A Papal Mass on Sacred Ground - PLSN.com

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COMPANY 411 PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS The set design for NBC’s Identity is helping All Access make a name for itself in television. By Kevin M. Mitchell It may still be referred to as the “small” screen. But TV sets are growing in size. So, it turns out, are the sets for TV. “We just had a production meeting here, and everything is getting bigger and bigger,” says Clive Forrester, CEO for All Access Staging and Productions. “A lot of it has to do with our products,” Forrester said, noting the company’s transition from the concert touring industry to TV production. “Our products lend themselves more and more to the needs of the current trend in television shows and events.” Thinking Outside the Riser 411 More than a staging and platform fabricator, All Access is able to come up with custom designs that think creatively outside the typical riser. As such, it has the ability to serve as a design partner, shaping and adding momentum to demand for its services. “We’ve always done quite a few TV shows — MTV events, and so forth,” says Bob Hughes, vice president and co-owner. “But recently, in the last few years, we’ve become seriously involved in a wider variety television productions — and more of them.” Serious indeed. From wrestling to game shows to special events like Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards, the company is increasingly being called on for big entertainment events. A Good “Deal” 411 Hughes, with All Access since 1994, cites Deal or No Deal, which premiered in late Dec. 2005, as a “break out” show for the venerable live event staging company. A personal relationship with Emmy Award winning production designer Anton Goss got Hughes in the door, but then he and the All Access team still had to prove themselves. Goss, a sought-after designer, and his team went on to do Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Identity, Show Me the Money, Set for Life, Master of Champions and My Dad is Better Than Your Dad, among other shows. All Access played a part in them all. “But our biggest single rental period to date is our relationship with American Gladiators, Hughes says. First aired from 1989 to 1996, the athletic competition reemerged, bigger than ever, in 2008. For the TV show’s revival, All Access was given the challenge of building arena seating inside an arena, yet make it intimate. “It’s becomes a really cavernous space which is hard to fill, so we had to make the audience risers steeper and closer in. That was a particular challenge because we had to build it over the existing upperlevel arena seating.” Plexiglas Steps 411 Everything within view of the television cameras was carefully scrutinized. The show’s producers planned out every shot from every camera, including audience shots. That led All Access to use Plexiglas for the steps on the set to add a critical element of illumination. “When the audience was shown, it started looking like a black hole in the sea of people, so we constructed the steps from Plexiglas and lit them from behind,” Hughes says. “It helped bring the whole thing to life.” American Gladiators shows are typically filled to full seating capacity, and the challenge is to fit stairs for egress in the event of a fire. “That’s where our creativity comes in. We have a good team that we rely on, and one of our CAD guys works through any situation. After all, as much as I’d like to think so, I don’t have all the answers,” Hughes laughs. New Season, New Challenges 411 All Access was recently involved in installing the set of American Gladiators’ next season, which will take place inside the L.A. Sports Arena. “It’s funny — you’re always happy when a show gets called back because you think you can just go in and redo it, and it’ll be easy.” Think again. The new season’s set required a complete redesign. First, they brought in two new 50-foot-by-15-foot climbing walls. At the other sound stage, the water tank was below floor level. This time they had to bring in an 180,000-gallon water tank that is 10 feet deep and 61 feet across. Because of the tank, the walls and seats had to start at 10 feet off the ground — the height of a NBA basketball hoop. “It’s cool, though, because while it’s an above ground pool, we had to create the illusion that it’s in-ground. Right off the bat, the first bleacher is 12 feet off the floor.” The seats, meanwhile, were built to accommodate an audience of 1,500. As for the walls, they needed to be supported carefully. Staging supervisor Joe Barry put a trussing structure together to hold the walls, and it was rigged with two-ton hoists from above to support the weight and to accommodate a deck, handrails and a camera. Turning Visions into Realities 411 The current trend in prime-time game shows and special events play to All Access’s strength, Hughes says. “The first thing we try to do is take the television producer and designer’s creative vision and turn it into a reality. We’ve adopted our concert industry standard to the television world, and it has been a good fit.” All Access’s Rob Achlimbari worked on another recent television event, WWE’s WrestleMania and the Wrestling Hall of Fame Award Bob Hughes, vice president, All Access Staging and Productions. A circular set brought visual focus to the two contestants facing off in ABC’s Duel. Show. Working with set designer Jason Robinson, they re-created a South Beach hotel look. They handled the seating needs and a 50-foot high WrestleMania sign, among other elements. “We also provided the grand entry way, which is where all the wrestlers enter,” Achlimbari says. They fabricated custom pieces and, borrowing a page from their All Access playbook, they also supplied a Plexiglas staging deck, which could be lit from below. All Access’s handiwork can also be seen on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. The company supplied the outdoor stage, roof and tower system, building on its six-year relationship with the late night talk show host and his staff. “I’m very proud and happy to be part of the Jimmy Kimmel family,” Hughes says. If All Access’s success has grown along with the complexity of its installations, Hughes isn’t inclined to crow about it. “I just happen to have relationships with a few designers in town, so all this work kind of fell into my lap.” But of course, if you don’t prove yourself day in and day out, the phone stops ringing. Hughes does give in to that point: “We’ve carved a decent niche.” 36 PLSN JUNE 2008
A Balancing Act 411 To ensure that the phone keeps ringing, All Access tries to stay ahead of the curve on custom TV set design trends, without abandoning its basis in off-theshelf rentals or its concert touring business. “One of the great things about our rental operation is we see the demand, the way the trends are moving, and we try to fill that demand and build rental stock for some of these more lucrative custom jobs,” Hughes says. “We’ve always had an 80 percent outlook. We can provide 80 percent of your rental equipment off the shelf, and 20 percent custom equipment to give you your specific creative individual look. So in the world of seating, for one example, that means we build angle decks to interface with our inventory and it’s a facetted system — not really round, but straight-turn/ straight-turn. We’ve amassed quite a bit of rental stock with these pieces.” The company added a swing shift to its manufacturing facility for two months to fabricate nothing but rental equipment in anticipation of further demand. But that’s not to say that all this television work is going to the company’s head. The concert business remains the company’s bread and butter. And concert tours, of course, can be every bit as demanding as a hit TV show. A recent case in point: the wildly successful Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds tour, which Hughes described as “having gotten my ass kicked by a 14-year-old girl.” “We’ve adopted our concert industry standard to the television world, and it has been a good fit.” — Bob Hughes, vice president, All Access The multi-level set for American Gladiators amounted to an arena within an arena. Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 2008 JUNE PLSN 37
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A Papal Mass on Sacred Ground - PLSN.com

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