed set from my friends from Sila Sveta, as well as and foremost the story on stage, which was a 21Min master piece with beautiful costumes and awesome choreography complimenting an amazing visual storytelling. Therefore lighting looks were always intended to only create the canvas for all these things. Nevertheless towards the end of the piece the lighting looks got bigger and more powerful to also visually celebrate the opening of this sport event. Color was similarly driven by the video content, as well the over all mood of the story at any given point within the show.
LD: How did you collaborate with PRG - what were the challenges of working in Doha?
RG: The collaboration with PRG was great. They were super supportive with all our ideas and together we made them happen. Beside of the normal challenges of such a stadium scale ceremony, like available lighting positions, throw distances and so on and so forth, possibly the biggest challenge for us, as well as all involved departments for this project was the very limited time on site with all production elements and especially the scenic in place. But together with a great team from PRG we perfectly mastered all of them.
LD: Use of video?
RG: The creative side of video including content production, which involved five tall LED screens integrated into the scenic, a big floor projection with 50 projectors and a big deployment of a fully mapped Pixmob set up, was handled by Sila Sveta. Technical vendor for projection and the LED walls was CT and for the LED badges in the audience Pixmob.
LD: Use of pre-viz?
RG: Beause of the nature of the show and the challenge with limited time with the full set, previz was an essential ingredient to deliver this show. We deployed two Depence 3 systems to program the show before we finally moved into the real world. Other than to similar projects, we kept using it to refine and tweak the show based on what we have learnt during our limited time with the full set right up to the show. Furthermore we used previz also to produce animatics for the other creative departments, so that they could have a look at the lighting way before the load in was finished.
LD: When did you start working on this project? How long was the load in on-site and rehearsal period?
RG: I started to work on the project during the summer last year and myself as well as my team traveled to Qatar mid-December for eight days of previz and focus before we returned home for a short Christmas break. Right before New Year's we returned to Doha to work with the real system. Rehearsals in a 1:1 set up / tent also started in December, but the facility was purely the stage without any other production and scenic elements. Ultimately it all came together in the stadium beginning of January for a few full production rehearsals. As mentioned this time was very limited due to the fact, that the whole production was staged on the same soccer pitch, which was used for the opening match less then an hour after the end of the show.
LD: What was the most successful part of this project for you?
RG: The most successful part obviously was to deliver a beautiful theatrical show together with an outstanding team. Again a testament for great team work from all departments. Especially considering, that this was a first as a full on stadium scale ceremony with a proper set/ scenic on the pitch before a football/ soccer opening match for a tournament. The complex scenic had to be loaded out in less than 30 minutes to guarantee the kick off time of the opening ceremony.
Crew:
- Lighting Design: Roland Greil
- Stage Design & Visuals Creative Director: Artur Kond/ Sila Sveta
- Katara Studios Executive Creative Director: Ahmed Al Baker
- General Producers: Alexey Rozov & Alexander Us
- Katara Studios Executive Producer: Mahmoud Hamaky
- Producer: Magrifa Kamayeva
- Show Director: Slava Kualev
- Broadcast Director: Marek Mill
- Technical Director: Shannon Gobell
- Associate Lighting Design: Troy Eckerman
- LX Programmer & Studio Associate: Michael Kuehbandner
- LX Programmer: Markus Neubauer
- Design Assistant & Spot Caller: Tom Levin
- Audio Design: Scott Willsallen
- Staging & Automation: Stage One
- LX Vendor: PRG
- Audio Vendor: Agora
- Rigging Vendor: Es:Me