Fashion shows

C

Chris Nixon

Junior
Jul 23, 2012
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Northern Ireland
Right then, how do these work?

There's a small church that I help at anytime they have an event beyond the normal traditional service. They're going to be hosting a fashion show. They don't normally do anything that anyone takes particularly seriously, normally it's "show up half an hour before the event and hope for the best, nobody will care anyway", but I get the impression that this is different. They're hiring in staging, (and hopefully lighting?) and I've been told they have some clothes shops (that have own brands) on board.

I've never been to or watched a fashion show but I can predict needing audio out from a laptop, a mic for an announcer, and a monitor feed to the dressing rooms. Obviously none of that is a problem, but what am I missing? What's the general format of the event?

Thanks,

Chris
 
Re: Fashion shows

They're pretty simple really -- get good coverage of the audience with a DJ/commercial-style sound (good bass, clarity on top). Probably a wireless mic, CD and ipod inputs. In my experience there's some talking before and after, but mostly its just continuous music. 2 things to be extra careful about:
1) Visuals are more important than you are. They won't want any speakers visible. And the stage will be weirdly shaped. I did one where the stage was 150' wide by 8' deep. So you'll have to think hard about where to place the speakers. They want clear sight-lines from all sides.
2) Make sure its clear who is providing the music and what format it is in. Its the type of gig where they'll sometimes just assume you're a DJ too, and have perfect music on you at all times. Clarifying that they provide it ahead of time can be really important (unless you are providing it).
 
Re: Fashion shows

Thanks. To clarify, it's the churches installed system, they just need someone to operate it when there are inputs and outputs outside of what's already patched and soundchecked.

I've made it clear that the playback operator should be a separate person and that I'm not volunteering to play DJ. That said I may still need to pre-mix something for them to be played back during the event if no one else can do it . Is the music usually commercial tracks played start-to-finish or are they likely to want cuts, fades etc?

Chris
 
Re: Fashion shows

Watch any episode of Project Runway. Seamless. Pretty much commercial dance music between 100 and 130 beats per minute -- nothing with dominating vocals or audience sound. They should be able to walk down the runway with a little happy bounce in their step.
 
Re: Fashion shows

The bottom right is cool. :)

What angle is that array flown at?

It won't be a show anything like the size of Helge's. PA is installed and visuals are being taken care of by someone else.

Doesn't seem like anything to worry about then, turn up the DJ faders and announcement mics as required. Anything special in the dressing room monitor feed?

Chris
 
Re: Fashion shows

I can't remember the exact angles, but it was something like this:

Bottom box is at 12m, top box is at 16m. (8xJBL VTX)
The lowest box is pointing almost straight down to hit the first rows(some fills as well under the catwalk). Had to use pullback to get enough angles on the arrays.
The upper box is aimed at the rear, approx. 30m back. It had a lot of curvature, and there was a centre cluster (12x4886) to cover the middle of the room rearwards towards FOH.
Didn't have enough VTX so I had to do some adjustments on the 4886s so the systems matched, it got pretty good but not perfect.

It was a fun day at work, that arena(Oslo Spektrum) has pretty good facilities for a production like this. And I had a pair of really good riggers to help me out, we had to adjust some points on the fly, they did that perfectly.
 
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