The annual Premios Max Awards celebrate Spanish individuals and organisations who
have made outstanding contributions to the performing arts. The event is organised
by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE). This year, the awards were
staged at the Palau de les Arts in vibrant Valencia.
Lighting designer Juanjo Llorens took up the challenging task of lighting the high
profile event, which was also broadcast live on TVE2. He utilised luminaires in the
venue’s house rig, together with some specials, notably 30 x Robe Pointes, 6 x BMFL
WashBeams and five PATT2013s. These were all supplied by Madrid based rental
company, Fluge Audiovisuales.
Llorens’s starting point for the lighting was this year’s theme of the Mediterranean and
in particular, the famous and beautiful Levantine light as depicted in the works of
Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. From this, the overall visuality of the gala evening
was imagined by director Joan Font.
Llorens worked closely with set designer Curt Allen who followed the brief and created
a large changing canvas of Sorolla-esque proportions onstage, compete with an
elaborate theatrical tree on stage right and an elevated “studio’ section area stage left.
A large upstage video screen displayed a range of images and backdrops and drapes
could be brought in downstage of this to instantly change the ambience of the space.
Custom video content was commissioned by Joan Font and produced by Curt Allen
and Leticia Ganan in collaboration with Paloma Canseco with animation, editing and
sound by Irata Films.
Llorens thought carefully about the positioning of fixtures to ensure that lighting
complimented the video elements and the two medias were harmonised.
The additional Robe lights were essential to Llorens being able to create the very
specific looks he wanted. “It’s essential to choose the right type and brand of fixture
to tell a story with light,’ he stated.
Pointes were chosen for their brightness to size ratio and were all positioned on the
floor, as he needed them to create a range of different dynamic effects for the
cameras. He also wanted to make subtle movements with them especially combined
with the low fog effects and beams creeping stealthily through the haze.
“The Pointes helped realise some of those truly “magical’ moments of the show as I
could change beam angles, colours, gobos, prisms, etc. without losing any of the
quality or intensity of the light output,’ he stated. He was also able to use them as
super-bright columns of light shooting from the floor to break up different areas of the
stage.
The BMFL WashBeams were rigged on a front truss and used for general lighting as
well as key and highlighting, the shutters proving perfect for very accurate tight
framing work.
The PATT2013s, due to their cool, elegant aesthetics served as props for one part of
the show as a painter worked live in the “studio’ and also for a number of camera
angles where they looked fantastic in the background behind the artists.
“I love the warmth of the light and the look of the fixture,’ he said, adding that he
could boost the intensity easily without disturbing anyone.
Llorens, who works in the fields of theatre, dance, musicals and large multimedia
events, first encountered Robe products in 2013 on a theatre show and has been
specifying them ever since.
He thinks Robe is producing some excellent luminaires that are versatile and will work
across multiple disciplines. He also appreciates the reliability for which the brand is
renowned and comments on the great “evolution’ made by Robe.
Working on a live broadcast gala event like Premios Max is always galvanising, and he
thinks an essential trick for delivering a full pressure show like this is to surround
himself with a good team. On this occasion, this included lighting crew chief David
Gavilan and programmer Pablo Zamora.
The 2017 Premios Max was another huge success and industry talking point, hailed as
one of the best looking such events to date.
