Internationally renowned production designer Florian Wieder has designed his seventh Eurovision Song Contest, this time held at Rotterdam's Ahoy Arena in the Netherlands. The US-based designer and creative producer has worked on some of the largest live events, from the MTV Music Awards with artists such as U2, Beyonce, and Foo Fighters, as well as designing for the musical extravaganza which is broadcast from a different location and watched by 200 million viewers every year. Other members of his team on this project include the designer Cuno von Hahn, and art director Per Arne Janssen.
Some of this year's stage highlights include a massive, 170' x 40' video wall, LED screens that rotate, fly and open, and an extended on-camera greenroom area for the delegates from 39 countries.
During rehearsals for Eurovision Song Contest 2021 he chatted with Live Design about finding inspiration in the Dutch fascination with sleek and functional design, and how his interpretation anticipated the 2021 theme: "Open Up."
For reference, above are some screenshots of the arena taken from the timelapse video of this year's build.
Live Design: You initially began the designs for the set for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Florian Wieder: We were actually all ready to go and so the set was already there. We kept the set as planned for this year's show, the only thing that's different is that we have a different audience scenario, only 3,500 people are permitted. Usually we try to bring the talent as close as possible to the audience, especially on this show which is famous for its party atmosphere. This has had a huge impact on that.
One of our solutions was to bring what Eurovision calls the greenroom, where the delegates sit, close to the stage so they can cheer for each other. They are seated on banquets [on the floor of the arena which would usually hold standing audience members]. We wanted to make it feel a little bit more modern, not divided into the French camp or the British camp, but we had to isolate them at least physically which explains the banquet seating.
LD: Can you explain some of your inspirations for the stage design?
FW: I can share a little bit of my early creative thoughts. It is important to create something original and also [for Eurovision] something related to the host country. It is a great platform for them to present themselves so it's important to have a cultural aspect as well as artistic when it comes to design. On the one hand I know the Netherlands very well so it wasn't difficult for me to have some understanding of the country and its people, but then there are two parts; the artistic aspect and finding the key visual idea. You start building up this entire idea but the artistic part is a little bit like I imagine an abstract painting, you just look at it but the guy who painted it probably had something in mind but you can't immediately understand the meaning. What I'm doing is mixing up a couple of more abstract ideas but then there are also some obvious ideas that influenced this design to make sure that everybody understands. If everything has to be explained it's probably not the right idea. Of course the Netherlands is related to water, there are canals and in the first design I turned the canals into runways although most of them are gone [in the 2021 design] but there is still the idea of creating a city with multiple performance areas. Another inspiration that had a huge impact on the design was the flat horizon so the design began almost as like a grid with horizontal lines.
The second part of the inspiration was actually Dutch design because it's almost a brand in itself. It's hugely innovative, highly functional, understated and smart. I always use the example of a stroller for kids called Bugaboo, it's so highly functional but you can't see the functionality. This kind of functionality inspired me for this year’s design, I wanted to do something that looks really simple and understated but on the other hand I wanted to do something smart because you’ve got to have a set that allows you to create so many different looks. All the delegations come up with their own creative and try to support them to do whatever they want.
There is of course the “home” of the show but this is relatively simple, I tried to incorporate as many different tools and gadgets as possible but what's interesting about it is you can't see it, it looks very very simple and sleek. I wanted to keep the big moments as a surprise for the audience.
LD: Can you talk a little bit about the video this year and augmented reality?
FW: The video wall is a huge piece but thank God when you turn it off it becomes black so it disappears. Also this year we are using a very important tool which is augmented reality. I always wanted to do this, and I have presented this idea actually about five times and it never happened the way I wanted, but this year it is a big part of the show. So there are three main features: LED lighting, and AR, and video. Going back to the screen, I tried to find a set up that that gives us an extra bold lighting look where the video doesn't play any role, and moments where it's all about video, and everything in between.
For this hybrid to work it means having a physical set and an AR set to merge both worlds. I used AR in a show in the US 10 years ago and many times since, and it is clear you need a show that works for the audience in the room as well as for broadcast so I only use it as an add on so the show works completely without AR.
LD: The Eurovision theme this year is “Open Up,” have you incorporated this into the design?
FW: Yes 100%! It is actually funny because when I started the design, I came up with this idea of having a window in the screen or a door that opens like a window and it just worked out perfectly. I meant it as an inviting gesture but now the entire set reflects this “Open Up.”
LD: Are you using it primarily just for entrances and exits or or you have special effects
FW: Of course you can use it as an entrance but it was not only not only made for this purpose. The doors can rotate 180 degree on the back we have a full wall of lights back there [Ayrton Minipanels] and then we have another layer of lights behind the screen so you can open up almost two-thirds of the screen so it is video on one side and we can open it up to a lighting layer behind the set which is about another 50 feet further back.
LD: How did you incorporate fixtures on the set?
FW: When I designed the set there was no conversation with the Henk-Jan van Beek, the lighting designer, at that point, but part of the concept I came up with was all about straight lines, it's very organized and sleek. When Henk-Jan [came on board] then of course we had multiple conversations about how to incorporate fixtures into the set. He completely followed the idea of “Let's just hide the technical stuff as much as possible” so it wouldn’t look messy. It's a TV show, it's the Oscars of music shows, so it has to have a clean look rather than being rock and roll, except for certain moments when we make it look a little rougher. We can do both, the super clean and slick look and then we have all these hidden features that Henk-Jan incorporated.
Florian Wieder talks about his favorite element in Eurovision Song Contest 2021 and the three most exciting parts of the job.