So TUSKER ALL STARS. This was a bridge show between 2 seasons of a popular music reality show a la IDOLS. The show had all the past winners and dramatic contestants come back for a Celebrity sing of.
Initially the director wanted me to incorporate set pieces let behind from a talk show. his Biggest reference the one thing he really wanted was these amazing light boxes on Later with Jules Holland that stretched up in amazing angles. I liked them but didn't want to pull a copy and paste scenario (I hate copy and paste) but it inspired me to creating what became the center piece for the set. The hanging half sun. The motif is a very popular African Design and the sun IS a star so I had it made. Or so I thought.
Very quickly it became clear that it was a little too bland and I reduced the 'rays' and on consultation with the Director angled them a little. This is what I got.
I did mention that the first set brief was to utilise certain pieces risers and metal drum like structures. By the time I had included them all in the drawing it was a mash up.
We removed the Drum Pieces as there really was no central theme. Then came the Kicker due to budget we had to change set locations and now work with the risers left over from the original Project Fame Set. So it was tear everything down (3 weeks work) and start again.
The new risers were circular with varying radii and heights. so the first thing they proposed was this...
This didn't work on so many levels and I still had to make 3D renders, then it changed to this (At this point I had resorted to coming up with an Idea getting it shot down and then someone coming up with the very same Idea and getting asked to execute it submission)
So great finally something that pleased the 5 different people with varying ideas about what they wanted. It was coming together. YAY.
Then came another change. The initial idea called for a bar set that was where there would be celebrity commentators watching the show and where pre-concert interviews would be held.(Sharing those drawings after this post)
The Idea was to have a light wall that resembled the exterior of a building to some extent. The other issue was what was going to be behind the sun fixture that was solved easily enough a star curtain which came after a back projection screen as there just wasn't space for the projector.
Originally I wanted to turn the bases of the risers into light boxes but the frames were metal and I wasn't allowed to drill or alter them so left them as dark dark crevices which worked actually.
Then we watched a Gorillas video cannot for the life of me remember which one and I was asked can we make the light wall a little like that with 'Mondrianesque' lightboxes and I thought hey why not and it changed again.
As you can see it was almost worth it but learnt a couple of VERY important lessons about design for live format TV. And bitting off more than you can chew.
